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I groaned, pulling back, then burrowing my face in her neck again. “I want you so bad right now, mama.”
She made a noise in her throat, telling me that she agreed, but goddamn, there was nothing we could do about it. We’d learned over the last month to take those little pockets of time when the boys were at school or they were having a nap. But most of all, we’d learned that being open with everything and anything was how we worked best.
There was a time where I was certain I never would have told her about my day, but there was a strength in being able to tell the person you cared most about about your entire day and never get judged on it.
“P?” Ace called. “You ever gonna get your ass in here, or what?”
I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself and my fuckin’ erection down as Peyton pulled away, a grin on her face that told me she knew exactly what she’d done to me, the devious woman. I laughed, shaking my head and moving toward the glass sliding door that opened up out onto the backyard. Distraction always worked better than anything else, right?
There was a brand-new swing set and climbing frame I’d had installed last week, an addition that both of the boys loved. The house I’d bought was slowly starting to fill up with things that told you a family lived here, exactly how I’d imagined it when I first bought it. My gut had told me this was the one the moment I’d viewed it, just like it had the second I’d laid eyes on Peyton that day outside of Romeo’s house.
Cracking my neck to the side, I stepped away from the glass door and ambled into the living room where Ace was leaning against the wall, talking animatedly with Peyton who was sprawled out on the floor with Reed climbing all over her.
“So you’ll come, then?” Ace asked, his gaze veering to me as I entered the room and leaned against the doorframe.
“Of course I will,” Peyton huffed out in only the way a little sister could with her big brother. “Just tell me the time and place and I’ll be there.”
“Be where?” I asked.
“Ace wants some help with his house,” Peyton told me. “Needs to renovate it.”
I nodded. “Needs a woman’s touch, huh?”
Ace’s jaw ticced, the movement not going unnoticed by either me or Peyton. “Something like that.” There was something about the way he said it that intrigued me, that made me want to do some digging. He’d been coming around a little less often over the last couple of weeks. I understood that he was the boss in his state, but this felt different. There were times he was here—like now—where he’d be physically here, but you could tell that his mind was elsewhere.
I knew that feeling better than most because it was how I’d survived during the month that Peyton was gone. I ground my teeth together, not wanting to think about it, but it was damn hard when I could see the physical scars marring her body, but that was nothing compared to the mental ones that fuckface had left behind.
My mind was going a mile a minute, not able to take anything in that was going on around me, not until the loud ringing of Ace’s cell rang out.
He pulled it out, his nostrils flaring at whatever he saw on the screen, then placed it next to his ear. I couldn’t hear what he was saying because he moved to the other side of the room, his gaze centered on Peyton.
“You got him?” I heard him murmur. He probably thought nobody heard him, but I did. Crystal clear. Goose bumps prickled over my skin as his attention moved to me, his eyes so dark they were edge-to-edge black now.
“I gotta go,” he announced after ending the call. He maneuvered over to Peyton, kissed her on the cheek, spoke to the boys, then walked right out of my house, but not without me on his tail.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
I moved a little quicker, blocking his path to his SUV. “Nah. That wasn’t nothing.” I rolled my shoulders back, letting him see that I could feel something was off. “Who was that?”
“I’m gonna say this to you once, and once only, Rafael.” He practically spat my name out of his mouth. “Remember your damn place.”
“I do know my place,” I countered, not backing down. “My place is to make sure nothing and no one gets to your sister.” I paused, waiting to see if he would say anything to that. “Which is why I’m gonna ask you straight and expect an honest answer: Have they found Travis?”
Ace’s lips flattened into a straight line, clearly not wanting to tell me anything. But finally he growled, “Yeah. They have him.”
I nodded, not thinking for a single second as I demanded, “I’m coming with you.”
“Like hell you are.” He moved around me and pulled the driver’s door open. “Stay in your territory.”
I didn’t hesitate, getting into his passenger seat, then shooting a message off to Peyton to let her know that I had to go somewhere with Ace. I had no doubt that her gut would tell her something was going to go down. But I also knew that the relief she would feel once this was over—once Travis was finally gone—would outweigh everything else.
“I can’t guarantee your safety,” Ace warned, turning the engine on.
“Don’t need your safety,” I told him, shooting off another text, this time to my dad and Lorenzo to let them know what was happening. I’d learned from my mistakes of not keeping my boss in the loop. It was dangerous to not have backup, and even though I knew they wouldn’t be there, they knew where I’d be thanks to sharing my location with them on my cell, and that was good enough in that moment.
“Last chance,” Ace warned, throwing the car into reverse.
