Page 14 of Guarding Grace (Hawk Security #2)

I smiled, remembering our kiss and the gentle way Terry had treated me not long ago.

Serena’s brows creased. “What?”

I shifted to my other foot. One of our rules from group therapy was that we never lied to each other. “I don’t hate him.” My cheeks felt warm.

She let go of my hands and waved a finger at me. “I know you, Grace Ellen Brennan. What are you keeping from me?”

I sucked in a quick breath. “I… We sort of kissed.”

“Sort of? Like a peck?”

I gave in. “Like a real kiss. A really hot kiss.”

Serena’s eyes went wide. She leaped forward and gave me a quick hug. “Good for you, girl. You need to get laid.”

I pulled away. “Not so fast.”

“Duke swears Terry’s a good guy, and I’ve seen the way he looks at you.

Live a little. Have a fling. Like I told you, life is about making choices.

You decide. Either the company is your entire life forever, like it has been, or you devote a sliver of your time to living.

You know my vote.” Her hands went to her hips and her head cocked as she waited for a response.

Her words hit home, but it wasn’t as simple as she made out. I had allowed the company to dominate my life, but my employees and their families depended on me. “I love that you came to check on me, but I have a customer waiting.”

Her face took on a disappointed look. “See? Company, company, company. When are you going to take care of yourself?”

She stared at me, a silent demand that I agree with her.

Checking my watch, I decided it was time for my next pain pills. Opening the bottle on the desk, I popped two and chased them down with a slug of water.

Serena continued her death stare. “Why can’t you admit I’m right?”

“Okay already.” I sighed dramatically. “Terry was right. You’re right. It would have been better if I’d waited. Satisfied?”

I even said the words without my fingers crossed behind my back.

“I meant about giving yourself permission to live.”

“I’ll try.”

Her smile returned. “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it? So, Terry?”

I didn’t think her question merited anything more than silence.

“I saw Zane outside,” she said. “But I didn’t see Sir Galahad.”

A smile came naturally. Sir Galahad was a cute nickname for Terry, one I never would have considered before. “He said he had to run an errand, and he called Zane in to watch over me until he gets back. ”

“When can we get out of here? I’ve got a blender at home just itching to make us margaritas.”

I pushed away from the desk. “Not right now. I’ve got a full day here. Maybe after work. We can do another sleepover. How’s that sound?”

I hid my smirk. After our kiss, no way was I putting intentional distance between me and Terry until I figured out this thing between us, whatever it was. “No thanks. I don’t want to rock the boat. I’ll stick with Terry and sleep in my own bed tonight. Bonnie and Clyde need me too.”

She eyed me warily. “Are you sure? I mean, it won’t be any trouble to get Duke?—”

I cut her off with a hand. “I’ll stick with Terry.” The memory of him carrying me this morning warmed me.

She cocked her head. “You’re smiling.”

I laughed. “I’m just happy I’ve got as good a friend as you looking out for me.” I started for the door. “Now, I have customers waiting.”

She sighed and followed. “The offer is open, if you need it.” Reaching the door, she gave me a quick hug. “Remember, I’m only a phone call away.”

“I know,” I said.

As Serena left, Peyton gave me the quick rundown on the new prospect.

“She’s in demo two. They have a three-hundred-and-forty-lot subdivision going up in Thousand Oaks, and they want us to do the master closets and pantries.

She said they have nine styles, but it’s only three sizes of closet and pantry.

She was insistent that she had to see you today or go with somebody else for the project. ”

My eyes widened. This was exciting stuff. Three-hundred and forty homes would be a monster order for us.

Zane stood to follow when I turned toward demo room two.

“I’ve got this.” I didn’t need him spooking a potentially big client.

He nodded and sat back down.

In demo two, Peyton repeated my intro as visionary and owner of SpaceMasters before leaving us alone.

After a quick handshake, I gingerly took a seat, careful of my butt cheek. “Maria, I understand you have a large project you wish us to bid on.”

“I do need your help.” She held her phone up for me to see and flipped between pictures of Peyton and Marci out in the office. “This is important. If you make a sound, my associate outside will kill one of these women. Do you understand?”

My blood froze. This couldn’t be happening. Shakily, I nodded. I had no way to warn Zane .

“Good. I want you to listen very carefully, because Lorenzo won’t hesitate to kill more of them if they scream. He hates women who scream. Nod if you understand.”

I nodded again. Lorenzo and this lady were both first-rate assholes. I’d disliked people before, but these two had just moved to the top of my shit list.

A knock sounded at the door, and Peyton opened it. “Would you like coffee, water, or a soda?”

“No thank you, Peyton,” Maria replied with a smile.

I didn’t turn around and merely shook my head. “Not me either.” I had to keep her away from this monster.

Peyton closed the door, and we were alone again.

I wanted to rip that smile off Maria’s face and make her eat it. “What do you want?”

“My employer wants to talk to your cousin, Elliot, but he seems to be avoiding us.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“You’re his only relative. He has no friends he can trust. He sought you out this morning because he has nobody else to turn to. If you tell me where he is, I’ll see that he goes to see my boss in one piece. My boss’s other employees who are out looking for him won’t be so gentle.”

“I don’t have any idea where he is.”

She stared at me. “I don’t believe you.”

“Believe what you want. I can’t lead you to him, because I don’t know where he is.”

She held up her phone again. “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.” She flicked back and forth between the pictures. “Which one of them dies to save your cousin?”

“I—” I half yelled before lowering my voice, “don’t fucking know.” My hand started trembling. Why was it always my right hand?

“You should be quieter. If your assistant gets suspicious, Lorenzo will have no choice but to act. To make it easier on you, I could flip a coin. Would you like that?”

I sucked in a breath. “Look, you can threaten me all you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t know where he went after this morning. You leave my people alone.”

“Their fate is in your hands. Where is your cousin?”

This was the first time I’d felt like I was in the presence of pure evil, the kind of person my brother had been sent overseas to dispatch from this earth. “I don’t fucking know.”

She appraised me for several silent seconds. “Let’s say I believe you. ”

I let out the breath I’d been holding. She had to believe me. I couldn’t betray Elliot to someone as evil as her, I couldn’t let her harm my people, and the truth was, I didn’t know where Elliot was right now.

“Then the equation changes.” She slid me a business card across the table. “Take this.”

Gingerly, I did. It had only her name and a phone number on it.

“If he contacts you again and you don’t call me, it will be very bad for you.

” She pulled out a knife and slammed the tip into my pretty mahogany table.

“Because Lorenzo will be forced to deal with you. It may not be the same day or the next, or even in the next month, but it will happen because he enjoys his work too much. And when he finds you, nobody will save you. Do you understand me?”

She left the knife stuck in the wood. My gut twisted.

“Grace, do you understand me?”

I nodded. What else could I do?

“That’s right. I’m not a bad person. I don’t want to see you get hurt. That’s why you have that number. One call, and all of this ugliness goes away.”

I nodded again. She had a screw loose. I needed Terry so badly. He’d know how to handle a psychopath like this. I almost puked when I glanced at the knife again, but refused to give this horrible woman the satisfaction.

“Good. Now we wait.”

I narrowed my eyes, not sure I’d heard her. “Wait? If you think Elliot’s just going to call out of the blue, you’re nuts.”

She merely smiled and put a finger to her lips. “We wait for instructions.”

As the minutes of silence dragged on, I managed to calm my hand under the table, and my breathing, looking for a play. What would Terry tell me to do?

If she got distracted when her phone rang, maybe I could lunge for the knife. But then what? Even if I got control of her, how did I get the upper hand on Lorenzo outside? Maybe I could yell to Zane.

But that would alert Lorenzo to Zane and put a target on his chest. What if Zane didn’t understand me and Lorenzo got the drop on him? Then everybody in the office would be at risk.

A half hour later, I jerked when her cell rang.

She laughed at my reaction, then answered without moving away from the knife stuck in the table. “Yes? I’ve got her with me.”

It had to be her bad-guy boss on the other end, whoever that was.

“Come now? Okay.” She hung up .

“Sorry you have to run,” I joked. “I’d say it’s been a pleasure, but I don’t want to lie.”

She stood, pulled the knife from the table, and waved it with a smile. “Very funny, Grace. You’re coming with me.”

My heart stopped. “Oh no, I’m not.” This couldn’t be happening again, not three times in less than a day. What the hell had Elliot gotten me into?

She swiped her phone and held up a picture of Peyton. “You’re coming with me to see the boss. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. In the hard way, she dies. Which is it going to be, Grace? Do you want your assistant to pay the price for your stubbornness?”

The tremor in my hand started again. “I’ll go with you. But you have to promise to leave my people alone.” I picked up my purse, the one that didn’t have a Taser or pepper spray in it because I’d been too combative with Terry, too pig-headed to accept his advice.

“Keep it nice and casual. You and I are going to waltz out of here to visit a location so you can take measurements. Peyton explained that as your process, right?”

I nodded.

“If anyone gets suspicious, things get messy. And we don’t want messy, do we?”

“No.” I shook my head.