Page 36 of Queen of Spades

“Doug,” I signed to Erik, and tossed the phone over the table at him. He read the note quickly, and his lips pressed into a thin line.

“Doug has them,” he told Gregori, signing to keep me in the conversation. The large man stood up, his face contorting briefly into a mask of fury before he got ahold of himself.

“My men will go there immediately and check it out,” Erik signed for Gregori, who of course didn’t bother to include me in conversations. Gregori made a quick phone call while I checked on Grace, who was pale and still as a statue in the chair.

“We will find them, don’t worry,” I assured her, catching another tear as it rolled down her cheek.

“If Doug has them… he’s going to hurt them,” she signed back slowly, her hands shaking. Erik put his hand on my shoulder as he came up next to me, concern swimming in his eyes.

“This isn’t at us,” Erik explained, keeping the conversation between the three of us. “This is an attack against Gregori, for siding with us. Doug wants him to panic, so he took his only son.” Grace closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling slowly as she struggled to calm herself.

“Levy. Maybe he got away?” she asked, hopeful. I doubted it, Levy would never leave Anders behind, even if it meant getting himself killed in the process.

“Maybe,” I replied, refusing to upset her further. She glanced up, and I followed her gaze, realizing that Gregori was speaking to us again. I crossed my arms over my chest and openly scowled at him. Grace tapped my arm, drawing my attention back.

“He says his team is on route now and should be at the house in ten minutes,” she explained, and I stroked her cheek gently. I didn’t want to think about what they’d find there.Oh shit, speaking of…

“Does someone have infrared goggles?” I asked, and Gregori stared at my hands like I had flipped him off. I considered it, honestly, but now was not the time. “In case Levy is unconscious and invisible.” God, I’d hate for him to be hurt and for some idiots to just step around him, oblivious. Erik translated for me, and Gregori nodded slowly, his lips pursed as he called someone again.

We all waited, tense and vividly aware of the severed head in the room, as Gregori’s men arrived at the house. He put the phone on speaker, and Erik signed for me as the man in charge there gave us a play by play. Grace gripped my hand so tightly I thought my bones might crack, but I didn’t move an inch, letting her use me as her own personal stress ball.

All the guards at the gate were taken out, and there were bodies scattered across the front lawn. The garage door was open, and the SUV was apparently idling half-way inside, the doors thrown open and the windows shot out. No easy feat, considering they were bullet proof, so they must be using armor-piercing rounds.

A sweep of the house came up empty, no bodies, but also no sign of the guys anywhere. The body of our head of security was seated at the dining room table like some kind of horror movie. Douglas was truly a sick fucking bastard. Grace’s grip on my hand loosened slightly, and I turned to find her white as a sheet, staring down at her lap.

“Princess, don’t panic on me,” I signed quickly, kneeling down in front of her. I tipped her chin up until she met my gaze, her eyes shining and rimmed red. “We will get them back, I promise.”

“This is all my fault,” she replied, shaking her head as the tears spilled over. “He’s going to hurt them unless I go back.” Erik tapped my shoulder and shook his head at her.

“You are never going back there,” he signed, looking deadly serious. “Never. They would be furious if you did that, and you know it.” Good, let’s cut these ridiculous plans off before they grew into something she might actually try. “They are tough, and they have been through worse than the Boogeyman. They’ll be fine, and we will get them back.”

Grace let out a long, shuddering breath, her eyes dropping back to her lap. Erik told me to take her back to the room for now, and I helped her to her feet. We stayed as far away from the severed head as possible as I led her into the hall and toward our bedroom. She shut down completely, her eyes glazed over and unseeing, as I lifted her onto the bed andcurled up at her back, smoothing her hair away from her face and stroking her neck until I felt that her breathing began to even out. Only once I was certain she was asleep did I slip off the bed and went out in search of Erik. I was sure he was deep into planning by now, his mind going off in a million directions as he considered our options and weighed the pros and cons.

Sure enough, I found him pacing in the living room, his lips moving as he muttered to himself. He really was smart—not Anders smart or anything, but normal person smart. He had a mind for strategizing, despite what people thought, and if anyone could fix this, it would be him.

“Where’s Gregori?” I asked as I walked in, and he stopped to watch me drop down onto the couch.

“Office,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “Hospital business. Even a kidnapped son doesn’t warrant an afternoon off.” I grimaced, but wasn’t shocked. The man had no room in his heart for anyone but himself it seemed.

“So what’s next then?” I signed, and he ran his hand through his hair tiredly.

“I’m sure Doug will try to make a deal. He can’t possibly believe that he can take out Gregori on his own. I bet he’ll try to buy him away from us, using Anders,” he mused, and I nodded along. It made sense, Gregori wouldn’t turn down a good deal, and his only heir was a good bargaining chip. Our newest ally might not stay that way for long, and then we’d have even bigger problems.

Chapter twenty-two

Levy

Fuck my head hurt, I could swear my skull was going to split open with every breath I took. Someone touched a cool cloth to my face, and I groaned desperately, wishing it could wrap around my head and numb the throbbing.

“That’s it honey,” they soothed, and somewhere, deep down in my chest, an icy-cold tendril of fear took hold. The cloth moved down my stomach, traveling lower, too low, and I slapped the hand away, forcing my eyes open. The room I was in was empty, the woman gone, like she’d never been there. I sat up, clutching my temple as nausea rolled through my gut. I was concussed and hallucinating, that was the only explanation.

Where was I?I looked around blearily, not recognizing the sterile-looking room around me.Where’s my shirt?I looked down at my naked chest, frowning in confusion. My jeans were still on, but the button was torn off, the pants loose around my hips. I shifted my leg, and a metal sound had me frozen on the spot. There was a thick chain on the floor by my feet, bolted to the concrete floor I was sitting on. The chain connected to a metal cuff on my ankle.

No… this wasn’t possible.

I stood up, my legs shaking as I tested the strength of the metal. It was real, I would have to chew my own foot off to getout of this thing. “No, no.” I ran my hands through my hair, pausing when I realized that it was… longer? I could nearly see the dark brown strands. No, this couldn’t be happening. I never let my hair get this long.What the fuck is going on?

The door in front of me swung open, slamming against the wall behind it. A group of men walked in, ones I wished I didn’t recognize. I willed myself to vanish, to hide away, at least for a moment, just to buy some extra few moments of peace. I backed up as far as the chain allowed as they approached, surrounding me.

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