The Grayce Walters Romantic Suspense Series

by Jacki Delecki

“Grayce is a hostage and all he’s doing is following?” His anger spilled over, rushing into the harsh way he breathed into the phone.

  “Hunter doesn’t want to spook the suspect by calling out the cavalry. And, he may be taking Dr. Walters to Brandon Billow’s location, the man we now believe responsible for the bombing.”

  “Give me Hines’s number. And why in the hell didn’t he put a tracker on Gator’s car?”

  “Sir, I believe he did.”

  “Which way were they headed? Do you have a description of the car?”

  “You’ll have to ask Hunter about the car. I’ve been pretty busy here, sir.”

  “Where are they?”

  “1-5 south. Sir, Hunter Hines will protect Dr. Walters at all cost.”

  Nick watched the change in Hollie with the news. Her face went a stark white, her eyes filled with unshed tears, and she chewed on her lower lip. He pulled her closer to his side. Fear and anger made her stiff against him. He understood both feelings since he had them in spades.

  Hollie pulled away from him. “We’ve got to find her. If anything happens to her…” Hollie swallowed hard.

  Maddy put a hand on Hollie’s arm. “I’m sorry I’ve gotten all of you involved, but you’ve got to trust me. Hunter will never let anything happen to Dr. Walters. I know his skills, and she couldn’t be better protected.”

  Nick was grateful for Maddy’s efforts to comfort Hollie, but he knew better than to believe one man could stop a whole terrorist cell. What if there was another bomb?

  Hollie shook off Maddy’s hand. “I can’t stand still and do nothing. I’ve already done that once today and I’m not letting anyone hurt the doctor.” Hollie got more vehement as she spoke; she widened her stance, her muscles tightened. She was battle-ready with no one to fight. Helplessness wasn’t easy for anyone, but most difficult for this woman who had been victimized as a child.

  Angie, erect with military bearing, her well-defined muscles tensed and coiled, also looked battle-ready. “Maddy’s right. My stepbrother is a top notch Marine and I’d always bet my money on Hunter over any sniveling coward. But it sucks to not be able to do anything to help Dr. Walters. She’s in this mess because of me. Maddy, tell us how we can help your investigation. Hollie and I both need to intervene right now.”

  Nick had learned early on from his sisters not to offer his opinion when not asked. That he believed the FBI could protect the doctor wouldn’t be shared with these three women. They reminded him of his sisters—strong; ready to take on anyone who threatened someone they loved. He smiled at the comparison, but he didn’t think any of them would appreciate the humor.

  Maddy ran her hand through her blond curls. He was still having trouble that she wasn’t a drugged-out Marine.

  “Angie, will you come with me for the interviews of the members of the eco-terrorist group? You won’t be able to ask questions, but with your profiling skills, you can help.”

  Nick felt ready to defend Hollie if Maddy didn’t acknowledge Hollie’s need for a job.

  Maddy was used to commanding and organizing the troops. “Hollie, you need to get back to your office. I’ll send over the list of the suspects/members and you’ll need to go through the records to see if any of them have a connection to Dr. Walters. See if we can pick up any leads.”

  Hollie took a second to answer and Nick knew she was fighting the need to do more. Hollie wanted to kick someone’s ass. He got the way she coped. She was really afraid and wanted to take control in the most primitive way.

  An astute Maddy didn’t miss Hollie’s hesitation. “Do you have something else you think will help Dr. Walters?”

  Hollie hesitated again and then shook her head. “No.” One word expressed all of Hollie’s frustration and helplessness.

  He wanted to take her in his arms and hold her, take away the forlorn set of her shoulders.

  Maddy’s voice was brisk but not unsympathetic. “It’s tough not to be in the trenches for Dr. Walters, but none of us have Agent Hines’ or the FBI agents’ training. If we want to be of help, we each have to do the jobs we’re best at.”

  Nick took Talley’s lead from Hollie’s hand and laced his hands through hers. “Let’s head back to the office. You and I can go through the files.”

  Hollie nodded. “Sure.”

  “Do you know how many innocent people would’ve died if it weren’t for you three? You’re going to have to trust me that Hunter can be lethal.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Brandon Billow drove a quarter mile on the access road in the isolated industrial area—an eerie landscape of Seattle’s maritime past, too far from the main road for Grayce Walters to break away. The wind blew off Elliot Bay, carrying dust from the dirt road across the windshield. Railcars covered with graffiti sat on the seldom-used track. The shipping workers who moved the freight to trucks and trains had finished their work hours before. No one was around.

  Railroad tracks protected by a ten-foot cyclone fence topped with barbed wire ran along one side of the access road. Puget Sound bordered the other. Over the high fence and over the tracks to Harbor Avenue was an unlikely escape route.

  Brandon pulled into the parking spot in front of a welcome sign—Certified Wildlife Habitat. Two other cars sat in the far side of the visitors’ parking lot—maybe she wasn’t alone.

  He turned off the ignition, and then reached into the glove box, pulling out a large revolver.

  Grayce backed against the seat, away from the shiny, lethal weapon.

  “Afraid of guns?” His lip twisted into a sneer. “I didn’t think there was anything you’d be afraid of. Don’t worry. I don’t have plans to shoot you…yet.” He laughed when she flinched. “My military school training comes in handy.”

  He tucked the gun into the back of his blue jeans, just like she had seen in the movies. “I learned a lot in military school, the same lessons I learned at home. Men use power to bend the weak to their will. And now the powerful men will bend to me.” He checked his cell phone and his eyes gleamed with a cruel light. “Five minutes before show time.”

  He got out of the car and walked around to her door. She could kick him in the chest and make a run. But getting shot when trying to scale the ten-foot fence wasn’t exactly a viable option. She was trapped for now.

  He opened her door. “We’re going to take a little walk up the hill for the view. You’re going to witness how much I learned in my military school training. Impressive—what I’ve engineered.”

  Grayce scanned the area, searching for other routes of escape. The path was cut into a large hillside with dense trees on both sides and fences beyond to prevent access to the shipyard.

  “Don’t try anything funny. I won’t hesitate to demonstrate my marksmanship. And I’d hate for you to miss the show.”

  Grayce shuddered. Icy fear ran down her spine rushing to the backs of her knees and toes.

  He gripped her elbow. “We have to hurry. Damn downtown traffic.”

  Brandon walked next to her, his gun tucked into his blue jeans. To hide his weapon, he wore a lightweight jacket embossed with a smiling penguin. They walked for at least a quarter of a mile. As they climbed, they caught views of the parking lots filled with trucks and boats on one side and views of the Sound on the other.

  A teenage couple emerged, coming around the second curve on the path. They walked arm-in-arm, oblivious to everyone else.

  Brandon bent toward Grayce and whispered in her ear as if they were also a couple. His hot breath on her skin sent chills of repulsion. “Don’t think I won’t hesitate to hurt anyone who tries to stop me and my plan.”

  Grayce stared at the couple. Little chance that they’d notice her dilated pupils, her swift breathing, or her sweaty palms.

  Unaware of Grayce’s distress, the couple disappeared around the next bend.

  As Grayce and Brandon ascended higher, they had a panoramic view of Puget Sound. Jack Block Park was a peninsula that jutted into the Sound with a clear vi
ew of the Seattle skyline, the surrounding islands, Vigor Shipyards, and the container terminals.

  “Do you see the seals?” He pointed among the barges.

  Hordes of seals were lying next to and on top of each other on a floating buoy. More black heads bobbed in the water. Their high-pitched barks carried over the water.

  “What do you think will happen to those seals in an oil spill?”

  Grayce was horrified. An oil spill in Puget Sound? What was he planning?

  “Do you think they care about the seals, the dolphins, all the marine life in Puget Sound? All they care about is the money.”

  How could she answer a deadly paranoid delusion?

  They kept climbing. Grayce was a bit short of breath from Brandon’s rapid pace and the sharp incline. Brandon wasn’t the least bit winded, which didn’t bode well for any attempt to outrun him. Brandon was in good shape, irrational, and armed. Her only chance against him was her aikido. She had to wait for the perfect moment to use her less than hundred-pound weight against his two hundred pounds and his revolver.

  Did Davis realize yet that she was missing? He had no leads to her disappearance, but she had total faith in his skills. It didn’t look like he’d be in time for a rescue. She had to act soon.

  Brandon pointed to an orange platform thirty feet off the ground eight hundred yards ahead. “Our viewing room.” They began the walk up a winding path to the platform.

  Brandon turned in a full circle when they arrived at the platform. “The view is perfect. I’d first thought I’d watch from a boat, but this angle is better. More dramatic with Mt. Baker as a backdrop.” His body was coiled in expectation; his face twisted in excitement.

  He had brought her here to witness a heinous atrocity. She still wasn’t sure what the terrible deed might be.

  Brandon checked his watch. “Three minutes. You’re going to be amazed. I’ve seen videos of what the explosion will look like, but I keep visualizing it rather like a grand Hiroshima without the nuclear fallout.”

  “What do you hope to gain?”

  “Exposing the authorities who’ve failed us. Do you know how many oil tankers and oil trains are coming into Seattle? Do you? Do you think the Port Commissioners care? They’re in bed with the oil companies, stuffing their political campaigns with oil money.”

  “This is all about the oil tankers?”

  “I’m sending a message to the men who treat people like they’re nothing—not worth their time because they don’t measure up.”

  “Why Pier 69?”

  “Nothing gets past you—just like my mother. Very smart, Dr. Walters. Tonight is the Port Commissioners’ meeting.”

  “Why them? Why not target the oil companies?”

  “They argue that they’re bringing revenue into the city…they’re bringing revenue into their pockets. And what’s going to happen when Puget Sound is covered in an oil slick? Or one of those oil trains explodes near Golden Gardens? Will people care about the revenue?”

  Her stomach twisted with his quixotic vision. Was he right?

  “Look past the Ferris wheel. Those tourists are never going to forget their ride. It’s going to be better than the Fourth of July over Elliott Bay. And like the celebration of our independence, this is another strike against the men who believe they can walk over the entire world—a few men controlling everyone’s destiny. This will show them.”

  She shivered violently, abruptly cold with dread, nauseated from the inhumanity. How could she get away from his isolated spot and stop his malicious plan? “You’re killing innocent people.”

  “It’s the cost of doing business. See if the corporate devils like the cost when it involves them.”

  She kept hoping to wake up and be freed from this grisly nightmare.

  “And we have front row seats.”

  “You’ll never get away with it.”

  “My mother always had to point out the flaws in my thinking. Why my plans were unrealistic. Won’t you both be surprised?”

  He looked at his watch again. “One minute to D-day—been planning this for years.”

  Grayce was paralyzed. She couldn’t jump off the thirty-foot platform. She couldn’t disarm him unless he rushed her.

  He walked her to the west side of the promenade. “Look down there. There’s Gator and Mitzi waiting for us. I’ll be taking a little boat trip—Vancouver Island, and then to Jakarta.”

  A large powerboat was moored at the dock below them.

  Mitzi was tied in the back seat.

  He hadn’t included Mitzi or her in his plans.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Hollie clambered up Broad Street with Nick and Talley. She felt like a walking zombie, unable to feel or process. It wasn’t the sharp incline of the street, making her short of breath. It was the heavy pressure of paralyzing fear crushing her chest, squeezing her lungs and heart.

  Her body recognized and remembered the terror—the memory of the day when she proved to be a coward. Cowering in the closet when her father came to her grandmother’s house to “get what belonged to him.” Her frail grandma had defended her, screaming “over my dead body” while she remained hidden in the closet, too afraid to come to her grandma’s aid.

  Nick squeezed her hand. She knew a concerned Nick watched her, wanting to comfort her, but there was no comfort. Her life was tilting out of control. If she only hadn’t left the office, the shameful memories wouldn’t have her by the throat, her body wrenching in disgust.

  It was her fault the boss was missing. She had been caught up in the chase of the gamers and, if she were really honest, caught up in spending time with Nick Welby—like some teenage twit. And now Dr. Walters, the first person to believe in her since her grandmother, had been taken and possibly injured. Her entire body shuddered in self-loathing.

  Always attuned to her moods, Nick stopped and ran his hand along her arm. She had chills in the heat of the summer day. “Can you tell me?”

  She didn’t want his look of sympathy and concern. The boss could be injured or worse. She shuddered again. She wouldn’t, couldn’t think.

  Nick stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “Dr. Walters is going to be okay. You’ve got to believe. Davis is a very competent man and he isn’t going to allow anything to happen to her. And this Hunter Hines guy is right behind her with the FBI.”

  Hollie wanted to scream. Words weren’t going to take away the panic. “Don’t try to sell me a crock of bullshit. You don’t know if she’s going to be all right. I’m not some Pollyanna. I know how cruel the world is, but the boss is innocent.” She dragged her hand away, but Nick again wasn’t letting go.

  He jerked her hand. “Look at me.” Nick sounded furious.

  She glanced up to see two spots of color on his cheekbones, his eyebrows flattened and a white line around his mouth.

  “I’m not selling you anything. And I’m pissed that you’d think I’d lie to you. I know how much the doctor means to you.”

  Wow. Nick never got mad at her. Not what she was expecting from the calm and collected military man.

  She shifted her weight. Although Nick was pissed, he didn’t scare her—another difference between Nick and other men. “I didn’t mean you were lying. I meant that no one knows what will happen.”

  “I know exactly what you meant. And I know you’re worried, and you’re blaming yourself, aren’t you?”

  She looked down at the crack in the sidewalk.

  “Hollie, answer me.”

  “Well, aren’t you all bossy? I don’t have to answer you or do whatever you want when you’re in this pissy mood.”

  His chest puffed up and his voice got loud. “I’m not bossy. And I don’t get pissy.”

  He didn’t like the portrayal. Must have sounded too girly to him. “You are being bossy and pissy. ‘Look at me. Answer me.’”

  “I’m frustrated and more than pissy because I want to know what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours.”

  She would n
ever tell him. Why did he keep pushing her, wanting to know her dark secrets? She wanted to hit him, pummel him to the ground, and make him wince in pain. “Not going to happen.”

  “You’re blaming yourself that you came to the waterfront with me. But there’s more—something that happened in the past?’

  She resented when Nick understood her, especially when she didn’t understand herself. She might have to roshambo him. Then he’d back off.

  “And hurting me won’t help the bad memories or Dr. Walters.”

  “No, but it would make me feel better.”

  He had the nerve to chuckle.

  The only way she could kick Nick’s ass was by surprising him since he outweighed and outmuscled her. And by the way he scrutinized her, she’d never get the drop on him. “How do you know I have bad memories?”

  “Honey, I’m trained to read people, to notice the little differences. Many people’s lives have depended on me evaluating people, analyzing their behavior.” Nick brushed his hand through his blond hair, an unfamiliar but nervous gesture. “But with you it’s different. I don’t just read you. It’s the damnest thing, but I can feel when you’re suffering.”

  He didn’t try to touch her, which was a smart thing because she didn’t want to be touched. “Come on, honey. Talk to me.”

  “I was remembering something…like you said.” Hollie rubbed her sandal back and forth on the crack. She didn’t want to look at Nick and see his pity. “My father came to my grandmother’s house to take me home…you know why.” The fear was creeping back into her. She couldn’t keep the disgusting shame at bay. “I hid in the closet, too afraid of what my father had planned for me. And when grandma defended me, he backhanded my little, frail grandma. I stayed hidden, too afraid to come out. It was my fault my grandma got hurt. And today is my fault. If I hadn’t gotten caught up in hunting the gamers and wanting to be part of an adventure with you, I’d have been in the office…and…and maybe I could have done something…”

  He tucked a curl of her hair behind her ear. She caught a glimpse of his eyes before she toed the sidewalk. She didn’t see any disgust in Nick’s face, only love.