Page 154 of Guarding Grace

I ignored him. I didn’t do waiting very well. I didn’t do waiting at even a first-grade level.

He was back from his morning bodyguard gig for some Hollywood starlet—or wannabe-starlet, it wasn’t clear to me which—and he’d told me tonot worryat least ten times. It wasn’t helping.

I got to the end of the story with the picture of four cute little balls of white fur and stood for another lap around my desk. What the hell was the big deal about a polar bear giving birth to quadruplets?

Standing, I started another lap. Every circuit of my desk and reread of the article took up another minute and twenty seconds of the time I had to wait before I could rescue my woman.

“Jordy will find her,” Duke said. “And we’ll get her back.” He’d been through something similar when Serena was taken, and he wouldn’t admit it now, but the not-knowing had torn him up the same as it was doing to me.

“I’ve got it,” Jordy yelled from down the hall.

I raced down to his room, even beating Lucas there. It was go time.

He zoomed the screen in on a large building not far from where she’d left the taxi. “We were wrong. She never switched rides. She walked.” He’d superimposed a dotted line that ran down the street the taxi had taken and then to this building.

“Jordy,” Lucas said. “Get a drone in the air and brief us on the way. Let’s gear up, guys.” He caught Constance’s glare. “And ladies.”

We all double-timed to the armory.

“Light kit today, no long, quiet,” Lucas said as he opened his locker. “We don’t know how many soldiers Marku has with him, and like the late, great John Wooden said, ‘Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.’”

No longmeant handguns, no rifles. I grabbed two extra mags for my SIG.Quietmeant adding my Sabre stun gun, zip ties, and duct tape to my loadout. The stun gun and hand-to-hand attacks would make it a silent takedown rather than going in kinetic. Our handguns would be a last resort.

Constance nodded my way and pocketed her Sabre as well.

Light kit meant we’d go in with light Kevlar vests hidden under jackets instead of full body armor, and no helmets. The less-military look made it easier to sneak up on the bad guys, and also made it less likely we would scare a civilian who would get anxious and call the cops.

A minute later, we were all assembled in the garage.

Lucas laid a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll get her back.” He turned to the group. “Constance, you’re with Terry. Duke, you’re with me, and Zane, you’re with Winston.”

Constance quickly popped the trunk of my Cayenne and threw her kit in the back. I added mine.

We completed a comms check and drove out with Lucas in the lead.

“Guess what’s in the building?” Jordy asked once we were underway.

“Dammit, Jordy,” Lucas complained. “I don’t want to fucking guess.”

“Okay already, Mr. Grumpy,” Jordy said. Being Lucas’s brother, he got away with that shit. “It’s a Marku-owned automotive used-parts warehouse taking the output of their wrecking yards, and the website says they’re shut down this week and next, so no customers will be there. I’m sending you what we have for the layout.”

“The drone?” Lucas asked.

“Overhead soon,” Jordy responded.

Constance looked over at me. “Don’t worry. We’ll get them both.”

I shook my head. Everyone was telling me to not worry, but it wasn’t helping.

CHAPTER 36

Grace

I’d losttrack of time when Marci jerked upright at the sound of someone working the lock outside the door.

I locked eyes with her. “Be calm, and it’ll be all right.”

“Sweep the perimeter, inside and out, all of you.” It was Marku just outside. He swung the door fully open and scanned the room before entering. He wouldn’t fall for a person hiding behind the door to knock him on the head when he opened it.