“Pilates,” Elle said.
Sadie gripped her chest playfully. “You went without me?”
“Uh, yeah, because I needed a beginner’s class and you didnottake me to one.”
“Hey, it was still a good class though, wasn’t it?”
“I couldn’t feel my legs after!” Elle protested.
“Pfft, who needs legs?” Sadie said with a laugh.
While the women talked about Pilates, Cody asked, voice hushed, “You hear anything on Boyd or the woman in the rental car? Alice, was it?”
Immediately, his muscles tensed. He was trying not to think about either, but the second he’d woken up this morning, it was all in his head. That, and what Casper had said to Elle. Exactly why he’d needed to get up and move. To exhaust his body and try to forget, at least for a moment.
“Eastern hasn’t reported finding anything yet.”
Cody gripped his shoulder. “He’ll get there.”
Jace knew that. His brother never left a case unsolved. But his question was…when?
He was just glancing toward the window when two guys passed outside the bakery.
One of them was Casper.
The words the asshole had said to Elle yesterday came back to him. The hurt in her voice when she’d finally told him. The way a part of her had believed what he’d said.
Jace was moving before he could stop himself. Storming toward the door, ignoring Cody calling his name.
He stepped outside and shouted, “Casper!”
The guy was a few shops down, but he turned, a stupid fucking grin on his face. “Jace. Hey. What can I do for you today, old friend?”
He closed the space between them. “Elle told me what you said to her.”
“What I said?” The frown on his face was the fakest fucking thing Jace had ever seen.
“You told her that I’d leave her?” Jace growled. “Made comments about the way she looked in high school.”
“Oh, yeah. You know, I don’t see a problem with anything I said. You were best friends, then you left her basically without a word for years. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to think you’d leave again.” Casper lifted a shoulder. “And she wasn’t exactly a stunner in high school. People like her always put the weight back on. I can’t see you sticking around if she looked like she used to.”
Jace swung without pause, nailing the asshole in the face.
Casper’s friend gasped and stepped back as Jace peeled Casper off the ground and shoved him against the nearest building. “Either you’re stupider than you look, or you can’t take a fucking hint. I’ve told you more than once, youdon’ttalk about her like that.”
Casper grabbed his face, blood pouring from his nose. “You broke my fucking nose!”
From his peripheral vision, Jace saw Cody running toward him, but he ignored everything but the asshole in front of him. “The next time you say something like that to her—shit, the next time you so much aslookat her, I will do a hell of a lot more than break your nose.”
“I’m gonna charge you for assault, asshole!”
“Jace. Let him go,” Cody growled.
Jace leaned in so close that he could see every fucking pore on the guy’s face. “You stay away from Elle.”
Casper’s eyes narrowed, his hand dropping from his face. “Or what? What’re you gonna do? Kill me? This isn’t the fucking military, Jace. You lay another hand on me and you’re done!”
Cody grabbed his arm. “Jace!Step back.”
