The lock buzzed, and the heavy metal gate slid open.
One second later, Jace was free.
Released two years earlier than his five-year sentence. Let’s just say, he’d been on his best behavior.
A little harder than he’d once been. Three years behind bars would do that to a man.
He’d thought he’d seen it all—the worst in people—but he hadn’t had the first clue.
He’d learned a lot of tough lessons, but he’d finally embraced a bunch of good shit, too.
His only worry was the letters. The letters he’d written over the years that had never been answered. He guessed some things had to be confessed face-to-face.
He walked toward his brother, determined to never repeat what had gone down. He was reclaiming his life. Taking back what was his.
Ian straightened when he approached, and they measured each other for a second before Jace threw his arms around his brother and hugged him tight.
Ian hugged him just as fiercely. “Fuck, man, I missed you like crazy. Don’t ever leave me like that again.”
Jace squeezed him like his next breath depended on it. “I don’t plan on it.”
Ian nodded, pushing away, shaking himself off. He rounded to the other side of the car and hopped into the driver’s seat. Jace slipped into the passenger’s.
Ian turned over the ignition. “Where are we headed?”
“I need to get to Faith. Explain all this bullshit.”
They were more than a hundred miles from Broadshire Rim. Jace had been carted off to some dump penitentiary that was hidden in the mountains on the west side of the state.
Something passed through Ian’s expression. Worry and sorrow and pity.
Jace’s hands fisted on his thighs, and he stared across at his brother, who tried to busy himself by fiddling with something on the dash.
Dread spiraled through his system, and he heaved a breath, forced out the words. “Just tell me, Ian.”
Ian stilled his fiddling and inhaled deeply before he slowly looked back at Jace. “She’s married, man.”
“What?” Disbelief fisted his spirit, drenching his heart and mind.
No.
It wasn’t possible.
Not after he’d sent all those letters promising he’d be back.
Denial pulsed through his being. Ian had to be wrong. He’d made a mistake. That was it. A mistake.
“I’m sorry, Jace. I couldn’t tell you while you were in there. I just . . . couldn’t.”
Grief constricted Jace’s throat, so tight he was sure he was being strangled. Right as a fist punched into his chest and ripped out his heart.
“To who?” he barely managed.
Ian hesitated, wavered as he rocked in the seat, holding on to the steering wheel as if it might make delivering the blow easier. “To Joseph.”
Agony sliced him in two. It was a misery unlike anything he’d ever known.
Amplified by the blinding fury that beat within his broken heart.
Betrayal.
He couldn’t stop it. The way his mouth worked and moisture filled his eyes.
No.
Fuck no.
He couldn’t believe this shit.
Ian jerked his head away, shaking it, filled with turmoil. Then he cursed and jerked his gaze back to Jace, so much brutal sincerity in his voice that it rocked the car.
“I didn’t do it, Jace. Those drugs? I didn’t have anything to do with them. I promise you. I know you were trying to take the fall for me, but it wasn’t necessary. I know you didn’t believe me when I told you I wasn’t involved. But it’s the truth. I wouldn’t have done anything that piece of shit said. I didn’t fucking care if he’d killed me. Not after what he did to me, and sure as hell not after what he did to you.”
“I know.” I could barely manage to form the words.
His head dropped again. “Joseph was always jealous of you. Of everything you had. Of everything you stood for. He knew he could never compare to you.”
Ian looked back at Jace. “He’s been working for Steven since the day you got hauled away.”
Turmoil blistered through Jace’s body. So hot, he was sure he was being incinerated from the inside out.
Joseph had been responsible?
“Take me there,” he demanded. “I need to see it for myself.”
Ian’s eyes went wide. “Why would you want to go and do that?”
“I have to, Ian. I have to.”
Maybe Jace needed the confirmation. Or maybe he just needed the proof that dreams really didn’t last. That dreaming them was nothing but a waste of time.
Because three hours later, he and Ian were parked in a lot on the other side of the small apartment complex.
Jace was gutted all over again when Faith stepped out of the apartment door.
Joseph right behind her.
Heartache howled through his insides, seeping all the way to his bones, saturating to the marrow.
He fisted his hands on his thighs and squeezed his eyes closed against the sight. “Get me out of here. Take me to the old house where she and I used to meet.”
Ian looked at Jace like he’d lost his mind.