“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s complicated.” Jace hated being unsure about anything. But as sure as he was consciously that Amber was better off without him, instinctually, he knew he wanted her more than air itself, and he would do anything for her. Even die.
“What do you mean?” Carter asked earnestly.
“I mean, why haven’t you guys found mates yet?” Jace replied, running a hand through his hair, trying to distract himself from the terrible thought of losing Amber forever.
“Been too busy. It takes a lot of work to make detective, and when you are one, it takes even more work than it did before,” Carter answered. “But that’s not to say I don’t hope the right one will come along at some point. I just don’t know when that will be.”
Jace had teased Carter on several occasions that he should hook up with some of his coworkers, to which Carter had flat-out refused. It was ironic to be in this situation, having girl trouble for the first time in his life. He was grateful his brother wasn’t holding it over his head right now.
Carter leaned over the table, almost as if he were playing the good cop in an interrogation. “I will tell you this, though. Follow your animal. Do what your instincts tell you. Our tigers might have taken us in three drastically different directions, but it’s got us all where we are now and kept us alive through a lot of hell along the way. So whatever the animal inside is saying, do it.”
“But what if she’s too frail? She’s just a human, and you and me both know there are a lot of angry shifter families that would like to get their hands on me,” Jace replied, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “What if I’m not good enough for her?”
Carter raised an eyebrow but seemed to not know how to respond.
Just then, Jace felt a hail of pistachio shells pummel his face and body. Jace turned to see Kel, sitting with his arms folded with a pissed-off look.
“What the hell, bro?” Jace said, shaking off the multitude of pistachio shells. He’d probably be discovering new ones in his pockets for weeks.
“You love her, don’t you? So go get her, then,” Kel said, matter-of-fact, the expression on his face unchanging.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But it’s not that easy.”
“The hell it isn’t. You’ll find a way to make it work. You’re a fuckin’ tiger, man,” Kel said, leaning forward toward the edge of the table.
Maybe Kel was right. Maybe it was time to put everything out there and see if Amber really did want him or not. Up until now, he’d been so guarded with his secrets—his past, his life, all the important things he would want someone to know about him if they were really going to be together.
Carter chimed in, “He has a point. Stop living worrying about what may happen and start actually living in the here and now. Sure, I know you got into a pretty reckless career because you felt it was your duty, and you don’t have the best sense of self-preservation. But that doesn’t mean that can’t change a bit now that you’re ready to let someone into your life.” Carter always was the most astute of the three.
“If she still wants an idiot like you.” Kel scoffed, only half joking.
For too long, Jace had been content to dwell in the shadows, lingering on the line between light and dark because it felt safer there, more secure. That nobody could really hurt him because, with the exception of his brothers, nobody knew anything about him. Not his employers, not the people he worked with, not even his closest contacts and associates.
But there was one person he wanted to share it all with. Needed to share it all with. And if she rejected him, then so be it. But he would never really know if he didn’t try.
“Earth to Jace. Are you leaving or not? Don’t make me throw the rest of my pistachios at you,” Kel warned, light-blue eyes glaring at him.
“‘Kay, I’m out of here,” Jace said, standing and shaking himself off, dozens of pistachio shells clattering to the floor.
“Go get her, bro,” Carter said with a smile.
As Jace walked off, he could hear Kel mutter something like, “Hope he doesn’t screw it up,” but he ignored it.
Kel, when he did speak, was always the most abrasive of the three. But it was also clear when he cared as well.
Jace hopped into his car and started the engine.
He had a mate to go find.
Chapter Nine
Despite her best efforts, Amber’s afternoon wasn’t going any better than her morning.
At first she was excited to get out of Jace’s place and be outside for a bit. Live a normal life and chill with a friend. But every second away from him had just been a harsh reminder of why her life had more or less sucked before he’d come into it anyway.
Josie had promised a fun girls’ shopping trip, but shopping with her only further clarified why Amber opted to not hang out with her much. And would hang out with her even less once she was back in an apartment of her own. After more than a few comments like, “Oh, you’re wearing that?” and sidelong glances of disapproval, Amber gave up entirely on finding anything to wear and just followed Josie around as she took herself on a personal shopping spree.
Which, for better or for worse, had given Amber lots of time to think about Jace. Those smoky, orange-gold eyes. Those rippling muscles and that lean body. But no matter how many times she remembered feeling his touch on her skin, she also remembered how he’d shut her out, how he’d left her like it was nothing, regardless of what she felt for him and what she’d been sure he’d felt for her too.
Now they were back at Josie’s apartment, and Amber couldn’t help but wonder at the size of it. Just the living room was larger than her entire apartment had been, and Amber could only assume the bedrooms were similarly sizeable.
And not only was the place grandiose for a city apartment, but the furnishings were luxe too. Prim and perfect and sparkly. The furniture was modern and high-end, her decorations looked like something out of a catalog, and the paintings adorning the walls looked like more than just cheap copies. Way more expensive than any other girl their age had, to Amber’s knowledge.
What did Josie do for work again?
While Amber sat on Josie’s huge couch, arrayed in front of a huge flatscreen TV, Josie was busy in the kitchen.
“Hey, girl, why the frowny face?” she said, sounding spritely and cheery as she appeared from the kitchen with a tray with glasses and a pitcher of iced tea.
“Nothing. Just a crazy few days,” Amber replied flatly.
Josie put the tray down and poured them both a glass, looking worried, though Amber couldn’t tell if it was real or feigned.
“Is it about the shopping?” Josie asked. “I’m sorry. I’m just too honest. I refuse to allow my friends to wear anything that looks hideous on them. I’m protective like that,” she said with a grin.
“No, it’s okay. Really, all I need is a few days at my new job and to find a place for myself, and I’ll be better.”
“I’m glad,” she replied, blond curls bouncing as she perked up. “In the meantime, you can stay here as long as you like.”
Amber nodded, and Josie took a glass from the tray and set it on a coaster in front of herself and another in front of Amber.
“Have a drink. You’ll like this brand of iced tea. It’s my favorite. Then you need to tell me about this Jace guy. You’ve been far too tightlipped about him all day.”
Amber picked up the glass and put it to her lips, but as she was about to drink it, she felt her stomach turn over, as if in rebellion at the thought of taking it in. Amber followed her gut and put it down on the tray, feeling weird about it, but not knowing why.
“Aren’t you going to try it?” Josie asked, still smiling. “It’s pretty expensive, but I wanted you to try it.”
“Not feeling it right now. Maybe I’m catching something,” Amber dodged, though aside from the slightly off feeling she had, she felt fine physically.
Josie’s smile slowly fell and she raised an eyebrow. “What’s going on, Ambe
r? Why are you acting so suspicious all of a sudden? It’s not like you to be so paranoid all the time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Even at the mall. You kept looking over your shoulder, as if watching for something. Is everything okay?”
“Why do you want me to drink the tea so bad? Why do you even care, Josie?” Amber asked, hearing little alarms going off inside her head. Amber had no reason to mistrust Josie, so why did she feel like she needed to run?
For a moment, Josie seemed reluctant to answer. Finally, she opened her mouth to say something, but then a firm knock sounded on the door several times. It instantly sent a chill down Amber’s spine, but she tried to remind herself that she wasn’t in danger, and just because Jace had been uppity about everything, it didn’t mean she needed to be.
Josie got up silently to answer the door, but no sooner had she unlocked it when the door was pushed open, revealing several large men on the other side. Without a word, they came into the house. They were all dressed in worn, dirty-looking clothing and had severe, angry-looking faces. One of them in particular looked familiar somehow, but she couldn’t quite put a finger on it.
More of them poured into the room, at least a half dozen or so, shutting the door behind them and surrounding her, cutting off any exit from the apartment. Josie, who’d been knocked backward after the door was pushed open, had regained her footing and was glaring at the lead man angrily.
“Geez, it took you guys long enough getting here,” she said.
The man who’d first come in, who was huge and bald and had severe lines running from the corners of his cold blue eyes diagonally down his cheeks, turned toward her, looking down as if regarding a flea before him.
“Nobody orders me around. Understood?” he said witheringly, making Josie squirm. Just the sound of this man’s voice made Amber’s skin crawl.
“Josie, what’s going on?” Amber asked.
“So we’re even now. Right?” Josie asked the man, not regarding Amber in any way.
The man hesitated for a moment, then suddenly lashed the back of his hand at Josie, hitting her cheek and knocking her to the ground. Josie landed with a light thud but didn’t move.
“Now we’re even,” the man said to her unconscious body, then turned to Amber.
This was bad. Amber tried to to think of an escape, but there were large, mean-looking men between her and the door and the fire escape. She did a quick scan for her purse, which had both a Taser and a bottle of pepper spray in it, but she realized it was hung on a hall tree next to the door, out of reach.
If she could only stall them, maybe she could force her way out.
“What the hell is going on here?” Amber demanded.
The bald man stopped where he was, smiling at Amber’s outburst.
“The girl was right. You do have spunk. My clients will like that,” he said with a chuckle.
“What do you mean?”
“This little bitch owes me a lot of money, and she’s been way behind on her payments. I was going to wring it out of her neck personally, but when she said she had a friend with curves like yours and very few personal connections, I thought maybe we could make a deal.”
Amber thought for a second as the bald man grinned.
“So that first night, at the bar… Josie set me up?” Amber asked, the betrayal sinking in. If her friend wasn’t already out cold, she’d slap her herself.
He didn’t answer her question, but turned to a shorter, scruffy-looking man that had come in with them. “Freddie, this is the one, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Freddie said with deference.
As the scruffy, brown-haired man spoke, Amber finally recognized where she’d seen him. The other night, in the bar. He’d been there with Brenner before she’d been drugged, then saved by Jace.
Finally, everything was starting to make sense. A dreadful, terrifying kind of sense.
“Are you Billy—”
“Egan. Yes, in the flesh,” he said, cutting her off. “And that little friend of yours, the one with the leather who thinks he’s such a badass, cost me a dear pal of mine. So I’m glad we finally found you so we can at least get our money’s worth out of you,” he said with a leer, eyeing her uncomfortably.
Billy didn’t have to go into further detail to explain what he meant. Jace had told her he had a hand in lots of illegal doings, including human trafficking. And as much as Amber wanted to think she was safe from that kind of horror, she was in fact a perfect target. Young, few friends, and even less family. Aside from the university where she was enrolled and the teachers she was close to, nobody else would miss her when she was gone.
And everything had been a setup. Amber hadn’t been a random target. She’d been sold out from the start. Her body for Josie’s debt.
The thought was sickening.
“So given that we’re in a hurry and I have a client already waiting to… examine the goods, try not to make this too hard on yourself,” he said, then turned to two men at his side. “Pack her up. We’re heading out.”
The two men next to him came toward her while another furnished an oversized rolling case that Amber had failed to see when they first walked in. From what she could guess, they were probably going to put her inside it so the apartment building cameras wouldn’t film her leaving.
The old Amber would have just given up and not put up a fight. The Amber from high school who just stayed quiet and let people bully her. But after these past few days, being around Jace and getting to know herself better and being around a guy who didn’t take any crap from anyone, Amber had a little more confidence. Enough to fight.
As soon as the two men reached her, she bolted up from the couch and ran for the door. One man caught her around the waist while the other tried to restrain her hands, but she lashed out at them with everything she had, clawing and kicking and screaming for help. One of them tried to cover her mouth, but she bit down on the man’s hand hard, and he pulled back with a yelp.
“C’mon, guys. She’s a human for crying out loud,” Billy said, exasperated.
A third man joined the tussle as the confused thugs tried to restrain her. She saw one of them pull out a zip tie as they held her hands down, and she struggled with all her might to break free. But it was fast becoming clear that one chubby girl against three huge men was a losing battle.
Sorry, Jace. I tried.
Chapter Ten
Just as Amber heard the clicking of the zip tie and felt it tighten around her wrists, the room was interrupted by the sound of the front door being smashed open. Everyone turned, and Amber looked up to see Jace standing in the doorway, fists clenched. He was wearing his leather jacket, and his face instantly turned from cool appraisal to furious anger as he deduced what was going on.
At first, Amber’s heart leapt that he was here. Had he come for her? It was like a heroic rescue from a movie or something.
But upon a second look, it dawned on Amber that there was only one Jace, and there were at least six or more men here in the apartment with her. Sure, he’d been able to deal with a few drunk delinquents the other night, and somehow he’d taken care of Brenner. But this was different. Jace was outnumbered, and all the men in Egan’s posse looked large, tough, and more than willing to fight at the drop of a pin.
“Jace, you have to get out of here. Run!” Amber begged. The last thing she wanted was for the only man who had ever truly given her pleasure to get caught by the same people that had her now.
Jace didn’t back down, just stepped into the apartment, muscles tensed and brows lowered, like an apex predator surveying its choices for lunch.
“Jace, so that’s your name. What can I say? I really am the luckiest guy around. I get free merchandise that I can sell at top dollar, and I get to avenge my buddy Brenner all in the same day,” Billy said jovially, though Amber could hear the malice in his voice as he spoke. “Sorry, but the only way you’re getting out of here is in pieces,” he directed to Jace, then gave a
nod to the men at his sides.
“Funny. I was just thinking the same thing about you,” Jace replied, the air almost crackling around him with rage as his amber eyes seemed to glow brighter.
Two men rushed at Jace, and instantly, he became a flurry of motion almost too fast to be seen. The first man, he threw an elbow into their jaw, then let out a long kick that sent him flying backward and rolling across the polished hardwood floor. The second threw a punch at Jace, which he sidestepped effortlessly while he grabbed the man’s wrist, twisted it behind his body, and wrenched with one quick flick of his hand.
A loud crack reverberated off the walls, and the man groaned for mercy, which Jace responded to by bringing an elbow down hard on the back of his head, knocking him out cold.
For a moment, the room was quiet as Jace pushed the motionless man away from him with his black boot, then stared down at Egan again, eyes even brighter than before.
“So who’s trying to run from who now?” Jace snarled.
From her spot on the couch, Amber could see the rage light in Egan’s eyes as he surveyed the situation and the tall, raging man before him. Some of the men murmured in shock, and Amber could hear things like, “How in the hell?” and, “This guy’s just a human, right? He doesn’t smell like anything.”
It was clear they were all discussing something they understood, but Amber had no clue what it meant.
“Freddie, give this little pipsqueak a taste of wolf,” Billy said to the scruffy man at his side.
“But, boss, the girl. She’s a human. She’ll see,” the man said indecisively.
“I don’t give a damn about what you think. Just tear that guy limb from limb,” Egan ordered.
Then, before her very own eyes, the man changed from a human being to a large, oversized wolf, right there in the middle of the room. Not changed, though, more like shifted, his upright human body melting away into a four-legged predator.
Amber’s mind was so blown she was left speechless, until the wolf snarled at Jace and she realized this wasn’t a fantasy.
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