Safe at Last (Slow Burn #3)

“He gave you very solid advice, Gracie,” Zack said, his jaw tight. “Hopefully you’ll heed it.”


Gracie swallowed and Wade dropped his hand from her chin. She turned her pleading stare on him. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered brokenly. “Please.”

Zack ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He looked hopeless, like he’d lost . . . what? What could he possibly have lost? She was the one who’d lost everything. How dare he act the victim here?

“If Wade stays with us, will you agree to go home with me?” Zack said wearily.

Wade gave Zack a startled glance as if that was the last thing he’d expected.

“That is, if he’s agreeable,” Zack added. “But if it makes you feel better, Gracie, then I don’t have a problem with it. But it means you go home with me and you stay there. No running. No exposing yourself to potential danger. They may well kill you the next time just to send another ‘message.’?”

Gracie’s heart was pounding. He was making it harder and harder for her to extricate herself from an impossible situation. Wade had already sided with Zack for some unknown reason. She could feel her options dwindling away faster and faster and it made her feel helpless. She hated a sense of helplessness.

“I’ll stay if that’s what Gracie wants,” Wade said to Zack, though he looked at Anna-Grace the entire time. And then he spoke to her as though Zack weren’t even in the room. “I’ll stay under one condition.”

She lifted her eyebrow in question even though she knew she wouldn’t like his condition. But then again, how could she refuse and end up alone with Zack for an indefinite amount of time?

“You have to promise me to talk to Zack and tell him everything. Leave nothing out, Anna-Grace. You have to make peace with what happened to you. And you just may be surprised by the results. After you’ve been completely honest with him, and him with you, if you want out, then I’ll take steps to take you away and provide protection for you myself.”

“But if you are able to provide protection, then why do I even need to go with Zack?” she demanded, her panic rising once again as she realized she was trapped with no way out of the situation. “Why are you forcing me to go with him?”

She sounded like she was begging, like someone at the end of her rope, and God, maybe she was. Maybe he was right, and in suppressing it for so long and not really dealing with it she’d created an inevitable firestorm when things finally boiled over.

“Because you—and he—need this,” Wade said gently. “You may not think so now. And I know you’re afraid. But I’ll be with you and I promise nothing will hurt you.”

“That’s what he always promised too,” she said painfully.

She saw Zack flinch and go pale as if she’d landed a blow.

“I’m your friend,” Wade reminded her again. “I’ll always be your friend. And I promise you on my soul that no one will hurt you this time.”

“I guess I don’t have a choice,” she said in a dull monotone.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “This is for the best, Anna-Grace. You may not think so now, but you’ll realize it soon enough. I promise. Now, if I’m going to an undisclosed location with you and Zack then I need to run home and stop by my office to make arrangements to be away for a period of time.”

“How soon will you be back?” she asked fearfully.

“An hour. Maybe an hour and a half.”

“We’ll wait,” Zack interjected. “We won’t leave the hospital until you return. My partner is arranging for transportation and a disguised escort so we can be on our toes and be watching for a tail.”

“Anna-Grace needs clothing and personal items, I’m sure.”

Anna-Grace flushed as they blithely discussed her as though she weren’t present.

“Eliza is taking care of that. She has a good eye for sizing people and she’s shopping for clothes, shoes and all the feminine accessories Gracie will need. She should be here within the hour,” Zack said. “Gracie’s exposure has to be limited and there’s no way in hell I’ll let her go back to her home. I’m sure the bastards have it staked out.”

“They know where I live,” Gracie whispered. “It’s where they attacked me. I can’t ever go back there again.”

She closed her eyes as painful memories assailed her. Things she’d tried very hard to put out of her mind, much as she’d attempted to block out her attack twelve years ago. And yet now, she was assaulted by memories of both incidents together as though they had merged and had become one. Flashbacks of her rape were as clear as if it had happened yesterday. The clarity of each of those memories tore another piece of her soul.