Page 24 of Burn

“Yep.” He pointed to the duffels in the living room. Go bags we kept when we had nothing else. “Anything we need to know right now?”

“Two five man teams. One in her place. Second in a vehicle that tried to tail us. We took their vehicle out with a cocktail. Not sure if we got any of them, I was more interested in securing Gracie than going back to scout the targets.”

Voodoo nodded.

“She know why they are after her?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. She was a little shocky earlier and more than a little lost. I don’t know how a girl like that ends up where she did.”

“Girl like that?” Voodoo raised his eyebrows.

“Google Grace Black. We’ll discuss tomorrow.”

“Got it.” He pulled out his phone. “Get some sleep.”

I headed for my go bag then straight to the bathroom. Ten minutes later, showered and teeth clean, I hit the double bed in the room I’d picked out. Alphabet’s snoring was audible through the door as I passed it.

Stretched out diagonally so my feet didn’t hang off the end, I dropped an arm over my eyes and tried to quiet my brain. Sleep was discipline. Rack time was also important and I hadn’t slept in the past thirty-five some odd hours.

The moment I tried to sack out, I replayed the arrival of the five man team. They pulled up in a van and parked a half block down. What caught my attention was the military boots they were wearing with their suits.

One of these things was not like the other. They also didn’t move like business men. They moved with precision. When they cut down an alley to head to the back, Alphabet was already pushing out of the car.

By the time we reached the back of her place, they were already inside. Fuckers were not moving slow. The team had a kind of lethal efficiency. Their biggest problem was not expecting an assault from their flank.

They hadn’t left anyone on watch. Even then, it took a minute to get through the four in there before I made it to the living room where Grace fended off her attacker. I replayed each moment after I cleared the doors and hit him with the air fryer.

It had been handy and it made a satisfying thunk against his chest. He’d had a hand in her hair. He wasn’t touching her anywhere else. What I focused on was how he’d gripped her hair, the way he kept her still, yet despite her blows—he didn’t hit her in return.

That bothered me. Not that he didn’t hit her. I didn’t want anyone striking her. It bothered me that hisreactionwas contained even when she was trying to do him bodily harm.

I kept circling back to that choice. When I took him down, he’d let her go rather than drag her down with him. He’d been trying to contain her, notharm. Was he following orders? The specificity in the targeting made this an entirely different kind of threat.

It wasn’t about wanting a beautiful woman. It was about wanting a specific beautiful woman.

Violence threaded through me as I did another replay of the scenario. Nothing about it changed. Those men had been there to take her. If I had to place a bet, they’d come to collect her.

But the guys the Vandals took those victims from were not former military. If anything, they were more street level. So how were the two tied together?

I was still chewing on that when I finally let myself go to sleep.

Tomorrow would be here soon enough.

Chapter

Nine

GRACE

My eyes were gritty and my mouth dry as awareness trickled back in. As bad as I felt, I didn’t want to wake further. The moment I did, I’d have to deal with the reality of where I was and what I was doing. Instead of forcing my eyes open, I burrowed against the pillow and pulled the blanket tighter around my shoulders.

The lack of sound around me was even more telling than the fact I was in the bed. We weren’t in the car anymore. It must mean we’d arrived at our destination. They hadn’t been particularly forthcoming about where, except it was far away from Manhattan. From my place.

From the men who had come to get me.

A shudder rippled through me and sleep fell away like crumbling earth from beneath my feet. When my eyes snapped open, the last thing I expected to see was a man sitting in a chair, half-sprawled as he read a book.

He wasn’t Alphabet or Lunchbox. Though he looked to be about their size with how he dwarfed the chair. Dark hair fell over his forehead. It wasn’t as long as Alphabet’s nor as clipped as Lunchbox’s.

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