Page 47

He looked so damn earnest, and his smile so wide that it was impossible to not smile back at him. Unlike his crazy smile back at the chateau this one was far warmer and richer.
“Thank you,” I told him and I meant it. “Not sure I’m ready to shower yet. I’m?—”
I extended my hands forward to show them how hard they were shaking.
“Maybe in a few?” After I calmed down, if I could calm down. I went to fold my arms again but Bones caught my right wrist and turned my hand over.
“What is that?” He stared down at the livid bruising and torn skin. Voodoo pushed away from the wall to stalk over to where I was standing. He stared down at it and then he jerked his gaze up to me.
Lunchbox and Alphabet were just there, I didn’t even hear them move. The four of them formed this almost insurmountable wall of testosterone. My pulse sped up again at the way they closed ranks. It was like being trapped all over again except…
They won’t hurt me.
Those four words played on a loop even as my anxiety see-sawed violently despite the whispered confidence from my more rational side. It probably only worked because I did believe they wouldn’t.
“He bit me.”
“He fucking what?” Lunchbox’s voice dipped into a dark place that sucked all the lightness out of him. “O’Rourke bit you?”
I met his hard-eyed gaze. “Yes.” I could soften this. I should probably ease it somehow. “I think it was a test because I said he had to promise to not bite or whatever stupid thing it was that I said.”
“It wasn’t stupid,” Alphabet said, resting his hands on my hips. I don’t know which of us shifted, but he was just a solid wall of muscle now at my back, and it helped to begin to fracture the ice spreading through me. “You were being charming, thinking on your feet.”
“You handled it,” Bones said when I lifted my gaze to him.
“I’m going to gut that son of a bitch and feed him his own entrails.” The explicit and very violent reaction from Lunchbox had me shifting my attention to him. His lips had compressed into a tight white line. His jaw tensed, and a muscle leaped in his cheek. I swore I could see a vein throbbing in his forehead. “You should never have had to even see him, much less let him touch you.”
I shrugged. “I don’t care about the touching.”
“Liar.” Voodoo delivered the accusation in a gentle voice that robbed it of any pique. “Handling it, beingableto handle it, doesn’t mean you wanted it, enjoyed it, or don’t care.”
“If I’m the one who allows it then I still have control.” That was something they needed to understand. “I say who and I say when.”
Except he bit me when I asked him to say he wouldn’t. He’d done it and then… I tried to swallow against the sudden dryness in my throat. Bones traced the area around the wound.
“I’ll get the first aid kit,” Voodoo said. “Clean that out and we can bandage it before you shower.”
I didn’t want to shower.
“He knew you guys were listening.” I wanted to face this all head on even as they crowded around me. Tilting my head back, I rested it against Alphabet’s chest and found him gazing down at me with a fierce light in his eyes. For one moment, he flicked a look toward Bones before he looked at me again.
Bones sighed, the long exhale slicing through the silence. “Do you need to know who he is, Grace?” That question caught me off-guard and I straightened to meet him head-on. Those gray eyes which so often seemed cold seemed to shine like armor at the moment. Steel maybe. “Intelligence can be a double-edged sword. What you know, someone can try to take. We haven’t discussed what happens when we erase the people after you and dismantle the organization.”
Erase.
Dismantle.
I swallowed.
He rubbed his thumb against my palm, the slow, even strokes easing the tension and letting my fingers relax.
“O’Rourke and Reznik, however, are tied to us. To our past. Not yours.”
“Except O’Rourke knows who I am and he knew about Amorette. They may not have her. She may not be in their network or whatever they call it. But he knew about her.” I licked my lips. “He also seems to know I’m with you or the other way around.”
He nodded. “Potentially. Or he was fishing for information. Reznik recognized them in Monaco. If O’Rourke and Reznik arestill in each other’s pockets, then it’s not impossible for him to believe it involves you.”
“We haven’t exactly been quiet about looking after you,” Lunchbox admitted. Fortunately, some of the dark cloud of anger had eased away. Not gone, but definitely not storming anymore. “If we were identified by any of their scoop teams…”