“Luke, calm down, I’ll be right there.” Xander’s voice is stern but oddly comforting.
“Okay, hurry,” I say and hang up, looking into the empty space of the house. Knowing that I need to do something, I head to the garage to the breaker box and turn the power back on. I need to take a better look around, to find some clues, so I can figure out who it was that took her. I’ve killed so many people, and while I don’t necessarily have a lot of enemies, letting that fucker see mine and Grace’s faces put a target on our back.
Once the lights are back on, I move through the house a third time. Looking for anything that could help me. When I reach the kitchen, I see it, on the fridge. I find a handwritten note. You killed my blood, now I kill something of yours. -P. A.
Fuck! I slam my first into the fridge and lean my clammy forehead against the cold steel. This exactly what I didn’t want to happen.
There’s an ache in my chest and a tightness in my gut that I’ve never experienced before. It takes me a moment to even recognize it for what it is. Fear. I’m terrified and I have never felt this kind of fear in my life. The fear of losing Grace. It’s real, and it’s pumping throughout my body, claiming every piece of my soul.
The creaking of the front door causes me to jump, and I turn with my gun raised when my eyes lock on Xander’s I let my arm fall back down to my side.
“It’s okay, we’ll find her. Tell me what happened,” Xander commands.
“Paulio Angelini, happened,” I grit out, pointing at the note on the fridge. “I thought you were taking care of it? Now he’s got, Grace. What the fuck are we going to do?” I scrub a hand down my face. If I have to I’ll kill every fucker, listening to them gurgle on their own blood.
“Fuck, that bastard. Of course, I’ve been dealing with him, Luke, but he’s a big fish. It hasn’t been easy getting to him. He’s got men everywhere.”
“I don’t care what he’s got, or even who he is. I’ll kill them all, including him. If they touch one single hair on her head, I swear, they’re all as good as dead now.”
Xander stares at me, his eyes soft for, well, the first time ever. “I said it hasn’t been easy, not that it was impossible. We’ll find her, Luke, and they’ll all pay for fucking with us, I promise you that.”
“They better.”
The past two hours have been the longest of my life. I’m barely holding on to my sanity, and my patience is as thin as ice as we search tirelessly for Grace. It’s been hours since I last saw her, kissed her lips, felt her skin against mine. I’m going insane, like a rabid animal, I’m seconds away from going crazy.
Xander has called in anybody, and everybody that could possibly help in finding her, and we are using every resource at our disposable, even calling in every favor we could. My living room has turned into a small search party headquarters, and it makes me sick. Xander, Damon, and Hero are staying here for now, but they’re mostly on their phones, calling every man in every corner of the city so it feels more like I’m alone, drowning in my own misery. If I find her, if she’s okay, god, I fucking pray she’s okay I’ll give this up. I’ll give everything up if she’s okay.
Finally, after two excruciating long hours, we get a hit on Angelini. One of Xander’s drug dealers saw him walking into a hotel downtown. That’s all the information we need to start moving. We are geared up and ready to go in less than a minute.
“Are you sure you want to come?” Damon asks me on the way out.
“You’re fucking joking, right?” I shake my head.
“I know you want to come but you’re not thinking straight right now. We can get her for you, with less bloodshed, and fewer witnesses.”
“And if it was Kiera who had been kidnapped, would you wait at home while we were getting her for you?”
“Fuck, no! Okay, I get it, but remember it’s not just about vengeance. Grace is our number one priority. I know you want blood, but that’s not what this is about.”
I roll my eyes and place a blade into the ankle of my boot, “I just want my wife back, unharmed, that’s it.”
“And we’ll get her back,” Hero concurs, placing a slap against my back, “now let’s roll out so we can get the girl and save the day.”
At Hero’s command, we all climb into the oversized Tahoe. Hero and I get into the back, Damon in the driver’s seat, and Xander in the passenger seat, still on the phone coordinating the attack with his man.