The Dom Who Loved Me (Masters and Mercenaries #1)(58)

The man in the baseball cap hadn’t been planning on killing Kayla. He’d thought he was killing Grace. When he realized his mistake, he would try again.

The first call Sean made was to 911. He then quickly made his way out of the alley. No one had seen him. He was sure of that. He made his way back to his car and called Jacob Dean.

Whether Ian liked it or not, Grace was coming in.





Chapter Fourteen


Adam hustled her into the elevator, Jacob Dean close behind him. He held her hand firmly in his. Adam had discarded his jacket and tie and looked casually elegant. She doubted he could look anything else. She’d never seen him in jeans. He squeezed her hand in a reassuring fashion. “Don’t worry about Kayla. We’ll stop by the coffee bar. It’s really coming down. She’ll be happy to not have to walk.”

Grace sighed and slipped her phone back into her bag. When Adam had shown up in Matt’s office to take her to an early dinner, she’d argued that she should wait for Kayla. She’d tried Kayla’s phone twice, but no one answered. She was almost an hour late. It would be easier to just go find her like Adam had offered. It was actually easy to take everything the handsome man was offering her. After the confusion of the afternoon, Adam seemed very solid and welcoming.

Jake stood beside them as the elevator descended, but didn’t look like a man about to have a nice evening out. Jake seemed more tense. His eyes moved like he was searching for something. He had said very little, and Grace was beginning to worry that he was angry about something. Maybe he was angry that he couldn’t get a night out with his boyfriend alone. Grace could understand that. Jake couldn’t want a third wheel hanging around.

“You know what, Adam, I think I’m just going to head home. I’ll stop by and find Kayla, and you two can go out.” She offered him an encouraging smile. Maybe he would take the hint. She would miss his easy company, but she didn’t want to come between him and Jake.

“We’d rather be with you, love.” Adam looked up, watching the numbers descend. Now that she looked at him, he seemed a bit tense, too. What was going on with them?

She went up on her toes and whispered in his ear. “I don’t think Jake wants a girl around tonight. You should go and have fun with your boyfriend.”

Adam seemed startled as he looked down at her, and a slow smile crossed his face. He didn’t bother to whisper. “Jake is perfectly fine with having a girl around, love.”

The elevator doors opened. Jake turned to her. “Believe me, Grace, if things were slightly different, I would be more than happy to show you just how comfortable I am with having a woman tonight.”

Whoa. Jake hadn’t sounded like he was joking. His face had been perfectly serious. Before she had a chance to respond, Adam was pulling her along into the parking garage. Suddenly Jake stopped and put up his right fist. Adam’s arm came around her waist, pulling her back into the hard plane of his chest.

“What?” Grace looked around trying to see what had caught his eye. She would protest, but it hadn’t been that long ago that some jerk on a motorcycle had almost plowed into her, and that was in the outside lot. The inside lot had always given her the creeps. There were too many places for people to hide. It was too quiet and gloomy. She almost never parked in here. Now she was very thankful for her escort.

The staccato sound of footsteps echoed through the garage. They were distant but coming closer.

“Cover her.” Jake’s order came out as a low bark. Adam responded immediately. In two quick moves, her back was against a pylon, and Adam was taking up all the available space.

“What’s going on?” She kept her voice low because it seemed like the right thing to do.

Adam’s eyes looked down at her. “It’s going to be all right, darling. Jake and I are going to take very good care of you.”

“I don’t understand.” A tendril of real fear was taking over. What did she really know about these men?

“I’ll explain everything when we can get the hell out of here. I promise, it’s going to be okay now. We don’t have to pretend anymore.” Adam’s body pressed against hers, and his mouth descended. Grace was too shocked to move. This wasn’t a friendly mouth coming her way. This mouth was sensual and had purpose. Adam’s lips closed over hers, pressing softly in. It was so different from Sean. It was sweet, but when Sean kissed her, she felt it in her womb.

“That’s no big surprise.” The cold words startled Grace out of her thoughts. She pushed against Adam because she knew that voice.

There he was standing in front of her, as though the universe had pulled him from her thoughts and made him reality. He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that was plastered to his chest from the rain. It clung to him, molding his every muscle. His hair was swept back leaving his face stark, with nothing to soften the planes. He was gorgeously masculine, and everything in Grace responded to him.

“Sean?”

His blue eyes stared a hole straight through her. Adam’s arm came back around her waist, forcing her to stand with him.

“Where’s the car, Sarge? I want to get Grace out of here as soon as possible.” Adam sounded different. The teasing, playful tone of his voice had changed to something harder, more competent. “We’ll take her back to our place and hole up there.”