“I thought you were exaggerating.” She was quiet for a moment, then her chin lifted, and an almost foreign edge transformed her voice. “I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask to find the egg, I didn’t ask to be followed, and I didn’t ask to be locked in hotel rooms and ordered around by someone who treats me like I can’t be trusted to walk down the street.”
“Youcouldn’tbe trusted.” I snatched her charger from the bedside table and tossed it into her bag. “You went out alone—against my explicit instructions—and nearly got grabbed.”
“I wasfine. Nothing happened.”
“Because I got to you in time.”
“Maybe nothing would have happened anyway!” Her voice rose, in both volume and pitch. “Maybe he really wanted to talk, like he said?—”
“And if you were close enough to talk, you were close enough for him to put a hand over your mouth and shove you into a car.” My voice came out harsher than I intended, but we didn’t havethe time for me to fix it. “Is that what you want? To find out what his employer’shard waylooks like?”
Her jaw tightened. “You don’t know what would have happened.”
“You’re right, I don’tknow. But my job is to understand how these people operate and keep you safe.”
“Right. Because you’re the expert, and I’m just the idiot who wandered off.”
“I didn’t say?—”
“You didn’t have to.” She zipped her suitcase with a sharp motion. “Every time I make a decision, you treat me like I’m too stupid to comprehend the danger. Like I’m some naive little girl who thinks everything will justwork out.”
“That’s not?—”
“I know things don’t always work out, Garrett.” Her voice cracked on the last word, and she turned away, fussing with the suitcase handle. “But I refuse to spend my life assuming the worst. That’s not living. That’s just passing time until we die.”
The words went straight into my heart and cracked open a memory. My mother’s voice echoed in my head, clear as if she were standing beside me.‘He didn’t mean it, Garrett. It’ll be fine. Things will get better.’
She’d said that every time. Every single fucking time. Even when her eye was swelling shut. Even when she couldn’t lift her arm. Even when she found her hidden money was gone and had to start saving all over again.
‘It’ll be fine.’
It wasn’t fine. It was never fine. And all her hoping, all her believing things would get better—it didn’t protect her. It just kept her in place long enough for the next hit.
Grace’s head fell, and she muttered quietly, “I didn’t pack my toiletry bag. I’ll be right back.”
I could hear the sniffle from my spot next to her bed. Grace wasn’t my mother. I knew that. She wasn’t staying with someone who hurt her, wasn’t making excuses for violence. She wasn’t trapped. But she’d had the same look. The stubborn faith things would work out if she believed hard enough. I unzippered the bag for her, focusing on the sound of her bottles and containers clinking together as she collected them.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she rejoined me. “You’re doing a favor for Tristan. You said it yourself: five days and you’re gone. You’re not even getting paid for this, and I’m making your job harder.”
My hand inched closer to her, like it wanted to fucking hug her. She was so small after being so smart at the pub, then so defiant in leaving. But that didn’t matter. Safety came first. Comfortonlycame after safety. “Are you ready?”
She tossed a black bag, a clear one with her shower stuff, and a hairbrush into her suitcase. “Yes.”
“Then let’s go.” I grabbed her suitcase and headed for the door as she stuffed everything back into her purse. At the door, I paused. Checked the peephole. Listened. I had calls to make, but not until we were settled. Then, I’d get the team on this.
She took position behind me.
“Clear,” I said out of habit, more than anything, and stepped out with Grace close behind me.
Chapter 15
Grace
“Where now?”I asked as Garrett hailed another cab under the streetlamps.
“Train station.” A black cab pulled to the curb almost immediately. Garrett opened the door for me, gave the driver an address, and slid in beside me.
This was the fourth cab in three hours. The first had taken us west, toward Hyde Park. The second looped us back east, past the Tower. The third went north, then doubled back south. Now we were heading… maybe to a train station, maybe not. I’d stopped trying to figure Garrett’s plan out.
