Chapter 3 #2
The icy blast in her eyes threatened to give me blue balls. “So, he just left extra early so I would still be asleep?”
When my second cup of coffee was ready, I faced her. “Yes.” No point in sugar coating it. I could be diplomatic. “We’re tired of telling you no, Gracie. Right now, none of us want you in the middle of this. We’ve explained why. You’re not stupid and you’re not this much of a diva, so what’s up?”
Okay, so I could be mostly diplomatic. “I feel useless here.” The confession didn’t surprise me, not once she said it.
Maybe I should have gotten that sooner, but the frustration edging each word dragged at my nerves.
“All I’m doing is sitting around, watching movies, or reading, or staring out the window while you guys do the hard stuff. ”
“Sweetheart, I promise you, guard duty is boring as fuck. You’re usually alone, you have to stay awake, you can’t relax, and then you get to do it all over again.”
The mutiny in her fierce expression masked something more. Hurt.
“Gracie… If you go, you’re a distraction. It also could end up with you in the line of fire.”
“You just said it was tedious and boring as fuck.”
“It is, until the moment it isn’t.”
Head tilted, she glared upward for a long moment. “Accepted.” It took her a minute, but she got there. “However, I would like you take me there today, not right away, but when you have a minute.”
Oh, there was a warning sign if I’d ever seen one. “For?”
“To see Legend,” she told me. “Also, I want to check on that girl. She looked like hell the last time I saw her. Maybe I can’t do anything else, but making her feel better is a way of helping.”
She wasn’t wrong. “I’ll think about it. Now, are you done with your coffee?”
It was her turn to grow suspicious. “Why?”
“Because,” I said after downing half of mine. “I want to take Goblin for a walk and I think you could use one too. There’s probably somewhere we can grab something to eat—outside of the apartment. That will help with some of the restlessness.”
The guys wouldn’t like it, but I could hardly blame Grace for being on edge. I had my phone and she had hers. They could track us if they needed us.
“Really?” She brightened up and I knew I’d made the right call. Yes, she was pushing to get out of here, and to help, but it was also because she had literally nothing to do. We needed to fix that.
“Yep, and you can fill me in on how you’d like to approach your sister’s boss. I want to work out all the kinks before we do it. We have time now.”
She drained the last of her coffee, then hurried over to brush another kiss to my jaw. “I know I’m a pain in the ass, but thank you for putting up with me.”
I patted her ass before I wrapped an arm around her to pull her back against me. “I like your ass, whether you’re being a pain or not. I never want to hurt you, Gracie. None of us do, not even Captain Stick in his Ass.”
Her giggle was music to my ears.
“I’ll work on listening better, you work on telling us what you need better. Deal?” I pressed another kiss behind her ear.
“Deal,” she said on an exhale, then leaned her head back to look up at me. “I still want to see Legend sooner rather than later.”
Yeah, well… “Like I said, I’ll see what I can do. No promises.” Though, a drive by wouldn’t take long and later in the morning would be better than in the dark. We could make it work.
“Thank you.”
I dropped a kiss on her nose. “Go put some clothes on, and then we’ll go.”
She scooted out almost lightning fast and I shook my head. My phone pinged as I made my way back to the computer. I was already dressed, just needed to get Goblin’s harness and leash. The message was from Voodoo.
I frowned.
Voodoo: O’Rourke called when I was on watch.
He wants a meet with me. I put it off, but we need to talk it out.
No, not lying to Firecracker, we’ll involve her in the discussion.
Make sure you’re armed, since you’re taking her on a walk and I put transmitters in the soles of her shoes. See you in five.
Well, fuck.
Also, in her shoes?
I was still mulling that over when she returned in a pair of running shoes, sweatpants, and an oversized hoodie that managed to both dwarf her and look chic. Well, on her everything was “chic.”
“Everything okay?” She paused, then held up a hand. “Rephrase, are we still good to go?”
I grinned. I knew what she’d meant, but clarifying was a solid first step. “Yes, we are. I need to get away from the computer anyway. I’m starting to see data in my sleep.”
“Okay, I have my taser,” she said, patting her hoodie on the right side. “And my phone.” She patted the left side.
My smile just grew. “Getting my gun. Get Goblin’s harness?”
“On it.” Just like that, the tension melted away and we were out the door in under five minutes.
It was dawn, gray light not quite having given away to the sunrise, but the city was already waking up.
We’d gone a block when she said, “As for her boss, I want to rattle him. If she ‘really’ quit, then he’ll be annoyed but not freaked out. ”
None of us believed the bullshit story. “But if he was behind her abduction?”
“Yes, that will freak him right the hell out. Or so you’d think, either way, I want to do it in broad daylight, maybe right there in his office with a lot of witnesses. Just totally screw over his whole day…”
Gracie had a vicious side to her.
I kind of liked it.
Eh, who was I kidding? I loved it.