Razors Ice 04 - Hot Ice (23 page)

Sharp threads of pain stabbed in Jace’s gut. He pressed his free hand to his stomach and frowned when he lifted it back up and saw it.

Blood on his fingers. And it was his own.

“Ah, shit. What’d you stab me with, huh? Where’s the knife, tough guy?”

“You’ve gotta let me get to that kid!” Dennie yelled frantically, oblivious to Jace’s injury.

Jace held fast and looked around on the ground for the weapon and saw a glint of metal in the grass. He picked up the ice pick and shoved it in
front of Dennie’s face. “You stabbed me with an ice pick?! Who the hell carries a freakin’ ice pick around?”

Dennie squeezed his eyes shut. It was finally dawning on him that he was being held down by a guy twice his size
who was now in the possession of an ice pick. “I…I couldn’t afford a gun. Can you let me go now?” he whined.

“No,” Jace said gruffly and looked around for something to tie him up with until the cops came. He scanned the yard for rope or
something
and all he saw was a garden hose. It would have to do.

“She was telling the truth,” Dennie mumbled to himself. “You’re not a cop, though,” he told Jace.

Jace hog-tied Dennie with the hose and yanked on the knot until it dug into the twerp’s skin. “If I were a cop, don’t you think I’d have something better to restrain you with than a garden hose?”

Dennie struggled, but the hose held fast. “You have to let me see her. You
have
to.”

“Don’t make me sit on you,” Jace threatened.

“If I could just get the kid out of the way, she’d be all mine.”

“Nobody’s getting anybody out of the way.”

“It’s the only way,” Dennie protested. “With the kid out of the picture, everything would be different. She wouldn’t have that reminder of some other guys’ mistake, you know? I have to get to the kid.”

“Listen, bucko. I’m not interested in your crazy talk, okay?”

“But, I love her! We’re meant to be together!”

“Look, dirtbag. You open your pie-hole again and I’m aiming my next punch for your temple. If and when you finally wake up, you’ll be seeing stars until Christmas. Got it?”

Dennie grunted and sagged in defeat. “Got it.”

“And don’t come near Patricia or her kid again. You come anywhere near
her and you won’t just have to deal with me. I’ll bring my whole team over to kick your ass.
Then
, we’ll have some fun and use your face for a puck. Do you understand me?”

Fear settled into Dennie’s eyes for the first time that night. “Yeah, I get it. Just don’t hit me again.”

“Okay Donnie. Or whatever the hell your name is.”

“It’s Dennie. And Patricia loves me!”

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll just call you Dummy. That suits you a whole helluva lot better. So, Dummy, what do ya say? Are you going to leave Patricia alone?”

Dennie shook his head. “I can’t, man. You don’t understand. I can’t stay away. I just can’t. She’s wonderful in every way and I have to convince her that we’re meant to be together.”

“Listen, Dummy. If you have half a brain cell in that thick skull of yours, you’ll take my advice and leave the lady alone.”

Dennie mumbled something into the grass and Jace gave him a jarring shake. “The cops are on their way and they’re gonna slap you with all kinds of charges. Breaking and
entering, assault with a deadly weapon… Imagine how pissed her husband’s going to be. When he finds out you were lurking outside his kid’s house…” Jace deliberately let Dennie fill in the blanks. “No woman is worth that kind of pain, man.”

Just then, Violet came outside onto the porch.
“Jace?” she called into the darkness.

“Yeah, Vi, I’m here,” Jace answered.

She turned to Carter inside the house. “Carter, honey, stay here and watch out the window for the police, okay? Jace?” She pointed a flashlight in his direction. “The police are on their way and I called Pats, too.”

He nodded
, but it was dark and he knew she couldn’t see him. “Sounds good,” he called out.

Violet came down the steps and walked toward Jace. She recoiled when the flashlight illuminated the scene in front of her. Dennie was confined on the lawn with what looked to be a green garden hose and Jace was crouched over him, scowling.

“It’s okay, Vi,” Jace reassured her.

She looked at Jace funny when she noticed him pressing his hand to his gut like he was holding his intestines inside. Her eyes grew wide when she saw red seeping through his shirt. She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Is that blood?
Jace? Jace, there’s blood!” she panicked. “Is that
your
blood?”

“Yeah, honey, it is. Now, can you go back in the house and get me some paper towels or something?”

Violet rushed towards him instead. “Oh my God! What happened to you? Are you okay?”

Dennie struggled against the hose again. “She knows! She knows where Patricia is!” he
screamed.

Jace rested his shoe on Dennie’s cheek, pressing him into the ground, effectively silencing him.

“Vi, honey, go back inside and get me a towel.” He glared at Dennie. “And some duct tape.”

“Yeah, okay,” she murmured. “I’ll be right back.”

“Thanks.”

Dennie mumbled something unintelligible and Jace nudged him with his shoe. “You’d better not be looking at her like that, scumbag. She doesn’t want to be with you either.”

A siren wailed in the distance and one by one the dogs in the neighborhood began to howl.

* * *

After Jace spoke with the police and pressed assault charges against Dennie—the little bastard—he went to the hospital. Sure, he had a feeling he was going to need stitches, but that wasn’t the only thing wrong. His shoulder hurt like hell and he wasn’t happy about it. This was not how he’d pictured his night ending.

Jace had insisted that Violet stay with Patricia while he went to get stitched up. He didn’t need her there worrying her pretty little head about him. Besides that, he needed time to think about what happened
tonight and to mull over how he really felt about her and the feelings she kept bringing up in him. If Dennie had been Violet’s stalker, Jace would have beaten that little twerp into a bloody pulp.

And Jace didn’t know if that was a good thing.

* * *

Early the next morning, after the whole Psycho Ice Pick Stalker of August County ordeal, Violet showed up on Jace’s doorstep unannounced. She couldn’t stay away after what had happened even if Jace probably wanted her to.
She felt awful about what happened.

“Pats wanted me to tell you how grateful she is for last night,” Violet told him when he answered the door. “All she could talk about was sending you a fruit basket to show her appreciation. So don’t say I didn’t warn you when five pounds of
gourmet pears end up on your doorstep.”

“I don’t think that little shit’ll be bothering Patricia anymore.”

“Really?” Violet’s voice held a mixture of surprise and relief.

“Yeah.
I think I scared him pretty good.”

“Oh, thank you, Jace.” She dove in for a bear hug and he sucked in a wince.

“Oh, crap, I’m so sorry. I forgot.” She pulled away. “How’s your stomach?”

“Fine.
It’s just a flesh wound.”

“You’re going to have a gnarly scar.”

“It’ll go along perfectly with the others. It’ll be nice to have a story behind a scar that doesn’t involve a skate blade.”

“Jace,” she ran her thumb over the scar near his lip, “is that how you got this one?” She had never asked him about it before. It was just always there, a part of him.

“Yeah. There was a huge dog pile in front of the net and unfortunately I was at the bottom and got nicked by a guy.”

“It wasn’t one of your own teammates, was it?”
Freak accidents involving friendly fire happened all too often in hockey.

“No. A prick named Aleksi Nikkola from the Vegas Greenbacks. He gladly used my face as a welcome mat.”

“Does it hurt?” she asked about his stomach.

“Eh, it’s just a scratch. I’ve felt worse.”

“How many stitches?” she asked, knowing full well he was downplaying the injury like always.

“
Seven.”

“Damn you, Jace McQuaid!”

“What? It’s no big deal and it’s not worth talking about.”

“But you got hurt,” she protested. “That’s a big deal to me.”

“It’s what I do. One time I played three games with a broken wrist.”

She grimaced. “You were hurt protecting Carter and me and I’m grateful for that.”

“How grateful?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.

“I can think of a few ways I’d like to repay you.”
In fact, she had wracked her brain all night for ideas of how to pay him back for his bravery.

“As long as one of them involves that pineapple stuff, I’m good.”

“What about your stitches?”

He smoothed her hair from her face.
The stitches were the last thing on his mind. “Sshh, I’ll be careful.”

Jace made love to
Violet differently that night. He kissed and caressed every inch of her body and didn’t let up until she was trembling with pleasure.

This would be the last time. Sure, he’d said told himself that before, but this time he knew it to be true. The longer he waited, the harder it would be. It was like ripping off a Band-Aid, right? Don’t hesitate, just do it without thinking twice about it.

Jace prided himself on being an All or Nothing type of guy. On the ice and in his personal life. And that’s what made his decision even more painful, more excruciating. But no one ever said life was going to be easy.

Th
at night when they made love again, Jace knew it would be the last time he would ever hold her, so he took what she gave and a little more. He relished in her touch and stored the sensations in his memory. How she tasted, the little sounds she made when he moved over her and how her hair felt so damn soft when it was tangled around his fingers. The sensitive spot behind her ear that made her gasp whenever he found it. How her pulse quickened when he kissed her a certain way. All of the things that made her so special and beautiful.

From the very first day he saw her standing, shivering on the sidewalk, Jace knew she was beautiful. Her cheeks painted pink by the wind chill, her
expressive eyes sparkling in the cold. And now, she was even more beautiful than before. Her cheeks flushed from their lovemaking, her eyes twinkling in the fire light, her lips swollen from kissing, her skin glowing and damp with perspiration.

The only difference now was that he knew her, really knew her.
Inside and out. Her hopes, dreams, fears. And he had
had
her. Tasted her. Tasted those plump lips. Felt those fingertips dig into his flesh when he made her come. Seen those eyes bore into his own as he buried himself into her depths. And it was because he’d done all those things that he knew he had to let go of her. In the one way that really mattered, she wasn’t his,
couldn’t
be his.

And that fact alone was the cause of many of his sleepless nights.

“Why didn’t you call Phillip last night instead of me?”

She was quiet for a while before she answered. “Phillip is in San Jose at some medical conference.” Or at least that’s where he’d told her he was going to be. His next credit card statement would probably tell her differently. The truth was she wouldn’t have called Phillip even if he was in town and that bothered her as much as it bothered Jace.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Jace clarified. “I don’t mind that you called, especially when I got the ‘reward’, I was just curious.”

“He would have blown me off anyway, Jace. Phillip doesn’t care.”

“I doubt that.” Why wouldn’t Phillip choose to be there for her? She was a beautiful, amazing woman that any man would thank his lucky stars to be with.

“You don’t know him,” she replied with a heavy sigh. “Last year, when I had to have
dental surgery he told me to call someone else for a ride home.”

“Why are you with him?” Jace
asked, his voice so soft that Violet thought he might not have meant to say the words out loud.

“Whenever I try to talk to him about breaking things off, he has some excuse, somewhere more important to be. He avoids me at all costs and it makes things
…difficult.”

Jace wondered if she’d still try to break things off with Phillip if it weren’t for him. Jace also knew that if he weren’t in the picture, she wouldn’t be faced with
the dilemma. Phillip would be the one for her. Her only choice.

“There’s something else that’s been bothering me,” Jace admitted.
Might as well get everything out in the open before ending it altogether. “Why tell me about Phillip in the first place? Why not keep it a secret while you had a little harmless fling with me?”