Trusting Danger (Danger, #2)(75)

In the end, though, she’d won. Alex had ignored the arguments on the drive, but made the command decision to take the exit to the nearest hospital when they entered DC and pulled into its emergency entrance. He forced Grayson out of the vehicle with Claire, and came back to wait with them in the reception area after he’d parked.

As they’d waited in the ER’s waiting room before being taken to an exam room, Claire and Grayson leaned forward and listened as Alex lowered his voice and filled them in on what the team had learned. Eli had briefed him at the scene as the others had given their statements.

Alex caught Claire’s eye. “The call Eli got while we were on the way was to let him know that we got a facial recognition hit.”

When she frowned in confusion, Grayson explained. “Whoever hired the kidnappers used a burner phone, and we were trying to pin down who’d bought it and then see if there was any link to you. I’d found surveillance footage of a likely buyer and forwarded it to the lab last night to run through the databases.”

Alex nodded. “Our cyber guys didn’t find anything in the criminal database, but when they ran it through the government-employee database, they got a hit. They’d been trying to reach Grayson all morning to let him know, so they left a message with Joanne for him.”

“Was it Peter?” Claire asked.

“No, it was an intern, but he reports directly to Peter Cooley. Our team wanted to cover the bases to be sure the intern wasn’t buying the burner for someone else, so they did some quick digging on your father’s senior staffers. One stood out. Cooley had the most money invested with Gabe Rogers, and his home is about to go into foreclosure.”

Claire gasped, jerking her head back. “Wh-what?” Peter had always seemed so in control, so on top of everything.

“Did you know he was in debt?” Alex asked.

“No, but it might be something he shared with my father.”

Grayson shifted in his seat, wincing as he did. “Not likely if he planned to have your father pay a ransom.”

A nurse carrying a clipboard stepped into the waiting room. “Grayson Matthews?”

“He’s here.” Alex stood up and waved to her, then gave Grayson a hand to help him up.





Chapter Sixty-Five





As it turned out, the wound was more of a deep gouge along the outside of Grayson’s left thigh, although it needed a good many stitches. Luckily, it hadn’t damaged the muscle much, which he was thankful for.

Just like he’d told Claire, it was only a graze, not a life-threatening wound that needed emergency attention. So, annoyed with the fuss everyone was making, he had grumbled through it all.

When they had to wait in the ER waiting room for him to be seen, he complained. When they sent him to radiology for an X-ray to make sure there were no fragments, he balked. And when he was returned to the ER exam room and the nurse came in to poke him with lidocaine before she stitched him up, he cursed under his breath, thinking it was all so ridiculous.

Finally, Claire lost her temper. Grayson had never seen her this angry. Pulling back her shoulders, she went toe to toe with him, glaring up at him with enough intensity that would shrivel a lesser man.

Poking an accusatory finger at him, she let him have it. “Grayson Matthews, you let the nurse do her job. Quit being such a baby!”

Grayson froze and stared at her, his eyes wide with surprise. Then he started laughing.

Furious, Claire folded her arms over her chest and glared at him until his laughter died away. Realizing he needed to turn this around and fast, he grasped her upper arms for a second, then yanked her against his chest.

Holding her close, he said, “I have no idea if I’m blessed or cursed, but somehow you’re in my life. And I’ll be damned if I ever let you go.”

She threw her arms around his neck and pulled his face to hers. After giving him a hard, fast kiss that nearly made him forget where they were, she released him abruptly and turned to the nurse.

Thumbing at Grayson over her shoulder, she said, “He’ll behave now.”





Chapter Sixty-Six





Once Grayson was stitched up around two a.m., Alex drove them all to Claire’s condo, which was fine by her. When her adrenaline rush had finally worn off, and she’d nearly fallen asleep in the ER until Alex had plied her with vending-machine coffee.

Grayson leaned on her as she led them upstairs to her condo, limping slightly. She was a bundle of nerves at the thought of being alone with him again, and truth be told, she was probably leaning more on him than he was on her.

When she opened the front door, Charlie came skidding to the foyer, dancing around them and woofing out a greeting.

“Shhh!” she hissed. “Charlie! Don’t wake up the neighbors.”

Alex retrieved his backpack from the guest room, and when he returned to the living room, his gaze bounced between Claire and Grayson.

“Guess I’ll take off then. You two have fun.” Grinning, he hoisted his backpack over his shoulder and slipped out the front door.

Charlie danced back and forth in front of the door after Alex left, and Grayson insisted on going back down with Claire as she took Charlie outside. Silence hung between them as the dog pulled Claire down the dark sidewalk, halting here and there to sniff at various bushes until he found the perfect spot.