Page 74 of Forged in Secrets

Asher shrugged, saying nothing. Ben knew he would hardly argue that point. Gabe liked to play by the rules,and Asher took a more spur of the moment approach, and they frequently butted heads over it.

“He can’t,” Ben admitted. “But I usually do. That should tell you something.”

He waited for Gabe to concede, but his older brother said nothing.

“You need to trust me, Gabe,” he said. “This is what we need to do. I’ll see you in Mexico.”

He hung up without another word, and rested back in his seat again, closing his eyes and letting the warmth of the mid-morning sun bathe his face.

There were risks to what they were about to do, but he was confident all the same that it was the right thing. Things had fallen into place this way for a reason. He had to see it through to the end.

GRACE

“What’s going to happen to Katie?” Grace pressed, meeting Jade’s angry eyes for a long moment before turning to Craig. “I’d like some answers.”

The man looked down at the floor, but Jade's face broke out in a humorless grin.

“What are you going to do to her, Jade?” Grace demanded again through gritted teeth.

“Come on, Dad,” Jade said, ignoring her question. “There isn’t much time left before we need to make the swap.”

She turned to Grace. “Don’t worry, Grace. You’ll be back to your normal life soon. You have shopping to do and nail appointments to go to. You won’t need to worry about Katie Fairman any more.”

Grace started to get to her feet, but managed tosuppress her anger long enough to force herself to sit back down. She was used to the jabs made about how she chose to present herself to the world. She hoped Jade still thought she was an airhead and that Ben was both the brawn and the brains. Maybe it would lead her to do something careless and give her a chance to escape.

“Let’s go,” Jade said to Craig.

Craig shot Grace an apologetic look and followed her out. A moment later, she heard the click of the lock as they shut the door behind them.

Grace looked down in disgust. Craig was pathetic, but she figured that that, too, might work to her advantage.

She wasn’t sure how much time she’d have before the supposed swap. Even if they were telling the truth about returning her to her family, Katie Fairman was on this boat. She had to find her.

She scanned the room, trying to find anything that could be used as a weapon. It was quite sparse, but she doubted it was thanks to any intentional effort on the part of the Gorskys. It wasn’t like anyone would keep a glass vase or a heavy statue sitting around in a ship’s cabin, even if it wasn’t being used as a makeshift prison cell.

She glanced up at the porthole window, watching the rippling of the bright blue water that stretched as far as she could see.

A small smile spread over her face.

Could they really have been so careless?

She reached up for the rod that held the curtain and pulled on it. With only a little pressure, it came free of the hooks that secured it to the wall. It was light in her hands, but it might be strong enough to work as a weapon.

She had worked behind the scenes on enough cases at Forge Brothers Security to know how a hardened criminalbehaved. Neither Craig nor Jade seemed to be the type, though Jade’s nasty demeanor was far more worrisome.

They were expecting her to be what she was–an office manager with big blonde hair and a French manicure. She was sure they’d left her here expecting her to patiently await rescue, not to try and escape and rescue Katie herself.

She stood up near her bed, grasping the curtain rod firmly in both hands. Whenever they opened that door, she was going to be ready.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-ONE

BEN

“We’re cutting it close,” Ben said, looking down at his watch. It was already eleven in the morning, and the sun was high.

Asher pulled out his phone.

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