Saving Grace (Serve and Protect Series) by Norah Wilson Page A

underwear. Some of the items she’d known she’d find because she’d noticed them missing. Other items, she hadn’t yet missed. But there was nothing remarkable in the whole lot.
    Her brow furrowed as her initial relief that the bag wasn’t jammed with crotchless panties gave way to puzzlement. Why hadn’t she packed better underwear?
    Because you wouldn’t wear anything for another man that you’d worn for Ray.
    Okay, but surely she’d have bought new stuff. Underwear was too important to her. She wouldn’t pitch an idea for a feature to Katie without wearing her best underwear, let alone run off to meet a man who was actually going to see it.
    She picked up the perfectly nice but unexceptional underwear and slid the pieces into her dresser drawer with their finer cousins. Obviously, the decision to leave had been made in haste.
    Or in a fit of despair.
    On that thought, she stowed the rest of the clothes back in the drawers and closets, then turned her attention to the other bag.
    If the suitcase told her little, the overnight case would tell her less. She already knew what it contained. Hair dryer, cosmetics, skin-care products, and all those other little items that were missing from the bathroom vanity, dresser top and jewelry box.
    Suddenly, the idea of unpacking and putting away all the accouterments of her life with Ray made her throat hurt. How long before she’d be packing it all up again?
    Don’t, Grace. Just don’t.
    Jumping up, she snagged the handle of the satchel and pulled it closer to the edge of the bed. A tug of the zipper, a wrench of the wrists and the bag lay open.
    Grace leapt back. Holy cow! Guess she hadn’t remembered everything she’d packed.
    “Ray?”
    His name emerged as little more than a croak, probably because of the fear bleeding the strength from her limbs and making her tongue cleave to the roof of her mouth. She swallowed, then turned and walked carefully out of the bedroom to the head of the stairs. She called Ray’s name again, louder this time. He materialized below a second later.
    “What is it?” he asked, his expression politely inquiring.
    “I think you’d better come up here and take a look.”

Chapter 4

    O H , L ORD , DIDN ’ T SHE get it? He didn’t want to know if she’d packed that mocha-colored lace number or her silk kimono or her diaphragm.
    He was just about to tell her so when he noticed how white she’d suddenly gone. Then she swayed. Ray took the stairs two at a time, catching her before she could fall.
    “What is it? Is it your head? Are you dizzy?”
    She sagged against him as he pulled her back from the top of the stairs.
    “In there....”
    “In the bedroom?”
    She backed away far enough to look up at him, blue eyes wide in her fear-pinched face. “I don’t know where it came from, Ray.”
    Her fear leapt to him like a wildfire jumping a fire break. “Grace, what are you talking about?”
    “In the suitcase....”
    “What’s in the suitcase?”
    “Maybe it’s in my head. Maybe I’m hallucinating.” Her fingers dug into his biceps, eyes pleading. “Please tell me I imagined it.”
    “Okay, let’s just go have a look.”
    Keeping one arm around her shoulders, Ray urged her toward the bedroom. Her steps dragged with reluctance, so he left her standing on the threshold and strode into the room himself.
    The larger suitcase lay open on the bed, empty, and the leather satchel sat there beside it. It was unzipped, but the soft sides had fallen together again, shielding its contents. He felt sweat break out on his forehead.
    Logic told him there couldn’t be anything dangerous in the bag; Tom Godsoe and his dog had gone over both suitcases. But whatever was in there, it scared Grace so bad she couldn’t say it aloud. Whatever it was, it made her prefer to think she was delusional.
    And whatever it was, it was going to change his life. Again.
    Shaking the last thought away, he yanked the bag open.
    “Jesus, Mary and Joseph!”