Page 17

Chapter

Sixteen

GRACE

A new day, a new problem, and a new safe house. It was like being on some cracked world tour, only instead of playing a venue or hosting a party or just being seen—we did all of that with extreme prejudice and blowing shit up.

This place was colder, had less charm. The floors were concrete, the windows covered in black-out and framed by heavy curtains.

One bathroom, and four rooms total with a kitchen that just made Lunchbox shake his head.

There weren’t even that many beds and the furniture should probably have been taken out and burnt.

“We won’t be here that long,” Bones said . “Voodoo, we need to swap out the van.”

The van we’d been in was now parked inside a glorified shed. They called it a carport, but it looked like a shed. I already missed the car Bones had “purchased” when we’d been on the run. But I had a feeling, like everything else, it wasn’t coming back.

I paced the room, arms folded as much to warm myself up because it was chilly as to work off the wild nervous energy that vibrated beneath my skin.

“We will,” Voodoo said, leaning against the wall nearest the fireplace. Lunchbox had built a fire in it, the flames licking over the kindling. It was kind of a promise of warmth but it seemed a paltry defense against the ice spreading within me. “But not yet.”

“We need to debrief,” Alphabet said as he and Goblin came in. “I want to know why in the past few days we’ve run into Reznik and now O’Rourke. One should be in a prison and the other in a grave.”

I shot him a sympathetic look as he took a seat. With all the chatter on the comms, he’d actually said little. He’d said even less during our subsequent flight.

“I want to know how deep their ties are,” Voodoo said in a grim tone of voice. “In fact, I vote we pick one or both up and take them out behind the woodshed and beat the information out of them.”

“I could get on board with that plan.” Lunchbox stood, then sliced a look toward me. “You’re cold.” He stripped off his jacket and stepped right into my path before he draped it over my shoulders. It was still warm from him, even if it smelled like smoke.

“You didn’t know him,” Bones said as I shifted my stance and our gazes collided. “Right?”

“No, I didn’t know him. I’d never seen him before tonight. To be honest, I don’t think I knew anyone there, not that I lingered in the main party that long and most of those people were masked.” I rubbed my right arm. The cold seemed to be settling in my bones and everything had begun to hurt.

Maybe that was the adrenaline wearing off.

“You should eat,” Lunchbox said, worry deepening the grooves at the corners of his mouth. “Maybe change your clothes?” Without waiting for my response, he diverted toward the bathroom. “I’m going to see if we have hot water. Then you can shower.”

Alphabet let out a sigh, then pulled out his phone. “I’ve uploaded everything, but it’s going to take time. The servers are secure, but the decryption programs will need massaging. If we’re not staying here longer than a night, I’m going to wait until we get to the next place.”

“How long will you need?” Bones might have been talking to Alphabet, but the weight of his gaze rested on me. Did he want to talk? Fight? Yell?

I had no idea. Since I could go for all three right now, I resumed pacing. The idea had been mine. I had no one to blame for the past few hours, that wasn’t me. The guys hadn’t liked the plan, but they’d supported me and I wasn’t in there alone.

The rational argument being waged against the emotional upheaval tearing me apart wasn’t doing me any good.

“Best case? Forty-eight hours, but we won’t have best case here.

I need my equipment at base for that. What I have here, seventy-two and that’s generous.

If I knew what we were looking for specifically, I could parse that way but we don’t.

” Alphabet sounded so damn resigned and I could practically feel the apology.

A bang came from the other room and I jumped.

“It’s just Lunchbox,” Voodoo said, his tone soothing even if the words were just an explanation. “Sounds like he’s beating on the water heater.”

My ribs felt bruised from the beating they were taking from my heart. I tried to get my breathing back under control.

“We could backtrack to Arles, but if they are trying to follow a trail, I’d rather not be somewhere they can trip over us.” Bones wasn’t asking, he was talking aloud. “Seventy-two hours in one location is a hard push.”

“Not,” Alphabet said slowly. “If we split up. I take Goblin and make straight for Paris. Stay at one of the high-end places. Use their wifi and security to mask what I’m doing.”

Split up?

When I pivoted to face him, Alphabet gave me an encouraging smile. “That way, you have the three of them with you. They’ll be in a better position to move if I get something actionable.”

“I still think we need to just pick up Reznik,” Voodoo said. “Definitely want O’Rourke. That fucker?—”

A slicing motion from Bones silenced him and I glanced between the two. “I already know you have hard feelings since you didn’t know he was alive.”

“It’s more than hard feelings,” Bones said, evenly.

“Gracie,” Lunchbox said as he emerged wearing a very real smile. “We have hot water. Want a shower?”

He looked so damn earnest, and his smile so wide that it was impossible to not smile back at him. Unlike his crazy smile back at the chateau this one was far warmer and richer.

“Thank you,” I told him and I meant it. “Not sure I’m ready to shower yet. I’m?—”

I extended my hands forward to show them how hard they were shaking.

“Maybe in a few?” After I calmed down, if I could calm down. I went to fold my arms again but Bones caught my right wrist and turned my hand over.

“What is that?” He stared down at the livid bruising and torn skin. Voodoo pushed away from the wall to stalk over to where I was standing. He stared down at it and then he jerked his gaze up to me.

Lunchbox and Alphabet were just there, I didn’t even hear them move. The four of them formed this almost insurmountable wall of testosterone. My pulse sped up again at the way they closed ranks. It was like being trapped all over again except…

They won’t hurt me .

Those four words played on a loop even as my anxiety see-sawed violently despite the whispered confidence from my more rational side. It probably only worked because I did believe they wouldn’t.

“He bit me.”

“He fucking what?” Lunchbox’s voice dipped into a dark place that sucked all the lightness out of him. “O’Rourke bit you?”

I met his hard-eyed gaze. “Yes.” I could soften this. I should probably ease it somehow. “I think it was a test because I said he had to promise to not bite or whatever stupid thing it was that I said.”

“It wasn’t stupid,” Alphabet said, resting his hands on my hips. I don’t know which of us shifted, but he was just a solid wall of muscle now at my back, and it helped to begin to fracture the ice spreading through me. “You were being charming, thinking on your feet.”

“You handled it,” Bones said when I lifted my gaze to him.

“I’m going to gut that son of a bitch and feed him his own entrails.

” The explicit and very violent reaction from Lunchbox had me shifting my attention to him.

His lips had compressed into a tight white line.

His jaw tensed, and a muscle leaped in his cheek.

I swore I could see a vein throbbing in his forehead.

“You should never have had to even see him, much less let him touch you.”

I shrugged. “I don’t care about the touching.”

“Liar.” Voodoo delivered the accusation in a gentle voice that robbed it of any pique. “Handling it, being able to handle it, doesn’t mean you wanted it, enjoyed it, or don’t care.”

“If I’m the one who allows it then I still have control.” That was something they needed to understand. “I say who and I say when.”

Except he bit me when I asked him to say he wouldn’t. He’d done it and then… I tried to swallow against the sudden dryness in my throat. Bones traced the area around the wound.

“I’ll get the first aid kit,” Voodoo said. “Clean that out and we can bandage it before you shower.”

I didn’t want to shower.

“He knew you guys were listening.” I wanted to face this all head on even as they crowded around me.

Tilting my head back, I rested it against Alphabet’s chest and found him gazing down at me with a fierce light in his eyes.

For one moment, he flicked a look toward Bones before he looked at me again.

Bones sighed, the long exhale slicing through the silence.

“Do you need to know who he is, Grace?” That question caught me off-guard and I straightened to meet him head-on.

Those gray eyes which so often seemed cold seemed to shine like armor at the moment.

Steel maybe. “Intelligence can be a double-edged sword. What you know, someone can try to take. We haven’t discussed what happens when we erase the people after you and dismantle the organization. ”

Erase.

Dismantle.

I swallowed.

He rubbed his thumb against my palm, the slow, even strokes easing the tension and letting my fingers relax.

“O’Rourke and Reznik, however, are tied to us. To our past. Not yours.”

“Except O’Rourke knows who I am and he knew about Amorette. They may not have her. She may not be in their network or whatever they call it. But he knew about her.” I licked my lips. “He also seems to know I’m with you or the other way around.”

He nodded. “Potentially. Or he was fishing for information. Reznik recognized them in Monaco. If O’Rourke and Reznik are still in each other’s pockets, then it’s not impossible for him to believe it involves you.”

“We haven’t exactly been quiet about looking after you,” Lunchbox admitted. Fortunately, some of the dark cloud of anger had eased away. Not gone, but definitely not storming anymore. “If we were identified by any of their scoop teams…”

He shrugged.

“Good,” Voodoo said. “I hope those assholes know we’re involved. It means maybe they won’t keep trying to take her.”

“Except I walked right in there tonight because I wanted to help—to be in this fight. I don’t know if what I did made this worse.”

Bones closed his hand around mine and squeezed.

The gesture had me glancing up at him again.

“It helped. You pulled another ghost out of the closet. That’s one less to ambush us.

We have names. With you inside and distracting them, all three of you got more images of their guests.

We can’t identify everyone yet, but I meant what I said.

We will erase your pursuers and dismantle the rest.”

“Hopefully, some of the people I cut loose tonight kept going. They could be dealing with some legal bullshit,” Lunchbox said and his smile suddenly returned. “Oh yeah, that will be something for them to have to deal with. They had a full house downstairs and their security was spotty.”

“Surveillance was jammed,” Alphabet said with a shrug of his own that made me bounce a little. “I left them a lovely little virus that would have made a mess out of everything. So sad for them.”

“You set fire to the bar,” I reminded Lunchbox and he winked.

“That I did. So yes, Gracie. You helped. Intelligence is never a bad thing. We know more. The more we know, the more we can make our targets hurt.” He nodded once.

“Oh yeah. Definitely planning some maximum pain there. Now, you need to eat. I’m going to see what supplies we have. Then we can debate where we’re going.”

Bones said nothing, but his expression said he was considering options.

“Two things,” I said before Lunchbox could derail us with food again.

Though, admittedly, the longer I leaned into Alphabet the more I relaxed and the hungrier I grew.

“One, yes I want to know who they are and what they did to all of you. Not just because it involves me right now, but because they hurt you.”

No one had to draw me a map for that. I could read the room and the reactions. Bones hated O’Rourke. If he’d been in that room instead of on comms, this whole conversation would probably be moot.

O’Rourke would be dead.

“And two?” Voodoo prompted, though I had all of their attention.

“I’m in this, all of this. With you. I know I’m freaking out and I reserve the right to do that. Tonight scared the shit out of me, but if I helped, then I want to keep helping. Don’t keep me out of this.” I looked at each of them in turns.

“Grace,” Bones said. “You shouldn’t want any part of this.”

Any part of them. That’s what he was saying.

“But I do.” My voice was hoarse and raw. I straightened, stepping away from Alphabet long enough so I could turn in a slow circle and meet their gazes one by one. “And you do, too.”

Not a single one denied it.

“Right now, I’m going to go shower and wash him off. While I do that, you four can decide how you want to handle this and what you’re going to tell me.” I cleared my throat. “Then I’m going to change and come back out here and eat. Be ready to discuss when I am.”

That was my plan.

“Orders, Grace?” Bones asked in the most mild of tones and I couldn’t help it, I grinned.

“Think of them more as guidelines… suggestions really.” It wasn’t the exact quote, but it worked for me. At the bathroom door, I hesitated and glanced back at them to add, “Please.”

After I closed the door, I leaned against it. They didn’t move, at least not that I could hear. They didn’t speak either.

Then, Bones said, “You heard the lady. Get her food started. Then we’ll plan.”