Like Jace should care.
But he did.
He could never rid himself of that vacant spot that throbbed inside him. Could never scrape the itch from his skin. Could never rid himself of the thoughts of her.
His worry over the life she might be living and the cutting jealousy that he wasn’t the one living it with her.
Jace had built an empire. Worked and strived and fought until he’d come out on top.
He’d taken his brother with him, put him through college and law school, kept him close and protected until Ian could stand on his own without the threat of that seedy world pulling him back down.
And still, this useless excuse for a man had everything Jace wanted.
Nothing but a common criminal.
A puppet and pawn.
Working for Steven.
The same way as he’d been all along.
“I have nothing to offer you,” Jace told him, cool and calm while that fire raced his veins.
Joseph snorted. “Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
“But you have the one thing she wants, don’t you?” There was spite in Joseph’s tone.
Jace rocked forward, his movements crawling with menace as he breathed, “And you have a wife and a kid on the way that you’re putting in danger.”
“You don’t give a shit about my kid,” Joseph spat.
“Do you?” Jace accused.
Joseph blinked. The first real emotion Jace had seen from him since he’d come through the door. “Of course, I do.”
Jace should shove him out the door. Toss him out on his ass. Because he shouldn’t care, either.
He hated the idea that Joseph had touched her. That they were going to have a child. A family.
Hated that Joseph fucking knew that Jace would do about anything to ensure Faith’s happiness.
That there were some dreams he’d never stand in the way of.
“Then I’ll make you a deal.” His voice was hoarse. Ragged. “The deed for their safety. You truly walk away from all that bullshit, from Steven and the rest of his crew, and you don’t look back. I’ll even throw some money on top of it.”
Jace pointed over Joseph’s shoulder. “And then you don’t ever step through that door again. Do you understand me?”
Face pinched, Joseph nodded.
Jace squeezed his eyes closed for a beat.
Against the agony.
The grief.
The crushing of a dream.
But he was granting one in the same token.
Sacrifice.
He’d always been willing to make it for the ones he loved most.
And he’d never, ever stop loving her.
Thirty-Nine
Jace
“We finally got something.” Mack’s voice was thin and hard on the other end of the line.
The last of the day had sunk on the other side of the window, the late dusk filling the room.
Bailey had been tucked into bed a half hour ago, the monitor positioned on the nightstand next to me.
Faith had slipped away to grab a shower and wash the day from her skin.
I’d been contemplating joining her when my phone rang.
I immediately started to pace.
God, we needed news.
I just prayed it was the good kind.
Any lead to grab on to that might finally point us in the right direction.
“What did you get?”
Strain pulsed through Mack’s sigh. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”
I roughed a hand over my head. “Yeah, well you probably shouldn’t have told me a lot of things, but it’s too late now, don’t you think?”
I could almost see his reluctant nod. “Do you remember Doug . . . one of the officers on the case? You met him at my birthday party?”
“Yeah, of course. He’s driven by the house quite a few times to check on things, too.”
“He and Felix have been digging through the few bits of evidence we’ve been able to uncover. They found an address in some of the files found at Joseph’s office. It’s a warehouse. Main name on the trust was Joseph’s—but when Doug and Felix searched deeper, they found Steven tied to it.”
Mack inhaled deeply. “We’d thought we’d rooted out all of Steven’s holdings, but clearly, it went further than we’d imagined. Did a drive by myself, and there’s definitely activity at the address. This is a building that belonged to both Steven and Joseph—both of them are dead—and there are still people moving shit in and out of there? Shouldn’t be a soul around.”
I could hear the implication in Mack’s words. Adding the facts up and coming to a quick sum.
“Shit.” I roughed the back of my hand over my mouth.
“Yup. This has to be the break we needed. I can feel it. We’re right there. Gut tells me we’re going to find what we’ve been missing behind those doors. We’re finally going to be able to put these bastards to bed.”
“What’s the plan?” I asked, tone harsher than I intended.
Mack hesitated.
“Don’t try to freeze me out now.”
Tension rippled between them, and then Mack cursed under his breath. “With two murder victims tied to the same building, we easily got a warrant. Going in at midnight.”
“I’m coming.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yeah, I am. You can’t expect me to sit here when we’re this close to nailing the bastard.”
“And the last thing I need is you getting in the way. You already know my ass is on the line for telling you any of this. You show up, it’s gonna look bad.”
My heart stuttered when I heard the shower turn off, and I lowered my voice. “I won’t even get out of my car. I just need to be there to watch you haul the monster out in cuffs who tried to hurt Faith and Bailey.”
The guy who killed Joseph.
I shouldn’t care.
I shouldn’t care.
But I did.
Still hadn’t forgiven myself for my part in it all. This might finally be the retribution my soul needed to put all this in the past.
Agony splintered through me. My guilt and remorse. Everything I should have done differently. All the things I’d go back and change.
I couldn’t, but at least I could help bring justice.
For Bailey.
For Faith.
And fuck . . . maybe for Joseph, too.
“This shit is real, Jace. Dangerous. We have no idea what we’re going to come up against in there.”
“Not up for discussion, Mack. I’m sorry, but I have to do this. You know I do. I think that’s why you called me in the first place.”
I heard muttering on the other end of the line, Mack talking to someone else before he came back on.
“All right, Jace. Felix volunteered to go out and keep a lookout at the plantation while we do this. But you stay in the car. Do you understand me?”
“I will. I promise”
“Be here by eleven. You can ride with me. Felix will head over by then.”
Silence filled the space between us before he finally said, “It’s time.”
“It’s time,” I returned.
That was the hardest part.
The fact that it was time.
The fact that I couldn’t keep it from Faith any longer.
She stepped out the door, hair soaking wet and body wrapped in a towel, that energy surging when she looked at me from across the room.
Beauty.
Grace and light and everything I’d ever wanted.
I just prayed after everything, she would still want me.
Forty
Faith
I stepped out of the shower and started to towel off. A muted voice echoed through my bathroom door.
One I would recognize forever.
The one my spirit had quietly called to for all these years.
There was something about the tone of it, though, that sent dread skating across my dampened skin and had me quietly edging toward the door and pressing my ear to the thin wood.
Maybe it was wrong, eavesdropping this way. The way my heart fumbled around in my chest as if it were struggling against the chains of fear that wanted to wrap it up.
But the man was in my room, and there was nothing I could do but listen.
Nerves trembling through me, I angled my head and bit down on my lip as I listened to one side of the conversation.