Stealing Grace by Shelby Fallon Page B

from them. That’s not what I meant. I just meant that I thought the woman I took was going to be angry and nasty to me. Hate me. It would make it easier for me to not feel so bad about that. But you are not like that. You’re so forgiving and amazing. It makes me feel that you didn’t deserve this. But I don’t regret taking you and that makes me feel guilty.”
    “Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t feel that way. I didn’t have a life before I came here. I’m not missing anything and no one is missing me.”
    “Just because someone doesn’t notice a penny missing from a coin jar doesn’t mean it was ok to steal it.”
    “I guess it depends on your outlook,” she shot back his own retort to him and felt her lips spreading into a smile again.
    “Well, in the interest of not stealing,” he inched closer, closer until their legs were touching, “can I ask for a kiss instead of taking one this time?”
    “You can ask,” she said flippantly and turned her head.
    She heard him chuckle.
    “Ok, then. Would it be alright if I ki-”
    She cut him off with a kiss and felt his smile against her lips. She turned toward him and put her knee up on the seat beside him. He put his hands on her cheeks giving her more shivers. Why do I like that so much?
    It wasn’t a crazy hair grabbing, breathing going nuts, tongue everywhere kind of kiss. It was a playful, nice, slow, easy kiss. He ran his fingers down her arms and then to her sides where he tickled her slightly making her giggle but he didn’t stop kissing her. So she tickled him too but he quickly restrained her hands after letting out a bark of a laugh.
    It still made Elena’s breaths quicken and her skin raise in goose bumps but that was lessened by the tickling and laughing and playfulness of it. She was elated. But then she was startled by the bang of a fist on the drivers’ side window.
    “Oh, for crying out loud,” Alex growled into her ear and pulled back to roll down his window. “Yes?” he asked briskly.
    “Alex, what are you doing in the... Oh, I see,” the man chuckled. “Couldn’t wait to get inside, could you?”
    “Something I can help you with, Mr. Peters?”
    “Well, I figured I’d drop by and make sure that you remembered to have my papers ready.”
    “Ok, ok, enough,” Alex said and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Enough of the checking up on me. We are doing just fine. Tell everyone to stop barging into my house to see how I’m doing.”
    The man laughed loudly.
    “Clever boy. Alright. Alright. Good night to you.”
    Elena did not miss the fact that the man ignored her presence completely and no niceties were offered her.
    “Yes, goodbye.”
    Alex turned to Elena and laughed another bark of an exasperated laugh.
    “Sorry.”
    “Please, no more sorry’s,” Elena said sweetly. “I know it’s not your fault.”
    “Ok.” He laughed. “Come on. Let’s get you inside. It’s cold out here.”
    He pulled her to him in the drivers’ seat and helped her down out of the truck. They walked hand in hand to the stairs and up to the porch, then he opened the door for her.
    “You go ahead and take your shower. I’ll make some hot chocolate,” Elena said and started for the kitchen.
    “Ok. Thanks.”

    They drank their hot chocolate together on the couch for a while then headed to bed.
    As they lay there, they faced each other but didn’t say anything. Elena could tell something was on Alex’s mind but he wouldn’t say it.
    “What’s the matter?” she asked.
    “Nothing.”
    “You want to ask me something, I can tell.”
    He sighed.
    “Yeah, I do. And I want you to tell me the truth and not feel like I’m harping on it.”
    “Ok. What is it?”
“I want to ask you about the traffickers.”
    She stiffened. Their faces flashing before her eyes, the smell of the warehouse, the scratch of the bag over her head, stripping down in front of the men, the girls crying after they’d been raped and slapped.
    “Why do you want