Saving Grant Ward

Epilogue Chapter Four

I landed in Massachusetts at seven in the morning Eastern time (four am my time), and called Grant as soon as I could. I got his answering machine again, so I left another message.

"I landed in Massachusetts. I'm coming to you. Be smart. Pick up your phone next time I call, and call me back for God's sake."

It took me another three hours to drive to Grant's family cabin. I'd found the earliest flight into the state, but it was still a ways away from where I needed to go. Finally, I found the dirt road that led to the Ward family home. I hid my car in a bush and started carefully walking up the path, scanning the trees on either side. A little ways along, a car was in a bush on the side of the road. One of the back windows was smashed, and the driver side door was thrown open.

"Dammit Grant," I muttered as I stopped and walked cautiously to check the car. Any people were long gone. Hopefully Grant was smart enough not to let the driver see him, but he was so mad I couldn't be sure.

If the driver had run out of here and called the cops, my timeframe just got cut in half. I couldn't let the police catch us.

I started up the dirt road again, now jogging, scanning the surrounding woods for any sign of Grant or his brother. Hopefully, Grant just wanted to scare Christian into leaving SHIELD alone, and everything would be fine when I found them both.

Unfortunately, I was getting more and more worried that my hope was just wishful thinking.

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After a few more minutes of searching, I heard voices coming from the woods just a little ways off the path. I tiptoed, trying to make as little noise as possible, and saw Grant standing in front of his brother, who was tied up sitting at the base of a tree.

I scanned the area first to make sure we wouldn't have any surprises, but the three of us were pretty much alone.

I was gonna go off.

"GRANT DOUGLAS WARD!" I yelled, storming over to him and completely ignoring Christian. His head snapped up and his mouth dropped open when he saw me.

"Samantha?"

"Obviously! What the hell do you think you're doing? I called you three times and you didn't pick up or call back once? Seriously? And you flew all the way to Massachusetts because your brother was talking crap about SHIELD? WHO CARES? This is insane!"

"Samantha, I didn't want-"

"Our lives to be messed up, I know, I know! But we're both in Massachusetts and not San Diego, so you've already made it a little crazy.

"Why the hell didn't you talk to me?" I asked, shaking my head. "If you'd stayed calm and told me about the problem, we could've figured out a plan together instead of this crazy mess. I mean, seriously Grant! Do you know how terrified I was when I came home and you were just... missing? Without a trace? With how many enemies we made at SHIELD? I almost had a heart attack!"

Grant was looking appropriately guilty, and I think he was about to apologize, but then Christian spoke up.

"So you're the girl that left Grant that phone message? Nice to see someone keeping him in check. You know, if you ever get tired of babysitting him and want a more mature Ward brother..."

Grant growled and started towards Christian, but I stopped him. I was seeing red, and I wanted to handle this asshole myself.

"What the hell did you just say?" I asked.

"I said-"