“I’m sorry, Jake. I panicked. I was afraid whoever that guy was would be watching the building here, and I…” Gracie sighed loudly and shook her head. “I’m sorry. You’ll have my letter of resignation before I leave here, today.”
Resignation?Now, Nate was the one panicking.
Gracie hadn’t mentioned anything to him about quitting. If she quit, she might move back to Maryland. If she moved, he may never see her again, and if that happened…
Calm your shit, dude.That little voice was right. No way Jake will let her quit over something like this. Would he?
Nate waited with bated breath for his boss’s response.
“Resignation?” Jake dropped his hands. “You just started. Why the hell would you resign?”
Hiding a smile, Nate shifted his attention to Gracie. Looking even more nervous than before, she said, “I…uh…I just assumed since I didn’t show up or call for an entire week, you’d already be looking for my replacement.”
“If you think I’d fire you for putting your safety above being here to answer the phone, you don’t know me very well. But, that’s okay.” Jake grinned and patted her arm. “You’ll get there. Our priority right now is finding out who was in your apartment and why. As far as the job goes, we’ll figure all that out later.”
Walking past Gracie, Jake turned his attention to the entire room. “Sorry, I’m late. Olivia wasn’t feeling well this morning, and I didn’t want to leave her alone until I was sure she was going to be okay.”
“What’s going on with Liv?” Gabe asked.
“She caught some sort of stomach bug. She seemed to be doing better when I left.” He took a seat at the head of the table and looked to Gracie. “Let’s start from the beginning. Gracie, why don’t you tell us all what happened. The more details you can give, the better.”
Gracie looked over at Nate, who gave her a wink and a nod. He could tell she was remembering him saying almost those exact words to her last night.
Everyone listened as Gracie retraced what happened from the time she got back to her apartment the previous Monday to arriving at Nate’s last night.
Nate was grateful she left out the part about him nearly shooting her ass in that alley. She also—thank you, Jesus—skipped over the felt-it-in-his-boots kiss they’d shared.
He was especially thankful for that particular omission, knowing Kole probably would’ve leapt over the fucking table and beat his ass if he knew.
“Nate said you got a look at the guy. If now is a good time”—Zade looked to Jake—“I could take her to your office and do a quick sketch. See what we come up with.”
“That’s a good idea. Come back in here when you’re done.”
Zade stood and walked around the table. “Come on, Gracie.” He grinned. “Let me show you how the magic’s done.”
Returning his smile, Gracie stood and started to follow.
“Can I come with her?” Sarah asked.
Zade shrugged. “Don’t see why not.”
Both women followed him out of the room. Jake waited until they were gone to begin speaking to him again.
“Nate, is there anything else you can think of? Anything she shared with you last night but forgot to mention?”
Only that I put a gun to her chest and later stuck my tongue down her throat.
“She told you everything she told me, Boss.”
“What are your thoughts?”
“I think it’s a big fucking coincidence that a former SEAL she was friends with is found tortured to death a few days before her apartment is broken into, and she’s scared into hiding. And I know what we all think about coincidences.”
“No such thing,” all five men said in unison.
“Okay.” Jake leaned his elbows on the table. “We need to look into Craig Wyatt more closely. Carter, I want you to dig deep. His financials, love life. All of it.”
“Boss, I’ve looked. There’s nothing there.”
