Safe at Last (Slow Burn #3)

In as few words as possible and as to the point as she could make it, she explained everything: her ability to read minds, the loss of that power when she’d been so brutally attacked and her belief that her mind had simply shut out the power as a protective measure. Why it was reasserting itself now she wasn’t sure, but then she realized it was because she’d come to care about Eliza. She’d relaxed around the other woman. And her consciousness had picked up on the threat to her.

“She’s been missing for three hours,” Anna-Grace said grimly. “Does this sound like the Eliza you all know so well?”

She received worried answering frowns from both the other women.

“No,” Ramie muttered. “Eliza is as solid as they come. She’s gone to the wall for us all. What’s your plan? I’m in.”

Anna-Grace blinked. She hadn’t even outlined her plan or explained that it could cause Ramie immeasurable pain. And yet Ramie had signed on with no reservations.

“I am too,” Ari said with a growl. “I still owe those bastards some serious payback and I’m dying to reek some serious havoc.”

Anna-Grace almost smiled.

Then she looked at Ramie. “I’m asking for a lot. I know. I know what using your powers does to you. The price you pay. But I also believe it’s the only way we can locate Eliza in time to save her. I believe they mean to kill her to send a stronger message than the one they sent using me.”

Ramie merely nodded. “I’ll do it. Is there anything here belonging to Eliza?”

“There has to be something in her room,” Wade said, speaking up for the first time. “I’ll go find something.”

Anna-Grace leveled a look at Ari. “You are powerful. Magnificently so. They don’t stand a chance against you.” Then she lifted her shoulders in a rueful shrug. “My gift isn’t as intuitive or as powerful as yours. I’m not sure how much help I’ll be. But I can read minds, and if there is information that helps us locate the other members of this . . . organization . . . then they can be taken out and will pose no further threat to any of us.”

Ari stepped forward and slid her cool hand over Anna-Grace’s arm. Then she squeezed it in silent solidarity. “Your gift is as powerful as mine and Ramie’s. We just have different powers, and that’s a good thing, because the three of us together? Those assholes don’t stand a chance.”

“No one is going anywhere, goddamn it!” Isaac roared.

He’d reappeared from the adjoining room, where he was no doubt calling in the troops. Fury was radiating from him in waves.

“Do you honest to God think that any of us would put the three of you in harm’s way? Caleb’s and Beau’s heads just exploded when I told them they better get their asses over here pronto because their wives were not where they were supposed to be.”

Anna-Grace looked helplessly at the two women whose husbands would likely burst through the door any moment now. Would they buckle under pressure from their husbands, who only wanted to keep them safe? Anna-Grace didn’t fault them for that. But she refused to leave Eliza to her fate, and only Ramie could help locate her, because she could be anywhere.

The impressions that Anna-Grace had lifted from the man’s mind hadn’t given a location. Any recognizable place. All she’d seen was Eliza with that cloth over her face and the water being dumped over it repeatedly.

“We’re not bailing on this,” Ramie said softly. “We’re going to find and rescue Eliza no matter what our well-meaning husbands think or say. Besides, if they give us too much grief, Ari can take care of that matter for us.”

A slight mischievous gleam entered her eyes while Ari outright laughed. She turned a smug smile toward Anna-Grace.

“She’s right, so stop fretting. As soon as we get a lock on her location, we’re out of here. With or without the husbands.”

Isaac let out an inarticulate string of what Anna-Grace assumed was a combination of curses and protests but none of the women paid him any heed.

Just as Wade strode from Eliza’s room carrying the item of clothing she’d worn last, before what she had on today, Caleb and Beau did indeed burst into the house, their expressions black, fear stark in their eyes.

“Don’t you dare give that to her,” Caleb barked, inserting himself between his wife and Wade.

Wade stared back at Caleb just as hard as Caleb was staring him down and neither man gave an inch.

Anna-Grace could admit being intimidated by Caleb Devereaux. Even Beau to an extent, although he’d been nothing but gentle and kind to her. But Wade was clearly unruffled by the dangerous glitter in Caleb’s eyes. And, well, he did have three huge mountains for men, who were loyal to him and not DSS, so the odds were even. The victor would be decided by which side Ari aligned with since she could incapacitate them all if she wanted.

Anna-Grace shot a quick look Ari’s way just to see if she’d faltered upon her husband’s arrival. But what she saw was a good sign. Or at least she hoped.