Chapter 26
Jace’s pulse was still racing when the heat of Elias’s lips finally left his own.
For a second, he didn’t move. Couldn’t move. The kiss had been deep, hungry, possessive, and dangerous.
Too dangerous.
He shoved Elias away with more force than he intended, breaking the connection between them.
“I can’t—” Jace muttered, his voice cracking halfway through the sentence.
He didn’t wait for Elias to respond. He turned and strode to the door, every step faster than the last, until he was practically running out of the office and down the hall.
His chest burned not from the speed but from something else entirely.
He didn’t want it to end. That was the problem. He could still taste him, still feel the faint scrape of Elias’s stubble against his jaw. And God help him. A part of him wanted to go back.
But that wasn’t the plan.
Jace wasn’t supposed to be the one falling. Elias was the bullet he was planning to use to shoot Victor Crane right between the eyes. And right now, he was dangerously close to turning the gun on himself.
He had to get out of here.
He was halfway out the lobby doors when he spotted a bus pulling up. Without thinking, he sprinted for it, paid his fare, and collapsed into one of the back seats.
The city moved past the window in blurs of steel and neon, but Jace’s mind wasn’t really seeing any of it. Inside his head, there was a war raging.
One side of him was reckless, needy, and far too human was replaying the kiss in high definition. The way Elias’s hand had curled at the back of his neck, the slow press of his mouth, the quiet dominance in the way he’d deepened the kiss like he owned it. That side of him was whispering: He meant it. He wants you. This is real.
The other side was a brutal realist, dragging up the memory of the ball like it was a knife. Victor’s mocking voice. The way the room had laughed. The sting of alcohol soaking through his shirt while he stood there, humiliated in front of strangers. And Elias… Elias had done nothing. Not one damn thing.
The two voices collided in his head, neither willing to back down. And it left him restless, agitated, and a little sick.
He didn’t notice how far the bus had gone until a voice snapped him back to reality.
“Hey, kid.”
Jace blinked and looked up. The bus driver was staring at him through the rearview mirror. “End of the line. Last stop.”
Confused, Jace glanced around. The bus was empty. Completely empty.
“You deaf? I said we’re done. Gotta get off now.”
Jace grabbed his bag and stepped off the bus. The driver didn’t wait a second, just shut the doors and sped off into the distance, taillights vanishing into the dark like they couldn’t get away from him fast enough.
The sound of the engine faded, leaving only silence.
And that’s when Jace really took in his surroundings.
It was… unsettling.
The last stop was nowhere near civilization. The bus had dropped him off in what looked like the remains of an industrial district that time had forgotten. The cracked asphalt beneath his feet was littered with broken glass that glittered faintly under the lone flickering streetlamp overhead. Rusted chain-link fences lined both sides of the road, sagging inward like they’d given up long ago.
In the distance, there were silhouettes of abandoned warehouses, black hulks against an even blacker sky. A damp, sour smell clung to the air, the kind that came from stagnant water sitting in gutters too long.
No houses. No people. No noise.
Just the occasional sound of something small moving in the shadows. Rats, probably. Or something worse.
It was the kind of place where bad things happened quietly, without witnesses.
A good place to kill someone. A better place to hide the body.
Jace’s skin prickled, and not from the chill. He checked his phone, praying he could at least call a rideshare to get him out of here. But before he could even open the app, he made the mistake of glancing at his bank balance.
$1.52
“Shit.”
He didn’t have enough for a cab. Hell, he didn’t even have enough for a decent coffee. And cash? Forget it—he’d spent the last of his change on a bag of chips at work.
Which meant there was only one option.
“Guess I’m walking,” he muttered under his breath.
The thought wasn’t exactly comforting. The distance between the last stop and his apartment wasn’t short—not even close. But standing here, exposed in the middle of nowhere, was worse. If someone was watching him from those shadows, they wouldn’t wait long to make a move.
So he started walking.
One foot in front of the other. Steady. Careful. His ears are straining for every sound.
Ten minutes passed, maybe less. Just enough for his legs to warm up and his mind to start wandering again. The war in his head had quieted, but the ache in his chest hadn’t.
And that’s when he saw it.
A light.
Bright. Blinding. Cutting through the darkness ahead like a blade.
It came fast, a car, maybe an SUV, its headlights sweeping over him in a harsh, white glare. The vehicle slowed as it reached him, then stopped completely.
Jace squinted, raising a hand to shield his eyes. He could just make out the silhouette of someone getting out of the driver’s side. The figure was tall, moving with deliberate steps, but the light behind them kept their face hidden.
The sound of boots against asphalt grew louder until they were only a few feet away.
Then the person stepped forward, and the glare eased just enough for Jace to see their face.
His stomach dropped.
And then the voice came.
Low. Sharp. Familiar.
“What are you doing here?”