Chapter Fourteen

If Ian couldn't use his humongous body to break down the door, that meant Nolan—who wasn't nearly as large—wouldn't be able to break into the room.

That should have made Jace feel safe. Not only was the entrance to the room hidden but he also had a deadly panther shifter watching over him.

Unfortunately, there were also two evil pricks with dumbass vendettas under the same roof.

"Do you really think you can cause dissension between them?" Jace polished off his pack of crackers and went for another one. Apparently, this level of stress made him famished.

Considering this was Jace's first kill-or-be-killed situation, he could only assume that was the reason for his sudden hunger. He'd always thought people lost their appetite when under a tremendous amount of stress.

It was just his luck he was hungry enough to eat a cow while locked in the wrong room of the house.

"Owen is already on Nolan's last nerve. I just have to goad Owen into being his annoying self since he's more easily triggered." Ian put a finger to his lips before he turned the microphone back on.

Jace sat on the floor, leaning his back against his mate's long legs and watched the screens mounted on the walls.

Ian's once spotless kitchen was now a disaster. Jace was pretty sure all his glasses and plates were destroyed. There were even scattered shards of porcelain plates around the living room from their short-lived careers as Frisbees.

"I'd take you up on your offer, Nolan, but…" Ian huffed a laugh. "It seems that Owen is pissed that you asked me to kill him. Between you and me, I think his overinflated ego is compensating for a small…brain."

That wasn't what Jace thought he would say. Publicly penis-shaming any guy, whether true or not, basically ruined him. Come to think of it, privately shaming had to be just as humiliating.

"I have a counteroffer, Nolan," Ian continued, talking like he was a late-night DJ. Sweet Jesus, he even had the sultry deep voice that thirsty men and women drooled over.

Nolan casually glanced around, clearly trying to find a camera. They had to be expertly hidden. Jace hadn't even noticed any when he'd been in the living room.

"I'm listening." Nolan stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, his shoulders relaxing.

If he hadn't been a murderous lunatic, Nolan would be a damn good-looking guy. The whole crazy persona knocked the shine right off of him.

"Fuck his counteroffer," Owen shouted to the ceiling. "Ian's playing mind games, trying to turn us against each other."

"First, I just pointed out the fact that you have a small brain," Ian replied. "Mind games would hardly be fair for you. Second, Nolan was the first to offer me a bargain to permanently shut you up. I'm merely modifying his original proposal."

Jace clutched his pack of crackers as Owen let out a guttural scream and charged right for Ian's couch. He rammed into it like a bull then flipped the piece of furniture over.

Now he simply stood there, heaving every breath through gnashing teeth, his hands and arms twitching.

That couch could have been Jace when Owen was his supervisor. He'd thought the guy was an asshole, but to witness his unfettered rage was truly terrifying.

"Come here." Ian ever-so-gently lifted Jace off the floor and settled him on his lap. Strong arms swaddled him against a warm, firm chest. "I feel like a rotten bastard for exposing you to such violence. Goading Owen into attacking Nolan isn't worth traumatizing you, sweetheart. I'm sorry."

Jace closed his eyes and tried to purge the image of Owen's intense rage from his mind. He'd never seen anyone so unhinged.

It was downright unsettling.

"I just keep thinking he could have turned that brutality on me at work," Jace said. "There was a time or two when I saw fury in his eyes when he was riding my ass, but…"

Ian held him tighter. "He's never going to lay a hand on you, sweetheart. When I saw the way he treated you at the gym, I was determined to intervene and protect you." He ran his hand over Jace's hair. "That was before I discovered you were my mate. Now I'll bury anyone foolish enough to step to you the wrong way."

"But you have to keep pushing him." Jace sat up, staring into whiskey eyes.

Ian cupped his face. "Not at the expense of your mental well-being."

"My mental well-being has been taking one hit after another ever since they showed up," he said. "We're trapped in here, Ian. We either go on the defense or die of starvation. I'm willing to bet one of them has a cell phone jammer. Can you think of another reason our calls keep failing?"

"Even if one of them is carrying the device, we can't get our hands on it while we're locked in here." Ian scrubbed a hand through his hair.

Jace refused to give up, no matter how frightened he was. "You get back to antagonizing Owen. I'm going to work on getting that manual switch to work." Jace stood. "Right after you point me in the right direction. There are so many hidden panels in this house I wouldn't be surprised if the switch was buried behind one."

"It actually is." Ian gripped Jace's shoulders as he guided him into the bedroom.

"I figured."

Ian crouched in front of the chair he'd been seated in when Jace had questioned his mate about being a reflection of all things hidden.

Ian pressed a section of the wall and an access panel roughly five by eight popped open.

"Could you have made that any smaller?" Jace wondered how Ian managed to fit his large hand into such a compact space. The access panel revealed a square hole that required one to reach in and flip the switch. He couldn't understand why on earth someone would place the lever inside the drywall like that.

"Now you see how I broke the damn thing." He reached into a decorative box on a high shelf and came away with a… It looked like the world's smallest platypus beak. Only the broken switch was gray, not black.

"Can't you superglue this back on?" Jace frowned when Ian placed the piece in his palm. "For an expensive house, this feels like cheap plastic."

"Trust me. I'm pitching a fit when I finally call the company that installed my state-of-the-art security system." Ian swept his hair up into a messy man bun with a rubber band he'd fished from his pocket. "They charge me an astronomical price for their top-notch technology, but they cheaped out on me when it came to a switch that has the potential to seal me in a tomb."

"That's…really messed up and thank you so much for making me look at your bedroom as a luxurious burial chamber." He patted Ian's firm arm, stealing a squeeze of hard muscle. "From now on, I'm only stepping in here if you keep the door propped open with a heavy brick."

Jace wasn't sure why his mate was smiling warmly at him.

"I love your sense of humor and the fact you selflessly share important pieces of your life with me, kitten." He pressed a soft kiss against Jace's temple. "Now stick your skinny-ass hand in that cramped space and get us the hell out of here."

"Smooth segue from romantic stud to bossy pants." Jace held up the broken lever. "Am I supposed to ram this back in."

Ian's brow shot up.

Fire consumed Jace's entire face. "You know what I mean."

"I strongly recommend any ramming be confined to our bed." Ian plucked the piece from his hand and held it up. "Do you see where there's a V-shape missing from the base?"

Jace nodded, though his mind was still on ramming things. It took concentrated effort to yank his mind out of the gutter and pay attention to what Ian was saying. "It sort of looks like a V, but kind of twisted."

"The missing chunk is still attached to the base, hon. I tried once to flip that tiny piece of cheap plastic upward then gave up." He set the broken switch on the shelf. "I'm really hoping you have better luck. In case you do, we need to whittle down our enemies. Let me amp up the insults and dissent."

"Why didn't you call when you failed to flip the switch?"

Ian walked backward, wearing a cocky grin that had to have stolen many hearts. "Forgot the minute I slammed the panel shut. I've never claimed to have the greatest attention span." The way Ian looked at him, like he could literally undress Jace with his eyes, made Jace's heart surge a little faster. "Unless I'm thinking about how you got off on my thigh or how my dick looked trapped between your lips. No goddamn way I'll forget a second of last night."

Jace realized he was smiling at Ian like a love-struck goober. Yep, he was falling hard for his mate, even if he didn't have the balls to admit that out loud.

With a sigh, Jace turned back around and frowned at the hole in the wall. "Look, I know you got a raw deal, little switch, but can you play nice so this room doesn't turn into my final resting place?"

Stress and lack of food was making him loopy.

"Here goes." He slid his hand inside the space, feeling around for the base. His fingers touched something smooth, and then Jace felt the jagged piece Ian was talking about. When he tried to flip it up, the sharp end stabbed his finger.

What he needed was something small and flat he could use to force the broken chunk to flip upward. He poked around the immaculately clean bedroom. Jace's room had clutter on top of his dresser, junk in a few drawers, and clothes everywhere. He felt like a slob compared to his mate.

Giving up, he walked into Ian's office.

"You want me to take Owen out but offer nothing in return," Nolan was saying.

"You'll get peace and quiet. It's a win-win." Ian glanced up at Jace. There was something about the way his mate looked at him that always put Jace at ease, even when the current conversation was ghoulish and disturbing on the deepest level.

He had to keep reminding himself that Nolan and Owen were the perpetrators. Jace and Ian just wanted to be left alone. They were being forced into this position by a pair of nutjobs.

Jace stared at the monitors. Owen paced back and forth in the kitchen, still gnashing his teeth. Nolan was perched on the overturned couch, his arms resting on his knees like he was just chilling at a friend's house.

The longer Jace observed Nolan, the more he picked up on subtle glitches. Not glitches. That was the wrong word, but Jace couldn't think of the right one.

Something inside his gut said that Nolan was the deadliest of the two, despite his levelheaded responses to the mind games that were being played.

After watching numerous serial killer documentaries, Jace had learned that the ones who appeared collected and composed were the most terrifying monsters, hiding their true nature under a veneer of calmness and even humor.

Nolan wanted revenge for something concerning a man he'd been in love with, but there was something cold and disturbing in his green eyes. Jace had a feeling that was why Nolan only made eye contact for a brief moment. He didn't want anyone realizing how deeply the claws of his dark urges were embedded.

The man got off on making others suffer, and his desire for Ian's death caused an involuntary twitch in his jaw.

Jace pointed at the microphone. Once again, Ian cut it off.

"You have to stop." Jace shoved at the laptop and watched as it slid across the desk, thankfully stopping before it fell over the edge. He was unsure if those documentaries were making him think he knew how to read someone, but if Nolan was there to end Ian's life, Jace couldn't be too far off the mark.

"You told me the two of you used to compete in your snowboarding days," Jace went on. "That you and Nolan were barely frenemies. But how well do you know him?"

Ian sat forward, resting his forearms on his desk. "Unfortunately, since he broke into my home with the intent to kill me, I'm getting to know the sick fuck more than I want to."

"I know this is going to make me sound like a crackpot. I mean, I'm not a licensed…whatever, but Nolan isn't out for simple revenge."

Ian's forehead wrinkled. "Take a deep breath, kitten. Gather your thoughts."

Jace drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I may or may not have a little obsession with serial killers documentaries," he confessed. "I blame it on the tequila fumes in my house. They're rotting my brain."

"Back on track, hon." Ian coaxed Jace into his lap. "Now go on."

"Have you ever paid attention to Nolan, like close attention?"

"I try not to preoccupy my time with people I can't stand," Ian replied dryly.

"Look at his eyes the next time he faces a camera," Jace said. "You'll see something ominous in them. You can practically feel the sick pleasure he gets from hurting people."

Ian studied Jace for so long that his penetrating stare was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Any second he was going to call Jace, in the politest way, a very adorable weirdo for enjoying those kinds of shows and thinking he could analyze Nolan just from watching the monitors.

This was one of the many reasons why Jace preferred his own company. He never had to worry about being judged if he didn't hang out with anyone.

"Even before the break-in, I always knew there was something off about Nolan," Ian said. "To me, he always gave off a strange vibe that unsettled me."

"You agree with me?"

"Nolan fell in love with a twisted and depraved psycho. It seems they had more in common than I thought." Ian gave a disgusted shiver. "He's here to kill me. I think you nailed him perfectly, Jace."

"Who is Solomon?"

"A deviant who thought buying another person was okay. Solomon died for his mistake."

"Did you kill him?"

"No," Ian said. "I just set up the meeting with Solomon that ultimately led to his demise."

Jace looked at the monitors. "I think Nolan's killed before, Ian. He's a shifter, which means he's almost certainly twice my grandma's age. You don't just suddenly wake up one morning as a terrifying monster. Unless you suffered some kind of frontal lobe damage."

"If he had suffered some kind of damage, shifting into his animal form would have healed him. Which means, there's a high probability that Nolan has been like this his entire life."

"Are you for real?" Jace would love to possess that ability. Turn furry for a few hours, or however long it took, and, presto, good as new.

"And since we're mated, your wounds will heal faster," Ian informed him. "You also don't have to worry about diseases."

Jace jumped and screamed when he heard what sounded like a battering ram crashing into a wall. Ian cursed as he stood, setting Jace on his feet.

"It looks like they're done playing games." Ian pointed at the monitors. Jace watched in horror as Nolan and Owen rushed the section of the wall where the hidden door was located, slamming their shoulders into it.

Nolan stopped and smiled up at the camera—clearly, he'd found the one by the bedroom door—giving it a half-ass salute. "I've decided to keep my original deal with Owen. He gets Jace, and you're all mine, Ian."

Trembling uncontrollably, Jace walked to the monitors and tapped where Nolan's eyes were on full display.

"I see it, sweetheart," Ian said.

The two started ramming the door again. Jace shut the office door.

"It pains me to tell you this, but that won't do any good." Ian slid his arm around Jace's shoulders. "Nolan will be able to track us through our scent."

"That means he's been toying with us this whole time." Jace curled against his mate. "He could smell our scents in the hallway."

"Yes." Ian nodded. "Although I'm almost certain they can't break that door down, if they do manage to get in, there's a crawl space in the ceiling of my closet. I want you to hide up there. Nolan is only interested in me. Owen is human, so he won't be able to use your smell to find you."

"But what about you?" Jace gripped Ian's shirt. "I can't just abandon you to those homicidal nutjobs! You're strong, Ian, but they've got crazy on their side."

"Promise me you'll get into the crawl space." Ian yanked off his T-shirt. "I won't be able to concentrate on the fight if you're in danger."

"I'm in danger right now," Jace said hysterically. "Why in the hell are you getting naked? I highly doubt you'll gain an advantage by shedding your clothes!"

"Deep breaths, kitten." Ian gripped Jace's upper arms. "I'm stripping because I'm about to shift. If they get through that door, I'm killing Owen first. He'll be easy to take down, and I'll be eliminating your threat."

Jace couldn't breathe. He gasped for air, but he felt like he was sucking down terror instead of oxygen. His limbs shook uncontrollably as if someone was rattling his bones around. This couldn't be happening. There were two men trying to break down the door so they could end Jace's and Ian's lives. He was only twenty-four and had a full life ahead of him.

His mom and grandma were going to be devastated. Jace didn't want to leave them. He didn't want to leave Ian. He didn't want to lose Ian, either.

"Jace!"

He snapped his head up and realized Ian was cupping his face in a firm grip, his whiskey eyes filled with worry.

"Look at me, hon." His thumbs drew comforting circles on Jace's cheeks. "Concentrate on my voice. Deep, calming breaths. That's it. Focus on my eyes, babe."

"I-I don't want to die," Jace sobbed. "I don't want to lose you, Ian. I l-love you."

Ian's gaze held a tenderness that could only be described as a gentle embrace. "I love you more than anything, kitten. You've become my entire world. I'm not going to lose you, and you're not going to lose me."

Jace nodded, trying his best to hold it together.

"I need you to try to calm down. We have to keep our wits about us. They're determined to get to us, but I'm just as determined to end them." Jace closed his eyes as Ian kissed his forehead. "The only way I'm going to be able to take them both down is if I know you're in that crawl space."

"I don't want to be a coward."

"You're not a coward. We're a team, Jace. My job is to kill them. Your job is to keep yourself safe at all costs."

"The door!" Jace's voice cracked with desperation.

The deafening bangs echoed through the room, each one making the door shudder and splinter even more. The force from the outside was relentless, a crushing weight that threatened to break through at any moment.

"Get into the crawl space." Ian pushed Jace toward the closet. "Hurry!"

Ian's bedroom was about to be compromised, and Jace was terrified they would kill his mate. Before he could get inside the closet, the bedroom door crashed open.