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Just don’t scare her off again,he told himself.No pressure. No pushing. Just… pace yourself, Rahim. Give her air.
He started the engine.
Grace looked at him, her expression unreadable.
“It wasn’t just what you said, Nash,” she said softly. “It was your pain. You gave me that gift. You let me see that we share something real and profound. I couldn’t leave and let you down.”
The words landed like a weight, equal parts warning and compliment.
He smiled, but didn’t press. Didn’t reach for her hand. Just let the moment settle between them like falling snow.
“I’ve been…locked up ever since…,” he said, voice rougher than he meant it to be. “I was desperate to change your mind. Not for me, my pain, but for them.”
She nodded once. “You humbled me, Nash.”
He turned back to the road, his hands tightening on the wheel.
For the first time in months, Nash Rahim felt like he wasn’t chasing ghosts.
He was chasing the truth.
With her.
CHAPTERFIVE
“What now?”Nash asked once they got back to their rooms.
“I need some...space, if you don’t mind,” she said carefully. “After everything that's happened between us, you're even more of a distraction. Can you maybe direct that energy somewhere else for, like, thirty minutes? Then we can grab something to eat. I just...need to try something. Alone."
He immediately nodded. "Of course, Grace. Whatever you need."
He shifted his duffel, relaxed and easy. "I was thinking about checking out the weapon Caspari got me. I normally clean my own gun."
Her body heated.God help her, she was thinking about cleaning something else entirely.Focus, Grace."Okay. That sounds good," she said, aiming for professionalism.
"Can we leave the connecting door open?" he asked casually. "I don't like the people I'm supposed to protect being out of my sight."
That was how Grace ended up in her room on her laptop, while Nash was in his, field-stripping a Glock with a casual, lethal grace that made it impossible not to watch.
When he pulled out the gun oil and cleaning cloth, he caught her staring and gave her a sidelong glance.
"It might help if you stop watching me," he teased, "and plant your butt."
"I rest my case," she muttered, and pulled the door partially closed. Nash grumbled, but didn’t argue.
She opened her laptop, dug into the logs she'd pulled at the last minute from OrdoTech.
This time, with her pulse steady and her brain working properly, she found it,a ghost vendor, hidden under layers of scrubbed approvals and dead codes. Someone had buried it deep. Too deep for it to be a mistake.
She smiled.
"Caspari said you flagged something. You confirmed it," she called out.
"Invoice discrepancies," Nash said from the other room. "The old money switcheroo. Shell games."
She nodded to herself, piecing it together.
"So, the common thread remains OrdoTech," she said. "That’s what made Caspari put two and two together. Different threads, same sweater." She leaned back in her chair, a new fire kindling low in her chest. "You hunted the financial funny business," she said. "Time for me to dig up the digital skeletons."