Page 6 of Guarding Grace (Hawk Security #2)

Grace

I woke the next morning in Serena and Duke’s guest bedroom to sounds outside the bedroom door—breakfast preparations, no doubt.

A quick swipe of my hand revealed a bump at the site of the ache at the back of my skull.

Nonetheless, it was time to get moving. I had a business to run and a life to live.

Getting out of bed, I realized my head wasn’t the only area of soreness. After shedding the nightgown I’d borrowed from Serena, I took a quick turn in front of the mirror, revealing bruises on my face and back. Now I knew why I hurt so much.

My phone mocked me from the nightstand. Did I dare?

I gave in and reread the message string with Terry from last night. Heat surged in my core as I read again that he’d been thinking of me.

Watching him destroy those two thugs had been hot as hell.

After his texts, in spite of my aches, I’d brought myself to a towering climax as I imagined him stroking his enormous cock and thinking about me.

Big, strong, badass Terry. I didn’t know if when he said he’d been thinking of me he meant it sexually, but a girl could dream.

Also, I didn’t actually know he had a large cock. But everything else about him was big and strong, so it made sense. After hundreds of dreams of him holding me, it totally sucked that I’d finally been in his arms last night, and unconscious the whole time .

Terry had always been the ultimate contradiction for me.

Although my brother had sworn he was a good guy, around me Terry was always mean as a snake and had always riled me.

My body, though, had never understood what my brain did.

If I saw Terry with another girl, petty jealousy roiled my stomach.

I wanted to know what it would be like to be her, to be in Terry’s arms, to have his lips on mine, to have all his attention on me, in spite of his rotten personality.

Was that me lusting after the bad boy merely to be rebellious?

Shoving aside thoughts of Terry, I put my hair up and made do with a quick rinse under the shower. As I toweled off, I glanced at the phone again, but instead of giving in, I faced the reality of my situation. I had to get to work.

Since Duke had vetoed a stop at my apartment last night, all I had with me was my phone, a clutch with almost nothing in it, a backless evening gown, fabulous shoes that would kill me if I had to wear them all day, and day-old underwear. My shawl had gotten lost along the way.

Serena had a gorgeous wardrobe, but we weren’t the same size, so I’d have to go by my place before work. With the towel still wrapped around me, another message arrived. This one made me want to puke.

MRS. MONTEFINO: I’d like to see you.

Fat chance of that. With my hand shaking, it took two tries to delete the message. No way was I revisiting that period of my life. I leaned against the counter and practiced my deep breathing until the tremors in my hand stopped. Slipping into the bathrobe I found on a hook, I ventured out.

“How are you feeling?” Serena asked when I entered the kitchen.

I touched the tender spot on the back of my head. “Like I got run over by a train.”

She offered me a steaming mug. “Coffee?”

“Love it.” I blew over the surface before chancing a sip. “Thank you. Where’s Duke?” I asked just before hearing the clank of metal on metal.

Serena nodded to the left. “In the gym.” She checked her watch. “He’ll be at it for a little longer.” She handed me a plate with scrambled eggs and toast. “We already ate.”

I sat at the counter and started on the eggs.

“Bacon or sausage?” she asked. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I made both.”

“Either. It doesn’t matter to me.”

She shook her head. “I’m going to tell you what Duke is always telling me. Life is about making choices. ”

“Sausage, please.”

She brought the sausage over and pointed to the corner of the counter. “I have a tracksuit you can wear to your place, since I’m guessing you don’t want to go out this morning in last night’s dress.”

“You’re a lifesaver, you know that?”

She shrugged. “It’s what friends do.”

The plate was larger than my usual, but I quickly finished the breakfast. Maybe danger increased one’s appetite.

“When’s Terry coming by to pick you up?”

Her question reminded me that Terry wanted to dictate every move I made. Don’t do this. Don’t do that . I’d had enough of that treatment to last me a dozen lifetimes.

Checking the time, I rose quickly. “Real soon. I better get changed.” I gave Serena a hug. “Thanks for everything.”

“I’ll call later,” she promised as I headed to the bedroom.

Back in the guest room, my phone buzzed.

ELLIOT: I need to see you

I called him immediately.

“Gracie, are you okay?” he asked. “I heard you had a little trouble.”

“No, Elliot. I’m not okay. I got beat up and almost worse.” After a breath, the questions spilled out of me rapid fire. “What the hell’s going on? They wanted to know where you were. Who’s after you? And why? What did you do?”

“It’s complicated,” he said after a pause.

It always was with him.

“What are you involved in?” I demanded. “I deserve to know, now that you’ve dragged me into your shit.”

“You’re not at home.”

Of course he couldn’t give me a straight answer. “How do you know?”

“I stopped by.”

“I spent the night at a friend’s house.” He didn’t need to know any more.

“I need the key to the warehouse.”

Once again, not even a please. I shook my head. “Why?”

“I gotta hide out for a while.”

I’d figured that. I owned a tiny section of a larger warehouse. “Why? What kind of shit are you into?”

“Meet me at that first burger place I worked at. You know the one.”

“Just meet me at my apartment. ”

“It can’t be a place they know about.”

This was getting worse by the minute. “Who are they ?”

“Come on, cuz. I’ll explain everything when we meet.”

There’d been a string of burger places, since he hadn’t been a model employee. “Okay. You mean the one on?—”

“Don’t say it. They might be listening. You know, the one with the mean boss.”

He’d considered all of his early bosses mean, but I knew the one he meant. When I’d gone to bat for Elliot and explained that he’d been late to work because of a power outage, Fat Fred, his manager, had crudely suggested that he’d give Elliot another chance if he could “give me a spin.”

I’d spat on him after telling him what I thought of that. “You mean Fred?”

“That’s the one.”

“I don’t have the key on me. I’ll have to swing by home to get it.”

“I’ll see you in a half hour.”

“You need to tell me what’s going on.”

I didn’t get a response because the call had disconnected.

A few minutes later, I sneaked out to the street, away from Serena’s windows, and waited for the Uber I’d called.

Elliot needed me. He was my only remaining family, and I couldn’t let him down. There was no way Terry would let me go meet Elliot without tagging along, and that would be a recipe for disaster.

Terry and Elliot were like oil and water, or maybe gasoline and a match was a more appropriate analogy.

A minute later, a little Prius pulled to the curb to collect me.

The entire drive home to get the key, my phone felt like a hot potato in my hand as I dreaded the where-are-you call from the tyrant. I silenced it, just in case.

When we stopped in front of my building, I climbed out and thanked my driver. Since she had been nice enough to not comment on my bruising, I gave her a five-star review and a nice tip.

The journey up the stairs to the third floor went more slowly than normal, on account of my sore hip and the fact that I was stuck in these heels from last night. Yes, a tracksuit and sky-high heels. High fashion.

As soon as I left the stairwell, I could see the door before mine was open again.

I kept telling Mrs. Finn she should keep it closed for safety, but she refused, instead complaining about her apartment being stuffy.

With the door ajar, she got a slight puff of air from her window anytime the door to the stairwell opened.

I walked the length of the hallway, composing my safety speech.

She raised her knitting needle to stop me before I got a single word out. “I don’t want to hear it. I need the fresh air. Everybody here knows my son is a judge, and nobody wants to mess with a judge’s family.”

“Millie, I was going to ask how you are this morning,” I lied.

She lowered her glasses to look over them. “My goodness, girl. I’m doing a damned sight better than you. What happened?”

I shrugged and improvised. “I don’t have anybody important in my family… And some guys wanted to take my phone.”

“Did they catch them?”

“Sadly, no.”

“If they do, you let me know. I’ll make sure my Leonard sends them up to the big house. He even knows some guys who’ll teach ’em some manners.” She giggled to herself.

I moved to my door. The idea of a judge who had links to criminals in prison wasn’t so funny to me.

When I tried my key, it only turned halfway. The deadbolt was already unlocked. I froze. Had I left it unlocked? Or had Val, my cleaning lady? Yesterday was my day on her schedule, and I hadn’t seen her before I left to prepare the venue for last night’s party.

“Millie, have you seen anybody go into my apartment?”

She looked up over her glasses again. “Why no, dear.”

I gulped when a whoosh of air hit me as I cracked the door.

I definitely knew better than to leave a window open.

Terry

On my terrace, I finished my breakfast and squinted at my phone screen. I’d hoped for a message from Grace, but no such luck.

I called Zane. “Did you find out what our two guests wanted with Grace?”

“They were sent to get her to call or text her cousin Elliot. Apparently he’s the one they’re after, and they thought he would respond to her and crawl out from wherever he’s hiding.”

“Why do they want him?” Understanding the motive would be the key to protecting Grace .

“These guys said they didn’t know. I believe them.”

“Anything else?”

“That’s all I had time for before a relative showed up to get them,” Zane said. “Seems at least one of them had a tracker on him.”

“Probably the watch,” I guessed.

“A guy named Victor Russo showed up, and he came with muscle. Four guys backing him, all armed.”

“Victor Russo?”

“Yeah. I called Lucas, and he told me to hand them over. That’s all I know.”

“Probably a good call. Tall Tony Russo is the head of the local Italian mob, and Victor is his son. They’re not the kind of guys you want to have a fight with on their terms.”

“Good to know.” Zane was new to the team, and he didn’t know all the players in town.

Having the Russo family interested in Grace was not a good turn of events. The Italians were not as big here in LA as they were on the East Coast, and they had given way in some areas to the Russians, but they were still dangerous and ruthless.

I thanked Zane and called Serena to tell her I was on the way.

She didn’t answer, so I left a message and grabbed my keys.

While driving, I tried again—still no answer. Maybe she’d slept in.

Not wanting to put down the four coffees I’d gotten on the way, I pushed the buzzer to Duke’s place with my elbow.

Serena answered the door. “Oh goodie, just what we needed. You should stop over more often.” She opened the door wide. “Grace,” she yelled. “Terry’s here.”

“Which one’s mine?” Duke asked, appearing with a towel over his shoulders. He’d been working out.

“Two black on my left, and two mochas on the other side.” I wasn’t sure, but I’d bet that Serena was a mocha girl like Grace.

“She should be down any minute,” Serena said as she plucked a mocha from the carrier.

While we waited, I filled Duke in on what Zane had said.

Serena eventually went up to retrieve Grace. “I don’t understand what’s taking her so long.”

Duke rolled his eyes after Serena left. “Probably makeup. Her face is going to need it. ”

Serena came back empty-handed. “I’m sorry, Terry. She’s not here.”

“What the fuck?” I yelled.

Serena rubbed the back of her neck. “I didn’t think she’d give me the slip.”

“What the hell is she thinking?” I swore. “She can’t go out alone. She was supposed to wait for me.”

I pointed a finger at Duke. “You should have kept an eye on her.”

“You said keep her safe, and we fucking did.” His fists clenched, a sign I’d gone too far. “If you thought she might try to slip out, you should have warned us to keep a leash on her.”

“Sorry, man,” I said, raising my hands. “I didn’t expect her to pull a stunt like this either.”

Duke relaxed. We were going to be okay.

“Serena, I’m sorry I yelled,” I told her.

She giggled. “It’s cute that you care.”

My stomach tied itself in a knot as I headed back to the door. I called Grace’s number, and it went to voicemail again. “Grace, call me.”

She was out there somewhere, alone, refusing to answer the phone, with Russo’s thugs looking for her.

On the jog to my car, I dialed Jordy.

He picked up before I even heard it ring. “What can I do you for?”

I bleeped the lock on the door to my Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT and slid in. “Do you still have a back door into those ride-sharing apps?”

“Suggesting I might not is an insult. You know that, right?”

I started the engine. “Grace left Duke’s place, and since she doesn’t have her car, I’m guessing she called a rideshare. I need to know where she went.”

“Hold on.” Keys clacked in the background. “Got it. She went to four forty-five Woodmist.”

That was the address of her apartment building.

“Thanks, Jordy.” I checked my mirror and burned rubber, leaving the curb. Damn her. Her apartment would be the first place Russo’s people would stake out looking for her.

“If you like the service, I accept payment in Amazon gift cards,” Jordy joked.

“Right.” I hung up and punched the gas after the next turn. The big twin-turbo V-8 roared.

I had to get to her in time.