Safe at Last (Slow Burn 3)

“You on the ground?” Beau demanded after the third ring.

“Just landed.”

“Fuck.”

Zack didn’t like this at all.

“What the hell is going on?” Zack demanded.

“It’s Anna-Grace.” Beau cursed again. “And Ari and Ramie. It’s a fucking mutiny and there’s not a damn thing any of us can do about it.”

“You better start talking,” Zack said in a deadly voice.

Beau sighed. “They got to Eliza. And there was this guy at the clinic when we took Gracie in for her checkup. Gracie said she was able to read his mind.”

Zack frowned. Hadn’t she said she’d lost that ability?

“What she saw, it wasn’t good, and worse, it turned out to be true. The guy was imagining waterboarding Eliza. Ramie confirmed that when she touched an item of Eliza’s. The women hatched this plan, you see. They pooled their resources and are hell-bent on getting Eliza back. Not that I’m not with them on that count, but goddamn it! I don’t want them anywhere near these bastards.”

“Back the fuck up,” Zack said. “Tell me you aren’t saying what I think you just said. You are not allowing any of the women and especially Anna-Grace to participate in a fucking takedown and hostage retrieval exercise! Are you out of your goddamn mind?”

“We didn’t have a choice,” Beau said harshly. “Ramie wasn’t coughing up the info unless they came and Ari threatened to incapacitate us all and the three women would go on their own, so our only real choice was to let them come with us so that at least we could offer them protection.”

Zack bit out a string of curses that had the neighboring passengers lifting eyebrows and staring agog at him.

“Tell me where, and then, Beau, swear to me you’ll keep Gracie safe for me. Swear it on your life. You have to give me the chance to make things right with her and I can’t do that if she gets herself killed.”

“I know, man,” Beau said quietly. “Believe me, I know. And we will protect her, all of us will—and Ari and Ramie—with our lives. Just get here as soon as you can. We could use all the backup we can get, because I have no idea how this is all going to go down once Ari unleashes her fury on them.”

THIRTY-ONE

DARKNESS shrouded the empty-looking warehouse on the outskirts of the city. But Anna-Grace knew better. It wasn’t empty. Somewhere in its bowels, Eliza suffered.

A knot formed in her stomach, dread gripped her in its menacing hold and squeezed until she could barely breathe. She clenched her fingers into a fist, anger rushing like fire through her veins. She was well acquainted with hate—or so she’d thought. But even when thinking she truly hated Zack, she knew there was still—would always be—a part of her that would never stop loving him. Or rather the young man she’d fallen in love with before he became another person entirely. Except . . . maybe he hadn’t? But the hatred she’d used simply to survive, to keep it together the many times she nearly fell apart, because she knew if she ever did truly break down, she would never recover . . . that hatred didn’t even come close to what she felt toward the people who’d beaten her, who’d nearly killed Ari and even now were putting Eliza through unspeakable torture.

Then she went utterly still as thoughts, a confusing mass of them, faintly brushed the edges of her mind. She closed her eyes while those around her stopped and she could sense their puzzlement—and impatience. They were in as much hurry to get to Eliza as Anna-Grace was.

Still, she focused on only those alien voices, narrowing her focus as well as she could since her gift was rusty from her not having been able to use it for so long.

Finally she managed to push everything else out and only listen to what was inside that building. Swearing vehemently, she suddenly strode forward because the sounds were just too faint. She needed to be closer to the source.

“Anna-Grace,” Wade hissed, making a grab for her. “What the hell are you doing? You go nowhere without our say-so.”

But Anna-Grace paid him no heed and picked up her pace, determined to get close enough to the warehouse, though she did keep to the shadows, avoiding the few places where light would expose her. The others had no choice but to follow or leave her without protection. Though she could feel their disgruntlement, even as they surrounded her protectively, leaving no part of her vulnerable, they didn’t order her to keep back, unlike Wade. Perhaps they picked up on her urgency because every single DSS agent was staring sharply at her, waiting for her to tell them what she was picking up on.

And then, like before, she stopped. She halted so quickly, Capshaw ran into her back, and with a muttered curse he made a grab for her so she didn’t topple forward. But she ignored him, her mouth widening in horror. She tried to speak, but nothing would come out. She slapped a hand over her mouth to stanch the silent cry. She stared at the ominous-looking building—hell—in horror.

“We’ve got to get in there. Now,” she hissed, her entire body shaking. Even her teeth chattered, sounding too loud. “They’re going to kill her. She’s been of no use to them. They’re even angrier than before because a ‘mere’ woman wouldn’t give in, no matter what they did to her. They couldn’t break her so now they’re going to kill her and send her body to DSS in pieces. They feel they’re wasting their time and should pursue an easier, more vulnerable target.”

Dane’s expression became murderous, unbreakable and unforgiving. It was an expression that promised retribution. And it was echoed by every one of Eliza’s teammates.

“Of course she wouldn’t break,” Caleb said in a soft voice that hinted of pain and guilt. “She’s one of the toughest women I know. And she’s loyal to her bones. She would never sell out her team, even if meant dying in the process.”

Just hearing those words—a confirmation of what Anna-Grace had already discerned on her own—sent panic shuddering through her body. Her airway constricted to the point of pain and light wheezing noises emanated from her flared nostrils.

It was Ari who jumped to the forefront, leaving Beau scrambling to catch up, swearing the entire way. Anna-Grace took off just as quickly, close on their heels. Her heart was beating so fast that she was light-headed and disoriented, but she couldn’t afford to hold the others back. Not when Eliza had so little time remaining.