Page 101 of One Wild Ride

We walked past the storage room and dread filled my chest. This was it. I would have to witness the man I loved marry the woman he didn’t love.

Mrs. Hawthorne must be with the minister right now telling him exactly what to say, even if the two people getting married tried to say no.

We kept walking and noticed more people mulling around the area. More of Mrs. Hawthorne’s thugs. We probably wouldn’t have had a chance of escape even if we tried. She must have a bunch of help both inside and outside the building.

“Go out the door,” Jagger said as we came to the front.

Alex pushed open the door and we all shielded our eyes to the bright light. Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I noticed we were surrounded by green. I could see a farm off in the distance and wondered if we could have made it to that farm in time before being caught.

More ‘what ifs’ weighed me down as I tried to get by in this world. Would I even have any desire to paint anymore with so many people I loved being taken from me?

Jagger stood in front of a large black SUV and opened the back door, waving for us to get inside. We were probably going to be taken to some church Mrs. Hawthorne gave a lot of money to so this forced marriage could take place.

I felt sick. And when I saw Grace in the front passenger seat, my heart hit the floor. They got her.

Mrs. Hawthorne won. There was no beating her.

“Thank goodness you all are all right,” Grace said as we took our seats.

I nodded and didn’t have the energy to even fake a smile.

“Did Agent Chance explain everything to you?” Grace asked as she turned in her seat to face us.

The driver’s side door opened and Jagger got inside.

“Agent Chance?” Alex said.

Jagger turned, finally taking off his ridiculous sunglasses to stare at us with his cool, green eyes. “I’m Agent Jagger Chance with the United States government.”

“The CIA?” I asked.

“Something like that. We work with the CIA and FBI. We are here to arrest Emma Hawthorne, Douglas Dorton and his wife, Sofia Dorton. Emma Hawthorne, who goes by the name Jay to cover her tracks, is head of a criminal organization to infiltrate the government. We had the warehouse bugged and heard everything she said to you. Don’t worry, you all are safe, thanks to the help of Grace here.”

My eyes widened. “Grace? How did you help?”

Grace blushed and shook her head. “It was nothing. I told Jagger when he reached out to me a few months back that I would help him. When I met you, Alex, I knew you were a good guy. I can sense it, you know?”

She shook her head. “Anyway, I made sure he kept an eye on you two when our mom was going to make you marry Alexa. I couldn’t reach him when she first brought you all to the chapel in Vegas.”

I noticed some pink filling Jagger’s cheeks as he cleared his throat.

“So, I took it upon myself to get you out of there. But, of course, Mom found us so I called Jagger to make sure he got to you before she sent someone else to kidnap you.”

“Unfortunately, we needed the kidnapping to happen in order to get more information from Emma Hawthorne. I made sure my team was waiting to stop everything on my call.”

“You’ve known about this for months?” I asked Grace.

“Yes, but I had to keep everything a secret. I meant it when I said I was happy when our mom reached out to me. I thought I finally had a family that cared about me. But when she explained what happened and what she planned to do about it, I wanted no part of that. In fact, I was angry. I didn’t want anyone to be hurt ever again. These people she’s trying to hurt, while they may be bad, have families. They have children. She’s not God. She can’t decide who lives and who dies. I had to do something.”

Alex reached over the seats and kissed Grace on the cheek. “You’re my hero, Grace.”

“And my hero, too,” I said and reached over to put my hand on her shoulder.

“And mine. Thank you so much, Grace, for what you did,” Alexa said with tears rolling down her face.

I glanced over at Agent Chace and saw him pull the glasses back over his eyes. Leaning forward, I whispered in his ear, “Don’t think I can’t see you crying. You try so hard to act tough, but inside you’re a big softy.”

He cleared his throat, buckling his seatbelt clearly ignoring me.

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