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Shouts and fresh gunfire rise up from the main part of the warehouse, and Hale tugs me in the opposite direction.
“Frank and his team kept their exit clear,” he tells Ciro in a quiet voice. “They’re on their way out now.”
My heart drums an erratic beat as I follow the men blindly, trusting that they know where they’re going. When two men in dark suits open fire on us, Ciro curses, wrapping his arm around me and shielding me with his body as he fires over his shoulder. Zaid and Lucas fire too, and then the five of us break into a sprint.
I don’t know if the men went down. I don’t know if they’re dead. All I know is that a second later, Zaid fires at a dark door ahead of us, breaking the lock. Then we burst out into the night, racing down a dark alley.
There’s a car parked near the mouth of the alley, and Lucas practically hurls me inside it, shoving me into the back seat. As we peel out, I glance back at the massive building to see more bodies emerging from it, spilling into the night. Loud pops sound in the distance, and I can see the bright flare of gunfire as Hale’s men cover their retreat.
“Did everyone make it out?” I ask, my voice tight. “Are your men safe?”
His eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror, glinting in the passing streetlights. “I don’t know yet.”
23
Grace
It takes fifteen minutes for Hale to get the call from his other captains. Everyone is still alive, although there are a few who sustained pretty serious injuries. They’ll be taken back to Onyx and patched up.
My stomach churns as I listen to Ciro and Hale talk quietly in the front seat. Thank fuck none of Hale’s men died. I don’t know how he and the others found me in the warehouse, but I would never have let them come if I knew the FBI would be there too. I played a dangerous fucking game trying to lead Brady to Camilla, and it almost came crashing down around my ears.
The drive back to the house is mostly quiet, but for every mile that rolls by, I can feel my pulse pick up another notch. By the time we pull into the garage, I feel almost like I sprinted here.
Hale slides out of the car, and Ciro gets out of the front passenger seat. Zaid and Lucas both glance down at me, then they wordlessly get out too. I slide out after Zaid, and all five of us head toward the door.
Even in their anger, the men seem to instinctively gather around me, surrounding me on all sides like they’re still trying to protect me.
I’m glad. I may not need protection anymore, but I do need their presence. The reminder that we’re all still here.
Hale unlocks the door, and as soon as we’re inside the house, he turns to me. His glare is intense. He’s pissed, angrier than I’ve seen him since the days immediately following my abduction.
“What the fuck happened back there, Grace?” His voice is a harsh growl, sending shivers down my spine.
“It’s done,” I say quietly, struggling to keep my voice steady. “She’s finished. Camilla is done.”
“But the fucking FBI isn’t,” Hale shoots back. “How the hell did they get involved? Why the fuck were they there? They’ll be breathing down our necks for months after this shit show, looking for something, anything, to pin on us.”
“No. They won’t. They’ve been investigating you for the human trafficking ring. They were going to try to take you down. When I found out it was Camilla, I made a deal with one of their agents—if I could prove it was the Rooks and not you, if I could give him information that would help him take their operation down, he’d back off.”
“A deal with one of their agents?” Hale’s eyes narrow, and even the twins look pissed as they stand behind him. Ciro’s face is unreadable, but his entire body is so tense it might as well be on a hair-trigger. “Explain. Now.”
Fuck.
There’s no point in lying about any of it, or in keeping any part of the truth from them.
And more than that, I don’t want to lie anymore. I never wanted to in the first place, and I wouldn’t have kept it from the men if it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t want to risk them getting hurt.
So I take a deep breath, and I start talking.
I explain everything. How Agent Brady approached me, offering me a deal. I admit to my onetime fear that what he said could be true—that the Novaks could possibly be running a sex trafficking ring.
Hale’s expression shifts when I get to that part, and I know he’s remembering the night I came to his room. Realizing that it wasn’t Camilla who put that idea in my head, but Agent Brady. He crosses his arms over his chest, stone-faced and silent as I continue.
He’s furious. I know he is. But the fact that he’s letting me speak gives me a small amount of hope that he won’t hate me forever for what I’ve done. He’s giving me a chance to explain, and I need to use it to make him see—make them all see—that I did this for them.
I continue talking, words pouring out of me as I tell them that once I realized Camilla was the one running the trafficking ring, I made a bargain with Brady.
“If I could help him nail her for that crime, if I could prove she was the one responsible for it, he would back off the investigation into you. Us. The Novaks,” I say quietly, glancing from one face to another, holding each of their gazes. “He accepted. And I hope like hell that he’ll keep his word.”
