21. Jesse

Chapter twenty-one

Jesse

S omeone was going to pay for scaring my princess like this. Grace was trembling in my arms as I caged her to my chest, refusing to let her see the carnage in the package someone had sent her. I looked over my shoulder, but Gregori was blocking my view of the box now, inspecting it, while Erik was busy typing on his phone. He glanced up at me finally and signed, “It’s not Anders,” as he spoke out loud. Grace collapsed against me, and I stumbled back as I gripped her arms, guiding her back to the chair. I sat her down carefully and brushed the tears off her cheeks, stroking her face with my knuckles.

“Are you okay?” I signed, and she nodded slowly. “Can I see your phone?” I asked, and she handed it over unlocked. I opened the message she had received from Anders, checking the time stamp. It would have been at nearly the same time as the box arrived.

I turned to Erik, who was looking a little green as he watched Gregori poke at the box with a pen. Moving around to better see the contents, I fought my revulsion as I tried to see if I recognized the person the head had belonged to .

“Is that Craig?” I asked him, tilting my head for a better angle. Erik’s eyes widened, and he took a step closer, squinting at the mess on the table.

I saw him mouth the word ‘fuck’ and my heart seized in my chest. Craig was the head of our security team. He was supposed to be at the house right now—the house where Levy and Anders were supposed to be too. So if he was here, clearly dead, then…

The phone in my hand vibrated, and I looked down to see a new message from Anders. I glanced at Grace and opened it, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

Anders

You should say thank you for the gift, Gracie

“Doug,” I signed to Erik, and tossed the phone over the table at him. He read the note quickly, and his lips pressed into a thin line.

“Doug has them,” he told Gregori, signing to keep me in the conversation. The large man stood up, his face contorting briefly into a mask of fury before he got ahold of himself.

“My men will go there immediately and check it out,” Erik signed for Gregori, who of course didn’t bother to include me in conversations. Gregori made a quick phone call while I checked on Grace, who was pale and still as a statue in the chair.

“We will find them, don’t worry,” I assured her, catching another tear as it rolled down her cheek.

“If Doug has them… he’s going to hurt them,” she signed back slowly, her hands shaking. Erik put his hand on my shoulder as he came up next to me, concern swimming in his eyes .

“This isn’t at us,” Erik explained, keeping the conversation between the three of us. “This is an attack against Gregori, for siding with us. Doug wants him to panic, so he took his only son.” Grace closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling slowly as she struggled to calm herself.

“Levy. Maybe he got away?” she asked, hopeful. I doubted it, Levy would never leave Anders behind, even if it meant getting himself killed in the process.

“Maybe,” I replied, refusing to upset her further. She glanced up, and I followed her gaze, realizing that Gregori was speaking to us again. I crossed my arms over my chest and openly scowled at him. Grace tapped my arm, drawing my attention back.

“He says his team is on route now and should be at the house in ten minutes,” she explained, and I stroked her cheek gently. I didn’t want to think about what they’d find there. Oh shit, speaking of…

“Does someone have infrared goggles?” I asked, and Gregori stared at my hands like I had flipped him off. I considered it, honestly, but now was not the time. “In case Levy is unconscious and invisible.” God, I’d hate for him to be hurt and for some idiots to just step around him, oblivious. Erik translated for me, and Gregori nodded slowly, his lips pursed as he called someone again.

We all waited, tense and vividly aware of the severed head in the room, as Gregori’s men arrived at the house. He put the phone on speaker, and Erik signed for me as the man in charge there gave us a play by play. Grace gripped my hand so tightly I thought my bones might crack, but I didn’t move an inch, letting her use me as her own personal stress ball .

All the guards at the gate were taken out, and there were bodies scattered across the front lawn. The garage door was open, and the SUV was apparently idling half-way inside, the doors thrown open and the windows shot out. No easy feat, considering they were bullet proof, so they must be using armor-piercing rounds.

A sweep of the house came up empty, no bodies, but also no sign of the guys anywhere. The body of our head of security was seated at the dining room table like some kind of horror movie. Douglas was truly a sick fucking bastard. Grace’s grip on my hand loosened slightly, and I turned to find her white as a sheet, staring down at her lap.

“Princess, don’t panic on me,” I signed quickly, kneeling down in front of her. I tipped her chin up until she met my gaze, her eyes shining and rimmed red. “We will get them back, I promise.”

“This is all my fault,” she replied, shaking her head as the tears spilled over. “He’s going to hurt them unless I go back.” Erik tapped my shoulder and shook his head at her.

“You are never going back there,” he signed, looking deadly serious. “Never. They would be furious if you did that, and you know it.” Good, let’s cut these ridiculous plans off before they grew into something she might actually try. “They are tough, and they have been through worse than the Boogeyman. They’ll be fine, and we will get them back.”

Grace let out a long, shuddering breath, her eyes dropping back to her lap. Erik told me to take her back to the room for now, and I helped her to her feet. We stayed as far away from the severed head as possible as I led her into the hall and toward our bedroom. She shut down completely, her eyes glazed over and unseeing, as I lifted her onto the bed and curled up at her back, smoothing her hair away from her face and stroking her neck until I felt that her breathing began to even out. Only once I was certain she was asleep did I slip off the bed and went out in search of Erik. I was sure he was deep into planning by now, his mind going off in a million directions as he considered our options and weighed the pros and cons.

Sure enough, I found him pacing in the living room, his lips moving as he muttered to himself. He really was smart—not Anders smart or anything, but normal person smart. He had a mind for strategizing, despite what people thought, and if anyone could fix this, it would be him.

“Where’s Gregori?” I asked as I walked in, and he stopped to watch me drop down onto the couch.

“Office,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “Hospital business. Even a kidnapped son doesn’t warrant an afternoon off.” I grimaced, but wasn’t shocked. The man had no room in his heart for anyone but himself it seemed.

“So what’s next then?” I signed, and he ran his hand through his hair tiredly.

“I’m sure Doug will try to make a deal. He can’t possibly believe that he can take out Gregori on his own. I bet he’ll try to buy him away from us, using Anders,” he mused, and I nodded along. It made sense, Gregori wouldn’t turn down a good deal, and his only heir was a good bargaining chip. Our newest ally might not stay that way for long, and then we’d have even bigger problems.