Page 79 of Driven By Impulse

Grace bit her lip. “He did. I wasn’t as strong as you, Hanna. He…scares me.”

Hanna stopped running her hands along the wall to pull Grace into a hug. “You have nothing to be ashamed of, do you hear me? He is a bully and a monster, and we are going to find a way to make him pay for all the hurt he has caused you.”

She finally pulled back and resumed her task of looking for an escape route. “And you should know, Grace, I’m not always brave. Sometimes I run as far and fast as I can to keep from admitting my feelings.”

Grace let out a watery laugh. “I find that hard to believe.”

Hanna shifted the large shelf, the only piece of furniture in the garage. To her surprise, a small beam of light cut between the floor and the wall. “The concrete is cracked here. We may be able to pry some of these bars back.” She glanced over her shoulder at Grace. “My best friend thinks I’m in love.”

Grace smiled. “Is she right?”

Hanna bit her lip and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I think she is.”

She pulled her jacket off, wrapped the sleeve around her hand and yanked at one of the wood panels. The jagged edge made it hard for her to get leverage, and the concrete scraped at her knuckles, but Hanna refused to give up.

“Falling in love is brave,” Grace pointed out. “Maybe in my case it wasn’t smart, but…”

“Maybe in your case it wasn’t love,” Hanna muttered. “But you’re right. It can be brave. It’s just… I can’t… I’m terrified of what it means.”

Grace settled at Hanna’s side. “Why?”

Hanna pulled on the wood panel again. “Because it’s complicated. Because I’m used to doing it all on my own. Because I’m terrified that the people who took you and blew up my goddamned house will use them as leverage to hurt me and I don’t think I’d survive it. Because… Because I want to keep them safe.”

Grace shrugged. “Complicated doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. And doing it on your own is great, Hanna, but it’s also okay to share the load and… Did you say they blew your house up?”

Hanna gave Grace a sheepish grin. “Yeah, forgot to mention that.”

“Ah, another thing I have to apologize for, then. Listen, Hanna, I understand being afraid, probably better than most. But if you’re…running off on rescue missions and keeping your feelings from them to protect them, you’re not really giving them much of a choice in the matter, are you? Whoever he or she or…they might be, don’t you think they deserve a say too?”

Hanna pulled one of the panels free at just the same minute and light spilled into the garage, which felt like far too fitting a metaphor for her liking.

“I’m afraid to lose them…” Hanna admitted. “We have this thing and it’s temporary and tentative and…I don’t want to break it.”

“It doesn’t sound like it can last very long in its current form,” Grace pointed out. “Maybe you break it by telling them how you feel. Or maybe you strengthen the foundation and start to build something that can really last.”

It was a little too easy for Hanna to think about what life would be like, waking up with Nic and Ash every morning, nights made of fluid eroticism that didn’t have to be rushed because they had all the time in the world, delicious meals and passionate fights and strength and family and recovering and togetherness and…

She yanked a second panel free, wincing when the wood made a loud cracking sound. Grace was right. She hadn’t given the guys a chance, not to have her back, not to keep themselves safe, not to share how they felt before she made a decision that affected all three of them and so many more people. And now, she was attempting a rescue all on her own with no backup and no help, simply because she’d been too afraid to admit the truth.

She loved them, and she wanted more. She loved them, and she wanted a future together. She loved them, and she wasn’t going to let her fear stop her from saying it. Not again.

“Tell you what,” Hanna said to Grace, aware of the smile breaking across her face. “We get out of here in one piece and I might do just that.”

She yanked the last wood panel out, exposing a hole big enough to climb through. “You ready to make a break for it?”

Grace nodded. “Ready.”

Hanna slipped through the hole, shifting on her belly to avoid the hard concrete lips, half-dragging herself through the dirt and pine needles, which scraped her palms.

But then, a moment later, she was free from the garage and breathing fresh, mountain air once again. She turned back. “Okay, coast is clear, come on.” Hanna helped Grace through the tight space, and was just pulling her to her feet when the sound of boots behind them stopped Hanna in her tracks.

“Going somewhere?”

Hanna turned, and there was Iverson, looking every bit the smug bastard he was. Several of the Iron Daggers flanked him, but that wasn’t what pulled Hanna’s attention. No. It was the man at Iverson’s side.

“Carson?” A puff of air escaped her lungs. “You were the one.”

Carson shrugged. He had always seemed like a nice kid, goofy and quick to help, but now Hanna saw a darkness in his eyes that she had never seen before. “One of them, boss. After you mentioned the photo on Frankie’s table, I knew it was only a matter of time before you put two and two together. So, I told Bryce here to bring in the whole crew.”