Was pretty sure that wasn’t going to go over so well.
“Where are you, anyway?” Mack asked.
“Outside.”
“Fuck . . . Jace . . . you can’t do this.”
“Watch me.”
I ended the call and shoved my hands into my suit pockets, doing my best to keep my cool, trying to listen to all the warnings that Mack had made.
Give her space.
We don’t know what’s happening.
It could just be punk kids playing a prank.
Punk kids, my ass.
Main Street was busy, the rural town bustling with people as they went about their days, yet their pace somehow slowed.
It was like the entire population had gone back in time.
Stepped into an era that was simpler.
Small shops and stores and businesses were tucked in the old brick buildings that were fronted by large windows and colorful awnings. Trees grew high where they were sporadically placed in the cobblestone sidewalks, and some hugged the sides of the buildings, giving shade to the hot, heated summer day.
It was all mixed up with the familiar, distinct smell of the pluff mud in the marshes that sat back from the sea.
I caught a few curious glances. I’d been gone for so long and had changed so much that I doubted a whole lot of people would recognize me, but I stood out enough that I was sure they wondered what the hell I was doing there.
Yeah, join the fucking club.
Because I had no idea what the hell I was doing there, either.
Torturing myself, that was what.
The police station that hadn’t been there when I left sat across the street, the two-story building tucked under a bunch of lush, green trees.
Cruisers and a couple of unmarked cars lined the curb and filled the parking lot to the side.
Sweat gathered at my nape, my body itchy.
Antsy.
I just needed to see her.
Know she was really okay.
But I guessed I really wasn’t prepared for that happening. Wasn’t prepared for a second to actually see her again.
My goddamned breath was gone when the door swung open and she fumbled out with her head dropped toward the ground. Her shoulders sagged and defeat lined her posture.
Her best friend, Courtney, was next to her, guiding Faith out with one hand on her lower back.
It didn’t matter that ten years had passed or that a whole shitstorm had transpired during that time.
She was still the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen.
Beauty.
Belief and purity and this innocence that made something crazy come unhinged inside me. It was overpowering, the need to get to her.
Protect her.
Worst was the way my body reacted.
The girl had always been so far out of my league it wasn’t funny.
Better than me in every way.
Grace.
Beauty.
My guts clenched.
None of those things meant what I’d felt for her hadn’t been real.
It’d just been stupid.
Just like right then.
Because a streak of possessiveness flew through my veins like a goddamned drug.
Energy crashed through the air.
A torrent of emotion.
Resonating.
Pulsating.
An echo of the past.
Chocolate hair fell down her back in silky waves, and I swore to God, I could feel the warmth radiating from her spirit, all this devastating goodness paired with a body that was meant for sin. All long legs and tempting curves.
My sin.
Taking her was exactly what that had been.
Since the first time I’d seen her, this girl had held the power to drop me straight to my knees.
So stunning that I went stupid.
Time hadn’t had the power to alter that.
Because there was no stopping the lust that curled my guts with a need so intense I felt lightheaded.
Or maybe it was just the guilt that clotted the blood flow to my brain.
Sorrow clung to her like a disease.
I was responsible for that.
God. I was a bastard.
But I’d be a monster if I turned a blind eye. If I stayed in my cushy office back in Atlanta and pretended like none of this was going down.
I sucked down a breath and tried to steel my nerves.
I had a purpose.
A reason.
I just needed a motherfucking plan.
Three
Faith
I felt it.
Someone watching me from behind.
I should have been terrified of it after what had happened last night. I guessed in some way I was, but not in the way anyone might think.
I could feel it blazing from across the street. As if his stare was its own entity.
I should have known better than to look that way. But there was nothing I could have done, nothing that would have stopped me from shifting my gaze that direction.
Maybe I already knew what I would discover.
Knew who would be standing there like an apparition.
My mouth dropped open on a shocked gasp, the humid air gone, nothing but this blistering heat in its place.
My knees wobbled, and my hand shot out to the station wall to keep myself from falling.
My best friend Courtney was right there, always holding me up the way she did. She surged around to the front of me, brushing the hair back from my face.