didn’t seem the type to be caught by anyone or anything.
Unless he lets himself.
Yes, Gunner was definitely an interesting one. “Grace told Dare that Rip took her mother away. You’re saying she left the island—and Grace—behind voluntarily?”
“For a lot of money, and she appears to be suffering no twinge of a guilty conscience.” Gunner cursed. “Grace said her mother was taken away when she was twelve, right? Said Rip killed her.”
“Maybe that’s what she thinks.”
“Maybe. But hell, twelve years of programming from a grifter. Add in six more from Rip and we’ve got the makings of a perfect con.”
“I know why I’m doing this—why Dare is. I can even understand Key and Jem, but you? You’re not involved.”
“You keep believing that,” he muttered, and then, with his voice tight, he said, “We’re being hunted. No one hunts me in my goddamned home.”
Avery believed he could take on anything. All these men could.
The problem was Grace. Could they trust her? Her gut said yes, but there was so much evidence against her.
She dialed Dare’s number, prepared to tell him the news while Gunner got their beds together in the panic room.
She was in no rush to go down there again. But when Jem and Key showed up at the door, she knew there was no longer a choice.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Dare gripped the phone as he walked quietly onto the back porch, Sig in hand. Grace slept soundly, a sleep fueled by good beer, good food and good sex. He wished he’d crawled in next to her and refused to answer his phone.
But the intel Avery and Gunner had discovered was something he definitely needed to know.
Now he told his sister, “I don’t think Grace knows. If she does . . . shit, Avery, if she knows, she’s playing me. And hell, knowing what Esme is, what Grace grew up with—”
“She was honest with you about Esme’s grifting,” Avery said. “She didn’t try to deny that. Maybe she never knew. She’s been led to believe her mother was killed. Maybe that was part of the deal—her mother didn’t ever want Grace to know she’d abandoned her to that monster.”
“She’s a chameleon. She’s learned to be exactly what people want her to be.”
“Maybe she’s never learned to be who she wants to be. Or maybe you’re meeting the real Grace,” Avery suggested. “There’s no one left from S8 to ask.”
Dare wondered what Grace had really been doing the last two years since S8 fell apart. Adele had left her with money and resources to get false paperwork.
He also wondered what she’d learned from Darius and Adele.
“Darius put you on the path to Grace. Maybe he knew,” Avery said now.
“Knew what?”
“That you’d fall in love with her.”
Dare paused for a long moment, but he didn’t deny anything. Couldn’t. “Now Darius is psychic?”
“He knows you—and Grace. Sometimes, you just know when two people are going to connect.”
“So this was his version of a blind date? Because I gotta tell ya, Match.com has nothing to worry about.”
Avery gave a short laugh, and then he heard male voices in the background.
“Key and Jem staying with you?”
“They are now—someone broke into their apartment.”
“I’ll see you all tomorrow. Stick close to Gunner.”
He waited until she promised before he hung up. Then he waited outside for a long while. Strummed the guitar and tried to process the news.
When to confront Grace? He still had so many questions for her—about Rip, about everything she knew . . . They needed her. And keeping her cooperating was most important, he decided.
He could find out more about her mother later. Feel her out. And when he’d convinced himself that was the right thing to do, he went back inside to her.
He found Grace walking around the house, almost like she was making some kind of security sweep. When she got to the kitchen, she said, “Sorry—I just . . . I thought I smelled smoke.”
“I’ll take a look around outside,” he told her. They’d washed their clothes from the night before, but maybe the smell lingered. He didn’t smell anything outside or in. “I think we’re all right,” he told her, and although she nodded, she didn’t look convinced at all.
She continued to walk around while he made dinner, able to sit down while they ate, but afterward she seemed to be unable to settle in.
“We could watch a movie,” he suggested, but she didn’t seem to hear him. Maybe they’d moved too fast the night before, but when he pulled her close, she