GRAYSON

 

Could she have had second thoughts? Maybe he had pushed her too far too fast. If that is true, then the present in his pocket is going to have to wait for longer than he had hoped. He’d gone into the jewelry store that day on an impulse, but he was completely sure that it was what he wanted, that he’d never wanted anything in his life so much.

 

Dammit, he’d scared her off, and now she doesn’t know what to say to him. That is the only explanation. She’d said she would text him when she got home, but he hasn’t heard anything. He’d been at the gym, checking his cell compulsively, but that hadn’t made a message from Adriana magically appear. He’d been trying to call her since her shift at the hospital is due to finish; but, there’d been no response. That’s when the tingling sensation at the back of his neck started, that feeling that all is not right in the world.

 

He drives like a bat out of hell towards her apartment, trying to figure out what to say to her when he gets there. If she thinks he is moving too fast, then he can move slower and give her more time to get to the place where he already is. Grayson knows exactly what he wants. It’s all bound up in one word, in one person: Adriana.

 

He throws the Jeep into a parking spot and bounds up the stairs of her apartment building two at a time. He literally can’t wait to see her. He takes a deep breath as he gets outside her door and goes to knock before stopping abruptly. The door isn’t closed. That’s when the tingling sensation turns into more of an alarm bell.

 

“Adriana?” He pushes open the door the rest of the way, preparing himself for a fight. Awful scenarios run through his mind, of Adriana being robbed, of her being hurt; but, nothing troubles him as much as what he finds in the apartment.

 

Grayson steps inside, and there’s a crunch of glass and metal underneath his shoe. He bends down to see what looks like whatever’s left of Adriana’s phone, the screen smashed to pieces. That’s when his body kicks into gear.

 

“Adriana? Adrie?” He moves through the tiny apartment, throwing open doors, searching for someone who he already knows isn’t there. Finding every room empty, he circles back to the kitchen, his eyes scanning for any clues that will tell him what the hell happened there.

 

There aren’t any signs of a struggle, except the broken cellphone. But he doesn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out what’s happened; he’s been left with an explanation. His eyes land on a pristine white envelope with his name written on the front in handwriting that he wishes he didn’t recognize.

 

“What the hell have you done to her, you bastard?” Grayson rips open the envelope with shaking hands, remembering Morrison’s words from earlier that day. I’m going to have to find a way to incentivize you. His whole body freezes at the memory. He squeezes his eyes shut at the words, which might as well be written in blood, on the page in front of him.

 

This isn’t something I wanted to do, Grayson. But you left me with no other choice. Either you throw your next fight or your beautiful little girlfriend won’t be so beautiful the next time you see her. Tell no one or you’ll regret it and so will she.

 

For a few seconds, Grayson feels his emotions overtake him—the anger, the guilt, the fright, the need to fix it, and his love for Adriana. He turns around and punches the first thing that he comes into contact with, which happens to be a wall. His knuckles are red with blood, but he doesn’t feel any pain in his hand. The only pain he feels is in his chest, as if his heart is being squeezed and squeezed.

 

This is his fault, and what has happened to Adriana is on him. He had ignored Morrison’s warning. Too sure of himself, he’d baited a man who didn’t back down and who had no intention of losing. When Grayson was still working for him, back in Philly, and Morrison had asked him to throw his first fight, Morrison had come up with an explanation that summed the man up completely. “It’s just business. Don’t think of it as losing a fight, think of it as winning a whole heap of cash. Kid, that’s the beauty of this system; no matter what you do, you always win. That’s the only way I know how to play.” Morrison’s smug smile of self-satisfaction is still burned in Grayson’s mind. He has to stop himself from going postal and letting out all the rage that he’s bottling up.

 

He leans over the kitchen counter, breathing deeply and trying to clear his head, trying to think about anything other than the myriad ways in which he wants to hurt Morrison. Grayson knows that’s not the way to get Adriana back, but it would be a lie to say that it doesn’t make him feel better. He breathes deeply, clearing his mind, practicing some of the techniques that West had taught him after he’d found him in Philly. He needs to focus and come up with a plan of action. Morrison is already ten steps ahead of him, and the more time Grayson wastes, the longer it will take for him to catch up.

 

He has to get Adriana back, whatever it takes. He picks up her broken cell and lays it gently on the counter, as if it were an extension of her rather than just a wrecked piece of technology. He takes a last look around the apartment and walks out, closing the door softly behind him. He doesn’t notice the way the blood drips from his split knuckles onto the floor. It’s not important. The only thing that’s important right now is getting Adriana back.

 

He jogs down the steps, a plan beginning to form in his mind, and he calls the one person he knows he can turn to in a time of need. Morrison had said not to tell anyone, but short of tapping Grayson’s phone, he would never know about this conversation with West. Besides, no matter how much he wants to, Grayson knows that this isn’t something he can handle on his own. Where Adriana’s concerned, he can’t think straight. The last thing he wants to do is fly off the handle and make a mistake that gets her hurt or worse. No, he can’t think about that, just the idea of something happening to her makes his entire being feel like it might shut down, and he couldn’t afford for that to happen. Adriana is depending on him; he can’t let her down.

 

“West, something’s happened. I need your help.”