Page 15 of The Heiress

“So Jace,” Hazel butted in, “was that a motorcycle I heard driving away last night?”

He blinked away from me. “Uh, yeah.”

“Jace is a member of Devil’s Wrath.”

Both sets of eyes swung my way and I felt the questions pouring out of each of them. Hazel’s were pure curiosity while Jace was more shocked I’d even uttered those two words.

“Is that a motorcycle club?”

Jace didn’t answer. Instead he stared at me. Whether he was so surprised he didn’t hear her question or maybe he simply wanted to hear what I was willing to share, I wasn’t sure.

“Yep,” I replied, keeping my gaze on Hazel, “sure is. Harleys, leather, patches, guns, blood oaths, the whole nine yards.” Yeah, I was still bitter.

Hazel’s mouth formed an “O” as she looked back and forth between us. “So...not like Daytona Bike Week but more like Daytona Biker Bar that we take an extra block to walk around at night.” Hazel had been to her fair share of bike weeks in Daytona.

Jace cleared his throat. “Uh, we would be the guys you avoid.”

Her eyebrow shot up in a perfect Scarlet O’Hara arch. “But you’re so...clean-cut.” Then she winced. “Fuck, that sounded judgy.”

“Not judgy. Some of my brothers are covered in tattoos and beards and usually look like they need a bath, even if they just had one. I like that when I’m in public you wouldn’t know I wear leather on the weekend. But trust me Hazel, I don’t always look like this.”

There was such a threatening edge to his words, like he wastryingto scare her. But she just squinted and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t believe you. Show me proof.” Then she waggled her fingers at his chest. “You got a club tattoo under that tight black t-shirt?”

And that was the thing about Jace. He looked like your nice neighbor, the fit guy who always smiled and waved when he saw you, who’d help you with a flat tire or a cup of sugar, the kind of guy who’d take care of your dog when you were out of town. No one would ever look at him and think he carried a gun or participated in activities that broke the law.

It was a good reminder that looks were deceiving.

Especially when he lifted his shirt and revealed a large tattoo that covered his right pectoral. I ignored the butterflies that took flight at the sight of all that skin. I was obviously just nervous about what he was revealing. And then my eyes fell on the devil with the words “The price is your soul” tattooed underneath.

The price is your soul.

Yeah, Devil’s Wrath wasn’t a social club. Those five words were a promise that came with very real, very deadly consequences.

“Well shit,” Hazel blinked. “This is why you two haven’t spoken in nine years?”

He pulled his shirt back down, keeping his eyes on the floor. Basically, he refused to look at me.

But I looked at him, wishing there wasn’t this rift between us. Was he still the boy I knew or had this life changed him forever? “I didn’t want him to join and I said a lot of really mean things.”How far are you willing to go, Jace?I felt the words on my lips like it was happening all over again. He stared at the ground while I begged—begged—him to leave with me. That single, bitter sentence was my desperate attempt to break him free of Todd. Instead it became the rift that opened between us.

Jace worked his jaw and his cheeks flushed like he was angry but trying to control it. “And I didn’t have a choice.”

Hazel’s wide eyes swung my way with approximately a million questions in them. I shook her off. I could answer her questions later instead of subjecting Jace to an inquiry of things he probably couldn’t answer.

“Jace?” I waited for his gaze to lift, but he only turned his head in my direction. It was happening all over again, only this time I could make a different ending. “I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things to you and I definitely shouldn’t have asked you to do something I knew you couldn’t. But what I regret most of all was giving you an ultimatum. That was shitty of me and not the act of a true friend. I hope one day you’ll be able to forgive me.” My hands started to shake—probably from the adrenaline—so I shoved them into my pockets.

And then Jace gave me his eyes. His soulful brown, sad eyes, and it knocked the wind out of me. “I knew you never understood.” He searched my eyes over and over. “Oh, Sam. I was never mad at you. I loved you for what you said that day. Don’t you get it? You were fightingforme. You’re the only one who ever has. I couldn’t give you what you wanted and I hate that I hurt you for that. I’m so sorry. But if you’ve spent the last nine years thinking I was hurt or mad or whatever, you’re wrong.”

I had no idea how badly I needed to hear that until the tears started pouring out of me all over again. Was this who I was now? A crier? If so I wanted a refund. This crying bullshit was for the birds.

But I cried anyway. Probably because I had nine years of regret stocked up and the relief of letting it go was a rush. Jace hugged me tight against his hard, much larger body, and I was once again struck by the reality that this man was not the boy I once knew. Jace was larger, stronger, and he smelled different.

Why did I keep noticing his smell? That was…weird. And another thing I’d like to stop. Food had a smell. Perfume had a smell. Jace Malone was just a boy. He didn’t have a scent I could recognize instantly.

“So we have a truce?” Hazel asked tentatively.

I nodded and Jace blubbered a yes. That’s when I realized he was kind of crying too, but in a manly way. You know, with a few tears and a splotchy face, but none of the sobbing mess that was coming out of me.

He held me tighter. “Oh God, I’ve missed you so damn much.”

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