Leather & Lace- THE SPECTER SERIES [book five]

Chapter EIGHT

Lacey Paxton

Pushing up to a crouch, the dusty soil feels dry and chalky beneath your palms.. You struggle to control your ragged, frightened breath as you prepare yourself to run again, listening to the quiet footsteps as they continue their approach through the trees towards you.. If this is how you die, you won't be going quietly, or without a fight.. Adrenaline spikes in your system, slowing time to an almost glacial pace as the stealthy steps grow louder..
"Lacey? .. Lace?.."

You hold your breath.. Who the heck is that?.. How do they know your name?..

For a moment you briefly hope that it might be Sanjake.. That maybe he returned to the camp and has come looking for you.. But the paralysing fear keeps you from daring to look... When the crunch of the ground right beside you scuffles, you lurch forward, kicking off hard as you make a break for it..

"Lacey!.. Wait!.." A deep, rumbling voice hushes you as an enormous, warm hand wraps around your tiny arm..

You scream.. "Ahh!.. No!" Reflex takes over, you whirl around to face your attacker, thrusting your knee upwards into his groin, making a heavy impact for your tiny stature.. before you stomp your foot back down, hard onto his boot..

All those self defence classes might have actually paid off.. Training with Jackson and Ellerie having given you at least some power, you are momentarily stunned by your own muscle memory.. But you've never actually hurt someone before and it is all too surreal to track as you push against the mountain of a man..

The guy groans, hunching forward, his grip on your arm loosening but not releasing you.. "Ah, fuck.. Lacey.. It's me.. Ace.."

It takes several seconds for you to register what he is saying.. You know this man.. And he is just about the last person you would have expected to find you here..

Ace Greyson.. Your brother's bad-boy best friend..
Tall, dark and handsome, a man so impossibly and classically good looking it should be a crime.. Anytime in the past you had ever been within more than a few feet of him, you become a sweating, blushing mess.. Loosing all ability to speak, like a stupid starstruck teenager..

You blink in disbelief.. Head spinning.. You know Ace, sure.. But you aren't exactly friends.. Actually, you aren't anything really.. Having barely spoken in the past, all you know about him is what you have been told.. And you have definitely been told some wild things.. Honestly, you had never considered that the guy would even know your name.. That he would have noticed his friend's nerdy, younger sister..
Especially one as seemingly uptight as you, or with social skills as stunted as yours..

So then what IS he doing here?

Immediate wariness has you stepping back slightly for clarity and distance as oxygen begins to return to your blood and the burning terror that had you choking for breath dulls, only ever so slightly.. "Ace!?"

He sucks in a few deep breaths, holding his wounded manhood as he peers down at you, those mammoth, broad shoulders of his hunched.. And they are truly mammoth.. Next to you the man is a giant.. Then again.. Most guys are... Beneath the moonlight, his pastel pale-blue eyes illuminated like liquid diamonds as his dark brow furrows.. "Uh-huh, yep.. Jeeeeeeezus.."

You must have hurt him, because he relinquishes his light hold on your wrist to lean against a nearby tree, regaining his breath.. Before you can stop yourself the babbling panic bubbles out.. "T-They're all dead, Ace.. They.. Killed everyone.. The patients.. The medics... There was blood everywhere.. Screaming.. Body parts.. They slaughtered children.. I just hid.. Like a coward.. I didn't help them.. I feel sick, oh god!.."