Lethal Redemption

by April Hunt

  Cade’s arm snaked around her waist, taking her off guard nearly as much as the shiver that slid through her body.

  “What are you doing?” Voice breathless, Grace dropped her free hand onto his firm chest.

  He lowered his mouth to her ear in a move that to anyone watching would look like two lovers sneaking in a snuggle. “We have some admirers, Special Agent Steele.”

  “Already?”

  “You sound surprised. This was your idea.”

  “I know. I just…” Didn’t expect it to work so fast. “We’re going to have to set some ground rules.”

  “Setting rules doesn’t always seem to go well for us, in case you don’t remember.”

  “It will this time,” she snapped, narrowing her eyes on him, “because we’re both in agreement that what happened six months ago was an after-effect of prolonged stress levels and way too much alcohol. So unless the barista spiked our drinks, we’ll be fine.”

  His mouth twitched. “If that’s what you choose to believe, sweetheart, who am I to stop you?”

  “Do you really think that you’re so damn irresistible that I won’t be able to help ripping off your clothes if you get within three feet of me?”

  “Three feet? Nah. More like six.”

  She growled, her frustration growing because he was dangerously close to being right. Physical boundaries had never been their thing. “You’re forgetting one important factor.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “I resisted the temptation of your body for nine long years.”

  “Pretty easy to resist temptation when that temptation is conveniently hundreds of miles away.”

  She knew exactly how far away he’d been.

  The nights she’d spent alone in her dorm, wrapped up in one of his old T-shirts, were too many to count. And with each one, she’d felt Cade drift further and further from her life, and the pain got worse, not better. It had gotten so bad that she’d forbade her cousins and Zoey from mentioning his name, but it hadn’t made the pain go away. It had just made it barely tolerable.

  All that pain now rushed to the surface in one overwhelming flood. “Any distance between the two of us wasn’t created by me. I wasn’t the one who got on a plane and flew across an entire ocean.”

  “How long are you going to punish me for serving my country?” Cade gritted his teeth, the muscle in his jaw ticking wildly. Good.

  “That’s what you think I’m doing?” They both needed a hefty dose of reality, and Grace was more than happy to give it to him. Hell, she needed to hear it too. “I was sitting in the front row at your boot camp graduation ceremony. And your induction into the 75th Regiment. I drove you to the base before every deployment, and I stood on that tarmac holding a sign every time you came back. I supported you through all of it because it’s what you wanted to do. You’re the one who punished us when you re-enlisted without giving me so much as a ‘hey, I’ve been thinking about signing my life away for another four years.’”

  On Grace’s left, the New Dawn Seekers shifted from the position they’d held for the last two hours. Heads bowed, they occasionally glimpsed in their direction.

  They were prepping to move.

  Grace took a deep breath in an attempt to get her head off her sad love life and back on the operation. “Rehashing the past isn’t going to get us anywhere but at each other’s throats. The bottom line is that I learn from my mistakes, and you were one of my biggest.”

  Cade flinched as if she’d struck him.

  Grace cringed inwardly at her lie. They hadn’t been a mistake. Fifteen-year-old Cade had given her thirteen-year-old self what she’d needed most—friendship, a steady shoulder to cry on, or to vent to because she didn’t often do tears. When they were older, he’d given her a hell of a lot more. As bad as things ended between them, she was glad that they’d had that time together.

  The good definitely far outweighed anything else—but focusing too much on the good made her Cade-blind to those dark days right after the split.

  Grace opened her mouth to apologize, but Cade beat her to it.

  “You’re right.” His playful side was replaced by the all-business Ranger she used to know. “We were a short moment of time. I got it.”

  Movement on Grace’s left caught her eye. “They’re headed this way.”

  “You ready for this?”

  No. Her worst fear—or one of them—was about to come to fruition. The other had been watching the man she loved—and trusted—walk away and out of her life. Now she stood with that same man, contemplating the second.

  “Just try not to get too chatty, and follow my lead,” Grace said.

  Linking their fingers, she turned toward the river and leaned on the railing. Cade’s chest warmed her back as his other hand slid around her waist. He settled in like it was the most natural thing in the world. And for a moment, it was. Her body melted into his, and the moment his mouth brushed the rim of her ear, her knees buckled. Grace closed her eyes and took a breath, thankful he couldn’t see the effect he had on her.

  Still.

  Neither time, nor distance, nor dating other people dampened it. She’d broken things off with a gorgeous pediatrician whose hobby was donating his time to underdeveloped countries because she hadn’t felt it after six dates. And here she stood, in Cade’s arms for less than ten seconds, and it was all she could feel.

  Damn traitorous body.

  The entire situation would backfire if she wasn’t careful.

  But she was a federal agent.

  She’d been trained to create designated—and controlled—outcomes.

  Dealing with a handsy ex and a growing erection nestled into the small of her back was child’s play.

  The New Dawn couple stopped three feet away, their attention sliding from the river to them and back.

  “It’s a chilly, but pretty day, isn’t it?” The woman, dark-haired and slender, slid a quick glance Grace and Cade’s way. “I’m glad there are other people who are content to stand around and enjoy the scenery. It’s rare to find with everyone rushing all over the place, focused on time and to-do lists.”

  Grace pushed a smile to her face. “Especially in this city.”

  The pretty woman laughed, her dark hair tossed back over her shoulder. “Very, very true. We’ve only lived here about two months, and it’s something we’ve already noticed. That, and it’s hard to make friends around here.”

  “Then let us be your first.” Grace held out a hand in greeting. “I’m Grace. Steele. And this is—”

  “Cade Wright. Future husband,” Cade announced.

  Grace studied the other couple carefully. She hadn’t counted to two when she saw it. The couple shared small, knowing smiles that nearly flipped Grace’s stomach.

  Bingo. Reel cast and bait gobbled up.

  “And you two are…?”

  The woman laughed, leaning in to the man beside her. “Bethany Williams, and this is my husband, Thomas. I’m sorry, you just look so familiar.”

  “I get that a lot. I guess I have one of those faces.”

  “Cade and Grace. That sounds beautiful together. And congratulations.” Bethany’s gaze dropped to Grace’s bare ring finger. “Is it pretty recent?”

  “Practically feels like a second ago,” Grace quipped.

  “It was long overdue.” Cade pulled her tighter to his side. “I should’ve asked her a million years ago, but instead, I was a total bonehead and let her get away. Not letting that happen again.”

  Bethany smiled. “So you were—”

  “High school sweethearts,” Grace explained with a strained smile. “Life—and egos—kind of got in the way—his ego. Mine was perfectly rational.”

  “At least you know where things went wrong.” Bethany smirked. “Were you guys here as part of the protest? We’d seen it from a ways off and ended up checking it out, but I guess we caught it at the tail end.”

  “We saw it from a distance too. If we’d known about it ahead
of time we would’ve been here holding our own set of signs.”

  Thomas grinned. “Rule breakers?”

  “Hater of double standards is probably closer to the truth,” Cade added. The hand banded around her waist flexed. “Sorry. This probably isn’t the type of discussion to have when you first meet people, right? Isn’t it a faux pas or something?”

  “Normally”—Bethany took her husband’s hand—“but it just so happens that we feel the same away. It’s tragic to be standing here in our nation’s capital and feel so…”

  “Dirty?” Grace added.

  “Exactly. You guys get it too.”

  “Definitely.”

  Thomas wrapped his arm around his wife’s shoulder. “I have a great idea. Why don’t we invite Grace and Cade to New Beginnings? We can get to know them better and introduce them to the others.”

  Bethany clapped, bouncing on her toes. “That’s a great idea!”

  “New Beginnings?”

  “We’re renovating an old bar and turning it into a community space for adults. We were so out of sorts when we moved here, and I’m not going to lie, we were at a crossroads in our lives.” Bethany gave her husband an adoring look. “But now we’re on the same path, and thanks to New Beginnings, we’re able to help others find theirs.”

  Grace wanted to vomit at the mention of paths. She’d fought for years to break herself from New Dawn’s terminology, and here she was prepped to jump right back in. “I think that sounds great…but are you sure you want to invite strangers that you met right off the street?”

  Thomas laughed. “Please, Bethany hasn’t met a stranger that she hasn’t turned into a friend within ten seconds.”

  Cade’s hand slid up Grace’s spine and gently cupped the back of her neck. His fingers deftly massaged the knot that had been growing by the second. “New Beginnings sounds like perfect way to spend a Friday night. Tell us where and when, and we’ll be there.”

  Bethany squealed. “I was hoping that you’d say that.”

  Grace didn’t doubt that one bit.

  Chapter

  Six

  Cade paced, his boots scuffing up the floor of the Steele Ops command center. He couldn’t help it. He needed to do something.

  “You’re making me motion sick, man, and that’s saying something because I was in the Navy.” Liam sat hunched over his computer, Grace at his side.

  “It’s been two hours since we left the park, Liam.”

  “Dude, I know. You can’t rush art, okay?”

  “Well, you better rush, Michelangelo, because if New Dawn goes searching for our backgrounds before you have our new ones in place, then we’re screwed.”

  Actually, if any number of things happened they were fucked, and his gut, usually a strong guide, stood solidly on Shit Creek’s stony banks.

  “Voilà.” Liam leaned back in his chair and grinned like a kid in a candy store with an unlimited gift card. “All right, lady and gents. Come. Gather around and bask in the power of my awesomeness.”

  He pushed a button, and two official documents, one branded with a US Army insignia and the other from the DCPD, slid off his laptop and popped up on the large wall-mounted screen. “You, Cade Wallace Wright, narrowly missed a dishonorable discharge for failure to comply with direct orders. And coincidently, it was the straw that broke the Ranger’s back. Turns out, you were never fond of taking orders from people so far removed from the action.”

  Knox snort-chuckled. “Not so far from the truth except for the dishonorable discharge.”

  “On your return to civilian life, you went into the police academy and quickly advanced to detective, where you were primary lead on the Cupid Killer Task Force. And although the case brought two former lovebirds together again”—Liam smirked at both Cade and Grace—“it proved too much. You blame—once again—the out-of-touch hierarchy for nearly losing your baby sister.”

  Liam brought another form onto the jumbo screen. “You gave one hell of an exit interview stating all the fallbacks of the system. I mean check this out. You—I mean I—should write fiction.”

  Cade nodded, impressed. “That definitely paints a ‘screw authority’ picture of me.”

  “Which is what we want New Dawn to believe.” Liam shifted things around on his screen. “Since Grace is practically a New Dawn celebrity, I didn’t have the luxury of manufacturing a background from the ground up. I had to work with what I got—and with what the FBI director gave me. And can I say that that lady is not a breath of fresh air.”

  “You should meet her in person,” Grace said.

  “I’ll pass. Thanks. But she’s smart.” Liam brought up Grace’s fudged-up background. “She didn’t think it would be a good idea to keep you listed as a criminal profiler. Why give New Dawn ammunition to question you with?”

  “So what am I?” Grace leaned closer to the screen. “Special Crimes Department?”

  “Vance’s idea, not mine. She said you profiled those cases all the time so you’d have enough knowledge about them if questioned, and it’s not audacious enough to be a threat to New Dawn. Hell, it could help them out if they’re collecting skill sets like Pez dispensers.”

  Cade asked, “So why did she leave?”

  Liam flipped up the next report. “Best part. I took an already filed suspension, altered the date, the jargon, and the outcome…and boom. Suspension turned permanent dismissal. Sweet cousin of mine, I’m shocked at the language in this report. What would my ma say if she read this?”

  “She wouldn’t…because she doesn’t have the clearance needed.” Grace’s mouth twitched with a smirk.

  Cade blinked as he read the monitor and chuckled. “She called her supervisor a misogynistic ass? Where the hell did you come up with that?”

  Liam smirked. “Oh, I didn’t come up with that bit. That was already there.”

  Cade glanced to an eerily quiet Grace.

  Stone-faced, she folded her arms across her chest. “What? I don’t regret a damn thing. The jerk proclaimed that female profilers didn’t have the genetic makeup to get down and gritty into a killer’s psyche. But the real breaking point was him waiting a single beat before offering to give me private mentoring so I could play with the big boys.”

  Liam whistled. “Damn. He’s lucky all you did was call him an ass.”

  “How do you know that’s all I did?” Grace’s eyes glinted mischievously. “Men haven’t changed so much since the beginning of time that they like admitting they got their ass handed to them by a woman.”

  An odd mixture of anger and pride swelled through Cade. He wanted to beat her former supervisor to a bloody pulp, not just for being an ass, but for being a slime ball on top of it all.

  “Glad to see you haven’t changed much.” Cade fought the urge to pull her into a proud hug.

  “Actually, I’ve changed a lot, because he was still somewhat upright when I left the room.” She nodded toward Liam’s computer. “So we’re a rule-breaking Ranger and ex-cop, and a pissed-off former FBI agent with an attitude problem. I can work with that.”

  “Good.” Liam handed Grace physical copies of their new files. “And your apartment in New York is officially on the market.”

  Grace looked a second away from throttling Liam. “Are you kidding me? Do you know how long it took me to find that place?”

  “Relax, it’s not really. If your old friends are as thorough as we think they’ll be, keeping your apartment in a city where you’re not currently living would raise red flags. And speaking of living arrangements, Jaz is hauling your things to Cade’s place as we speak.”

  “Excuse me?” Cade and Grace asked in unison.

  “You guys are engaged, right? Grace can’t exactly show up with a suitcase in tow now. Don’t worry. It’ll be discreet.” Liam cleared his throat and turned, but not before Cade got a glimpse of the smirk.

  “What did you do, Liam?”

  “Nothing. I did absolutely nothing.”

  “Fine, then what did you
tell Jaz to do?”

  “She’s just making it look a little more…co-habited.”

  “What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

  Grace tried and failed to withhold her laughter. “I think what he’s saying is that Jaz is making it look less like the headquarters for every fraternity in the United States.”

  Cade scoffed, offended. “My place does not look like a frat house.”

  “Seriously? All it’s missing is the dogs playing poker picture and a fishnet-stocking leg lamp.”

  “Nothing wrong with a little decoration.”

  Grace rolled her pretty brown eyes. “At least tell me that you finally got a couch. If not, you better dust off that sleeping bag, because it’s the floor for you. I’m commandeering your room.”

  Liam’s attention bounced back and forth between them. “Wait. How did you know Cade didn’t have a couch? You’ve been to his new place?”

  Cocking a single eyebrow, Cade turned to Grace and swallowed a chuckle. A pink hue rose high on her cheeks as she mentally backed herself out of the corner she stepped into.

  “Yeah, Grace,” he goaded, smirking. “How did you know that I didn’t have a couch until recently?”

  With a throaty growl that made Cade half hard, Grace stalked out of command ops, the heavy iron door slamming shut behind her.

  Liam chuckled. “You, my friend, are so fucked.”

  Cade couldn’t disagree.

  He was screwed…and not in the sweaty, naked, fun kind of way.

  * * *

  As an FBI profiler, Grace traveled. She visited crime scenes and interviewed witnesses. If she’d been sent as damage control, sometimes she had a face-to-face with the perpetrator as she’d done with a serial killer case last year.

  She spent more time in hotels than she did her own apartment, and she’d never once had trouble falling asleep. But she’d been staring at the same spot on the wall for the last two hours and hadn’t come close to drifting off.

  She couldn’t blame Cade’s snoring, because with him sleeping on the couch, she didn’t hear him. Nope. It was all her and her racing thoughts that wouldn’t turn off.

  A second before she was about to give up and go in search of something hot and sweet, the bedroom door opened. Careful not to give herself away, Grace eased her hand between the mattress and box spring until her fingers brushed against Magdalena.