Page 70 of Lure

“Maybe.” I pulled out all five steaks. They were large, but I could section hers down if she didn’t want as much. Probably should have defrosted some fish for her. Right, I could work with it. “But he also went to get some work done.”

“Oh.” She moved to stand at the counter. “Can I help?”

“Not right this sec, but keeping me company is nice.” I headed for the dry storage. We had plenty of potatoes in there. I carried a sack out. Could bake them or roast them.

Bake.

Stopping at the first aid kit, I flipped it open and grabbed the acetaminophen. I put the bottle in front of her.

“That will help with the aching. Don’t sit still too long so you don’t get stiff.”

“Good advice.” She turned the bottle around.

“We worked out a rough plan,” I informed her as I washed off the potatoes. “We've got to tweak it a little, but we’ll be moving soon.”

“Toward one of the people I gave you?” Was she worried?

Of course, she was worried.

“Yes, the first one. Gallo. He’s in France, so we’ll have to go to him. We just have to work out some kinks in the plan so we can fly over. I don’t think it will take more than a day or two to get that sorted. So take it easy on the overdoing it. International flights are not fun when you’re stiff.”

She released a long breath.

“I told you, we were going to help you. We just had to carve away the distractions. Now you have our whole focus.” I got the oven heating and paused to look at her before I broke out the steaks. “We will help you. What we said about keeping you safe? We meant it.”

“Why?” The soft question probably shouldn’t surprise me but there was just a bit of a bewildered look on her face. “Sorry, that’s probably rude.”

“Direct, not rude.” Wiping my hands off, I crossed to her. Better to keep her gaze on mine while we discussed this. “In the beginning? We wanted to help you because you needed help. You were caught in a really shitty situation. We wanted to get you home. Then those assholes came for you there.”

Still fucking pissed me off.

“After that, it was a matter of honor to keep you safe. That, and we don’t like bullies who go after defenseless women and children. Traffickers? They are the worst kind of bullies.”

Then I traced a finger down the gentle slope of her nose and tapped it gently.

“Now? We want to help you because we like you. We’re going to include you in the decisions. There may still be times when we have to do stuff on the fly and we won’t have time to explain it. You’re going to have to just trust us. The rest? The rest you’ll have a say in.”

She shuddered, then scraped her teeth over her lower lip. “It seems like a lot. You guys just kind of met me and now all my problems are in your lap.”

“Lucky for you, we’re pretty big guys. We can handle it.” Then I dropped my head slowly, telegraphing my intention to give her a kiss and letting her have the time to back up. Thank fuck she didn’t, and I kept it light and simple. A brush of my lips to hers.

Surprise flickered in her eyes but she didn’t shove me away or slap me. Seemed a positive note.

“We like you Grace,” I repeated. “Keep that in mind.”

“Okay…”

“Now, I’m going to get started on dinner.” I backed off and turned back to the steaks. “How do you like your steak?”

We were definitely going to keep her safe. Then we could work out the rest.

Chapter

Twenty-Six

GRACE

Building out their plan included disguises, photographs, costume changes, more pictures, and testing facial recognition against their changes. Maybe I’d never had to build a brand new ID before, but I’d certainly had to build new looks, new attitudes, and inhabit them.

---