Page 33 of Lure

“Didn’t say it wasn’t bullshit,” Bones gave me a look. “Just said what they told me. None of this tackles our issues with the Rojas.”

Shaking my head, I pushed up from the chair. “Why isn’t she awake yet?” I focused on Voodoo who still had two fingers against her pulse point.

“Because her mind might be shielding her.” Voodoo’s patient explanation seemed reasonable.

“I don’t like it,” I admitted and then began to pace. The stiffness in my right leg served as a reminder that I’d been overdoing it, combining long stretches of activity with equally long stretches of inactivity.

Thankfully, no one commented on my complaint. Goblin didn’t rush after me as I walked the length of the room and back. He was as used to me as I was to him. The agitation and unsettled feeling in my gut wasn’t about my leg or the damage or the phantom feelings that came and went.

“We shouldn’t keep her here,” I said, finally, giving voice to the voice turning circles in the back of my head. It had been growing gradually louder day after day. It finally clarified the argument when we were in Mexico. “She doesn’t belong in this life.”

“We can’t let her go,” Bones countered and while I’d expected the argument, it seemed to catch both Lunchbox and Voodoo off-guard. They whipped their gazes from me to Bones and then back. “I’m sorry…”

“You’re really not,” I interrupted, slicing a hand through the air. “You already have an argument for why wecan’tlet her go?” Because can’t was different from shouldn’t and wouldn’t.

“Fine, I’m not. You like her, I get it.”

Did he now?

“All three of you like her and Voodoo is already fucking her. At the rate you two are going, I suspect it won’t be that much longer.”

“Really?” Lunchbox’s tone hit a distinctly derisive note. Was he talking to Bones or Voodoo? Fuck, I didn’t care.

“You want to have a problem with our sex lives or lack thereof,” I said, before Lunchbox could keep going. “That’s ayouproblem, Bones. I have no problem following orders in the field or on a mission, everything else? You can go fuck yourself.”

A faint smile touched Bones’ mouth and he shook his head. “Fine, let’s put it this way. Not one of you can think clearly where she is concerned. You want to protect her. You want to keep her safe. You want to make things right for her. The problem is, all of those may be at odds with our current mission.”

“We don’t have a current mission,” Voodoo stepped right into the fight, his deadpan delivery sucking some of the oxygen out of Bones’ argument.

“Yes, we do. You madeherthe current mission.”

That put a period on my argument. “Fuck.” Rubbing both palms against my face, I savored the prickle of the stubble scraping my palms. “We made promises.”

The harsh exhale from Lunchbox said he grasped it too. We’d made promises to Grace.

“Then we brought her here,” Bones said, and before I could tackle that nugget, he raised a hand.

The gesture cast a bit of shadow over his face and highlighted the bruises littering his face. There was a cut at the corner of his mouth that kept reopening. The petty little part of me that had enjoyed the idea of Voodoo and him going a few rounds swallowed back some regret. As fucking irritating as the captain was being, he was captain for areason.

“It was my call to bring her here, no matter who suggested it.” That shut off that line of argument. “I debated it. Debated finding us another safe house, especially after we proved that she was being tracked.”

Lunchbox let out a low curse of his own. “I forgot about that damn thing.”

“You’re compromised.” For the first time, Bones didn’t make it sound like an insult. He just shrugged. “It happens. We’ve attempted to take her home and a group tried to reacquire her. They pursued her. You dealt with them. We dangled her like bait to test a theory and sure enough they came for her again.Whoever these assholes are—whether it’s group one, group two, or some mysterious fucking third party—they aren’t giving up.”

“Bones is right,” Voodoo said. “We can’t let her go. With us, she stands a chance. The upside of here is no one knows where we are.”

Not even Doc. Not that he had to say that. Doc was welcome at any time and he could call us. He had a number that could reach us no matter where we were in the world. But we’d built this place ourselves. Brought in the materials, did the labor, and the wiring—everything.

No one came up here that wasn’tus.

“Exactly. Now her agent is dead and her sister is definitely missing. We have the Rojas situation. We have a lot of questions and not enough answers.” One way to put it. “Fighting over her or who is in her bed is only going to get her killed.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Captain,” Lunchbox damn near drawled the words, exaggerating them for emphasis. “The only one bitching about who is in her bed is you.”

A snort of laughter escaped me. It popped the tension, and a soft gasp of sound filled me with relief. Grace’s blue eyes were open.

“Hey there, Firecracker,” Voodoo greeted her. “How we doing?”

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