Chace’s grin got bigger.

He was being f**king stupid, he knew it. He should steer well clear. He knew that too.

But he didn’t give a f**k.

The minute he saw the anguish in her eyes under the streetlamps and knew she’d been crying, he stopped fighting it. He’d chewed on it over the weekend. He was distracted during his dinner with his Mom in a way she noticed and asked about it, but he carefully skirted the issue and didn’t tell her.

But he knew, even before he drove by the library that morning and saw her in her Cherokee, something that provided him a golden opportunity to get in there, that he was no longer going to try to fight her pull.

So he stopped trying.

He should take better care of her. He should leave her to find a good man who could focus on her, their lives, the family they’d build. A man who didn’t have so much baggage sometimes it was hard to haul his ass out of bed in the morning, it was so f**king heavy. Who wasn’t caked in the filth he swam in for a decade. Who didn’t come from a dysfunctional home that added more baggage to an already crippling load. Who didn’t detest his father. Who didn’t have to put energy into protecting his delicate, oversensitive mother. Who didn’t have a dead wife who he didn’t love but he also didn’t protect and therefore her last experience on this earth was having her mouth raped.

But he wasn’t going to do that.

Right now, Faye was worried about this kid. Right now, she had shit on her mind that sent her into the dark night. Shit he now knew meant she might lose her job which meant, for a librarian in a small town, she was f**ked. To get a job in her profession, she’d have to move. A move that would take her away from her family and hometown. Or she’d have to find a different occupation. Right now, she had no man to take her back. She had a few friends and a good family but that wasn’t the same as having a man take your back.

This meant, Chace decided, he was going to be the man who took her back.

It was a weak decision and it was wrong. It was an excuse and a lame one. And it was highly likely once she found out everything about him it wouldn’t end well.

But in his mind’s eye he saw her face get adorably angry and heard her musical but irate voice ask, Do you have multiple personalities?

Seeing it, hearing her voice, he also decided he didn’t give a f**k that he was weak and what he was doing was wrong.

He was still going to do it.

And in doing it, he was heading back to the library and not his truck so he could tell her what had happened with the boy, instead of doing what he should do and go to work.

But as he was jogging across the street to the opposite corner where the library was, his head turned so he could look to her old, beat up Cherokee in the side parking lot and his peripheral vision caught on something. So his head turned further and he saw his burgundy GMC Yukon still where he parked it on the street. He also saw a man he knew, a man he detested only slightly less than his father, leaning against the grill, arms crossed on his chest.

Shit. Fuck. Jesus.

This was something he wanted to ignore but couldn’t. It was time to have words, state where he was with this shit in a way that couldn’t be misinterpreted and hopefully, but doubtfully, move on.

He stopped jogging and started walking, eyes trained to the man, feeling his jaw get hard.

Clinton Bonar, his father’s associate which meant lackey, kept his eyes trained to Chace as he approached. He was wearing shades but Chace still felt the man’s eyes mostly through the nasty prickle on the back of his neck he always felt when he was around his father, his father’s cronies or their minions.

He stopped a foot away and looked down the two inches he had on the man.

Clinton didn’t speak, didn’t even tip up his chin in greeting.

Chace didn’t tip up his chin but he did speak.

“Dad back from his sick f**k fest?”

Clinton didn’t move but asked, “Isn’t it time you got over that, Chace? It’s far from unusual for a man or a woman to have certain penchants.”

“Wrong, Bonar, I know Dad’s penchants and they are very unusual.”

“He’s a virile man with a great deal of energy even at his age.”

“He’s a married man at his current age and was six years ago and for the last thirty-seven years.”

“A man needs what he needs and if he can’t get it at home, he’ll find a way to get it.”

Chace jerked up his chin. “Dad certainly does that.”

Clinton shook his head. “I’m uncertain why we’re talking about this.”

“Then I’ll do you a favor and fill you in. That would be because I’m remindin’ you that whatever the f**k he sent you here to do, I am not gonna do.”

“We’ve been getting that impression considering you aren’t answering or returning our calls.”

“Then you’re getting the right impression. I don’t want to hear from you and I don’t wanna speak to you. Any of you.”

Clinton pushed away from Chace’s vehicle so he was standing, not leaning, and said quietly, “There’s unfinished business.”

“Yeah, you’ve told me more than once,” Chace replied. “And I’ve told you, it’s not my unfinished business. It’s yours.”

“You know that isn’t true.”

“You’re not catchin’ this, man, but with me not talkin’ to you or any of your buddies, it is true.”

Chace watched him take a calming breath in through his nose before he continued, “We are aware that Darren Newcomb gave a copy of your father’s tape to Tyrell Walker and Mr. Walker made copies and gave them to a variety of residents of Carnal. We wish for those tapes to be collected.”

“Good luck with that.”

Clinton ignored him and kept going. “Newcomb’s also in possession of a variety of items we need returned.”

“Good luck with that too.”

Clinton shook his head. “I don’t think you’re understanding me, Chace. Newcomb has approached all of my colleagues, sharing he has these items and his intentions. He’s received remuneration for their return and has reneged on his part of that deal and asked for more remuneration. This cannot go on.”

“I can see you got a big problem there, Bonar, and I know you boys are thorough so I know you know this but I’ll tell you all the same. Newcomb lost his job, he’s a disgraced cop, no way in f**k he’s gonna find another position anywhere and his daughter has leukemia. He has no insurance but he does have a strong desire to do whatever the f**k he can to keep her alive. The shit he has to do costs a f**kin’ whack and is never ending unless, God forbid, she dies or she beats that shit. So my advice, settle in because he’s gonna take you for a long ride.”

“We all agree it’s unfortunate Newcomb’s family is suffering and we hope the outcome is a positive one. That being said, my colleagues feel they should make their own choices as to what charities they’d wish to receive their donations.”

“Then they shouldn’t have done stupid, f**ked up shit and got caught doin’ it by Fuller and his band of ass**le brothers. That’s also their problem and not mine.”

He leaned slightly forward, Chace’s body went alert so he wisely leaned right back but did it speaking. “I’ll remind you, your father is one of the men who might, if he stops paying, be exposed.”

“And I’ll remind you I don’t give a f**k.”

Clinton continued, “He’s exposed then your mother learns about his…” he paused, “inclinations. If you find them unsavory, a man, a police detective, imagine what it would do to Valerie.”

Chace leaned in this time and even seeing Bonar’s body go alert, he didn’t lean back.

“You got me with that shit years ago. I swallowed that bitter pill and jacked my life doing it.”

“If this is true, why did you approach IA and offer yourself to go undercover?”

“That pill wore off, Bonar, and when it did, I couldn’t live with that shit anymore.”

“You made a lot of powerful men very vulnerable doing that, Chace. They don’t like to feel vulnerable.”

“I don’t give a f**k about that either.”

“You made Valerie vulnerable.”

Chace successfully fought back the urge to suck in a sharp breath, and the stronger urge to grab the man by his fancy-ass silk tie and slam him to the hood of his car, before he replied, “Then it’s time I had a chat with my Mom. It won’t be pleasant and it’ll f**k her up but it’s better comin’ from me than from the media or one of your goons.”

“Chace, you are not understanding me and you need to understand me. My colleagues find this situation untenable, they want it to be over and they have the means to see to that in ways you will not like all that much.”

“Is that a threat?” Chace asked.

“You know these men don’t make threats.”

“Then here’s the same, you or they f**k with my mother or me, what I do they won’t like all that much.”

“Because of Trane, we understand that Valerie and you are off-limits. That said, there are a number of citizens in this town you love so much you’d betray your own father to protect it. These men will not mind doing what they have to do to get what they want and laying waste to this town in the process. Starting with Tyrell and Alexa Walker.”

Feeling his blood heat and his palms itch, Chace took a step into him, getting chest to chest, nose to nose and forcing Clinton to press himself back into the grill of the SUV.

“You f**k with Ty or Lexie, you f**k with me. You f**k with anyone in this town, you f**k with me. Those men wanna lay waste to Carnal, they gotta get through me first. Something you forget, Bonar, I may have left home, I may have become a cop but for seventeen years, I was at the hand of Trane Keaton and I learned every trick he has. To protect what’s mine, make no mistake, ass**le, I’ll use them.”

“Calm down, Chace,” he replied placatingly.

“Fuck calm,” Chace growled. “My father gettin’ off on sick-fuck, jacked up kink made my life a livin’ hell for far too long. I’m clear. I’m stayin’ clear. You tell your boys to stay clear, man up and take whatever’s gonna come to them.”

“We’re simply asking you to have a conversation with two men. Walker, to get him to collect his tapes, Newcomb, to get him to deliver on his part of the bargain. Very simple.”

“Gettin’ either of those men to do that is not about havin’ a conversation. It’s about usin’ a strong arm and I’ve done that for you and your boys. I’m done doin’ that too.”

“As you’ve brought it up, at this juncture, I unfortunately have to remind you that you have, indeed, acted as an enforcer for my colleagues. If this was leaked, you’d find the questions asked by your superiors very uncomfortable and you’d undoubtedly lose your standing in this town as its saving grace hero.”