Page 3 of Guarding Grace (Hawk Security #2)

Grace

I hadn’t wanted to spend the money for the valet, and the only available parking tonight had been on side streets, so I’d turned left out of the restaurant when I exited and hurried down the block toward my car.

I moved as fast as I could in these heels, retrieving my car keys from my purse as I went.

What kind of idiot would kidnap my cousin Elliot? Nobody cared whether he lived or died except me. Life was certainly cheap to these people. If they knew anything about me, they would have asked for the necklace Mom gave me. It was worth more than I had in my bank account.

The lighting and traffic had both dimmed considerably when I turned the corner onto the side street where I’d parked. I got the prickle at the back of my neck that any woman walking alone in the dark sometimes got.

Halfway down the block, a shadow detached from a building ahead of me.

On any other night, I would have turned around and returned to the bright lights behind me, but Elliot needed me.

I crossed to the other side of the street and palmed my key between my fingers as a weapon like Terry had taught me years ago.

Terry was a former SWAT officer with the LAPD, and as terrible as his personality was, he knew a shitload more than I did about self-defense.

Passing between the parked cars on the opposite side of the street, I lost sight of the guy. I assumed it was a man. Dread crept up my spine as I hurried along.

Then he came out from between two cars. “There you are.”

Heart pounding, I turned and ran.

A few steps later, he grabbed my hair and yanked.

I cried out. Fuck, that hurt. My scalp burned from the pain.

Beefy arms wound around me and lifted me off the ground.

“Where is fucking Spider?”

The brute slammed me against a car and spun me, pinning my arms. His breath was heavy with garlic.

Spider was Elliot’s nickname among the dangerous crowd he hung out with on account of the gold chain he wore with a stupid spider pendant.

A second skinny dude came out of the shadows. “Yeah, where is he?”

“I don’t know.” Why ask about Elliot?

Restrained like this, I couldn’t bring my hand up to slash him like I’d been taught.

Skinny Dude yanked my purse away and rummaged through it. “I got the phone. We can find him.”

“Maybe.” The big one scowled, shaking me. “Where is he hiding?”

“I told you, I don’t know.” I spat at him.

He wiped his cheek. “Not good enough.” The big guy punched me in the face.

My head snapped back against the car window. Pain flashed across my cheek, and my vision blurred. I brought up the hand he’d released and slashed him across the cheek with my key.

He howled but didn’t release his grip. “Bitch.” He pulled back to hit me again.

My eyes had partially acclimated to the dim light. When his grip loosened, I tried to knee him, but my dress was too tight.

The brute retaliated with another punch.

My nose erupted in pain, and I tasted blood. My God, why does he have to hit so hard?

“Yeah, fuck her up good,” Skinny Dude urged.

“Tell us where Spider—” The brute’s question was cut short when a fist from nowhere landed on the side of his head.

“Get off her,” Terry roared.

The big man stumbled to the side, releasing me, then regained his footing.

“Grace?”

“I’m okay,” I lied. Why did Terry, of all people, have to see me like this ?

Everything depended on me getting out of here in time to meet with the kidnapper.

“Who the fuck are you?” Skinny Dude yelled as he pulled a knife.

My heart stopped. The rules of the party tonight had been that the Hawk Security people would come unarmed, and this looked bad.

The big guy shook off the effect of Terry’s punch and straightened. Things went from bad to worse when he pulled a knife as well and advanced.

“You guys don’t want to do this,” Terry warned.

The corny movie line got a laugh from Skinny Dude. “Fuck off. She’s going to tell us where Spider is.”

The brute kept coming. “We’re going to fuck you up so—” He didn’t have time to finish his threat before Terry launched a series of hits and kicks that made Jackie Chan in a karate movie seem like slow motion.

His knife hit the ground, and Terry kicked it under a car.

The brute crumpled, wheezing after a final throat punch from Terry.

Skinny Dude lunged.

Terry sidestepped and threw him against the wall. My phone clattered to the ground.

The guy bounced off the bricks, turned, and ran right into Terry’s fist. His head snapped back with the sickening sound of crunching cartilage. He ended up motionless on the sidewalk.

Running footsteps approached. “Terry?” The voice was Zane’s.

“Here,” Terry answered, picking up Skinny Dude’s knife.

Zane ran up. “What the fuck?”

“These two attacked Grace.”

“I have to go,” I announced.

Time was slipping away, and I had to meet the kidnapper.

Terry ignored me. “Call Constance—I think she just left—and take these two to our guest rooms at Hawk.”

Constance was the ex-Secret Service woman working at Hawk.

I’d been inside their building and seen the holding cells they referred to as guest accommodations . I moved away from the car.

Terry held up a hand to block my path. “Grace got hit in the head. I’ll take her to get checked out.”

Zane flipped on his phone’s flashlight. “Who are they?”

I shouldn’t have looked.

Skinny Dude was bleeding—a lot.

Nausea swept over me as the world went from dim to black.

Terry

I watched Grace’s face go ashen and heard the long sigh, but I realized too late what was happening.

She went limp, fell to the ground beside the car, and hit her head before I could reach her.

“Fuckers,” Zane spat.

Gently, I lifted Grace, cradling her head. “I’ve got to get her to the hospital.”

“Go,” Zane ordered as he picked up her cell phone. “Take this. I got these two dirtbags.”

With her phone in my pocket, I took off for the restaurant at a jog, supporting Grace’s limp body as best I could.

The valets gawked at me as I ran past.

“Call 9-1-1,” I yelled as I made it back to the party. “Grace was attacked.”

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.”

Lucas pulled me over to join the Hawk group while Serena stayed with Grace. “What’s going on?”

I filled them in about the calls from Grace’s cousin, the call Grace had gotten from some unknown party claiming to have Elliot, and that the guys on the street had demanded to know where her useless cousin was.

Duke shook his head. “ATM card? What a joke. Nobody demands a ransom small enough that you can get it out of an ATM.”

“Her cousin has to be who they’re after, and they only wanted her to get leverage over him,” Jordy guessed.

I nodded. It made sense.

“If that’s the case, she’s in danger until we figure out who’s after this Elliot character and get them to understand that Grace is under Hawk protection and is not to be threatened.” Lucas patted me on the shoulder. “We’ve got your back on this. What’s his last name? ”

“Boyle. Elliot Boyle.”

Lucas turned to his brother. “Jordy?—”

“A full workup pronto, I know,” replied our resident hacker—make that tech specialist. He was also a damned excellent investigator, following faint trails through the digital landscape. “Who’s got her phone? I’ll copy it and try to trace that call.”

I nodded and pulled her cell from my pocket. “Get it back to me at the hospital.”

I would do everything I could to help Grace, but having the Hawk Security team in on it was a huge boost. Our firm had a serious reputation, and even vicious bad guys like the Russian mafia knew not to mess with us. Men who underestimated Lucas Hawk and this outfit quickly regretted it.

The paramedics got a complaining Grace strapped on the gurney and rolled her out.

I followed. “Which hospital are we going to?”

“UCLA,” one of them answered.

I hurried to the passenger side of the ambulance and climbed into the front seat. Better to assume I could ride along than ask permission.

After the back door slammed shut, the paramedic I’d spoken to sat in the driver’s seat. “Are you family?” he asked.

“No.”

“Then out.” He pointed at the door.

“I’m her bodyguard. You take her, you take me.”

“I don’t know?—”

“LAPD orders. Take it up with Lieutenant Wellbourne if you want.”

Marcus Wellbourne was our ace in the hole with the LAPD. Lucas had rescued his wife from a kidnapper and dispatched the asshole in the process.

“Let’s just go,” came from the paramedic in back.

The driver shrugged and started the engine.