He was leaned against the kitchen counter, hands gripping the white stone, so casual and powerful in his stance that I didn’t know how to process what it was I felt when I saw him standing there.
A week had passed since we’d received the last threat. It was like having to start all over again.
Each time one came, I felt as if I were back at square one. Preparing for a new fight, and still, trying my best to go on livin’.
Moments forgetting all about it as I went about my days, only for the next minute to have the reality of my situation slam me from out of nowhere.
The dread and the fear and the anxiety.
Though standing there right then?
I was experiencing an entirely different sort of anxiety.
I had no idea how to step out with him. Not with the way he made me feel. Not with the confusion that lined my insides and tugged at my spirit.
I’d known he’d been about a second from kissin’ me last weekend outside of Bailey’s door. The scariest part was how badly I’d wanted him to. How I’d been silently begging him to erase the space. To hold me. To whisper that it was goin’ to be all right.
Maybe I was a fool for feeling like it was actually going to be okay when he was there.
“It feels too strange to go out. Not with everything going on.”
“And it’s not okay for you to hide away in this house, either. Plus, I won’t be able to enjoy myself if you aren’t there, and half the force is going to be there. It’s the best way for me to look out for you.”
A sigh bled free, and I hugged my arms tighter over my chest. “You can’t be watchin’ out for me all the time.”
He pushed from the counter. “You sure about that?”
“Jace,” I said, trying to make sense of this man. Or really, I was just trying not to get lost in him as I blinked up at his striking face—defined jaw, plush lips, and intense eyes.
“Faith,” he taunted right back. He let a smirk glide onto his mouth. “What would Mack think if you didn’t show for his thirtieth birthday?”
My eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to play me, Jace Jacobs?”
He edged forward, his voice dropping into a caress. “Oh, I can think of all kinds of games we could play.”
More seduction.
“Jace,” I whispered, feeling hot and sweaty and off-kilter.
He’d been doing that more and more lately.
Tripping me up.
Stealing my air and ripping the ground out from under my feet.
“I told you that you can’t go sayin’ things like that to me.”
In frustration, he roughed a hand through his hair before he angled close, his head cocked so he was breathing against my cheek as he murmured, “Maybe I’m getting tired of not saying what we’re clearly both thinking. Not saying it doesn’t mean it’s not right there, playing out in both of our minds.”
Desire flashed across my skin, seeping into my pores, igniting something in me that I wasn’t sure I could ignore much longer.
He straightened and touched the spot he’d just set fire to with his words. “Now, go get ready. You’re coming.”
Twenty-Four
Jace
I stepped out of my bedroom into the quiet dusky hall, coming up short when I found Faith coming out of hers.
She was in this slinky royal-blue dress, which barely hit the middle of those lush thighs, and high heels, which made her appear even taller than she was.
The breath punched from my lungs.
This girl was so fucking gorgeous I was beginning to suffocate beneath the weight of it. Beneath the want and the need and the love for her that refused to die.
Uneasily, her hand fluttered up to her slender neck. She fiddled with the teardrop diamond earring that dangled from her ear. “I hate dressin’ up. I feel ridiculous.”
I gazed at her. Knot in my throat. Dick so deprived and balls so blue that I could feel every inch of my body hardening just from looking at her.
Fuck.
This was getting messy.
But I couldn’t not say something when she stood there shifting self-consciously, couldn’t not reach out and let my thumb trace the little divot on her chin.
“You don’t look ridiculous. Not even close.”
Twilight flooded the hall, like it was taking up space, forcing us closer, and she sucked in a choppy breath against the feel of my thumb on her skin, those lips parting a fraction.
Shit, I wanted to dip my thumb inside that sweet mouth of hers.
Maybe lean in for a taste.
Just one little taste to quench the thirst that left me parched and needy every damned day, growing stronger with each one that passed.
“I ready!”
I jumped back when the door beside us banged open.
Bailey was grinning from her doorway.
Fucking cutest kid on earth. So full of life and belief. So full of faith.
She hauled a tiny pink suitcase behind her, two dolls and that Beast tucked under one arm as if she were heading on some week-long vacation rather than spending the night at her grandparents’ house.
We’d decided that was the safest place for her to stay. Funny how that might be the place I dreaded stepping foot onto the most.
“Are you sure you want to go?” Faith asked her.
“I’s a big girl, Mommy.”
Faith sighed a restless sigh, her worry bounding through the hall.
“Okay, let’s go then,” she relented.
We headed out to my car.
With no sign of anything else, Mack had finally lifted the twenty-four-hour watch, a cruiser rolling by at random times of the day and night, Mack telling us to call him directly if anything seemed out of place.
Swore, it was a bitch that we could find absolutely nothing solid—no evidence, no names to actually point us in the right direction of the culprit—and still feeling like someone was constantly watching.
Thank God the construction crew Felix had hooked me up with had shown on Monday. That put at least five men at the house at all times, which eased some of the pressure because there was safety in the sheer numbers.
It was probably the only reason I felt comfortable taking Faith out tonight. A party with a bunch of cops and detectives was the safest place to be.
This afternoon, I’d put Bailey’s car seat in my car, and Faith buckled Bailey into it while I put the suitcase on the floorboards in front of her. We climbed into the front, and I started down the drive.
Those branches stretched over us, blips of the setting sun breaking through as we bounced over the holes and bumps carved out in the dirt road, covering us in glittering golds and hues of orange and pink.
Silence filled the cab as we traveled.
Faith was jittery and anxious, continually fidgeting and shifting in her seat next to me.
She wasn’t alone.
Because every fraction of a mile that passed had my own anxiety increasing.
Growing and clawing and reminding me of what I’d fought so hard to escape.
The eyes of this town that had watched me. Looked at me like I was trash. Like I was a thief.
Faith’s father hadn’t been any different from every other asshole in this town who’d cast their stones, cast their judgment, without giving us a chance to prove otherwise.
It wasn’t like I’d given him a reason to trust me. Treat me differently.
But fuck.
I could almost taste how much I’d wanted it. How fucking badly I’d wanted to be different.
How I’d wanted her father to look at me and see past the grungy clothes and the rumors that flew and see a guy who just loved his daughter.
A guy who’d do absolutely anything for her.
She and I both knew how well that’d gone.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked as I took the last turn into her parents’ neighborhood.
I chuckled out a rough sound. “Since when do you know me to give up when I want something?”
She cut me a glance. A hard, bitter, pointed one.
The day you walked away.
She might as well have screamed it at me.
Gulping around her silent accusation, I shook my head. “We’re going. Mack is turning thirty. We can’t miss rubbing that in.” My brow lifted as I shot her a grin, doing my best to lighten the mood.
God knew, she deserved a night to just have fun.