Page 196 of Eight Years Gone

He zipped up. “Yeah, she’s picking me up. We’re grabbing some pizza with friends, then hanging out at the fair. Amanda told her mom we’d help with a couple of the booths since she’s the chairperson for the whole thing.”

Grace beamed, loving that Colton seemed mostly relaxed again—that he was eager to get back to the new life he was creating. “That’s great. Jagger and I shouldn’t be too far behind you. I want a shower and to change.”

“I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

“Have fun.”

“You, too.” He opened the door and was gone just as quickly when Amanda pulled up in front of the house.

She sighed, moving down to the office where the light was on.

Jagger clicked to a screen saver on his laptop as he turned his head, grinning as he sat at the desk. “Welcome home, beautiful.”

Her heart melted as she walked to where he sat, finding him sexy and gorgeous in jeans and a black sweater. “You got a haircut today.”

He nodded. “And I trimmed my beard.” He lifted his chin, turning his head from side to side.

“I like it.” She stroked her fingers along his jaw. “You look like you’re ready for the fair.”

“You better believe it,” he said, pulling her mouth down to his. “Tonight’s ours, baby.”

She hummed in her throat as she kissed him again. “I’m going to shower really quick. Give me fifteen minutes, and we can go.”

He winked. “Sure thing.”

She sent him a grin, then headed for the master bathroom, ready for a great night with the man she loved most in the world.

* * *

“Unbelievable,” Jagger muttered with a shake of his head as he rewatched the news footage Rod had sent over ten minutes ago via a link.

He’d been out and about for most of the day, Christmas shopping and enjoying a grueling workout at the gym, oblivious to what had transpired while he and Grace had accidentally slept on the couch all night.

He glanced at his phone as it started to ring, putting Jason on speaker while Grace showered down the hall.

It had been tempting to follow her to the bathroom and get them both off while they were naked and wet, but he wasn’t looking for a quickie with Grace. When he took her to bed later tonight, he intended to make up for a week of lonely nights.

“I take it Rod sent you the link too,” Jagger said, already knowing that’s why his boss was calling.

“I can’t believe how all of this is going down. Your timing yesterday was perfect. Fucking epic. Those shots you took were the money shots, man.”

Jagger grinned. “If I’m being honest, I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on when I was tailing Jimmy and Greg. I should have known they were casing both places.”

“You have to be one of the luckiest bastards I know.”

Jagger chuckled, hitting replay on the surveillance footage that had been released to the media via the police, where a group of car thieves dressed in hoodies and jeans hopped out of the back of a rental truck in the wee hours of the morning. Ten masked men descended on the Mercedes dealership lot while another broke into the building to destroy the key safe.

Within moments, the most expensive cars were driven down the street and out of the cameras’ views, where they undoubtedly disappeared into shipping containers after their GPS devices were disabled. The same events played out at the Range Rover dealership an hour later.

According to the newscaster, law enforcement was optimistic that they would track down the dozen stolen vehicles, but it was highly likely they were already on their way to West Africa on a freighter.

“It’s a damn good thing Rod called me when he did,” Jagger said. “His informant came through for us big-time.”

“It seems like you have everything you need to wrap things up for the kid.”

Ultimately, Jason was right, even if there were more players Jagger wanted to take down. Because there was no way Ray’s people had pulled off a heist like the one he’d just witnessed without help. But he had enough to keep Colton safe, which was good enough for him. “I’ll pay Ray a visit first thing Monday morning.”

“You’ve put together one hell of a damning packet. I imagine good ol’ Ray will be shitting himself before he gets through half of what you have.”

---