Page 21 of Mace

“I haven’t decided that yet,” she said. “I’ll call you back when I have one of my brilliant ideas.” If Mace let her get off the phone with him, he worried that he wouldn’t get another chance with Julie.

“Wait,” Mace shouted, “meet with me, Julie,” he said. “Meet me at my bar and we can talk.”

“And why would I want to do that?” she asked. “I have the upper hand here, Mace—why would I want to give that to you?”

“You’ll still have the upper hand, Julie,” Mace assured. He worried that she wouldn’t meet him and then he’d never be able to find Julie.

“Can you promise me that there will be no funny business, Mace?” Julie asked. He could promise her no such thing, but he wasn’t about to tell her that.

“Absolutely,” he lied, “I promise you that nothing will happen. I just want to talk to you in person, Julie.” It was the only way that the Blain brothers would be able to get close to Julie’s childhood home to see if that was where she was holding Brooke. Hopefully, this nightmare would all be over tonight, but first, he had to convince Julie to meet him.

“Please,” he begged.

“Fine,” Julie sighed. “I’ll meet you at your bar, but if you pull anything, I’ll kill Brooke. You have my word on that, Mace. She means nothing to me, but I’m betting that she means something to you.”

“She does,” Mace admitted. Brooke meant everything to him, and there was no way that he’d lose her or his unborn child to Julie’s crazy plan.

“Good, so then, we are on the same page. I’ll see you at your bar at three,” she promised, ending the call. Mace whispered to himself that he’d be there, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to hear him—not that it mattered. He just hoped that his whispered promise could reach Brooke because he wanted her to hang on—if not for him, then for their baby.

Mace knew that Julie was out for blood and her getting what she wanted from Brooke made him feel sick. Julie had agreed to meet him at his bar. It was the only plan he could come up with if he wanted Brooke back—and he did more than he wanted his next breath.

Mace walked into the bar to find Julie standing in the corner by the bar. “Where is she?” Mace growled at Julie.

“Don’t be so impatient,” she teased. She was giving him the same flirty smile that she had the night that she walked into his office to have sex with him.

“Don’t play with me, Julie,” Mace warned. “Tell me where Brooke is.”

“She’s safe for now,” Julie said. He knew that trusting her wasn’t smart, but a part of him needed to believe that Brooke and his baby were both safe as Julie said.

“Why are you doing all of this, Julie?” Mace asked. “Why did you kill Reece?”

“He deserved to die,” Julie spat. “He dumped me with no explanation, and I’m done playing the victim. I won’t be that woman anymore.”

“I get it,” Mace lied. None of this mess made any sense to him, but he needed to keep Julie talking so that Owen would have time to call the police.

She rolled her eyes at him, and he knew that he might be failing at his plan. “You know about being a victim? Who dumped you, Mace?” she asked.

“You’re angry with him for what he did to you. I know how that feels. Reece was my half-brother, and I never got to meet him because my father kept us from each other. I’m angry with my father—enough to do what you did. So, I get it.” Mace knew that might not be a close enough comparison to make her believe him, but he had to at least try.

“I’m not sure if that’s exactly the same thing, but I’ll give you that one—for now. Reese told me that his father admitted to him that he had a half-brother, and I was there for him. I promised to stick by his side when he came to find you. Your old man gave him the address and I was shocked that it was your bar. I had only been working here for a few weeks, but I never imagined that you were my boyfriend’s brother. He told me that he needed to meet you alone. He didn’t want me tagging along. Can you believe he said that to me? As though I was a bother or a child in his way. I wasn’t tagging along—I was there to support him like a true partner, but he just couldn’t see that. He told me that I was too clingy and that he needed some time away from me. That stupid ass misunderstood my love for him as me being clingy. He just didn’t know how good he had it.”

“So, you killed him,” Mace finished her story for her.

“Well, not at first. I came into work that night and while I was cleaning up, I looked out the back window and noticed his truck in the parking lot. I went out to talk to him—you know, try to convince him that he had made a huge mistake dumping me. I was the best thing that ever happened to him, but Reece was being stubborn. He told me to get lost and let him talk to you privately, and that was when I ran back into the kitchen and grabbed the knife off the counter. If I couldn’t have Reece, no one would.” Mace knew that Reece was stabbed, but that was about it. At first, he believed that someone had killed him and moved his body to the parking lot at his bar to set him up. He never imagined that his half-brother was killed in a rage of passion by a crazy woman.

“Why take Brooke?” Mace asked. “She had nothing to do with this.”

“She has you and I can’t allow that. You’re mine now—ever since that beautiful night that we were together,” Julie said.

Mace barked out his laugh, knowing that he was poking the bear. “I fucked you over the desk in my office. There was nothing beautiful about it. I used you to get off—that’s it.” Yeah, he was pissing her off, but maybe that was what he needed to buy some time.

“You’re wrong,” she spat. “Our night together was magical, and you know it Mace.” She crossed the room and awkwardly cuddled into his side, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Just admit that you want me, and not Brooke, and I’ll let her go.” He couldn’t believe that it was going to be that easy. There was no way that she would just let Brooke go. Mace stood there with Julie still wrapped around his waist when Owen burst into the club with the cops.

“You tricked me,” Julie shouted. She tried to pull away from him, but Mace banded his arms around her.

“Going somewhere?” he asked. Julie cursed and squirmed against his body until a police officer too her from Mace and tugged her arms back to put handcuffs on.

“You’ll never find Brooke now,” she shouted. “She’ll die where I have her hidden and that will be on you, Mace. I thought you were different from the rest,” Julie hissed.

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