Finding Grace Read Online Free PDF Page A

shopping for shoes. The shoes should have tipped them off, but
Luke suspected that no one had really wanted to pin the deaths on
her anyway.
    Electrocution was fitting, though, considering what
he’d read in one of the transcripts. Luke doubted he’d be able to
hear her rough voice again without wincing. It was no wonder it
sounded that way.
    And no wonder about all the rest of it—the way she’d
made herself physically strong, the whole tough punk act, the way
she tried to hide that she was a woman, and why she was so angry.
It all made a lot of damn sense. The shrinks had been sure she’d
never recover and had tried to keep her confined. Yeah, right. That
explained the low profile she kept, too.
    That, and the military file he was lucky to have the
clearance to access. A major from the DOD had marked Thorne as a
person of interest. It appeared that he’d been unsuccessful in
several attempts to recruit her prior to “the unfortunate
development,” as Thorne’s trip to hell was referred to in his
report. The major stated in no uncertain terms that Dr. Thorne was
not only a subversive and a mercenary who’d sold her genius to
foreign governments, but was mentally unstable and guilty of three
murders. The file conveniently left out what Thorne’s motive might
have been, along with substantive proof regarding the charges it
listed.
    Luke had encountered a few like him. Men in
positions of power so fixed on their goals that collateral damage
to those under them never even entered the equation. Men so assured
in their righteousness that they were blind to the truth. Men like
that did more harm than good. They were dangerous to themselves and
whatever causes they served.
    As far as Luke was concerned, there was only one
unanswered question: that of Thorne’s connection to the kidnappers.
But even they had denied there was anyone else involved.
    Was it really a vision like she’d said? He had found
an obscure tabloid clipping that mentioned her solving a vicious
robbery and assault while she was still in the hospital.
    Luke wasn’t as skeptical as Paul when it came to
psychics or other phenomena that were hard to explain. He ascribed
to the philosophy that the explanation that fit best, no matter how
strange, was probably the right one. He had to admit Thorne’s
ability, if she had one, made more sense than any other connection
to the kidnappers. And then there was the question of how she’d
known how he’d blown it with Sarah. There was no logical
explanation for that at all.
    Now that he knew what he knew, he was worried. Gifts
like hers needed to be channeled to the forces of good before the
dark side could truly win her over. If she’d been an odd duck
before, she was well into a flock by now—not that anyone could
blame her. She already had a problem with authority; he’d seen that
for himself. He didn’t need to take the major’s word for it. Maybe
he’d read too many graphic novels himself, but she wasn’t someone
he’d like to see end up as the evil genius in this story.
    And he’d fucking locked her up. Luke couldn’t
imagine what kind of memories it had brought back for her. Just
reading that shit had damn near brought back his coffee. He owed
her. Hell, the city owed her, never mind the Tierneys. And he just
happened to know someone who would be able to channel her skills,
someone who could guide her. Someone who’d want to protect her. God
knows, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to face her again.
    For everyone’s sake, maybe especially his own, he
flipped open his cell phone.
    “Paul? Luke…Oh yeah, I got a hit in CODIS all right,
but it’s not what you think. It’s nothing anyone would think, not
in their worst nightmares.” Luke let out a hard breath and went on.
“I’m calling because I want you to consider hiring Thorne…No, wait,
Paul. I’m going to breach twenty kinds of protocol to do this, but
I want you to read the CODIS report and everything else I found.
I’m