Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
GRACE
The Miami safe house was cool, dim, and smelled faintly of industrial cleaner and old hardwood.
It was not as nice as the last place in New Jersey, but definitely nicer than a couple of the other bolt holes we’d used.
They really had mastered the art of functional, quiet, and safe because my dangerous men had decided to make it so.
Dvorak was downstairs in the reinforced laundry room, zip-tied, gagged, and very, very angry. He’d been sputtering in Russian, German, and I was pretty sure Czech or maybe all three before they shut the door. Now it was blessedly muffled.
We weren’t touching him.
Not yet.
Apparently, you didn’t interrogate when you were tired and hungry. Bones said he already wanted to hurt him, but we needed it to employ productive techniques not just pain. I was still learning how this world worked.
Upstairs, in the open kitchen, the guys had torn into takeout cartons.
We had a little bit of everything from everywhere.
I was actually a fan of the tenders and fries so I stuck with them.
Fried food or not, it was damn tasty. Goblin sprawled under the table, tongue lolling, waiting for someone to drop chicken.
Legend finally stopped pacing and leaned against the counter and gesturing with one of his french fries. “He’s going to be a problem.”
Bones grunted. “He’s already a problem.”
“Most problems can be solved with a wrench,” Voodoo said cheerfully. “Or the threat of one.”
I lifted my brows. “You think he’ll respond to tools?”
AB snorted around a mouthful of noodles. “In my experience everyone responds to tools.”
“People are simple creatures,” Voodoo said. “Fear is universal.”
Bones passed him a water bottle. “Fear only works when they believe we’re willing to use it.”
“We are.” Legend looked up then, eyes sliding to me for a second.
I couldn’t argue with that. I’d seen what they were capable of—merciless precision when necessary.
It should have scared me. I think it had once…
but honestly, now? No, it didn’t frighten me and it never would.
Because they were never merciless with me.
They let me step out when I needed it and be a part of it when I needed that too.
I leaned forward, elbows on the kitchen island. “What does he want? What does someone like Dvorak care about?”
“Money,” AB said. “Power.”
“Not dying,” Voodoo added.
Bones shook his head. “He’s loyal to someone bigger. He’ll stall. He thinks he can outlast us.”
“That’s adorable,” Legend said with a thin smile. “He doesn’t know us yet.”
Goblin made a huffing noise like he agreed.
I swallowed a piece of spicy rice and watched them—my men—fall into the same easy rhythm they always did.
Even in the middle of chaos, they fit together like puzzle pieces.
AB was thinking three steps ahead, Voodoo three steps sideways, Legend ready to blow it all to hell, and Bones grounding everyone.
Me? I was… learning where I fit. Lucky for me, it seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once.
“What if he doesn’t break?” I asked.
Bones met my eyes. His were that dark, stormy gray, steady, warm at the bottom in a way that always made my chest go soft. “Everyone breaks.”
“Well, that’s grim,” I said, going for the levity that made the corners of his lips curve upwards.
“Accurate though,” AB added.
Legend set his food down with a sigh. “We just need what he knows about the Madrina connection. Then whether this ties to the Kirov Syndicate or some rogue faction. He’s a step to the next part.”
“He knows a name we don’t,” Voodoo said, wiping his hands. “I can feel it.”
“Well, we can’t exactly wait for him to feel chatty,” I said, leaning back. “How long do you think we have before someone knows he’s missing?”
“Not that long.” AB wrapped more noodles around his fork. “I can scrub some digital traces, but not all. If he has an alert protocol with his organization, a timer’s already running.”
Bones braced both hands on the counter, head down for a moment.
Legend’s gaze flicked to him. “What does your gut say?”
“Still debating that.” But Bones focused on me, not Legend. “What is your impression of him?”
That question startled me. “Really?”
He nodded once, straightening and folding his arms as he regarded me. “You have a fresh point of view. That can be useful.”
I thought for a minute, chewing slowly. “He’s arrogant. You saw it—he walked onto that deck because I smiled at him.”
Bones grunted. “That’s not unique.”
“No,” I agreed. “But the way he carries himself? He isn’t used to being powerless. Or ignored. Or dismissed.” I replayed the way he strode across that deck and then down to the platform to get me to come aboard. He had no doubt at all that I would obey.
“Starve him of attention,” AB said slowly.
“Reverse interrogation?” Voodoo glanced from me to AB. “Think that would work?”
“If he’s as arrogant a prick as he was acting, Gracie is right. We starve him of attention. We don’t threaten him, talk to him, or even look at him. Just leave him in that room in the dark.”
“Until he’s desperate for the interaction, for something…” Legend rubbed a hand along his jaw. “Could take us too long to action anything, especially if he digs in.”
“Maybe,” Bones said. “But we can afford a few hours to test the theory.”
“I don’t think it will take that long,” I admitted and when Bones raised his brows, I shrugged.
“He’s not a guy you say no to. I’ve dealt with lots of those over the years.
They don’t hear no, they don’t see it, they don’t want it.
You have to praise and pamper their egos to get them to think they said no.
Ignoring him is going to make him angry. ”
The slow, dangerous smile that curved Bones’ lips sent a flutter through my system. He was so damn handsome when he looked like that.
“I like it. Cold isolation. No sensory input. No timeline. No context. Let him sit in that room and realize we don’t actually need anything from him.”
“But we do,” Voodoo said.
“We do,” I agreed. “But he won’t know that if we aren’t asking him.”
Legend let out a low whistle. “Look at you. Scary brilliant.”
Warmth hit my cheeks. Embarrassing.
“Told you, weapons grade badass,” AB said and his blue eyes practically sparkled. “Wanna take Goblin for a walk with me? It’ll hopefully be a little cooler now.”
“I do,” I said, closing the box on my food. “Let me grab shorts and a tank top.” I was still in the bikini. As nice as the a/c was in here, I was only just now starting to get pebbling on my skin.
“Damn,” Voodoo said with a grin. “I am really enjoying that bikini.”
“Remind me to burn it later,” Bones said, but there was absolutely no heat in his growl. He caught my arm and tugged me back for a kiss. “Take a weapon with you.”
“I will,” I promised, though he swallowed the words when he deepened that quick kiss to something a lot deeper, wetter, and groan worthy.
“Hands off, Cap, she said she was going to take a walk with me,” AB said, though there was laughter in his voice.
“Fine,” Bones said, right before he actually nipped my lower lip. There was no mistaking the stiffness in his jeans or the fact his eyes were scorching.
He finally let me go with one last murmured, “Weapon. Pocket.” Then he smacked my ass—slow, claiming, absolutely unhelpful—and turned back to the table.
AB snickered. “Subtle.”
Bones didn’t even glance over. “Wasn’t trying to be.”
I rolled my eyes, grabbed my shorts, tank top, and a cross-body bag that would still hide my taser, and got changed. The tank was soft and loose, the shorts comfortable, and the night air would feel good after the day’s humidity.
Goblin perked up the second we walked toward the door, tail thumping as he trotted ahead in his harness.
The moment we stepped outside, Miami felt like a different city.
The heat hadn’t vanished, but the sticky heaviness from earlier had faded.
A breeze swept in from the ocean, cool enough to raise goosebumps along my arms. The sky was going dusky—peach melting into lavender—and streetlights flickered to life one by one.
AB walked beside me, one hand in his pocket, the other holding Goblin’s leash loosely as he inspected the land around us.
“God,” I said on an exhale, “this is so much nicer than earlier.”
“No arguments here.” He stretched a little, rolling his shoulders. “My brain was melting. Bones looked five minutes from homicide. Lunchbox looked two.”
“And Voodoo?”
“Voodoo was considering sacrificing one of us to whatever heat god controls Miami.”
I laughed, the sound tumbling out easier than I expected. The breeze tugged at my hair, and AB reached over and smoothed a strand from my cheek without even thinking about it. His fingers lingered.
My chest did something warm and stupid.
We walked half a block before I spoke again. “Hey… I want to ask you something.”
AB glanced at me, eyebrows rising, face open and ready in that way he had—like he tuned into me before I even knew what I wanted to say.
“Shoot.”
I swallowed. “When you said earlier that you fell in love with me twice… did you mean it?”
A slow, unmistakably genuine grin spread across his face—boyish and wicked and soft all at once. The kind of smile that could ruin a girl forever.
“Gracie.” He shook his head, amused. “No.”
My stomach dropped.
Then he added, “I think I’ve fallen in love with you every day since we met.”
Heat bloomed under my skin—hotter, deeper than any Miami sun.
He kept talking, voice lower, as sincere as the day he’d made the deal to always tell me the truth if I did the same. “Though really? If we’re picking moments? It was the day you nailed Bones in the back of the head with the remote.”
A choked laugh ripped out of me. “He deserved it.”
“Uh-huh.” He grinned wider. “He did, but even when he threw you over his shoulder and carted you up the stairs, you didn’t give even an inch.”
Pride fisted inside of me. “I almost escaped.”
“You did.” He shook his head. “Gave me a heart attack when I realized you’d gotten out that window.” His lips still curved into that smile that he seemed to reserve only for me. “Took my breath away. Kept fucking stealing it too.”
Heat suffused my face and when he caught my hand in his, I interlaced our fingers.
“See, that was it. Right there. You didn’t let Bones intimidate you. You didn’t let any of us intimidate you. And every time we pushed, you pushed back. You kept us honest.”
He paused, eyes softening in the fading light.
“You made us… better.”
For a second, the world went quiet—just the slap of palm fronds in the wind and Goblin’s happy little huff.
I didn’t know what to do with the tenderness in his eyes. I’d learned to read all their moods—Bones’ smoldering heat, Legend’s stormy intensity, Voodoo’s sharp amusement—but AB’s softness always hit different. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t showy.
It was steady. Quiet. Like he’d opened a door that was for me alone.
Goblin tugged forward, spotting a lizard on the sidewalk, and AB chuckled. “Someone’s hunting.”
“Let him. He’s earned a hobby.”
We walked the next few blocks like that, before we began to circle around—hand in hand, breeze cooling the sweat at the back of my neck, Miami humming around us. We weren’t in any hurry, just a pair of lovers out for a stroll. It was kind of magical.
Finally, I said softly, “I think I fall a little more in love with you every day too.”
AB didn’t say anything for a moment. He just stopped walking, turned toward me, and kissed me—slow, careful, reverent. A kiss that said I hear you. I feel it too. I’m here.
Goblin tried to wedge himself between our legs halfway through and AB broke away laughing.
“Cockblock,” he told the dog fondly.
Goblin wagged his tail, unrepentant.
I leaned into AB’s side, heart full, mind clearer than it had been all day.
When we finally headed back toward the safe house, AB murmured, “Let’s get inside. The others will want to get started soon.”
“They’re going to interrogate him now?”
“Nope,” he said, still grinning and I blinked up at him.
“Then what do they want to start?” But as soon as I asked, I knew the answer and the playful way he waggled his eyebrows told me I was right. “Are you guys going to rock, paper, scissors it?”
He laughed, that deep, warm timbre that sent butterflies bursting through me. “Maybe. Maybe we’ll go for poker again…”
Then he shot me a sly look.
“Or maybe we’ll just go in and find a bedroom and not mention it and let them come find us?”
“God, woman, I really do love how you think.” He dropped another fierce kiss on my lips. “Don’t ever leave me, Gracie. Cause you really do get me.”
“I promise.” Because they got me too. All four of them. “AB?”
“Hmm?”
“Do I ever get to learn your birth name?” I wasn’t gonna say real, not anymore. They were their real selves with me.
He shot me a sidelong look. “I’ll think about it.”
“Well,” I said with a little skip. “That’s not a no.” Maybe orgasm denial would net it for me.
Oh, now there was a thought.
He eyed me again. “Not sure I like that look on your face.”
“What look?” I turned wholly innocent eyes up at him.
“Don’t like that one either.”
I was still giggling when we made it back to the safe house.