“Stay safe. Are you taking extra precautions?” Vadim stood, pushing his chair back.
“Of course.”
Grace wondered exactly what extra precautions he meant, though she had an idea. She knew Logan had a concealed weapon permit for his job and that he often carried a weapon. It was kind of weird for her, but she understood it was his job.
“Good. Call if you need anything,” Vadim said, looking between her and Logan.
“I’ll walk you guys out,” Iris said as Vadim returned to his desk.
Grace wasn’t sure where they were going, but knowing that the people Logan worked with were working on this mess, as well as the police, made her feel a whole lot better.
She just wanted this nightmare over, wanted to go back to her normal life. The only silver lining in all this garbage was that she’d get to spend time with Logan.
* * *
“You don’t have to keep turning around,” Logan murmured. He knew Grace was edgy but soon they’d be out of the city limits and away from the threat. He hoped that during this time together he’d be able to solidify their relationship.
Even though he wanted a more active role in bringing down whoever was behind the two attacks on them—and his money was on Brister—his priority had to be keeping Grace safe. The police were good at their jobs and Vadim was a magician. Logan had to trust the process.
Sighing, Grace turned around in the passenger seat and faced forward. “I know. I’m just feeling off-kilter, I guess.”
“I get it. But I’ve been keeping an eye on the rearview mirror and haven’t seen a car for the last five miles. And Iris had one of our team scan my rental truck for any sort of trackers while we were up talking to Vadim. Trust me, no one knows where this place is.”
“Including me.” There was a slight touch of humor in her voice. “So where is this place, anyway?”
“A house out in the desert. Not exactly off-grid, but a few miles away from any main roads. Not in a neighborhood, and about twenty minutes away from anything resembling a grocery store. A buddy of mine owns it and he’s currently overseas.”
“Okay, that sounds pretty nice. Maybe we’ll even be able to put up a little Christmas tree or something?”
He heard the wistfulness in her voice and was glad he’d packed a few extra supplies in the cab of the truck. He wanted to surprise her, however, so he didn’t tell her what he’d brought. “Sounds like a plan. So how are you dealing with everything? Seriously.”
“Good enough. And I honestly don’t want to talk about it. I’m trying to sort of mentally process it all first, and I’m a big believer in distraction. So tell me what’s going on with you and your family. What do your parents say about all this?”
He lifted a shoulder and took a left-hand turn. “They don’t like what’s going on, obviously, but they really are fine with us leaving. They’re concerned for us more than anything and just want us to stay safe. They know this is the best option right now. I just hate worrying them.” His parents had done that enough, considering both their sons had been overseas on many deployments.
“I bet. So whatever happened with Brister’s wife? Have you found out where she ended up, how she’s doing?” Grace asked.
“She decided to leave her husband and is officially divorcing him. Apparently all her kids are out of the house now and she’s staying with her sister. Her daughter is nearby too. Wyatt let me know yesterday that the divorce is going to be proceeding accordingly. She wants a settlement, but nothing to do with the ranch. In the end they’ll both get a lot of money. So really, he’s not getting screwed.”
He lifted a shoulder even as his rage ratcheted up.
“I wish the guy would get taken to the cleaners, but that’s not how life works. And it sounds as if she just wants to be free of him, not to ruin his life—which is pretty generous, if you ask me. I don’t understand why he would want to come after me when he’s the one who beat his own wife.” And he was keeping his damn ranch, his money. Sure, he’d lost his wife, but that was his own fault. Brister had hurt the woman he should have been protecting.
Grace snorted softly. “You’re an easy target. An actual physical one. And you’re easy to blame. He doesn’t want to look at himself in the mirror and take responsibility for his own actions. Coward,” she muttered.
“Yeah, I know the reasoning. I just can’t wrap my head around it.”
“If more people would take responsibility for their actions, the world would be a better place,” Grace murmured.
Wasn’t that the truth. “So you really don’t think your ex is in Vegas for anything to do with all this?” he asked quietly. He hated bringing the guy up, but since they were on the subject of Brister, he figured he might as well. It made him feel more in control to be focusing on the threats, and maybe there was something Grace hadn’t thought of yet.
“No. I mean, I can’t understand why he would, to be honest. But I am surprised that he potentially ditched his wife for a stripper in Vegas. It feels like such a cliché.”
“The guy is a walking cliché,” Logan muttered. He really would love to punch the guy in the face. Or the dick. “The woman from the video had a similar look to you, not his wife.”
Grace simply shrugged. “So? Look, after things imploded between us, I found out he’d been hooking up with a woman he worked with, who looked nothing like me or his wife. Because he wasn’t cheating with the woman he’s now married to. The woman he worked with reached out to me on social media and confessed everything. I think she felt bad about the wedding falling apart. I’m not sure and I really don’t care. Allegedly he always used condoms, but I still got checked out. Thankfully he didn’t give me anything.”
“Yep, I really want to punch him in the face,” he muttered, seething inside.
“What?”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to say that out loud.” But he did mean the words.
Grace snickered, the sweet sound making his heart flip over. He loved it when she smiled or laughed. The woman could light up a room. “Well, he would be no match for you, that’s for sure. And in the end he did me a favor. Cheating aside, because I never would have put up with that if I’d known, we never would have lasted. And I would have been miserable trying to fit myself into this mold of what he wanted instead of actually being myself.”
The more she told him, the more Logan wondered why she’d even been with the guy in the first place. “Do you mind if I ask why you were with him at all? You’re one of the most independent, smartest women I know.”
Her cheeks flushed slightly. “Thanks,” she murmured. “And it’s not really one thing. He was very charming. He really knew how to turn it on. Especially in the beginning. But he had this way of making me feel bad about myself even when complimenting me. It was like I was constantly struggling to get his approval, which in hindsight is stupid because I don’t need it. I never did. But…” She shrugged. “As you know, humans are very complicated. I’m just glad I got out before we actually got married. And if he hadn’t blown off our wedding…I might not have even gone through with it. I was having a panic attack the morning of the wedding.”