Give Me Grace (19 page)

A wide range of emotions played across
her face—confusion, indignation, dawning comprehension, and finally the one that damned her for the crime—guilt.

“Who the
hell are you?” growled don’t-give-a-fuck guy, turning to face me full-on in an aggressive stance. He flicked his sunglasses to the top of his head so his glower made more impact. I took in his features coolly—from the dark eyes and the prominent cheekbones, to the fat lip and graze above his right brow that announced him as trouble.

“
Who the hell I am is none of your business,” I retorted at the same time Grace began inching backwards. My hand snaked out and snatched her wrist without missing a beat, halting her. I had to forcibly stop my thumb from caressing the trail of veins where her pulse thumped erratically. There was a time and place for soothing, sensual gestures, and this wasn’t it. “Going somewhere?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Let go of her,” bit out don’t-give-a-fuck guy.

“John, it’s okay. This is
Casey
,” she said. The emphasis on my name and the exaggerated wide eyes she threw his way conveyed some silent form of communication.

John
looked me up and down, a smirk forming on his lips while the blond guy stood quiet in the background, his arms folded. I knew then that this was her friend from Melbourne and that Grace had told him everything. That was awesome. Nothing like knowing another guy was all up in your business.

“If this is about the car,” Grace said, trying to tug her hand free and failing, “you should know I had nothing to do with it.
And you shouldn’t let yourself get so angry or you’ll have a heart attack. It
is
just a car after all,” she added.

Her attempt at cooling the situation only served to further inflame it.
Just a car?
My mouth fell open as I stared at her, unable to even find the words to reply to such a reckless statement.

John’s smirk turned into a full on grin. “
That dog’s going to get you killed, Grace.”

“That’s
my
fucking dog you’re talking about and I want him back,” the blond guy snapped, his face turning red as he took a step closer to Grace.

I dropped
her wrist instantly and turned to face the blond guy who I hadn’t heard speak until now. Hands fisted, my eyes flared wide before narrowing. “You’re Dalton?”

“I am,” he confirmed, lifting his chin as if to say
what of it?

Someone had done a real number on him. In contrast to his careful outfit and hair, his face looked like
someone had pounded him to the ground. I barely saw it. All I could see was an idiot who shopped his dick around on the best thing that ever happened to him.

Before he could take another breath, my hands
gripped his precious shirt and his back slammed against the front wall of the duplex. The white-painted weatherboard shuddered under the force of the impact.

“Casey!” Grace shouted.

“What the fuck,” Dalton grunted. He shoved back, but whatever muscle he had under his clothes must have been for show because I didn’t budge.

I cocked my head at him as he panted and squirmed unde
rneath my grip. “First, I’m going finish the job someone started on your face. Then we’re going to have a chat.”

“
I
did that,” John said from behind me, sounding pleased with his handiwork.

It explained the graze and split lip. Dalton must’ve taken John by surprise to get that in because Grace’s friend was no lightweight.
And while it was good to know he had her back, judging by the attitude just thrown at Grace, Dalton still hadn’t learned his lesson. “But you didn’t finish the job.”

John’s brows flew up.
“I didn’t?”

“
He’s still breathing,” I growled aggressively.

If Travis could see me right now he’d piss himself laughing.
I admit I was laying it on pretty thick, but the guy was a cockroach.

I pinned my forearm across
his neck, pressing down on his windpipe, and glared right in his face. Dalton looked ready to shit his pretty white pants and I had to forcibly swallow the laugh bubbling up inside me. Was this guy for real? What a pussy.

“Go ahead,” Dalton wheezed, his face turning red
as he tried his best to glare at me with contempt. Too bad it failed because he was busy choking. “I’ll have you arrested for assault just like I did with John.”

“He had you
arrested
?” Grace shrieked at John from somewhere to the right of me. I turned my head in time to catch her wild stormy eyes hit Dalton. “I’m going to kill you myself,” she snapped. “Casey, step aside.”

I ignored her crazy demand
and laughed at Dalton. “Looks like there’s a line of people itching to get their fist in your face. Maybe I should call Henry out here,” I told him, even though I figured Henry either wasn’t here or was passed out upstairs to have missed all the commotion. “I’m sure he’d like a turn.”

“Fuck
… you …” Dalton gasped.

“No!” I bit out.
I took my forearm off his windpipe. He only had a second to suck in a breath before I jerked him forward and slammed him back against the wall. His head snapped backwards with a satisfying crack. “Fuck
you
, Dalton.” The phone in my pocket rang and I ignored it. “You need to learn some fucking respect. Maybe you do things differently where you’re from, but here, we don’t step out on our women and we don’t take kindly to those who do. Grace must’ve thought you were something special to keep you around, but newsflash, bud, she is so far outta your fucking league she may as well be in the stars. Sucks for you that she moved on so easy, because she’s moving on with me. Grace might be outta my league too, but I’m not going to fuck it up like you did because I’m smarter than you. I don’t know why you’re here, but I want you gone. So here’s what’s going to happen.” I grabbed his shirt and leaned right into his face, ignoring everyone behind me. “You’re going to turn around and leave. You’re not going to talk to Grace. You’re not even going to look at her. You don’t get to take Mitsy with you either because you don’t deserve that crazy little piece of shit dog that Grace has somehow come to love. If you don’t, I’ll personally make sure you’re breathing through a tube for the rest of your life.”

I yanked him of
f the wall and spun him around.

“Seriously?” he snapped
, and then he did exactly what I told him not to do. He looked at Grace, who stood there with her mouth open, her eyes on me and her expression dazed. “You’re moving on with this Neanderthal?”

My arm cocked back and my fist
hit his face before he could blink.

“
Ooowww!” he cried, stumbling backwards.

I sucked in a breath
because damn, that felt good.

“You heard the man,” John warned, stepping up beside me. “Fuck off.”

Dalton skewered John with sneering glare. “You always had your nose in Grace’s business. It wouldn’t have surprised me if you were fucking her while we were together.”

Grace hissed and suddenly launched herself in the air
like a cat, her aim true as she landed on Dalton. They both crashed to the ground in a pile of limbs and loud grunts. It took both John and I to pull her off him. I took hold of Grace, trying to calm her down.

“I
am
calm!” she shouted, slapping at my hands while John dragged Dalton to his feet and shoved him down the drive.

“Mate, good luck with your career,” John called out to his back. “It’s who you know in this industry and unfortunately for you, I know a lot of people. You’ll be lucky to be doing
Best and Less
catalogues after this.”

Dalton shot him the finger
but he kept walking, mumbling something about us all being crazy. Satisfied he was actually leaving, I regrouped, remembering my reason for being here. Grace and the killing. She was obviously remembering the same thing because she started inching unobtrusively away again.

“Grace,” I said warningly.

“Seriously!” She threw up her hands, exasperated. “It’s just a little scratch in the leather. Get over it already!”

“A scratch? A fucking
scratch
?”
I pointed at my car. “The seat is completely mangled!” I yelled. My phone started ringing in my back pocket again, and again I ignored it. “I’ve given years of my life restoring that car. I
love
that car. Do you know how much money I spent having that seat shipped from the States?” I spouted off the astronomical figure and even John flinched. Grace paled as my phone started ringing for the third time.

“Hell,” I muttered.

“So I’ll get you a new one,” she replied as I tugged my phone out and checked the display. Tim. I exhaled sharply. “Just tell me where you bought it.”

John shook his head, obviously knowing something about cars
because he replied, “It’s not like buying a litre of milk from the corner store,” as I answered the call.

“Casey. Your first interview is here,” Tim hissed into my ear.

I turned my back on an arguing John and Grace and walked to the end of the porch so I could hear him better. “I told you to put all my appointments back.”

“I did, but I couldn’t get hold of the first one. He just arrived.”

“Remind me who the first one is again?”

“Jesus, Casey. It’s
Seth.
”

My brow furrowed. He made it sound like I was supposed to know
who the fuck
Seth
was. “Seth who?”

“Seth McKinnon. Quinn’s
father
.”

“Oh shit,” I mumbled
for the thousandth time that morning. Seth was Travis’s father-in-law and a recently retired agent with the Australian Federal Police. He’d only just returned from a one-year undercover stint before handing in his badge. The problem with taking him on at our firm was the bad blood between him and Travis. Travis had punched Seth in the face at the time of Quinn’s abduction by the Zampettis. It was a story we brought up at every possible occasion because it was fucking funny. What wasn’t funny was being late for his interview. Travis would have a hernia if he found out I was making his life that much harder. “Tell him I’ve been held up and I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“Okay. I’ll go get him coffee and a
danish.”

“No!” I yelled and then lowered my voice.
“For the love of … We want to
hire
him, not run him off. Send Alice.”

“I can’t because Alice will give Jean a tip and he—”

“Tim,” I growled.

“I’ll work something out,” he whispered quickly and hung up the phone.

I stalked back and interrupted with an “excuse us” to John and grabbed Grace by the wrist without stopping. Slapping my palm on the front door, I shoved it open, dragging Grace past a startled looking Mac on the couch, a growling Mitsy on his fluffy blue doggy bed in the corner, and Cooper with his head half stuck in the fridge, and up the stairs.

“Casey,” she
panted when we reached the top. Her chest was heaving up and down from the sudden exertion, distracting me. “What are you doing?”

I shook my head, clearing it. “I’m going to punish you
,” I enlightened her, feeling angry all over again. “And when I’m done, your ass is going to be so sore you’ll never treat someone else’s property with such disrespect again.”

She jabbed a finger in my chest and my eyes narrowed. “You touch me and I’ll—”

I cocked a brow. “You’ll what?”

Grace paused, her eyes beginning to look suspiciously wet. She blinked
and then went in a completely different direction. “You don’t step out on women?”

I paused, completely thrown. Wasn’t I about t
o do that to Grace with Morgan?

No,
of course I wasn’t. When push came to shove, I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d voluntarily touch another woman now that Grace and I were officially together, no matter how temporary it might be.

“No,” I told her. “I don’t.”

She nodded carefully, deep in thought before she spoke again. “And I’m … ah … moving on with you?”

“Hell yeah, you are
.”

Then another pause and this time her voice was soft when she spoke.
“You think I’m out of your league?”

My voice softened in response.
“Yeah.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you?” I echoed.

“For what you said to Dalton. For not bringing up the whole
cold bitch
thing because that would have been awkward—”

“And unnecessary,” I added.

“I was handling it though, before you arrived.”

My lips twitched. “Of course you were.”

Grace nodded, satisfied with my response, and it was then that I realised we were in her bedroom. Alone. Grace must have been on my wavelength because she bit down on her lip as she stared at me with silent intent.