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“Since you asked.” He takes out a stack of neon yellow flash cards out of his pocket. “I thought I’d make it the most mundane date ever. We had dinner.” He shows me the card from the top. It has one word scribbled on it—dinner.
“You needed flashcards for this?” I can’t help teasing him again.
Jace nods. “Then we’ve got to get ice cream.” He shows me the next card confirming his plan. “Then it’s a visit to a bookstore, since you like to read, and maybe we run wild through some fountain or something. You know of any fountains around here?” He starts laughing as he stacks the cards, one by one, on the table between us.
“No. Don’t ask the shut-in for a city tour, okay? And none of your plans provide for any…alone time. Everything you listed involves other people.”
Jace drops the last card on top of the rest. It says Romantic Ride.
“Jacewell Edward Blackmore, did you actually writeromanticon a piece of paper?”
“That’s it.” He scoops the cards, stuffs them back in the pocket, and comes to stand beside me. “I’m taking you home. You’re making fun of me—”
“I’m not. I promise.” I stand next to him. “You’re just too cute—”
“Bleeping heck. Now you’re calling me cute.” He threads his arm through mine and drags me, jokingly, to the doors. “We’re done for tonight. I’m not cute. I will never be cute—”
I dig my heels into the floor and hold him back. Rising on my toes, I whisper against his lips, “With me, you can be cute. You can be anything you want.”
Jace responds with a breezy kiss.
We continue with his plans. They may seem ordinary and boring, but as I notice him stealing glances at me, I realize that Jace has picked these activities on purpose. They’re familiar, but they do involve a crowd everywhere we go. And we’re not blending in with the usual evening crowd in jeans and cropped tops. I’m wearing diamonds and a designer dress. He’s a sliver of tempting darkness with flickers of fire in his hair. In other words, we’re hard to ignore.
Holding our ice cream cones, we’re walking down a semi-crowded sidewalk.
“You know,” I say, “I’m even wearing running-friendly shoes.” I stick up my left foot and brag to him about my knee-high boots. “If anyone decides to ambush you again, you won’t need to administer first aid.”
“Excellent.” Jace squeezes me in his one-arm embrace. “The bookstore is just around the corner. Pick us some books. I’ll read them with you.”
“Don’t give me a green light like this,” I warn him. “You said some books, but I read a lot. You won’t have time for anything else for the rest of the year—”
We’re swallowed by a large group spilling out of a different, loud restaurant on the corner. Jace grabs my elbow to pull me aside, then all of a sudden, he pushes me away and swings a punch at someone right next to me.
I drop my ice cream. The splat is swallowed by the bewildered exclamations around us, and the crowd thins with the speed of lightning. It thins, but doesn’t disappear—people rarely abandon a chance to see a fight, especially on a sidewalk. The whole situation would’ve been amusing if not for a twiggy man with beady eyes and a gray, fraying baseball cap ducking low and reaching for the wallet hanging on my wrist. A switchblade flashes in his hand. I clutch both hands to my chest.
Jace growls, “Seriously?” and thwacks the blade out of the thief’s hand with an elegant kick. He uses only the tip of his shoe, and the sound of contact is a merepop. The blade drops to the ground with a clink, and I expect the man to run, but he smirks, causing my skin to break out in goosebumps.
Jace’s eyes narrow, and he swings around, sticking himself between me and the thief, looking for something—
I curl my fingers around my wrist, finding my Jonas-mandated watch. Jace doesn’t know it, but Jonas was determined to follow us tonight. He said he felt like he should. I’ll never doubt his instincts again.
A burly figure strikes from behind a car parked on the road. I let out a pathetic, frightened squeak as a fist rushes toward Jace’s face, but my date ducks with ease. He’s a martial arts pro. I breathe out, a little, and realize I shouldn’t have relaxed. The other guy is a pro as well. Of what, I don’t know and don’t care. All I know is that when Jace attempts to grab onto his back and push him to the ground, the huge man curls in on himself, arrests Jace’s ankle between his meaty hands, and yanks as hard as he can. I plaster myself against another parked car, eyes so wide it hurts, my frenzied heart hurting even more, and mash a button on my panic watch until I can’t feel the tip of my thumb anymore. S.O.S.
Meanwhile, the guy after my wallet makes another attempt to relieve me of my scant belongings.
“I don’t think so!” Jace darts away from the bigger man and lands a precise strike to the thief’s nose. The guy drops to his knees, cradling his nose and muttering curses, blood dripping in large splatters onto the sidewalk. He’s out of the game.
His goon is not. He and Jace go into full showdown mode that includes a rapid exchange of low kicks, as if they’re in an action movie. Only this is not a movie even though everyone is filming, and whispering, and absolutely no one is helping. I do my best to stay out of the way. How I wish I could do something other than wait for Jonas to show up. What could I do? Call the police? Where is my brain? I should’ve a long time ago!
I dial the 9 and the first 1, and my heart stops at the sight of Jace being thrown against the steps of the restaurant that created the crowd and a perfect cover for a snatch-and-run.
“Jace!” I forget about my own safety and rush over to him.
“Stay where you are.” He crouches for a second before rising to his feet and brushing the dust off his suit. His eyes zero in on the criminal couple. The big guy is scooping up his accomplice off the sidewalk. He smirks as if they’re done and he’s won. Please run and let this end because Jace clenches his jaw, his expression calculating. He’s not done.
Sirens cut through the air. Our attackers flinch toward the sound, and that’s when Jace attacks. The one who was supposed to pinch my wallet is knocked out cold with one strike. Jace uses him as a footstool to gain higher ground for a jump that gives him more thrust for an elbow punch to the ribs, then a palm strike to the chin followed by another elbow punch, this one to the windpipe. The huge guy’s eyes bulge as he struggles to breathe. Back on the ground, Jace drops a kick to the man’s thigh, and everyone cringes at the sound of bone breaking. Roaring, the man topples over.
Jonas arrives and blocks the traffic by double parking. He flies out of the car in his black cargo pants and a vest with SECURITY blazing across his chest and hauls Jace away a second before a police car pulls up right onto the sidewalk. A second set of whirring flashes adds to the dizzying chaos as an EMT vehicle arrives on the scene.
