The Beast: Part Six
NICHOLAI
The steady sound of the plane’s engine soothes me as I ride back to America on the first commercial flight I could get out of Greece. I managed to rein in my rage at the young man I thought at first had duped me into believing I would find my Natasha.
One of his brothers got between us before I could lay a hand on the man and we went to get a drink at the nearest bar. I settled down quickly and knew I should get back home to New York.
With the knowledge Natasha is no longer in Greece, my hopes for finding her are falling away, a bit at a time. I think her father will make sure to keep her on the move so I will never be able to catch up to her.
I also think the shrink I saw might be right. How long am I to wait? Forever?
I shake my head and sip on the Scotch I had the stewardess bring me. She’s been eyeing me and I know I could take her in the bathroom and have my way with her. But every time I look her way, I see my Natasha, standing behind her.
Her ghost seems to follow me wherever I go. She’s a part of me and even as I think about how I should move on, I simply can’t. The hope I felt about finally finding her has fallen inside of me. Like a vacuum, it sucks up my emotions. I feel as if I’m perpetually falling and there is no end in sight.
Pulling out my phone, I look at a picture she took of us that morning, the morning after our first night together. After we’d gotten ready to go to work. She labeled it, the first day of our new life together. “Who’s she?” a woman’s voice comes from behind me.
I turn to find an older woman leaning up in her seat. “She’s a woman I’m searching for. She was taken from me about thirteen months ago.”
“She’s gorgeous. You two look great together. Was she kidnapped?” she asks as she looks a little harder at the picture.
I nod. “By her father. He’s an FBI agent. He’s managed to keep her just out of my reach.”
“An FBI agent?” she asks then seems to be thinking.
“Yes, he was investigating my company. My family owns a weapons company. He didn’t want her involved with me.” I put my phone away.
“A weapons company?” she asks then her eyes go narrow. “His name doesn’t happen to be Norman Greenwell, does it?”
“Norman Greenwell is his name,” I answer her with more than a bit of surprise. “You know him?”
“I know of him. Personally, we’ve never met. I’d love to meet the man, though. I have an earful I’d like to give him. He’s stringing my daughter along. He has been for the last couple of years. He keeps telling her he’s on the verge of leaving his wife for her. My brother is also in the FBI, that’s how Greenwell met my daughter,” she tells me, making the wheels spin in my head.
“The man cheats on his wife and has the nerve to judge me?” I ask myself out loud.
“He’s a piece of work, that man,” she says. “I came all the way to Greece to finally confront him as my brother told me he was going there to deal with something and he had my daughter with him when he left New York. I hopped on the first flight out but he and she were gone when I got there.”
“I came for his daughter. And now I suppose what the young man who came for me told me, was true. Only I got there just a little too late to get to her. Did your brother tell you where they were going to go after Greece?” I ask and find myself crossing my fingers as I wait for her answer.
“As a matter of fact, I do know right where they’re going. Nantucket,” she tells me, sending sparks of hope shooting all through me again.
“To where his wife lives?” I ask.
“My brother told me, he’d talked to Norman and that he had some personal business to see to in Nantucket then he’d be back in New York. I have to find my daughter and open her eyes to the man. You see, I’ve found two more women he’s been messing with. My daughter thinks she’s the only one. She’s blocked my calls as she wants me to leave them alone. But I’m not about to do that.”
“Tenacious, aren’t you?” I ask as I think about going right up to their house and knocking on their door once I get back.
“I am. You see, my daughter stands to inherit quite a chunk of money when her paternal grandfather passes away. I think that man is using her for the money she will have one day. Loretta is a doctor and has put that aside to be at that man’s beck and call. A thing I never saw coming from her. She’s too smart to be dealing with a man like that. Once I show her the pictures of him with other women, I hope she’ll see reason and come back home with me.”
“Where does she live now?” I ask as I can surely find the man there if I don’t find Natasha at his home with his wife.
“He keeps her in various hotels. She has no real place to live. Her life is completely uprooted by the man. I have to say, I’ve never hated anyone but I hate that man,” she says.
“Maybe you and I could work together. Your name is?” I ask as I take a pen and paper from the back of the seat in front of me.
“I’m Stacy Holland. And I’d love to help you if you could help me,” she says. “And you are?”
“I am Nicholai Grimm.” I watch her face go pale and wonder why that is.
“Grimm?” she looks at me and reaches out to touch my face. “Are you related to Nicholas Grimm?”
“I’m his son,” I say as I find it even more surprising that she knows my father.
“I went to school with your father. He and I were high school sweethearts. My father was in the military and when he was sent to Germany, we all had to move with him. I lost touch with Nicholas as my letters to him started getting returned to me. I had no idea why that was. It broke my heart as he and I had planned on me coming back to New York when I turned eighteen. It was merely three years from the time I left. Only he must’ve moved on. We were just kids but that felt like real love. To me at least. I suppose he’s doing well now.”
“Not really. He is married to my mother. It’s a shell of a marriage, though. He’s not what you’d expect, I’m afraid. But it’s interesting that you say you two were sweethearts. Did the man ever tell you that he loved you?” I ask.
She nods. “We’d say it all the time to one another. That’s why it hurt so much when my letters were returned, unopened.”
“He’s never uttered those words to me. My father is harsh and cruel at times. And he doesn’t believe in love. He too is against me and Natasha. If I ever do find her, we have a battle with both of our fathers that is sure to erupt.”
“He’s never told you, his own son, that he loves you?” she asks and shakes her head. “He is most definitely not the same person he was all those years ago.”
“Not at all, it seems. I’d bring you to see him, only I wouldn’t want you to deal with the man he’s become, Stacy,” I tell her and watch as she nods, sadly.
“No, I’d rather have my memory of him when we were young and in love. So, let’s put that little discussion away and make a plan of how the hell we can help each other accomplish these goals we have. Seems we’re both chasing after the same man.”
It seems we are and it seems this woman has knowledge, I desperately need!