C
hapter Thirty-seven
G
race slept hard. She blamed the stress of the day, the impatient and then slow lovemaking . . . Her dreams had all been good ones.
At some point when she was drifting off, Dare had told her he loved her. She wasn’t sure if she said it back to him in her dreams or out loud, but she knew she would tell him now.
When her eyes opened, she knew what she had to do. She would call Rip herself. Go to him. Force the group’s hand to come get her.
She turned over, saw the bed empty next to her, the pillow still dented from where Dare had slept. The light was on in the bathroom, the door cracked open.
“Dare?” she asked softly, got no response. It was too quiet.
With a growing dread, she kicked the covers off and headed to the bathroom. The empty bathroom.
No.
No no no no no.
She wouldn’t realize she’d been screaming that out loud until later, when her voice was hoarse. She wanted to run out the door, tried to, but Jem was there, and then Avery and Gunner. Avery held her tightly, forced her to sit down and breathe.
Grace crumpled. For the first several minutes, she could do nothing but cry.
You should’ve known.
Maybe she had and just pushed it aside, the way she’d been doing to her gift since it had started returning.
If she’d used it, maybe she could’ve stopped him.
But she knew that was a lie.
“Tactically, it was the right move for Dare—you have to know that,” Jem told her when she looked up at him, wiped the tears from her cheeks with her palms.
“I don’t know anything, obviously.”
“He and Key went together. They did it for us,” Avery said softly, and Grace realized she hadn’t known what the men were up to either. Her expression held that slightly stunned and betrayed look Grace knew she wore as her own. She squeezed Avery’s hand.
“It’s a huge sacrifice,” she whispered hollowly. “I would never have asked them to do that.”
“Me neither,” Avery said. “Which is exactly why they did. It’s who they are.”
“You can’t let them do this—you have to bring them back,” Grace insisted. “Rip is . . . he’s a monster.”
“Dare did this for you most of all. I can’t—won’t—take that away from him,” Jem said. “All a man’s got is his word, his honor, and you and Avery will be safe now.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” she protested weakly.
“I’m sure of my brother and I’m sure of Dare. You are too,” he said quietly. She wanted to shake him, to scream until her throat went raw and silent. Break everything in the house.
But none of it would bring the man she loved back to her.
“I’ll go get him myself,” she threatened.
“And make his sacrifice mean nothing? Darlin’, you will get him killed,” Jem broke in. “Dare wants you sa
fe. Happy. Give him that.”
Could she? It wasn’t fair that he’d shown her such happiness only to have it taken away by one of the cruelest choices of all. “I’m supposed to rebuild again—without him—knowing what I’ve brought on him?”
“He’s a big boy—he chose it.”
“He’s selfish,” she spat.
“Maybe, Grace. But they didn’t see another option to keep us free,” Avery said.
“Maybe we didn’t mind not being free,” Grace argued.
“We didn’t make that clear enough, then,” Avery agreed. “Or else he knew we weren’t making the decisions for the right reasons.”
Grace couldn’t argue with that, not completely. Fear-based decisions were never good, never right. She’d been planning on taking danger for the freedom, and maybe that hadn’t been the right price. Maybe the trade-off wouldn’t have been worth it.
“I don’t trust Rip,” she said tiredly.
“Neither do Dare and Key,” Jem said. “One of them’s going to die—and I guarantee it will be Powell.”
She wished she could be as sure.
* * *
Avery w
asn’t sure if she was angrier at Key for not telling her or at herself for not getting it. He’d hinted. She’d suspected what Dare would do, but to have the two of them sacrificing themselves for this newfound team . . .
It didn’t matter whom she was angry at—the fact was that it was there, balled up, tense and coiled. She knew it could rise up at any moment and she’d lash out at whoever was closest.
Dare and Key must’ve discussed it beforehand, but when? They’d always all been together—she would’ve noticed the two of them with their heads together for a plan like this.
She’d seen no signs of distress on Key’s face, but with his training, she supposed she wouldn’t have.
Did you really think you’d be the one to break through his emotions?
“You all right?” Gunner asked now. He handed her a plate—eggs, bacon, toast. Slid coffee next to her. “Eat.”
She didn’t want to, but Gunner watched her like a hawk. She forked some eggs, ate a strip of bacon, wished Gunner didn’t know anything about her feelings for Key.
“I don’t understand the plan—Powell will kill them,” she said finally.
Gunner poured himself more coffee. “That’s the point.”
“He was never going to let any of us go.”
“
Never
is the key word.” He looked up at her. “They’ll have to jump through some hoops to get there.”
“Powell’s hoping one of them kills the other.”
“He’s hoping no one’s watching Grace carefully.” As he spoke, Grace was downstairs in the cement-block room, trying to avoid a panic attack.
Avery had offered to stay with Grace, but Grace said she’d rather be by herself. Before Avery had left her alone, she’d asked Grace, “Can you see . . . everything?”
“Sadly, no. Only when it’s about me.”
“So if someone’s coming to get you—”
“I should know.” She rubbed her arms. “Maybe.”
“Reassuring,” Avery had said, but she’d done so with a smile, and Grace had laughed a little.
“You’re more pissed at Key than Dare,” Gunner said now. “You should stay away from him. Like Jem told you, he’s not good for anyone.”
“I guess you’ve all had a blast discussing my love life.” She paused. “What about you—are you good for anyone?”
“Me?
Chère
, I’m worse. Way worse.”
“So I shouldn’t be with anyone, then?”
“Never a good idea to fall for your team members,” Gunner advised.
“I never said I fell for you,” she told him.
“True—you didn’t.”
“What if I did?”
“Don’t bullshit me—you fell for Key the second you saw him.”
“How do you know?”
“I was there, Avery—watching to make sure you didn’t get yourself killed.”
“Do you always warn women away from you?”
“Only the ones I like,” he told her.
Chapter Thirty-
eight
D
are and Key he
aded out to the airport while they waited for Powell’s call. Dare knew they would be tested. There was no way Powell would trust them right off the bat to come directly to his private island.
There was no way he was ever going to trust them at all, but he and Key were prepared for that eventuality. Welcomed it as part of their plan, conceived quietly enough by Key, who’d of course foreseen the obvious but came up with a way to attack Powell that he
might not suspect.
And even if he did, well, Dare and Key together could be unstoppable.
A day earlier, when he’d come into the bunker to get them into the car, Key had told Dare about it quickly. He’d let Grace into the back of the Jeep, and as the two men walked around the side of the car, Key had spoken quickly and quietly, laying out what he was willing to do if push came to shove, Grace never knowing that they’d had that conversation.
Now they sat in the car, watching the planes ascend over them. When Powell finally called, it was close to three in the morning.
“I’ve got a job for you two,” he told them. “I want to see how well you’ll perform. Consider this your test.”
“Test us if you have to, but leave the others out of it,” Dare said.
“I’m a man of my word,” Powell said, and Key mouthed
bullshit
. “It’s too late for me to get the jet out now. You’ll have to fly commercial. Go to the airport hotel. You’ll find a package addressed to you, Dare, waiting for you at the front desk. Check in and you’ll know what to do.”
Powell hung up without saying anything further, and Dare drove the car toward the hotel. While Key waited in the car, Dare picked up the package, checked in, went up in the elevator as he read the directive.
They were headed out to Belgrade in the morning. But he was as sure as hell not staying in the hotel that night.
He was just as sure Powell would never have expected him to. He left his key, TV on, stuff from the minibar taken. He ordered room service for two, accepted it and then took off out the balcony of the empty room next door. Key had moved into the driver’s seat, headed down the back road, and they stayed in the car until it was time for the flight, mapping out plans.
After consulting with Jem on the new phones Gunner had given them, they finally had a course of action that would be perfect.
* * *
Grace had spent
the first twenty-four hours without Dare pacing. She knew she was driving the others crazy, but they were either too kind or too stressed to say anything to her.
Avery kept offering her decaf tea. Gunner offered to give her a tattoo. Jem offered her cigarettes and whiskey, and those she accepted. But it didn’t stop her from the steady, restless pacing, as though there was a destination she was attempting to reach.
“Grace, are you, ah, you know?” Jem touched his head.
“Trying to get a vision? I’m not trying. I think it’s trying to get through to me.”
“Have more whiskey,” he suggested.
She knew he was just as worried as she was, could see in his eyes that he could think of nothing but his younger brother. He’d told her earlier that he’d offered to trade places with Key, but that Key and Dare had decided that taking down Rip together was the way it was meant to be.
She also knew that more whiskey would make it easier to get her into the panic room tonight. It had taken several shots, Avery holding her hand and Jem distracting her with mindless television to make her forget that
panic room
could easily equal
panic attack
.
She’d fallen asleep and dreamt of Dare kidnapping her. She supposed it could’ve been worse.
She took two shots in a row to calm down and startled when Gunner’s shop phone rang. Gunner went for it but Grace stopped him.
“Don’t. It’s for me.”
“It’s him, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
The three of them gathered around her as she picked up the phone. There would be no speakerphone for this conversation, even though Grace would tell them everything.
She picked up the phone and said hello. Her heart raced when Rip said, “You knew I’d call.”
She ignored that. “Why are you calling? I thought you got what you wanted.”
“Ah, Gracie, you knew Dare and Key were my second choices.”
“Is Darius freed yet?”
“Unfortunately, no. Not until Dare and Key are done with their test period, which, from the reports trickling in, isn’t going all that well.”
She fisted her hand around the receiver and fought the urge to scream at him. Remaining as icy as he was had always been the right way to handle him. He appreciated that, and in his sick world, that was the way to get through to him. “You’re rethinking your offer, then?”
“Yes. I tossed and turned. And you know how I hate to lose sleep. But I’ve decided to reach out to you once more, for old times’ sake. For our family.”
She couldn’t believe he could say that with any kind of straight face. He was deliberately baiting her, but she wasn’t biting.
Finally he laid it out for her. “If you come back, I’ll get Dare, Key and Darius back in one piece.”
“You promised Dare already.”
“You’re compromised beyond saving, and I’m going to get you, one way or another. And if Dare’s willing to risk his life for you, he’s thinking with more than his brain, which means he isn’t thinking. Which makes him a liability to me.”
She closed her eyes, leaned against the wall to hold herself up. “What do you want me to do?”
“I’ll send someone for you.”
“I want to come to you on my own steam,” she said firmly. “And you won’t kill my escort.”
“No one walks onto the island but you.”
“Fine. And how do I know you’ll keep your end of the bargain?”
A long pause and then, “Grace, I thought you knew everything.”
But Rip doesn’t.
And she had to walk a tightrope very carefully to stay interesting enough for Rip to keep her alive. “Dare and Key aren’t on the island, so keep them off. And Darius can leave with my escort.”
She was met with silence, and she prayed she’d gotten it right. Finally he said, “Consider it done. Darius can go when you get here. I’ll let you have a heartfelt reunion so you can convince him you want to be here. I don’t want any further rescue efforts. They’re starting to bore the hell out of me.”
She echoed his words. “Consider it done.”
Rip cut the line. She hung up the phone with a shaking hand and turned to Jem and Gunner. “Can either of you fly a chopper?”
* * *
Dare and Key de
planed after midnight Belgrade time and weren’t surprised to find themselves surrounded in the parking lot when they went to grab the rental car that Powell had reserved for them.
There were sixteen men. Key muttered the information to Dare before they’d even gotten close.
Key’s specialty was hand-to-hand. According to Jem, there was no one better. Now the former soldier’s casual posture belied his ability to do significant damage to his opponents.
A gun clicked and the tallest man told them, “Come with us.”
“Afraid those aren’t my orders,” Dare said almost apologetically to him. “But thanks for the nice offer.”
“We’re your new orders.”
“I’m afraid we’ll have to decline coming with you,” Dare told them. “If you try to force us, we’ll kill all of you.”
The men laughed, the tall one telling him, “You can’t take all of us down.”
Dare studied them—he could do it alone if he had to. Luckily, he didn’t have to. He waited until one of the men approached Key, gun drawn.
Classic mistake—he’d held the gun too close to Key. Key grabbed it, slammed the man to the ground, and emptied the clip before throwing the gun at the head of attacker number two. It distracted him enough for Key to jump him, while Dare went for the tall guy, disarming him by slamming his wrist against the hood of the nearest car.
Even as they fought, Dare knew what was coming, knew they’d have to surrender at some point. Until then, they took out their aggression on these men as they waited for the inevitable.
When the hood went over his head, Dare flashed back to Hell Week during BUD/S training and SERE—weeks he didn’t know if he’d survive. But he did and he would again, and if he played this endgame well, Powell would be the only one who didn’t.