Chapter 7
Jace
The sound of my phone screeching to life in the middle of the night has me jolting out of bed. I reach across to my bedside table and rip the phone off the charger as I look down at the screen.
Mack? What the hell?
I used to serve in the military with Big Mack years ago. He now works as a fireman in Denver, but I have no fucking idea what he could possibly be calling me about. I haven’t spoken to the guy in ages. “Big Mack,” I say. “Are you on another bender? Do you have any idea what fucking time it is?”
“Hey, man,” he says with a strange tone in his voice. “I wish I was on a fucking bender, but this is a business call.”
“Business call?” I grunt. What the fuck is he on about? His business has nothing to do with me unless it has something to do with our time in Iraq, but I highly doubt it.
“Yeah, man. I’m on call tonight,” he explains. “We just responded to a fire in the old fast food joint, the shop next door went down with it. I could have sworn you said that was your girl’s.”
“What? Style me Crazy?” I question, sitting up a little straighter. “Are you sure? Is there much damage?”
“Yeah,” he says. “Listen. There was a girl inside the store. She’s not talking to anybody, just sitting there refusing to be touched. If this is your girl, then you better get down here.”
“Fuck,” I curse as I fly out of bed. “Is she alright?”
“From what I can see, yeah,” he tells me.
“Alright, man, I’ll be there in ten.”
I hang up the call and I fly out the door as my panic instantly takes over. The image of Cami being inside a burning store rushes through my head and refuses to leave. The image has my foot flat on the gas as I fly towards Style me Crazy.
Fuck. I hope it wasn’t her.
Anybody but her.
I couldn’t live with myself if she was hurt.
I get there in four minutes flat and come to a screeching halt as I almost run over her sitting in the middle of the fucking road. I launch myself out of my truck and run to her.
She doesn’t even notice me coming.
I scoop her up into my arms which is when she tears her eyes away from the burnt mess and looks at me. “Jace?” she questions with tears pooled in her eyes.
“Yeah, baby. I’m here. You’re ok.”
She instantly nuzzles her face into my chest as a sob rips from her throat. I hold her as close as humanly possible before walking back over to my truck and sitting down with her.
She cries on my shirt and I run my hand over her hair and down her back before repeating the process over and over again. As she cries, I take a moment to look around. The fast food place and Style me Crazy are nothing but ashes.
The area is sectioned off by police tape and standing across the road is Big Mack, watching over Cami, waiting for someone to come and claim her.
As he notices my eyes on him, he nods before disappearing into the darkness, leaving us completely alone in this traumatized street. I’ll have to remind myself to thank him for looking out for her. He didn’t have to do that, but he did. I owe the fucker with my life.
Completely alone, I pay all my attention to my girl. “Cami?” I question as she continues crying into my chest. “Are you hurt?”
She shakes her head.
“Ok,” I murmur as I lift my hand to run it down her hair again.
“We’re you inside?”
With that, she nods and it tears me to shreds. I can only image what she must have been feeling in that moment. She would have been terrified.
“The doors were locked,” she mumbles into my chest before sniffling. “I couldn’t get out.”
Fuck. I could have lost her. Here I am being a petty asshole making her suffer with the thought of me having a child and moving on, instead of working it out and letting her know that it’s alright. Yes, she hurt me by leaving, but she’s still the woman I love. No matter what.
“You’re safe now,” I remind her as my arms instinctively tighten around her, needing to feel her as close as possible.
The need to quiz her on exactly what happened flies through me, but I don’t dare ask. I don’t want her to have to relive a single moment of it. I’m sure it was awful and I can’t imagine how hard it would have been. The smoke would have been thick and it would have been hard to see. Hell, from the state of her shop now, it’s a miracle she made it out alive.
Her sobs begin to slow but the tears still remain strong. She pulls her head up and does her best to wipe the tears away. “I need to see it,” she tells me.
My head is shaking before the words even register in my head. “No. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you go in there.”
“I have to,” she begs.
“Babe. No,” I beg with my heart on my sleeve, hating being the reason she doesn’t get what she needs. “It’s dangerous in there. Come back tomorrow and look through with the daylight.”
Her eyes search mine, desperate for me to change my mind, but I don’t budge which only makes the tears pool in her eyes again. Seeing her like this, knowing that her heart is breaking for a reason other than me, is absolutely killing me. I want nothing more than to take her pain away. Hell, I’d go back and fight that damn fire myself if it meant saving her store.
Even after seven months, I’d still move heaven and hell to give her the world.
She has worked her ass off for everything she had inside those four walls and to see it all gone pisses me off. “Come on,” I tell her, lifting her off my lap and over to the passenger’s side. “I’ll take you home.”
She slowly nods her head and I reach out to close the door before taking off down the street. Her eyes remain locked on her store for as long as physically possible before turning to face out the front of my truck.
I can’t help but reach across the center console and take her hand in mine. In any other moment, she’d look down and wonder what the hell it means. She’d be asking all sorts of questions and thinking I’d finally come around. But not this time. She doesn’t even look down at our hands, just simply stares out the windscreen.
A teardrop slides down her cheek, falls off her jaw, and splashes against my hand on her lap. I look down at the tear and want nothing more than to take her pain away.
I pull up at her building and have to drag her out of my truck. I wrap her in my arms and get us up to her apartment. I hate doing it, but with her keys burnt to a crisp, I have to break down her door again.
I get her inside and the first thing I notice is what a great job she’s done putting this place back together. Usually, I’d say something but now is not the time. I walk with her down the hallway and past the bathroom. We’re just about at her bedroom when she starts to backtrack. “I think I might shower first. I smell like smoke.”
“Alright,” I say as I follow her into the bathroom.
She goes to stand before the mirror and takes in her ash covered body. She looks devastated as she takes herself in and I’m sure all it’s doing is making her remember the state of her store. “Come on,” I say, leaning into the shower and turning the tap for her. “Get yourself cleaned up and I’ll put you to bed.
Our eyes meet in the mirror and she instantly looks away. It stings to know she can’t look at me, but I’m not about to bring it up. She lets out a sigh and starts pulling at her clothes. I take that as my cue to leave and walk out the door. I close it behind me and make myself comfortable on her new couch while listening to the sound of the water running through the wall.
It’s oddly silent and all the moment does for me is have my mind running through all the possible scenarios that could have taken place tonight. I mean, what if she hadn’t gotten out?
Knowing her well enough to know that she’s crying in that shower has me desperate to go to her, but I don’t want to push my luck. It’s a miracle she hasn’t thrown me out yet
I listen as she turns off the taps and rummages around in the bathroom, before watching from my perch on the couch as the door opens and she trudges up the hallway, wrapped in her towel.
I give her a few minutes to get dressed before making my way up there. I push into the dimly lit room to find her pulling her tank down into place. The tears are still on her face and this time, I need to go to her.
I pull her into my arms and she folds into me as though she belongs there. “You know I love you, right?” I murmur into her hair. “I don’t know what I would have done if you had gotten hurt.”
She stiffens in my arms but I don’t let her go. “You can’t say those things to me,” she tells me, though I don’t miss the pure relief in her voice.
“I don’t care, babe. I just did.” She doesn’t respond but I feel her shaking her head against my chest. “Cam?” I question. She pulls back and looks up into my eyes as she patiently waits for what I need to tell her. “The baby,” I start. “She’s not mine. She’s my niece.”
“What?” she whispers as her watery eyes search mine. “She’s not yours? There’s no baby Mumma?”
“No, Cam. There’s no baby Mumma. She’s Jessie’s little girl, Isabella,” I explain as a wave of relief comes over me. There’s nothing I hate more than deceiving her. She deserves better than that. “I’m sorry. I knew what you were thinking and I just let you. I should have told you when I realized you thought she was mine, but I was just so damn angry with you. I still am, Cami.”
Her hands fist into fabric of my shirt before she pulls me back in and she nuzzles her face back into my chest. “You don’t know how happy that makes me.”
I let out a sigh as my hands run up and down the length of her back. “Do you want me to stay with you?” I question.
Again, she shakes her head. “No,” she tells me. “You’ll ruin my bed.”
“Huh?” I grunt as my hand wraps around and squeezes her waist. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“This is a new bed. You ruined my last one with bad memories. This bed is all mine. I won’t let you touch it, not if I ever plan on sleeping in it again.”
Shit. Even with one of the worst days of her life, she still has enough fire to call me out. A smile begins to spread across my face knowing that she’s going to be alright, though if her head wasn’t shoved into my chest, she’d probably be cursing me out by now.
“Alright,” I tell her. “I won’t ruin your bed, but I’m not leaving, especially with your door busted in.”
She lets out a little huff. “Fine,” she says with a bit of her usual stubbornness. “But if you even think about coming in here after the lights go out, I’m going to rip off your balls and feed them to Luke’s snake.”
In other words, if I even think about getting my dick wet, I’ll be a dead man, but she should know I’m not about to take advantage of her like that. “Got it loud and clear, babe,” I murmur. “I’ll stay on the couch.”
“Great,” she groans. “You’re going to ruin that for me too.”
I roll my eyes and lead her over to her bed before peeling back the sheets. “Get in,” I tell her.
She does as she’s told and looks up at me with her head squished into her pillow. “You’ll be alright?” I question as I kneel down to her. She looks away and presses her lips into a tight line. She nods ever so gently and it’s screaming at me that she’s lying, but she wants to be alright.
I lean in and press a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be out there if you need me,” I tell her before reaching over and flicking off her lamp.
As I walk out of her room, I can’t help but hear her quiet voice. “I always need you.”
Her words cut me like I’ve never known. I don’t even know if she had intended for me to hear them, but either way, they tear right down to my soul and make me feel like an absolute bastard.
I’d give anything to be able to be the man she needs me to be, but I’m not. I’ll never be. I’m damaged and unpredictable. I couldn’t put her through a life like that.
So instead, I walk out to her living room, grab the throw blanket off the other couch and get comfortable.
I find it impossible to get myself to sleep, especially with the way her quiet sobs flow up the hallway. Each one of them tears me down and has me feeling like I could crumble.
I ignore all her rules and throw caution to the wind. I get up off the couch and before I know it, I'm scooping her up into my arms. She curls into me and the way she fits is as though we were created for one another. She dries her tears on my shirt but there instantly replaced with new ones.
I walk us out into her living room and lay down on the couch, not wanting to ruin her bed for her. I pull the blanket over us as she gets herself comfortable on my chest. My fingers run up and down her back as she listens to the steady rhythm of my heartbeat.
Her tears eventually dry up and her breathing returns to normal as she finally falls into a deep sleep. With my girl safely in my arms, I follow right behind, knowing that come morning, I’m going to have to walk away and hurt her all over again.