Page 95 of Stolen Fate

We took Elliot to get his haircut later that day. He had been a little down when he woke up late-morning, not his usual energetic self, but I was quickly seeing the boy I knew by the time the early afternoon rolled around and Elliot realized Jace wasn’t leaving for work.

He even skipped to the car, one hand in mine and the other Jace’s, and occasionally, we would pull him up so his legs left the ground for a brief second, and he would giggle, bringing a smile to both of our faces.

I had his teddy bear in my other hand, a small fluffy thing with light brown fur wearing a Spider-Man shirt. It was like the teddy bear version of Elliot, who had the exact same shirt.

We didn’t have Simon or Jerry drive us. Jace drove us in his sleek black Mercedes AMG GLS 63. I wouldn’t have known what car it was had Jace not told me about it.

Jace seemed pretty proud of the car, and it wasn’t something I imagined he would drive, but it was a good car for kids. An expensive car, yes, but a good one, too, and I had never seen Jace excited to show off anything before.

It was… cute.

He was a little boy showing off his toys.

Who knew there was this surprising side to him? I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wasn’t really into cars, but the interior was nice, with comfortable black leather seats, and it was spacious.

Elliot seemed happy to be there, and I turned back around from my place in the passenger seat to look at him. He made a grabbing motion with his hand for the teddy bear I had been holding, and when I gave it to him, he shot me a toothy smile. I smiled back at him.

Feeling eyes on me, I turned and found Jace’s gaze on my face, taking in my interaction with Elliot with an unreadable expression on his face. I didn’t know why he was looking at me like that, and I didn’t know if I liked it or not.

Who was I kidding—I liked his gaze on me, only I wished I didn’t.

Jace moved forward and put the car into drive, and I did the same, taking in the view out the window.

It was a nice day outside, a little cold, but the sun was out and that was always nice. We drove downtown in relative silence, with Elliot focused mostly on the little TV screen Jace had put in the headrest of his seat.

The volume was on low, but I could hear the distinct beat of the theme song to PAW Patrol, Elliot’s favorite TV show.

I fidgeted with the zipper on my jacket and looked back outside, trying to keep myself from looking at Jace.

It was hard.

Jace had such an imposing presence, it was hard not to notice him whenever he was around—and I always noticed. I noticed every little movement since the moment we got inside the car, from the way his thumb would tap mindlessly every once in a while, to when he grabbed a drink from the water bottle while keeping one hand on the wheel.

Jace was a careful driver. And I knew a lot of it had to do with the fact that Elliot was in the car with us, but there was just something incredibly sexy about a man who knew what he was doing and who knew how to drive well.

Most of my previous boyfriends from before all drove recklessly. It had been fun at first, but then it was just annoying.

I looked away from him with a hard swallow when I realized I had spent a couple long seconds staring at him. He could probably feel my eyes on him, but he never looked my way.

I did see the slight curve of one corner of his lips tilting upward in what appeared to be a smirk. I didn’t look back at him to find out, and I kept my eyes on the road in front of us for the following ten minutes of the drive, trying hard not to fidget in my seat.

Jace’s phone ringing brought me out of my reverie, and I looked over to see the car’s Bluetooth kicking in, and Elliot’s show pausing.

Elliot didn’t say anything about it, but he did let out a long sigh. I frowned a little and looked back at him. Elliot wasn’t one to keep his feelings to himself. If he was annoyed at something you did, he would let you know, so the fact that he didn’t say anything was concerning.

I looked back in time to see him hug his teddy bear a little tighter while he looked out the window, his thumb back in his mouth.

I turned to Jace, who had been looking at Elliot through the rearview mirror, a slight frown marring his face.

He briefly looked my way, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was thinking.

Clicking a button on his steering wheel, he answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, man, I heard what happened yesterday. Is Elliot okay?” a deep voice asked through the speaker. I didn’t recognize the voice, which meant I hadn’t met the person on the other end of the line, but he was obviously close to Jace and Elliot if he already knew what happened yesterday.

“Jensen, before you say any more, you should know I’m in the car right now, and you’re on speaker. And I’m not alone.”

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