Forged in Secrets

Office manager Grace Hinton is used to working behind the scenes at Forge Brothers Security. She knows that the team can’t function without her, even if her long-time crush Benjamin Forge would never be willing to admit it. But when her childhood friend Katie goes missing on spring break, she can’t bear to stay at her desk.

Solving a mystery at the beach surrounded by rowdy college students isn’t exactly Ben’s idea of a great time. He’d much rather hide in his computer cave with the air conditioning at full blast, but even he has to admit he could use some practice in the field—even if it means spending time with Grace and her limitless enthusiasm for driving him crazy.

As the puzzle behind Katie’s disappearance begins to come together, they realize that even the darkest secrets can sometimes hide in plain sight.

Serve. Protect. Redeem.
Forge Brothers Security is a clean and Christian suspense romance series. Each book is a standalone and can be read in any order. Tropes for Forged in Secrets include grumpy sunshine, friends to more, and she falls first.

Chapter One

“Why do we even have this chair?” Grace asked, picking at the velvet upholstery with the end of a manicured fingernail. “It’s horrible.”
“Because your mother would notice if we burned it, Miss Hinton,” the security guard said, not bothering to look up from the newspaper he was reading.
Grace stifled a giggle. She liked the new guy so far. Even if he insisted on calling her by her last name.
Before she could make any further comment, she heard the walkie-talkie on the man’s belt crackling to life. “Grace’s ride is here.”
“Thank you,” she said loud enough for the man on the other end to hear, getting to her feet and sending the chair scraping across the marble floor of the foyer.
The security guard muttered something from behind his paper. She could hardly blame him for his disinterest. The Hinton family’s mansion was well-secured with high fences, sturdy gates, and cameras every few feet. For the most part, all her parents expected of their hires was that they stayed awake for their entire shift, just in case.
She hitched her tote bag up on her shoulder before striding out toward the driveway, her heels clicking as she went. Spring had come at last, and she had dressed for the season in a coral wrap dress that she hoped would accentuate her blue eyes.
Benjamin Forge’s nondescript sedan was already waiting in the horseshoe-shaped driveway. As she opened the passenger door and sat down, she caught a few bars of a Beastie Boys song pouring from the struggling speakers.
“This music is horrible,” she said cheerfully as she pulled her seatbelt across her chest. Ben stuck out a finger and hit the power button, engulfing them in silence.
She couldn’t help but to admire the cords of thick muscle in his forearm.
Despite the fact that he was the resident tech nerd at Forge Brothers Security, he spent more time in the gym than any of the other guys, and it showed. The man was massive.
“No way,” Ben’s twin brother, Asher, chimed in from the back seat. “I never would have let you ride shotgun if I thought you were going to trash my playlist. Intergalactic is in my top ten!”
Grace glanced over her shoulder.
“I thought you were a gentleman who wouldn’t ever make a lady sit in the back.”
“Yeah, a lady,” Asher said, feigning puzzlement. “You’ve basically turned into a man at this point, working with us for so long.”
Grace reached back and swatted Asher’s arm as hard as she could. He pulled away laughing as though he’d been struck by the mighty force of a mosquito’s fist.
Ben chuckled and shook his head.
“Okay, I’m driving, and we’re listening to Paganini. Both of you could stand to listen to some real music.”
“Hey, that’s not fair, bro. I ate a panini, like, two days ago,” Asher said.
“It’s Paganini,” Ben grumbled as exuberant violin music filled the car. Turning down the volume, he shifted into drive.
“Yeah, it’s Paganini. You uncultured swine,” Grace added, feigning a hoity-toity British accent.
Who this Paganini fellow was was anybody’s guess, but she didn’t often pass up the opportunity to make fun of Asher.
She caught the hint of a smile on Ben’s lips, and the sight of it made her heart leap a little in her chest. Despite being surrounded by the constant foolery of his brothers, Ben tended to be serious most of the time. Drawing a smile out of him wasn’t always a small feat, and she was pretty good at it.
“I give us ten minutes before Gabe calls and yells at us for being late,” Ben said after a moment, pulling out onto the road and picking up speed.
“I’ll take that bet,” Asher chimed in from the back seat. “Grace?”
“Oh, be nice,” she said, shaking her head and giving them what she hoped was a stern expression. “He just wants to keep the family together. I know first-hand how hard it is to get all of you Forge boys in one place at the same time.”
“Like herding cats?” Asher joked.
Grace laughed, resting against the back of the seat as Ben passed a slow-moving truck on the highway. She always liked to watch him as he drove, the solemn way he always kept both hands on the wheel and checked his mirrors, as though he was bearing precious cargo.
She didn’t want him to catch her looking, however, so she turned to Asher in an attempt to distract herself.
Despite being Ben’s twin, the two men could hardly look more different. The only feature they seemed to share was their choice of slightly-scruffy facial hair. Both of them were tall, but Asher was compact, bordering on skinny. While Ben had dark red hair and green eyes, Asher was blonde, with blue eyes a little paler than Grace’s own.
Her plan to stop staring at Ben worked. Within a few minutes, Asher had managed to draw them both into a spirited debate about which breed of dog Forge Brothers Security should adopt to serve as their company mascot.
By the time Ben pulled into the parking lot at the Trinity Medical Center in San Antonio, they had narrowed the contenders down to German Shepherd, Chocolate Labrador, or–Grace’s suggestion–a King Charles Spaniel.
“You know Gabe is never going to go for having a dog in the office, right?” Ben said, waiting for the car in front of him to make its turn.
“Let the women handle this,” Grace said. The fact that Ben didn’t seem to oppose the idea was half the battle won already. Gabe, the oldest Forge brother and unofficial leader of FBS, was a softy at his core. Usually.
“You owe me five bucks,” Asher said as Ben pulled into a parking space and turned off the car.
“No way,” Ben said. “It’s been seven and a half minutes, I checked.”
Grace rolled her eyes.
She’d already forgotten about their little bet, but she should have known better than to assume that her friends would have. The Forge boys excelled at turning anything and everything into a competition.
Still, if she was a gambling woman, her money would have been with Ben. Gabe did have a bit of an obsession with punctuality.
“But we’re at the hospital already and he never called!”
“Doesn’t matter, it still counts,” Ben said with a chuckle. “You lose.”
“I think I have to side with Ben on this one,” Grace chimed in.
She climbed out of the passenger seat and adjusted the hem of her dress as she waited for the others. The sunlight felt warmer now than it had even a few minutes before, back at her house. She looked forward to what was sure to be a gorgeous day.
“How shocking,” Asher said. “Grace, taking Ben’s side, whyever might that be…”
Grace stole a glance at Ben, trying to read his reaction to his twin’s little comment, but he wouldn't meet her eyes. Instead, he began walking faster, striding toward the hospital’s sliding front doors. She tottered after him on her heels, deciding that, for the moment, she wasn’t going to think about her feelings.
Or his. Especially considering that she had no real reason to get her hopes up.
Today was about Ben and Asher’s cousin Reilly, his wife Lauren, and their twin girls. Lauren had delivered them early, and they’d had to spend a week in the NICU. Finally, they were healthy enough to meet the family.
Grace smiled at the thought as she followed Ben and Asher. Despite the fact that she wasn’t related to the Forge family, her role as FBS office manager had grown into something almost as deep as their bond of blood.
“Let’s get going,” Ben said gruffly, pausing as they caught up to him.
Just then, a phone began to ring.
“Ha!” Asher crowed.
“Hold on,” Grace said, following him into the hospital’s reception area as she shoved a hand into her large purse in search of her phone. As always, it managed to elude her for several seconds before she finally got hold of it.
“It’s not Gabe, actually,” she said, glancing at the screen. “Sorry, Asher. Hey, Dad, what’s up?”
She tucked the phone into the crook of her neck as she ushered Asher and Ben forward. Whether or not Gabe called to yell at them, she didn’t want to be late.
“Baby, I have some news,” her father said in her ear.
Something about the tone of his voice made her stomach clench.
“It’s Katie Fairman. Her father just called me. She had just headed off for spring break on South Padre Island.”
Her father paused, releasing a sigh.
“She’s gone.”