“Hey, you. I was wondering where you’d gone.”
Jace looked up. Schuman was standing by the bar, smirking at him. Jace sighed and stared down at his beer, which he had barely touched.
“I went to see someone. They didn’t want to see me, so I drove around for a while.”
“A woman?”
Jace grunted.
“What else?”
Schuman chuckled and slid onto the stool beside him. A drink was passed to him and he took a hefty swig.
“Sometimes women are worth their weight in gold. Sometimes they’re not. Often we catch those who are not.”
Jace couldn’t agree more with that sentiment. That was how to describe Maddie perfectly. For any decent man, she would be perfect. But he wasn’t a decent man and he wasn’t going to change his tune, not for anyone.
He sighed heavily.
“She’s worth her weight in gold and then some. But she doesn’t want me.” That caused an ache in his chest and Jace pushed it away. “I was…I wasn’t very nice to her in the past, when we were kids. She remembered and now she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
There was only so much he could say without Schuman realizing he was talking about Maddie. Jace wasn’t about to discuss what he did with Lyman’s sister; he would be lynched. And he made a promise not to say anything. That was up to Maddie and she clearly didn’t want anything to do with him. Jace would go along with that.
“Did you know before you got her into bed or after?”
“Before.” Jace winced. “She didn’t at the time.”
“Sheesh. I can see why she’s pissed.” Schuman shook his head. “Maybe you should swear off women for a while.”
Jace gave a wry smile.
“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea. They’re nothing but trouble right now. And I don’t do trouble.”
“No, you don’t need to. You came in a bag of trouble when you were born.”
Jace had to laugh at that. That was far too true. They sat in silence for a while as they focused on their drinks. Jace had planned to get to sleep hours ago but it was now past midnight. He had a feeling it was going to be a while before he got anymore sleep.
“Can I ask you something, Dave?”
“Shoot. What’s up?”
“What’s going on with Maddie? She seems a little…prickly.”
Schuman grunted.
“Well, seeing you again probably didn’t help. You weren’t the best of people towards her.”
“Neither were you.”
“But her dad kicked my ass. We’ve reconciled, and I see her as a little sister. Maddie’s cool. You…” Schuman frowned. “I never understood why but for some reason or other she never said you were tormenting her. She would say about everything else, including me, but never you. There’s something about you that she refused to say.”
“Really?”
Jace had never known that. Schuman had never told him, either.
“Hey,” Schuman chuckled, “Maybe she had a crush on you back then and didn’t want you in trouble.”
Jace snorted. He very much doubted that.
“That is twisted, if she had a crush on me and let me carry on. She should’ve said something.”
Schuman snorted and finished off his pint in one go, slamming the glass on the bar.
“Well, whatever you want to think about Maddie Lyman, you can get rid of those thoughts. It’s not going to work.”
“What’s not going to work?”
“Fucking her into oblivion like the other girls you’ve done. She’s not one to be touched by any of us. Jeremy will kill us if we sleep with her and break her heart. Especially after Drake…” Schuman shook his head with a heavy sigh. “That was bad.”
Jace remembered the man from the bar. He remembered what Maddie had said about him. But he couldn’t divulge all of that to Schuman without revealing that he had seen Maddie the day before.
“I heard that it was a volatile relationship,” he said carefully.
“If he hit her, we never saw the bruises. But it was up here that it was the worst.” Schuman tapped the side of his head. “Psychologically it took its toll on her. They kept breaking up and getting back together. Everyone told her it was a bad idea, but she was determined to have somebody love her.” Schuman sighed. “Drake played her. All because he wanted in.”
“Wanted in?” Then Jace remembered what Maddie had said. “You mean in the Broken Hounds?”
“Yep. Jeremy didn’t want him in but was scared he would lose Maddie if he said no outright. He was waiting for Maddie to get away, but Drake pushed it too much.”
Jace swallowed. He didn’t like thinking about Maddie with another man. For some reason, he found himself feeling possessive about her. That was bad, very bad. Jace was never the possessive one. The women wanted to possess him.
“When did they break up?” he managed to croak out.
“Three months ago. Maddie’s acting like it’s no big deal, but it was three years of going back to him and all that.” Schuman tapped his chest with his first. “That’s got to hurt up here after a while.” He gave Jace a hard look. “So, mess with Maddie’s heart and you’re in fucking trouble.”
Jace had a feeling he had already messed with her heart. Now he was beginning to wish he had simply moved on after bumping into her and they hadn’t fucked like rabbits.
“I don’t plan on doing anything with her,” he said firmly.
“I should hope not.” Schuman clapped him on the shoulder as he climbed off the stool. “Because Jeremy would kill you.”
Jace had no doubt about that. And he had no doubt that Maddie would somehow steal her way into his heart if he let her.
Getting out of Tucson was the only option for him right now. Jace couldn’t stay here or things were going to get messy.