Her throat moved in a tight swallow. “You really think it could work?”
“I think,” I said, “that the only thing worse than risking letting you live your life… is asking you to keep hiding from it.”
She took a tiny step toward me. Goblin rose too, tail thumping once, like he was taking her side simply because she was Grace.
I let a little smile curve my mouth. “We’ll make it safe, Gracie. I’ll run the logistics. I’ll run the checks. I’ll runeverything.But if something doesn’t look right? We pull you out.”
Her voice shook. “AB…”
“This is non-negotiable,” I said quietly. “I want you to be happy. I want you to have the life you want. But I want you alive more than any of that. If something doesn’t check out, then we extract—no arguments, no debates.”
Her breath caught. Her perfect white teeth scraped over her lower lip. She’d been worrying at it again, turning it redder and making it more plump.
The guys were not thrilled with the response, Bones least of all. I could practically read him running all the possible scenarios to keep her safe. We all were. This was not one time where he would just cave because she wanted it.
The threat was tooreal.
Grace wiped at her eyes and whispered, “So… that’s not a no?”
I shook my head slowly. “It’s anot yet.Until we’re ready. Not to mention we need to work out the story to cover your absence. I took care of a lot of your accounts, and handled everything I could remotely…”
Surprise flickered over her face.
“People doknowyou’re missing but they don’t have any information on it.” They’d filed a missing persons case, but the investigators hadn’t spent more than a week on it. The case had already been cold when her absence had been reported. No leads, no hints, and no evidence to follow.
Sinclair’s people had done too good a job scrubbing Amorette’s absence, so it was never tied to Grace’s. Since they didn’t have any family to report it, she was just… gone. In some ways, it was the safest outcome for Grace. No one knew where she was or who she was with. We could and would keep her safe.
Going back into the world would strip away one real layer of security. She exhaled in relief, trembling at the edges.
Bones sighed long and heavy. “Dollface,ifyou’re doing this, I’m escorting you everywhere until you’re eighty.”
“Deal.” Grace grinned, then hugged him. Over her head, Bones’ gaze fixed on mine. Taking her back out there would mean changes for all of us. The work we did required us to be ghosts. Ghosts couldn’t be in the sun with Gracie.
I nodded once. Guilt raked through me, because I really didn’t want her going back to that life. To being treated like a piece of meat put there for others to ogle and desire. The first time someone came on to her or propositioned her, they would disappear.
Lunchbox clapped his hands once. “Steaks are going on the grill in fifteen. Anyone planning to eat should wash off the sawdust.”
Bones grumbled, but he kissed her with such ferocity it silenced everyone. Then he headed inside with Voodoo to wash up and Goblin trotted after Lunchbox who followed.
Grace stepped toward me, slipping her arms around my torso. I hugged her back without hesitation. “Thank you,” she whispered into my chest.
“For what?”
“For trying. For everything.”
I rested my chin lightly on her hair. “I’m not done trying. Not even close.”I’ll find your sister. Somehow. Some way. I’ll find her…
A week later,my office was a cave of cold light and humming processors—every monitor running a different search, every encrypted channel blinking results that told me absolutely nothing new.
Nothing about Amorette.
Nothing that led toward Korkov.
Nothing that connected La Madrina to any recent movement.
Nothing on the Castillos or a half-dozen other South American operations I tracked. There had been a lot of takeovers, assassinations, infiltrations, and surprisingly enough—arrests—over the past few months. All of which promised a shifting power structure and landscape.
But there was nothing but silence on the other fronts. It was the wrong kind of silence. The kind that meant someone else was covering tracks better than I could uncover them.
