Hell Breaks Loose (Devil's Rock #2)(2)

Grace continued past Holly’s room, glad at least that she wasn’t talking about her anymore. They had moved on to sexy talk. Holly giggled. “Oh, you think I should wear the black teddy? I thought you liked the red one. What’d you call it? Easy access? You still have that toy you bought?”

Grace rolled her eyes. God, if she didn’t want to escape before, she did now. The last thing she wanted was to hear Holly descend into phone sex. That was enough to make her ears bleed. It was one thing to listen to Holly’s stories a day or two after the fact, she didn’t want to sit in the audience while the show was playing.

Shaking her head, she unlocked the door and eased it open the barest crack. The suite had three doors that led out into the hall, and Carter stood in front of her room’s door. A smile curled his lips as he glanced at the phone in his hand, snorting at something on the screen. It just confirmed what she already knew. She was a powder puff detail. No one considered her high risk. Because she wasn’t.

Nothing ever happened to boring.

Even as preoccupied as he was, Carter would notice if she slipped out of the room and walked right down the hall in front of him. She closed the door softly. Biting her lip, she stared pensively across the sitting area. They were on the second floor.

Holly’s voice carried. “You’re so bad. I’m not going to do that . . . I don’t care how long it’s been since . . .”

Stifling a groan, Grace moved to the sliding glass balcony door before she could chicken out. Opening it, she stepped out into the chilly evening. She didn’t need to bother with a coat. Winter in Texas felt like fall back home.

She peered over the railing. Not too far down. The hedge would break the fall. Shooting a quick glance over her shoulder to make certain Holly hadn’t emerged from her room, she swung one leg over the side and then the next. Gripping the railing, she slid her hands down the iron rails until she was crouching, her butt sticking out in an undignified manner. She lowered one leg and then the other, dangling for a moment, the soles of her tennis shoes brushing the top of the hedge. Pressing her lips together to stifle any noise, she opened her hands and let go. She dropped. As hoped, the hedge broke her fall, swallowing her up. She thrashed in the bushes for a moment before gaining her feet.

Standing, she shook the hair back from her face and climbed out of the bushes onto the pebbled path. Dusting off her jeans and wincing at the snags in her silk blouse, she looked left and right, verifying that no one was around. Her detail, most importantly, wasn’t, but that wouldn’t be the case for long. Even if Holly didn’t figure out she was gone soon, Holstein, the special agent in charge, required routine perimeter checks. She needed to get out of there before the next one.

She skirted the swimming pool and circled around the back of the hotel, planning to make her way to the burger place she had spotted from the car earlier.

It almost seemed too good to be true. Walking outside—alone—on her way to get a hamburger. For a moment she felt almost normal. Normal and not someone being bullied into marriage with a guy who did nothing for her girl parts. She winced. She made it sound like she expected a guy Daddy handpicked for her to actually be the one. She’d gone along with dating Charles because it got her father off her back, and he was a genuinely nice guy. She could do worse. She’d thought maybe something could grow between them. Only lately had it become resoundingly clear that wasn’t happening. She’d been contemplating ways to end it.

And now her father expected them to get married? She shook her head, feeling sick all over again. How could she go through with it?

Staying parallel to the hotel, she peeked carefully out at the street.

Agent Marshall and Agent Thompson stood in front of the building beneath the hotel portico. She pulled back, flattening her body against the brick wall. They chatted casually, looking slightly bored. They were probably waiting for Holly to notify them of their dinner plans.

Grace smiled grimly. She was going to dinner like a normal person. Without her personal aide/best friend. Without a security detail. Without a boyfriend who liked to call reporters ahead of time to make certain they were at the restaurant when they arrived. Charles was all about a great photo op.

Turning, she walked briskly, leaving the hotel behind and ducking down a back street. She held her breath, half expecting, half dreading a cry of alert. Nothing happened. She tucked her hands in her pockets and practically skipped ahead, imagining sinking her teeth into a big juicy burger. Maybe sweet potato fries, too. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten something like that. Something so good it was bad.

The scuff of a shoe on loose gravel had her looking over her shoulder.

Two guys followed a couple yards behind her. She didn’t know where they had come from. She hadn’t noticed them before. Facing forward again, she buried her hands in her pockets and picked up her pace, trying to ignore the sudden hammering of her heart.

It was just a street. It was just two guys walking on a street. Apparently she’d watched too many episodes of Criminal Minds.

They didn’t know who she was. They weren’t following her. Her life was not that dramatic. It definitely wasn’t that dangerous.

Just the same, her heart steadied with relief as she approached the end of the street. Two more steps and she would be free, out onto the busier thoroughfare, a block away from the diner she’d passed earlier.

A figure stepped out and blocked her, materializing out of air. She gasped and stopped hard, blinking up at the face before her.