He could control it, had been for years. It was only recently when he started to believe he could beat it, move past it and maybe find a life where his memories focused more on his sister’s grace, her smile, her giggles, her easy affection and less on watching her life end way too f**king soon.

And that was because only recently he’d final y come to understand that he wouldn’t be able to accomplish that alone.

Luckily, he’d also recently come to understand he was far from alone.

Then he stood and both women disengaged from him, Lana taking a step back.

Then he muttered, “Wiped,” and moved to his mother.

He wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pul ed her to him as he bent to touch his lips to her forehead. There he whispered, “Missed your voice, your eyes, your touch, even your smel .”

Mace heard her draw in a sharp breath, her hands went to his waist, fingers digging in but she didn’t say a word and he said no more. He also didn’t move. Not for awhile.

He breathed her in, felt her touch and let it heal.

He should have remembered.

He didn’t.

Now he did.

Thank Christ.

Then he kissed her forehead and pul ed away. She let him go. Feeling his mother’s gaze soft on him, he turned to Chloe, ignoring the tears shimmering in her eyes, he bent and did the same but saying nothing, just touching his lips to her forehead and pul ing back.

She sniffled.

He looked between them and muttered, “See you in the morning. We’l al go out and have breakfast,” he paused then finished, “If Daisy lets us.”

“Right,” Lana agreed, her voice husky.

“Oh… okay,” Chloe stammered, her voice trembling.

Mace started to move from the room but stopped at the door and looked back. Then he smiled at his “Moms”.

They smiled back.

He walked out of the room and back up the stairs.

In the darkened room he was sharing with Stel a, he silently accepted Juno’s soft, welcome back woof, took off his clothes, stood by the side of the bed and repeated the actions he’d done once that day. He lifted his arms, undid the chain at his neck, brought it down, upended it and Tiny’s ring Indy had returned to him with a kiss to his cheek before getting into Lee’s Crossfire dropped into his hand. He set the chain on the nightstand, pul ed back the covers and slid in behind Stel a.

His arms moved around her heavy, sleeping body, his fingers found her right hand, he lifted it and the fingers of his other hand slid Tiny’s ring on her pinkie.

When he did, she moved, nuzzling back into him and muttering groggily, “Grenades. Jeez, babe, Swen and Ulrika are gonna be pissed.”

Then her body settled and Mace knew she was again asleep.

And he lay in the dark listening to her breathe.

It was the most beautiful sound he ever heard.

Then her words hit him.

And he couldn’t help it, his arms closed tight around her, he buried his face in her hair, smel ed mint, decided he seriously f**king loved that smel and he burst out laughing.

* * * * *

Stella I woke and blinked at the tight hold of the arms around me and the sound of Mace laughing into the back of my hair.

That’s weird, has he cracked up? My brain asked me.

I listened to his laugh, felt his warm strength curled al around me and considered this for a mil isecond.

Then I decided, if my man had gone insane and Mace’s brand of insanity meant he was holding me close and laughing, I didn’t give an ef.

And on that thought, I went back to sleep.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Rock Chick

Jane

One week later…

Jane slid through the shelves of Fortnum’s unnoticed by customers. Then she slid behind the front counter unnoticed by Rock Chicks, unnoticed by Hot Bunch, unnoticed by Tex and unnoticed by Duke.

“It has to be somebody, ” Al y stated and Jane looked to the couch faced by two armchairs al of which sat in front of the huge front window.

Mace was sitting on the arm of the couch, Stel a held close in front of him between his legs. Daisy and Shirleen were in the sofa. Hector was seated on the other arm of the sofa, unlike Mace, who had one foot in the sofa seat, one on the floor. Hector had both feet on the floor, his back slightly to the couch, slightly removed.

His mind was somewhere else.

Jane briefly wondered where it was.

Then her eyes moved to Al y who was in one of the armchairs across from the couch. Stevie was in the other one, his dog Chowleena on her bel y beside his chair taking a snooze.

Tod was on a flight. Seeing as he was a flight attendant, that frequently happened which meant he often missed the action. This annoyed him and he let this be known as only Tod could do. Then again, he had drag queen outfits to buy and something had to pay for them so off he went, grumbling and/or throwing attitude al the way.

Jane found this amusing.

Then again, Jane found a lot that happened in Fortnum’s amusing.

Her eyes moved again and she saw Roam and Sniff sitting at a table, coffee cups in front of them. Roam was lounged back, one long leg bent, foot to floor, one long leg stretched out. He had his phone to his ear. Sniff was sitting across from him, shoving the contents of the bag of fast food he’d brought with him into his mouth.

Three girls around Roam’s age were at an arrangement of chairs two tables away from him. Al of the girls had been in before. Al of them frequently. Al of them were now staring at Roam which was what they did if they were lucky enough to time their visit when he was hanging. And al of them were doing it in a way that it was clear they wished it was the other way around.

Jane knew why. When she first saw Roam some months ago, she thought you had to be blind not to see the promise of good looks. They were stamped on him. In just months, this had grown with his confidence, the bulking out of his body along with his understanding of what it could do, his quick and acute awareness of his surroundings, his alert eyes that held a wealth of experience far beyond his age and just simply the fact that he was maturing into his looks.

It was plain to see he was going to be beautiful mostly because he was nearly there now.

It was also plain to see he was fol owing close in the footsteps of his Hot Bunch mentors. Jane knew this because he was oblivious to the looks he was getting.

Completely.

The girl who caught Roam’s eye and held it would not look. She would do the opposite and he would thril to the chase.

It was just the way of the Hot Bunch.

They didn’t do easy.

Wel , that wasn’t true. They did a lot of easy they just didn’t instal it in their bed for a lifetime.