Alace Sweets, page 25
A few of Eric’s friends had even stumbled on them out for a drink or meal, so the crew coming today wouldn’t be all new faces.
But all the important people in Eric’s life would be here. His boss—who was, by the way, the district attorney for Douglas County—that man’s wife, several college buddies, Eric’s working cohort in the DA’s office…and his best friend. Todd Worthson, who also happened to be a sitting judge, and the one person who knew what it had taken for Eric to find her. Todd had proven instrumental in the weeks and months after she’d first bugged out, when she was already on the job down in Alabama. Of everyone who would be invading—she had to keep reminding herself to not think of it that way, they were invited guests—their home, he was the biggest threat.
Todd Worthson could bring it all tumbling down around her ears.
She didn’t think he would, but the fact remained he could.
Alace pulled in a breath and blew it out, closed the lid on the grill and turned towards the house in time to see Eric walking out, tongs in hand.
“Move over, woman. Grillin’ is a man’s work.” He crowded her, getting close enough to brush his chest against her breasts before he bent his neck. She lifted to her toes, fingers digging into the sides of his waist as she kissed him. “Mmmm. Maybe don’t move it. Maybe you need to stay right here.” His lips caressed hers as he murmured, “Love you, baby.”
He did. She never doubted it anymore. He’d proven her fears groundless, bringing her back to center, time and again.
“Love you more.” She felt his lips move and knew by the crinkles at the corners of his beautiful eyes he was smiling down at her. Something she could see every day for the rest of her life and never tire of. “Now,” she lifted that scant inch again and kissed him, “get to grillin’, honey. Guests will be here soon.”
“Hello, the house,” she heard and froze in place, Eric chuckling at her reaction. Turning, she saw a man walk out, tall and broad, his carriage confident, stride long in jeans that fit him well. “Hey, man.” He was pacing towards them, and Alace shifted to the side, going to give them some space, her attempts foiled when Eric’s arm closed tight around her, pulling her close as he moved to meet their guest.
“Todd,” Eric said, warmth in his voice. Alace examined his friend intently. Todd looked different from the official pictures she’d studied, more laidback, resembling the man in the photos Eric had from vacation trips together. He didn’t quite present himself like a judge, with his too-long hair and easy smile. She realized he was staring back at her, corners of his mouth curling up into a boyish grin.
“Damn, E. She’s gorgeous.”
“Told you.” Eric’s arm gave her a squeeze. “No date?”
“Nope. She couldn’t make it.” Todd shrugged, tucking his hands deep into his pockets. “Story of my life, man.”
Alace thoughtfully studied the two of them, watching as their conversation casually volleyed back and forth.
“Which one was this?” Eric led her away, and she glanced over her shoulder to see Todd following them towards the grill. She had no doubt Eric had arranged this, made it so the one person she was most nervous about meeting showed first, giving her time to settle down without a bigger audience. She relaxed into him and felt him press a kiss to the top of her head as she gave him her weight.
“That blonde from the corner store.” Todd helpfully lifted the lid on the grill, as comfortable in Eric’s backyard as if he hadn’t stayed away for half a year at Eric’s request. “Got a beer?”
Alace decided it was time to join the conversation, time to carve her space out of this friendship between the two men. “There’s a full cooler in the house. I just need to add ice. I’ll bring you one.” Tipping her head up, she caught sight of Eric’s smile and noted he looked even more at ease, lines of stress disappearing. He was nervous about this, too, she realized.
“Okay, baby.” He gave her a squeeze and released her.
Alace was dumping a bag of ice into the opened cooler when she heard footsteps at the door and tipped her head up, freezing in place when she saw Todd. He studied her for a moment, and as he did so, his happy façade fell away, a tension flowing back into his features revealing to her the man who sat on a tall seat in ponderous robes. He stood there looking at her, and Alace felt his judgment was balancing on the edge, ready to go either way.
“I love him.” She blurted this to a man she didn’t know, but who meant the world to Eric.
“I know you do. He loves you, too.” She nodded, but Todd wasn’t done. “Can you keep him safe?”
That one question told her he knew much more than Eric had let on to her. Todd knew who she’d been, might even have an inkling of who she might need to be again. She was exploring ideas about how to put her unique skills to work in a better way, but those plans were still in their infancy, wishful thinking more than plans, if she were honest. Todd knew what she’d been might put his friend at risk, and she needed to reassure him without giving away things he might not already have guessed.
“I can.” She didn’t promise, didn’t have to, her gut telling her confidence was the right path, and she saw the muscles in Todd’s jaw relax a tiny amount. He looked at her for a long moment, gaze flicking back and forth across her face, and finally he nodded, accepting her statement at face value. She straightened, closing the lid on the cooler and shoved it an inch towards him. “Can you carry that for me?” Moving past the intense moment they’d shared, she needed Todd out of her space so she could breathe. For all she might appear carefree, fear still clotted her veins, making her heart race in her chest.
“Sure can.” He hefted the container, bottles and cans shifting inside, clinking quietly against each other as they adjusted to find the best fit alongside their neighbors. “Eric said he’ll be ready for the meat soon.” She nodded, gaze still locked on his, knowing instinctively he wasn’t done. “I like you, Alace. I like you for Eric. He was pretty intense for a while, and I think you know why. I’m damned glad he found you, and I’m even more glad you’re here, now. He needed something, and it looks like you’re it.”
With that surprise pronouncement, Todd turned and stalked away while Alace stood and stared, mouth open, speechless for once.
***
Eric
“You’re certain?” He pressured Todd for confirmation, wanting verification before he allowed himself to believe in his friend’s words.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Not just redacted, but deleted, and where they couldn’t be deleted, they’re buried under a thousand pages of bullshit. She’s vapor, man.”
Todd had been working on erasing not just the traces of Eric’s pursuit of Alace, those crumbs left behind when someone was searching and stirring up old information, but on the absolute clearing of the evidence that had led him to Alabama in the first place. It had been slow going, taking months longer than Eric wanted, but he’d known Todd was the only person he trusted to handle it.
No one else in his life knew the full breadth of what Eric had been willing to do to find Alace. Todd knew not only that, but everything. That had been a tense conversation, one filled with danger. If Todd had chosen the high road, Eric couldn’t have stopped him. It would have cost Eric an open life with Alace, and he knew it. He also knew he needed to be honest with the one man who’d had his back through their entire lives. Closer than brothers.
No surprise when Todd chose the path of support, deciding to trust Eric’s judgment, even as he’d been ruthless about his questioning. He’d demanded to know everything, and Eric gave it to him. It had taken time, but eventually knowing Alace’s background, what had happened to her, and Eric’s unfailing belief in what he’d found with her had been enough to convince Todd.
So when he’d approached him about this task, Eric had known it wouldn’t be an issue. He was glad to know he’d been right.
“Thanks aren’t enough.” Eric reached out, gripping Todd’s shoulder firmly, shaking him slightly. “I owe you.”
Todd didn’t respond, just flashed a grin that Eric found himself returning with profound relief.
All of that was now officially in the past, and he and Alace could move forwards.
He couldn’t wait to see what the future brought them.
Epilogue
Nine years, eight months
Alace
Laying back on the poolside lounge that was arranged to give the best possible view of the ocean stretching out towards the horizon, Alace grinned at the constant babble of conversation that filled the background. Rough fingers found hers, and she didn’t have to turn to know they belonged to her husband. He gave a squeeze, then laughed while he started a running commentary on what was happening in his mother’s kitchen.
“Bebe’s in heaven, beloved.” Alace knew that to be true, Phoebe had confided as much to her yesterday when they’d arrived for a visit. Seeing her grandchildren always brought her an undeniable joy, so much it made Alace’s throat clog with tears every time. “She’s got both Lila and Tracey on stepstools helping her bake what appears to be a cake. This might be a failed endeavor. We’ll have to wait and see. But I would argue there might be more batter on our children than in the bowl at this point.” Eric’s voice vibrated with humor. “She loves it, baby. I’ve never seen my mother this happy.”
Alace twisted, looking over her shoulder at the scene unfolding before her. Tall, elegant Phoebe was bracketed on either side by a child, each with Eric’s golden-brown hair, and though she couldn’t tell from this distance, Alace knew their faces held his eyes, too. Eight-year-old Lila and her five-year-old little sister loved their grandmother to distraction, counting down the days between visits with all the intensity children brought to everyday life.
Movement to the side pulled her attention, and she turned, smiling as Eric’s face grew near, closing her eyes when his lips brushed hers in a soft caress.
“God, I love you,” she whispered when he pulled back, and got to see one of her favorite things happen as Eric’s eyes lit from within. He bent back to her and kissed her again, this one hard and closed-mouthed, powerful. Possessive. As always. She grinned.
“I love you, too.” His fingers squeezed again, then disappeared, the heat and pressure of his palm reappearing on her belly. “Are you ready to tell her the news yet?”
Alace shook her head, smiling at him. “Not yet. I want to hold off another couple of weeks.” She heard her phone buzz once, then a second and third time, quick on the heels of the first.
Eric sighed and shook his head, tracing along her cheek with the tip of his nose. “You see to that. I’ll go make sure my mother isn’t promising the girls their own ponies.” Horses had become Tracey’s latest thing, with her profession declarations running the gamut from veterinarian to mounted police. She was always on the go, and the more fraught with danger the activity, the bigger her smile. Lila was their sensitive, quiet child, the one who seemed destined for a career in the arts. The stories she spun during quiet times were intricate and detailed, and Alace found herself wanting to capture them in some way. She rolled her eyes. Since I’m a writer and all, you’d think I’d know how to do that.
She shifted, put her feet on the cement apron surrounding the pool, and reached for her phone. She studied the alerts for a moment, then called to Eric as she stood, “I’ve got to get on the computer. I’ll be as fast as I can.”
He grunted, moving at her side towards the house, and she glanced up to see he was still smiling, focused on his mother with their children. “Lemme know if you need longer, baby.”
Walking beside him, she leaned close, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her lips to his bicep. “Will do.” Passing through the kitchen, she moved close to the girls and kissed the sides of their heads loudly. “Back in a jiffy, my babies.”
In their bedroom, Alace retrieved her bag, taking out a laptop and battery. She assembled and booted the device up, waiting for it to cycle through the various checks she’d built into the operating system. Logging in took another series of keystrokes, with multiple factor authentication just to get into the computer, and then another series of cryptic connections to get to the system that had sent the alerts.
Scanning the messages, she found what she was looking for and took her time reading, then re-reading, flipping back and forth to review other data before she responded. Sending a series of texts, she informed the recipient of her take on the situation, giving an educated opinion on what should happen next.
Alace spent another thirty minutes checking in, looking through uploaded documents on a variety of cases she was currently managing. She then sorted additional nonurgent requests, prioritizing them to review in closer detail later tonight.
Alace had taken Regg’s place.
Sort of.
Accepting a new role in the ecosystem of reprisals, she had garnered the respect of the community by cultivating hunters with an exceptional sense of honor, the only way she would consent to work with anyone. She still wasn’t driven by the money, even if it was good. Half of all she earned went to charity, same as it always had. No, what got her blood rushing was the chance to set right things that had gone badly awry. Making a difference in the life of a victim, and along the way ensuring serial offenders lost any opportunity to continue their path of pain.
She’d never gone back out on a gig personally, having retired from that aspect entirely. But with Regg’s contacts in hand, shifting her part to the one coordinating resources for a successful end had turned out to be unexpectedly rewarding. She knew Eric had worried. A lot. And he wasn’t wrong in his concern. After spending so long going from challenge to challenge, with the wash of adrenaline a constant companion, Alace knew there would be no life in which she could be “normal.” The biggest barrier was taking what she needed and mixing it with what was available, and doing it in a way that left her fulfilled while letting Eric get behind it without having to wrestle with his conscience every step of the way. His ethics weren’t something she was willing to sacrifice, so she’d struggled until she finally found a balance that suited them both. Revenge wasn’t only couched in final terms. Sometimes making them live with what they’d done was sweeter.
Writing was still her camouflage, covering a wide array of disappearances and odd occurrences. No one in town—save Todd, who she was convinced knew everything—had a clue that Douglas County was harboring the mastermind behind some of the most nationally-famous arrests of the past decade.
Within an hour, she was back in the kitchen, laughing aloud at the image of Eric standing next to his mother with cake batter smeared across his cheek and spoon in hand while their children ran laughing through the house.
Walking to him, Alace swiped a finger through the chocolate and tucked it into her mouth, savoring both the flavor and the heat that darkened his whiskey-brown eyes, thinking she could watch the hunger build on his face for at least seventeen lifetimes. He is just so damned …
“Sweet.”
~
THANK YOU FOR READING Alace Sweets!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Raised in the south, MariaLisa deMora learned about the magic of books at an early age. Every summer, she would spend hours in the Upshur County library, devouring stacks of books in every genre. She still reads voraciously, and always has a few books going in paperback, hardback, on devices! On music, she says, “I love music of nearly any kind—jazz, country, rock, alt rock, metal, classical, bluegrass, rap, gangstergrass, hip hop—you name the type, I probably listen to it.
“I can often be seen dancing through the house in the early mornings. But what I really, REALLY love is live music. My favorite way to experience live music is seeing bands in small, dive bars [read: small, intimate venues]. If said bar [venue] has a good selection of premium tequila, then that’s a definite plus! Oh, and since I’m a hand gal, drummers are my thing—yeah, Paul and Alex—you know who you are!”
ADDITIONAL SERIES AND BOOKS
Please note each book is part of a series, for the most part featuring characters from additional books in the series. If the books in a series are read out of order, you’ll twig to spoilers for the other books, so going back to read the skipped titles won’t have the same angsty reveals.
It is strongly recommended they be read in order.
Rebel Wayfarers MC series:
Mica, #1
A Sweet & Merry Christmas, short story #1.5
Slate, #2
Bear, #3
Jase, #4
Gunny, #5
Mason, #6
Hoss, #7
Harddrive Holidays, short story #7.5
Duck, #8
Biker Chick Campout, short story #8.5
Watcher, #9
A Kiss to Keep You, novella #9.25
Gun Totin’ Annie, short story #9.5
Secret Santa, short story #9.75
Bones, #10
Gunny’s Pups, novella #10.25
Never Settle, short story #10.5
Not Even A Mouse, short story #10.75
Fury, #11
Cassie, #12 (2018)
Road Runner’s Ride, novella #12.5
Occupy Yourself band series:
Born Into Trouble, #1
Grace In Motion, #2 (2018)
What They Say, #3 (2018)
Neither This, Nor That series:
This Is the Route Of Twisted Pain, #1
Treading the Traitor’s Path: Out Bad, #2
Trapped by Fate on Reckless Roads, #3 (2018)
Other Books:
With My Whole Heart
Alace Sweets
More information available at mldemora.com.
MariaLisa deMora, Alace Sweets
