Page 38 of On the Chase
“Who hired you?” Hugh demanded, but the man didn’t respond. Blood trickled from a cut next to his eyebrow, reminding Grace of the tortured men’s blood-streaked faces, and she had to look away.
“Police!” Theo’s shout was the best thing she’d ever heard. The cop ran to help Hugh, yanking a pair of handcuffs off his duty belt.
“Good timing.” Although he was breathless, Hugh sounded almost back to his normal self. Grace, on the other hand, was pretty sure she’d burst into tears if she tried to talk. “I don’t have my cuffs on me. I would’ve had to MacGyver something from a piece of twine and a couple of paper clips.”
After he and Theo hauled the dazed-looking biker to his feet, Theo hammering the guy with questions that went unanswered, Hugh moved over to Grace and helped her to her feet much more gently than he’d handled the handcuffed man.
“Want me to deal with that?” he asked, looking pointedly at her hand.
“What?” Her voice shook, and Grace hated that. Following his gaze, she saw the gun still clutched in her hand. “Oh. Yes, please.” She held it out, careful to keep the barrel pointed away from him. It suddenly felt impossibly heavy.
Hugh gently took it and cleared it with efficiency born from lots of practice. “Good job, Gracie.”
“Thanks.” She stared up at him, resisting the urge to topple forward against his solid chest. After everything that had just happened, she wanted to lean on him, take in his wonderful Hugh scent, and hide from the universe until it stopped taking a giant dump on her life.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Rudely snapped out of her Hugh daze, Grace snapped her head around to look at Theo.
“Visiting local businesses?” Hugh offered, but Theo just glared. “Getting some ice cream?” That was the second time he’d mentioned ice cream in the past hour. Hugh must be getting hungry. He handed the gun and the bullets he’d removed from it over to Theo, who deposited them in his pocket without dropping his scowl. “Finding a quiet place to make out?”
Grace flushed and was instantly annoyed at herself for turning red. She wasn’t normally a blusher. Hugh just seemed to bring out unexpected reactions.
“You need to get out of here before LT shows up,” Theo said, his face grim. “If he catches you here, you’re done.”
Grace felt her eyebrows shoot up. What did Theo mean? Would Hugh actually get fired for showing up at the call?
“I need to talk to this guy.” Hugh jerked his head in the biker’s direction. From the rage bubbling under his words, the conversation wasn’t going to be a friendly one.
Theo started walking toward the front of the shop, towing the handcuffed biker along with him. “Youneedto go. I’ll question him and let you know what I find out later.”
“We’ll go to my house,” Hugh said, although he didn’t look thrilled about it. “You and Otto meet us there once you’re done here.”
“I promised I’d make dinner for Jules and the kids tonight,” Grace protested. Even to her own ears, she knew it sounded silly. Someone was gunning for her, almost killing Hugh in the cross fire, and she was worried about meal preparations. Still, she was scrambling for any hint of normalcy in the sea of hit men and bullets and exploding trucks.
“No.” Theo stopped, turning that too-intense gaze on her, and she struggled not to look away. “If Jovanovic is after you, then I don’t want you anywhere near Jules and the kids.”
“But…” Once again, her life was spinning out of control. After the world’s worst dinner party, all she had was a tiny bedroom in a dilapidated house that she shared with a surprisingly endearing family. Now, the threat of Martin Jovanovic was going to take even that away from her. Of course she didn’t want to endanger Jules or her siblings, but that was supposed to be her safe house. Now, she was cut adrift again, and this time, there was no safe place.
Her voice came out embarrassingly small. “But that’s where I live.”
It wasn’t until Hugh’s arm circled her that she realized how close he’d gotten. Although a part of her figured she should step away and put some distance between them, a much larger part of her wanted to lean against him and take advantage of the comfort he offered.
Although a flicker of sympathy softened Theo’s expression for a moment, his tone remained firm. “We’ll find somewhere else for you to live until we figure out what to do about Jovanovic.”
The “we” surprised her. “You’re going to help me?”
“Yes,” both men chorused.
“Thank you.” Despite the whole wretched mess, Grace felt a flicker of hope.
“We’re cops. Helping people in trouble is what we do. Now get out of here before someone else tries to kill you.” Theo hauled the biker toward the front door. The handcuffed man turned his head and gave Grace and Hugh a blood-streaked sneer, mouthing, “I’ll get you.”
Grace stared back at him as impassively as possible, trying her best to hide her shiver.
“No.” Hugh’s voice was abrupt and cold. “You won’t. You’ll get some time in prison, but you’ll never get Grace.”
At Hugh’s words, Theo snapped his head around to glare at the biker. “Face front,” he barked, giving the man’s arm a jerk that pulled him off-balance. The biker stumbled forward a few steps as Theo yanked open the door.
