you and I have known each other, so go ahead and count away.”
“So if I don’t, like, die tomorrow, I’m racking up boyfriend points,” Grace said, and Hunter almost crushed his bones with the next hug.
“If you walked away—walked away—tomorrow, because we’re not saying die right here,” Hunter cautioned, “I would still be more emotionally invested in you, Grace. It was rough losing Paulie. He was a buddy and a coworker, and we had some sex and some good times. It was nice having a boyfriend I worked with. That didn’t happen often. And yeah, it hurt when he died. Part of that was that it was so horrific. I mean… blown up! Not a great way to go. But it’s been more than a year now, and I’ve been able to put some perspective on it.”
“What’s that like?” Grace asked, feeling wretched. He still remembered his stupid laugh as the drug had slid into his veins. He’d been so grateful for Gabriel’s promises that this would make him feel like all was right with the world.
“I didn’t love Paulie,” Hunter said, his voice sober. “I cared for him, yeah—but we were only having fun. That day… one minute we were fooling around, and the next our employer was ready to rabbit. The other two guards—Chancellor and Creighton—had disappeared. They were assholes anyway, and they’d been acting weird since we got a big delivery a few weeks before, and suddenly Pinter was like, ‘Gotta go, you guys drive,’ and the guard at the gate, who was sort of a sweet old retired police officer with a family, had been taken out. And when I saw the flames and felt the concussion and realized Paulie was dead, I… I was more angry about the death of the gate man. That wasn’t necessary. He could have been taken out without bloodshed. Me and Paulie, we knew the score, but not that guy. And it hurt, losing Paulie, but because I knew him. Not because I loved him. You and me, Grace—we’re different. Tonight, after you ran out, that was not fun. I’ve never had such a hard time keeping up with a briefing. I’ve never been distracted from my job. The job was always more important than whatever I had on my mind. Until I let you go tonight and had to hope you’d come back.”
Grace half sat up. “Let me go?”
“Yeah, dumbass. People pay me a lot of money to protect them. If I’d decided to lock you in Julia’s safe room with all her old clothes, believe me, you would have been trying on dresses right now, and probably looking fabulous.”
Grace grunted. The safe room was the one place in the mansion he hadn’t been able to crack. Rooming with thieves and con men…. It figured they’d know how to keep him out.
“She’s got those peignoir things,” he admitted, because he didn’t want to admit Hunter was right. “It’s like wearing a cloud.”
“They’re very old-school,” Hunter agreed. “You’re conveniently ignoring the point.”
Grace glared at the awakening hamsters in his head, and they all feigned sleep again. “You didn’t love Paulie,” he whispered. “Me—I’m more important to you?”
He felt Hunter’s grunt of emotion deep in the center of his being. “Yeah, Dylan Li. You are. And it’s scary. It’s terrifying, because you don’t seem to have any regard for your own safety. Paulie was a professional at staying alive, and that didn’t work out so well for him. And you—you seem to be a professional at running out in the rain, and I’m afraid that won’t work so well for me, you understand?”
“Then why did you come get me instead of Josh!” Once again, Grace fought to sit up, but this time, when Hunter fought to keep him right where he was, he collapsed, relieved—desperately relieved—to know that Hunter wasn’t going to let him go that easily.
“Because you’re worth talking to about it. You’re worth the painful conversation. You’re worth the fight.”
“But why?” Grace burst out. He didn’t wrestle to get up, but God, he needed an answer.
“Why do I care about you? Jesus, Grace—you don’t ask for much, do you? ‘Hey, Hunter, track me down in the rain and then tell me how the heart works. Thank you so much, gotta go, bye!’”
“I’m not leaving,” Grace muttered. “But I warn you, I got about a minute and a half before my insecurities kick into gear and I’m asking you where the ventilation vent is so I can plan a job.”
“What