Page 31 of Two Hearts
Jack stared at her for what seemed like a long, drawn-out moment.Then he smiled.Then he laughed.Very softly, not at her, maybe, but still, it was a laugh.As if he thought it the cutest thing in the universe that his sweet delicate wife would make such a claim.
Grace rolled her eyes and turned in a slow circle, looking around the tiny room as his chuckles continued.The shelves were made of two-by-six frames, with plywood surfaces.She eyed one of the thick boards holding them up…then, with a sigh, she heeled off her running shoe, centered herself and kicked it.The board snapped neatly in two, and Jack’s laughter stopped.
She looked at him.He looked back at her, all traces of amusement gone from his face.Only astonishment stood there now.
“I’ll understand if…when this is over, if you decide you…well, you… I’m not gonna to hold you—”
“Gracie?”
“Hmm?”
He smiled slightly, came closer and cupped her cheek in his hand.“Can you do that thing you just did…to the door?”
“Of course I can.And I can do it to Paulo’s head, as well.”She turned, focused on the door, began to move, but Jack’s hands on her shoulders stopped her.
“Not just yet, hon.Let’s wait until we know Hope is safe.”
She nodded at him.“You’re right.And even when we hear Benny leave with her, she won’t be safe.Not really.Paulo could call Benny on that cell phone and order him to kill her the minute he suspects we’re up to anything.”
“Then we’ll just wait for Benny to get back.Then we’ll know Hope is out of range.”Jack put out a hand, and when she took it, he tugged her to the back of the small room, and down to the floor to sit beside him.“Might as well get comfortable, hon.It could be a while.”
CHAPTER 10
“Well, as long as we’re here…with nothing to do but wait,” Grace said softly, “maybe it’s time we talked about…our marriage.”
Jack didn’t want to talk to her about their marriage.Hell, he was scared to death to talk to her about their marriage, because he didn’t want to hear her tell him she was having second thoughts about continuing with it.But what choice did he have?Besides, maybe he didn’t actually need to be as worried as he had been.His wife obviously wasn’t the delicate flower Jack believed her to be.
“What about our marriage?”he managed to ask, sounding about as intelligent as day-old bread, he figured.
They had flicked off the flashlight to save the juice.And just a few moments ago they had heard Benny drive off with Hope.But they still had no idea when or if he’d be back.There was probably nothing to dobuttalk.
“I don’t know.”She sat beside Jack, her back against the wall, her shoulder pressed to his.“Tell me something, Jack, have you been…happy with the way this whole thing has been going so far?I mean…happy with me?”
“Of course I’ve been happy!”He answered too fast, he knew he did.And he felt Grace shaking her head.
“No, you’re just giving me the automatic response, the answer you think I want to hear.But I don’t.I want the truth.I want you to think about it first.Have you been happy, keeping so many secrets?Thinking I was so shallow and so arrogant that I’d stop loving you if I knew you weren’t a rich prep-school grad with a six-figure income?”
He turned his head toward her.“I never thought that.”
“No?”She sounded so doubtful.
“No.Not…not exactly.It was more I thought you were too delicate to handle the truth.That it would disgust you to know the kind of violent world I lived in.The filth I wallowed in every day.”
Grace sighed deeply, reached forward to pick something up, and then placed it in his hand.A piece of the board she’d broken in two.Then she said, “Does this look delicate to you?”
“Depends,” Jack said.“How’s your foot?”
He could hear the slight smile in her voice when she replied, “Not even a twinge.”Then she took the piece of wood from him and tossed it.“I suppose it’s my fault you thought of me that way, though.At least partly.”
“Partly?More like one hundred and ten percent.”
“No way, Jack.I’m only half to blame for this mess.I may have been playing a role, but only because I thought that was the kind of woman you wanted.And I wasn’t playing…not really.I was trying tobethat woman.”
Jack sighed softly.“And just how did you get the idea I wanted you to be anything but what you were?Hmm?”
She reached out to take his hand.“Mother made me dress the part, and act the part, and become the part the night of my party.She said no decent man would ever look at me twice in my jeans and T-shirts, my hair hanging loose and my face usually dirty.”
“But you didn’t believe her?”Jack said.
