“Jace.” She pressed her hand to his chest, and he expected her to push him away. She didn’t. It was almost like she was as torn as he was. They couldn’t kiss because of the boundaries she’d put in place. He couldn’t back away because her pull was undeniable. So here they remained, frozen in this in-between.
“Come to my family dinner next Monday night,” he asked, finally breaking the silence.
“What?”
He lifted his head, only a fraction, then immediately slipped a hand around her waist, needing the contact. “We do family dinners most Monday nights. I’m hosting the next one.”
One side of her mouth lifted. “You mean I get to return to our old hangout spot? The Walker family home?”
So many memories lived in that house. Of evenings when she’d come over for dinner. Afternoons together after school. Nights when they’d been a bit older, and she’d had her license and driven over to see him.
“Yeah, come to the Walker family home and have dinner with me.” He stroked her hip with his thumb. “It’ll be like old times.”
Her bottom lip disappeared between her teeth before she nodded. “Okay.”
Why did he have a sudden need to punch a fist into the air in victory? He grinned at her. “Good.”
“As friends.”
“As friends.”For now.The quiet, unspoken words whispered in his head. “And as a friend, I feel it’s my duty to walk you back to the café.”
“How can I say no to that?”
He slipped his hand into hers and led her toward the visitors center, and damn, even that felt amazing.
They were just nearing the building when his cell rang. He frowned when he pulled it out and saw it was an unknown number. The burner phone? They’d never called before.
Elle looked up at him, questions in her eyes.
He answered the call. “Hello?”
For a moment, there was silence. Not even the sound of a breeze over the line. He was about to hang up when heavy breathing sounded. It was so fucking creepy, he stopped in his tracks.
Elle stopped with him and touched his arm. “Hey.” She inched closer. “Everything okay?”
Another few seconds of breathing and he hung up. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Jace—”
“Hey. It’s okay. Come on, let’s get back before someone at the café sends out a search party.”
Itwasn’tfine. Someone was fucking with him—and he needed to figure out who the hell it was.
CHAPTER 16
“And all you heard was breathing?”
Jace’s muscles tightened at Kayden’s question. “Yeah, just breathing. It was fucking creepy.”
His three brothers here in Misty Peak now knew all the details about his last mission with Dean. The conversation wasn’t easy, but they’d all done their time in the military. They knew the significance of losing a teammate, regardless of how it happened.
For what felt like the twentieth time that evening, his gaze shifted across the yard to Elle. She sat with the women and Avery, glass of wine in hand as they talked. She was smiling. Laughing. And she fit so fucking well into his family.
“I’ve done a check on his parents,” Eastern said quietly. “They’re still in Alabama and, as far as I can tell, haven’t left. But there’s no way to confirm if the messages are from them. I’ve also looked into the brother and sister. The brother’s a police officer in Georgia. Again, doesn’t look like he’s left. The sister’s in Charlotte. She’s a teacher, but when I dug a bit, I found that she’s taken leave. I’m going to keep looking into her and see what she’s doing with her leave.”
“How’d you get all that?” Cody asked.
Eastern lifted a shoulder. “I knew where to look.”
