Chapter Ten – Grayson
Three days and it already felt like a lifetime without his children.
Grayson's feet dragged along the hospital corridor, like his feet were too heavy to lift. His whole body felt sluggish, unable to draw out the energy to move properly. With his shoulders slumped towards the ground, wrinkled, torn clothes smelling like smoke, and reddened dry eyes, he was the epitome of a defeated man. His fires were so low they were almost charcoal. He hadn't slept since they were taken and there was nothing he could do to get them back.
The kidnappers hadn't even given him a chance to step back from politics like they ordered him to. They just took his children. He had spent the last two days scouring every threat he had received, but none of them went after his children, except the call he'd gotten right before they were taken. Why would they call to warn him off, and then just take the children without giving him a chance to comply?
He licked his lips nervously outside of Arabella's room. He hadn't gotten a ransom call yet, and every time he visited her, he felt helpless. When she first came out of surgery, she had asked him about the children. Hearing that they were taken sent her into such a frenzy that the doctors had to sedate her. Since then, she'd been silent and withdrawn.
Grayson had never felt so helpless.
He entered Arabella's room to find the curtains drawn around the bed. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and cleared his throat. "Arabella? It's Grayson. Are you awake?"
The curtains were drawn back to reveal Arabella completely dressed. Her eyes were less vibrant than usual, but her face was set in grim determination. Grayson immediately moved to help her, but she shook her head and turned her back on him. He stepped back, remembering how she had already made it clear that she didn't want a relationship despite their past intimacies.
"What are you doing?" he asked. "You should be in bed resting."
"I'll rest when the twins are back. I'm checking myself out."
Grayson stared in a mix of amazement and horror. "Arabella, you can't. You were shot. You need to stay in bed."
Arabella shook her head. "I'm fine. I can walk around, I don't need a wheelchair and as long as I refrain from any seriously strenuous tasks, I won't reopen my stitches. Besides, I got a transfusion of shifter blood and it's really sped up my healing processes."
"I know." Grayson inched forward again. "Otherwise you might not have survived that shot. But shifter blood isn't a cure-all. You need to give yourself time to recover."
Arabella shook her head. "I can't stay here any longer. Not when the children are out there in the hands of that . . . "
Grayson's heart clenched. He quickly strode to her side and reached to put his arms around her, but she elbowed him in the sternum and skipped out of his reach. She eyed him warily, as though expecting him to do something like insist on holding her. He was so hurt by the distrust in her eyes that he drew back. Did she blame him for the twins being taken? Or did she think he'd use her distress to take advantage of her?
"At least let me drive you back home," he said. "I know you'll want to know what is happening with the investigation—"
"No." She shook her head again. "It's my fault they were taken, and I have to get them back."
He wanted to hold her, but clearly, that was the wrong thing to do. He ran a hand over the stubble poking out from his chin and shook his head. "Arabella, you can't blame yourself. You were shot."
She didn't respond as she tucked her thin wallet into the pocket of her sweater.
"I am doing everything I can to get them back. I've got private investigators, the police, everybody. But I haven't even gotten any calls for a ransom yet."
"It's not going to be that easy."
Her eyes met his, and the guilt in them could have strangled him. He was silent, staring at her, wishing he knew what to say to comfort her.
"There was nothing you could have done to stop the kidnappers. They were professionals—"
"So am I."
Grayson frowned. "You mean a professional nanny or—"
"No." Arabella shook her head. She sagged for a moment before striding to the door. She checked up and down the hall before she closed the door and returned to him. Her hands twisted, and tears glimmered in her eyes. "Grayson, I'm going to tell you something. And I'll understand that you'll hate me for it, but—"
"I don't hate you."
She pressed a finger to his lips, quietening him, but pulled back quickly. She chewed on her lip for a moment before straightening her shoulders and sucking in a deep breath. "Grayson . . . I've been lying to you since we met. Everything – at least, almost everything – that I've done was a lie. But I need you to know that I love Olivia and Hudson. I didn't want this to happen."
A cold ball slipped down his spine, landing heavily in his stomach. He tried to fight off his rising anxiety, but it was difficult. Stiffly, he nodded at her to continue. What was she getting at?
"When I was sixteen, I was taken in by an organization that trains young people to be spies. They trick us in with promises of work and a better life, and then they make us do things . . . No, 'spies' isn't the right word." She took another deep breath. "They teach us how to kill people. How to manipulate people, steal secrets . . . anything that we're hired to do. I'm a professional kidnapper and assassin."
Grayson's mind reeled. He backed away from Arabella, shaking his head. He already knew what this meant, but couldn't believe it. No. There was no way that Arabella – sweet, loving Arabella – would have been privy to his children being kidnapped.
"They keep track of every single thing they give us, from water to clothes to a place to sleep. They charge us for everything and with each mission we complete, some of our debt is paid. They said this was my last mission. Nobody was supposed to be hurt." Tears flowed freely down her face. "I wanted to find another way. I wanted to fake my own kidnapping. But the organization . . . they knew that I was . . . wanting to change things. They didn't want that, so they authorized my partner to go ahead with the mission without me. She took the children."
Rage flared through his body. His fires whipped to a frenzy. He had never hated anybody as much as he hated her in that moment. If anybody else had just told him what she had, he'd have torn them apart. But this was Arabella, and there was still a part of his mind that refused to believe that she could have anything to do with putting his children in danger.
"I will get them back. I will do whatever it takes, but I will get them back," she said. "Grayson, I promise."
She reached for him. He jerked away as though she had a gun in her hand. Smoke billowed from his nostrils. Without a word, he seized her around the waist and dragged her towards the window. Arabella cried out as he let loose a blast of fire, shattering the glass outward. He paused a moment to make sure his grip was secure, then threw them both out of the window. Arabella screamed, clinging to him. His suit ripped apart as he shifted. His wings snapped out, catching them, and he quickly lifted to a higher elevation. Arabella's arms gripped him firmly, and he cupped her in both hands to make sure she didn't fall.
He flew for a solid hour, the whistling wind doing nothing to calm his rage. Eventually, he set down on the top of a snowy mountain peak. With a blast of fire, the snow all melted around them. He set Arabella down and Shifted again.
"Grayson, I am so sorry," she sobbed. "I love them, I really do."
"What did you do?" he hissed.
Between sobs ripping through her body, she told him everything. How this was supposed to be her final mission, and that she had set everything up in meticulous detail to ensure that nobody would actually be hurt but that his political days would be behind him. Grayson's rage went from hot to cold, and by the time she was done, he didn't know what to say or do. He didn't know the person he was looking at.
He turned, screaming into the air as a ball of fire erupted from his mouth. His massive shoulders slumped. After everything he thought was between them . . . it was all a lie. To her credit, she didn't beg him to forgive her. She knew what she had done was unforgivable.
"You are going to get them back," he said coldly. "No matter what it takes."
"Yes," she agreed.
"And then you're going to jail."
There was only a brief moment's pause. "Yes."
He turned back, breathing out the rest of the smoke that filled his lungs. He wasn't sure what else to say, but as he gazed at Arabella, a pain he never thought he'd experience again filled him. How could he even look in her eyes again after this?
"I haven't received any ransom demands," he said. "I was going to back off politics. What changed?"
Arabella's eyes dropped. "They could see me. I was getting emotionally attached. Maybe they thought I wouldn't go through with the job. But whatever the reasons, I haven't just been sitting in the hospital. I've been researching. I have a place to start looking."
"Good." He drew in a deep breath to calm himself, then nodded. "Good. I'll fly you back to my house. I want to be in on every step of the way."
"You will be, and I will get them back." She wiped away her tears and a look of fierce determination came over her face. "No matter what."