Chào các bạn! Vì nhiều lý do từ nay Truyen2U chính thức đổi tên là Truyen247.Pro. Mong các bạn tiếp tục ủng hộ truy cập tên miền mới này nhé! Mãi yêu... ♥

Ch. 41: Until we meet again


Then


"Jace, can I talk with you for a moment?"

"Sure?" Jace was in the middle of piling up a plate of food at the buffet in the hotel restaurant. Discretely, he glanced around to see there were almost no people left in the room. He looked at his plate and then at Phoenix, who stood leaning against the doorframe of the restaurant entrance. From his somewhat constipated expression, Jace figured it was not something they could discuss there. "Can I eat first?"

Phoenix nodded absentmindedly, pointed upward to indicate the rooms, and left.

Jace was not sure what to make of the way Phoenix acted. It had to be work. If it had been private, he would not have approached him at the restaurant. He would have sent a text or waited until they were somewhere alone. That was the only redeeming factor that made him not hyperventilate with panic.

Things had been very good between them since that stay in Greenwich where Jace had gone to see his father. It had taken Jace some time to come to terms with the fact that he was falling for Phoenix. It had not been thunderbolts and lightning, nor had it been Phoenix descending in a ray of divine light with angel song and harps playing. There had been none of that love at first sight, movies and books sort of powerful rush of emotions, culminating in fireworks of feelings.

With Phoenix, the feelings had come creeping in like a fog. A mist of unknown emotions to Jace. Wants and needs wrapped in a veil he could not see through and understand from the darkness beneath. It had come out of nowhere and rolled in over the plains of his life to cover Jace's dark world underneath the fog, where fear and self-blame dampened the earth that was his life. It had created a barrier between Jace's limited beliefs in love and a happy life, and Phoenix's infinity of possibilities on the other side of it. The fog, like their relationship, was a large, clouded area of unchartered territory where the visibility of what was just around the bend was low. As Phoenix had said, he was the sun, and the sun was the only thing to break through the fog to light up the darkness and chase the shadows away. To warm Jace's earth and dry out the fear and self-blame from it.

Each time Phoenix's sun shone on a new part of Jace's fogged feelings, Jace had realized Phoenix laid him bare. Open, vulnerable, and without a chance in hell to hide from what the fog revealed to him on the other side.

In the brightness of Phoenix's light, Jace had seen all the marvels of the man who devoted his time and energy to make him feel safe and cared for in their sexual setting and outside of it too. It was in the small things that Phoenix did, not only during their scenes but in their everyday life. The support at work, his commitment to drop everything to talk if Jace needed it, and his unfaltering determination to keep his agreements with Jace. The way he went out of his way to adjust to their new agreement, even if change and what Phoenix had never tried before, a club relationship outside the club, scared him.

Phoenix had adhered to Jace's request about asking and not ordering. When they had first begun to play outside the club, Phoenix had diligently covered all bases in terms of consent and assurance that what he suggested fit Jace's mood at that moment. Had it been asking Jace to come over for pizza and a spanking, or asking if Jace wanted to test out a new toy with him, Phoenix had not once shown any signs of not being ok with Jace's answers, positive or negative.

When it was the other way about, and it was Jace who had started something, Phoenix had accepted the text or call at face value without the need to ask Jace if he was sure, but he had asked for consent when he showed up to do what they had agreed on.

That extra element of their relationship had helped Jace realize he wanted a life with Phoenix outside the club. And he wanted to one day wake up to Phoenix being there. By God, that was what he needed. He was always there to calm Jace and perform aftercare, but afterward, when Jace had fallen asleep, he would wake up alone. It did not matter if they had been at Jace's or Phoenix's apartment, or a hotel when on assignment. Phoenix never failed to leave cutesy notes, explaining his absence, and Jace had no way to fault the excuses used. Usually, they were work or food related. Both Jace was ok with.

It would just have been nice.

Even there in Stockholm, Phoenix had been gone from Jace's room, down for breakfast, and hard at work before Jace even woke up. The notes had said so. Breakfast, smoke, work calls.

Scarfing down his food, Jace believed it was work-related. They were on a work assignment, and though they had spent the nights together at the hotels in Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, they had done what Gareth had sent them there to do during the day with no sexual detours or innuendos while working. When they had clocked out, they had found their private sphere and enjoyed their time together.

Their personal life was good, if not counting Jace's new feelings. He put his used plate on the dirty dishes cart, grabbed a few muffins in case Phoenix needed some sugar, and made his way upstairs to Phoenix's suite.

Everything was quiet when he got to the floor where the suites were. Jace, Maksim, Yarro, and Malachai had their regular rooms on other floors. Roarke and some of his men had rooms at another hotel, but Phoenix needed the office space of the suite and a place for them to gather when they had meetings.

Knocking on the door, Jace steadied himself. His stomach rumbled with irritation. He felt nauseous from eating so fast, and maybe a bit from the anxiety of Phoenix's behavior. It had to be something serious. Maybe a new clue about Levi?

The door opened a second later. "Come in, Jace," Phoenix mumbled, stepping aside to let Jace pass.

Jace made a swift look around the suite to see if any of the others were there. Maybe it was something they all had to be in on. When sure nobody was there, he entered fully and turned to Phoenix, who still had a serious though distant face on. Nothing was really out of the ordinary with Phoenix if a work situation. The distant look from his mind racing to sort the information in his head was normal. He was in black slacks with his blue shirt unbuttoned at the collar. That, too, was normal when not outside the hotel.

It was not the right time for it, but the look still made Jace hot and bothered. There was something subtly sexy about Phoenix's casual look, and it worked on him every time without Phoenix even trying to turn him on.

"Where are the others?"

"They had an early flight. Ours isn't until this evening. We have a late check-out. Don't worry, you'll have time to pack."

That would explain why none of them had been down for breakfast. They usually ate together if they had no meetings pre-planned. And the guys lived on Jace's sleep schedule, not Phoenix's like a damned rooster, up at the fucking crack of dawn.

"Is something wrong?" Jace asked nervously and went to plop down in a chair by the coffee table, after he had put the muffin on a napkin for Phoenix, next to the coffee and water already placed on the table.

Phoenix flung himself on the sofa opposite Jace, rubbing his chin and staring blankly at Jace. Phoenix sighed and leaned back, finally getting a more present look on his face and life in his posture.

"Well, maybe..." Phoenix hesitated, seeking the right words, though he had gone over the conversation in his mind for the last few hours. He knew what he had to say. The words did not really form for him.

Sweat broke out under Jace's clothes. He felt the dampness and how his shirt clung to his chest, and that weird sensation of the fabric of his jeans annoying his skin. Maybe he had read it wrong, and Phoenix wanted to talk about their private relationship.

"Is this work or private?"

"A bit of both, unfortunately," came Phoenix's reply in his monotone work voice.

"Are you dumping me?" Jace looked down at his hands in his lap. They rubbed against his pants to relieve the moisture of his palms. That wetness was nothing compared to how his eyes reacted. The waterworks were gearing for an explosive discharge at the thought of being dumped.

"What? No!" Phoenix jumped off the sofa to rush around the table. He crouched in front of Jace and lifted his head for them to face each other. Jace's glossy eyes were enough to pierce his heart in ways he was afraid he would not recover from, and to his horror, the same heart pumped faster, knowing that Jace reacted like that to the absurd possibility of being dumped.

It showed that Jace had some feelings, and if he nursed them enough, they could hopefully turn into more. Phoenix still clung to that hope, working his ass off to move Jace closer to his eventual goal of a relationship.

"Jace, I'm not dumping you. Why would you even think that?" The other hand, Phoenix had placed on Jace's thigh next to Jace's hand, sneaked forward to hold Jace's. "We've spent the last nine nights together. I just left your room a few hours ago after yet another great night. Why would you conclude that as me being ready to dump you?"

"I don't know. It felt a bit like you got ready to tell me something I might not like. That was the only thing I could think of."

Gently caressing Jace's chin, Phoenix quirked a smile. "Relax, it involves what we do, but it's nothing like that."

"Then please tell me," Jace whispered in a small voice, wincing at how pathetic he sounded. Those new feelings were really doing a number on him, and he was not ready to address them with Phoenix just yet. He still needed to get used to them himself, and they were messing with his head.

"You know everything we've done lately to infiltrate the British BDSM scene and the London clubs...?" That was not the opening he had rehearsed in his head, and saying it brought chaos to everything he had planned to say. Phoenix waited for Jace to confirm before he would continue.

They had spent the last eight-nine months, since the meeting with Devil, training new undercover men and slowly placing them around the clubs, when they were ready, to build networks and fish for information.

Devil had been a champ with creating the openings and pairing the undercover men with his friends. But that had only been possible after they had gone through training in BDSM and club behavior. Packard, Chess, and many others at Decadence had offered their help. Only Packard and Chess knew what really went on. And that conversation, the looks on their faces, and the multitude of questions from them were something Phoenix would never forget.

Gareth had given his ok to involve Packard. It was his club and expertise they needed, though he had disliked bringing people outside his men into their world and possibly endangering them. Packard, however, had shrugged it off easily, stating that he would not care as long as people in the community were kept safe by his small contribution. They had kept the mafia part a secret and made it out as more of a detective agency thing, where they investigated the disappearance of many subs in the community.

Together with Phoenix and some of the Master Dom couples, they had assessed each man, and through talks with them determined if they wanted to train as a Dom or a sub. Both kinds they had needed to connect with people at the clubs, and none had been forced to choose a role they had not felt comfortable with.

It had been a slow but productive process. First, the men had to pass some general training, which had not been a problem. They were Gareth's men, after all. Then, they had gone through training with Roarke and his team. Setting up new identities and learning how to behave according to those personas. Then followed by training at Decadence, and ending back with Roarke for the final approval to go undercover.

Not until approved had Roarke sent them to Devil to begin their information gathering.

Phoenix had been the go-between for everything, since he was out as a Dom. The gay part was none of anybody's business, and everybody at Decadence had kept the knowledge of his in-house relationship a secret. It was club rules, after all.

Jace had been the overall leader of the operation, finding the men with Vasili and securing a training schedule for them. He had been the one to sift through all information feedback from the men with Horse, Cellmate, and Roarke to compile a profile on Levi and other players they had to keep under surveillance. His sexuality and sexual preferences as a sub had never seen the light of day. Jace had been mission leader before, and none questioned his leadership or involvement.

"Sure?" Jace tried to control his emotions and stop his eyes from releasing the dammed-up tears.

"You know, we've gotten some good leads and a lot of information lately. Also, why we've done this tour of the Nordic countries to see if subs are missing here too." Sadly, their tour and inquiries at the different clubs and private swinger party planners had revealed the same alarming statistics on young, attractive subs going missing.

Phoenix kept eye contact with Jace, knowing his honesty was what Jace needed, and how he wanted to play it out to honor his own integrity. "There's this huge community party coming up in London, and as a Master Dom, I'm sort of expected to attend."

"Oh!" Jace instantly relaxed. That he had no issues with. He and Phoenix had discussed Phoenix's involvement and training of the new men as a Master Dom at Decadence. It had been technical training and some of it had been physical, but not sexual. Everything Phoenix had done for the men to know how to react and behave. There had been explicit instructions that sexual involvement while undercover was a personal choice. None of it had brought Phoenix into a situation where Jace had felt threatened. "Is that all?"

"No. I need your permission to go."

"What? Why?"

Phoenix pulled back; a bit surprised by Jace's reaction. "Is that all you have to say?"

"Well, I don't understand why you're asking me," Jace said with confusion and tilted his head while he thought like mad. "What would I have to say?"

Phoenix huffed with anger and disappointment. Maybe he had read Jace wrong, and how they had progressed lately. They might not have become as close and romantic as he wanted, yet, but Jace had seemed more accepting and willing to do things that were outside their playtime. He figured they had formed a new connection, a stronger one.

"If it was you going in, having to pretend to be single and working information out of Doms and subs at a strange club, flirting and maybe letting them touch you, you'd better believe I'd have something to say," Phoenix barked in a harsh tone, nostrils flaring and deadly fire burning in his eyes, witnessing the fire of pain he felt licking at his insides. "You're mine, Boy. Just mine. And until you terminate our agreement, I'll not let another Dom touch you, for fun or for work, without you having discussed it with me."

Rage overpowering him, Phoenix drew in a breath to continue his tirade. "That's my right as your Dom, my only right with you, and I'll enforce it to the fullest extent." Phoenix huffed angrily. "I would have thought you had similar feelings with me going in as a Dom. I have to pretend I'm unattached. No subs will approach a taken Dom. And you have nothing to say?"

Shocked with himself, Phoenix fell back from his crouched position to sit on his ass, leaning against the table and hiding his face in his hands, shaking at his own idiocy. He had not thought about how possessive and psycho his words could sound to somebody like Jace who had fled from that kind of behavior for years and found solace with a man he thought to be different. Which apparently, Phoenix was not. When it hit him, he deflated and recoiled from his own actions.

All he could do was wait for Jace's reaction.

Equally shocked, Jace stared at Phoenix. He saw how he trembled and hid away. Phoenix had spoken the truth. That was his only right. He was his Dom. Jace had given him full control and every privilege that came with that responsibility. But it only came with one right, the right to claim Jace as his within the walls of the community and the club. Everything outside of that, Phoenix had no say in.

That was not the issue. The issue was that the one right went both ways. Jace had no say in Phoenix's life other than as his sub, and Phoenix asked his permission to do something that might hurt Jace in that capacity. He had not just gone ahead and done anything, claiming it to be work and by that circumventing the rules of their relationship. He had taken Jace's feelings into consideration, and Jace had not even realized it. Phoenix had hoped for Jace to stand up and claim him with the same fierce possessiveness as Phoenix claimed Jace.

He had failed.

As Phoenix's sub and the man who tried to show Phoenix that he wanted more from him, he had failed. It had been a golden opportunity to show how much he cared, and in one stupid lack of judgment, Jace had pushed Phoenix away.

"Phoenix..." Jace lowered himself onto his knees to sit in front of Phoenix. When trying to reach out for him, Phoenix pushed his hand away and got up, awkwardly staggering to the window and leaning his forehead against the glass, still huffing like an angry bull.

Oddly hurt by Phoenix's first action of rejecting Jace's attempt at contact, Jace got up too. If that small amount of pain he had felt in that moment was anything like what Phoenix felt with not being perceived as something Jace would want to keep from others, Jace understood why Phoenix was raging. It was his chance to fight for Phoenix, to show him he claimed him too.

Approaching with caution, because he had never experienced Phoenix like that before and did not know how he would react, Jace moved slowly to where Phoenix was. The tensed muscles in Phoenix's back turned rigid as he got closer. Phoenix knew he was there, though he did not turn around. Jace noticed he did not move away either, which was a small victory.

Moment of truth.

In slow and gentle moves, Jace snaked his arms around Phoenix's torso, pressing his lips against his back. "I'm sorry, Phoenix. Never think I'm not claiming you. You're mine just as much as I'm yours." He sighed. "I'm sorry if I didn't react like you would have if the situations were reversed. I should have, I realize that. The only explanation I can give you is that I felt no need to question your actions, raise my voice, or make demands, because I trust you too much to think you would treat the situation as anything but work."

"Jace..." Phoenix growled, still tensed up like a bowstring and refusing to face Jace.

"It's work. You're doing it like Roarke to save lives. Lives that would be lost if you did not use your expertise and reputation to gain information for us to stop the monsters of the world. If you have to do something that goes against our agreement when you're there, I can be ok with it."

He paused.

"Just don't use it to shop for a replacement because I've disappointed you, ok? I'm sorry, and I'll make it up to you."

Jace squealed in shock like a little girl when Phoenix caught him off guard by turning around to pull him to his chest. "You stupid boy. Why would I replace you? Why would you think I wanted to dump you in the first place?"

The awkward position and Phoenix's death grip on him did not make it easy for Jace to rest comfortably into Phoenix's chest, not that he cared. He was where he needed to be, and that was more than enough.

"For fuck's sake, Jace. It's been almost four years. Can you please get it into your thick skull that I'm happy with the way things are?"

Happy?

Jace had to admit he was too. He wanted more, much more. That did not mean he was not happy with what they had already.

Jace sighed. "Thank you for asking me about the mission. I appreciate it."

"I'll always ask you when it concerns us. As I asked you if it was ok, I helped train the new men. Your opinion matters to me."

Warmth spread inside Jace, power and confidence filled him at those words. They made him brave enough to chance something he had not thought possible, and he hoped Phoenix would be open to it.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Naturally."

"When this mission is over, would you perhaps consider going with me to meet my dad?"

Jace could not only feel, but he could hear how Phoenix's breathing changed and how his heart pounded. The thrum in his chest and the pulse in his wrist near Jace's neck rose to dangerous levels and resonated through Jace like a herd of thundering wildebeests. Just the fact that Phoenix got that nervous with change was wonderful and scary at the same time.

It meant that, even if he was not ready right then and there, Phoenix could think of it. So what if it scared him out of his mind? Or if it would take a year more of subtle hints and failed attempts to make him see what Jace wanted?

Jace could be patient.

"I mean, you don't have to. I understand if you don't want to do that, it's one thing to be the executor of my will. It's another to meet my father in person," Jace backpedaled like an absolute pro in response to Phoenix's silence. He had spent the last many months putting out feelers and watching Phoenix's reactions. Every time, Jace had felt assured that if he gave Phoenix space, maybe he could change desire into affection.

So 'meet the parents' might have bombed with Phoenix, but Jace felt even more sure that he had been right in asking. The reaction had been good to determine where Phoenix was. He could wait a bit more for Phoenix to get on board with the idea. Maybe a few dates, disguised as their usual dinners, would let Phoenix try something out of a Dom/sub relationship and like it enough to try for real.

The silence was deafening. Phoenix did not react at all, and Jace was a bit afraid that he had pushed it too far.

It came as a surprise when small kisses got peppered on Jace's hair and temple. "I'd love to meet your father."

"You're sure? He won't know who you are, and he might say things that can be a bit confusing or offensive at times."

"Damn straight. I thought you were going to change our agreement back to the old one to keep things from getting blurred." Phoenix breathed out a sigh of relief and continued with the kisses. Soon switching from those sweet butterfly kisses all over Jace's face to a passionate kiss on the mouth.

It was always the same. That minty taste and remnants of cigarettes came with Phoenix's tongue. The combination was everything Jace associated with being kissed by his man. His soft lips, which for some reason never felt chapped or dry, directed Jace's lips to respond. They moved with knowing expertise, nibbling, pushing, and working just the right amount of pressure to make Jace short of breath and crave more.

Every sigh and small moan, Phoenix ate up, feeding on the reactions Jace gave him. Phoenix did everything he could in those moments to show Jace his feelings, to make Jace know how kissing him was a slice of heaven. It was a morbid thought, but Phoenix had seen Jace's soul as dying. He had found it when it had been ready to give up, and with every kiss, he tried to blow life into it, to make it see that giving up was not an option. He wanted that soul to fight, to live.

And he wanted it to live with him. Not for him or because of him. Just with him.

The best thing about their outside-of-the-club agreement was that Phoenix could kiss Jace without it having to lead to more. He was allowed to do it to show Jace that he appreciated him without having to pull out the big, bad Dom. At the club, there had been a sense of desperation about their kisses, a race to do as much as possible before their time together ended. The new agreement took away that time restriction and barriers. They could kiss when out for a smoke, or after a meeting. Hell, they could kiss in Phoenix's office at the mansion.

That freedom was great.

He could kiss Jace without growing hard and needing a cold shower or sex to feel fulfillment. Sure, he felt the heat inside, the need to be with Jace, but knowing that Jace was his and that they could meet up when they felt like it for something short or long as time allowed, was what he saw as a major step toward a real relationship. One that was not built solely on a physical release, but on a healthy balance of physical and emotional gratification.

The only thing missing was to be able to do it without hiding it, and that still was in Jace's hands. Phoenix was ready to come out as gay to Gareth and the guys. He had no shame about it, but until it was necessary, he kept things as they were. That mystery worked for him within the community too and would be good for them on the mission.

Jace's hands left patches of burning skin wherever they roamed on Phoenix's back. The heat went through his shirt and marked him. They might as well have been a branding iron, sizzling 'property of Jace Keys' onto Phoenix. Stating his claim and making him useless to anybody else.

When Phoenix ended the kiss with a few pecks on his lips, Jace lifted his head and pried his heavy eyelids open, swimming away in the glimpse of something unreadable in the depths of Phoenix's ever-swirling pools of mercury.

"Are we good?"

"Jace, do I have to kiss you again to prove that we are?"

"I wouldn't exactly mind that..." Jace winked at Phoenix with a cheeky grin and gave him a squeeze with his arms.

Phoenix chuckled in his usual way, eyes twinkling, and he stole another kiss, though shorter.

"I've got a few things to finish. What do you say to you packing while I wrap up everything, and we can grab a late lunch after check-out before we head to the airport?"

Nodding, Jace let go to leave the room and go pack. He glanced back at Phoenix, who went to pour himself a cup of coffee. At the sight, his heartbeat picked up. That was his man, and whatever it took, he would win him.

When the mission was over, Jace would introduce him to his father as his boyfriend.

That was the goal, and he was well on his way.

Closing the door behind him, Jace touched his lips with a dreamy sigh. The puffiness after their kisses always served as a reminder to him that he was on the right track. The train was moving slowly, and for the moment, it was just open country in every direction, but it would reach its destination.

Jace could feel it in his bones.

Things had changed between them.

When they kissed, it was not just a precursor for sex or a passionate response during it. To Jace, it had begun to feel romantic. It was something he wanted to do with no other physical response than to have Phoenix's arms around him when they did it. He wanted to see that look of sweet pride without it being the Dom looking at his sub. He wanted those mercury pools to swirl with emotions whenever they locked eyes in a room, not because of what they would share when they had the time, but because he was happy to see him.

Floating on a cloud of dreams of the future, Jace went with the flow of the day. Packing, checking out, going to lunch, and then going to the airport. As usual, he let Phoenix handle everything. Phoenix did the manual check-in at the passenger kiosks, got their luggage tags, and went to the self-baggage drop to send their luggage through, while Jace browsed stupid souvenirs at the gift shop for Tana.

That was their routine, and Phoenix, who was a control freak, seemed to have no problems with handling those things. The self-check-in option was much easier than having to stand in line for the manned counters.

Time-saving and less crowded.

"Thank you for your purchase. Please have a pleasant trip," the cashier at the gift shop said with that sort of singing Swedish accent that Jace found cute. She was a gorgeous blonde who had no shame in batting her eyelashes at Jace and sending him a flirty smile, one he returned without even thinking about it.

It was natural for him to smile and flirt. It meant nothing and left him with a good feeling. He was not after anything; it was just to make a good impression. She had appreciated his looks. That was not an offense. It was human nature at its best.

He smiled at the butt-ugly, big-nosed troll he had bought for Tana. She would squeal and hug it, then she would place it on a shelf with all the other souvenirs he had gotten her. She called it her collection, and though ugly, tacky, or stupid, she valued each present and proudly put them on display for people to see.

Through the crowd, Jace spotted Phoenix come toward him from the baggage drop-off, his nose in his phone, though they made eye contact for a second before Phoenix looked down again. That man was always working. Grinning at that, Jace put the gift under his arm to have his hands free to put his credit card back in his wallet.

Fumbling a bit with the card because that blasted troll was under his arm, Jace stopped for a second and got hit by a shoulder-to-shoulder collision from behind by somebody who had clearly not expected him to stop. The hit made him stumble and drop everything.

"Sorry," he called out, bending to catch his things before somebody stepped on them or accidentally kicked them away.

"Don't worry about it, sweet thing."

Jace sat paralyzed on the spot.

Heart in his throat, sweat breaking out all over, and a chill running through his veins to keep his muscles frozen in place.

That voice...

With each second, Jace's chest constricted more, breathing became difficult, and his lungs screamed for him to breathe. He could do nothing, a fear greater than any he had felt before laid on him like a lead blanket, holding him down and immobilized.

"Don't for a second think I stopped looking for you. Imagine my luck when I saw you at that bar the other night."

Warm breath hit Jace's ear as the words got whispered to him, making goosebumps of absolute terror rise all over his body. He wanted to throw up, but even that reaction his body was incapable of. Had it not been for every muscle in his body being tensed up, he would have pissed himself from fear.

"Until we meet again, mon esclave, and you have better not forgotten your training."

A choking sound was all Jace managed in response. He did not speak French, but he knew that phrase all too well.

'My slave'.

"Oh, you dropped this." An elderly man bent down to catch Jace's wallet and held it out to him with a cordial smile. "Are you ok? You don't look so well."

The man's bushy, white eyebrows shot up into his forehead, and his brown eyes met Jace's with compassion and concern at Jace's pale face and cold sweat on his forehead and upper lip.

"Young man, are you ok?" Panic laced the man's voice when Jace tried to choke out an answer, trembling uncontrollably.

Jace was not even sure how to answer the question. No, he was not ok. His chest hurt and sent jabs of searing pain through him to make him react. He caught a glimpse of a maroon shirt moving past him to stand up, and he tried to lift his head to see the person. It had to be him.

As his vision became blurry, he finally found the ability to move and clutched his chest over his heart, focused on the fussy maroon blob that had gotten up to full height but suddenly bent down quickly, only to stand again and disappear in the crowd that formed around him.

"Medic! Somebody call a medic!" the old man bellowed, panic lacing his voice as he swept in to catch Jace, who collapsed, shivering into his arms. "Relax, try to breathe."

Hands from an unknown person reached in to unbutton Jace's shirt with a few buttons to leave his throat free of constriction. Another hand held his wrist, probably to check his pulse. A female voice, claiming to belong to a nurse, sounded as a muffled sound in Jace's head. It was like everything happened underwater. He felt light, his movements were sort of floating and every sound had on a muffled filter that rapidly got tuned out by a vicious ringing in his ears.

"Jace!"

He was there.

"Do you know him?"

"I'm Phoenix, his, eh... Whatever."

The sound came from far away and not all made sense to Jace.

The blurry image that popped in front of his face could have been anything from a man to a Teletubby, and Jace could not identify who it was from the visual. It was the smell he recognized. Though he was still in panic mode, something in him relaxed. Phoenix was there, and he would know what to do and how to make it better.

"Jace!" Phoenix yelled the name in a rising panic. Never had he seen Jace in such a state. He was white as a ghost, his shirt drenched in sweat, the eyes rolled around in their sockets without any focus, and had a sheen of grey covering the blue to give them an eerie appearance. He shook and looked to have trouble breathing.

Jace was slipping away right before his eyes.

"What happened?" Phoenix looked up at the man who had held onto Jace when he got there.

The man handed Phoenix Jace's wallet. "I saw him stop, and someone bumped into him. I thought he was having a heart attack and had dropped his wallet, so I picked it up to give to him, and he's been like that since." He surveyed Jace's face and how Phoenix held him, tilting his head back and checking his pulse. "Are you a doctor? Does he have a medical condition?"

"I'm not a doctor. And no, he doesn't. I have no idea what's going on." Phoenix looked around to see if help was near. His limited medical training had not prepared him for anything like what Jace was going through. Only the woman who had said something about being a nurse gave him some help. "Where the fuck is the medic?"

Seconds felt like hours. Jace's choked breathing tore at Phoenix's soul. The inability to help Jace ate him alive.

"Jace, Baby. Where does it hurt? Anything, show me," Phoenix urged Jace with as much calm as he was capable of. Never had he felt so lost and incompetent. His emotions which usually kept him rational and level-headed worked against him and made him panic for the first time since that night in his playroom, where Jace had shocked him with his behavior. But that was nothing like what Jace did there. That night Jace had been afraid, but he had breathed.

"Jace, show me!"

If it was the Dom voice, or if Jace actually understood him, was anybody's guess, but Jace tapped on his chest with a finger in an almost invisible action.

"Ok, your chest hurts. Try to breathe with me, in and out."

Phoenix instructed Jace and breathed with him, calming himself in the process, relaxing when he saw Jace respond. Slowly at first, but he tried, and the blue tint to his lips did not look as dramatic when he began to breathe regularly. His breaths were still short and labored. They were there, though.

At long last, the crowd parted to let a team of paramedics pass. They pushed Phoenix aside and took over. Phoenix recognized the panic in Jace's eyes when they pushed him away, and he looked at Jace to lock eyes with him.

"Supernova?" Phoenix asked. He knew Jace was in no condition to say the word, and however much he wished to just take charge, he could not. He needed Jace to acknowledge him.

The nod was as indistinct as the tap to his chest before, but it was there, and relief shone in Jace's eyes when he closed them.

That was enough.

Reaching for Jace's hand, a paramedic tried to swat him away. "He's my boyfriend, fight me!" Phoenix growled low and menacingly, grabbing Jace's hand and holding on to his wallet with the other as the stretcher they had put him on was rushed away toward the airport's medical service center.

Jace could rip him a new one for publicly using the boyfriend card later, but it was an emergency, and that was the only card Phoenix had to play. Colleague would not be enough.

They got Jace onto an examination bed and hooked him up to machines galore, drew blood, put in IVs, and everything humanly possible while holding a mask of oxygen over his nose and mouth. They respectfully let Phoenix stay and hold Jace's hand, and the elderly man who had held Jace came in with an elderly lady, carrying Phoenix's carry-on bag and Jace's gift.

Jace was finally breathing easier, and some color returned to his face.

"Jace, can you tell me what happened?" Phoenix begged, wiping his eyes to rid himself of the treacherous tears that, for some reason, rolled down his cheeks.

Phoenix saw how Jace tried to lift his arm to move the mask and gently helped him with a soft smile.

"Lee..." Jace whispered.

"Lee?" Racking his brain, Phoenix tried to fill in the blanks. "Lee...?" he repeated, nodding for Jace to finish the sentence.

"Vhi..."

"Levi?" The number of horrifying thoughts that ran through Phoenix's mind when realization set in was enough to make him dizzy. The room spun around him. If that was his reaction, he could only imagine Jace's.

It made perfect sense. Only that kind of fear would knock out Jace in that manner.

"Sir," Phoenix choked out, addressing the elderly man, who had patiently waited with what Phoenix assumed was his wife. "Was there a man with Jace when he had his panic attack?"

"There was this big guy behind him. He bent down. I assumed to help, since they had bumped into each other," the man explained. "The guy ran off when I tried to help your friend. He probably had a plane to catch."

Or fucking not!

"I need to make a phone call to our boss and explain that we're not going to make our flight. Please stay with him? I'll be back in a second and just call for me if anything happens."

"Naturally, young man," the man's wife said, nodding with a gentle smile, walking to Jace, and holding his hand. She talked to him in a low, reassuring voice, but Jace did not react at all.

Phoenix stepped outside of the room and found his phone in his pocket.

"Phoenix?"

"Horse, I need your help, man. It's confidential and urgent."

"Speak and I shall find."

"Jace and I are at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm. Jace was shopping at a gift shop in the international terminal. Somebody bumped into him. I think it was Levi. I need you to pull surveillance from every angle."

Horse was already clicking away when he spoke. "Ok, what time approximately?"

"About half an hour ago? Maybe a bit more, I don't have the exact time. It's been a bit hectic. Jace had a panic attack, and I've been dealing with it since." Phoenix thought like mad, hoping Horse would come through for them and get an image of Levi. A current photo would help them a lot. "I need you to cancel our flights and remove any trace of Jace's name on the airline's passenger lists. Also going into this country."

"On it."

"Eh, Horse," Phoenix said with embarrassment. "You might see something on the videos you pull. Can you keep that out of the feed we'll use for the team, please?"

"Of course, what?" Horse asked without giving it much thought. He was used to weird requests from the guys.

"Something private. You'll know."

Still clicking, Horse cleared his throat. "Oh, that. I've known for a while. Don't worry."

Why did that not even come as a surprise? Horse knew everything.

"Eh, Phoenix. Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, anything."

Horse clicked furiously, and Phoenix felt bad for the keyboards he used, that was serious abuse Horse put them through.

"I found one video feed from the gift shop. Do you, by any chance, have Jace's wallet?"

Confused, Phoenix fished Jace's wallet out of his pocket, where he had dumped it for later. "Ok, what am I looking for?"

"Is there a credit card missing?"

Flipping the wallet open, Phoenix saw the six standard pockets for cards, and one was indeed missing. "How the fuck did you know?"

"I think somebody picked it up. It's hard to see from the angle. I'll find something better when I get into the airport's security, but for now, I think we should assume that somebody took it."

"Was it the guy who bumped into Jace?" A new wave of panic washed over Phoenix. If Levi had Jace's credit card, who knew what he could use it for, or what information he could get from it?

"Yes, some large man in a reddish shirt and jeans."

"That's Levi! Track where he goes, anything you can get," Phoenix roared. "Cancel Jace's card, block everything you can relating to it. Close his account, whatever the fuck you have to do. Make sure his address is hidden. Make him disappear!"

"I've already sent Cellmate a message. He's on it."

"Any payments from his accounts you reroute to me. I'll cover the bills for him until we've got this sorted."

"Consider it done."

"I have to call Gareth," Phoenix grumbled with urgency from having to take action. He was afraid he was too close to Jace to see straight and think of everything.

"Sure, sure. We'll work on this. I'll text you any news and inform you when Jace is gone from the face of the Earth."

"Thank you. Horse, truly. Thank you."

"Anytime."

Phoenix cut the call and immediately called Gareth, explaining what had happened and what he had asked Horse to do, hoping he had covered all bases and not forgotten anything. To say that Gareth hit the roof was an understatement. He went into orbit. Raging loudly and cursing in several languages Phoenix was happy he did not know.

"Phoenix, I need you to protect Jace with everything you have. We need him home, but safely and without leaving a trace."

"I agree. I thought, if you send the jet to somewhere in Germany, I'll stay here with Jace until he's ok'd to travel. Then I'll rent a car and drive us through Denmark into Germany, where we can fly home."

"Good call. Don't stay at any larger hotel chains. If you can do walk-ins at motels or B&B's, do so. Make a large cash withdrawal from any company card and exchange it for your needed currency. Do not use your own cards at all when registering. Everything goes in different company names, got it?"

That was where Gareth excelled in leadership and knowledge of how to keep things under the radar. He thought ahead and knew how to stay undetected. Years of practice had taught him that. Phoenix was glad he had that kind of backup to keep Jace safe. He would have done his best himself, but he would have missed something and made mistakes.

"I got it."

"I'll send a protection team to meet you in Copenhagen and follow you to Germany. Bring him home. I'll set up rooms for him at the mansion. He can't stay at his apartment, and nobody gets into my house without going through me!"

The intensity in Gareth's voice was enough to know that he meant business. Levi would go down in fucking flames when Gareth got a hold of him. Phoenix had never doubted the friendship between Jace and Gareth. What he experienced was that friendship being enforced.

A powerful statement from Gareth about Jace's importance in his life.

"I'll go back to Jace now. And Gareth, send somebody to protect Jace's father. He can't be harmed or taken to lure Jace out. No visitors. And the doctors and nurses need to be checked. I don't know what he'll tell people without knowing it."

Hi dear Wattlings.

Thank you for reading. This is a heads up about updates over the holidays. I'll be updating regularly until Monday, December 20th, and will then take a much needed Christmas vacation to spend with my family. I'll be back updating again January 3rd, 2022.

Both Jace and Phoenix are fighting the good fight, both too stupid to realize the other wants the same thing. But they're getting there, and it's sweet that Jace wants Phoenix to meet his dad, right?

And then for the bad news. Levi! What do you think Horse will find on him? Will Jace be ok and will Phoenix get him home safely, or will they be hunted by Levi, leading him to where they live?

If you like it, then pop a vote and please leave comments. The comments are important for me to know how the story is progressing and the characters are developing. And I'd love to know what you think and interact with y'all.

Give me a follow too for updates on other work and put this book in your library. I'd appreciate that.

Love, Alix

Published: December 14th, 2021. ©Alix Davenport, Copenhagen

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro