Duke actually smiled. “Must be getting weak in your old age, man.”
“I can still take you down, Duke. Don’t piss me off.”
Nic started to cough though Kaisie knew the bastard was laughing at him. “I’m cutting you some slack since you actually did something useful and got the plane in the air faster. But don’t push it.”
“She’ll be fine, man.” Duke caught up to him just inside the cabin on the eight-passenger jet. “Don’t get yourself worked up about a situation that may never happen. It won’t help.”
As Kaisie buckled himself in, Duke and Nic did the same across the aisle and the pilot started the engine.
He knew what Duke was saying but that didn’t help ease the sick lump in the pit of his stomach.
*
Grace hadn’t seen her grandmother in a year and a half, at least.
And she hadn’t missed the woman, she thought as John drove through the Lincoln Tunnel.
Graziella Bellasario would rather ruin or destroy your reputation and career than bake cookies on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Graziella ran a successful, diversified company, parts of which spread throughout the United States and Italy. Her husband had died shortly after the birth of their son. Car accident.
Grace didn’t think it’d been much of an accident. There were no accidents around her grandmother. Everything went according to plan. Her plan.
The only thing that hadn’t was Grace being born without a caul. And Graziella had never let Grace forget it.
As a child, Grace had been terrified of her grandmother. Her cold eyes, her too-calm voice, her expressionless face. Frankly, the woman creeped her out.
Graziella had that effect on a lot of people. Business rivals had been known to call her the Serpent Woman behind her back. Grace thought her grandmother secretly liked it because no one who’d ever used the nickname had turned up missing.
The same couldn’t be said about business associates who failed her. Some of them were never seen again.
Grace knew her grandmother wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of her own flesh and blood if she disappointed her. Especially since she’d already done her duty and produced a Mal heir to a respected Mal family.
She was expendable. At least, that’s what her grandmother had considered her.
But she didn’t know Grace. She’d never taken the time to get to know her. Graziella had always considered her a pawn without much of a brain for business.
Well, Grace had learned.
She just hoped she’d learned enough to bargain with her grandmother so she, John and the two lucani following them in another car would walk out of Graziella’s office with their hearts still beating.
The woman may be closing in on ninety but her power had strengthened instead of waned over the years.
Doubt wanted to derail her.
Why had she ever thought this would work?
And why had Cole agreed to let her try? Maybe he’d known she would fail and her grandmother would kill her and he wouldn’t have to worry about her anymore.
He couldn’t honestly believe she’d have any hope in hell of making this work.
Then again, why would he have sent John and two other lucani to keep her safe?
No time to second-guess herself now as John made his way through the madness of Midtown traffic to get to Sixth Avenue.
She directed him to a parking garage not far from her grandmother’s building, followed closely by Cole’s praetorians. They parked then made their way back to street level.
Turning automatically toward her grandmother’s building, she started to walk until John laid a hand on her arm as he put his phone to his ear.
“Hey, Kaine, what’s—”
He fell silent, his eyes narrowing and she knew whatever Kaine was telling him, it wasn’t good.
“The kids?” she forced herself to ask as the praetorians stopped at her back.
John shook his head and her chest loosened the slightest bit. “Kaisie?”
John held up his index finger and she nearly had to bite her tongue off to stay quiet.
After at least a minute of one-sided conversation on the other end of the phone, John said, “Okay,” and hung up.
“Kaisie will be here in half an hour. We wait for him before we do anything.”
Her mouth hung open for a second before she got her brain to work. “What? Why?”
John put his arm around her shoulders and started walking again, as if they were a couple out of a stroll. “He’s pretty sure Marrucini’s here in the city. Kaisie thinks Marrucini’s damaged pretty badly.”
“And he thinks Ettore has gone to my grandmother for help?” She shook her head. “No. No way. My grandmother would tell him to clean up his own mess. She’d think him weak if he came to her for help.”
“Then it won’t matter if we just hang out for a while and wait for Kaisie.”
She wanted to stomp her foot and insist that John take her immediately to her grandmother’s. She wanted to get this over with now.
“And when Kaisie gets here, he’s going to demand that I go back to the den without talking to her. No, we have to do this before he gets here. Cole okayed this, John. He believes I have a shot. Kaisie will want to hustle me back to the den and hide me away. I believe he means well but—”
“You don’t know that. The man loves you, Grace, whether he’s said the words or not. He’s worried about you. He doesn’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I understand that. I do. But I’m not a soldier. I don’t take orders. I’m old enough to make my own decisions and I have you and two highly trained soldiers at my back. If Kaisie’s here…” She paused and released a heavy sigh. “If he’s here, I may listen to him. I may tuck my tail between my legs and run home. I’m sick of running.”
John stared down at her, his expression torn but resigned.
“You know Kaisie will have my ass for this,” he finally said.
She shook her head, trying to look much more confident than she felt and probably failing miserably. “No, he won’t because this will be over before he can do anything about it. And everything will be fine.”
And it would have been. If only her grandmother hadn’t been a little too sure of herself.
Grace walked into her grandmother’s building as if she owned it. Which wasn’t far from the truth. She was Graziella’s only grandchild. One day, she would own it.
Of course, after today, her grandmother would probably disown her, so…
Stepping up to the reception desk just inside the doors, she stared directly at the receptionist. “I’m here to see Graziella Bellasario. Please tell her personal secretary Grace Bellasario is here.”
The young woman’s expression changed from haughty to wide-eyed in two seconds flat as she reached for the keyboard. “It will only take me a second, Ms. Bellasario. Why don’t you have a seat while you—”
“I don’t expect to be kept waiting long enough to need a seat.”
The receptionist’s eyes got even wider. “I’ll just—” She pressed a few buttons then spoke into the slim microphone attached to the earpiece. “Ms. Conacelli? Grace Bellasario is here to see Mrs. Bellasario. Should I— Yes. Of course. Of course.”
The young woman turned back to Grace with a trembling smile. “Please take elevator five to the top floor. I’m afraid your men—”
“Will be coming with me.” Grace smiled at the girl, who couldn’t be much older than twenty-three or -four. She’d been told, though she’d never really seen the resemblance before, that she looked like her grandmother. When the girl’s smile died and actual fear made her blanch, Grace figured the resemblance had only gotten stronger with age.
At least her grandmother didn’t look like the Wicked Witch of the West.
As Grace turned toward the bank of elevators beyond the reception desk, John and the two praetorian guards followed. They played the role of bodyguards perfectly, staying a few steps behind her and not talking to he
r.
The guard at the elevators pressed the button for her, never making eye contact.
Grace sensed no magic at all from the man and had a brief second to wonder at that before the mirrored doors opened.
John stepped around her to check out the interior of the elevator before he nodded at her, and she and her other two guards entered.
The ride up was silent, though she exchanged a meaningful glance with John.
That’d been too easy.
Her grandmother never would have allowed Grace to bring three unknown men with her into Graziella’s inner sanctum.
Which meant they were either heading into a trap or her grandmother didn’t think Grace represented any kind of threat.
True, John had no magic at all but the praetorians reeked of it. They were powerful lucani.
When the elevator dinged to mark their destination, Grace knew something was horribly wrong.
Which proved to be true when the doors slid open and Ettore Marrucini stood there.
“Hello, Grace. Nice of you to join us.”
*
Kaisie had never much cared for cities but he’d spent a lot more time in them than either Duke or Nic had.
He knew the fastest way to get to where they were going from Newark, where their plane had landed. He knew where to park the car and how to navigate the midmorning crowds on Sixth Avenue.
Duke and Nic kept up with him only because they knew if they lost him, Cole and Kaine would have their asses. But he wasn’t about to make allowances for them.
Not when Grace was in danger.
By the time he pushed through the doors of the Bell building, he knew Marrucini was already there, as was Grace, and he was in no mood to tap dance with the receptionist who looked as if she’d just stepped off a photo shoot for a fashion magazine.
“Send me where you sent Grace Bellasario. Right now.”
The girl, who looked younger than his daughter, barely blinked as she fake-smiled at him. “I’m sorry, sir. Do you have an appointment?”
Her expression changed fast enough when he growled at her. “No, I don’t. And I don’t need one because you really don’t want to mess with me right now, little girl. There’s an injured, possibly unbalanced Mal with low impulse control on the loose in your building and, if you don’t open the damn elevator and let us go find him, my associates and I are going to change into wolves right here and tear through the guards and anyone else who tries to get in my way. Do you understand?”
Any other day, he would’ve handled this situation much differently. But on any other day, his mate would not have deliberately placed herself at risk by leaving the den to speak to her Mal grandmother and leaving herself open to an attack by her crazy ex.
Behind him, Duke motioned to Nic, who turned to face the guards who’d seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Two of them had low-level power, the third, strictly human.
Kaisie never took his eyes off the receptionist. “I am not here to hurt you. I’m not here to hurt anyone except Ettore Marrucini. But if you don’t—”
“Shit, Kaisie. I think we’re gonna be late to the party.”
All of the guards started to run for the elevators and Kaisie motioned for Duke and Nic to follow them. Then he nodded to the young receptionist. “You’re going to want to leave. Now. I’d suggest you get out and don’t come back. Trust me, you’ll find a better job elsewhere. One that won’t involve crazy people and werewolves.”
Her eyes widened as he took off at a run to the elevators, where Duke and Nic had already convinced the guards to let them go with them to where they were going in such a hurry.
Of course, the boys hadn’t given them much choice in the matter, as Nic had shifted into his pelt and growled at them and Duke had swiped one of their weapons.
Kaisie looked at the gun then at Duke, who shrugged.
“What? I can’t play with their toys?”
“Don’t hurt yourself with it or Tira will have my head.”
Nic snorted, shaking his head and twitching his tail back and forth. One of the guards actually tried to take another step back but couldn’t because he’d come up against the wall.
“Hey, man,” Kaisie said, “if the wolf freaks you out, you might want to make a run for the doors because that’s nothing compared to what you’re gonna see on the top floor.”
The guy did exactly what Kaisie told him to do and Duke turned to watch him run before he turned back to Kaisie with one lifted eyebrow. “Dude, you’ve got such a way with words.”
Kaisie gave him the finger. “Anybody else wanna make a break, now’s the time.”
The two guards who remained held their ground, never turning their backs, not even to get on the elevator.
The ride up was quiet except for the tasteful classical music pumped in through the speakers. It drove him fucking insane while he watched the numbers count upward and Duke and Nic kept an eye on the guards.
“Kaisie, she’ll be fine. John’s with her. He won’t let anything happen to her.”
He knew that. He knew his daughter’s mate would take a bullet for Grace. And wouldn’t that be fucking awful. To have to tell his daughter John had been killed defending Kaisie’s mate.
Fucking hell.
He shoved that thought out of his mind. He needed to have his head on straight or he’d be the one they dragged out in a body bag.
By the time the doors opened, he’d managed to get his game face plastered on, despite the fact he’d been able to smell blood since he’d gotten in this little metal box.
And when the elevator opened into an office that looked like a warzone, he had to mentally hogtie his wolf to stay calm.
Two large men lay on the floor outside the elevator. They accounted for some of the blood he smelled. But not all.
Kaisie stared into the spacious reception area that guarded a single door behind it. That door stood open and Kaisie could smell the scent of blood coming from there. As well as Grace’s and John’s scents.
He saw no one else but could now make out the voices he’d been able to hear but not understand before. Grace, angry, haughty. Another, older woman he didn’t recognize but who had the same haughty attitude as Grace. Then John, low and timid, speaking to Grace, trying to get her to be quiet, to calm down.
John was working an angle. Unfortunately, Kaisie didn’t know enough about the situation to know what angle. He could fuck up John’s plan if he walked into that room without knowing what the hell was going on.
Yet, he couldn’t wait out here any longer.
He motioned to Duke and Nic, letting them know he was going in and they were to wait outside the room for his signal. Duke rolled his eyes and Nic bared his teeth and shook his head but Kaisie had too much to lose in this scenario and he wasn’t about to trust anyone else with Grace’s and John’s lives.
Slipping out of the elevator, he headed toward that open door.
“Ettore, stop this madness right now.” The older woman, who Kaisie assumed was Grace’s grandmother, snapped out words with the attitude of someone who expected to be obeyed. “You will not murder my granddaughter. She’s offered to go with you to retrieve the children. What more do you want?”
“What you promised me, old woman. This company. Grace did her part. I don’t give a shit about her. I want my daughter and I want what you told me was mine when I agreed to let Grace and Alex go that first time. But you backed out of the deal, you bitch. So I took back the boy.”
“But you couldn’t keep him, could you? Or my daughter.”
That was Grace again, deliberately goading Marrucini as Kaisie’s blood froze. He hoped like hell she knew what she was doing, that she knew, somehow, that he was here. Because if she didn’t…
Kaisie had made it to the door without being seen but he still hadn’t been gotten a look inside the room. The door was only open a few inches.
So he got on his stomach and crawled the rest of the way. He thought about shifting into his wolf but figured Mar
rucini would be able to sense the magic when he did and he didn’t want to give the guy any reason to suspect anything.
Obviously, he hadn’t sensed their arrival or he would’ve sent someone out here to check them out. Kaisie couldn’t believe the guy had come alone. Especially since he was injured.
Taking a deep breath, he scented the acrid odor of Marrucini’s pain, Grace’s fear and anger, another female’s fury, John’s cold calculation…and now he picked up on the scents of two other men in the room. They were faint but there. Almost completely blocked, even from his senses.
Shit. Guess he was going to have to do this the hard way.
Motioning for Nic to come at the door from the other side of the room, he slid forward, trying to get a peek into the room without actually sticking his head into the doorway.
He got lucky. The floor-to-ceiling tinted windows provided a hazy picture of part of the room.
John stood just inside the door. That was good. The two goons holding guns on him, not so good.
An older woman he was assuming was Grace’s grandmother stood to the left of him with another goon on her. Again, not so good. But Kaisie didn’t give a shit if Grace’s grandmother got caught in the crossfire. That bitch would deserve whatever she got.
He couldn’t see Marrucini or Grace so he had to assume they stood to the right of the door.
The back and forth between Marrucini, Grace and her grandmother continued, but Kaisie barely listened to the words. His brain was running strategy, his anxiety increasing as he picked up on the escalating threat in Marrucini’s tone.
He wanted to warn John but couldn’t see a way. John was smart and fast and he’d figure it out.
Looked like the only options they had were speed and surprise.
He signaled to Nic, who nodded, then turned to do the same to Duke.
Kaisie’s mouth curved in a grin. Duke had been busy. He’d knocked out the guards from the elevator and used their unconscious bodies to hold open those doors. They didn’t need to be looking over their shoulders while they got Grace and John out of there.
Okay. Time to go get his woman.
*
Grace felt Ettore shaking behind her.
The arm he held around her neck practically cut off her air supply but she forced herself not to struggle.
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