There it was yet again. Lying always, always got you into trouble.

“H… how –?” I started and Chace cut me off.

“Got on to check the game time, barely got that f**ker booted up when screens popped up. They’re pissed, baby. Seriously. You haven’t been available to them but you haven’t been forthcoming why. And they got things to share,” he leaned toward me and the way he did made me lean slightly back even though he was ten feet away, “about The Elite.”

Uh-oh.

“Chace –” I whispered but said no more because he lost it.

I knew he lost it because he roared… yes… actually… roared, “Have you lost your f**king mind?”

My heart started thumping in my chest.

“Chace –”

“Take your goddamned coat off and get away from the door,” he growled and my head jerked.

“Wh… what?”

“Take,” he took a step toward me and I stepped back, “your,” he took another step and so did I, “goddamned,” another step for him and me, “coat off.”

“Why?” I whispered and kept retreating as he made it to the door and stopped.

I then watched in fascinated horror as he flipped the deadbolt and set the chain then turned to me.

“Do it, Faye.”

“You’re kind of scaring me,” I said softly.

“Yeah?” he asked, tipping his head sharply to the side. “Good,” he bit off to finish.

“It’s not good,” I whispered.

“Oh yeah, it is, honey,” he whispered back. “You should be scared of me right now. You should be scared of me because I am extremely pissed off. And I’m extremely pissed off because you and your band of misfits have been doin’ something so f**kin’ stupid I can’t even explain to you how stupid it is. And the reason it’s stupid is because it’s dangerous.”

“Chace, it –”

He interrupted me to rap out, “It what?”

“We –” I tried again but he cut me off again before I could say two words.

“You what?”

“Please let me speak.”

He didn’t.

He leaned forward and thundered, “Misty got dead because of those ass**les.”

“I know,” I whispered.

“So, she got dead, you and your two buddies thought it was smart to play with that kinda fire? Jesus f**kin’ Christ, Faye, how could you be so goddamned stupid?”

“I told them to back off,” I said softly.

“Well, they didn’t,” he fired back. “They got names, Faye, they got a lot, and all of it they should not have. They should not know. I do not know those two but I know you.” He lifted a hand and jabbed a finger at me. “And I like you. I didn’t f**kin’ like my wife but I still didn’t want her on her knees, terrified, a c**k forced in her mouth, her face raped before she got holes blown into her. So if that shit happens to you,” he jabbed his finger at me again, taking a step toward me before rocking to a wooden halt, “I… will… lose… my… goddamned mind!”

But I was frozen, head to toe so it took a lot of effort to force out my, “What?”

“Yeah,” he ground out. “Semen on her face, darlin’, in her stomach. No one knows but a bunch of cops, most of them dirty, and me, the same and her f**kin’ husband. Last thing Misty did on this earth was give a blowjob and not one she wanted to give. Before he f**kin’ took her life, he f**ked her goddamned face.”

My entire body started shivering as I stared at him and tried to process this horror.

“That why you were up there that night we met?” he asked and when I stared at him blankly, shivering, shocked at this new knowledge, he barked, “Answer me!”

I jumped and whispered, “Ye… yes.”

“Jesus f**king Christ!” he yelled, turning, he swiped my perfume bottle off my dresser, shifted and with a scary, powerful sidearm throw he threw it across the room so it shattered against the bricks at the other side of the apartment.

I blindly took quick steps back, going at a diagonal and slammed my side into the kitchen counter. My body registered the pain so I stopped.

His burning eyes scorched back to me and he clipped out, “This world, Faye, the one you actually live in is not a fantasy.”

“I… I know,” I said softly.

“Bad shit happens.”

“I know,” I repeated.

“Happily ever afters are not f**kin’ guaranteed.”

“Chace –”

“You can be you, good, sweet, kind, generous, loving and still get your face raped and holes blown through your beautiful body and no hero’s gonna ride in and save you from that shit because you’ll be f**kin’ dead.”

“Pl… please calm down, Chace, and let me explain.”

“There is no explanation for this stupid f**kin’ shit, Faye,” he fired back and I stared at him.

Then I squared my shoulders and whispered, “There is.”

He studied me a second before he threw his hands out to his sides and invited sarcastically, “Dazzle me.”

“I was doing it for you,” I told him softly and he shook his head, moving toward me but I stood my ground.

“Wrong answer,” he growled.

“It affected you, Misty’s death. I saw it, how it upset you and, you know, I, well, I had a crush on you before –”

I stopped speaking because suddenly he rushed me and before I knew it both his hands were on either side of my head, his face was all I could see and he whispered, “Shut up.”

I didn’t shut up.

I kept going in a whisper.

“I didn’t like to see you suffer.”

His hands pressed in and he clipped low, “Shut up, Faye.”

I didn’t shut up.

I kept talking.

“I wanted it to stop.”

“Shut it.”

“I wanted it to stop. I wanted you to be free.”

His face got closer and he growled, “Shut it.”

I again didn’t shut up.

I gave him all of me.

“I wanted you to notice me.”

He used my head to yank me into him then one of his arms closed around me so tight I couldn’t breathe, his other hand curled around the side of my head, pressing my cheek to his chest and he bit out, “God damn it.”

My fingers curled into his sweater at his sides and I kept at it but I had to do it on a breathless wheeze. “It was stupid. I knew it when Benji and Serenity started turning up stuff so I tried to stop them –”