Maybe the man was smarter than they’d given him credit for. Yes, he’d obviously managed to track Grace down, but he wasn’t so desperate—at least not yet—to go straight for her. Instead, he’d taken out the threat first.
Well, one of the threats because he was still here and if Emmanuel wanted Grace, the man was going to have to get past him first.
“Grace,” he called again as he began to get dressed.
She stirred and turned in the direction of his voice. “Matthew?”
“Get up, sweetheart.”
“What's going on?” She blinked sleepily at him as she sat up, looking all adorable and sleep rumpled. This wasn’t how he’d wanted to start their day. He’d thought he would wake her with a kiss, they’d talk if Grace was up to it, or they’d just enjoy hanging by the pool as they had the last few days.
“I need you to get up and get dressed as quickly as you can, then grab your purse.” Suitcases they could come back for later, but he wanted her to have her cell phone on her at all times.
“Why? What's wrong? Is he here?” she asked, fear in her voice now as she scrambled out of the bed and began throwing on clothes.
“Yes, but not in the house, the house where our back up is watching us is on fire.”
“On fire?” she squeaked, pausing with one leg in her leggings and one out.
“No doubt a trap,” he told her, putting on his shoes. All he could think about was how he had to move her. It was one thing to allow Grace to play bait when they had back up to watch out for them, completely another when it was just him and a man who was an unusual mix of carefully controlled and prepared, and cruelly insane. “We have to get out of here.”
“What? No.” Grace pulled back when he shoved her shoes and purse at her and began to tug her toward the door. “This is why we’re here, to draw him out.”
“Right, but now it’s just the two of us,” he reminded her.
“You can take him.”
“While I appreciate the vote of confidence, curly, I can't risk your life like that. Emmanuel has a plan, he’s not just going to come blindly in here. The fire was a trap, it separates us, evens the odds in his favor. I’d bet anything he has a plan for how to get me out of the way.”
Grace paled. “You think he’ll kill you?”
“Not if I have anything to say about it. But he’s playing this smart which means we have to as well.”
“So, we’re running?” Grace balanced on one foot and slipped on one of her shoes, and then did the other one.
“We’re strategically retreating and regrouping, then we’ll take another go at this. I promise you, we aren’t giving up.”
Hand in hand they made their way downstairs. Matthew had his gun in his free hand, and his cell phone was in his pocket, there were still no alerts telling him that Emmanuel had gotten inside the house.
Still, he couldn’t help but feel on edge.
Something felt wrong.
Matthew opened the garage door, ushered Grace into the passenger seat then hurried into the driver’s seat. They had to get out of here. Whatever Emmanuel was planning, he couldn’t allow it to work. Playing games, using Grace as bait was one thing. But this had quickly gotten out of hand, and he wouldn’t risk her life. Once he got her someplace safe, they’d call in back up and then move somewhere else. It would mean starting over, waiting for Emmanuel to find them again, but this time they’d be more prepared.
“Stop,” Grace ordered as he pulled out of the driveway.
“What?”
“We can't leave them.”
“Leave who?”
“The cops. They’re trapped in there, otherwise they’d have come to help us. We can't leave them.” Her blue eyes pleaded with him.
“Fire department will be here soon.”
“What if it’s not soon enough? Please, Matthew, I can't let anyone else die because of me. I can't. Please.”