Page 53 of To the Grave

And who could blame me? A vibrator was a big step down from being fucked by all three of the Blackwell Beasts.

“I’m going to the bathroom!” I shouted up at Jace, because shouting was the only way I stood a chance of being heard over the music.

I rolled my eyes when he pushed off the table to join me, but it wasn’t like there was any point arguing. The Beasts wouldn’t even agree to leave me alone at the house, not with the person responsible for the kidnapped girls still on the loose.

The Barbarians were getting hammered, their laughter louder and more aggressive. A fight had already broken out bythe pool table. Jace had stepped in front of me as the group pushed past us to take it outside.

There was no way he would let me go to the bathroom alone at the Strike.

I headed for theRestroomssign at the back and hooked a left to the ladies’ room. It was probably the only time I’d even been in a crowded bar where there wasn’t a line — there were a handful of women at the Strike, but it was still mostly men — and I pushed through the door, then turned to stop Jace from following.

“Excuse you.” It was a little quieter in the back hall so I didn’t have to shout quite as loud.

He scowled, then took a step back and leaned against the wall with his arms folded over his bare chest.

I retreated to the two-stall bathroom and took the empty one. I was pulling up my underwear when the person in the stall next to me finished. The water ran while she washed her hands and I straightened my skirt — completely unrealistic for a police officer, but given the costume’s general lack of coverage, I was guessing realism wasn’t the point — and stepped out of the stall just as a coiffed blonde dressed like Sandy from the movieGreaseleft the bathroom.

Now I was alone, the thump of heavy metal a distant drumbeat through the old building instead of an ear-splitting scream.

I washed my hands and took a deep breath relieved, my head was clearing now that I’d put some distance between Jace and me. My hands shook as I dried them, and I studied my face in the mirror.

What the fuck is wrong with you, Daisy?

It wasn’t like I couldn’t fuck Jace. He would be more than willing. It wasn’t even because I was still mad at him for whathe’d put me through. I’d probably be mad about that forever, and honestly, I felt pretty entitled to it.

But deep down I knew none of that was why I was so hesitant to let Jace back into my bed, back into my heart.

I was scared. Terrified actually.

Losing him the first time had just about decimated me. I hadn’t thought much about our future together before that. I’d been too busy — first trying to figure out if they’d killed Blake, then trying to figure out who was behind the kidnapped girls.

But then he’d been gone and I’d felt like the breath had been sucked right out of my lungs. I’d sunk hard and fast, had only been pulled back from the brink because Wolf and Otis had been there to yank me out.

What if it happened again? What if I let Jace back in and he left again? And what if this time, Wolf and Otis were gone too?

Just the thought of it made me want to double over in pain.

I sucked in a breath and was bracing myself to return to the bar when the door flew open hard enough to smack the wall behind it. I half expected a drunken woman to stumble into the restroom.

But it was Jace.

He didn’t even bother checking to see if I was alone before stalking into the bathroom like he owned the place. “What the fuck is taking so long?”

Adrenaline flooded my body. Was it because I’d been startled or because I was alone with Jace in the cramped quarters of the bathroom at the Strike?

Both probably.

“I didn’t realize I was on the clock,” I said, turning back to the mirror and pretending to fix my makeup.

He leaned against the door, his giant hand holding it closed, and stared me down in the mirror. “Maybe you are.”

“Wrong,” I said. “You stopped being the boss of me when you made me think you were dead.”

My heart was thumping so hard I could almost hear it, all the blood rushing to my face as my body teetered between the euphoria of no-holds-barred mouthing off to Jace and the thread of fear that always ran through my body when I pushed him.

Not the kind of fear that made me scared for my physical safety. The kind of fear that made me fear for my soul, for all the things I’d always believed to be true about myself, the bedrock of every belief on which I’d built my life.

He stared at me for a long moment in the mirror, his green eyes aflame.

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