“I know.” I pressed a kiss to her wet hair. “I promise that when this is all over, we’ll make up for it. Rent a cabin in the mountains, away from everything else. Just you, me?—”
“And Cruz and Grayson,” she finished, the smile returning to her face. It was only there for a few seconds before her mouth turned down. She stared up at me, her eyes wide, fear entering them as reality intruded once more. “Do you think we’ll make it through this? Really? I can’t help thinking about Olivia, and the fact that it should have been me.”
“Don’t think like that. We’ll make it through. Nothing is going to happen to you. Nothing is going to happen to any of us. Our plan worked. Okay, we didn’t catch the guy, but we know something about him now, and we have his gun.”
“You’re right.”
“I am,” I said with more confidence than I felt. Maybe it was misplaced confidence, but the fact was, I’d taken the guy downall by myself. I’d actually been able to use the skills I’d trained in to do something useful for the first time. When he recovered and shot at Gray, I’d instantly taken action, diving on him and wrestling the gun from his hand without even hesitating or second-guessing my actions. Yes, he’d escaped, but not without a struggle.
I still couldn’t believe it. It had all happened so fast. Even now, it felt like a dream. Like it had happened to someone else. But the bruises on my body and the bullet wound on Grayson’s thigh were all real.
Turning off the shower, I stepped out, quickly wrapping a towel around my waist before taking a large, fluffy towel from the hook on the door and draping it over Ava’s body. I began to gently dry her off, and this time, her smile returned and stayed. It made me warm inside.
“We now know it was a man. We need to find out more information about the gun. Do you think we can get fingerprints from it?” I asked, staring at the noticeboard where we were compiling all our information. We were back in Grayson’s room, and we’d combed through the footage, making notes on the direction the man had come from and disappeared to. We’d written down our guesstimate of his height and build, and now we needed to put the puzzle pieces together to form a picture.
“I might know a guy,” Cruz said slowly from his position sprawled in Gray’s love seat, and I turned around in time to see Grayson shooting him a warning look.
“No more shady deals,” he bit out, and Cruz rolled his eyes.
“Is that your way of offering to come with me to supervise? Sorry, Cross. You’re going to have to miss this one. Don’t you have a hockey game today?”
“He can’t play hockey. He’s been shot!” Ava exclaimed. Gray shook his head, leaning across his bed to brush a kiss over Ava’s cheek.
“I have to. I’m the captain. I’ll be fine—it’s only a graze.” We all stared at him skeptically, and he groaned, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. “I’mfine. I’ve been injured worse than this playing hockey. Honestly. I promise. I’m okay.”
“I’ll go with Cruz to— Where are we going?” I glanced at Cruz. He smirked at me.
“A place nice boys like you should stay far away from.”
“I’m not as nice as you think.”
His tongue swiped across his lips, and my dick jerked. “Mmm. You wanna be my bad boy, baby?”
Grayson launched himself from his bed, holding up his hands, the blue-gray hue of his eyes turning dark and stormy. “Can we be serious for one fucking second? We need to find this asshole, and we need to find him now.”
“What about the rocks?” Ava slid off the bed, padding across the room to stand next to me. She slipped her arm around my waist, leaning against my shoulder. “They look similar, right?”
I followed her gaze to the two photos. The one I’d taken at the lake of the stone cairn. And the one Gray had taken on his phone in the church grounds. We’d only just printed the image from Gray’s phone, and now I was studying the two of them side by side, I could see how she’d made the connection. There was a definite similarity in the way the wood had been piled.
“What about the piece of hair on the top?” I wondered aloud. The second I spoke the words, it hit me, and the blood in my veins turned to ice. Ava gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.
“Li-Livy,” she whispered from behind her shaking hand.
“Fuck,” I hissed.
Cruz and Grayson rushed over to stand next to us, and as soon as I’d finished outlining my thoughts, I could see the horror I felt reflected in their faces.
“That fucking cult. Martinez. Use all your contacts. We need information, right fucking now. I want the prints from the gun. I want the details of every single member of that church. I want a match with anyone who might be our guy. We’re getting answers, whatever it takes.” Grayson’s voice was threaded with steel. “Ava, you’re coming to my game. Micah, you go with Cruz. Make sure he doesn’t do anything?—”
Cruz wrapped his fingers around the back of Grayson’s neck and yanked him into his body, slamming his mouth down on Gray’s.
34
GRAYSON
What the hell?I shoved Cruz away from me, glaring at him as I swiped at my mouth. The fucker just grinned unrepentantly at me.
“I think I found a new way to shut you up.”
