Page 161 of Jace
Teeth bared. Muscles twitching. Glare intensely focused. I’m not sure I can stop Jace now. We forget humans are animals, and mine’s a beast.
“I didn’t do what you think I did,” David wails.
“What Iknowyou did was touch my woman.” Jace charges him again. Dragging him up by the hair, he makes him stand against the wall with shackles on it. “And you know what I do to men who touch my woman without her consent?”
“Aw, fuck,” Grant mutters. “I’m not cleaning this up.”
It’s bloody and brutal what Jace does, but I don’t look away.
With Nick beside me, I watch as Sire and Loch pin David’s wrists against the wall while Jace holds a gleaming knife over David’s right thumb.
“Was this the thumb that took the pictures of my queen?” I’ve never heard Jace sound so savage. “Was this the thumb that took the video of my best friend?” I’ve never seen him have no regard, only rage. “Is this the thumb that tried to hurt her, trap her, bribe her, and make her your bitch, but now you’re mine?”
I’ve never heard him talk like that either, but that’s not Jace. That’s the beast who was locked in a trunk, and now he’s free to defend me.
With a gut-wrenching scream and violent spurt of blood, Jace cuts off the tip of David’s thumb to its first joint.
He drops David into a whimpering pile on the floor, shocked, holding his shaking wrist and staring at his missing half digit in horror before Jace scoops it up. Grabbing David’s neck. Squeezing it. Pressing his bloody thumb to his lips. “Answer my queen,” he sneers, “or you’re gonna eat your own fucking flesh.Whatdid you do to her?”
“You drugged me.” Aiming for David, I pull away from Nick, knowing no king in this room will let anything happen to me. “You went into my bedroom after your sister left me there. Youlaid on the bed with me. You took picturescuddlingme? Why?” I’m confounded. “And then what? What did you do?”
I join Jace, reaching for his hand with my ex’s blood on it. It’s surreal and sweet how Jace tenderly squeezes it back.
No matter what David confesses next, no matter what happened next, Jace is the father of my child. Of all our children.
Any male can make a baby, but a father raises his child.
And Jace? He’ll be the most beautiful father, I know. A gentle, smiling, cuddly king of a creature with his kids, unless he has to be a beast, protecting them.
“That’s it,” David whines. “That’s all I did. Kiss you. Cuddle you. Take pictures to remind you you’re my wi?—”
Jace’s free hand strikes David’s face so hard his head spins.
“Every time you say that word about my woman,” Jace snarls, “I’ll slap it out of your fucking mouth.”
“Alright, man. Alright.” David cries, holding his jaw. “She’s not mine. She’s yours. And I didn’t fu—” He chokes on another word that’ll get him killed. “I didn’t get her pregnant. It’s impossible. It’s been years since?—”
“Eh!” Grant booms. “Don’t say it because I ain’t cleaning up your shit and vomit, and that’s what he’s about to make you do.”
For the first time in his life, David shuts up.
He doesn’t mansplain, boast, brag, or even whine. He presses his lips together and stares at the floor.
Every king is quiet while mine decides what to do.
I’m convinced David’s telling the truth. I can picture that night and how it ended.
As he did throughout our short marriage, he wanted the prize of a wife, he wanted everything done for him, he wanted to brag to his bruhs about what a man he is. When actually? He can’t do shit. He didn’t have the energy to commit the crime.
I can sense it.
But I feel my love for Jace even more. My heart beats for him as it does for our baby.
I want Jace to feel it in his bones, believe it with his soul. He’d never abandon me and my baby,his baby.But that little boy who was locked in a dark trunk?
He deserves to hold the light of his child in his arms.
“Do whatever you need to do, my king.” Gently, I tug his hand, pulling his lips to mine.
