Page 8 of Guarding Grace

Gasps and a dozen questions rang out.

Lucas and Serena were the first to reach me. Duke was on the phone.

I laid Grace on the settee along the wall, her feet propped up. She had a bloody nose, but thankfully no cuts from the knives the guys had. “She got jumped by two goons on the way to her car.”

Lucas’s hands clenched into fists. “Are they still breathing?”

Men abusing women was a hot-button issue with him. Once, he’d delayed a mission for two hours to visit a drug kingpin running a rape house. The bastard and four of his lieutenants had ended up buried under a pile of rubble.

“Barely. They hit Grace and came at me with a knife.” I shrugged. “I had to incapacitate with extreme prejudice. Zane has them now. He’s calling Constance for transport to guest accommodations.”

Serena stroked Grace’s hair. “Why would anyone beat her unconscious?”

“She fainted, and I didn’t reach her in time. She hit her head on the pavement.”

“Too much blood?” Serena guessed.

I nodded. “Theirs, not hers.”

Duke got off the phone and urged the crowd to give us some room. “They’re on the way.”

Lucas smiled and pulled out his phone. “Zane, don’t bother cleaning up our guests. I’ll be over to see them shortly.”

Lucas’s tone was scary cold. Those two guys were going to wish they hadn’t gotten up today.

Grace’s eyes blinked open, a bit unfocused. “What?—”

“You fainted,” Serena told her. “You haven’t kept up your training, have you?”

She shook her head. “I forgot to tense… So much blood.”

Serena and I had both seen this fainting before, most recently when Grace cut her finger in the kitchen.

When she tried to sit up, I forced her shoulders down. “Stay still for a little longer.”

“I have to get to?—”

I sat on the edge of the settee next to her. “You have to go to the hospital for a CAT scan. You hit your head pretty hard.”

“I have to meet?—”

“No. You’re going for a scan, and that’s final.”

She crooked her finger, urging me closer. “They took Elliot,” she whispered. “They said to meet them with my ATM card.”

“No, they don’t have Elliot. I just talked to him. He told me somebody was after you.”

Her brow furrowed.

“Don’t you see? That was a ruse to get you outside.”

“Those guys wanted to know where Elliot was.”

Just then, the paramedics rushed in.

I stood and waved them over. “Vasovagal syncope episode. She fell and hit her head hard. She needs a CAT scan.”

The paramedic cast me aside with barely a look. “We’ve got it from here.”