Years of working special forces assignments would do that.
She opened the bottle of water and took a slow sip, as if she were using the drink to collect her thoughts.Grace was wary of him.Of that much, he was sure.Her eyes darted around the room, on him and off him again, and she rolled the bottle between her hands again.Nervous tics and fidgeting.He couldn’t recall her ever doing that.
“Can I ask you a question?”she said.
“Sure.Shoot.”
“I get that Hayden sent you, but how did you find me?”
Callum pushed the chair onto its back legs and threaded his hand through his hair.An NSA-like dragnet wasn’t likely to comfort her.Saying too little would add to her distrust.
The plastic bottle crinkled in her hands.“It shouldn’t take you so long to answer.”
“It’s not that,” he said.“Just trying to figure out how to explain it.”
“The problem is, if you can find me, my ex-husband can find me again as well.”
“Not likely.”She didn’t have to live this way.Divorcing Dominic Marino would have set her up financially.She could easily have put security measures in place.If she didn’t want to testify, she could have employed lawyers who would have been able to help.There were so many options.
“Appease me, Cal.”
A memory skipped over him.No one called him Cal except for Grace.He wasn’t sure how he’d never noticed that before now.
Callum rolled his shoulders and focused on her question.“I was unavailable when Hayden tried to get ahold of me.He talked to my boss and basically said you needed help.That you disappeared from the grocery store—”
“I didn’t disappear.”
“I don’t know what you want to call it.”He tilted his head, sizing up her reaction.“Did you know the grocery store manager called the cops?”
She bit her lip.“I should have done things differently there.”Grace fidgeted with her bracelets.“But I left a voicemail for Hayden saying that I was fine.I told him to ignore me.Now I’m telling you, I’m fine.”
Worry shadowed her eyes.Tension tightened the corners of her pinched lips.She was in a defensive position, and he didn’t even understand the threats.“I’ve gotta tell you, sweetheart.This doesn’t look like the life of a woman who is fine.”
Tears brimmed in her eyes until she rapidly blinked them back.“It was easier before Dominic got out of prison.Now?It doesn’t matter.”She shook her head.“Back to how you found me.Hayden called you, then what?”
Then the NSA-like dragnet.“You submitted a project to a client earlier this week.A business card design for a private chef, right?”
Her mouth parted in genuine surprise before the uncertainty in her eyes intensified.“How on earth would you know that?”
“That’s what my company does.We specialize in personal protection and have the technology that allows us to keep our clients safe.”
“I’m not your client.”She didn’t hold back but wouldn’t quite meet his gaze.
“Hayden is.”
“Hayden is being ridiculous.”
“Look, Grace, why are you fighting me on this?Just tell me what the hell is going on.We’ll get everything squared away.If you want to stay dead, then who am I to stop you?I don’t know the situation, but there has to be a better way.You’re causing the people you love stress, and the last thing Hayden needs is to be distracted over there.All right?Give me enough to fix this.”
Her frown deepened.“I don’t even know what fixing this would look like.”
Faking one’s death was a hard problem to overcome.It wasn’t insurmountable, though.
The more pressing issue was Dominic.They needed to confirm that he had been at the grocery store, and only then would Callum know the full extent of the problems they had to handle.“I want to help you, but I need to know what that means.What the threats are.Where the problems are hiding.Whatever you’re not telling me.”
She rubbed her temples.“I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you do.”His frustration was piling up.All Grace had to do was spit out the problems so he could fix them.None of this hiding or stressing about an ex-husband.
