Page 61 of Guarding Grace

She swung her eyes to me.

I nodded. “We’ll work it out.”

“I didn’t get lunch,” Grace said as she walked to the door. “So you better have some food at your place.”

“I have the basics.” I kept my tone clipped and professional. She’d been argumentative on purpose, and it worked to my advantage.

Zane tapped Peyton’s desk as we passed by. “I haven’t seen your pretty assistant.”

Zane wasn’t the most subtle guy around. “Marci can help you if you need something,” I noted.

He shook his head and held out his hand. “Keys?”

Grace handed them over. “She had an errand to run.” She pulled open the door to the office, offering Zane a smile.

I followed them out.

CHAPTER 15

Grace

As Terry droveme toward his place, I squirmed in the seat next to him—partly because I couldn’t get comfortable sitting on my wound, and partly because I wasn’t going to be able to stay away from him. Quite the opposite, and unfortunately we seemed to be back to our historical mutual anger with each other.

Suddenly, I remembered about Serena and Duke and margaritas. Pulling out my phone, I hastily dialed.

“Tell me you’re finally on the way,” Serena said when she answered.

I looked over at Terry. “I can’t. Something came up. I’m headed to Terry’s place to stay.” Going into the Maria attack with Serena would result in an instant freakout.

“To stay, huh?” she asked with a lilt to her voice. “And you’re okay with that?”

“He’s growing on me,” I suggested.

Next to me, Terry’s brows lifted. Realizing I found that cute, I had to hope our arguing was over because I was truly attracted to Mr. Grumpypants, Sir Galahad, ex-Tyrant—if he stayed ex-Tyrant.

“I hear that, Gracie. Is he there with you?”

I admired Terry’s profile for a second. “Uh-huh.”

“Tomorrow you better tell me what’s going on, or I’m going to kidnap you myself.”

“I hear you.” I needed to get out of this. “Gotta go now, and Terry says hi.”

“Tell him hi back, and don’t forget—tomorrow no excuses.”

“Tomorrow,” I agreed and hung up. “Serena says hi.”

Terry nodded without a smile. “Uh-huh.”

I switched gears. “What did Zane get from those two, Maria and Lorenzo?”

His jaw ticked before he spoke.“We confirmed that Maria Torelli is her real name, and she’s the niece of Tony Russo, head of the Russo crime family, which is odd.”

“What’s odd about it?”

“The crime family thrives by being a constant low-level nuisance. Generally, they’re into extortion, drugs, and prostitution, state crimes where none of them individually are too serious. Only when you add them up is it a big deal. Kidnapping, though, is another level. It can quickly turn into a federal issue with a lot of attention.”

I tensed.Kidnappingwas an awful word to confront.