“No, Jack.” She shook her head adamantly. “I don’t do that anymore. You know that. I can’t go back to that. Ever.”
“Still, they’ll be here if you need them.”
“How did you get them?” she asked, dread crowding her chest. “How could you afford that? Tell me you didn’t borrow more money.”
He glanced up, swallowing the last bite of his omelet. “I didn’t borrow money. Someone owed me a favor. He hooked me up.”
She closed her eyes. “Jack, you can’t keep doing this. You know it’s no good. It’s no way to live. I don’t want you taking drugs either. You can beat this. It doesn’t have to be this way. Not now.”
His gaze hardened. “The way we’ve been living is no way to live. We survive, Bethy, we don’t live. You know that. And sometimes the pills make the surviving a little easier. Besides, you may have moved up in the world, but I haven’t.”
“That’s not true!” she protested. “What’s mine is yours. You know that.”
Jack shook his head. “Do you really think your new boyfriend is going to want me hanging around here? Think about it, Bethy. What man would want his girlfriend’s homeless brother as excess baggage? You can’t be that naïve.”
She sucked in her breath as pain exploded in her chest. “You know I won’t choose between you two. You know I’d never do that. I love you, Jack. I owe everything to you. I’m not going to forget that. If Jace can’t accept that, then he and I don’t have a future.”
Jack reached across the bar to put his hand over hers. “Don’t be stupid, babe. Don’t throw your chance away on me. You’ve got a chance to make something good. Don’t ruin it.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I won’t just forget about you. I’m not like that. Do you honestly think I could live here, make a new life, while you’re out there on the streets? If you do think that then you don’t know me.”
His gaze softened. “You’re the only person in this world I love and who loves me. And that’s why I want the best for you. Do this for me, okay? I just need to leave my stuff here for a few hours. I’ll come back. Maybe we can have dinner together. I always thought it would be cool if we had a place where you could cook and we could pretend we were normal people just like everyone else.”
She nodded, her pulse still hammering in her veins. She’d call Jace. He’d understand if she called off their evening. “I can cook something. Tell me what you’d like. I’ll make sure I have the stuff for it.”
“Whatever you want to cook. I’ll eat whatever. Surprise me.”
She turned her hand so she could squeeze Jack’s. “I’m just glad you’re here. Really. I’ve been so worried about you.”
“You shouldn’t worry about me, babe. You know I can take care of myself.”
He pulled his hand back and then drained both glasses before setting them back down. “I need to roll. Got shit to do. I’ll try to make it back by dark.”
“Please be careful,” she begged.
He gave her that cocky grin again. “Always do. Thanks for the food and the clothes. I left my pack in your bedroom. I’ll get it later, okay?”
She nodded and watched as he walked out of her apartment as fast as he’d come in. Then her gaze lighted on the bottle he’d left and she snatched it up to put it away in one of the cabinets.
Worry and anxiety ate at her until her stomach tossed and turned. What was Jack into?
She checked her watch and then went to the drawer where Jace had left money for her to use. She wasn’t sure where the nearest market was, but she could ask the doorman. Hopefully it wasn’t a long walk. The weather sucked and she didn’t want to waste money on a cab.
Already she was running possibilities through her head. She would cook a fabulous meal. All of Jack’s favorites. And she’d make him sandwiches to take with him because she knew he wouldn’t agree to stay. She could buy nonperishable items he could stow in his bag so he’d have something to eat for more than a few days.
She peeled off several of the bills and stuffed them into her jeans pocket and then headed down to ask the doorman for the nearest place she could buy groceries.
• • •
Bethany ducked out of the cab after paying the fare and hurried, bags in hand, to her building’s entrance. The doorman had advised her to take a cab and she’d relented when she’d seen the increase in rain. It had morphed from a light drizzle to more of a steady downpour. Not what she wanted to be caught out in on her way back from the market carrying groceries.
When she unlocked her apartment and walked in, she was stunned to see Jace in the living room, his expression dark and forbidding. He advanced on her before she even had time to deposit the bags on the kitchen bar.
“Where the fuck have you been?” he demanded.
Her eyes widened and she glanced down at the grocery sacks. “I—I went shopping.”
“Anything else you want to tell me?”
The accusation in his voice stung. What on earth did he think? Did he believe she was cheating on him? Sneaking out to see a lover? How had he even known she was gone to begin with?
He wrested the bags from her grip and dropped them with a thud on the bar before turning his furious gaze back to her.
Her mind blanked. She took an instinctive step back and Jace swore.
“I’m not going to hurt you, damn it.”
“Why are you so angry?” she asked. “I just went down to the market. I was only gone an hour.”
“You think this is about you going out for groceries?”
His tone was incredulous.
“What else am I supposed to think? You’re acting ridiculous, Jace. I went to get groceries, for God’s sake.”
“Let’s try this instead. I’m at work in an important meeting and I get a call from Kaden, who informs me you have a visitor.”
Her mouth dropped open in shock. “How does Kaden know anything about who’s at my apartment? He’s not even supposed to be protecting me anymore.” Her eyes narrowed as understanding slowly dawned. “You still don’t trust me.” It nearly killed her to say those words, the truth. And it was the truth. He was bristling with rage and he’d hired those men to watch her. “He wasn’t here to protect me. He was here to spy on me.”
“It would appear I have good reason,” Jace snapped.
Hope died inside Bethany. She turned her painful gaze on him, hurt beyond words. “Jack was here. But then you already know that.”