Chapter 23. Ace
Ace
I knew myself well enough that I should have predicted what would happen if I let down my guard with Haley.
I hadn’t had much to call my own growing up, and in the air force I had only what they gave me.
But now I had her, the only person I had truly ever wanted, and my protective instincts were out of control.
We’d been together every night since our hike in the forest, and five days later I still got annoyed when we had to leave the house to take her to class.
“Why do we always have to sleep in your room?” Haley asked, stretching out naked on my bed. I’d just come back from washing up after a night of furniture-breaking sex, and seeing her lying languid with the sunshine turning her body into gold, I wanted her all over again.
“Because your room is a disaster. I can’t even see the floor.”
“I’ve been writing songs,” she said. “Stefan was wrong that I don’t let my emotions out. I feel things, Ace. Deeply. I’m going to put an album together that will blow Stefan’s mind.”
Some people would have taken Stefan’s comments as a criticism or would have let him shake their confidence, but not my girl. She took it as a challenge. She’d been spending all her free time on her bedroom floor with her guitar and her notepad, trying to write the perfect song.
I climbed on the bed and pinned her hands over her head, bracketing her wrists with one hand as I shoved her thighs apart with my knee. Only my sweatpants stopped me from going too far and taking her all over again. “I know something else you can blow that’s more readily available.”
“Ace Murphy. I’m shocked,” she teased. “Absolutely shocked. Do you really think I’m that kind of girl?”
“I know you’re that kind of girl.” I buried my head in her neck and licked the love bite I’d given her last night. I’d had a sudden urge to mark her, to let the world know she was mine. “And I’ll give you a chance to prove it tonight.”
She wrapped her legs around my hips, holding me fast. “Why not now?”
“Because you’ve got class in an hour.” Fuck me. I was rock hard and there was no way she didn’t notice. “And I believe you have a test.” I released her hands, although it was the last thing I wanted to do.
Haley’s eyes widened and she sat up in the bed. “Oh my God. I totally forgot. I’ll have to study on the way to school.” She jumped up and quickly pulled on her clothes. “I’ll see you downstairs.”
It was a few long minutes before I was in a state to get dressed, and a few more minutes before I had calmed myself down.
I couldn’t imagine forgetting about a test and cramming for it at the last minute.
I had been a diligent high school student, preparing for assignments well in advance.
I’d carried that discipline into the military and left with a perfectly clean record when I was discharged.
Haley processed information in a different way.
She absorbed lectures without having to take many notes and could retain entire chapters of a textbook after only a quick skim.
When she studied, she would stream a show on her tablet, while texting friends on her phone, and working on her laptop with the screen split in two.
If I hadn’t known that her unique study technique had put her at the top of her high school classes, I might have said something about her chaotic approach to learning, solely because it was the stuff of nightmares for a rule-follower like me.
A scream pulled me back to reality and I raced out of the room only to see Haley hugging Paige in the hallway.
Paige had been away for the last ten days while her mother went through testing to see if she was a good candidate for a clinical trial at the hospi tal in Riverstone.
Now she was back, and from the way she glared at me over Haley’s shoulder, I could tell there was a reckoning coming.
I didn’t have to wait long.
“Are you insane?” Paige accosted me by the front door twenty minutes later, after I’d changed and walked downstairs to wait for Haley. “You’re supposed to be her bodyguard.”
“I am her bodyguard,” I pointed out.
“Well, you forgot to guard her body… from you.” She shoved my chest. “I told you that if you hurt her again—”
“I’m not going to hurt her, Paige.”
“Yes, you will. What happens when this whole thing is over, and you go back to your celebrity clients and fancy LA life? What happens then?”
I glanced up the stairs, hoping Haley would come down to save me. “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead. Right now I’m focused on keeping her safe.”
“Big surprise,” she said. “I know what happens because I saw what happened with all the girls you slept with in high school. You moved on. Fast. And you didn’t look back.”
“That was years ago. I’m a different man now.”
“Are you though?” She held up her phone and flashed a picture of me and Jessica outside Jessica’s mansion after the Vanity Fair party.
Jessica had had way too much to drink and that, coupled with her emotional despair after losing the award to her greatest rival, had left her barely able to walk.
I’d had to pick her up and carry her inside.
“Do you know what all the gossip columns are saying?” She showed me another picture.
“That you’re together. Not only that, someone did some digging and found out you’ve been very, very close to all the female celebrities you’ve guarded. ”
I didn’t bother looking at the screen. I knew about the rumors.
“Gossip sells. It doesn’t mean any of it is true.”
“That’s hard to believe when I know your history,” she spat out.
“I’m sure you know how Haley felt about you when we were growing up.
You took advantage of her before you deployed, and you’re doing it now, and I won’t stand for it.
She’s been through enough, Ace. She’s lost enough.
She has so much pain buried inside her that I’m terrified one day she’s going to break. ”
Paige had always been viciously protective of Haley. There was nothing I could say that would change her mind about me, but I tried.
“I care about her.”
“If you cared about her, you would have left her alone,” Paige spat out.
“As soon as this job is over, you’ll walk away just like you did before, and she’ll never hear from you again.
And it will kill her, because she’s not like all your other girls.
For some reason I have yet to understand, she thinks she has a connection with you.
She likes you, and now you’ve already hurt her because you slept with her knowing exactly how this is going to end. ”
“Paige! Do you have a class, too?” Haley called out from the stairs. “Are you going to walk with us?”
“No, I’ve got some work to catch up on,” Paige replied. “Good luck on the test.” She shot me one last glare before she stormed away. I made a mental note to lock my bedroom door at night.
“What were you and Paige talking about?” Haley asked after I’d checked the street to make sure she was safe to walk outside. “She didn’t seem happy.”
“She’s not happy we slept together,” I said honestly. “I’m not her favorite person.”
Haley shrugged. “She’ll get over it when I tell her it’s not serious. You’ll probably be leaving for your next assignment soon. It’s been weeks and nothing else has happened. No threats. No attempted kidnappings. The whole thing has probably blown over.”
Her words felt like a knife in my heart.
I hadn’t really thought through what we were doing except for feeling guilty that we were doing it at all, but until that moment I hadn’t realized it wasn’t just casual to me.
I had wanted Haley for what seemed like forever.
From the first day we met, I’d felt a connection to her that I hadn’t felt with anyone else before.
She’d seen me—the real me. And I’d seen her.
We’d been friends, shared the tragedy of her father’s death, and we’d always been there for each other.
Even when I made the mistake of kissing her before I deployed, I thought the best thing I could do for her was leave her alone.
I’d never imagined that it would be four years before I’d speak to her again—four years of running from my feelings.
But I wasn’t that man anymore. I’d gained perspective in the air force and now I had a chance to be physically present for her in ways that I wasn’t before.
I’d never stopped caring for her, and this time I wasn’t going to run away.
Paige was worried that Haley would be hurt, but I had a feeling the person who was going to wind up being hurt was me.
Chad came to meet me at the coffee shop later that afternoon. I was at my usual table in the corner where I had a good view of the door and the counter where Haley was busy serving customers.
“What the hell, dude?” Chad sat beside me. “You look like you want to kill someone.”
“That ball player has stopped by every time Haley is on shift.” I nodded at the tall, lanky blond wearing a Havencrest Warriors jersey. “And he’s not here for the coffee.”
“Is he a threat?” Chad chuckled as he sipped his energy drink. “Should I call the police?”
“Only if he touches her.” My hand clenched on the table. “And in that case, he’ll be needing an ambulance.”
“I don’t think she needs that level of protection.
Haley can take care of herself.” Chad, always so chill and relaxed, tried to reassure me.
“We all went dancing on the stage at a club one night. Some dude kept getting in Haley’s space, trying to dance right up against her.
She put two hands on his chest and shoved him off the stage without missing a beat. ”
I didn’t doubt his story. I’d seen Haley wrestle Matt in their backyard, and it wasn’t until he was well into puberty that he’d been able to beat her. Even then, he would be packing a few spectacular bruises.
I folded my arms and tried to glare the baller out of existence. “He’s too tall for her,” I grumbled. “He’s got to be at least six foot seven. Why doesn’t he find a woman his own size?”
“Probably because there aren’t any.” Chad pulled out his phone and flipped through the screen. “You’ve got it bad, dude.”
“I’m just doing my job.”
Chad wasn’t buying it. “Things were bound to get complicated when you two decided to hook up.”
I raised an eyebrow in query, and he shrugged. “The house isn’t that big, and we’re all pretty tight.”
All my fears and regrets surfaced in an instant and I was tempted, so tempted, to share.
I hadn’t had a close friend since Matt died, but I couldn’t trust myself not to lead someone astray.
I couldn’t put myself through the pain of losing another friend.
I’d opened up to Chad about the attack on Haley, but this was personal, and I didn’t do personal anymore.
Before I could say anything, Chad lifted a dismissive hand.
“I’m not judging you. But I’m not surprised.
You guys have a history. I just want to make sure you can still do what you need to do if you’re that close.
I was dating this girl on the women’s wrestling team.
Arms like pythons. Powerful thighs. She could bench one eighty without breaking a sweat.
Everyone said she was just using me for my looks and squeaky-clean image, but I didn’t see it.
I was too close. It was only when her parole officer called me to ask where she’d been the night a grocery store clerk got stabbed that I clued in.
It was heartbreaking. I’ll never find another woman with thighs like that. The things she could do…”
I snorted a laugh. Chad always knew what to say to lighten my mood. “I appreciate the advice, but I’m more interested in what you and Theo found out about Haley’s attacker or the people who erased the camera footage.”
“Theo’s still working on the cameras,” he said.
“But I’ve been looking at the recent trend of protesting at public officials’ homes, and I think this isn’t about the bills Senator Chapman is spearheading.
Those people want media attention. They want videos of their protests to go viral.
Because the footage of Haley’s attack was erased, I think this has to do with the senator’s reelection campaign.
I suspect someone—either one of the senator’s opponents or someone within her own party—doesn’t want her to win and is trying to intimidate her into stepping down, without drawing the kind of press attention that would happen with an outright attack. ”
I tucked that information away to process later.
Politics was big business and that meant the people behind the kidnapping attempt might be well funded, giving them access to the kind of resources that made them a serious threat.
“Do you think they would actually harm Haley or her family, or is this just a scare tactic?”
“It depends on how badly they want the senator replaced, but I think it’s good that you’re around.”
“Haley is safe with me,” I assured him. “I won’t let our personal relationship interfere with my work.”
“I’ll see what else I can find out.” Chad tossed his empty bottle in the nearby recycling bin. “Making contacts, working my connections. It’s what I do best.”
“You’re not just a pretty face.”
Chad clapped my shoulder as he left. “Tell that to my ex.”