Ariana waited for Jace outside the house the following morning. They were running late. Well, Jace was but she had somewhere else to be. Ariana had started to pace when Jace stepped out of the house.

Jace walked to the car not bothering about the time and how late he was.

"You're late." Ariana said,

He glanced at her with a raised brow.
"I don't need you to remind me. I have Bridget for that and I'm the CEO."

"Marvis?" Ariana asked when Jace walked to his sleek black car.

"He had some personal matters to attend to."

Ariana nodded then turned around and headed to her bike.

"What are you doing?" Jace looked confused as she mounted her bike.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ariana grabbed her helmet, "I'm getting on my bike and I'm escorting you to the company."

"Escorting?"

"I have somewhere to be."

"Then I'll take you wherever you need to go."

"No!" Ariana said too quickly, "I need to do this on my own."

Jace stood at the driver's side, holding the door open as he looked at her suspiciously.
"Okay."

Ariana sighed and pulled her helmet on as he got into the car and shut the door.

On the way, Ariana pulled up on the left side of his car when they reached a red light. Ariana placed her feet on the tarred road and turned her gaze to her right without meaning to. Jace looked through his window at her. He knew she couldn't see him because his windows were tinted, so he wound down the window right before she was about to look away.

Jace pulled his shades down his nose a little before he smirked and winked at her.

Ariana almost smiled but rolled her eyes instead. She looked away from him and took off as soon as the light turned green leaving him behind to catch up with her.

Jace pulled up behind Ariana in front of the company building at the same time she did. Ariana took off her helmet and hopped off her bike just as Jace got out of the car.

"Good morning, Mr. Black." The security guard said as they walked into the building together.

"Morning, Ric," Jace said, "My car and the lady's bike."

"Yes sir," Ric said,

They walked down the lobby and towards the elevator.
"Lady?" Ariana asked,

"Aren't you one?"

Ariana stayed quiet.

"Man-up, Green," Jace said as they got into the elevator,

"Man being the keyword," Ariana said as the elevator closed.

Bridget attacked him as soon as they stepped out of the elevator.
"You have a call waiting on line 2 from the London branch. You missed your 9 O'clock which I rescheduled for tomorrow and... Barbie called."

"Barbie?" Jace was lost,

Bridget shook her head,
"I mean Ms. Hall."

"Heather?" Jace wanted to smile but didn't.

"Yes," Bridget answered, "She said she misplaced your number and asked if I could give it to her but I told her you'd call her back if you wanted to talk. To her."

Bridget said reluctantly, wondering if she had overstepped and said something she wasn't supposed to say but Jace smiled at her.

"Thank you, Bridget," Jace walked to his office, "Put her on as soon as I'm done with the London call."

Ariana and Bridget stood near her desk, shocked.

"Oh-Okay, sir" Bridget scurried off to get his coffee.

Ariana headed to his office and walked to her spot in his office tuning out his conversation with London. It was loud, angry but productive.

"...Thank you, William." Jace said before he hung up.

He beeped Bridget right after.

"Sir?"

"Ms. Hall, please."

"Line 1." She answered after a moment.

"Jace, I've been trying to get a hold of you." Heather's voice came through the speaker and Ariana closed her eyes trying to tune her out.

"Why is that, Heather?" Jace didn't seem bothered.

"Oh, don't be strong-headed," She said, "Your birthday is in a few days and we always celebrate it together. Why would this time be any different?"

Ariana's ears perked up at that.
His birthday?

Of course, he has a birthday Ari. Everyone does.

I thought...

Thought what?

He just doesn't act human sometimes.

Oh, coming from you. Pot. Kettle.

Ariana shook her head.

"I fear you might have hit your head on a wall, Heather," Jace frowned, "Just in case, I'll clarify. Anything and everything between us is over."

"Over?" Heather sounded bored, "It's never over. This happens all the time. We fight and go without each other for a while and then we're back together again. Why would this time be any different?"

Jace glanced at Ariana who was turned away from him.
"Not this time Heather. This time I'm done."

"You don't mean that," She sounded worried, "How about I come to your place tonight and we see where things go from there."

"Nothing is going anywhere, Heather, get that into your head. We. Are. Done. Go look for some other chick's house to go to."

"You're mad," She sounded sorry, "I understand and I'm sorry. It was just a phase. I would never betray you like that."

"Heather," Jace began, "I don't care who you fuck. I'm done with you either way. This was never about you betraying me. It's about what I want and what I'm over, or should I say who."

"As I said, get that into your head. If you try to reach me by any means, I'll bring a world of hurt down on you and you wouldn't be begging me to take you back then. Have a nice life...Barbie."

Jace hung up and let out a sigh. Ariana stood there unmoving but smiled which turned to a chuckle. Jace heard and turned to look at her.

"What's funny?"

"Barbie?" Ariana had a smile on her face.

"That sounded better than Bitch."

Ariana glanced at him for a moment.

"Ari, about last night," Jace got up and walked to one of the sofas, "I apologise."

"Don't." Ariana turned, facing him, "I should be the one apologising. I didn't like it when you kept things from me and now, I'm doing it to you. I just want you to know that I'm doing it to protect you."

Jace nodded with a sigh. Ariana looked away from him when his gaze became too intense for her to hold.
"Come sit?"

Ariana turned and looked at him for a long moment before she pushed off the window frame and walked to the other sofa.

Jace took the sofa next to her,
"I can't trust anyone. I don't know how to, not since I came back here." Jace started, "Which is why I'm having a hard time ruling out my stepbrother as a suspect."

"That's why I agreed to go out for coffee with him," Ariana said, "Hopefully he'd ask for another meeting because I need to ask him the questions that matter. We both need proof to rule him out."

Jace smiled then.

"What?"

"I knew you didn't go out with him because you liked him."

Ariana didn't know how to reply to do so, she just smiled back.

"So, you never told me if you got anything from him that day."

"Nothing important." Ariana shook her head, "I didn't want to just attack him."

"If it's Mark, as I suspect, he won't be working alone. He would need people to get close to me, close enough to do a clean job. What I don't understand is why it's taking them so long to end it. They haven't exactly made any direct attack at me since you came along."

"Let me get this straight. You're concerned that they're taking their time to plan whatever it is they're planning and you want them to hurry up. Is that what you're saying?"

"Sounds insane when you put it that way." Jace smiled,

Ariana tried not to smile but it came out like a scoff and Jace's smile fell as he watched her.

Damn, she is beautiful.
Jace thought with a sigh.

"They're waiting for a right time to make their big move."

"Exactly," Jace said distractedly, "Which makes it frightening to think about you being caught in the crossfire."

Jace paused and couldn't believe he was actually frightened for her. He left all of that back with his troops. Nothing had frightened him since he became a veteran. Now, he couldn't help but feel scared for Ariana. Since he met her, he'd felt drawn to her and when he figured out why Jack picked her for the job and couldn't help but feel even closer to her for the reason that she was him a year ago. A part of him saw her as his troop member but another huge part of him saw her past the hard exterior because he knew what it was like to hold all of those bad experiences inside not letting the world know about it.

"I'm your bodyguard. That's what I'm trained to do."

"Still doesn't change how I feel."

Ariana sucked in a lung full of air sharply but inaudibly as shivers run down her spine.

"What?" Ariana's voice had dropped to a whisper without her meaning for it to.

Jace clenched his jaw at the sound of her low and breathy voice.
"I'm supposed to stay away from you but I can't," Jace said, "I'm incapable of letting you go and I'm scared of holding on in fear that you might end up getting killed because of me."

"Jace wh-what are you talking about?" The question left her mouth, rushed.

Jace reached out and placed his hand on hers which was on her lap.
"Ari I..."

"Sir, you have a meeting in Conference room 4. The Patricks' arrived a few minutes early."

Bridget's voice came through the intercom and they were pulled out of whatever bubble they were in.

Jace looked at her painfully and sighed. He got up, eyes on her before he turned around and headed to his desk to reply to Bridget, telling her to get everything set for the meeting. Ariana sat there, her eyes on him when he turned to look at her. She could've sworn there was an invisible string between them that tugged them towards each other.

When Jace left a moment later, she stayed back a minute to get herself together. Her heart was beating so fast as if she'd just finished a race.

*********************************************************

Hey guys,

So, I just edited this chapter on 25th December 2021. Merry Christmas guys! I wanted to take down the author's note like I did in every chapter I've edited so far but decided to keep it for the paragraph below. Editing it removes the comments that come with it, and I like seeing you guys come together and just talk about things.

Anyway, tell me what's going on in your life right now. Feel free to rant about anything. I wanna know anything that isn't related to my course - Computer Engineering.

Lay it on me... thick.

Thank you for the love and support,
Jane Lanett.