by Riley Storm
He gave her a solid minute.
“So, Grace,” he said into the silence between them. “Will you help?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Grace
What the hell was she supposed to say to that?
Say no, of course. Tell him you’re done with him, with all of this. You’re leaving, going back to Kennewick Falls, and you’re going to put all of this insanity behind you.
Grace knew that wasn’t an option. It was just her mind trying to put an end to it. To stop it. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that.
“It’s not your fault,” she said quietly.
“What?”
“This,” she said. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t involve me in this. Jack did. That sonofabitch just couldn’t let me go from his life. He had to bring me back into it. If I’d not come back for the funeral, those men would likely have come for me back home. Where you wouldn’t have been able to protect me.”
Braz just nodded. It didn’t surprise her that he’d already thought of that possibility. He was thorough, and would have made that connection.
“Still, this is the last thing I expected to happen when I came back,” she said morosely, slipping back into the lounge chair. “Maybe, maybe, somewhere buried in the back of my head, if I’m being completely honest, there was a part of me that wanted to see you again.”
“I was saddened to hear of Jack’s passing,” Braz said. “But I too had a slight hope that perhaps that occurrence would bring you back to Five Peaks. That I might get a chance to see you again. It left me feeling guilty. How could I celebrate someone’s death by thinking of myself?”
Grace nodded. She understood. Much the same thoughts had raged in her mind.
“Given what Jack has done, and how he’s put me in danger, I’m over giving a shit about him,” she said with uncharacteristic bluntness.
Braz’s brow wrinkled at her choice of words, but he understood why she’d chosen them. “I agree. If he were still alive, I would be paying him a visit to teach him that involving you was a bad idea.”
“But here we are anyway,” she said, wanting to move off the subject of her ex-husband. “Even if I did end up seeing you, I never expected it to end up like this.”
“How come?”
“Because,” she said, holding her sides tightly. “That part of me that wanted to see you again? It scared me.”
Braz frowned, starting to lean forward then catching himself and staying just out of her bubble. “How? Why?”
“Because,” she said, meeting his eyes, watching the amber sparkle brightly in the early afternoon light. “Don’t you see, Braz? I should have listened to you, all those years ago. You’re the guy I should have listened to. You’re the one I should have…”
Grace trailed off, stopping herself.
“My life has been terrible ever since I told Jack I would marry him,” she said abruptly, changing her course. “The marriage sucked. He treated me like crap. Leaving town was exciting, but my job sucks. The suits suck all the good out of it, and leave me miserable dealing with them. It’s not glamorous, I don’t want to go back there. I want to quit! I want to start my own group, doing the same thing, without the corporate pressure. I want to do good for some people.”
“I didn’t know it was that bad,” Braz said quietly when she didn’t immediately resume.
“Well, it is,” she told him. “I’ve only been adamant about going back because I’m scared. Of a lot of things. I’m out here now with dragons, evil bad guys, and I’m part of it. I’ve been forced into a life or death situation, where people want to kidnap and hurt me. That doesn’t happen to regular people, Braz.” She was shaking now.
Braz still didn’t come any closer. “I’m sorry, Grace. I truly am. I didn’t want it.”
“I know you didn’t,” she said quietly. “I know that. I’m just having a hard time with it. Believing it. If it weren’t for you, Braz, being there, being so solid and supportive. I…I don’t know what I would do.”
Tears dripped from her cheeks as all the emotions she’d been carrying around finally spilled over. The stress, tension, and fear all mixed with everything wonderful that Braz had been making her feel, leaving Grace completely open and vulnerable as she burst into more tears.
Then, just like that, Braz was there. Solid, powerful, like she’d told him. One arm snaked around her back, the other cupping her head and pulling it in to his chest. Grace wrapped her arms around him tightly, feeling her shoulders bounce as she cried it all out.
He never wavered. Unyielding. His muscles held her gently, yet they never wavered or let her go. He was her strength just then, while she was weak, and Grace knew then that no human could ever quite convey the same meaning.
“If I say no,” she said as the sobbing subsided. “That I can’t do this. What…what then? Will you cast me out, tell me to go?”
Grace had expected a lot of responses from Braz based on her question. What she hadn’t been prepared for was the powerful snarl of denial that ripped through the air around them like a buzz saw.
“Absolutely not,” he growled. “I would not hold that against you in the slightest. This is not an issue meant to be settled by humans. It should be dealt with by dragons. I will do my best to find another way, then. You may stay here in safety for as long as you need. This means a lot to me, to my family, probably to all dragons. But you come before all of them to me.”
Grace shivered at that pronouncement. He meant it. If she said no, Braz would not hold it against her, he would still care for her.
But he was right. This did mean a lot to him, and his clan. They needed to know what was on that drive.
And I’m the only one who can find out.
The sniffles faded. Grace blinked away the last of the tears, pulling herself together with an inner strength she hadn’t known she possessed.
“So,” she asked, straightening her spine, looking Braz square in the eye. “When do we leave?”
Chapter Thirty
Grace
“You’re sure about this?” she asked for the tenth time or more.
“Yes,” Braz said calmly, though the whiteness in his knuckles as he gripped the steering wheel gave away his real feelings.
“You’re positive?”
“Yes. Everything is in place. The firepower is ready. It is overwhelming for whatever Wilson could possibly bring to bear if he tries to double-cross us. I will be in there with you. He would have to be insane to try something.”
“You know that means he’s going to try something then,” she pointed out. “He’s a criminal.”
“He’s terrified,” Braz pointed out. “Of whoever this other person is. If we can convince him that we’re all on the same side, that we’ll help him, he should keep his word.”
“Should? I thought you said you were one-hundred percent confident.”
Braz glanced over at her. “I cannot control his actions. Only ours. I am prepared to do whatever it takes to get you out of there.”
Grace shivered. She knew what he meant by that. If Wilson or any of his guards tried to harm her, Braz would kill them. He didn’t want to, and it would be a long time before he recovered from the guilt he would inflict upon himself, but he was willing to go to all lengths, to use the fullest of his power to protect her.
“It won’t come to that,” she assured him. “Once I find out whatever is on the drive, we can all use it together. Then we can find out who our real enemy is.”
She wasn’t sure at what point she’d become invested in everything going on, but she had. Grace was determined now to unlock that drive, to provide Braz with all the information he would need to end the conflict. To find the enemy and deal with him for good.
It helped that, once everything was done and over, she would be able to relax, and go out in public without worrying that someone was going to drag her into a car and put a gun to her head.
Yeah, you agreed to walk into that situation. Nobody had to force
you.
“Just make sure your backup doesn’t get too over-eager,” she said. “Wilson and his men might all be human, but remember, I’m human too. Very fragile compared to you.”
“That’s why I’ll be there too,” Braz said. “Never far from your side.”
She fell silent as they approached their destination.
Braz turned them off the road and into the driveway. It was an old stone cabin in the mountains south of Five Peaks. The way home was blocked by Mount Rixa, where apparently more of Braz’s kin lived. All five mountains overlooking Five Peaks were home to a dragon clan.
What a world I live in.
“Ready?” Braz asked as the truck came to a stop and he put it in park.
“As I’ll ever be,” she said, unbuckling her seatbelt.
Braz got out first. She watched him survey the area. There was movement in one of the windows of the cabin, and then the recessed wooden front door opened. A hand emerged and beckoned them in.
She waited for Braz as he talked to the person behind the door. Whatever was said seemed to satisfy him, because he moved to the passenger side and opened her door.
“Stay behind him as we go in,” he said quietly, and together they walked toward the front door.
Braz was wearing a tight black t-shirt and black jeans. Matte combat boots, also black, stomped through the overgrown gravel driveway, and she followed in his stead. Grace had donned borrowed running shoes from Carla, and she wore her own jeans and a plain gray long-sleeve t-shirt.
They entered and she edged out from around Braz ever so slightly. There was only one other occupant in the cabin. He was an older man, with gray hair, and a belly that stretched the conspicuous bright-blue Hawaiian shirt tight around his midsection.
Despite all that, and despite the furtive movements as he backed away from Braz, there was a certain hardness to his eyes that spoke of having seen things before. This man wasn’t new to situations like this. He was a career criminal, she knew that much just by looking at him.
“We’re here, Wilson. Just like I promised. Do you have the drive?” Braz asked.
Wilson pointed wordlessly to a laptop on the kitchen table off to the left.
“I don’t know the password,” Grace said, moving to the other side of Braz as they walked closer to the laptop, keeping her protector between her and Wilson.
He was terrified, and she figured that boded well for their chances of escaping without things escalating, but Grace wasn’t going to take any chances. Braz had gone over everything clearly, and all she had to do now was follow his instructions, and everything would be okay.
“Not knowingly,” Wilson said, speaking at last. He had a raspy voice, but the steadiness of it belied the frequent darting of his eyes as he kept an eye on Braz, the windows and the doors constantly. “But it was in a picture of the two of you. That was the only hint, otherwise the drive is blank.”
“There’s got to be another hint,” she said, moving over to the laptop and pulling up the directory.
She wasn’t a whiz with computers, but her job had forced her to learn a lot, so that she could keep the even more incompetent suits happy. Grace was more than comfortable enough on finding the location of a thumb drive.
Her face twitched slightly as she saw the name of it.
“What, what was that?” Wilson asked. “What do you know? Is it unlocked?”
“No,” she said. “I’ve not even typed in any letters yet. I just read the name of the drive. You said there weren’t any other clues.”
“There aren’t,” Wilson said.
“Not for you,” she said.
“Explain,” Wilson said sharply.
“Careful,” Braz growled, shifting his weight behind her.
For the most part Grace tuned the pair of them out. She had no idea what the password was, but the name of the drive was yet another hint. There was no doubt in her mind now. Wilson had been right in saying that only she would know the password.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t help me. Just because I think I should know it as well, doesn’t mean that I do.
The drive’s name was ‘Dongle’. It was a ubiquitous term in the modern technology era, and yet the word was familiar in a more personal way. To the others it would probably seem like a generic name. Not to her.
Now what was the correlation?
“Can you do it?” Braz asked after a few minutes of her thinking had passed.
“Just let me think,” she said absently, completely unaware of the tense standoff happening behind her. Her mind was elsewhere now, thinking back to a time when she had been with Jack.
Jack, the irreverent, goofy, immature computer nerd. With a gutter mind humor.
Grace smiled as she realized she knew the password.
I-h-a-v-e-a-b-i-g-o-n-e.
So immature, and a play on the drive’s name. It was just like him.
The drive beeped, accepted the password, and then opened.
Chapter Thirty-One
Braz
He sensed the change in Grace more than anything.
Wilson stiffened, and in that moment Braz knew that Grace must have done it. She must have unlocked the drive. He waited, keeping his eyes on the shifty criminal. Braz didn’t trust Wilson, despite the so far trustworthy actions of the crook.
“Stay right there,” he said, lifting a hand as Wilson tried to take a step forward. “Final warning.”
“But she’s got it unlocked,” the elderly man said, pointing past Braz.
“So she’ll tell us what’s on there then,” Braz said, his voice like granite. “Not you. Got it?”
Wilson put up his hands. “Fine, whatever. Just hurry up, okay?”
Braz frowned. “What’s the rush? Got somewhere to be?”
“Yeah, I need to get this over with, so that I can go back to a normal life,” Wilson said, glaring at him. “I’m tired of hiding out here.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten involved with the wrong people then,” Braz suggested.
Wilson shut his mouth.
“I’d love to help everyone, including myself,” Grace said from behind him. “I’m totally done with all this crap. But unfortunately, I think this might have all been for nothing.”
“What are you talking about?” Braz and Wilson asked at the same time.
“I mean, that it’s empty.” Grace sounded defeated. “There’s nothing on it but a bunch of empty text files.”
She walked around, holding the screen so that Braz could take a look at it. Grace was right. Only a bunch of randomly numbered text files in a single folder named ‘New Folder’ were visible. That was it, nothing more.”
“How can that be?” Wilson asked, coming forward slowly under Braz’s watchful eye. “I don’t understand.”
Braz waited patiently while Wilson looked it over as well.
“Every file is empty,” Grace pointed out. “There’s nothing in them.”
“So what do the numbers mean then?” Wilson mused thoughtfully. “They must mean something.”
“Unless you were lying about it. About everything,” Braz suggested.
“He couldn’t be,” Grace said quietly. “There’s no way he could have known to create the password I used. Jack did make this, I have exactly zero doubts in my mind about it.”
Braz thought about it. Maybe, he thought to himself, maybe there’s another clue. Another step we still have to take.
“Can I see that?” he asked, taking the computer and giving it his full attention. There was something tantalizing about the numbers. They were all so small. One or two digits. Nothing larger. A whole string of them.
A bank account? No, he decided, dismissing that idea. Too many numbers, and no way to distinguish which order.
Braz stiffened as he had an idea. Using his index finger he dragged the cursor over to one of the columns, and clicked on it. The files re-arranged themselves into a different order, splitting up several of the duplicates.
“I know wha
t they are now,” he said quietly, standing back from the laptop, a smile on his face.
“Are you going to tell the rest of us?” Grace asked when he didn’t immediately continue.
“They’re coordinates.”
“Coordinates to where?” Wilson wanted to know, moving forward to the computer at the same time as Grace.
Braz intercepted him and kept him back. “Easy,” he growled, not happy with how close the crook had gotten to his mate.
“Give me a moment here, I’m just typing them into Google,” Grace muttered with the tone of someone distracted doing something else.
Wilson fidgeted uncomfortably under the steely gaze Braz was giving him. The dragon shifter wondered if the older crime boss even realized he was doing it. The fingers of his right hand were curling and uncurling subconsciously while they waited.
Suppressing a frown, Braz paid closer attention. Was that a bead of sweat dripping down through the thinning hair on his temple? Why would Wilson be sweating? Perhaps he was nervous. With the information they were deciphering, they were one step closer to ending the threat on his life. That would be worth getting worked up over. But nervous? Braz would have expected excitement, urgency. Not nerves.
“It’s to a place nearby,” Grace said, sounding surprised. “In the mountains to the north west of us. Maybe an hour’s drive.”
Braz turned to look at the screen, instantly memorizing the location. “I don’t recognize it as having any special importance. Do you?” he asked, looking up at Grace.
She wasn’t looking at him. Her attention was fixed behind him. Her eyes were wide, pupils dilated, and a slight tremor ran through her body. Something was wrong.
Straightening slowly, keeping his temper in check, Braz turned around. He knew what he was going to find.
“Move away,” Wilson said, the barrel of the gun pointed right at Grace’s head. “To my left, away from the girl. You’re fast, but not fast enough to stop me from pulling the trigger, so don’t even try it.”
Braz wondered for a moment just how true that statement was. He couldn’t beat a bullet, no, but human reaction times were slow. That got even worse as humans aged. Wilson was no spring chicken anymore. All Braz had to do was get a hand to the gun before Wilson reacted.