JACE (Lane Brothers Book 3)

  JACE

  Lane Brothers, Book 3

  KRISTINA WEAVER

  Copyright © 2016

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to events, businesses, companies, institutions, and real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  BONUS BOOKS

  RED LOVE

  TROUBLE

  MINE

  ONE WEEK

  UNSCRIPTED

  Chapter One

  Trace

  His lips on mine are like a dream, but as I enjoy the sensation of being owned by him again, I also want to scratch and bite and hit because he’s here. He’s here and I hate him for it as much as I want him.

  I’ve always loved Jace Lane, even when he left me. I knew that he had to leave me eventually.

  We’re just not cut from the same cloth. Jace is a rich boy who had to scrape and struggle to survive because his parents refused to just hand everything to him until he made something of himself, and I’m…well I used to be one of those little daddy’s girls who didn’t know how to do washing or even what a cleaning rag was.

  We were always polar opposites, and in the beginning that is exactly what attracted us to each other. He saw the outside and set out to help me change the inside, because he always said my beauty should be more than skin deep, that I was worth more than the designer label my family tacked on me.

  At the time I agreed and tried to become my own person, bucking against Daddy’s rules and the plans he had for me, deciding to be happy and free instead of numbing myself with the country club get-togethers and the shopping trips with women who only pretended to like me.

  Sure, it was not easy to have to take a long hard look at myself and see what Jace saw—a spoiled little senator’s daughter with more vanity than personality.

  I showed him, though. I proved that I was more than the diamonds and money. I finally got up the courage to change my major and went for the psychology degree I’d been looking into before Daddy told me that economics was my field.

  Then I managed to do the one thing that no young woman should do. I fell for the bad boy—the tatted, rough-neck military man who breezed into my life and told me from the get-go that I was a ghost of the woman I was meant to be.

  To love someone so different, someone my father did not approve of no matter how rich or connected his family is…that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

  You see, I was good for Daddy’s public image. Senator Howard Patton had the perfect wife and the perfect socialite daughter.

  Or he did, till Jason Lane bamboozled me into cutting ties with my family. I loved him enough then to believe that he’d be my new home, that he’d love me, and more importantly, that I could trust him with my newly awakened heart.

  Hell, I gave him my fucking virginity not six weeks after first laying eyes on him, and even went so far as to start picking out the freaking China patterns in my head.

  And then he broke my heart.

  He left me one day without so much as a freaking choice in the matter, telling me that his career was too important and that he had no room in his life for the burden that a young wife and family would bring him.

  That was it. One day he loved me as much as I loved him, and the next he was flying out to God knows where while I was left to crawl back to my family with my tail between my legs.

  When I returned home, Daddy made it very clear that I was expected to play the part, but I was no longer trusted. The worst part was that he wanted me to marry a man of his choice.

  I was twenty-two years old, and I was no longer allowed to make my own decisions.

  That’s what my life was like after Jace left me. Even worse, the guy Daddy chose for me was a total dick. Not one of those elitists who are just barely tolerable, but one of those assholes who use mind games and a small amount of force to keep his property in line.

  I’m here in New Orleans now for a few good reasons, the most important being that I need to make sure Jace—no, the Lane brothers, are aware of what I overheard a few weeks ago.

  Thanks to the social circles that I am in, I’ve heard a lot of gossip in recent years that usually flies right over my head. This last thing, though, I’m not likely to forget, and the only reason I haven’t come right out and just told Wyatt or Jared is that I’m still waiting on Digg to confirm a few things before I go all in and commit myself here.

  I’m a good person, and altruistic to the core on a good day, but one thing that my experience with Jace has taught me…it’s that going all in on something that’s not going to be good for me is not an option.

  The last time that happened, my mother had to convince my father to let me come back home. I’m now engaged to a man who has a mistress and cheats on her with someone else.

  No, I’m in it for me now. All the way.

  If telling the Lanes what I’ve learned won’t prove detrimental to my life, then I’ll spill the beans and move on again. But if Digg comes back to me with anything heavier, I’m out of here in a flat second and they can sort out their own mess.

  First though, I have some revenge to unleash on Jace’s ass. Now that I’m here and I have the chance to make another run at the guy, I feel really good.

  I’m flipping the script here and going male on him. He’s good for two things now, and that includes sex and the chance to walk away from him just like he walked away from me years ago.

  I want him, and I enjoy knowing that, for whatever reason, he wants me. Enough to sit outside my rented little house for weeks and watch my every move. Enough for Digg to have called me to let me know that Jace tried to have me investigated.

  I also know a lot more about what’s going on with him and his brothers than they could ever imagine. For instance, that aunt of his is a real monster. And yes, I said is because I know all about what’s going on here.

  It’s one of the reasons I am here. I’m not crazy enough to have traveled all the way here from DC just to tell them about some gossip I heard and nail Jace.

  I have my own very convoluted agenda, and the main part of it all is to ensure that whatever goes down with that operation they’re investigating, goes well.

  My job is to discover the military leak, and I’m going to do that the only way I know how. By using the people around me. Jace is my cover—my in, shall we say.

  So I’m kissing Jace Lane for all I’m worth, wondering if I should just get back on this bike right now or if I should drag this out and make him work for it.

  He’s managed to wiggle a hand into my panties and is going for gold.

  It feels so good when the tips of his fingers graze over my clit. I tense and kiss him back with renewed passion.

  “Trace, Jesus, you’re wet,” he growls after wrenching his mouth away to drag in deep breaths.

  I hear the words clearly, snarled with so m
uch lust and satisfaction that everything beneath my waist clenches and I’m teetering close to orgasm already.

  Then I snap out of it and pull away, gathering my scattered wits with a groan and the knowledge that I have to stop. My body is raging with need and the unfulfilled longings of years’ worth of unsatisfied lust. Unlike Jace’s promiscuity following our days together, I never let another man touch me. Especially not Timothy.

  I scramble out from under him and roll to my feet.

  “What the hell are you doing here, Jace?”

  The satisfaction I feel as he groans, gets to his feet, and is forced to adjust his crotch is short lived when he gives my body a slow once-over from beneath his lashes and smiles darkly.

  “I think you know, Trace. Why else would you come back here?” he asks, following me out of the room when I grab my robe and stalk out.

  I’m running, something I haven’t done in a long time, not after that first heartbreak and the promise I made to myself that I would never show my fear and pain again.

  But I need to get out of the room and the intimate setting before I do something I’ll regret.

  “Tracy.”

  I stop at the mantle and turn to glare at him, shaking my head in amusement.

  “You’re still the same arrogant asshole you were then, aren’t you? I came back because I missed Ronny and Paulie, and I wasn’t here for her when Lynn died.”

  The lie burns a trail all the way to my gut, but I keep my face as schooled as I can when his expression hardens and his eyes narrow at me. No, Jace would not like that answer after what’s recently been going down with his other relatives, but like I said, I need a cover. The only way to get Jace to be mine is if he chooses to be on my back all the time.

  I know this man, as well as he’ll let anyone know him, and if there’s one thing that motivates Jace, it’s a challenge. I just threw one out in the form of choosing his relatives over his delicate feelings, and I’m curious to see if he’ll react to it right away or do what he did years ago and just walk away.

  Either way, I have an in. Him or Ronny, it doesn’t make a difference in the long run, though I really would prefer to deal with him in lieu of that viper Veronica Lane.

  “You weren’t here because you don’t belong here, Tracy. Go back to DC and Daddy’s money and leave the rest of us to deal with the Lanes.”

  “Calm down, Lane, I’m only staying long enough to spend some time with Ronny and Paulie while Daddy runs his campaign. I’ll be gone in a few weeks, at most,” I respond, hating that he’s throwing around orders when really, I’m the one in charge here.

  “Don’t you have a life to live or is Daddy still keeping you in designer gear and lunch dates, princess?” he sneers, throwing the old insults right back at me.

  The jibe hurts, a lot more than it should, and I find my old insecurities trying to rear their ugly heads while I struggle not to flinch and hurl the truth at him like a weapon.

  “I do have a life, Lane, trust me, and I’ll get back to it as soon as I talk to Ronny and Paulie about being bridesmaids at my wedding. Now if that’s all you’ve come to say to me, you know where the door is. Use it.”

  See, this is why I took the path I decided on. Part of me always had this foolish need to prove myself to this man, even knowing that he doesn’t deserve so much as a single insight into the real me.

  I would rather not think about what’s been motivating me for three years now, but I want an opportunity to look him in the eye when this all ends and tell him exactly what I’m made of.

  Not yet, though. Not until I’ve done what I have to.

  “You’re engaged?”

  I find I like the shocked look on his face and the fact that he just gasped like some injured victim.

  “Yes and I’m getting married soon. Ronny called me, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and came over here to talk wedding stuff, too. Now you know, so will you please just leave?”

  “Married?”

  “Yeah, and don’t sound so surprised. There are men who want more from me than sex, you know.” I say, wincing inwardly at my words.

  All Timothy wants from me is the connections my father brings to the table. Sex seems to be the last thing he considers when looking at me, but Jace doesn’t need to know this.

  Jace is scowling at me darkly and seems less than thrilled by my news.

  “Our relationship was not just about sex,” he says through clenched teeth, his face set in a stony mask of anger that makes me smile inwardly.

  “No? You could have fooled me, Jace. All we did since we met was circle each other before falling into bed. You did everything in your power to mould me into your ideal woman before dropping me like a hot potato. What, you weren’t completely satisfied with your handiwork after all?”

  I’m treading a thin line here, but why not? It’s my job to get into the Lane family again and find out all that I can about this situation with a group of extremists loosely known as the Pure Patriots.

  It’s my job because the little socialite airhead under her daddy’s thumb, and the chick Jason Lane didn’t think was good enough for him, turned out to be one of the lead profilers for the FBI.

  My job’s a little under the radar, thanks to the fact that my first and only case thus far has been to nail my own father to the wall for corruption. And now the Pure Patriots.

  I don’t even notice when Jace moves and starts coming my way. He backs me up against the wall and stands looming over me with a combination of anger and sadness in his eyes.

  “You don’t think I loved you, Trace?” he asks in this hurt voice that makes me want to take it all back and comfort him.

  You just keep yourself together and ignore those twinkling blue eyes and stick with the program here.

  “Love? You want to talk about love, Jason? Let’s talk about how you left me in an apartment I couldn’t pay for since my parents cut me off. Let’s talk about the fact that I spent a month watching you date anything with a pulse…no, you know what, let’s not. I want you to leave. Now.”

  “Tracy—”

  “Get out of my life, Jason. I’m just here to catch up with the girls about my wedding and then I’ll be gone for good.”

  I’m going to get what I need to finally wrap this case up if it freaking kills me. Hopefully not, but I’m starting to think that death would be preferable to what my father will unleash on me when everything’s said and done.

  “Tracy, listen, about Veronica—”

  I block it out and shuffle to the door, holding it open with a stern expression that lets him know how much I want to hear what he has to say.

  It gets through, thank God, and he finally walks out with a sigh.

  “Stay away from Ronny, Tracy. You have no idea what that woman is capable of,” he says, turning back to give me another look.

  “I don’t care. Stay away from me, Jason, and for God’s sake, leave Ronny alone. Your family has given her enough grief as it is.”

  I close the door with a sigh, ignoring that look of hurt and betrayal he throws me.

  The ticket to finally being done with this mess is staring me right in the face, and I’ll do what I have to to get it.

  No matter how much it hurts to be here with the man I let go of a long time ago. Or how much it’ll hurt to have to see the family I left behind.

  Chapter Two

  Jace

  She’s getting married.

  That’s all I’ve thought about since the words left her lips, all I could focus on while she spouted that bullshit about me never loving her and changing her and…

  Is that what Trace thinks? That I changed her and came away dissatisfied with the end result? The truth is so far from the filth she just hurled at me that I’m still reeling and struggling to wrap my head around it all.

  Tracy Mayfield was the one bright, shiny thing I’ve ever allowed myself to have in this life I chose to build. My job is not what many would call aboveboard, and for this reason I decided
a long time ago to cut all ties and just do what I need to do to serve my country.

  This is the longest stretch I’ve had at home in years, and only because I refuse to leave until this mess with the family is cleared up. After that, it’ll be back to long, sleepless nights tracking the worst that humanity has to offer and rescuing hostages in countries most people don’t even know exist.

  That is my life.

  I have no room for long family holidays spent…what am I saying? Of course there’s room for all that shit, and even, dare I say it, a family of my own.

  I just only recently came to understand this when my father collapsed from a heart attack and almost left us. Life is way too short to give up on the things that make us happy.

  And, well, I just admitted to myself that part of the reason I cut and ran with Trace was that I was afraid of everything I felt for her. Imagine being this badass, shadow assassin who spends his life running around the globe taking out the worst of the worst and just not giving a fuck really.

  Now imagine being that badass tough guy and meeting a girl who was so bright and perfect but for the gilded cage she seemed to exist in. Trace was always just as I wanted her to be, except she wasn’t allowing herself to live an actual life outside the shit her father allowed her to do.

  So I pursued her and spent a long time trying to awaken the butterfly I saw struggling to emerge from the smothering cocoon she existed in, and Trace was wonderful once she started loosening up and living….

  I’ve never been that happy, and I probably would have gotten over the fear I felt every second of the day, knowing that she was mine and that I was responsible for every aspect of her existence, if not for the call I got from my commanding officer to let me know that my time was up.

  In my line of work, I could go for months from one mission to the next, never getting any downtime. Then they insist that we take a few weeks, even months to relax and unwind from the shit we’d see.

  One of those rare times was when I spotted Tracy Mayfield standing across from me in a ballroom, surrounded by other women who were just as trapped and stuck as she was.