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“No, thanks,” she said. “My job’s in the field. I never sit behind a desk, and I have no plans of retiring in my old age.”
“You can only go on so long in our line of business before you slow down or get taken down. Is that what you’re looking for, Grace? The easy way out?”
She shook her head and avoided his gaze. “I died a long time ago, Gabe. Everything from here on out is just paving the way to hell.”
They stood in front of the elevators, and he wanted nothing more than to take her by the shoulders and shake her until he rattled some sense back into her brain. But she had that stubborn look in her eye that told him the only thing he was going to get was a fight if he kept pushing.
He pulled a key card from his pocket and handed it to her, watching as some of the tension left her shoulders. He decided to redirect the conversation for both their sakes.
“The elevator needs a key card and a palm print to open and a retinal scan to take you to whatever floor you want. The fifth floor is a full gym and sauna, and there’s also a lap pool. You’re free to use it whenever you’d like. I wouldn’t want you to get slow and sloppy. You’re not getting any younger.”
“I’m in my prime, and you know it.” She smiled, and he felt his heart stumble. It was the first time in twenty-four hours he’d seen a sign of life in her eyes.
“Yeah, you are,” he said softly.
He lifted his hand to touch her—just one touch to douse the fierce need that was building inside of him—but the elevator doors opened and ruined the moment. He took a step back and let out a low, shaky breath.
“Mmm, mmm, mmm,” a deep voice said. “You told me there’d be perks with this job, Gabe, but I had no idea. I’ve always been partial to redheads.”
The sound of Jack Donovan’s southern drawl brought Grace out of the trance Gabe had put her in. He’d almost touched her. And she’d almost let him. How many times could she make the same mistake in a lifetime? She’d never been able to resist his touch.
“You’re partial to every hair color on the planet,” Gabe said.
“It’s true,” Jack said. “I’m a real cad. Want to be the one to reform me, sugar?”
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Grace said. “Jack Donovan, big as life.”
Last time she’d heard, Jack had been the commanding officer of a group of Navy SEALs conducting Visit, Board, Search and Seizure missions in the Persian Gulf, but that had been two years ago. She remembered he’d sent pink roses to the funeral. It was weird how some memories were so clear during a time that was for the most part an absolute haze.
She looked back and forth between Gabe and Jack. “Don’t tell me Gabe’s talked you out of the adrenaline rush of VBSS operations just to come twiddle your thumbs for him. Friendship should only go so far.”
“I figured he needed someone to keep him out of trouble,” Jack said, pointing to Gabe with a charming grin. “And since he’s brought you here, I have a feeling I’m going to have my hands full with both of you. You two always manage to find trouble no matter where you are.”
She laughed. “What can I say? It’s a talent. Besides, we don’t find trouble. Trouble finds us.”
“Even worse,” he said. “It’s good to see you, Grace.”
Jack pulled her into a tight hug, and she burrowed into the hardness of his chest. He was a large man, a couple of inches taller than Gabe, and thickly muscled. His dark brown hair was cut close to the scalp, and his angular face was freshly shaven. Misty green eyes made women think romantic thoughts of sonnets and white picket fences, but they got over that notion soon enough. Jack was a womanizer, plain and simple, and he was proud of it.
Tears stung her eyes, but she willed them away and held on to him a little more desperately than she’d intended. She hadn’t held anyone in her arms for so long. Hadn’t even touched anyone she wasn’t sent to kill. She was a master at keeping her distance, at not getting too involved or too close to anyone. It was the only way she knew how to survive. She pulled back so she wouldn’t cling too long.
Gabe caught Jack’s gaze and saw the worry in his eyes as he held on to Grace. She’d been holding on like a woman who was clinging to a life raft.
Grace already regretted her mistake of coming back with Gabe. She wasn’t ready for whatever he had in mind. Her solitude and her trigger finger were the two things that had kept her sane over the last couple of years. Gabe had managed to take one of them away…so far.
The elevator opened again, and a fresh-faced kid wearing sweatpants and a Halo T-shirt bounded out of the elevator. His hair was dark brown and shaggy, and she’d bet money he’d never shaved a day in his life.
“Hellooo, beautiful,” he said, looking her up and down with a knowledge that didn’t belong on a pale-faced teenager. “What do you say you and I do a little extra-hours work this evening?”
“Don’t be obnoxious, runt,” Jack said, smacking the kid on the back of the head. “Grace, this is Ethan Thomas. Try not to kill him. As hard as it is to believe, he actually proves himself useful from time to time.”
The kid was cute, Grace thought, trying not to smile so she wouldn’t hurt his feelings. In another ten years he’d be a good-looking man. Right now, though, he was still awkward arms and legs, his body on the thin side. Horn-rimmed glasses lay crooked on his nose, and a slow flush of anger at the way Jack had scolded him was working its way up his neck and into his cheeks.
“Listen, sweetheart,” Ethan said. “I might be young, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have experience. You know what I mean? I know how to treat a lady.”
“Good thing I’ve never claimed to be a lady,” she said, ignoring Gabe’s and Jack’s laughter. “The last man who tried to show me how experienced he was ended up with a bullet between his eyes.”
Ethan waggled his eyebrows, and he put a hand over his heart. “I’m in love. I’m comfortable enough in my manhood to let you be the protector. I was born to be a kept man. This is like…fate. Tell me your name, and make all my dreams come true.”
