Page 44 of Fastlander Fallen

Empty-feeling texts. I get it. You’re mad.

Not mad, Ace. Just tired of being the shelter-girl, you know? Send.

You’re so much more than that. You just have shitty taste in men, lol

She scrunched up her face and texted back. I’ll grow out of that someday, but not today. Send. She took a selfie of her and Hallie on the couch and sent it to him. You’re interrupting girls’ night. Send.

So sorry. Your ice cream is melting. You looked pretty tonight in your sexy clothes, but you look even prettier in your pajamas. I was bummed I didn’t get to see you eat chicken wings, extra sauce. A picture came through of him laying on a bed with dark brown sheets, and he had no shirt on. He wore a silver chain necklace with some sort of pendant, but she couldn’t make it out. He looked like a man who would have forty-thousand followers on social media just based on thirst-trap pictures. Of course he wasn’t into her.

“He’s messing with you, isn’t he?” Hallie asked.

“That’s what boys do,” she muttered, texting him back. You like to play with my head. Goodnight, Ace. Send.

Sleep good, Corey.

Chapter Seven

Ace re-read the last text from Corey. You like to play with my head.

He couldn’t even blame her for seeing it that way, but she didn’t know. She didn’t understand.

He was protecting her by distancing her. She would have a better quality of life if she didn’t see him romantically.

Easy. No problem. He’d just met her, so no harm no foul. He had cut it off early.

So why was he lying here awake two hours after he’d finally gotten home, overthinking that damn text. Thank God Gunner had given him one more night to sleep at his place before he was required to sleep in the tent in Fastlander territory. His animal was too revved-up to behave, especially around Owen.

You like to play with my head.

Did he?

She was fun. She was funny. Gorgeous, looked sexy on a bike, had confidence but was awkward in the cutest damn way. Yeah, he liked being around her and yeah, he liked the thought of kissing her. Part of him wished he hadn’t hesitated at the bar at the end of the night.

He should’ve kissed her, and not given her time to come to and push him away.

She’d closed up like a clam when he’d talked about friendship, and he missed the light. That was it. She’d been so damn light. Such a beautiful distraction.

He stared up at the rafters of his dad’s cabin. His cabin, now. The covers were all kicked to the end of the bed and dawn was peeking through the open window. He had a problem sleeping without all the windows open. That was a cold habit during the winter months, but now? The weather was perfect for it.

No point in trying to sleep now.

Ace sat up and settled his bare feet onto the hardwood floors. He and his dad had bought this place when they’d moved here, and had never had the urge to leave it. What would he do with this place if he went to Gunner’s Crew? It was too far away from the territory of the Fury.

What was he doing, thinking about picking up his entire life and changing everything?

He cracked his knuckles and slid his glance to the black-and-white picture of him and his dad fishing that hung over the dresser. He’d been ten, maybe eleven. He looked like a miniature of his father at that age. He’d settled into more of his mother’s features as he’d gotten older. At least that’s what Dad had said.

What am I doing? The question glanced across his mind again.

It was answered with his dad’s scratchy voice right at the end. “I don’t want you to be alone.”

Ace winced and closed his eyes against the pain of the loss. The self-help book on grief that sat on the bedside table said this would ease up in time, but so far, he thought that book was full of shit. He smacked it off the table and tossed it one more dirty look as it skidded against the wall and settled into the corner.

His phone lit up, and he rubbed his face. It was probably Captain, or his boss, or maybe Gunner. He was supposed to give his answer on joining the Fastlanders by the end of the week.

He pulled his phone off the charging cord and squinted against the too-bright screen.

Good morning.

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