All of Me (Confessions of the Heart 2)

Disbarred.

With good reason.

Goals shot.

Thing was, it was all my doing. I’d been stepping on the wrong rungs when I’d been climbing that ladder.

Too much of a fool to realize I hadn’t been climbing at all.

I’d been a puppet. Played by a man who’d wielded too much power and possessed nothing but wickedness.

I was still struggling with the fact that he’d fathered me. Was still trying to come to grips with the fact he had been responsible for the death of my mother, Reed in the middle of it, each of us pawns in his twisted game.

Agony lanced through my chest. Spikes and barbs.

I had no idea how I was going to forgive myself for what I’d done.

Jace sighed, roughed a hand through his hair. “I want you to consider coming to work with me.”

My head mildly shook. “The last thing you need is my name associated with your business. You’ve worked too hard. Not going to fuck that up.”

His eyes flicked my direction before his attention was back on the road. “And now I want to work with you. You feel shame over your past, Ian? Only thing I feel when it comes to you is pride. You are exactly the kind of man I want working at my side.”

Faith glanced at me from over her shoulder, her smile soft. Her stance clear. She wanted me there, too.

“I . . . I think I’m going to have to figure shit out on my own. Who I am, and who I want to be. And I need to do it the right way. No skipping steps.”

Jace smiled, a soft nod. “Well, if you want to figure out those steps next to me, that door is always going to be open. And this isn’t your big brother doing you a favor. This is a businessman who knows when a partner will be an asset.”

He had taken a few turns deeper into the city, the minimum-security prison where I’d been held only about twenty minutes out of town. Way too cushy, if I were being honest. But I’d had a ton of time to reflect.

But coming to terms with all this bullshit was going to take more than six months behind bars.

“I appreciate that more than you know.”

“Just . . . tell me you’ll at least consider it.”

“Okay,” I agreed, not sure how to even picture it. What my life was going to be like now that the one thing I’d chased forever was gone.

Funny thing was, I didn’t even want it anymore.

It’d all come down to one case. One case that mattered.

One case that didn’t even end up needing a trial.

Hers.

My pulse spiked as her face flashed in my mind. The girl written on me in a way that should be impossible.

Jace made another turn, and I frowned. “Where are we going? Thought you were dropping me off at my place?”

Faith shifted in her seat, and Jace didn’t look at me when he took another turn into a parking lot. “You’re going, Ian. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

God, they knew about whatever this party was. Were in on it. Unease tumbled through my guts. “I’ve been away a long time. Think it would be best if you took me home first. Think I need to wrap my mind around being free.”

“You want to be here, Ian. Trust me,” Jace said as he pulled into a vacant parking spot and killed the engine.

Trust me.

God.

I roughed a hand through my hair, shaking when I slipped out of the car, nerves instantly wracking through my body.

Like I could feel the shift.

Something big bounding my way.

Twilight hung on the horizon, the hot day giving way to the trill of bugs that were all too eager to welcome the cooler night.

We parked in a lot beside a local bookstore.

One that had been there for forever. One I’d walked passed a million times, doing little more than glancing at it.

The parking lot was jam-packed.

Cars lined the street when they couldn’t find a spot.

It was the first time I’d noticed the way they were dressed. My brother in a suit, and Faith in a pretty dress and heels, her dark hair done up. But it was her expression that got to me, something that almost looked like sympathy all mixed up with a brilliant, shining hope.

Faith stretched her hand out for me. “You’re supposed to be here, Ian. They need you. And I know you need them, too.”

Jace lifted his chin at me.

No challenge in his stance but believing that I’d step up and be the man he’d always told me I’d be.

Agitation rushed through my veins, and my heart started pounding so damned hard I could feel my pulse in my ears.

Deafening.

Or maybe it was just my soul.

Crying out.

Feeling it.

That intensity I could feel rising up my legs.