Page 107 of Beautiful Betrayal

I’m smiling when they depart and Grayson leans in and murmurs, “We’re magic together.”

I turn and wrap my arms around him. “You’re my magic, Grayson Bennett.” I kiss his jaw. “Can we go home now?”

“Yes, baby,” he says, his voice thick with a low, raspy, affected quality. “Let’s go home.”

His arm slides around me and he sets us in motion, and I’m more relaxed than I have been since our return. That is until I find the tall, dark, and lethal-looking familiar man waiting for us at the door. Adrian is here and he’s here because we still require bodyguards. We’re still in danger.

“Hiya, Mama Mia,” he greets, and I do laugh. He’s a funny guy who I sense has a lot more to him than good looks and jokes, like killer instincts. And those killer instincts are both nerve-wracking and comforting at the same time.

“Driver’s waiting on us,” he says, motioning us toward the front door. “His name is Will. If you need him just call out, ‘Danger, Danger Will Robinson.’ His name is actually Will Axe, and that isn’t a joke. We call him The Axe.” He jumps right to another topic, with whiplash quickness. “Are we headed to the hotel?”

“Our apartment,” Grayson says. “We’ll need to get our bags—”

“We’ll pack ‘em up and load ‘em up for you, if you wish,” he offers.

Grayson confirms with me and then gives the go-ahead. Adrian motions us forward. “Willy-boy awaits.” And from there, he keeps talking, and by the time we load into the Escalade, Grayson is shaking his head and laughing. “He’s a character.”

“Yes,” I say, smiling. “He is.”

The driver eyes me from the front seat. “Welcome. I’m Axe.”

I laugh. “The Axe?”

He grunts. “In case you didn’t notice. Adrian talks too much. Just Axe is fine.”

Adrian climbs into the vehicle and leans around his seat to eye us. “Axe me anything you like.”

I laugh and Grayson just shakes his head. Adrian grins and turns forward. “Home we go.”

Home.

That word slides under my skin and nestles deep into my soul. It affects me emotionally on so many levels. Butterflies erupt in my belly. We’re going home.I’mgoing home. My eyes meet Grayson’s and warmth spreads between us. “Home,” I murmur.

“Home,” he repeats, tenderly stroking my cheek. “And it’s been too long.”

“Yes, it has,” I murmur.

Grayson slides his arm around me and I snuggle in close to him. We don’t speak for the short ride. We just sit there,together. And considering not so long ago, we didn’t believe we’d be together again, it’s a pretty darn perfect way to spend a ride. We’ve just turned onto our street when Grayson’s cellphone rings. He shifts and grabs his phone, glancing at the caller ID.

“Eric,” he informs me before he answers.

He greets Eric and then listens and while there is no outward reaction to whatever Eric says, the air shifts, thickens, his mood darkening. “Blake has a team for that.”

He listens again and then says, “Right. Understood.” He disconnects.

I shift to study him. “What was that about?”

“He’s going with Blake’s team on the mission tonight.”

I know very well that Eric is an ex-Navy SEAL so I don’t allow myself to read too much into this. “Is he missing the action?”

“He says he has a gut feeling they’re going to need him tonight.”

The implications of tonight’s raid on the attorney’s house going wrong, perhaps dangerously wrong, has me turning and sinking against the seat. The scent of trouble is in the air and it’s pungent and harsh.

Chapter seventy-one

Mia

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