More of You (Confessions of the Heart 1)

“Remember how this garden had been left for dead? Dried up and wilting?”

I swore that both of us could still hear it, her encouragement that had flooded my ears at that time. The girl filling me with her belief.

I tried to give the same to her, my words nothing more than a breathy whisper. “You are going to come out stronger on the other side. Because I know how great you are. Look at all the amazing things you’ve achieved, and there are so many more waiting for you in the future. I know it, Faith. You just have to believe it’s going to get better.”

“I always believed in us,” she murmured.

I palmed the side of her head, dipped in to kiss her softly.

Slowly.

With the promise that I would make this right.

Whatever it took.

I suddenly felt the tiny presence at my side. Faith and I peeled our mouths apart, though we were still clinging to the other.

There stood Bailey at our feet, grinning up at us. “Bailey and Mommy and Jacie forever. Like magic.”

She threw her hands in the air. Casting a spell into the garden surrounding us. The little girl an enchantment all on her own.

I dipped down and swooped her up. Relished the weight of her in my arms. So tiny and perfect and real.

No thorns to be found.

“Like magic,” I rumbled at her head.

She wrapped those little arms around my neck. Squeezed tight. “I wuv you, Jacie.”

My heart stuttered in my chest. Then took off racing like a wild beat inside me.

I’d done a lot of fucked-up shit in my life. Deserved the pain I’d received. Had done absolutely nothing to deserve the love these two were showering on me.

Worst part was knowing I’d done nothing but stolen it.

And I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that I was no fucking better than Joseph.

Thirty-Eight

Jace

Twenty-Six Years Old

Jace tried not to crawl right over the massive desk to the piece of shit who sat on the other side from him.

Sniveling the way he always had. Just like when they were kids, Jace could smell the pathetic, self-pity oozing from his pores. “Jace, I’m telling you, man, I need your help. Just this once.”

Just this once?

Yeah, right.

Jace was still shocked every time Joseph came crawling to him. Like he should owe him any sort of loyalty when he’d offered none to him.

When he’d stolen everything.

Framed him and then went in for the kill.

The first time Joseph had come to him for help Jace had nearly lost his mind.

Went over the edge.

Did something that he couldn’t take back and destroyed his own future because he’d thirsted so viciously to destroy Joseph’s.

And like a pathetic loser, Jace had given in.

Helped the bastard out. Maybe it had been because in the end, Jace knew it’d be helping Faith.

Faith who remained his weakness. It didn’t matter how many years passed, he couldn’t shuck the memory of her from his skin.

Couldn’t erase the marks she’d etched into his spirit.

Joseph had always been a master manipulator, anyway. His looks alone gave him the appearance of an innocent, good kid, but he’d never been anything but a slimy cocksucker, always looking out for himself.

Maybe Jace had taught him that way. Raised him to be a fighter.

A survivor.

But he’d always thought his loyalty to the kid would earn him some in return.

Maybe it was Jace who’d been the fool for sacrificing anything for him—for lying and cheating and stealing for his cousin and thinking it would count for something.

He hated the man in front of him.

This fiery loathing that boiled inside him.

He managed to pretend it wasn’t seething inside him as he sat back in his massive executive chair, rocked back as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“And what’s your excuse this time?” Jace asked, so dry they could have been standing in Death Valley.

“I’m breaking out on my own. It’s time that I lived my life right. The way you taught me to do.” Joseph was all eager lies.

Jace almost laughed.

He almost fucking laughed aloud at the line Joseph was feeding him when he knew firsthand that Joseph had gambled every last dollar away.

Jace’s friend Mack kept him appraised of all the bullshit that went down back in Broadshire Rim. The sordid, sleazy mess Joseph had himself entangled in.

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.