Grinch (Cerberus MC)

He shakes his head. “Know that there is a team of people working on this already with just that one phone call.”

“I want to speak to Kincaid. Is he here in Nebraska?”

He takes a step back, eyes narrowing like I’ve just played a trump card and took all of his power away. He looks like I betrayed him, the frown on his face not entirely different from the day I broke things off between us. If he knows me as well as he claimed earlier, then he should know that I’ll stop at nearly nothing to get what I want. My need to help that girl is selfish. I feel responsible for her being taken. I know that if it wasn’t her, it would’ve easily been another girl. I know if I fought that man and forced him to kill me before leaving his house that another girl would eventually end up there anyway. My death wouldn’t have meant anything, but now I need my life to mean something. I spent sixteen days as a child, doing nothing while Josie was being held captive. I can’t sit around and do nothing once again.

“You can’t talk to him right now,” he says, shoving his phone into the back pocket of his jeans.

“I demand to,” I seethe.

Instead of getting angry or mad, he grins at me.

I forgot just how much he loved that quick-to-irritate side of me. My eyes drop to the front of his jeans, causing him to cough and turn away from the bed when he notices me looking. I track him across the room to the chair.

“Trenton, get Kincaid on the phone.”

“I’ll text him and we can wait for him to return our call,” he bargains, but it’s just not good enough.

“Call him,” I insist once again.

“He’s been at a funeral all day, Grace. I’ll text him.”

“A funeral?”

He nods, pulling his phone from his back pocket. His fingers type out a message before he looks back up at me.

“One of our newer members lost his wife in a car accident. There’s a lot going on with the club right now.”

“Okay,” I tell him, because what else is there to say at this point.

The pained expression on his face hurts me as well, showing proof that no matter what someone may be going through, there are others suffering tragedy as well. As my world was shattering and spiraling out of control, so were others.

He leans back in the chair, a long sigh escaping his lips as he rubs both hands down his face.

“You don’t have to stay here if you have other things to do. Aunt Diane told me Cerberus was looking for me, but I’ve been found. Your job is over now.”

He opens his eyes, rolling his head on the back of the chair to look in my direction. “Really, Grace? Do you think I’d leave you right now?”

His words strike me like a physical hit to the chest, settling more guilt in my chest that makes it hard for me to breathe. I have to look away from him, but there’s nothing on the wall to look at other than the white board with handwritten information on it. Suddenly, I have to pretend it’s the most interesting thing in the room.

What seems like an eternity ago, I left him. He wanted me, wanted to build a life together and start a family. Back then, the thought of being tied down when my adult life was just starting seemed like a vice around my neck, restricting my airflow.

It made me dizzy seeing him on one knee with that diamond ring nestled in that tiny velvet box. That ring symbolized a chain around my ankle, a way for him to control me after I told him my goals, after all the lies he never confessed to.

I haven’t seen this man in twelve years. I know nothing about who he is now and what his life entails, but I can’t with definitive certainty say I’d turn down that proposal today if he held that ring out once again.

Just thinking like that terrifies me. Take out his good looks, take out the fact that he works for an organization that commits themselves to finding and protecting trafficked women, and what do I have?

An old flame and so many things left unsaid.

Is it the idea of that shackle, that sense of being owned, that appeals to me now because of what I’ve recently been through?

That has to be it.

I shake my head and although he takes that as my answer to his question, I know it’s in response to more than that.

I need to get my thoughts together, accept that seeing him and needing him to be on my side. protecting me has to be a trauma response.

I’ve thought about Trenton Cole numerous times since the day I turned him down. I have to keep in mind the way he shuttered his emotions so quickly after I said no. Turning him down hurt but watching him flip the switch so easily made me realize he never meant what he was asking.