“Grace, don’t worry.” He raised a lone finger to rub away her frown lines. “Baby, you know I would be on that plane with you if it wasn’t important.”
“I know.” She turned her face, resting it on the palm of his hand. It was calloused and hard, yet he touched her with the gentleness of holding delicate porcelain.
“I’m not happy about staying behind either. I don’t like you flying without me.”
“Dax is an excellent pilot,” she assured him.
“Baby, I know. Or your ass wouldn’t be getting on that plane.”
When he kissed her, she didn’t want to let him go. It was Ice who finally had the strength to pull away.
Reaching for the door latch, she stalled. “When Mom died, I couldn’t truly understand the grief my dad was going through. Stupidly, I thought he was going through the same type of grief I was, that Dax and I were both going through. It was different, though. I see it now.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m thankful to T.A. She makes it more bearable for him in a way that Dax and I can’t. I’m happy he found her.
“Mom told me that, with Dad, they fell in love at first sight, and when she got home, she told her chaperone that she was going to marry him. I asked her how she was so sure. She said she knew because, when she always looked at other men, she imagined chasing after a rainbow with them.” A sob slipped through her lips at the memory of her mother’s words. “She said, with Dad, not only could she see them chasing after rainbows, but that he would do his damnedest to catch them for her.
“You’re like my father where that’s concerned.
“Stay and help Shade. You wouldn’t be staying unless it was important, and when you come home, I need your help catching a couple of rainbows, but I’d rather have three if I can talk you into it.”
Gathering her emotions, she sprang out of the car before Ice could say something, seeing that Dax was walking toward the car, concerned that it was taking her so long to get out.
She didn’t want to look back at Ice. She was crying too hard and didn’t want him to see her makeup smeared to hell and back.
“Grace!”
She kept walking, afraid that if she didn’t, she would want to stay.
“Dammit, Grace!”
At the authoritative tone in his voice, she turned and walked straight back into his waiting arms. Enclosing her in them, he rubbed his unshaven cheek against hers.
“Baby, when I get home, you can have as many rainbows as you want.”
CHAPTER 12
THE DAY GRACE RETURNED TO QUEEN CITY
Ice quietly put on his boots before standing up from the chair in the corner of the bedroom. Walking to the side of the bed, he stood looking at her sprawled out naked. Her beautiful face was relaxed and, for the first time in a long time, she looked as if she was sleeping peacefully.
Pulling the comforter over her, he couldn’t resist placing a soft kiss on her lips. Then he straightened and stood silently a moment longer before forcing himself to leave, making sure to close the bedroom door quietly as he left.
He didn’t live in Treepoint, but he knew where he was going. It was hard to miss the main street of the small town.
He was pulling into a small parking lot when his cell phone rang.
“I’m here,” he said, answering.
“You’re late.”
The unknown number on his phone had been unidentifiable. Shade’s voice wasn’t.
“I overslept.”
“Me, too.”
A brief silence came over the phone, both waiting for the other to mention the night before. Ice wasn’t about to open his mouth.
“It’s a go. The deputies are all on patrol, and Knox gave the front desk clerk the day off.”
“Okay. Thanks.” He paused.
“About last night….”
Ice forestalled what he was sure Shade was about to say. “Grace and my mouths are zipped. We spent most of the night in the ladies’ restroom.”
“That wasn’t what I was about to say, but it’s good to know.”
Ice could hear the amusement in Shade’s voice.
“I was going to ask if you recognized the redheaded woman at the bar last night.”
Ice frowned. “No. Is there a problem?”
“No problem that I’m aware of,” he said cryptically. “I just left. I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
“Me either,” Ice said grimly, disconnecting the call.
Ice heard the metal door close behind him. He had once been locked up when he took a job from Desmond to get Yo-Yo out of prison. The best part of the job had been meeting Grace. The worst part was being locked in the small cell. It could fuck with a man’s mind. He sure as fuck hoped it did Harvey’s.
Walking to the cell at the end, he saw a man stand up from a lone bunk.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m here to give you one chance, and one chance only, to save your life… at least for a few more days.”
“Go fuck off! I don’t have to listen to a damn thing you say. When I get out of here, I’m going to let the whole county know how I’ve been treated!”
“Shade told me you were a stupid son of a bitch. He nailed that one on the head.” Ice stared at the face that already bore the marks of the enforcer’s wraith. “He also told me I’d be wasting my time trying to talk to you.”
“Shade sent you?” Harvey stared at him distrustfully through the bars. “Is he finally getting me out?”
“For about ten minutes, then you’re coming right back.”
“I don’t want to come back. I want to go home!” he yelled.
Without pity, Ice was unmoved by the man’s anger.
“You don’t have a home anymore. You went after what belonged to Shade. Instead of hauling ass out of the state as fast as you could, you tried to blackmail him with fake pictures of Lily. There’re two men in the world I would never try to piss off, and Shade is one of them.”
Ice could tell that Harvey still had no idea of the gate he opened and the consequences he was going to have to pay.
Ice took one step back from the cell when Harvey looked like he was going to vomit in fear.
“Who’s the other one?”
Callously, Ice refrained from answering. “You’re going to have to get it in your fucking head that there isn’t any clean way to get out this shitstorm you made for yourself. Man up and brace yourself for the impact of what you did, and you might live to see another two weeks. Or, you might as well have the funeral home on the top of your contact list, because the box you’re headed for is smaller than the cell your ass is standing in now.”
Feeling sick, Harvey grabbed one of the bars of his cell. “What do I have to do?”
“First off, I’m going to escort you to the thrift store and you’re going to apologize to Lily. I’ll watch you go in while Lucky will be there to make sure that, this time, you treat her the way she should have been treated at the start. Then, when you get back, Knox is going to lock you back in this cell.”
Ice could tell Harvey was going to go off again, so he squashed him with the truth.
“It’s the safest place for you. Not only can Shade not kill you in here…” This part he had to lie to Harvey about. If Shade wanted him dead, Fort Knox wouldn’t keep him from accomplishing his mission. “But the m
an that was smart enough to get you to take the blowback for him might not be afraid of taking you out as he was of Shade. You’re actually easy pickings where that’s concerned.
“After the thrift store, make yourself comfortable for a few hours. I have to take care of a few things, but when I come back, I’m going to tell you exactly what you’re going to do to keep breathing.”
“Why not tell me now?”
“We’re on my timetable, not yours. I’m going to get Knox so he can get your clothes.”
Before he could move away from the cell, Harvey tried to reach out for him through the bars. “Is this going to get Shade off my back?”
Ice almost lied to him, but the good conscience part of his brain that loved Grace wouldn’t let him.
“The only thing I’m able to offer you is a couple of weeks where you won’t have to look over your shoulder. You committed a cardinal sin where Shade is concerned. The only good news that I can give you is that the other man I wouldn’t piss off doesn’t know what you did. If he did, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you. There wouldn’t be anything left.”
This time when Harvey met his eyes, Ice let him see the stark truth in them. There was no way around what he had done. Harvey had bet that outsmarting Shade and letting greed blind him outweighed the ramifications if he failed. Not only had he failed, but he had failed hard. Fortunately for Ice, Harvey’s failure played right into his hands.
Moving away from the cell, he went to the door, knocking on it to alert Knox that they were ready.
The door opened, the sheriff on the other side.
Ice wanted to roll his eyes every time he saw the brother in the uniform. The citizens in the small town obviously had no conception of who the man really was who guarded their homes and businesses. They might believe he was no longer a Last Rider, but the club would have his loyalty until his dying day. Just as the Predators had his.
“Did he go for it?”
“I didn’t give him the choice,” Ice said, taking the clothes that Knox held out to him. “Give us ten, and then we’ll get this show on the road. I need to get back before Grace wakes.”