Page 90 of Entangled

“Anytime.”

“Tell Mac that I expect an epic party to be planned for when I get back, okay? It’ll give him something to focus on.”

“Will do.” Stef laughs. “Tell Jace we said hello.”

A smile pulls at my lips as I roll my eyes and look down to hang up the phone, pushing the door to the bar open and walking in. A heavy silence greets me, tension hanging in the air and causing my intuition to scream a warning that something isn’t right before I even lift my eyes. Jerking my head up, the first thing I see is Jace standing in front of the bar, his firework eyes filled with pure terror as he looks at me. I watch the shock play out across his face for a second before his expression turns pained.

He didn’t know I was coming. I’m not supposed to be here.

“Well, well, well.” A raspy voice sounds to my left, drawing my eyes to Kyle Morrison. “What do we have here?”

“Eleanor Delacroix, from what I hear around town, brother.” A voice to my right answers, jerking my gaze to who I’m guessing is Kurt Morrison based on his similar features. The only difference between them is the long, stringy brown hair Kurt is rocking.

Guess he opted to skip the bad dye job.

They stand on either side of Jace, caging him in against the bar, both carrying a metal baseball bat in their hands and looking at me like they just won the lottery.

My heart races in my chest and adrenaline pounds through my veins, urging me to take action. But I fight it, staying perfectly still, trying to work through what my options are here. Knowing that whatever my next move is might be the most important one of all. I grip my phone tightly in my hand but they’re watching too closely for me to get away with making a call. Jace practically forgotten now that they have their prize within sight.

I understand it on a psychological level, what their terrible, twisted logic is. They want him to feel the pain they did, and that only happens if they take someone he cares about from him.

Not a good day to be me.

“Eleanor Delacroix.” Kyle swings the bat at his side in a careless loop as he says my name and cocks his head at me. “Now aren’t you the girl whose daddy shot your mama then himself?”

I muster every bit of false bravado I can and manage to twitch my lips up into a small smirk. “That’d be me.”

No point in denying it and the longer I can keep him talking… the longer he’s not beating the shit out of me or Jace.

“And what the hell did you come back to this town for, girl?” Kyle laughs nastily. “You’d think you’d have figured out Delacroix’s don’t fare too well here.”

“Apparently not.”

I flick my eyes to Jace, trying to figure out any way out of this for us but his expression gives me nothing. Kurt is watching him closely again, baseball bat propped up on his shoulder and eyes narrowed as if he’s trying to work something out.

“I remember…” Kurt starts, drawing all of our gazes to him as his eyes move between Jace and me. “You talked about her. One night after we got wasted together. You knew her when you were little, talked about how you always wondered what had happened to her. That you hoped she was happy.”

I watch Jace’s expression fall at Kurt’s revelation while his brother gives a groan of satisfaction.

“Well this just gets better and better, don’t it? Looks like Jacey boy finally went and fell for the girl he always wanted.”

Jace turns his head to Kurt, eyeing him hard. “This isn’t you, Kurt. Maybe Kyle… but you never enjoyed the violence like he did. Come on, man. We were friends once.” His voice turns pleading and I can tell he’s trying to grasp at any straw he can. “She’s a girl, Kurt. You don’t want to beat up a girl. You don’t want to be that guy. She doesn’t have anything to do with this, let her go, man.”

Kurt turns his head toward me and I can see the conflict in his gaze as we lock eyes, and for a moment hope fills me but then he shakes his head slowly and turns back to Jace.

“Sorry, Jace. You brought her into this and what happened with Trey… someone has to pay.”

Kyle barks a laugh and gives his brother a nod. “Attaboy, Kurt.” Turning his eyes back to me, he leers at me, eyes running the length of my body and making me fervently wish I had worn something more than cutoff shorts and a tank top today. “Shame though.” He takes a step toward me. “You are a pretty little thing. Maybe I’ll drag it out, enjoy you for a bit first and make Jacey boy here watch before I finish you off.”

My stomach seizes up painfully at his words and I have to swallow down the bile trying to work its way up my throat, trying to force myself to keep breathing.

Jace takes a step forward, halting Kyle’s forward motion and drawing his gaze, voice coming out vicious when he speaks. “I don’t care how many times you swing that bat, Morrison. You touch one hair on her head and I will fucking end you.”

My heart clenches painfully at Jace’s words and I know they’re true. He would sacrifice himself to save me in a heartbeat.

We have to figure a way out of this now or else, no matter how hard Jace fights… we’ll be screwed.

The door isn’t that many steps behind me and I could try to make a run for it. But there’s a solid chance they’ll catch me before I ever make it to the car and even if I do… what then? I leave Jace to the mercy of their anger and bats?

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