Finding Grace (9 page)

He didn’t think he’d ever seen Paul look quite like
he did right now. It was downright unnerving. Even Farley was
quiet. Thorne took one look at Paul’s face before the little purple
head tilted up to Dagger and the cracked voice whispered, “What,
Judas, no kiss?”

No grin this time, just the trace of a sad
smile.

He heard the panic in Thorne’s voice and moved to
block the door. But he hadn’t considered the window. Not until the
chair flew through it with Thorne right after.

The comm phone’s beep made itself heard over the
tinkling of the remaining glass shards that followed, but Dagger
was already bent over the frame, watching Thorne struggle in the
little tree that had broken his fall. He heard Paul pick up the
phone.

* * * *

Goddamnit. The tree was supposed to just break her
fall, not snare her. She was stuck like a bunny in a hedge. She
couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t seem to stop the waves
of panic rolling through her. Then she felt Jack’s powerful grip
around one of her wrists, then the other. He lifted her up like she
weighed about as much as a rabbit. She grunted when her left side
hit the window frame, the wave of pain reminding her that she was
being pulled back into the wolves’ den. She struggled until her
feet hit the floor and he surprised her by letting her go. She went
for the door, but Paul was blocking it. There was nowhere to go.
Trapped and helpless, she slid down into the corner, hugged her
legs and concentrated on breathing, on silencing the roar in her
ears.

She barely heard Paul’s voice. “Easy now. It’s okay,
Thorne. You’re safe. No one’s going to hurt you. None of us would
ever hurt you.”

Her breath still choppy and hoarse even for her, she
watched him standing in the doorway. “Liar.” She breathed in
through her nose. “I saw it in your eyes. You were going to tell
them because you were angry and you don’t believe me and you don’t
trust me. Because you think I’m fucked up.” He’d intended to tear
away the only layer of protection she’d had all these years and he
didn’t think that would hurt her?

She saw his right eye twitch, but he ignored her
words and said, “Hawks called. The tent they were in was blown to
bits by an IED eleven minutes after Dagger called them.” He pushed
himself off the door jamb and took a step toward her. “How did you
know, Thorne?”

What he was looking for, she couldn’t give him. “You
know how I knew. You all know how I knew. You just don’t want to
believe it.” She paused to catch another breath and pushed herself
up using the walls, her shaky legs barely holding her. “I can’t
trust you if you don’t trust me, boss. This whole thing was a bad
idea. Tell Captain America I appreciate—”

The deep rumble of Jack’s voice stopped her. “So
what if he didn’t believe you? Give him a break. Paul wasn’t here,
he didn’t see it. If I hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have believed
it, either. But I was, and I did, and two good men are still alive.
You’re crazier than you look if you think we’re gonna let you go
now.” He crossed his arms like he had the last word, the arrogant
bastard.

A strong gust of wind drove a sling of ice pellets
through the broken window.

“Farley, why don’t you go down in the basement and
find something to cover this up until I can get someone in to fix
it. Oh, and see what’s left of that chair on the sidewalk, will
you? I need to contact the local CO over there and set up an
extraction. Then I’m calling FedCo.” Paul turned back to the
door.

That was it? That was all he was going to say?
Another arrogant bastard.

He stopped and turned to face the room again. “For
what it’s worth, I’m sorry about the misunderstanding, Thorne. And
I’m glad Dagger listened to you.” He smiled at Jack but barely
looked at her when he added, “He’s right, we want you to stay. Go
ahead and take the rest of the afternoon off. We’ll see you
Monday.” He turned and paused in the doorway. Without looking back,
he said, “Or better yet, join us at O’Leary’s as soon as I’m done
here. Drinks on me.”

He waited, not moving, his back still toward her.
The big chicken. She knew guilt when she saw it and an apology when
she heard one, half-assed though it was. Still, she couldn’t. It
was too much for him to ask.

“Sorry, I’ve had enough excitement today, this week,
whatever. But I’ll see you on Monday.” She tried to sound cool.

He finally turned around and made an obvious effort
to smile. “Sure. Oh, and you’d better be wearing a real winter
jacket next time I see you.”

“Yes, boss.” She threw him a sarcastic salute. Buzz
den-mother Lightyear wasn’t fooling her. He still didn’t believe
her.

But Jack had. She didn’t care about Paul, not
really. As long as he didn’t tell. He owed her that much after
today. She wouldn’t have to worry about that any more.

She turned when Jack touched her shoulder and said,
“Lemme give you a ride.”

* * * *

Paul hung up the phone. His men were safe and on
their way back. The scum-sucking merc bastards had been arrested
and were awaiting extradition. He’d had an interesting talk with
the CEO at FedCo about his silent partner. He was going down,
too.

He rested his head in his hands, the memory he now
had time for weighing it down. He’d been afraid, he could admit
that. He’d thought she’d endangered his men with her vision
nonsense. But it was himself he’d been furious with, for hiring her
in the first place. He’d never forget the look on her face, though,
how scared she’d been. Then she’d jumped through a fucking window
because she’d somehow known he was going to tell her secret. He
would have, too; he’d been that angry. He’d wanted to drive her
away.

Never mind that she’d been right. Never mind how
she’d known. Never mind she’d saved the lives of two of his
men.

Or that she’d forgiven him. Oh, he wasn’t fooled. It
was Dagger who’d salvaged her fragile trust, not him. He almost
laughed. He’d been so worried about Dagger fucking up and scaring
her. Instead it had been him. He had an inkling now what Luke had
felt like after locking her up in jail.

He went to find Farley. It was definitely time for a
drink. Dagger could meet them at O’Leary’s.

* * * *

“It’s not you, Thorne. It’s the vision thing. He
just can’t buy it. You gotta admit—” Dagger hit the brakes and
swore softly before changing lanes “—it’s pretty damn weird.”

He glanced over at his passenger. There were bits of
twigs and old leaves clinging to the short thick mass of purple
hair. “So what the hell was that with the window? You didn’t really
think we were going to hurt you, did you?” Then he remembered what
Thorne had said. “Wait, what could Paul have possibly told us that
would have made you want to…” Dagger’s brow furrowed. “Just what
are you hiding, Thorne? It can’t be that bad, right?”

In the silence that followed, he thought of some of
the things he’d done, things he’d been commended for but could
never be proud of. Finally he said, “Pulling shit like that doesn’t
make you look any less crazy, you know.”

“Who says I’m not crazy?” Thorne flashed his crooked
smile.

They stopped at a red light and some poor joker
wearing a princess costume—complete with a tiara and a gray
beard—was jumping up and down, yelling something about the end of
the world.

Thorne looked out the window and said, “Could be
worse, Jack.”

Dagger grunted. He was still wondering what Paul had
been going to say, if and whether the kid had even been right about
that, and what kind of secrets someone like Thorne might have. The
extent of the panic had been extreme. It had to be something pretty
bad.

Before his train of thought could go any further,
and almost as if Thorne had known its direction and wanted to
derail it, he said, “Jack, would you mind stopping at Tron’s? We
drive right by it. I’d like some takeout.”

He shrugged. “Sure. I know the place. Great
Vietnamese for cheap, no place to park. Get me some Bo Sate, will
ya? Never did get lunch, thanks to you.” He couldn’t help smiling
when he said it, though.

He dropped Thorne off and circled the block, glad to
have a few minutes to himself, but all he could think about was
food.

When Thorne climbed back in the SUV, Dagger noticed
a third bag. “Who’s that one for?”

Thorne looked up and down the street and Dagger
sighed. “Shit, don’t tell me. That homeless guy, right?”

“Yeah, if we can find him.”

They found Jefferson a couple of blocks away from
the spot he’d occupied yesterday. Dagger parked the SUV and joined
them. He thought the old guy’s face would break with the smile he
gave Thorne when he saw the food. At least Tron’s was worth a smile
like that, not like a godawful granola bar. Then he noticed the
nice leather jacket the old man was wearing under his raincoat.

Before he could say something, Jefferson, who’d been
looking him up and down with a critical eye, said, “He your
special
friend, Thorne?”

Thorne laughed and Dagger decided he liked the warm
rough sound of it. “What makes you think that? He is kinda cute,
though.”

It was Jefferson’s turn to laugh. His was a full-out
belly laugh. “He don’ look like your type, Thorne.”

The kid had a huge shit-eating grin. “Oh yeah,
Jefferson? What’s my type?”

Dagger braced himself. He really didn’t want to hear
this shit.

“Well, he don’ look nothin’ like me, now does
he?”

It felt good to laugh. Dagger had forgotten how
much.

When they arrived at Thorne’s door, he reached for
his wallet. “Say, almost forgot to pay you for the food.”

“Keep it, Jack. Least I can do for these rides. I
appreciate them, but I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Really? Because it looks to me like you’re too busy
taking care of someone else. That nice leather jacket Jefferson’s
wearing—you gave it to him, didn’t you?”

Thorne shrugged. “Look at this piece of shit. He was
freezing and there was no way in hell he would let me just give him
a new one. He’s funny that way. He’ll take socks and food, but he
was hung up on the jacket thing. So I offered to trade him and he
accepted.”

Dagger just shook his head.

Thorne’s little chin came up. “Quit looking at me
like that. Replacing it hasn’t been a priority, and I’m kinda
worried he’ll be insulted if I do. Hey, I’m from the north country,
remember? You’re as bad as Paul. Here I thought I was gonna get to
work with a bunch of macho security guys and it turns out to be the
fucking Campfire Girls.”

“Uh, Thorne, you better be in the office Monday
morning. You’ll be sorry if I have to come and get you.”

“I don’t know, Jack, you make it sound kinda fun.”
Thorne flashed him that crooked smile again before shrugging and
looking away, as though he was embarrassed by what he’d just said.
“No need to worry, I’ll be there. It’s just starting to get
interesting.”

Dagger stood in the dingy hall and watched Thorne
step into his apartment with the bag of takeout. He waited until he
heard the door lock before taking his time down the rickety
stairs.

Goddamn kid was gonna drive them all to the funny
farm, and Dagger was sure to be leading the caravan.

Chapter Seven

“You boys get the sand out of your boots already?”
Dagger looked up from his desk in the big office and nodded to
Hawks and Markham. “Glad to have you back.”

“Glad to be back,” Hawks said.

“Thanks to you,” Markham said.

“Can’t take the credit, much as I’d like to. I was
just the messenger. It was, ah, Thorne.”

“Huh?” Hawks and Markham said together.

“Thorn?” Markham asked.

Shit, Paul hadn’t told them.

“And that, boys, is the million dollar question.”
Farley smiled like a cat with the canary still in his mouth.

Dagger shot him a look. “Thorne’s a new hire, just
started last week. Whizz bang hacker, besides—”

“Being a psychic and a freakin’—”

“You wanna keep those pearly whites, Farley?” Dagger
turned back to the new arrivals. “He found something in the FedCo
file. Paul and I told him it was nothing, but he wouldn’t let it
go. Then that morning he had…I dunno…a vision, I guess. Said you
were in trouble. Got ahold of some satellite and showed me, or I
gotta tell you, I wouldn’t have believed him.”

Paul stuck his head in. Sure, now that Dagger had
said more to these men in five minutes than he’d said in an entire
week before he’d met Thorne.

“It’s good to see you boys.”

They nodded to Paul.

“Don’t let him sell himself short. I still don’t
know what to think about all this myself, but I can’t tell you how
glad I am that Dagger here followed through on Thorne’s, uh,
information.”

He ducked back out and left Dagger with the two men
staring at him and Farley grinning like an idiot. What the hell was
up with Paul, anyway?

“So, uh, when do we get to meet this wizard?”
Markham said.

“He’s more like one of the little people than a
wizard.” Farley winked.

Dagger decided to let him have this one.

“‘
Little people’? You mean like a leprechaun,
or like a midget?”

Poor Markham, such an easy mark. Hawks was young
too, but he played it closer to the vest. Dagger waited on Farley’s
response.

“More like a fairy.” Farley cracked up.

Dagger just sighed. “C’mon then, I’ll introduce
you.”

They walked up the hall and Markham said, “What’s up
with the closed door? Never had any closed doors around here
before. What’s the deal?” Dagger thought he looked nervous.

“Thorne likes the door closed, which works out real
well on account of the music being so loud,” Dagger said.

“That’s what you call that noise? Coulda fooled me.”
Hawks grimaced. “Sounds like the shit you listen to.”