Page 66 of Catch Me When I Fall

There was a hunt.

I was tired of fighting. I was tired of ignoring the pull between us.

After that, I would come back here. I would finally tell her my name. I would give her every single part of me. I would—

My phone vibrated in my back pocket, pulling me from my thoughts. Quickly, I moved down the stairs and exited her house before pulling it out of my jeans.

Hayes Calling.

“Grayson,” I answered, walking to my SUV.

“We have a problem,” he said, his voice too calm for my liking—too cold.

I stopped in my tracks, right in the middle of Carrie’s front yard. The warm summer air suddenly became thick around me as fear slithered down my spine.

“What is it?” I demanded.

“Ash has been compromised.”

I turned back around to the blue house with my woman inside of it, my chest aching in a way I couldn’t explain. I couldn’t explain any of this shit when it came to her. A new sense of fear slithered over my shoulders, wrapping around both of my arms, overlapping my tattoos, reminding me of the man I was.

My jaw tightened as I looked away from the house. “Where?”

“Seattle.”

Devils Den.

My upper lip curled as I pulled the phone away, biting off a furious curse. “When?” I barked, heading towards my truck.

“We haven’t heard word from him in sixteen hours,” Hayes stated.

Once I was in the truck, I fired up the engine before taking one last look at the house, my entire future hanging in the balance.

You know who you are, Grayson.

This isn’t you.

Stick to what you know.

When I peeled my eyes off her house, I ordered, “Debrief me. Now.”

Present Day. Denver, CO.

“Doss, I don’t want to hear it,” I barked, gesturing to the map of Devils Den. “Red Snake Investigations will not get involved with that fucking place. Do I make myself one hundred percent clear?”

My friend glared up at me from his seat, his arm in a flimsy sling, his jaw still black and blue. “You saying it was bullshit? That what I went in there for was bullshit?”

Today was Ash’s first day back at Red Snake, and we’d been in my office for an hour trying to understand why he abandoned his hunt to go to Devils Den.

“You know we don’t think that. Whatever or whoever you went down there for, we know you must’ve had a good reason,” Hayes said from his spot by the window. Slowly, he turned around to face us, meeting my eyes for the first time in over a week. “But you knew the rule, and you still broke it.”

“Devils Den is off fucking limits,” I growled.

Devils Den was a modern-day hellhole, and up until last year, it had been the secret sex trafficking hub in the States. The FBI was trying to shut it down, but it seemed impossible. I’d helped Jeremy Jones with it last year, but only with a full vote from my team.

Ash didn’t discuss his decision to walk straight into hell with any of us.

He didn’t speak to us at all.

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