“Good.” She straightened herself out. “Because you damned near broke my heart as much as you broke hers when you walked away.”
Surprise sent my head rocking back, and she turned and started for the kitchen, muttering the whole way, “You were the one, you know? You were always the one. Almost went and found you myself and dragged you home where you belonged.”
I didn’t even know if she meant for me to hear it.
Faith and Bailey were suddenly at the end of the hall, Bailey dragging her suitcase behind her, that ratted Beast hooked in her elbow. “I’s ready!”
“Not yet, you’re not.” It was a shout from the kitchen. “You didn’t really think I was gonna let you show up here and not feed you, did you? Late lunch is on the table. It’s family time. Don’t care how busy y’all are. Time to put some food in those bellies.”
Faith jerked her face to me, worry written all over her expression.
I angled my head, smiled, and then followed her into the kitchen.
It was the same way as I had that day so long ago. Though, this time, I did it the way Margot told me to do.
With my head held high.
Because her mother was right. It was time I made amends. Did things right.
I scooped Bailey into my arms. Her head was lolling to the side, half asleep at the table where we’d sat for the last three hours while Margot had filled her head with stories of Faith growing up.
Lightness filled me in a way it hadn’t in so damned long. A comfort like none other. Imagining Faith that way. A little girl like Bailey. Picturing her through the years that had passed, as she’d grown and learned and loved.
Shined.
Filling the world with all her light.
It almost made it feel like the menace lurking in the shadows wasn’t real. Like she could shine a little more and every single shadow would be exposed as nothing more than a vapor.
That’s what I wanted. For all this shit to disappear so we could move on. Figure out who we were and if we could make it without anything else interfering.
Her dad had been pretty much quiet, grunting a few things here and there, watching me like he was ready to haul ass over the table and come at me if I said the slightest thing wrong.
Or maybe he was just silently trusting me to do what I’d set out to do. My care for his daughter as great as his, but entirely different.
Bailey was close to falling asleep as I carried her out the front door and buckled her into her car seat in the back of my car. My actions gentle, still wary of getting too close but getting sucked in without my permission, anyway.
Faith was whispering something to her mother on the stoop.
With the way her mother kept grinning over her shoulder at me, I was pretty certain of the topic.
Faith finally climbed into the passenger seat beside me. I pulled away from the curb, the engine a quiet hum against the late afternoon where the sun began to sag toward the horizon.
It tossed the town in gorgeous colors. Pinks and blues and reds.
Like the girl next to me.
So bright and beautiful it made it hard to see.
I came to a stop at the stop sign at the end of the road and looked both ways, getting caught up with the way Faith was looking at me when I turned that direction.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“For making me forget for a little while. For making me feel like my life is normal. That I’m surrounded by the people who care about me and won’t stop working until this mess is set straight.”
Reaching out, I trailed my fingertips down the sharp angle of her jaw. “That’s exactly what you are—surrounded by the people who care about you.”
Her smile was so soft, so full of trust that I couldn’t stop the way my heart gave an extra beat.
Commitment.
Devotion.
Turning right, I accelerated down the road. My hand was on hers, caressing slowly, softly, letting her know I was there.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
I came to a stop at the stoplight that led out of town toward the plantation, unable to stop myself from looking her way, my grin so fucking wide I probably looked like a blundering fool.
But the one she returned me?
It wound through my spirit like a storm. Desolating in its severity. Binding and perfecting. Never the same where I was left in its wake.
Because it was the smile I’d been waiting for.
Real. Genuine. Filled with faith.
This girl.
I was still smiling at her when everything crumbled around us.
My body lurched forward, and a deafening crash rang through my ears.
Confusion and chaos.
What the fuck?
Time set to slow as I watched Faith’s eyes widen with fear. Shocked as the car jolted forward.
Then she screamed. Screamed in the middle of the crushing sound that resonated through the air. Her hands flew out like she could defend herself from the collision.
My fucking heart nearly ripped from my chest.
Overwhelming terror gripped me as I was struck with the grating sound of twisting metal and the squeal of tires and the realization that there was nothing I could do.
Nothing to stop my car from spinning, from being tossed out into the middle of the intersection like it weighed nothing at all.
It rocked one direction and then the other before finally coming to a standstill.
Jagged breaths jerked in and out of my lungs and dizziness swept my senses, ears ringing with a high-pitched drone. Confusion clouded my mind, but I shook it off, focused on the reason I was there. “Faith, baby, are you okay?”
Her mouth trembled open as she whimpered the one thing that mattered to her most. “Bailey.”
Bailey. Bailey. Bailey.
Instantly, my attention darted to the rearview mirror, eyes desperate as I searched for where she was buckled into her seat. Cries jetted from her mouth, these shattered, wails of fear, and her little hands were reaching out for someone to help her.
Bailey.
Fumbling, I released my buckle so I could climb out and get to her.
That was when in my periphery, through the shattered side window, I caught the movement.
The car that had hit us was backing up.
Motherfucker was going to run.
Anger blistered through me when I thought of it. Someone just up and leaving without checking to make sure everyone was okay. Bastards who didn’t give a fuck about anything but themselves.
Then that anger shifted, spiraled into a vortex of horror when I realized they weren’t running.
They were gunning it back in our direction.
Tires squealing as they rammed on the gas.
“Faith!” I yelled in terror, wanting to get to her, climb over her, protect her.
But there was not a thing I could do but grab for the steering wheel like it was a life preserver, fingers slipping when the piece of shit slammed us hard from the side.
Under the force, my head snapped to the side.
Glass shattered as it cracked against the driver’s side window.
An explosion of sound.
An explosion of pain.
Sight dimming.
Agony splintering through my being.
Sight going red.
Bailey. Faith.
Hate and fear and possession. My car rocked to a shuddering stop.
Faith was staring at me.
Wide-eyed and in shock.
And I wanted to go to her. Wrap her up.
But that fucking car was shifting gears again.
I wasn’t going to let this happen. I wasn’t.
I flung open the door and staggered onto the street.
My feet nearly gave out from under me as my consciousness blinked. Squeezing my eyes closed, I fought it, the fade that wanted to suck me into black.
Barely able to see, I rummaged under my seat, adrenaline lighting in my veins as my fingers came into contact with the metal where it was strapped to the underside.
The shock in Faith’s eyes shifted to straight fear when she realized what I was holding. “Jace . . . what are you . . .”
But her words trailed off with the squeal of the tires the lit on the road, the smashed to shit black town car skidding backward in reverse.
With my gun drawn, I stalked around the front of my car.
Squinting, I tried to see through the thick, sticky wetness that blanketed my face.
Sun glinted from above, and the only thing I could make out through the car’s windows were the two massive, silhouetted figures in the front seats.