saw you.” I turned away from him, my emotions too close to the surface for me to dare look at him another second. “Let’s go,” I muttered to Lucy.
“No.” Jace moved quickly and was blocking our path to the exit. One large hand reached for mine and caught it before I could think to pull away. “Don’t go.” He swallowed with difficulty and the thought that he was just as emotional at seeing me again as I was at seeing him had me pausing for a moment. “Fuck, I’ve missed you.”
The pain those words caused left me hemorrhaging on the inside. He’d missed me? He’d missed me?
He’d. Missed. Me.
What-the-fuck-ever. I didn’t believe that for two seconds. He’d missed me, but where had he been when I’d needed him the most? Where had he been when I’d said goodbye to my mother for the last time? Where was he when I’d watched her being lowered into the ground? Where was he when I thought my whole world was over and I had to step on that fucking plane with Scott Montez and leave my real family behind?
He’d been off screwing some random chick, no doubt. He’d been living it up with his bandmates and partying. Jace had been living his life without me while I’d been falling apart. While all I’d wanted was his arms around me and his voice telling me that it was going to be okay. I didn’t have the patience to stand there and hear him lie to me.
“Yeah, I could tell from all those phone calls and text messages you didn’t send. I’m not in the mood to listen to your bullshit, Jace. Move or be moved.” I felt Marcus step up behind me and Lucy, and I could have hugged the normally stone-faced bodyguard right then for having my back.
Jace’s blue gaze went to the man standing behind me and glared at Marcus for a long moment before finally clenching his jaw and stepping aside. Without giving him another look I pulled Lucy with me as I headed for the stairs.
By the time we got outside and Marcus had passed off the valet ticket to the attendant, I was numb. The shock at seeing Jace again had messed with my head and my heart didn’t know how to handle the things going through my mind right then.
Lucy tried to talk to me a few times on the ride home, but I was lost in the past. I asked her to drop me off at my father’s house. I’d rather have to deal with their coldness than the caring, motherly love I would have gotten from Layla Thornton right then. If she hugged me at that moment, I was sure I would crumble into a million pieces on the floor.
The ride home passed in a blur for me and I wasn’t sure if I even said goodnight to Lucy or not. I was in a daze as I used my key to unlock the front door. The house was dark, but I knew no one was in bed. It was barely ten on a Saturday night. My father was either off doing something for the new movie he was directing or at some party with Jillian. Georgia and Carolina were no doubt doing things with friends. I wasn’t stupid. I knew Georgia came home high most nights. She went out with friends after cheer practice and didn’t get home until after midnight sometimes.
I made my way up to my room and locked the door behind me before falling onto my bed. I didn’t see the pastel colored walls or the few pictures hanging there. I was reliving every moment I’d ever had with Jace—from the moment I’d first seen him singing with Tainted Knights at a bar in Bristol to the very second he had told me he couldn’t be with me anymore because he needed to focus on the band.
He’d said he loved me. He’d shown me that he loved me.
And it had all been a lie.
Chapter 6
Jace
The sight of Kin knocked the breath out of me. I’d been thinking about her a lot lately so when I’d seen her it had felt like I was in a dream.
It couldn’t be real. This chick just looked like her and my imagination was seeing what it wanted to see. It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d seen Kin’s face in other girls. Then she had turned around and I’d nearly dropped to my knees when