Chapter 12

Grace

I laid in bed for what seemed like forever that morning. My body ached but in a good way. Where I was pissed at myself for letting Erik set the rules for our relationship, some part of me truly believed that he would fall in love over time. If it took me offering up my body when he wanted it for me to bring in him closer, so be it. I wanted him in my bed anyways. It was almost a win-win.

"Then why does my heart hurt so much." I sat up and rubbed my chest, forcing myself not to think too much about him leaving me the night before. Everything had been so good up to that point.

A knock at my front door had me yelping. No one ever visited. Ever.

"Coming." I grabbed a robe and wrapped it around my naked body before walking to the door. There was a small hope deep inside of me that it was him, but I knew better. I opened the door to find my brother bouncing from one foot to the next. "Thomas?"

"Hey. Can I come in? You wanna go for a jog or grab breakfast or-"

"Slow down." I reached up and rubbed the side of my head. "I just woke up. Make some coffee and let me change into something."

"Alright. Yeah. That'll work." My brother blasted past me, half-jogging into the kitchen.

Something was wrong, but he wasn't going to give up the intel too easily. I walked to my room and changed quickly before making my way back to the kitchen.

"So, what's going on? You on something? You're bouncing around like you're on speed." I reached up to pull my long hair into a ponytail as I studied him. Where he was hyper, it wasn't an excited hyper, but a nervous one.

"Well, I have good news and bad news. I'm honestly not sure if they're connected." He was talking a million miles an hour. "You want coffee? Cream? Sugar?"

I walked over and moved behind him, clamping my hands down on his thick shoulders and forcing him to walk toward the kitchen table. "Sit down. You're making me dizzy."

"I'm sorry." He dropped down into a chair and pressed his hand to his forehead. "We got the money back from our Las Vegas fuck up, but we stole it."

"What?" My blood ran cold. "You stole twenty thousand dollars?"

"Yes. Keep your voice down. Your walls are paper thin in here." He gave me a stern look.

"Right." I walked back into the kitchen to make us both a cup of coffee. "Why didn't you just ask Mom or Dad for the money, Thomas? Nothing good can come of this."

"I know. So Billy was one of the guys that helped me steal the money, and he was gunned down this morning behind McCaftery's Diner."

I jerked around to face him. "Gunned down? By who? Because he stole that money? Does that mean that-"

He lifted his hand, cutting me off. Now I was being frantic. "Stop. I don't know. I just wanted to see you and talk it through. You're the only person in my life that I'd share this shit with."

"We need to know who killed him and why." I handed Thomas the cup of coffee and sat down. "It can't be related, right? Where did you steal the money from?"

"From a check cashing place. The old man watching the register was more than happy to unload it and the safe in the floor." He took the coffee, spilling a little of it as his hands shook. "I'm scared to be honest."

"I would be too." I leaned back in my chair. "Does the guy at the check cashing place know it was you? Did he see your face?"

"What? No." He rolled his eyes. "We had on masks and shit, Grace. I'm not a total idiot."

"Oh, you're definitely an idiot." I tapped the table in front of me. "Maybe I can get Jenna to help."

"Help do what?" He tilted his head to the side a little and studied me, leaving me to feel like an idiot myself.

"Help find out who owns the check cashing place. Maybe you guys fucked with the wrong people."

"Doubt it, but whatever. I just need to keep my nose clean and try to steer clear of anything else that might get me into trouble." He glanced up, staring me in the face. "It'll be okay, right?"

I reached out and squeezed his hand. "Of course it will. I'm still disturbed that you would steal the money."

"What fucking choice did I have? We messed up and had to fix it. My grades would have been affected." He got up and started to pace around the kitchen like a lion in a cage. "I have to get out of school. It's driving me up the fucking wall."

"I get that, but really it's so bad that you had to steal money from someone..." I paused. "Did you have a gun with you?"

He snorted and stopped. "Yes. Most people don't give up money with the threat of a wizard wand, Grace. Fuck."

"Oh Lord." I turned to face the table and took a tentative sip of my coffee. "What do you need me to do?"

"Nothing. Just be here if I need you, okay?" He leaned over and gave me a quick hug. "Reassure me one more time that I'm not a walking target."

"You better not be." I glanced back as he walked toward the door. "Hey! What about breakfast or jogging."

"I can't. I need to get somewhere safe."

"Thomas." I got up, but he'd already left the apartment, slamming the door behind him. What the fuck had my brother gotten himself into, and how could I help?

Jenna. She was the only one I'd trust to tell Thomas' secrets to and help me figure them out. Her father was the DA of New York. Jenna would know how to get the information we needed.

It couldn't be a coincidence that Billy was gunned down in the streets a few days after he and my brother stole a chunk of money from a small business on the east side.

Crazy shit like that just didn't happen, right?