Finding Grace (13 page)

“You okay, Thorne? Great routines this morning. Your
ribs must be healed. I hope you don’t mind that I let Jack in. I
have to say, your description of him was very misleading.” Trent
sounded nervous.

Dagger was torn between wanting to break Trent in
half and thank him for reminding him where they were. Another half
a minute and he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to stop.

“‘
Ribs’?” He wondered aloud, stepping
reluctantly back into a world that was never going to be quite the
same again.

“Fucking Griggs, asshole.” He heard and saw Thorne
pull her alter ego back around her like one of her raggedy old
jackets.

“Tell me about this Griggs.” He felt a jealous
twinge clutch his gut. Where had he heard that name before?

“Pissed about the shiner, I guess. Wouldn’t have
happened if he’d kept his hands to himself when he was trying to
cuff me. Didn’t get what he was going for though, perverted little
needle-pricked fascist pig of a…”

“He tried to…!” Dagger felt the twinge turn to white
hot rage.

“That’s how my elbow got caught in his eye, but he
got me back when Captain America turned me over to him and he
walked me to lock-up. Cops know where the cameras are, and more
importantly, where they aren’t. Pussy little motherfucker, though,
I doubt he even cracked them. Probably just bruised a little. But
they’ve been slowing me down some. Anyway, so what’s the problem at
Soroko?”

They’d reached the Escalade and Dagger automatically
went around to open the door for her, fully aware of her as a
woman. But he was preoccupied with considering different possible
ways to hurt Griggs and whether he should leave marks or not.

“Don’t go opening doors and all that for me, Jack.
Not that I don’t appreciate the gesture. It’s very sweet and
Georgia and all, but I’d just as soon keep everything like it has
been.”

What? “Why, Thorne? Why? Why the fuck all of it?”
Now he was getting angry, thinking of how crazy she’d driven him,
how she’d made him think that there might be something seriously
wrong with him.

She sighed like
her
patience was the one
being tried. “Because, Jack, just because. Now are you gonna go all
Judas on me, or can I trust you with this?”

Goddamnit, Thorne.
But this time he didn’t
say it. “Fine, I’ll keep your little secret.” Both of them. He
couldn’t help grinning wickedly when he thought about them, how
they might look palmed in his hands, how they would feel. He’d bet
they felt like warm silk. Damn. “At least tell me your first
name.”

She looked like she wasn’t going to answer him, but
she finally said, “Grace.”

“Grace.” He whispered it like a prayer and frowned.
“But wait, isn’t that your middle name? Your papers say D.G.
Thorne.” He’d checked her personnel file once when Paul was out.
There hadn’t been anything there other than the basic employment
forms.

“Grace would be my middle name if ‘Doctor’ was a
first name. What, are you a fucking spy, too, Jack?” She shrugged
and went on like she hadn’t just dropped another bomb. “So, Soroko,
what’s up there?”

By the time they’d arrived, Dagger had filled her in
on the urgent call Paul had received from the VP of R&D at
Soroko. The man was afraid someone was stealing company
secrets.

The VP met them at the door, startled at first,
eyeing them both up and down skeptically. Dagger tried not to let
it bother him. They both produced their IDs and the man finally
agreed to allow Thorne to check the server’s logs. After a quick
peek, she told him to immediately shut the building down and allow
no one in or out. The man seemed more than happy to let him handle
it. The stuffy bunch of scientists and technicians were completely
docile, if terrified, under his direction. That soothed him
some.

He lined them all up as Thorne requested. She walked
slowly up and down the line. He was probably the only one who was
aware that she had her eyes closed. But he remembered—he remembered
so well he had to surreptitiously rearrange himself in his
jeans—how differently she’d moved when she was wearing the
blindfold. It was probably some psychic thing. He’d have to ask her
more about that.

She turned around and stood in front of a woman
wearing a tight skirt and a blouse unbuttoned far enough that
Dagger could see a lot of cleavage and the lace of her bra. Thorne
calmly informed the VP that this woman was the thief and asked to
see her station.

He felt pride when Thorne sat down at the computer
and found the proof in minutes. Then she patiently showed the man
the trail his employee had left on her computer. A trail that would
have been invisible to almost anyone besides Thorne, Dagger assumed
from the man-who-was-supposed-to-be-an-expert’s complete surprise
and how Thorne had to walk him through each step.

The woman was obviously very good at what she did
and there was a time, right up until this morning, probably, that
Dagger would have found her attractive, too. But now she just
looked cheap and boring.

Before they’d left, he listened to Thorne outline
some improved security protocols and sell the man on a serious
upgrade. Now that was one hell of a woman.

* * * *

Paul was just hanging up the phone when Dagger and
Thorne walked into his office. He smiled broadly.

“Sounds like everything went well at Soroko. VP
wants Thorne to install some new security measures. Said ‘Mr.
Daggery’ handled the personnel issue very smoothly.”

Thorne smiled back. “Sure did. He wiped the
pretentious smirks off their faces like a shark sighting clears a
beach. They’d have confessed to stealing each other’s lunches.”

“I’ll go write up a proposal and cost outlines for
the project while it’s all still fresh. But after that, I’d like to
go home and shower. Jack pulled me straight off a workout, but then
I imagine you know that.” She cocked her head at Paul and he felt
the accusation.

“It was an emergency, Thorne. Maybe now you’ll carry
a cell phone like I asked you to.”

Her head was still cocked. Now she just folded her
arms and shook her head. Why was it women, even intelligent women,
wanted an apology when the blame was theirs?

He turned to the friendlier, eerily cheerful face of
Dagger, who couldn’t seem to stop smiling.

“Well, at least you look happier than you did when
you left this morning. I’m glad I didn’t let you talk me into
having Farley pick up Thorne. We’ll start a rotation next week for
the rides home.”

“What?” Thorne’s arms dropped and she turned to
stare at Dagger, who promptly stopped smiling. “Really? I thought
you…that we…” Her eyes found that spot on the carpet. “I see. Well,
it’s probably for the best…under the circumstances. You know, boss,
if it’s okay with you, I think I’ll just head home now and bring in
the proposal and cost outlines on Monday.” She turned and left his
office without another word, or his answer.

They both listened to the soft patter of her
sneakers running down the stairs and the solid thump as the door
closed behind her. Paul looked out the window and saw her sail over
a slush puddle as she ran down the street.

That hadn’t gone much worse than he’d expected it
to, but if Dagger didn’t want to give her rides any more, she might
as well get used to the idea. He’d pushed his friend far enough,
long enough.

He’d have to be satisfied with the progress they had
made.

“Well at least Thorne managed to prove useful
without all that psychic mumbo jumbo…” He trailed off. Why was
Dagger looking at him like he’d just screwed the pooch?

The big man was shaking his smooth head and flexing
his fists at his sides, making the snake tattoos on his forearms
writhe. Paul doubted he even realized he was doing it.

“What the fuck, Paul. So what if she
is
psychic? No one besides me could tell she was using it this time.
She handled those squints like she was queen of them all, instead
of cursing like a construction worker and carrying on like she does
around here. And then you go and piss her off, make me look like an
asshole—”

“She
?” Shit. So that’s what Thorne had meant
by “under the circumstances.”

“Yeah,
she
. And don’t look at me like you
don’t know because it explains some things, like why you wanted me
to look out for her. Why didn’t you tell me, Paul? I might not have
given you so much shit when you hired her if I’d known she had a
damn doctorate, either.”

Paul ignored Dagger’s question. “She told you that?
She tell you anything else?”

“Just her name. Grace.” Dagger sighed. “Suits her,
don’t you think?”

Paul thought about the small, ragged, cursing,
defiant inhabitant of the office with the loud vibrations and shook
his head.

“No, not really. You must have seen her working out.
I didn’t know the setup of the place. What was she wearing?” Dagger
didn’t appear too freaked out, not like he would if he’d seen her
scars.

“Oh, a gray turtleneck leotard or whatever they call
them. She always wears a turtleneck. You notice that? Anyway, it
covered everything and hid absolutely nothing worth hiding. Oh, and
a blindfold.”

Paul thought Dagger looked just a little too
involved with the memory. He wasn’t sure he liked the glint in the
man’s eye. Maybe it was a good thing he’d be out of town next week,
getting Mills’s team set up in L.A. And maybe it was a good thing,
too, that Dagger thought Paul had made him look like an asshole.
For some reason known only to her, if she even knew, Thorne was
vulnerable to him. Paul didn’t like it. He doubted Dagger had ever
slept with a woman more than once, and Thorne sure as hell didn’t
belong on that list. True, he’d been the same before he’d met
Katherine, but Dagger…well, Dagger was Dagger.

Chapter Nine

The office felt strange without Jack. Thorne wasn’t
even quite sure why she was here. She should have just given Paul
her figures and told him she’d work from home. Or maybe even just
quit. The longer she sat, the better that sounded.

She’d run all the way home on Friday and written the
proposal after getting cleaned up. It hadn’t been nearly complex
enough, though, to keep her mind from running endlessly over the
day’s events. Not that rehashing them helped. Every analysis and
scenario that turned over in her brain ended badly.

It was difficult to decide which of the two main
tracks was worse, the one where Jack had decided he didn’t even
want to give her a ride home anymore and all of those variations,
or the one that said his discovery had changed that, and now he
wanted to…and
those
variations. Either way, she was screwed
six ways till Sunday because she burned when he was close to her
and ached when he wasn’t.

The knock both startled and relieved her. The way
things were going, any distraction would be a good one.

The expressions on the two faces when the door
opened changed her mind. Paul had Captain America with him and they
were obviously freaked out about something. Thorne hit the “off”
button on her stereo, dropped her knitting, and put up the screen
saver.

“What’s up?”

“Luke’s girlfriend, my wife’s friend, Sarah, didn’t
show up for work this morning.” It didn’t sound nearly as bad as
Paul’s expression said it was.

Captain America looked like a man torn between fire
and brimstone. “Look, uh…”

“Thorne,” she provided.

“Uh, Thorne, I know I don’t have a right to ask for
your help, especially not after…God, I’m so sorry about that. I
didn’t know…”

“Thanks for the apology. And the head-hunting.” She
spread her arms to encompass her nicely-equipped office. “So tell
me why you’re so worried about Sarah.”

His look of relief was almost instantly replaced
with renewed anxiety as he explained to her why it was a big deal
that Sarah hadn’t shown up for work yet. She’d left his place at
seven-thirty to go to directly to work, there wasn’t any answer on
her cell phone, and she was never, ever late and always answered
his calls—unless she was mad at him—and as far he knew, she
wasn’t.

Thorne closed her eyes and hoped for information
from somewhere darker and more helpful.

It came then. Just a wisp, but…

“Boss, does your wife know?”

Both men looked at her like she’d asked about the
price of bananas in the Himalayas.

“Luke’s here because he was hoping you’d be more
help than the red tape the PD has to cut through to look for
someone who hasn’t been missing for more than two hours, and that’s
the best question you can come up with? Why on earth would I tell
Katherine? What good is upsetting her going to do? We’re not even
sure something’s wrong.” Even when his face and tone said they
were.

Paul’s response shouldn’t have thrown her, having
heard how protective he was of his wife, and how weird he’d been
acting toward her since the last vision episode. Well, fuck him and
his big Buzz issues. This was more important.

“Because I need her here with me in order to find
Sarah. They’ve been friends since high school, haven’t they? This
has something to do with back then.”

“How do you know that? Never mind, I know that look
and I don’t want to hear it. Katherine stays out of it.”

The Captain’s face twisted away from her. “Goddamn
it, Paul. Are you still hung up on Thorne being a psychic? For
fuck’s sake, let it go. For my sake, for Sarah’s sake, let it go.
If she says she needs Katherine, get her. Please. At least let
Katherine make the choice.”

Thorne was fascinated with the contradiction of the
man’s rough-and-tough appearance and the desperate pleading in his
voice. She wondered how it would feel to have someone care as much
about her as Captain America obviously cared about Sarah, or Paul
cared about his wife.