This had been far too easy. Isaac lifted Mr. Persson's office key off him, made a duplicate, and returned the key before the man even noticed. For being a high ranking businessman, he really wasn't as smart as he should be.
As soon as lunch break rolled around, Isaac entered the office building in a nice suit, a great looking tie, and shnazzy shoes and no one even batted an eye. He made it past the front desk and swiped the security badge he pilfered off of someone's belt before entering the elevator. Three floors up and he got off, looking around him at the slur of activity around him. But he didn't stand gawking for long before he made his way down the hallway, unlocked the door to Mr. Persson's office, and slipped inside.
Isaac scouted the place out long enough to know where Mr. Persson kept the files his client needed. Crossing over to the safe in the corner, Isaac typed in a code and opened the safe box, taking out anything and everything inside. Mr. Persson wouldn't even know what had hit him.
With several manilla folders under his arm, Isaac closed the safe back up and was about to open the door when the knob turned on its own, causing his heart to skyrocket. He darted behind the door just as Mr. Persson himself walked into the office.
"Forgot my wallet," Mr. Persson mumbled to himself as he walked further into the room, but by then Isaac had already slipped out the door without being detected. It felt as if he held his breath all the way down the hall, down the elevator, and outside the building, just waiting for someone to chase after him, but no one did.
That was a close one...
Several blocks later, Isaac turned into a restaurant and easily found his client sitting at one of the booths, waiting for his arrival.
"Do you have the files I requested?" Mr. Frisk asked in a husky voice as soon as Isaac sat down.
"That and more," Isaac replied, scooting the files across the table toward him. "You're gonna wanna take a look at these. Your suspicions are correct. Mr. Persson has killed five people to get where he is now. But I don't want to be involved in this anymore. I got what you wanted. Now I'll just take my payment and leave."
Mr. Frisk searched through the files, his eyebrows scrunching together more and more with each paper he flipped through. "I don't like this one bit," he murmured, finally looking up to stare at Isaac. "Where did you get this?"
"Mr. Persson's office in his personal safe."
Swearing under his breath, Mr. Frisk turned another page and his eyes widened as he stared down at a picture of a balding man. "This man was said to have committed suicide a couple years ago. I didn't even know that Persson killed him."
"I don't want to get involved," Isaac reminded him darkly.
"Oh, right." Frisk reached into his pocket and pulled out a check, handing it to Isaac. "I honestly doubt that your name is Riley Fester, so I didn't make the check out to anyone. I think you can take care of that yourself."
Isaac pocketed the check and nodded before standing up. His work here was done, and part of him felt good about what he just did. This business branch was about to fall pretty hard and for good reason too. But then again, he didn't want to be involved any more than he had to.
When Isaac exited the restaurant, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, a wary feeling washing over him. Someone was watching him—he could feel it.
Very quickly, Isaac scanned the sidewalks of people and streets full of cars but found nothing. Was he just being paranoid?
Even though he didn't see anyone, he couldn't ignore the years of experience that taught him to trust his instincts. Isaac quickly turned on his heel toward the alleyway of the restaurant, taking several turns before making a full circle. He should get out of there, but he wanted to know who was after him.
Ducking behind a dumpster, Isaac waited until he heard footsteps coming toward him down the alleyway. The footsteps sounded light and cautious, confirming the thought that someone was after him.
As soon as the footsteps approached, Isaac launched out of the shadows of the dumpster, grabbed the person by the collar of the jacket, and slammed them against the brick wall of the building. The person grunted in pain, their legs nearly caving out from beneath them.
"I'm going to kill you for that, Cooper," Grace spit out through her teeth.
"Oh my gosh," Isaac breathed, his eyes wide as he helped steady her onto her feet. "I am so sorry. You just don't sneak up on me like that. Ever. Why are you here? How did you find me?"
His eyes lowered to her waist and saw blood seeping through her shirt from her gun wound. He must have reopened the wound with his attack.
Isaac ran a hand over his mouth in guilt. "I am a terrible person. Come on. Let's get you back to my apartment." He placed an arm around her waist to help her walk even though she insisted that she could walk by herself. Soon enough, they made it to his apartment and he helped her inside, excitement surging through his chest that she was here but also dread that she was here. She shouldn't be here. She should be in the hospital.
He kept glancing over at her every five seconds as he dug into his backpack to pull out a first aid kit. She looked like she had been through hell and back, but even then, she still looked absolutely beautiful.
"You're too good at finding me for your own good," Isaac joked as he set the first aid kit down next to her on the bed. "Why are you here? As happy as I am to see you, it's just not smart."
Actually, he felt ecstatic to see her alive and well. All he wanted to do was hold her in his arms and kiss her until she couldn't breathe, but she made it quite clear to him that she didn't want anything to do with him from their last dreadful conversation in the pouring rain. Which brought him back to the question: why was she here?
"I came to warn you," Grace grunted as she lifted her shirt up slightly. A bandage had been wrapped around her torso several times to protect the wound, but it looked as if he'd need to change that.
"Warn me about what?" His heart thumped wildly as she lifted her shirt up a little further so he could take the bandage off. He couldn't help but stare at the little piece of bra poking out, but quickly refocused his attention to the bandage before she noticed.
"Warn you about Wayne. They're coming after you. They're trying to find you."
Isaac chuckled through the clean bandage he held between his teeth as he finished unwrapping the other bandage. The wound didn't look good. Not at all. It looked as if she had been shot point blank.
"I already know they're coming after me. Why wouldn't they? Why did you really come here?"
Grace hissed through her teeth as Isaac worked on the wound, causing him to wince in guilt. He was being as gentle as he could!
"Johnson wants to talk to you. He wants to offer you a job."
Isaac snorted in amusement. "Yeah right. After everything I've done? I don't think so."
"I'm being serious," Grace said as she forcefully took a hold of his chin, making him look into her eyes. His heart skipped several times as he gazed back into her blue-green eyes, immediately being swallowed up and losing his train of thought. "I really am being serious. We couldn't find any way to get a hold of you. Both me and you have been disavowed by the CIA, but Johnson's task force isn't with the CIA. He wants us to join and I've already accepted. So are you going to come back with me? Or are you going to sit around doing other people's dirty work for the rest of your life?"
"That wasn't dirty work," he argued as he finished wrapping the bandage around her torso. "It was bringing someone to justice."
Grace's mouth pressed into a thin line. "Johnson has recognized all your time and resources you've dedicated to exposing Wayne and everyone associated with him. He thinks you'd be a valuable asset."
Isaac froze for a moment as he remembered all that money that had been transferred into his bank account. Suddenly it all made sense. Johnson must have paid him for his services over the last year and a half that he had been gone.
"What about Wayne? I can't hide as easily from him in the United States."
"Forget about Wayne," Grace said as she rolled her eyes. "The CIA is already trying to track him down. Everything will be okay. Please come back with me."
Silence fell between them as Isaac stood up, no longer able to look her in the eye. Now if he could only remember where he put that shirt...
"Why does it matter to you, Gracie?" Isaac asked as he dug through his backpack. "I feel like I've been nothing but bad luck to you since we met up. You got shot because of me. And what about all those things I told you that I did? It's not exactly my proudest moment ever, but it happened."
"Stop fidgeting!" Grace said before taking his hand and forcing him to sit on the bed next to her. "I hate it when you fidget. It makes me nervous."
Isaac still couldn't look at her, so he reached for the first aid kit, and he didn't realize that he had started to fidget with that too before she took it from his hands and set it aside.
"When you told me about what you did," Grace said quietly, "I just needed some time to process it. I'm not holding it over you, Cooper. I forgave you for it that same night. And then when you wrote me that letter, it broke my heart."
He stared more intensely down at his lap, the guilt inside of him festering. "Sorry," Isaac mumbled. "I saw Johnson coming and I didn't want to be caught. So I ran away. Now I realize that it was stupid because apparently Johnson wasn't going to arrest me..."
"Yeah," Grace breathed. "Really stupid." She nudged him in the ribs to let him know that she was only kidding with him. "I wish you would've stayed. And I know it's taken me a flippin' two or so years to tell you this... But I love you, Isaac. And I'm asking you as a favor, as a plea, to not leave me again. Please."
Isaac swallowed hard as he stared back into Grace's eyes, seeing the sincerity of her words in her expression. He could hardly believe it himself that she said that to him, but he wouldn't let go of those words. He would hold on tight for as long as he could.
"And I've never said this to you anywhere but in writing," Isaac joked as he slid his hand into hers. "But I love you too." He cradled his hand behind her neck and slowly pulled her into him, giving her a kiss that made a million emotions surge inside of him. He couldn't help it as he deepened the kiss, entangling his fingers in her hair. She kissed him back with equal fervor, her hands sliding up his shirt before inching the shirt up and over his head. Her hands felt along his shoulders, to his chest, and then trailed along the length of his spine.
Isaac grinned against her lips as the kiss deepened even more. He cradled her gently in his arms before moving her into a better position on her back before his lips moved down her throat and worked their way to her collarbone.
He had gotten so lost in her that he almost forgot she was wounded. Very carefully, he slid her shirt off and grinned again as he took her in wearing a light blue bra that pushed everything up in a very flattering way. Grace looked downright sexy.
"I don't know if this is a good idea," Grace whispered, but the way she looked at him contradicted her words. "I don't want to reopen my wound."
"I can be gentle," Isaac whispered against her neck, carefully running his hand down the length of her body before stopping at the top of her jeans. He ran his thumb along the waistline of her jeans, the longing growing ever more persistent inside of him.
Grace grinned back at him and pulled him down for another kiss. "I'm not worried whether or not you can be gentle. More so if I can be."
Isaac's eyes lit up in interest, and he found himself wondering how this would normally go if she wasn't hurt as it was.
"I guess we'll just have to see then, won't we?" Isaac asked as he winked at her, resuming the kiss. Every fiber of him felt as if it were on fire as he kissed her. As his fingers got lost in her hair. As their lips melted into each other. As Grace dug her fingernails into his back.
She reached for his belt and he couldn't help but love how feisty she was and they had hardly even gotten started. He sighed against her lips, whispering, "I love you," as he slowly slid the straps of her bra off her shoulders.
Grace bit her lip as she smiled up at him. "I love you too, Cooper."