CHAPTER THIRTEEN


He attracted attention that I'd never known—if he wanted to. I drank my
coffee while he ate his food and he was given four phone numbers without trying
or flashing a charming grin along the way.


The waitress handed over hers with the first course and the last three—from a
booth of bored college co-eds home for the holiday break.


He made me sick.


After he finished his burger and dug into the vegetables, I asked, "Why
vegetables? Why not fries like a regular stereotypical redmeat kinda guy?"


A harshness flashed in his depths, but it was gone immediately as he grinned
goodnatured and shook a green bean my way. "Because fries make you tired.
Vegetables give me energy and trust me, after your nice little trail to my
doorstep—I'm going to need all the energy I can get." He wiped his mouth clean
and scanned the restaurant as his eyes seemed to twinkle my way. "Besides…I'm
not a stereotypical anything."


"No." I sounded, hallow. "You sure aren't."


"I used to be a fan of the 'ain't' in our good American grammar. Ain't is a
fantastic gem."


"You're making fun of me." I noted, dully. "You're making fun of me and
you're doing it in a stupid way."


Jace frowned and rolled his shoulders.


I frowned and watched him. I really watched him. I set aside the flirting
nature that took as a second skin. I shoved it aside and I really thought about
every action that he'd made since I'd met him.


He had tested me at first. And then he'd walked around me—to test the
perimeter. He wanted to know who had been behind me, if anyone had been there at
all. That's when the first shot rang out and—no matter the smart remarks or
fierce questions he buzzed my way—he had sought out the information that he
needed.


He asked who knew. Why. How. And he eliminated the possible theories as he
continued to test me with taunts, jeers, and even dry amusement.


And when we'd come to the restaurant, he hadn't flirted back. He hadn't asked
for any of the numbers. They just came, but they came because he flirted on the
outside without trying.


It was almost as if he wore a double skin. One was to make others think one
way while the second plotted and planned without notice.


He'd given me the chameleon merry-go-round and now, he was doing it
again.


Four girls had already taken the bait.


And all the while, he'd cast a scan for any shake-downs while it seemed as if
his attention was solely on me.


And he'd done it brilliantly.


And he liked the word 'ain't.'


I wondered about the relevance, but I knew there was some. There had to have
been because the word had been thought by his brain and uttered by his
voice.


There was a significance, but it was beyond my reach of understanding—at
least, for now.


"Did you find any bad guys?" I asked.


Jace zeroed in on me.


"Just now." I explained and gestured around the small six-booth diner. The
inside was suffocating.


"What are you talking about?"


"Weren't you just looking for any shake-downs?" I asked, but I caught the
slight flicker in his eyes. "No." I straightened. "You weren't looking for
shake-downs. You were looking for.. what? A contact?"


Jace shook his head, "You're kinda sassy."


"I'm feisty."


"You're sassy and you're a control freak."


"We've had this conversation."


Jace frowned, "I don't think we have. I think I would've remembered telling
you that you have control issues. You should go to therapy for that, by the
way."


I scoffed, indignant, "Are you for real? You're telling me that I'm supposed
to go to therapy? You were undercover for six years and you've hunted for the
last four years. Who here should go to therapy? Not me."


"Man." Jace smirked, knowing, "You have such easy buttons."


I opened my mouth in outrage and stopped short. The words died in my throat
as I realized he was right.


I'd been played. He'd played me and he knew, within the first hour or so,
which buttons to push.


It made me hate him even more.


My red flag had been raised before I stepped foot on that cemetery, but I
hadn't heeded it.


I'd ignored it and because of that—Jace Lanser had gotten the best of me.


I pulled back, figuratively, not literally. I switched my train of thought
and retraced our conversation. I'd commented that he'd either been looking for a
shakedown or a contact and then my button had been pushed.


I'd been right. It was a contact.


But this time—I shut up. I didn't say a word and I watched his body language
instead. I didn't look at the façade that rode him so well. I just looked at his
movements, at where his hands moved, and where his shoulders were directed.


His shoulders were turned towards me. His eyes danced at me, around me, and
swirled beyond me. His chin was steady and his pinkie, the littlest finger, was
pointed outwards towards the aisle. It tapped the table absentmindedly and I
watched it as Jace continued his hopes to push my buttons.


The buttons had been pushed, realized, and now had been deactivated.


I watched his pinkie and it stopped moving when our server approached the
table. The pinkie lay perfectly still, but Jace's eyes still delighted in my
direction.


She gave another flirtatious smile with a slow, seductive, roll of her hips
in Jace's direction before she turned, gave her rearview a perfect target and
sauntered away holding our empty dishes.


Jace watched the swaying behind, but his pinkie was tucked underneath his
palm now.


"Ready to go?" Jace flashed a smile at me.


"Depends on where we're going."


He stood and leanly stretched. The movement lifted his shirt up and a glimpse
of tight abdominal muscles teased the eye, but with a rakish yawn, the shirt
resided in it's normal place and it rested atop his trendy, faded, blue
jeans.


"Let's go." He gestured towards the door, but I shook my head.


"You go. I'm right behind you."


No frown. No hesitation. He just nodded and left through the door.


As he left, I waited a moment and then I turned to watch the kitchen doorway
where the server had disappeared. As soon as the bell rang to signal either an
entering or exiting customer, she appeared at the doorway and she searched
through the window for Jace.


When she located him, a soft frown appeared over her features, and then she
relaxed with a look of knowing resignation.


It only took another second before she searched for me, didn't find me, and
swung her gaze to our booth.


I knew it was coming and when her eyes landed on me, they found my back as I
casually strolled out the door.


Jace was right when he called me a control freak. I did have control issues,
but who wouldn't with my background?


As I pushed through the doors and found Jace in his car, waiting for me, I
wiped my hands as if just drying them. I climbed inside and watched him
warily.


He knew that girl and he'd been there to see her. I didn't know who she was,
I didn't know why Jace was there for her, but I started to feel some of my
control return at the advantage that I knew something he didn't know that I
knew.


Mind games. The best con needed to know the best information.


I had just begun my inventory on Jace Lanser.


"Feel better?" Jace asked lightly as he turned the car onto a gravel road
that laid underneath two rows of towering birch trees. The trees told the road
where to go.


I could've played the game through. I could've held my ace, tucked in the
sleeve of my shirt, but as I sat across from him—I wasn't there to play a game.
I wasn't there to win a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.


Con to con, he was one of the best. He had endured a hell that many could
never conceive and I knew, if wits were pitted against wits, I wouldn't win.


A con saw the end in sight and I saw mine.


He was aiming to drop me off, but I couldn't let that happen. And it wasn't
my life or my reason why that couldn't occur.


So I said, truthfully, no holds barred, "I know that you aim to let me loose
and go your merry way. I know that's what you should do because every minute
that you're held up with another person—it's a minute against your life clock. A
lot of scary and a lot of very powerful people want you dead, but you're not
here for any of them and I don't think you're here for the government."


Jace started to flash me a smirk, another of his façades, but I ignored it
and said, calmly, "I've lived my own hell and I survived by lying, manipulating,
and just being cold. You had me, inside there, you had me for awhile, but you
made a mistake and you told me that you were pushing my buttons. You lost me
then and I saw what you didn't want me to see."


He'd hidden it so well.


I added, "You know that girl in there and you care about that girl. Whatever
you needed, she gave it to you as a phone number, but it wasn't a phone number.
It was something you needed from her and you needed it today."


His eyes still danced, but I saw that his pinkie had curled into his
palm.


He listened with rapt attention, even though his face didn't show that.


"Here's the truth about you and me. You're wanted by a lot of bad men. You're
not protected by the law because you can't stand being caged and that's what
they'd have to do to protect you." I took a breath. "And I'm the one who found
you. I found you because I'm smart and I know a little of how you think. I found
you, that should tell you something about me." I patted my chest. "But I'm
telling you—I will not walk away. Not from this because I haven't fulfilled what
I came to you for."


My eyelid flickered at that comment. The truth was—I hadn't acknowledged to
myself what I'd come to him for… not yet, but it'd come. It'd come too soon and
too fast.


I was willing to jump that hurdle when it arose.


"Here's my ace." I said gravely. "I've been with you just a little bit and I
already know that you care a lot about that girl. I know that you set fire to a
cabin because you'd rather your things burn then get into their grasp and so I'm
betting—you'd do anything to keep that girl safe inside. Including…keeping me
quiet."


"I could just kill you."


Gone was the playful flirt. Jace dropped the ball when I did and I saw the
ruthless murderer that he'd never strayed far from. I saw his cunning, his
ruthlessness, and I knew that I shared a vehicle with a predator.


One of the best.


"You could." I spoke the truth, but my bluff held some weight. He hadn't
become another Galverson. He had decided, along the way, that he wouldn't become
one of them. If he killed me now, a fine line would separate him from
them.


Humanity.


And Jace Lanser still had some, though he had learned to shift it and
manipulate it as necessary.


Amidst it all—he hadn't denied what I'd spoken and I knew that he knew that I
knew the truth.


He did care about that girl and he would protect her life, but I also knew
that he wouldn't at the casual expense of my life.


If he had—he was a monster just as the ones that he'd imprisoned.


My chin raised a fraction and I said softly, "All it would take was one visit
to my brother. I could spill it all to someone that I love and it'd be
done."


He wasn't the only one that could shift humanity to their best interest.


"Okay." Jace mused, unemotional. "Now you crossed the line from irritation to
pissed off."


"You're not mad." I noted. "You knew that I'd throw down the gauntlet, you
just weren't sure when and what angle I would use."


Jace just looked a little exasperated as he handled the car with
perfection.


"Fine." I tensed inside. "Maybe I won't say a thing to my brother, but there
is one person that I would say something to." I paused, watched, and said,
"Taryn."


He kept driving.


"I don't think you're leaving Paynes. I think you're going to move somewhere
else and build another base, but I think you're here for a reason. You had an
entire cabin and it looked like you'd been there, working on something. So I
think you're in Paynes doing some job." I leaned closer and breathed, "Wanna see
Taryn come to Paynes? I think she'd love to see you again."


Jace swerved the car to the side and had me pushed against my seat, his hand
to my throat, in a blur before I comprehended that we'd even stopped.


"You're not in some Wonderland woods." Jace bit out and I saw the true Jace
emerge in that moment.


Adrenalin and excitement pumped inside of me at that moment.


"You're not Alice in some freaking magically-infested woods." Jace continued.
"This is not child's play. Any move you make, any thing that you might say could
easily end up with someone dying, do you not get that?"


I got it. I got it more than he knew.


I said softly, cautious as I would've watched a hunter, "And I am telling you
that I am here to stay. If you just drop me off, I'll find you again or I'll
send your lover here to find you. It's your choice."


"Maybe I should just do everyone a favor and kill you right here?"


He'd killed. I knew that he had and I knew that he had it in him, but he
wasn't as cold-blooded as everyone seemed to think. That truth pumped inside of
me and it made my words bold and brave, "But you won't and I know that."


We'd backed each other into a corner.


Jace bypassed my assumptions when he murmured, "I think we should go see your
friend, Oscar."


Startled and confused, I dropped down as his hand wrenched away.


I refused to rub at my throat, but I watched him cautiously.


The undercurrents had rapidly shifted for the darker sides of both of us. We
were in a fight and neither of us had a weak bone inside of us to offer it up as
a truce. There was no compromise. There was either my way or his and he had
thrown me for a loop with his sudden announcement.


The drive wasn't that long according to rural standards. A forty-minute drive
was a regular jaunt to the grocery store.


The silence had thickened as we drew closer and my nerves strained to snap
from their bones when Jace turned the car into a dark road that could've passed
a large walking trail, not a road for a car, but he managed it and he drove
around a few more bends in the trees until he parked suddenly.


The road that we had turned from had completely vanished and I couldn't even
hear any traffic that might've passed us by.


We were thick in the woods and I guessed that we were near Oscar's cabin.
When I strained my ears, I just managed out a soft trickle of water and hoped
that was the river Oscar had spoken about.


I didn't say a thing and neither did he, but I watched in the dark and I saw
the quick, professional, movements of his body. He pulled out a different shirt
and it fitted perfectly over the weapons that were contained in holsters against
his skin. It was dark and the bulk around his chest told me that he had a
bullet-proof aligned shirt that hugged his bodies.


I'd never heard of such a thing, but I wasn't in the market of weapons'
clothing and apparel.


Jace pulled a mask over his head and it covered his entire face. Only the
whites of his eyes and teeth were audible in the dark. He tossed a similar mask
to me and I pulled it on.


"Take off your shirt." Jace said crisply.


"Why?"


"To save your life." He said flatly.


I took off the shirt and he made quick time when he wrapped a holster around
my midriff and slid a small pistol into the holder at the small of my back.


My skin rippled underneath his touch, but he flung a similar shirt to me and
remarked, casually, "Put that on and if you even think of using that gun on me,
you should know that I will not hesitate to pull my gun on you."


Resolved determination strengthened my shoulders when I knew that he would do
what he said, but there'd be no reason for me to pull my gun on him.


I needed him.


I tugged the shirt on and knew it hugged me as his did him. It wasn't heavy
and the extra padding in front of me felt snug and comfortable.


I'd never admit it to Jace, but a part of me started to float on adrenalin
and a rush of thrill. I felt like a warrior and as I stood to stand beside him,
I knew that I was with the fiercest of them all.


If anyone would survive, it would be Jace and I was proud to stand shoulder
to shoulder with him in that moment.


Jace tapped my wrist and pointed downwards. He knelt at my feet and took hold
of my left foot. He slipped off my shoes and pulled on some slippery leather
shoes that felt as moccasins.


"You always have an extra of everything?" I asked lightly.


Jace didn't comment, but he said instead, "You walk like this." He twisted my
foot up and pressed it to the ground on it's side. He lifted it back up and took
it slowly to the floor where my foot met the ground in the middle of my arch and
my heel rolled seamlessly back into the air.


The leaves underneath our feet never rustled under the movement.


"It feels funny."


"It does the trick." Jace stood up and gestured for me to practice a bit.


I walked back and forth from the car to him.


"Do some more." He wasn't satisfied.


I did and a moment later, Jace remarked, "You walk like that and you can come
up on any hunter that breathes these woods. They're not taught stealth. We're
going to circle around your friend's house and you'll stay put while I go in. If
you do anything to alert them, you'll be bringing down folk on us that'll kill
you in an instant."


"Why do you want Oscar?"


"I need to know who he called because I need to know who to be on the lookout
for."


"What was that about a hunter? Why'd you tell me that?"


"Because Oscar is a hunter." Jace said shortly. "He hunts, he tracks, and he
knows these woods better than you and I will ever dream of knowing them. I
understand hunters and he's one of them."


"Well…what does that mean? I don't understand hunters."


"It's not really for you to know." Jace commented from the side of his mouth.
"Just do what I say and listen real hard."


We started off at a fast pace. Jace led the way and I concentrated how to
walk. We both knew when I messed up and forgot to point my foot to the side. The
leaves would rustle and Jace would stop instantly. We'd start again, I made sure
my foot was right and then I'd slip up and forget in a few paces.


We walked for an hour, or it seemed, but my footing was almost perfect by
then. I stopped concentrating and was, instead, able to see where we were going.
Jace refused to work with any lighting because it killed our nightvision. And I
had to admit, he was right. After awhile, and especially, after an hour of
walking in the woods, my nightvision almost depicted everything as easy as
daylight.


Things got a little tougher once we saw Oscar's home in the distance. He had
a light attached atop his garage and it shone bright. It destroyed our
nightvision and I stumbled a few more times.


Jace never faltered.


He jumped when he needed, dodged at the last second, and he seemed to evade
any pitfalls.


He moved as an animal who had been raised in the lands and instead of
watching the woods, the night air, the house that was approaching, I watched
him.


There was an innate grace barely caged inside of him and it flowed sensually
off of his body at that moment. This was his element. Before, when he'd shot
back at whoever had pursued us at the cemetery, his movements had been perfect
and performed as habit. His eyes hadn't shown the light that I saw glittered
from them now, in the moonlit woods.


He was the hunter, not Oscar.


Jace squatted behind a brush of trees.


I sat next to him or—would've if he hadn't caught my knees in his hand and
held me suspended in the air. I almost tipped backwards from the quick movement,
but his other arm caught me and balanced me.


"You'll leave imprints if you kneel." Jace murmured quietly.


I nodded in the night.


"You're going to stay here and wait until I give you the signal."


"What then?"


"Then…we find out what we need." Jace said flatly and stood. Before I could
comprehend what he'd said, or fully see his height in the moonlight, he was
gone.


I turned to watch his approach to Oscar's home, a porch that I had sat upon
not long ago, but I never saw him approach. I didn't see anything except a
sleeping home with smoke the curled out from their chimney.


No shadows danced underneath Oscar's garage light, but I waited twenty
minutes and felt a thud at my back.


I turned and saw Oscar behind me with his eyes wide, knowing, and regretful
as he stared back at me.


It never punctuated my brain that he seemed to know who I was, even with the
nightmask and dark clothing, while I still had yet to know who lay at my
feet.


I think it was that moment that I woke up.


Jace Lanser was a key that I needed. At first, a part of my conscience
thought that I sought him because he fascinated me, because he was a mystery
left unsolved.


I figured out what ticked inside of people and I knew them. I knew their
pockets of darkness, their moments of pride, and they ceased to be interesting
in that moment.


Jace Lanser had fascinated me the first moment when I met him on the sidewalk
outside of his nightclub. His bouncer had told me to leave and I turned to see
the goldenboy leader behind me.


I felt lust for the first time. True, sinful, lust and I'd always kept that
image in my head.


A person might call me arrogant, but that wasn't the truth. I knew people at
first glance and it wasn't something I boasted. It wasn't something I ever
wanted to be proclaimed.


It gave me a power that I'd never wish upon another human being. Someone
could turn into the master manipulator and others could brag and turn into their
own legendary ideals.


Not me. I saw that power for what it was worth. I was given a line to walk
upon and that line was humanity.


I'd lived in hell, survived hell, and I'd remained with a soul intact.


I had that wisdom inside of me, but there's something about the first boy
that fascinated a girl's knees—all the wisdom in the world would be eliminated
at the mere mention of that boy's name.


A part of me held Jace Lanser in that regard.


Lust, attraction, and desire held power separate from everything else.


As I had embarked on my quest, a part of me wondered if it was really because
I had a secret crush on Jace Lanser.


In that moment, as I saw him toss Oscar's paralyzed body to the ground before
me, I looked up at him and I saw what nightmares yielded in human form.


And a part of me was relieved to realize that it wasn't a secret crush held
in the unconscious that had motivated my quest.


I stood where I stood for a real worthwhile reason. A reason that I hadn't
admitted to myself, but I did in that moment.


I needed Jace Lanser to save my brother. And it was a quest that was worth
brokering a deal with the soul that left the devil in his trail.


So color me dysfunctional, but the sight of Oscar, of a man who was convinced
he'd see his death before the night's end—it left me stronger.


When I looked up and met Jace's eyes, I saw that he expected fear,
hesitation, and a little girl to fall in self-doubt.


He saw neither and he straightened when he read what he saw.


Assurance.


A stubborn glint shone in his smokies and I had a second revelation of the
night at that moment.


The man at my feet, had nothing to do with finding information on who he
told. It had nothing to do with Oscar. This was a battle between Jace and myself
and Oscar had been chosen as the martyred lamb.