Chapter 18

"It's the best chance we have at catching him," Grace insisted an hour later after the men had explained the situation and after they'd started tossing around the idea of using Grace as bait.

She knew Khai was livid and opposed to the idea. She also understood where he was coming from, but he needed to understand where she was coming from, too.

"Grace…" Khai said for the tenth time, pacing the living room. A few of them were sitting, but the rest were all pacing around each other.

Grace was standing planted in the middle of the room. She set her hands on her hips. "If he doesn't believe I'm in that cabin for any reason, we lose our only chance at catching him. We won't get a second chance. He'll vanish from the country, and no one will find him again."

"Maybe that's not so bad," Khai responded.

She leaned her head forward, glaring at him. "How many other women do you think he'll purchase from the black market after I slip through his fingers? And how long do you think I'd have to live before I stopped looking over my shoulder?"

"Shit," he muttered.

"Yeah, deep piles of dog doodoo. But this is the hand I was dealt, and I'd frankly like to see this over. At least with regard to Chekov." She glanced around at the other men, pausing to stare at Jagger. "How about a little support here?"

He licked his lips and glanced at Kally.

Grace threw up her hands. "I get it. All of you are thinking there's no way you would let Gemma, Kalinda, or Nora do something like this, so you can't blame Khai for putting his foot down."

Kally stepped up next to Grace. "I'm on Grace's side. I'd do the same thing if I were her. No offense, but none of you can possibly understand what it feels like to know the man who bought you is at large and could find you at any moment. It's a living hell. I know it is. I lived with it myself, and when the FBI finally found my buyer, I nearly lost my head and tried to kill him myself. That's how badly I wanted to make sure he couldn't hurt me or anyone else ever again. I would've sacrificed myself to make that happen. I would've gone to jail to make sure he was dead—to make sure he couldn't buy another woman."

Grace had known most of that, but some of it was news to her. She turned toward Kally and grabbed her hand, holding it tightly. Jagger had been right when he'd asked Grace to stay at the house and reunite with the other three women.

Grace had been skeptical at first. It was overwhelming. She hadn't really known these women. But it was true that they had an unbreakable bond. They belonged to a club of six no one else could ever join. It hurt Grace's heart to know two of them were still out there. She prayed they were alive and that the informant would find them. She would dedicate her every waking moment to this cause until all six of them could stand in this room together in a tearful reunion.

Nora was soft-spoken but came to stand on Grace's other side. "They tried to break us. They thought if they took long enough, we would be putty in their hands, accept our fates, and stop fighting. In a way, they were right. We did eventually stop fighting. We'd do anything to avoid spending hours cold and naked in a cramped kennel with our faces in our own urine. We did what we had to do to survive. We faked it. But make no mistake, the anger eats at you inside. It never went away. We never stopped hoping for a way to escape our hell. If I'd had access to a fire poker like Grace, I would've slammed it into Stuart Rawlings over and over until he wasn't recognizable as a human."

Kally nodded at the other side of Grace. "I proved that truth. I found a gun and shot the man holding me until it ran out of bullets. I wanted to go to prison because it was the safest place I could think to be on Earth."

Gemma stepped forward in solidarity next. "Don't take this away from Grace. All she's asking is for the four of you to let her go to the cabin and pretend she's living there. You only need her to lure Chekov out of his car after he pulls up. He might be skeptical if he can't see any sign of life. If she's visible through the front window, he'll get out and head for the porch. The FBI can make their move at that moment. He never needs to get close enough to Grace to harm a hair on her head."

Bless these women who Grace now realized would always be in her life. They'd do anything for each other, no matter the cost.

The men finally looked resigned, their stances less stiff, as three of them looked toward Khai.

Grace was waiting for Khai to speak also. She loved him deeply, but if he refused to support her on this, a huge rift would grow between them. She would still do it. She didn't need his blessing. However, she wouldn't be able to look at him without wanting to slap some sense into him.

Khai sighed. "I have two conditions."

Everyone waited.

"I'm in the house with Grace. I take the pics, send them to Shelton, and then go into the house and stay out of sight of the windows until it's over."

"I like that plan," Grace agreed, relieved beyond belief. "What's your other condition?"

"Whatever window we decide she should be visible through needs to be changed to bulletproof glass first thing tomorrow morning."

"I can make that happen," Jagger promised.

Khai came to Grace and pulled her into his arms. He set his forehead against hers and said softly, "I don't like fighting with you."

"That wasn't a fight. It was a disagreement. It would've turned into a fight if you had gone all he-man on me and told me I couldn't make my own decisions," she said, locking her gaze with his.

He gave her a slow smile. "I still don't like it."

She shrugged. "You don't have to like everything I do. You just have to support me."

His smile grew. "Yes, ma'am."