Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Sacrifice

She looked at Raptor in horror. They could hear several people talking. One voice scared the crap out of her. "It's Garret!" she hissed.

"Hide!" Raptor urged.

Grace didn't waste time. She ran around and dove under the desk. She looked up, expecting Raptor to be right behind her. But instead—she saw his body change—camouflaging so he could hide against the wall in plain sight.

Ducking back down, she pulled on the chair so it fit itself to the desk. Once that was done, she scooted all the way to the back. Not having Raptor under here with her felt lonely. Grace concentrated on taking slow, even breaths. She didn't want anyone to hear her. Nor did she want to hyperventilate and pass out. Neither were good options.

She fingered the gun at her side, reassuring herself. Then closed her eyes. Listening. Trying to hear what happened in the office. It was silent for now. But she was sure the men were coming in, so that wouldn't last long.

Grace needed to decide right now how she wanted to respond. She'd done that all her life. Weighed all the options while she thought about all the different scenarios... and then she'd decide in advance what to do—depending on what happened.

She'd never been a spontaneous type of person. Grace planned everything.

Her first choice was to stay hidden, stay quiet, and hope neither of them got discovered. That would be the best-case scenario. They'd simply stay where they were and wait for everyone to leave.

But what if Raptor were discovered? Would she leave him alone out there to face Garret's wrath?

She was pretty sure if the alien sat beside her right now, he would tell her to do just that. She didn't doubt he could overpower the men and get away if needed. There were things she didn't know about how his alien body worked. Things he could do that her human body couldn't manage. They hadn't talked about it, but it was probably harder to kill him, too.

Shit! She might not like it, but if Garret discovered Raptor, the best thing she could do was to remain hidden.

That was one decision made. She'd have to reassess her options if they found Raptor and started hurting him.

So, what if they found her and not Raptor? She was strong, but against two men, or more if you included the ones she was sure waited in the reception area, Raptor would lose his mind. She knew he wouldn't remain hidden.

She had a gun. She could shoot her way out.

However, if she started shooting or threatened to shoot them, she'd have to finish it. They wouldn't allow her to keep the gun if she didn't. Grace would have to kill Garret and whoever was in the room with him. It would be a bloodbath.

Not to mention he could kill her. Or if she didn't kill him, he could have her arrested. Right now, she was in the wrong. She was the one who had broken into his office. Tonight, she'd hopefully gathered the evidence she needed to prove what he'd done, but she wasn't sure.

After a few moments, Grace dismissed the worry of being arrested. She didn't think he'd take the chance. He'd worry she knew more than he thought.

Or... her last choice was to leave the gun under the desk and play helpless female. That might be the best option.

She didn't think Garret would kill her in his office. It would make too much of a mess. Besides, she thought he would ask her questions first. So, if he couldn't kill her here, he'd take her somewhere. Or have his men take her somewhere. Once they did that, Raptor might have a chance to rescue her.

Did she trust him to do that?

Her gut reaction was— yes . And really, a gut reaction was all she had. Grace hadn't known him long enough to make a decision.

Baby liked him. Her cat really, really liked Raptor and that animal didn't like any man. So that was a point in his favor.

Little snippets played through her mind.

Raptor carrying her into his spaceship when she fainted.

The man created a safe place for Baby on the ship and then decided he needed to make sure the cat would be taken care of if something happened to him and Grace.

Raptor always putting his body in front of hers anytime there might be danger.

So, the answer was yes. She trusted Raptor to save her. Or at least try.

Grace quietly sighed and unhooked her gun harness. She shoved it behind her and hoped if they found her that no one would notice it was there. She liked that gun.

The last option would be if they found both Raptor and Grace at the same time. If that happened, she'd take the gun with her when she crawled out. It would be the last choice.

The office door opened, and she heard Garret's voice ring out, demanding, "Did you find her yet?"

Sucking in air, Grace's heartbeat went wild. She was pretty sure the man was talking about her.

Laying her head on her knees, Grace kept perfectly still while listening to Garret's conversation.

"I don't know how that shy, mousey woman managed to get away from all of you. And what happened to the rest of my men? Grace isn't that smart when it comes to real-world stuff. The lab and all that shit... yes. But how the hell did she avoid the trap we set for her after work?"

She heard him stomp around the desk. When he stood by the chair, she could see his feet. He was still wearing his leather wingtips and the gray suit he had on yesterday morning. She'd only seen him in passing as she got to work. But she bet he still had on the blue shirt. Garret always wore a shirt in a shade of blue that matched his eyes.

Since he had weird, multi-colored blue eyes, it meant he could wear one of about five shades.

A black or some shade of gray suit, along with a blue shirt in one of his eye-matching shades, and black or gray leather shoes had become something of a uniform for Garret. He never wore jeans or a tee-shirt. Or anything resembling tennis shoes.

He told her once that he always wanted to be ready to talk to the press. Wearing these clothes reminded him that someone could be watching what he did... all the time. It was important that he look sharp and in control.

Damn narcissistic asshole. Why the hell did she recognize all these warning signs about the man now? Why hadn't she figured out earlier that he was rotten to the core? And she wasn't shy and mousey. She was just always focused on work.

"We didn't know she could drive like that. Anyone else would have gone right over the cliff. After she escaped, one of my men looked up her family. They all used to race. One even owned a security company that specialized in transportation. Obviously, they taught her how to drive ." The deep voice sounded irritated.

She felt a little smug thrill at his irritation. Grace didn't recognize the voice. But she noticed long ago that Garret had a lot of bodyguards. They rotated around him. All of them appeared to be ex-military. All of them were men. And most of them were over six feet tall. He always had at least three of them with him. The standard protocol would be two in the outer office and one in the room with him.

But Grace didn't know if that changed after business hours. Like tonight, the lab was closed, and Garret planned mayhem and murder. There could be more than one guard in the room with him.

Garret growled, "It would have been nice to know that before you wasted my time. And the rest of my men?" He pulled out the chair and flopped into it.

Now she could see his body up to his lower chest. Yep. He was still wearing the ice-blue shirt he had on this morning. And she could smell his aftershave. The man always drenched himself in some expensive cologne.

It burned the back of her throat. Grace buried her nose in the crook of her arm. God, she hated that floral soapy scent.

The same deep voice answered. "They parked the company vehicle up the road from her house. It's still there, but we didn't find the men. None of them answer their phones. We assume they're dead."

Grace frowned. She was pretty sure Raptor killed the men. But now they couldn't find them? He must have hidden the bodies somewhere. It didn't seem like he'd had enough time to do that. But the action was smart. Keep Garret and the others guessing. She'd tell Raptor she thought it was a great idea when they got out of here.

"You need to find her," Garret demanded.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that? Her parents are out of the country. Somewhere. We don't even know what continent they're on. Which means we can't use them to draw her out. The uncles live together in a secure compound several states over. She hasn't had time to get to them and if she does, it will be impossible to break her out without a shit ton of firepower. She doesn't have friends, just acquaintances because the woman is devoted to her work. Johnson hacked into her bank account. Which was pretty easy since she uses the local branch, and he cracked that code a long time ago. But she hasn't touched her credit cards or withdrawn any money. We have the ATMs monitored so if she tries that, we will catch her. No one has seen her car."

Garret didn't respond right away. The man shook his foot back and forth. Faster and faster. Long ago, she'd noticed he did that when he got upset. The faster it moved, the more upset he was.

The foot stopped. " She's devoted to her work. Make sure she didn't come back here. It would be just like her to focus her efforts on the formula. Check the security video here at the lab," he commanded.

The other man noted, "She didn't come through the front door. They knew we were looking for her and would have said something when we came in. I can't imagine how she would avoid security, but she did all this other shit. So, I'll go look. Let me get another guard up here."

Grace blinked. Check . The. Security. Video. She screamed silently. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Now, what did she do? Checking the video wouldn't be good. Not for her, not for Raptor. She bit her lip to keep from moaning. Not for Neva. Shit.

She told Raptor not to zap the video feed. They were going to take care of that when they left.

Now. Now they were all doomed.

Unless...

Unless she surrendered. Sacrificed herself. If they found her, there wasn't any reason to look at the video. They wouldn't look for anyone helping her when she was so obviously alone.

The hardest part of this plan would be getting Raptor to stay hidden. She had a pretty good idea that he would try to rescue her.

Shit, she needed to figure out something before the guard left the room. But the action couldn't be obvious. Getting caught had to look like an accident.

Grace took a deep breath… and sneezed.

Breathing in too much of Garret's nasty aftershave always caused that reaction.

Everything went silent.

Frozen with fear, eyes wide, she watched Garret push back the chair and bend down until she could see those damn multi-colored blue eyes.

"Well, look what we have here."

Raptor

His heart skipped a beat when he heard Grace sneeze.

Raptor kept completely still. Even though he wanted to jump away from the wall and push her boss back from his big, ebony wood desk, and pull Grace into his arms. She had to be so scared.

Yet when she climbed out from under the desk, she appeared more determined than frightened.

Grace looked right at him for a moment. Lifting her hand at the wrist, she subtly signaled for him to stay where he was. To remain motionless.

Her actions confused him. Why wouldn't she want him to save her? He replayed the last demand from Garret. The one where he told his bodyguard to check the security video. If the man had done that—he'd clearly see Grace in his office and discover her hiding spot. He'd also see that she wasn't alone—and would notice Raptor hidden against the wall. Worse, the video footage would reveal Neva helping them. They would put the other woman in danger.

Raptor knew then what she was doing. Grace had sacrificed herself so that Raptor and Neva would stay free. More importantly... Grace had to know that when the time was right... he would save her.

As soon as Grace was on her feet, Garret raised his hand and slapped her.

Grace grunted and stumbled back.

Raptor gasped. Before he could move more than an inch, he noticed Grace's hand was up and she was carefully shaking her head. At him.

Neither Garret nor his bodyguard noticed his movement. But Grace did. Her eyes teared with the pain, even as she silently pleaded with him to stay put.

Raptor stilled. Biting his lip to keep silent and locking his limbs in place. Damn it all to Siluthien Hell! She was right. This was not the time for him to act.

The chances of him being hurt or detained while trying to save Grace were high. The chances of her being shot and killed during such an attempt were even higher. He could see the weapons draped around the bodyguard. He didn't doubt that Garret was armed as well.

Besides the two men in the office, there were two more just outside the door. He'd seen them. Those men were also well-armed and there could be others throughout the building. It would be almost impossible for him to get Grace out of the building without her being seriously injured. He needed to wait for just the right time to rescue his mate and get them out of here.

Garret pulled his arm back and punched Grace in the stomach, before following up with another hit to her face.

She bent over and propped her hands on her knees, gasping for breath. Blood dripped from her face onto the floor.

Raptor couldn't see the cut. Couldn't tell how badly she was hurt. The hardest thing he'd ever done was stay hidden while the man beat on his mate.

Grace lifted her head, and he saw blood stream from above her right eye. Once more, she looked right at him and moved her head the smallest bit. Silently pleading with him to stay hidden.

Since he couldn't save her yet, there was only one thing Raptor could do for his mate... document everything that happened.

Built into a Guardian's body was the ability to record whatever they could see and hear. It was sort of like the police body cams on this planet. The built-in feature enabled Guardians to share anything they ran across that might be unusual—with the Interstellar gods. When Raptor ran away from his duties all those centuries ago, the Interstellar gods had allowed him to keep all of his Guardian abilities. They'd stripped nothing from him.

From this moment forward, everything Garret and his men said or did would be recorded. That recording would automatically be captured in a file on his ship.

But no matter what his mate said—Raptor couldn't handle the man's abusive treatment for much longer. He readied himself for any chance that would come.

Raptor noticed Garret had a mad gleam in his eye. He moved closer to Grace and once again raised his arm. Before Garret could move, the bodyguard shifted in front of Grace, blocking her boss's ability to strike.

The dark-haired man said, "We need to question her and find out why she's here. And don't forget the company's video cams are running. If someone downstairs looks at the monitor, they might see this and call the cops. You can't beat on Grace in your office, boss. When we've questioned her, I'll take her somewhere without digital eyes. I'll fix the company's video footage before I leave today, so this just disappears, but you can't take the chance of being caught."

Garret raised his hands in the air and backed up. "You're right. Search her, then tie her to the chair. Make it painful," he demanded.