Chapter 33. Haley #2
“Too long.” He hesitated. “I’m sorry I left the way I did.
I know it was the wrong thing to do, especially when you were hurting, and after you told me how you felt when I deployed, but I honestly thought you wouldn’t want me around after I’d failed you.
I didn’t even want to be around me. If you’d been any other client, I wouldn’t have left you in the bar to go back for Paige.
My job was to keep you safe, and I didn’t do that.
I’ll carry that guilt with me for the rest of my life. ”
“You carry too much guilt, and often for things that aren’t your fault.
” I reached over to my nightstand, turned on the light, and grabbed the grad picture of him and Matt that I’d pulled out of the box, along with the other things I’d saved for him.
Turning to face him, I pushed myself up on my elbow. “Look what he’s holding.”
Ace studied the picture. “That’s the model plane your dad gave him for his sixteenth birthday.”
“A plane.” I gave him the model I’d found in the box. “Not a model tooth or a pair of dentures. He loved to fly, Ace. You know that. It’s all he ever wanted to do.”
“You should have this.” Ace offered the plane to me. “He was your brother.”
“I have his things, and I have this house, and I have his memories. Mom didn’t give anything away.
It’s all there, and when this is over, I’m going to sit down with her and go through all the boxes, because I’ve realized that she buries her pain deep just like me.
” I handed him the letter. “He left this for you. I hope whatever he wrote in there helps you the way opening that box helped me.”
“I have some work to do on myself,” he admitted. “Tony sent me to see a psychologist. Apparently I’m not as unaffected by my childhood as I thought I was.”
“Neither am I.” I leaned over and kissed him. “You should try having a good long sob fest in a freezing garage and cry eight years’ worth of tears. It’s very cathartic.”
His arms wrapped around me, and he pulled me close. “I know something else that’s very cathartic.”
“Do you seriously want to have sex when there are bad guys closing in?”
“Mav and I set up enough surveillance tech that the moment anything gets near the house, we’ll know. It already went off when a rabbit hopped across the yard.”
I slipped my hand into his boxers and stroked his hardened length. “What if they come at an inappropriate time? You’d better not stop.”
“I wouldn’t dream of leaving my girl unsatisfied. I’ll send Mav to take care of them until I’m done with you.”
A smile tugged at my cheeks. “Am I your girl?”
“You’ve always been my girl, Haley.” His deep voice rumbled in his chest. “I’ve just never thought I was good enough for you.” He flipped me on my back and tugged my nightdress over my head. “I’m going to make you forget every man you’ve ever had in this bed.”
“That would just be you,” I admitted.
He pushed to one arm and frowned. “I thought you said—”
“We didn’t make it to the bed. He heard you and Matt talking downstairs and he got performance anxiety.”
Ace threw back his head and laughed. “I promise you will not have that problem with me.” His hand slipped between my legs and he pushed my panties aside with a thick finger. “In fact, I promise the opposite.”
Ace made good on that promise. Multiple times. We could have probably gone all night, reconnecting physically and emotionally, but around 3:00 A.M ., when we were lying exhausted in each other’s arms, an alarm sounded on his phone.
“Stay here.” He jumped out of bed and pulled on his clothes. “Mav and I will check it out. Hopefully it’s just another rabbit. I’ll send Paige in so you’re together. Lock the door after she’s here.”
“I’m not going to let you put yourselves at risk for me while I hide upstairs,” I said, grabbing my jeans from the floor.
“I’ve spent my whole life hiding—hiding from pain and loss, hiding from myself, hiding from the past. I trust you, Ace.
I’m not going to do anything stupid. I’ll stay upstairs with Paige, but if something doesn’t sound right, I’m coming down.
I’ve never been a coward and I’m not about to start now. ”
I thought he would protest, but instead he nodded. “Do you have a weapon?”
“Not up here, but if I make it to the kitchen, I’m sure I can find a knife.”
He shook his head. “Stay away from knives. It’s too easy to lose them to someone with any sort of training.”
“So what? I get a frying pan?”
“It works in cartoons.”
He left and returned with Paige a few moments later. We turned off my light and crouched by the window, looking for whoever might have triggered the alarm.
“So…” She smirked. “Good night?”
I returned her smirk with one of my own. “The best.”
Five minutes later, I heard the shatter of glass followed by the crash of the door. Ace shouted for Maverick and the house shook with a thud.
“That doesn’t sound like a rabbit,” I whispered, hugging Paige as she hyperventilated beside me.
Shouts echoed up the stairs, followed by the sickening sound of flesh meeting flesh. I heard wood breaking, and the house vibrated and shook with what sounded like fighting downstairs. A gunshot echoed through the house, and then another, followed by silence.
“I have to go,” I whispered after a few minutes. “I can’t just sit here. I need to see if they’re okay.”
“I’ll come with you.”
We crawled down the hallway to the stairs and cautiously made our way to the ground level. After checking the foyer, I motioned to the kitchen, and we ran and huddled behind the counter.
“I didn’t see anyone in the living room,” Paige whispered. “But it’s totally trashed.”
“They must be in the back of the house or maybe the garage.” I grabbed the cast-iron frying pan from the stove, the heavy metal cool and reassuring in my hand.
I was about to try the garage door when a floorboard creaked outside the kitchen.
Scrambling back behind the counter, I saw Ace in the doorway, his weapon ready in his hand.
His eyes widened when he saw us but there was no time for words.
A man dressed in black burst into the room.
Before he could even turn his head and register Ace’s presence, Ace had grabbed his shirt and yanked him forward, throwing him off-balance.
Their struggle became a blur of fists and grunts as they fell to the kitchen floor.
I peered around the island and saw a second man entering the kitchen through the garage door.
Fear threatened to paralyze me, but I pushed through it. As he passed the kitchen island, I shot to my feet and swung the frying pan at the back of his head. It connected with a sickening thud, and he stumbled forward to his knees. Reaching behind his back, he pulled his gun from its holster.
“Haley, down!” Ace’s voice cut through the chaos. I dropped to the floor just as a shot rang out. The second intruder collapsed, and Paige slapped a hand over her mouth to cover her scream.
I scrambled to my feet, adrenaline coursing through me.
Ace was still grappling with the first man, who had him pinned against the counter.
Without thinking, I charged forward, ramming my shoulder into the attacker’s side.
The unexpected impact threw him off-balance and Ace seized the opportunity, flipping their positions and subduing the man with a swift strike.
Panting, we locked eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice rough.
I nodded, surprised to find I was trembling not from fear, but from a surge of empowerment. “Paige and I are both fine. Where’s Mav?”
“He’s dealing with a guy outside who’s built like a tank. Mav thought he’d have a bit of fun before he tied him up for questioning.”
I helped Paige to her feet and realized something had shifted inside me.
I’d faced my fear head-on and come out stronger.
Ace had been there, not as a shield, but as a partner.
For the first time in forever, I didn’t need to tell myself to breathe.
Whatever came next, I would have the strength to face it.
I was fine.