Give Me Grace (40 page)

I stopped breathing.

He grinned. “Breathe, baby.”

“I don’t think I can right now,” I muttered. “Maybe later.” When I’d fallen asleep again and unconsciousness took over.

Maybe not even then.

We left soon after and I don’t remember the drive home because I slept the whole way. When I woke, we were parked in the driveway of the duplex. Casey
stood by the car next to Henry. He was talking and Henry’s eyes were hard as he stood there listening, his arms folded. I quickly closed my eyes again, playing possum so when the brick shitting began over my exploits, I didn’t have to deal with it.

Five minutes later the car door opened.

“Grace. I know you’re awake.”

I focused on keeping my face serene and my eyelids still
, but the more I tried, the harder it was. Damn, playing possum was a skill I had never fully mastered.

“Grace,” Henry repeated. “I know you’re awake because you’re not snoring.”

I cracked an eyelid open. “I don’t snore!”

My phone buzzed, saving me, and I sprang for it.

“Hello.”

“Grace, love.”

Fantastic.

I’d watched a show on
TV the other night. One of those current affair type programs with the scare tactics. You know the kind that led you to believe flesh-eating bugs were invading the country and if you didn’t watch the show, you wouldn’t know how to combat them and subsequently face being eaten alive. It was one of those types, and after much eye rolling on Casey’s part, he caved and we watched the show. This one was on sinkholes, where the earth’s surface just falls away below you in a startling tidy kind of circle.

I needed to find one of those because according to the show’s host, they were opening up all over the earth’s surface when you least expected it, sucking you into the never
-never.

That
was where I needed to be right now.

“Dad,” I muttered.

Suddenly Casey stood right there in front of me, and he said something pretty damn amazing. “Give me the phone, Grace.”

If I didn’t already love the man, I would’ve after that. I flung the phone at him like it was a hot potato.

“A burning building, Grace? Really?”

And it was back to Henry while Casey put out the fire that was my dad.

His voice rose alarmingly as he spoke. “When I told you to stay safe, you interpreted that as run towards danger without passing go and collecting two hundred dollars?”

“You’re being dramatic.”

Henry’s jaw went tight, indicating I’d chosen the wrong response.

I tried again. “I’m sorry.”

His jaw kept ticking.

Casey eyed us from a small distance away, one arm holding my phone to his ear, the other tucked across his chest. His brows rose at me in silent question and I felt a rush of love. I had to bite down on the goofy smile that threatened for fear Henry would think
me amused. I shook my head at Casey, silently telling him I had it covered. He nodded and half turned, focusing again on whatever he was saying to my dad.

“What good is sorry if you’re dead, Grace?”

“Henry.”

“What?” he snapped.

“It was stupid and it won’t happen again.”

His eyes narrowed cynically. “I don’t believe you.”

“So what now? Should I write it in blood? Will that make it more believable?”

“Maybe,” he muttered, backing up as I slid from the passenger seat to the ground. My body protested the movement after sitting down for so long and I winced. Henry reached for me, steadying me when I faltered.

I looked up at my big brother, time seeming to stand still for the longest moment. “I love you, Henry Bear.”

“Ah hell.” He blinked back tears and rather
than letting me go, he wrapped his arms around me. I burrowed in, fighting sadness that I’d missed this for so many years. “I love you, too, Gracie Bean.”

An hour later
, Casey had me situated at his loft. That involved him rolling my suitcase into his room, running me a bath, helping me wash my hair again, and dragging me naked to his bed, because apparently I needed to rest. I only complied because he was joining me.

Casey lifted the sheets and I slid in gratefully. He slid in behind, spooning
me, all warm skin and hard body, his breathing soft and even against the nape of my neck. He pulled the sheets up over both of us, cocooning us in delicious warmth.

“Casey?” I murmured.

“Mmm?” He pressed a kiss where the base of my neck met my shoulder, making me shiver.

“What’s our plan?”

“
Our
plan?”

“Yes. Our plan. I’m still helping you find your brother,” I reminded him
, and knowing they had someone named Seth from their office tracking down the coroner, I added, “And I’m coming with you when you talk to this Graham whatshisname.”

I
braced for an argument but he surprised me by agreeing. “I don’t want you leaving my side right now.”

“I heard you talking to Coby. I know you don’t think Morgan instigated the accident and the fire, but I think she’s involved somehow and it’s something to do with your brother.”

His arm tightened, his hand cupping my breast as he cuddled me close. “I think you’re right,” he admitted, “but I can’t seem to fit any of the puzzle pieces together.”

“So stop trying. Put it out of your head until we talk to Graham, and then maybe they’ll start falling into place.”

His thumb flickered over my nipple and my blood heated as it hardened. “And how do you propose I do that?”

I pushed back, wriggling my ass against him, finding him half hard already. He exhaled harshly. “Grace.” He
wedged a knee between the backs of my legs, parting my thighs. I sighed in anticipation. “I told myself I’d let you sleep,” he murmured in my ear. His fingers found their way between my legs.

I moaned softly. “So be quick then.”

His tongue snaked out, trailing a path along the back of my neck as he rocked his hips, rubbing his erection against my back, his fingers never ceasing their rhythm. “A quickie with you, Slim? That’s like drinking champagne when you’re already drunk. A waste of something that should be savoured.”

“Savour me after, Casey, please. I need you inside me.”

He drew his hand away, over my hip and down my leg. I felt him reach for a condom and moments later he lifted my thigh and filled my body with his. I gasped, my head falling back against him.

“Ah, fuck, Grace,” he groaned, pressing his forehead against my shoulder.

He thrust into me, once, hard, then he stilled.

“Casey,” I moaned, shifting, wanting more.

“Grace?”

“Mmm
?”

“I almost lost you last night.” He thrust again, once, harder, his body trembling and his heart pounding. It was
like he’d been keeping himself in check since the fire and now he was crashing hard. “I’m not sure I can be gentle.”

I stretched my arm behind me, my fingers running through his hair. “I don’t want you to be gentle.”

“Please be sure,” he whispered hoarsely, grinding his hips, making me moan.

“I’m sure.”

With that, Casey pulled out and before I could protest, I was rolled onto my back with him kneeling between my thighs. His big hands gripped my hips and yanked upwards, taking the pressure off my injured body. Then, with his eyes locked on mine, he slammed back inside me with a hoarse shout.

He didn’t pause. His strokes increased and I clutched the
bedsheet in desperation, holding on, breathing erratically, taking his fear and anger and hearing it transform into groans of pleasure.

“Grace,” he panted, his eyes fluttering closed. “I can’t
… Fuck,” he bit out.

Casey pulled out suddenly
. He ripped the condom off, jacked himself hard and came with a hoarse cry. I felt the warmth of it hit my belly and I was left wanting more.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because…” he shifted down, still breathing hard “…I want to do this.”

He looped one of my legs over his shoulder, slid two fingers inside me and buried his mouth between my thighs. My eyes closed and as my body came alive, my heart ached.

How was I going to say goodbye?

My phone woke me from a late afternoon nap three days later.
Grace and I had started out the day by going to her hospital check-up where she complained they took at least a litre of blood from her arm. After that, I took her shopping to replace what she’d lost in the fire.

Shopping and I had never seen eye to eye, yet somehow I was always the one roped into going—first with Evie when she had trouble, then with Quinn, and now with Grace. Only with Grace it was a thousand times better because not only did I get to help her try the clothes on, I got take them off her. I also got to watch her flush with embarrassment when we got caught doing more than just changing outfits in the dressing room
.

My eyes opened when the phone kept ringing, revealing Grace in my bed. The fact that she hadn’t ventured from my side while I slept
left me satisfied. She sat, curled up, her colourful tattoo bright against the crisp, white sheets that bunched around her body. Her hair was a tangled mess down her bare back, black-framed reading glasses adorned her face, and her brow furrowed as she read through the case files in front of her.

I grinned, i
gnoring my phone when it started ringing again. My eyes drank her in and my cock hardened at a rate that made me dizzy. “You’re so sexy, Slim.”

She tilted her head at me, making a face at my comment before nodding at my phone. It was on the bedside table on her side. “You going to get that?”

“Who is it?”

With a quick glance at the screen she said, “Travis.”

I yawned, scratching the back of my head as I tried to wake up. “You can answer it.”

She shrugged, put the pages down in front of her and reached for it. The sheet slipped, baring a whole bunch of naked torso and the swell of her breast. My hand slid up her ribs
, cupping it in my hand before I even realised I was doing it.

Putting the phone to her ear, she answered, “Hey
, Travis.”

I pinched her nipple between my thumb and
forefinger, barely feeling it harden before she giggled and twisted away. I growled playfully.

“He’s right here,” she said. “You want to talk to him?”

I ripped the sheet away, exposing her nakedness. Papers fluttered carelessly to the floor by the bed. I ignored them as I focused on Grace before me. “Tell him I’m busy.”

Moving to the end of the bed, I grabbed her by the ankles and yanked her down. “Oh,” she cried and into the phone said, “He’s
, uh, in the middle of something. Can I take a message?” Another pause while I splayed my hands wide on her calves and slid them upwards, massaging her thighs. She shivered at the touch and my lips curled. “You want to talk to me?”

Grace
tossed her reading glasses on the bedside table, and I shifted closer, trying to listen. I could hear Travis’s deep voice, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. I looked at her questioningly and she shook her head at me.

Then
she looked at me, her lips parting in surprise. “He is?” A moment later her eyes filled. “Oh, I don’t—”

She didn’t get to finish because I snatched the phone and put it to my ear, my hard-on dying a quick death. “Travis,” I growled, my tone lethal. Vaulting off the bed, I stalked naked from the room. “What the fuck?”

“Casey,” he said in my ear. “Thought you were busy?”

“I was until you started upsetting my girl. You want to tell me what the hell you were saying to her or you want me to just come over there and punch you?”

“I’ve got a better idea. I’m out the front. Why don’t you buzz me up?”

I veered from my direction towards the kitchen and started for the front door. With a
quick flick, I switched on the security screen. Travis was standing there, phone to his ear, waving at the camera with a smirk. My eyes narrowed as I hit the buzzer, unlocking the building door and then the front door of the loft. “Come up at your own risk, asshole.”

“
Aww, I love you too.”

With t
he phone still to my ear as he made his way up, I asked him what he said to Grace.

“You remember what you said to Quinn that night before Evie’s big birthday bash? I pretty much said that same thing to her.”

“Quinn told you what I said?” I frowned, closing my eyes briefly as I thought back.

“I know what Travis was like before you, and I know what he’s like since you, and I like the latter. He smiles like he means it, even after a long
, shitty day like he’s dealing with today.”
I’d tapped a finger to my temple and said,
“Up here, there’s you at the back of all that, making his day not so shit because at the end of it, he gets you. You leave, he loses that and we lose him, and I don’t like that.”

“Not sure why that would’ve upset her, Daniels,” he said in my ear as I exhaled heavily. “I just wanted her to
know it makes us happy to see you happy. I don’t want to see you lose that.” The door to the loft opened and Travis stepped through. He arched a brow, drawing the phone from his ear. “And maybe you could’ve put some pants on so I wasn’t blinded when I walked through the front door.”

I rolled my eyes. Hanging up the phone, I tossed it on the kitchen bench, not caring about my nakedness in front of my best friend. We
’d not only shared a room during our uni days, we’d shared girls too. “What about all those three-ways we use to have,” I threw over my shoulder as I started for the bedroom. “Are you saying my cock blinded you then too?”

Travis grinned. “
You think I was looking at your cock when you fucked some girl while she sucked me off?”

“I can hear you both, you know!” Grace shouted from the bedroom as I
approached the open door. I winced.

Travis
chuckled. The sound faded when I walked into the bedroom to find Grace sliding black lace panties up her thighs. Her brows rose. “Three-ways, huh?”

Pausing to watch, I cocked my head. “Mmm why? You want one?”

Her answer was a huff as she turned her back and began rummaging through her bag. Out came a black lace bra. I spun her around, snatching the bra. Tossing it on the floor, I pulled her close. Her tits crushed against my chest and I groaned, liking it. “Because you can’t have one. You’re mine and I don’t share well with others.”

Grace arched a brow. “Not according to what I just heard.”

“That was before.” My palms slid down her back until her ass was in my hands. “You don’t care about what’s in my past, do you, Slim?”

“As long as you don’t care about what’s in mine,” she retorted.

Suddenly I cared. “Oh?”

She licked her lips, and my gaze dropped to her mouth, just catching the determined glint in her eyes before she kissed me. I changed the angle, sucking her bottom lip into my mouth and biting down.

“Ouch,” she muttered, tearing her mouth free.

“I mean it, Slim,” I warned, leaning in to kiss her mouth better. “The thought of you
being with another guy makes me want to rip someone’s head off.”

“You finished?” Grace pushed me back, reaching again for her bra, snapping it on with short, sharp movements that told me I’d pissed her off.

“Grace.”

“What?” she muttered, grabbing for a pair of jeans that looked damn near a hundred years old yet cost
me ten times as much.

“Grace,” I repeated, wanting her attention.

“What?” she snapped, yanking them up her legs. They fit like a second skin, hugging her ass and showing off her long, slender calves. I wanted to go back and buy her another dozen pairs.

“Would you look at me?”

Grace faced me, folding her arms.

“I’ve never been in love before.”
Her breath hitched and I knew how she felt. Just saying the words had my heart slamming against my ribs. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing and I’m sure that’s obvious. I was only trying to tell you how I felt. That I want you to be mine, and mine alone. That I love you.”

The sound of rattling bottles indicated Travis opening the fridge. “Can you guys wrap up your love fest?
” he called out. “We’ve got somewhere to be.” A bottle was uncapped. The lid made a clatter in the sink where he flung it while I stood waiting for Grace to say something. “Like catching up with Graham Bennett for instance,” Travis added.

I f
roze and my insides clenched with both anticipation and building tension. “We got an address?” I called out after a moment.

We’d spent the past three days searching
, but the guy was in the wind. It didn’t make any sense. The guy was a
coroner
, not with the damn mob. It only made him more circumspect in my eyes.

“Yep,” he called back.

I reached immediately for a pair of boxer-briefs, my mind narrowing it’s focus to one thing only—finding out what he knew. Sliding them on along with a pair of jeans, I went for my bedside table and pulled out my handgun. After making sure it was loaded, I checked the safety.

“Casey.”

Tucking the gun into the back of my jeans, I turned. Grace stood there, still half-dressed, her face pale.

“You think you’ll need that?”

“Maybe,” I muttered, hoping the hell I didn’t, but I wasn’t leaving anything to chance, least of all Grace’s safety. “Get dressed,” I told her, reaching for a shirt from my dresser. I tugged it over my head and yanked it down.

A half hour later we pulled up outside a small house—pale brick, one storey, two-car garage
. It gave nothing away except maybe the guy was lazy because the lawn was overgrown and untidy. As we got out of Travis’s black Subaru, I grabbed for the coroner’s report and looked at Grace.

“Stay behind me, okay?”

She gave me a brief nod.

As we walked up the small path and two sets of stairs onto the small square porch, Grace stayed behind me like I asked, making me breath
e a little easier.

Travis took my side when I rapped hard on the door.

When no one answered and no sound came from inside, I glanced at Travis before knocking again.

“Yeah, yeah! Hold on,” someone yelled from inside.

The door opened after another moment. The guy standing there looked too young to be Graham Bennett. I was imagining some old dude in his retirement years, but this guy was maybe late-thirties and a little unkempt with his overly long dark hair, sweatpants, and threadbare tee shirt.

My brows rose
dubiously. “Graham Bennett?”

His hazel coloured eyes turned wary and guarded. “Who’s asking?”

“My name’s Casey…” I nodded my head at Travis “…and this is Travis.” Grace cleared her throat behind me. “And this is Grace. We’re consultants with the Sydney City Police.”

The guy took a step back, carefully eyeing each one of us as he wiped his hand against his torso in a nervous gesture. My body tensed and my pulse accelerated a little
, making my fingers twitchy for my gun and that was downright stupid. I needed to calm down.

S
ensing my tension, Grace stepped a little closer behind me.

“Why are you here?” the guy asked.

I held up the pages in my left hand and he squinted at them. “To ask you some questions about an old case. According to this report, you were the coroner who conducted the autopsies on the victims. It was around ten years ago, so—”