Page 27

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

GRACE

“ M erci,” I told the attendant as she brought us fresh coffees and a light breakfast. We would be landing soon and they were giving us time to freshen up. I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me that we were traveling business. I would have thought coach or even premium coach would have been less conspicuous.

Voodoo, however, eyed me when I’d asked after we checked in at the Toronto airport for our flight. “We could make do if we had to, but I’d rather be able to stretch out.”

Well, I couldn’t fault him there. They were all tall men with damn near a foot or more on me. So, yes, the desire to stretch their legs made sense. Also, I would never mind being able to lay my seat down and nap.

For all that I thought I would have trouble sleeping, I’d drifted right off. Voodoo woke me with a brush of his knuckles to my cheek. That gave me a few minutes to use the facilities, check my appearance, and brush my teeth.

Cosmetics held up and so did the extensions with their streaks. It was funny, I’d never thought about putting blue, purple, and fuchsia streaks in my hair, but I kind of liked it.

I added a faux nose ring. It had taken a little time to get used to, but it was also fun. Beyond the hair, the jewelry, and the cosmetics, I’d gone for a little more of a brash look.

The black sleeveless tank coupled with a padded bra gave me a bigger boob profile. The black lace leggings looked painted on with the purple plaid skirt just this side of being too short. The knee high Doc Martens with their platforms also gave me an extra couple of inches of height.

It was all about the packaging.

Bones had given me a long hard look when I walked out wearing it before we all split up and I shrugged. “No one is looking at my face.”

I swore his lips twitched. The stone face of his might have cracked if he’d given in to the desire. He definitely looked like he almost smiled. “You have a point.”

Splitting up would draw less attention to us. Initially, I thought that meant we’d just be flying separately on the same flight, but the guys had their own flights and travel plans.

The coffee was strong, dark, and tasted a bit like nirvana. A bubble of excitement shivered through me the closer we got to Paris. With my new ID listing me as Canadian, I was traveling as Monet Morel. Monet for Amorette and Morel because Noir would have been too on the nose.

Voodoo had me calling him Harry for the flight and when I’d teased him about it being Houdini, he’d just grinned. Before too long, they cleared away the dishes and we were getting ready for landing. The excitement threading through me seemed inappropriate and, yet, we were on the move.

We were doing something . That something was important. It was another step on the path to finding Amorette.

My stomach bounced a little as the plane wheels touched down. The taxiing didn’t take all that long and then we were deplaning. Voodoo grabbed my carryon bag from the overhead and gave me a gentle nudge. I had a purse strung crosswise over my torso and a hoodie that I’d tied around my waist.

“Mare See Bow Coop.” The horrendous French from Voodoo had my eyes bugging a little and I gaped at him. He nodded cheerfully to the attendants who were welcoming us to Paris and thanking us for flying with them.

Fortunately, amusement filled their faces as I offered up a swift apology for his “joke.” “ Merci pour le vol et ignorez son accent, ce n’était pas en mal .”

They waved us on our way and then Voodoo’s hand clasped mine once we were through the jet bridge.

“They appreciated my humor just fine, Firecracker,” he teased and I snorted even as we linked fingers. He also shortened his stride. Even with extra height afforded by the Doc Martens, my legs were still nowhere near as long as his.

“Maybe,” I said, shaking my head. “But it just sounded so bad .”

“Well, not all of us have your very talented tongue.” The playful wiggle of his brows had me snapping my mouth closed with a click, even as a snort of laughter escaped me.

“You’re terrible.”

“Yes, I am,” he said with a grin before raising my hand to kiss the knuckles. “And you’re laughing. So it’s all good.”

Passport control was ahead and they had e-gates which was always nice. We followed the others in the queue but had to split up because Voodoo traveled on a U.S. passport and I had Canadian.

“See you on the other side,” he said, then winked. His confidence helped. He held onto my carry-on, which was fine. There were more Canadians in the line than Americans. We flew out of Toronto, so that made sense.

Still, I waited patiently for my turn and focused on not freaking out. Everything would be fine. I had my passport out at the gate and then set it down and looked up at the camera.

For what seemed like an eternity that couldn’t have been longer than a few seconds, I stared at myself on the screen circled by the red light. The moment it flashed green, I blew out a breath and collected my passport. Voodoo waited for me not even a dozen steps away.

“Relax,” he murmured as he draped an arm over my shoulders. “Told you it would be fine.”

A laugh bubbled up out of me. “This shouldn’t be fun.”

“Who says? Hmm?”

“I—” Well, I didn’t have an answer for that. Not really. “This is serious.”

“Sure, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun, Firecracker. You liked the flight right?”

“Yeah. It was comfortable.”

“Slept well?” He pressed as we continued on our way to baggage claim.

“Better than I expected.” I hadn’t thought I would sleep at all.

“The food was good.” That wasn’t a question.

“I liked the portions,” I retorted and that earned me a laugh from him. “But yes, it was good.”

“Now we’re here, in Paris. We’re going to get ourselves a couple of funky t-shirts after we grab our luggage and then we’ll head out.”

We weren’t planning to stay in Paris at all. I glanced at my watch. “Do you know when their flights land?”

“I do,” he said, then ducked his head down to murmur, “don’t worry. I mean it. We’ll see them soon enough. Everything is fine.”

Right. Everything was fine.

By the time we got to our carousel, the luggage coming out was from our flight. It didn’t take long for us to collect the luggage and bypass customs because we had nothing to declare.

Once into the arrivals area, Voodoo let me pull my own suitcase as we wandered down to a couple of the gift shops. I had to laugh, he’d been serious about tacky shirts. But we grabbed them. We lingered for a bit, then he nudged us outside.

Not even ten minutes passed before a car pulled up to the curb with Lunchbox behind the wheel. He flashed a grin at us as Bones slid out from the passenger side. He grabbed the extra bags and the guys got them loaded as I climbed into the backseat.

“Hi,” Lunchbox said over his shoulder. “Good flight?”

“How did you guys get here so fast?” I thought we were on the first flight.

He chuckled. “Luck of the draw. Or maybe we bumped up to an earlier flight. They had the room.”

“Huh. Good flight?”

“Not so bad. You?”

Before I could answer him, Voodoo slid in next to me as Bones climbed into the passenger seat.

“Alphabet is two hours out,” Bones said over his shoulder. “We rented a small apartment. We’ll take you there and you can shower and change if you want. Once he’s in, we’ll head out again.”

I blew out a breath. That fit our plans, even if we were hooking up sooner than I expected. “Are we driving down?”

“No,” Voodoo said. “We’ll get another car once we’re there, but I need to work on sourcing some supplies.” He checked his watch, then leaned forward as Lunchbox navigated us out of the airport. “If we have two hours for Alphabet and Goblin, give me another ninety minutes to get everything lined up. Then we can go.”

“We can juggle,” Bones said. “Grace can head south with Lunchbox and Alphabet, I’ll stay with you and we’ll meet them in place.”

Voodoo grimaced, then nodded once. Leaning back, he glanced at me. “Lose the highlights, take your hair up into a ponytail, scrub the makeup, or take it real low key and then put on the tourist gear.”

“She’s gonna look like a teenager,” Bones muttered.

I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him—barely. “I can look a little more college. Don’t worry.” I glanced down at Doc Martens. The lace leggings would have to go and I had some running shoes in my bags. Jeans, t-shirt, running shoes, and ponytail. I could make it work.

“Do you have a baseball hat for her?” Bones asked as he glanced over his shoulder and I felt more than saw the way he swept his gaze over me.

“I got something,” Lunchbox said, handling the Paris traffic like he was a native. “Don’t worry about it.” He flicked a look at me in the rearview. “Still got your phone and earbuds?”

I grinned. “Yes.” Now that I had them, I was not risking losing them. I may not have anyone to call right now, but I loved having the access.

“Get them ready, that way you can ‘tune’ us out if you need to.” Then he winked. Warmth unfurled in my belly and I forced out another long breath. The flirting was… nice . I probably shouldn’t be focusing on that.

“If we take a train instead of a car, I want to grab a couple of books.” I’d kill for something new to read.

“We’ll take care of it,” he said, then Voodoo leaned forward to murmur with Bones. The occasional word like weapon and supplies drifted toward me. They were likely working out where to pick up the items they needed.

The place they had was an apartment on the top floor of a lovely building in the 19th Arrondissement. Bones and Voodoo slipped out to offload our luggage and Lunchbox twisted back to look at me.

“Still have a few more hours of travel to go, so pace yourself. But a shower always helps after a long flight.” The advice was sweet.

“This, I actually do know.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re coming back with Alphabet? And Goblin?”

“Can’t keep me away. Don’t let Voodoo talk you into bed, we won’t be that long.”

I snorted. “You forget, I’ve seen Paris traffic. But I’ll be ready by the time you guys get here. Promise.”

“Looking forward to it.” Then my door opened and Voodoo stood there with a hand out for me. “See you when we’re back!”

He brushed his fingers over my hand. My stomach clenched a little, but then I was out and I took hold of my own overnight bag from Voodoo.

“I can carry both of them if you’re going to get both suitcases.” Not that I thought he would go for it and his bland look said no, he wasn’t.

Bones didn’t say a word before he climbed back into the SUV and then they were pulling away from the curb and heading back to the airport.

“Think they have an elevator?” I asked as we went inside.

“They do,” Voodoo told me. “It’ll be a squeeze though.”

He wasn’t kidding, but then I didn’t mind leaning back against him after he closed the gate and hit the button for the top floor. The ride was slow, but steady.

“Good thing we can handle cozy,” I teased.

“True,” he said, then slid a hand over my hip.

“Ah-ah-ah.” I clasped my hand over his and pulled it back up to my waist. “Lunchbox said no hanky panky.”

“Did he?” Voodoo mused. “Interesting.”

Five minutes later in the apartment, Voodoo picked me up and carried me toward the shower. “Too bad for Lunchbox he isn’t here to enforce that rule…”

I laughed. “We have to be ready when they get back.”

“Don’t worry, Firecracker. We will be.”