Unbound Faith (Bulletproof #1)

by J. L. Baldwin

  He shakes his head and picks up the book, returning it to its proper spot on the shelf. “You’re thinking about Jayde again, aren’t you?” He asks, turning back to me. The tone in his voice is sincere and not at all sarcastic. The dumbfounded look I gave must have amused him, because he laughed again before adding. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what you were thinking when Chief handed you Jayde’s file. I knew you couldn’t resist. Did you write to her like I suggested?”

  I nod. “Yes I did and she replied back really fast, surprisingly.” I said. Something sparked an interest in me about her and there was more I wanted to know. Craig can be nosy sometimes, but he’s my best friend. Couldn’t live without him. This agency would also be crap without him, and he knows it too.

  I guess that’s why we get along so great. He has my back, and I have his. “Maybe I’m thinking about her, maybe I’m not. I only met her three times and she has my head spinning in circles.”

  Craig shook his head. “Dude, you really need to cool it. She’s just another random chick. Trust me, there are plenty of them out there. If pussy is all you wanted, I’m sure you can walk right out the front door and find some.” I picked up the empty coffee mug and threw it at his head and he ducks to miss as it crashes into the wall. He laughs watching the remnants hit the floor. “Way to go hot shot.”

  “Well don’t assume all I want is pussy. You know I’m not like that anymore.” Craig shakes his head and sits back down at his desk. He turns back to me with sadness etched in his features. Craig wasn’t always one to give good pep talks, but I for one admired him because he did try. “Listen man, I know you’re on edge because of what happened with Lillian but you have got to let it go. Lily was a cheating bitch who deserved to live out the rest of her days miserable.”

  Lillian was my first wife, and the only woman I ever opened my heart up to. There was nothing I couldn’t tell her that she didn’t get. She knew me like the back of her hand and that’s what I loved most about her. God, there was nothing in this world I didn’t want her to know because there was nothing. Lillian was considered to be the love of my life. After I found her in bed with my cousin, all bets were off I went off. I tossed them both out but not before beating his ass to a fucking pulp and letting him limp out of my house, all bloody and battered.

  From then on, I vowed never to let another girl into my heart or head ever again. I quickly rethought that statement when I met Jayde out there on the beach. And I’d be damned if she didn’t turn everything inside out when I stared into those emerald green irises. I could stare into them all fucking day and never grow tired. The air surrounding me turned warm and constricting as I struggle to maintain my composure, and my raging hard on.

  “Zac…hello?” Craig waves a hand in front of my face. “You okay in there?” He asks making me laugh.

  “Man, I’m fine. Just tired is all.”

  “Uh-huh. Well why don’t you go home and get some sleep if you’re so tired.”

  I shake my head. “No, there was no way I’d be able to sleep while I still have so many cases I needed to be working on. It’s my job and I’m not going to let my feelings for Jayde stand in the way.” Yeah, that did nothing to slow down my racing heart. Just the thought of touching her sent a signal to my brain…and other parts. Craig shakes his head as he turns back to his work, leaving me to my very inappropriate thoughts. However, I wish they were more than just thoughts when it came to her. When I finally emailed her, telling her everything that I knew would drive her crazy, I hooked her. Writing under a fake name, to draw her in was brilliant. I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist a fan letter. Especially one as detailed and valuable as mine.

  I pull up the previous email she had sent and I re-read it to make sure my reply is accurate. There’s some things you don’t want to screw up, and that’s a reply to a woman. Learned that lesson the hard way once before.

  Dear Jayde,

  Thank you so very much for replying to me. It makes my head soar to watch your name appear in my inbox, and I’m sure you know which head I’m talking about. ;) Well thank you for your kind words and advice. And as for your personal experiences, maybe we could work on those. I’d like to invite you to dinner one day if you wouldn’t mind accompanying me? Please say yes. I know that this is rather sudden and you don’t know me but I’ve been a fan as long as I can remember and I’m very intrigued by your writing. Hope to hear back soon, princess.

  ~Fallen Angel

  Hitting send, I lean back into my chair and look up to catch Craig watching me over his coffee cup. The smirk that is perfectly positioned on his face goes does not go unnoticed. “Don’t fucking look at me like that. I know what’s swirling around in that head of yours. I’m know what I’m doing.”

  He shakes his head. “Yeah, I know you’re fine. Which is why you’re all nervous looking. Get your head back in the game man, because eventually you’re going to have to come to terms with this girl and tell her everything. Trust me, lying does nothing to help out the situation. It only worsens it.”

  Picking up my own coffee cup, I take a small sip. “I can’t do that. It will destroy her. And I won’t do that to her.” Craig sighs heavily as he sat his cup down. “Dude, you’re a fucking private investigator. At least start acting like one. It’s about time you quit hiding from the past and looked to the future. You’ll never understand anything unless you give it a shot.” Craig said as he walked out from around his desk and went down the hall toward Chief’s office. And I let my mind wander for a few minutes.

  Taking everything into consideration, I can’t get Jayde out of my head. She was cute, funny, and such a fucking mind bender, I can’t even think straight. And I called her princess. God, she must think I’m such a fucking nut but I saw the way she looked at me. I have some effect on her. The way her heart beat out of her chest, the way her breathing changed when I touched her. She wanted me just as much as I wanted her. Fuck me, her name rolls easily off the tongue. Jayde. Jayde. Jayde.

  “Focus with your head Z and not the one in your pants either!!” Craig said as he comes waltzing back to his desk and I flip him the bird.

  Yep, I’m pretty sure Jayde was going to be the end of me. Now I have to find her again, just like I “found” her at that coffee shop.

  At the end of the day, I realized how much time I spent thinking about her and what my next move was going to be. I have to get my hands on her, one way or another.

  Chapter 12

  Jayde

  I still can’t stop thinking about Z. It wasn’t until I needed a serious talk with Anna to get my head wrapped around some things. I chose to have her meet me at the coffee shop so we can have a serious girl to girl talk. After Sarah left, I stayed there with my thoughts and she texted me asking where I was. So I told her to meet me here. Our empowering talks to each other were long overdue considering since college, our careers have taken us in two different directions. Even though we are still close, it isn’t like it used to be and that always hurt to some degree. She always told it to me straight, never sugar coated anything and that’s one of the many things I loved about her. She always seemed to know exactly what to say, and when to say it, and how to say it in order to get the point across. A little blunt honesty never hurt anybody. Many would say she was a bitch, but not me.

  Anna is quietly sipping her mocha latte when she interrupts my thoughts. “And another thing. You’re the type of girl who would do something like that, become obsessed with a random guy you meet on the beach. I mean, what do you even know about him?” I’m still lost in my own little world when I don’t even hear her speak.

  Sometimes you meet people and you just click, nothing needs to be said or done but you just automatically click with somebody. Maybe it’s the way they smell, or the way their beautiful hair blows in the wind. It could be a lot of different things, but that little fact doesn’t matter. And sometimes sitting down with your best friend in the whole world is all the therapy one needs.


  “JAYDE…earth to Jayde…” Anna snaps in my face in an effort to get my attention but I’m lost.

  “Huh, what?” I ask and she shakes her head making a tsk tsk sound.

  “Damn, this guy has got you all distracted. What gives girlfriend? You’ve never let anything distract you from our talks before.” Never in my life have I met anybody who affected me like ‘HE’ did, and I don’t even know his name. Whoever he was has had a huge impact on me. Suddenly he is all I think about. Anna scoffs and pulls my hand away that’s had been holding up my head and I catch it before it hits the table. Her light chuckle makes me shake my head of my thoughts.

  “What?” I ask her, completely dumbfounded by the fact that she finds this the least bit bizarre. Ever since we were younger, she’s been able to figure out my endless space gazes like it’s a puzzle she knows how to solve in a matter of minutes.

  “I asked you, what gives? Who has your panties all in a bunch, or who doesn’t have them in a bunch if you know what I mean.” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and I throw a fry at her. My second lunch, long forgotten as my mind keeps wandering back to him.

  “It’s nobody Anna, just…” I stammer on my words and she shakes her head.

  “Just a deliciously handsome hunk of hotness you seem to keep fantasizing about.” And right there and then, she’s figured me out. It’s not like it was hard to do. I didn’t think my mind was too far into the sewer. Z keeps replaying in my mind over and over again.

  Anna is always thinking I’m fantasizing about some guy. Typical Anna. But it isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility I could be thinking about something else, but the likelihood of that is too farfetched. In college, I would always go on and on about the latest male celebrity. I look up, turning off my inner thoughts and shrug at her glare.

  “Okay, so maybe I met somebody. The…bartender at that bar the other night.” Anna smiles widely at my admission before completely losing control as she jumps up almost hitting her knee on the table and squeals so loudly I feel she will cause a commotion. “Oh my god! I knew it was more than what you said. Okay, I need details and like now missy. How hot was he? Was he built? How big was he when he…”

  I knew this would happen. “Whoa, whoa. Back this train up a bit. We haven’t fucked, so I don’t know how big he is. God Anna, I swear.”

  “Oh come on. You know you want to know Jayde. It’s encoded in your DNA as a woman…” This is getting me nowhere. “Fine then. Keep all the hot man details to yourself. I can take a hint.” Her fake sniffle causes me to giggle snort as I struggle to swallow my iced tea.

  “It’s not that girl, it’s just…it’s complicated. I don’t even know him that well and he’s invaded my every thought and feeling. Call me crazy, but that’s how I feel. It’s like some insane sixties beach movie.” Anna nodded as she listened to me babble on. It wasn’t like I was holding back, I honestly didn’t know what the hell I was doing. We met three times, fantastic. He’s already promised me he would see me again. And the very thought of that sent my body into a whirlwind of emotions.

  “You mean like one of those movies where two lovers meet on a beach, fall in love and live happily ever after? That sounds heavenly.” Anna sighs as she spaces out, letting her own fantasy play out in her mind.

  Anna grabs her burger to take a bite but her eyes are saying something totally different as they stare off into space. I’m almost afraid to look. Fear creeps into me as my thoughts immediately drift to who she is possibly staring at. There is no way he is here…again! No damn way.

  “Oh…my…god…” She whispers and tilts her head toward the door. I slowly turn my body to see where her eyes are watching and I freeze. I can’t move. Z has his back turned towards us as he seeks out something. Or somebody. Maybe he’s here looking for somebody? This side of town doesn’t have much for coffee shops so maybe it’s another coincidence? When he turns our direction, his eyes slowly seek out mine, as if sensing I was watching him and he begins to walk over, smiling the entire time which makes me blush profusely. This can’t be happening.

  Chapter 13

  Jayde

  Zac eats up the distance between us the closer he gets. I quickly turn back around to Anna and mouth the words. “That’s him.” Her eyes widen and she coughs on the bite of burger she just ate while taking a sip of tea to wash it down.

  “Are you fucking serious? He’s the guy you keep going on about? He’s undeniably hot and probably fucks like a god on steroids!”

  “ANNA!” I scold with a whisper and she shrugs, pointing a finger at me. “Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking it. Because I know you were.” I can’t lie, I really was thinking that.

  Z stops at the head of our table and looks down at both of us, but remains focused on me. “Hello ladies.” He nodded towards both of us with a smile but his smile lingered on me a little longer, which caused shivers to engulf my entire body. Z is back here at the same café my sister works at, and I still don’t know his first name. “Umm hello uhh…” My words come out like a drunken stupor and he chuckles lightly at my lack of coherent sentences.

  “Still so curious to know my name, huh princess? Well, how about I give you the shortened version now since you’re so persistent, I’m Zac.” Whoa, that’s not what I expected. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a hot name. But not what I expected. Probably stands for Zachary or something. I immediately fall in love with it and the way it rolls off the tongue. He gestures towards Anna and she freezes. Well, looks like Miss Flirt is under Zac’s spell now too. “And you are?”

  “I…I’m Anna, like the princess from Frozen but that’s not how it’s pronounced…” she says, and her nervousness makes him chuckle. I’m surprised at his effect over one of the most flirtatious women in the south. This must be the effect he has on all women because Anna is never one to babble in front of a hot guy.

  “Mind if I join you ladies? I’m off work now so I have some time.” Zac’s lip twitches as he smiles which indicates something. I can’t figure out what. We both nod in unison and he slides in the booth next to me. My mind whirls around what could possibly be the one chance I will get to find out who he is, and how he keeps finding me, but the way his shirt is pulled up around his very muscular arms, revealing his tattoos is making it very hard to focus on such particular subject.

  “Wait, so you don’t have to work tonight? Isn’t that the main time for bartending?” I ask. It was only just the other night I saw him at the bar.

  He looks at me with a bemused expression as he seems to digest my question. “I umm I don’t work there anymore. I have a new job.” He says looking away from my gaze which was very odd.

  “So Jayde…tell me…how is it we keep running into each other?” He asks, quickly changing the subject. That is what I’d like to know, pretty boy. “I don’t know. Right place, right time?” I retort with a slight shrug off my shoulders. It’s taking everything in me not to jump him in this booth right now, but having Anna here is making it easier since she probably wants to do the same thing. Hell, any sane woman in their right mind would want to jump him right about now.

  “Yeah, I guess that’s it.” He replies, a soft smile appears on his face and I notice a dimple and I am fighting with myself to not lay a soft kiss on it. I can feel my whole body shaking from the urge to attack him right now.

  A noise comes from his pants pocket. Zac groans and reluctantly reaches into his pocket and pulls out his beeper. Who the hell still owned a beeper?

  “Ugh, sorry ladies as much as I would love to stay, I got to go. Work calls again.” Zac leans in and places a soft, chaste kiss on my cheek, and my skin tingles from his warm lips. Standing up, he doesn’t leave right away and for some reason it makes me insanely happy.

  “I’d like to see you again Jayde, if that is okay.” He says with a burning intensity in his eyes that says he will definitely be seeing me again. Finally, I muster up some courage to get the questions off my chest. “Can I ask you something?” Zac seems to no
tice the tenseness in my body and I push it away. “Why are you just now telling me your name?” I ask, knowing full well the answer I’m going to get will be one I’ll most likely regret.

  Zac smirks then leans in to whisper in my ear, and I feel his warm breath on the side of my neck, allowing a groan to escape my lips. His eyes burn straight through me evoking a shiver to escape my body. His tongue darts out to lick my earlobe as he speaks. “Because I felt like fucking giving it to you. Don’t question what I do. It would be a huge mistake if you question me, princess. Don’t forget that.” As he pulls away, he stands up out of the booth and gestures to both of us. “Ladies, good day.” He says just as a typical gentleman would say when he’s leaving the presence of ladies, and my heart hammers rapidly, still feeling the warmth of his tongue on my earlobe. I wonder what it would feel like other places.

  I look back up at Anna who is gaping at me. “Did that really happen? He’s totally pulling a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde trick on you.” She asks quietly when he was gone out of eye sight.

  “Uh-huh.” I reply like I didn’t notice. Nothing that erotic has happened to me before. Fuck, I wanted him. There was no more denying it. I wanted to give myself to him fully and completely.

  “Girlfriend, you better not mess this up. He was HOT! I mean, sizzling hot!!” Anna touches her finger to the side of her thigh and makes the sizzling sound. I had zero control over my reaction. I was like a statue standing in the middle of a park and pigeons were shitting all over my framework. And I had to stand there and take it. That’s what it felt like when he was in my presence.

  “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on it.” I reply, and she goes back to eating her food as I sit and think. The smell of him still lingering in the air. Zac…Zac…Zac…finally a name to the intense and devilish stranger who has been invading my every thought.