by April Hunt
Hearing the break in her voice, Cade closed the distance between them in three long strides. Cupping her cheeks, he angled her face toward him so she couldn’t look away. “You never could’ve been her. Not in a million years.”
“There’s a reason why Todd asked me to the cabin that night. Because he saw something inside of me that made him believe that I’d help him. Hell, that I’d be happy to help him to do God only knows what to Rhett.”
He thumbed away her tears. “No, he forced you into that situation because he’s an asshole. And unlike him, you knew it wasn’t right. Rhett Winston’s alive today because of you. He said so himself.”
She flashed him a pathetic smile. “You’re just saying that so I don’t beat myself up over it.”
“No, I said it because it’s true. We’ll get Sarah Brandt away from your mother and Rossbach, and then we’ll get her the help she needs. I promise. We’re in this together.” Cade dropped his forehead to hers and prayed she believed his next words. “Gracie, you can trust me.”
She closed her eyes and whispered, “I do.”
Cade’s entire world trembled beneath his feet.
After he’d broken her trust nine years ago, he never thought he’d be able to get it back. Even despite their fragile agreement, he hadn’t fully let himself believe a second chance with her was possible, no matter how much he wanted it.
But he saw it—in her words and in the soft golden depth of her eyes as she hesitantly met his gaze.
She trusted him.
Now it was up to him to make sure she never regretted it.
Chapter
Nineteen
The previous night on her and Cade’s trek back onto the compound and into their cabin, Grace had felt lighter—and that was saying something, since they now had to orchestrate a kidnapping. She’d believed that she could trust him, and that dynamic change in their relationship would definitely take time to get used to.
Relationship.
The word made her twitchy, and not because she couldn’t see herself with him.
Because she could, and they hadn’t once mentioned what would happen between them beyond the right now. It was a conversation they needed to have soon—just not when she was less than an hour away from having to kiss her mother’s ass.
“You worried about having to make nice with Mother Dearest?” Cade’s voice tugged Grace out of her daze.
“You a mind reader now?”
“No, I’m a Grace reader, and the worry is plastered all over your face. We already know what we’re dealing with when it comes to Sarah. You don’t have to make nice with Rebecca to get your foot in the door.”
“No, but if our plan to get Sarah off the compound is going to work, I need to gain her trust, and to gain her trust, I need a reason to stick to her side that doesn’t involve sitting in front of those damn brainwashing videos.”
“That’s not happening again,” Cade growled. His white-and-tan Protector Command camo fit him like a well-worn glove, and she couldn’t help but ogle the way his abs flexed as he tugged on his boots and pushed to his feet.
“I know, but people don’t exactly hover around the Rec unless they have a reason to. My mother can give me one.” Unfortunately.
She wasn’t eager for another mother-daughter talk, but it was a necessary evil. For all that Rossbach controlled around Sanctuary, Rebecca Steele wasn’t without her own pull.
Grace didn’t expect it to be a simple matter of asking for a favor either. Drunk on what little power Rossbach had given her, her mother would make her work for what she wanted. She just wasn’t about to tell Cade that, because he already didn’t like the idea.
“So you have a PC shift after the Morning Meal?” Grace asked, hoping he didn’t call her out on the abrupt change of subject.
“Yep. Perimeter detail. I’m hoping to nudge that southern cam over a bit. That way we’ll have a bigger blind spot to work with on our way out.”
“Just don’t be too obvious.”
“Well, damn, and here I was going to ask James to hold the ladder.”
“Funny.” Grace tossed his coat into his face, making him laugh.
They bundled up and headed outside, where Sanctuary residents were already awake and active, a few filing into the main building across the compound grounds. James stood outside, talking to another uniformed guard.
“Looks like I have a little brown-nosing to do myself.” Cade pulled her into a quick, hard kiss. “Don’t go kicking anyone’s ass, no matter how much he or she may deserve it.”
“You’re really sucking all the joy out of my day. You know that, right?”
Cade smirked and crossed the commons, giving her an exquisite view of the way his fatigues cupped his backside. She let herself admire the sight before she focused on Operation Kiss Maternal Behind.
She didn’t have to go too far. Less than twenty yards away, her mother and Sarah stood talking, looking amiable and downright friendly. Grace trudged through the snow and prepped herself for contact. Five feet away, she plastered a fake smile on her face. At three feet, she threw up her invisible protective shields.
“Mother. Sarah. May the New Dawn shine upon you.”
“And upon you as well,” Grace’s mother and Brandt’s daughter chimed in unison, but only the vice president’s daughter seemed to mean it.
Sarah smiled. “I hope you had a restful evening…and a warm one. It was frigid last night.”
“It was pretty cold, but Cade and I managed.”
Rebecca Steele’s glare landed on her with all the weight of an anvil. “Getting a late start to your day, are you not? It’s awfully close to the beginning of the Morning Meal.”
“There’s still a few minutes. You’re standing here, and Morning Meal doesn’t happen without Mother Rebecca in attendance, right?”
Shit. She hadn’t meant that to sound as bitchy as it came out—or maybe she did.
Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “Father Teague shouldn’t have rushed your Reconditioning. I think you would’ve benefited from a few more weeks—at the very least.”
“Technically, it wasn’t reconditioning. I asked for that time in the center.” Grace kept her voice neutral.
“So I heard. But that doesn’t mean you should’ve been granted permission to leave.”
Sarah gave Grace a warm smile. “Actually, I think Grace is well on the way to finding her own path. Even Maria warmed up to her by the third day, and we know that’s near impossible.”
This time, Grace’s grin was genuine. “I knew I’d wear her down eventually.”
“It has nothing to do with wearing her down. She finally saw what I saw in you the moment we first met.”
“My charming personality?”
“The Order. You may have stumbled off your path, Grace, but the Order has always been inside you. It always will be.”
Not if she could help it. She’d perform an exorcism if she had to to wash her hands of it.
Grace duplicated the dreamy look on the other woman’s face. “Now I just need to find my place within the community. Cade’s thrilled to be part of the Protector Command, and like him, I’m a doer. This waiting around for the results of my Enlightening is driving me bonkers.”
“I have an idea, and of course, it would be with your permission, Mother Rebecca, but what if Grace were to help me with little things around the center? Not only could she be an extra set of hands, but it’ll give the residents hope to see that regardless of how far off the path you’ve physically traveled, you can always find it again.”
Rebecca’s gaze shifted between the two young women. Her mother wanted to say no probably more than she wanted her next breath, but she also worried how it would look to others.
Always concerned with appearances, Grace thought, waiting to hear her answer. Refusing Grace a position in which she could help other members of the flock would raise more than a few eyebrows.
Grace summoned every last bit of faux innocence she could muster.
“That would be incredible if I’d be allowed to do that.”
Her mother lifted her chin staunchly and turned to Sarah as if Grace weren’t even there. “Against my better judgment, I’ll agree to it, but if there’s the slightest issue, I trust that you’ll report it to me immediately? And I do mean the smallest. There’s no reason to wait until something festers out of control.”
By it she meant Grace. “Standing right here, Mother,” she joked, waving her hand. “And there won’t be any issues to report.”
Her mother snarled, “You are your father’s daughter, Grace Ann. Trouble follows you around like starving ants at a picnic.”
Grace bit back a retort in her father’s defense.
Truth be told, she barely remembered him. He’d died overseas when she’d been so young that her memories were distorted with vague recollections and stories she’d heard from her aunt Cindy and her cousins. But to hear her aunt tell it, she’d been a daddy’s girl from head to toe, dragging his old uniform cover around like a security blanket.
More than one time—or a dozen—she’d wondered what her childhood would have been like if he’d come home from that tour. A family man through and through, there’d be no way he’d let his wife and daughter live on a commune, and she couldn’t help but think he’d have a field day putting Rossbach in his place.
She would have had a parent who actually gave a rat’s ass about her.
Rebecca Steele looked at Grace expectantly, waiting for the heated reaction that thirteen-year-old Grace wouldn’t have hesitated to give in defense of a man she’d barely known.
Instead of giving her mother ammunition and a reason to send her straight back to the Rec, she conjured another reply. “I’m not the same person that I was before, Mother.”
She was better prepared. She was armed with years of study. And she now knew how her mother’s mind worked.
“From this moment onward, you will address me as Mother Rebecca,” her mother commanded. “Any further breaches of etiquette and you will be sent back to the Reconditioning Center without the luxury of knowing it’s a temporary sentence. Do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal.”
With a huff, her mother stormed off toward the dining hall, her golden robes dragging through the slush.
Grace blew out a heavy sigh, catching sight of Sarah’s sympathetic look. “I’m sorry you had to see that. My…Mother Rebecca…seems to have an abundance of memories but is in short supply of forgiveness.”
“I don’t see it that way. I know that she and Father Teague can’t play favorites, but you’re her daughter, Grace. She wants what’s best for you.”
Rebecca Steele didn’t give two hoots about her daughter, not twenty-six years ago, not seventeen, and not now. But Sarah was so deep in her hero worship that she’d explain anything away that challenged her idea of Mother Rebecca.
Grace took Sarah’s mention of motherhood and flipped it around. “Your parents must feel the same way too, right? Want what’s best for you? Have you talked to them since you’ve been here? They must miss you.”
Sarah’s smile vanished like a flick of a switch. “No. They don’t.”
“But they have to—”
“No. They. Don’t.” There was no sign of Sarah’s earlier friendly demeanor. “I know you mean well, but my parents are nothing like Mother Rebecca and Father Teague. They’re loyal only to their own greed, and don’t care who they hurt in their desperate attempt to get more…more power, more money…more influence over people less fortunate than them. People like my parents are the reason I’m in Sanctuary today.”
At least Sarah and I have that in common, Grace thought dryly.
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said sincerely.
“Don’t be. It’s because of my past that I can now prepare for my future. And the same goes for you. You are who you are right at this very moment because of everything and everyone that came before. Accept it. Own it. And let it guide you to your path.”
That was scarily good advice if only she didn’t mean it in a twisted, fucked-up, felony kind of way.
* * *
During a perimeter check with Novak that evening, Cade had been able to nudge the southern camera to the exact position he wanted. All he and Grace needed now was to give Ro and Tank a heads-up, locate Sarah Brandt, and get the hell out of Oz.
The sooner, the better.
Cade rubbed his temples, his pounding headache making his eyes throb. The bright light of the surveillance screens and his annoying “trainer” didn’t make the pain any less. “I think I’ll go take another stroll around the grounds and make sure everything’s still good.”
Novak looked at him as if he had double heads. “Why the hell would you do that? We can see the compound from right here. Plus we already have guys outside.”
Because if he didn’t move—and soon—he was going to lose his shit. And probably on the kid in front of him. He wasn’t built for sitting on his hands.
Voices in the lobby drew Cade’s attention just as his colleague shot to his feet, the most he’d moved in at least four hours. “Get the hell up.”
As Cade slowly stood, Todd Winston walked into the room with none other than Teague Rossbach himself.
“Gentlemen. No need to be so formal.” Rossbach gestured for them to relax.
“May the New Dawn shine upon you, Father Teague,” Novak droned.
“And upon you as well.” His eyes shifted toward Cade before glancing back at the surveillance equipment. “I trust everything is running smoothly.”
“Smoother than cool silk, Father Teague. You have no worries about the safety of Sanctuary while I’m on duty.”
Cade nearly rolled his eyes. At this rate, he’d have to pull the kid from the cult leader’s ass and administer CPR.
Rossbach turned back toward Cade. “I’d hoped to see you adjusting to your new role here. I know we run things quite differently than they do on the Outside. The change can be difficult for people at first.”
“Actually, sir, it feels as though I’ve always been here. Not much adjustment needed. It’s good to wake up in the morning and feel useful again.”
“And we’re more than happy to help with that.” He nodded toward Winston. “Our Elite Guards could use someone with your talents. I’m sure it won’t be long before you’re having a discussion with the councilman here.”
Cade faked awe. “Wow, sir. That would be incredible. James wasn’t able to tell me a lot about the EG, but I learned enough to know that it would be an honor.”
Todd Winston scowled, not in the least sugarcoating his disgust at the idea. “Don’t let Father Teague’s compliment blow up your head. There’ve been plenty of good men who’ve tried to keep up with the harsh demands of the EGs, but very few have passed.”
Cade really wanted to punch this asshole. Instead, he let the jerk’s comment slide. A little. “I passed my RASP training with flying colors. I’m sure I’ll do fine with your men, Councilman Winston. I’m sorry. I pegged James as a Navy guy from the second we first met, but I can’t seem to ID your service branch. Who did you serve with?”
Winston ground his teeth. “I bring something entirely different to the table.”
Rossbach ignored the silent pissing contest in front of him and walked toward the surveillance exit. “Thank you both for doing such a fantastic job, but if you’ll excuse me, there’s a matter that I need to attend to. Todd. With me.”
Winston followed his boss, but not before throwing a death glare back at Cade. He couldn’t help it; he waved, chuckling internally.
Guess Grace wasn’t the only one who caused problems.
Cade casually peered around the corner in the direction Winston and Rossbach had gone. They were already out of sight, and with nothing in the back of the building except for the break room, he wasn’t exactly sure what kind of business Rossbach intended to have.
But he sure as hell wanted to find out.
“I have to hit the latrine,�
�� Cade announced.
“The what?” Novak was back to stuffing his face with something that smelled suspiciously like pork rinds.
“I need to go take a piss. That okay?”
“Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” He kicked his boots up on the table. “Don’t take long.”
He planned on taking however long he wanted. Shift change was in ten minutes, and if he played his cards right he wouldn’t have to stare at video screens any more tonight.
Cade followed Rossbach’s voice, stopping just before he stepped into the almost-empty break room. Peering around the corner, he watched Winston slide a metal shelving unit to the side, revealing a security-sealed door.
“Funny how that wasn’t on the grand tour,” Cade murmured.
Winston pulled a key card out of his pocket, not unlike the one his father had given Grace, and brushed it over the scanner. It flashed green before unlocking with a soft hiss. Cade barely caught a glimpse of stairs before Winston and Rossbach stepped through it and the shelving unit slid back into place.
They didn’t come back.
Ten minutes passed, then twenty. After thirty minutes of lurking in the break room, the new shift of arriving guards threw him questioning looks. He clocked out and headed back to the cabin, already forming a plan to get on the other side of that door.
Halfway up the cabin steps, Grace screamed.
Fists raised and prepped to go to war, he burst through the door. Except there were no Elite Guards. No Teague Rossbach or Todd Winston.
There was just Grace, lying in bed, the sheets twisted around her body as she battled a faceless enemy.
“Grace.” He sat on the edge of the bed and gently touched her arm.
“No! Don’t!” Grace jerked away, her head whipping from side to side. “Please don’t!”
“Grace, baby, it’s just a nightmare.” He brought her hand to his lips, and keeping his voice low, cooed her name until her violent movements slowly stopped.
Her eyes, foggy with sleep, flickered open. “Cade? You’re back?”
“Yeah, and none too soon. You were kicking the shit out of the bedsheets when I got here.”