Then she opened to me. “I feel like an idiot, Jace. Like a complete idiot, doing nothing but living with the wool pulled over my eyes.”
I shook my head at her, hand trembling, wanting to reach out and hold her. “No, Faith. You just always saw the good in people. Believed in them when they didn’t deserve it.”
Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip. Pain streaking across her face as her eyes flicked all over mine. “Sometimes those are the people who need the belief the most.”
Energy crackled.
Warmth and grace and Beauty.
I wanted to breathe it in. Taste it. Live in it.
I inhaled, leaning her direction. “Faith—”
Like she felt the magnitude of what was coming, she hopped to her feet, cutting me off, fumbling over the words, “I . . . I . . . I need to go check on Bailey.”
Dropping her head, she scrambled for the backdoor, taking all that intensity with her.
I pushed out a frustrated sigh.
Fuck.
Finally, I climbed to my feet and headed inside, going for the front window and pulling open the drape. A cruiser sat in the shadows under the trees.
I blew out a little relief. The little that I had. The fact that Mack wasn’t taking any chances any more than I was willing to do.
Needing to give it up, to clear my mind, I headed upstairs to my room. Only I stumbled when Faith was slipping back out of Bailey’s room and into the darkened hall.
Just looking at her had energy replacing the air around me. Sizzling and shivering through the atmosphere. Could feel it radiating from her skin. From her heart and that sweet mind.
My mouth went dry, and she whispered, “Jace.”
And I was there, in front of her, drawn in a way I shouldn’t have been. In a way I couldn’t stop. I wanted to press her to the wall. Kiss her. Touch her. Carry her into my room and get lost in her.
It felt like I was right there. In that moment when I’d had to say goodbye.
If I could go back, could I do everything differently?
Or had we been destined for destruction?
Me thinking I could have something good when I’d been nothing but trash?
She blinked up at me with those chocolate eyes. So warm. Glinting with something different. Like there was a chance she was feeling some of the need twisted through my guts.
I inched closer, and she fumbled back, hitting the wall outside Bailey’s door. I hovered there, our noses an inch away, our breaths mingling.
I could count every beat of her heart as it thundered into the enclosed space. Could feel her torment. Could feel all the same questions swirling through me.
I planted both my hands over her head. “Faith,” I murmured.
She panted. Gasped. Then twisted out from under me, backing away with her hands pressed over her heart. “I can’t do this, Jace.”
I stared at her silhouette, her eyes alive in the shadows.
“I missed you,” I told her, admitting a little of what I’d been needing to tell her all along.
She took another step back, her hand on the knob of her door. “And you destroyed me, and I’m not sure I can risk that happening again.”
I stood there wanting to tear something apart as she stepped inside and her door clicked softly shut behind her.
The beast raging.
Wanting to punish something for taking her away.
Or maybe he was just plotting exactly how he was going to get her back.
Twenty-Two
Jace
Eighteen Years Old
Jace hustled down the trail toward the trailer. He’d just gotten off work, and he was anxious to grab a shower, knowing he’d be sneaking back out to meet with Faith.
He slowed when he saw that same shiny car parked out front. Anger wound up in his chest, and he gritted his teeth as he spat a curse at the ground.
Was it wrong that his mama absolutely disgusted him? That his guts got all tied up every time he thought of her and what she represented? The things she’d allowed to happen in their home.
Jace’s eyes traveled the rusted trailer, the cardboard wedged in the windows that were busted out, and the trash strewn about the yard.
Home.
Yeah right.
With a harsh shake of his head, Jace bounded up the steps and blew through the door. He stumbled again when he caught sight of what was going down inside.
That slimy bastard his mom had been hooking up with was on the shabby couch, leaning over all the salacious crap left on the coffee table.
Both Ian and Joseph were sitting on the floor at his feet, listening to whatever bullshit he was filling their heads with.
If they listened that hard at school, the two of them would have straight A’s.
The prick looked up when Jace stepped inside. He cracked a grin.
Unease rumbled through Jace’s spirit. “What’s going on here?”