Fever (14 page)

Said I had a week to come up with it.”

She rushed on, not allowing Jace to respond. She was afraid of his response and so she recklessly

surged forward, talking fast. She was probably incomprehensible, but at the moment she didn’t care.

“I can’t come up with that kind of money in a month, much less a week! Jobs are hard to find right

now. Everyone picks up odd jobs during the holidays. And I don’t look the part to do the better stuff.

They took all the cash I had. It was all I had to eat with. To survive on until the next job comes

through. I don’t know what to do, Jace. I’m terrified for Jack.”

Jace’s mouth gaped open and he stared incredulously at her. “You’re scared for Jack.”

She nodded.

“You’re scared for Jack,” he said again, with more emphasis.

Again she nodded.

“God-fucking-damn. Those bastards came at
you
. They
hurt
you. They fucking
threatened
you!

And you’re scared for
Jack
.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

He exploded in a litany of eyebrow-scorching curses that had her wincing. He turned, letting her

loose as he sat forward on the couch, his hands clenched together between his thighs.

“Son of a bitch,” he snapped. “Did it ever occur to you to be scared for yourself?”

She swallowed and nodded. “After today, yeah.”

He turned swiftly back to her. His eyes sparked with anger.

“What I want to know is how they even knew about you,” he said in a soft, furious voice.

It was a question Bethany had asked herself. Repeatedly. Ever since they’d shoved her to the

ground, stolen her money and kicked her in the ribs. Why had they come after her? How did they even

know of her existence?

Jack wouldn’t . . . She shook her head, because she was being stupid. How else would they have

known? How would they have known how to find her? Jack had to have told someone. And that broke

her heart.

Tears pricked her eyelids and they stung. It was like having acid in her eyes.

“Tell me what happened, Bethany,” Jace said in a more gentle tone. He was holding her again. She

was against his chest, cradled in his arms. His lips pressed to her hair and his tone was soothing and

infinitely tender.

She closed her eyes as her warm tears collided with Jace’s shirt.

“They knew how to find me,” she choked out. “I don’t know how.” Liar. She knew. It was the first

lie she’d offered Jace, but somehow admitting the truth made it irrevocably so. And she couldn’t deal

with that right now. Denial was kinder.

“They shoved me to the ground. It’s how I got the scrapes and cuts. They told me I had a week to

get the money Jack owed them. Then they stole the cash I had out of my pocket. They left and said

they’d look me up in a week and that there was nowhere I could hide from them. They told me they’d

find me. No matter what.”

“Fucking bastards,” Jace spat. “Goddamn chickenshit sons of bitches. Preying on a defenseless

woman instead of the prick who borrowed the money in the first place. And Jack
let
them.”

She stirred, ready to defend Jack, but Jace tightened his hold on her. A warning to remain silent.

“Don’t even go there, baby.” His tone was ice. So forceful that she instantly obeyed. “Don’t dare

defend him when what he did was indefensible.”

She sagged against him, closing her eyes once more. She turned her face into his chest, clutching at

him with both hands.

“How much does he owe?” Jace demanded.

Bethany pulled away only enough that her words wouldn’t be distorted. “F-f-five thousand

dollars.” It may as well be a million. Five thousand dollars was as impossible as ten million dollars.

“I thought I could try peddling,” she said, nearly choking on the words. “I’ve seen others do it and

they make decent money. I only have a week though, so I’d need to work hard. So maybe you

understand now why I can’t move into your sister’s apartment.”

“Oh
fuck
no.”

Jace exploded, his body suddenly pulsing with tension. He sat straight up, carrying her with him.

He pulled her away so she stared him in the eye and he was angry. Very, very angry. His face

reddened and his lips were white from pressing together so fiercely.

“You’re done. Finished. You aren’t setting foot back on the streets again. You’ve lost your ever-

loving mind if you think I’m going to let you walk back out there with those fuckheads gunning for

you.”

The blood drained from her face. “They’ll hurt Jack. I can’t let that happen, Jace.”

“You leave Jack to me,” he bit out.

She shook her head, hysteria rising. This situation was fast getting out of control and she had to

stop it now. She bolted upward before Jace could haul her back down and she took hasty steps

backward so he didn’t reach for her.

“I have to go,” she blurted. “Thank you. For everything.”

And then she turned and ran, praying the elevator would open immediately.

chapter twelve

Jace lunged for Bethany, but she just slipped from his grasp and made a mad, erratic dash toward

the elevator. Damn female didn’t even have shoes on. Where the fuck did she think she was going?

The elevator door opened immediately and he surged ahead, arm outstretched to prevent the doors

from closing. He missed by two inches.

He wanted to beat his head against the fucking wall. Instead he picked up the phone and called

down.

“This is Jace Crestwell,” he said calmly. “There is a woman coming down the elevator. She has no

shoes on. Under no circumstances are you to allow her to leave this building. I’ll be down as soon as

the elevator reaches my floor again.”

“Yes, sir,” came the crisp answer.

Satisfied that Bethany wouldn’t escape, he punched the call button for the elevator and stewed

while he waited for it to come back up. And as he waited, he processed everything Bethany had had

to say.

He was facing an uphill battle. Bethany didn’t think she was worthy of him. Which was laughable.

He was no goddamn saint. He and Ash had fucked their way through half of Manhattan and for no

other reason than they wanted to.

How the hell could he judge Bethany for using sex as a coping mechanism when he’d essentially

done the same thing? And Bethany had certainly had a harder life than Jace. She at least had an

excuse. Jace couldn’t say the same.

The elevator doors opened and Jace hurried on, jabbing the button for the lobby with his thumb.

The situation with Jack was trickier but not insurmountable. All he had to do was keep Bethany out

of it and make damn sure she was safe. Over his dead body would she rush in to save fucking Jack.

She hadn’t said it, hadn’t admitted it, but he’d seen the knowledge in her eyes. The crushing sadness

that accompanied the realization that she’d been betrayed by someone she loved and trusted.

Jack had thrown her to the wolves. The asshole had used her as a guarantee for money he never

intended to pay back. Jace was besieged by the urge to go hunt the fucker down and exact some old-

school justice.

When the elevator finally arrived on the first floor, Jace hurried out, looking left and right for sign

of Bethany. To his relief, she was sitting in the corner of the lobby, the doorman and the security

guard flanking her.

A smile quirked his lips when he saw that she was holding a Styrofoam cup of coffee and that the

doorman had engaged her in light conversation. As if seeing a barefoot woman fleeing a building in

winter was an everyday occurrence.

Her gaze flickered over him when she saw him approach and fear brewed in the brilliant blue

depths. He felt sucker-punched. She was
afraid
of him.

“Bethany,” he said in a calm voice. “Let’s go back up now and leave these two gentlemen to their

work.” Then to the two men he said, “Thank you both for seeing to my Bethany. I wouldn’t want her

out in the cold dressed as she is.”

“No, of course not, sir,” the doorman said briskly. Then he smiled warmly at Bethany. “It was nice

to meet you, Miss Willis. I hope to see you again soon. If you ever have need of anything, do not

hesitate to ask.”

“Thank you, Roger,” she said with a smile.

Jace lifted one eyebrow. He’d lived here for some time and he’d never had the occasion to know

the doorman’s name. He was ashamed of that fact now, given that she’d learned Roger’s name in less

than five minutes.

The security guard gave Jace a short nod and then smiled in Bethany’s direction before returning to

his post. Bethany sighed and rose, thrusting the cup toward Roger.

“Thank you,” she said again. “It was foolish of me. Thank you for stopping me and for being so

kind.”

Jace tucked Bethany’s hand in his and pulled her toward the elevator. He didn’t say anything to her

on the trip back up. Just held her closely, melded to his side. He liked the feel of her against him. Soft

and pliant. A perfect complement to his much harder body.

But then he frowned as he realized she was pliant because she was . . . defeated.

Oh
hell
no. She wasn’t going back into his apartment as some whipped puppy.

As the elevator doors slid open, he tugged her against his chest and tipped her chin up so she was

forced to look at him.

“You come into this apartment, you do it with your chin up and your shoulders back,” he said. “You

don’t come in here beaten down or scared. This is your place. Your sanctuary. This is the one place,

above all others, where you are absolutely safe from the outside world. From judgment and harm. Got

it?”

She stared at him a long moment, her eyes somber and thoughtful. But what hurt him the most was

that for a brief moment, hope flickered in her gaze and just as quickly shut down. Like hope was such

a foreign concept that she wouldn’t allow herself to have it.

Then finally she nodded and whispered, “Got it.”

He kissed her forehead, feeling her tremble against him. “No, you don’t get it, baby. But you will. I

promise you that.”

He tugged her into his apartment and let the elevator doors close behind them. She looked

exhausted. Physically and emotionally. It was relatively early by his standards, but at the moment he

couldn’t think of anything more he’d like to do than to take her to bed and let her sleep in his arms. He

wanted her to feel protected. Safe. Most important, cherished. Like she mattered.

She didn’t have any experience in any of those. That much was evident in the painful retelling of

her childhood and her adult years. He couldn’t change her past, but he could sure as hell change the

present and alter the course of her future.

“Let’s go to bed. You’re wiped,” Jace said.

Her gaze skittered nervously up to his. Her eyes were wide in her face, giving her a haunted look.

She really was too thin but her beauty . . . it shone like a beacon. There was something arresting about

her eyes and her face. He couldn’t explain why he’d been so inexorably drawn to her that very first

night he’d seen her across the room at Mia’s party. But he’d known even then that she was his.

“Baby, I’m not going to jump you,” Jace murmured.

He took her hands and rubbed his thumbs up the backs, working in soothing circles.

She swallowed and then nodded. “I’m tired.”

“You’re wiped,” he repeated.

Still holding her hand, he pulled her toward his bedroom and once there, he closed the door behind

them. Then he turned and grasped the hem of her shirt and began tugging it over her head.

She clamped down an arm, her eyes flaring with alarm.

He waited a moment, staring intently into her eyes. “Baby, in that bed, there is nothing between us.

No clothing, barriers, nothing. I said I wasn’t going to jump you, and that’s true. I won’t lie to you.

But you aren’t wearing those clothes to bed. Besides the fact they don’t fit you worth a damn, anytime

you sleep in my bed, you’re naked.”

“I’ll get cold,” she said with a frown.

He smiled at the quick excuse and her attempt to keep that barrier between them. She’d learn soon

enough that he’d allow none between them.

“I’ll keep you warm.”

She bit her lip in consternation and then sighed, lowering her arm in a gesture of surrender.

“Remember,” he said softly. “You don’t come here beaten down and defeated. You hold your head

up. You submitting to me doesn’t mean you’re anything less. I’m a demanding bastard. No doubt about

that. But the very last thing I want is for you to be some mindless puppet.”

Confusion clouded her beautiful blue eyes. “I guess I don’t understand. Any of this. I’m confused,

Jace. This is so . . .
overwhelming
.”

He kissed her nose and then slowly worked her shirt upward. “We have all the time in the world. I

want you to trust me. As long as you can do that, everything will work out just fine. I’ll take care of

you and I’ll never do anything to overwhelm you.”

“But I just said I’m overwhelmed!” she protested.

He grinned and tugged the shirt the rest of the way, baring her breasts—and the bruises—to his

gaze.

“I just want you naked. Overwhelming would be if I was going to fuck you tonight. That’ll come