Saving Grace

32

"God dammit!"

Grace threw her phone across the room, shattered it against the brick wall of Russo's bedroom.

"Whoa, Grace – "

"Fuck off, Richie."

She stormed over the built-in wardrobe, ripped the drawers out of frame and threw them across the bare floor. The crack of wood on wood ripped through the air and made me wince.

"Grace," I said, "we've been searching for hours. There's nothing left of him here."

Russo had completely gutted the entire house – ripped up the carpets, took the coat hangers out of the wardrobe, even stole the lightbulbs from the sockets. I sighed, laced my hands in front of me as I stood in the bare room, on splintered floorboards, surrounded by suffocating white walls and all that awful space between Grace and I.

"Richard, please," she said, "I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now."

She tore the last drawer out, looked inside, and chucked it behind her with the rest of them. I bit my lip.

"Grace, I'm so sorry."

"I don't care, Richie! I don't care if you're sorry. Hell, if you're that sorry, call it off! Tell your psycho buddy to pack his shit and fuck off back to wherever he came from."

"Grace, you know I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because if I do, then Jack's going to keep coming. He's going to break in one of these nights and kill you in your sleep and I can't let anything happen to you."

"If you loved me," she said, "you wouldn't do this to me."

"Well, I'm not going to let you just give up and die."

"If he dies, I might as well, too."

With my lips pressed together and my jaw clenched, I slunk out of the room like a kicked dog. I couldn't understand it. I was trying to help her. I was trying to keep her alive. As I stood in the hall, pacing in the gathering dark, I distinguished the shadow of Godric, stood outside on the porch with his phone to his ear. He mumbled something in Russian and hung up.

"Who was that?" I asked, slipping through the screen door.

"A friend of a friend," he said, tucking the phone in his pocket. "Has she found anything?"

"No," I said.

We fell silent. I looked out across the street at the normal, white picket fence houses, with the grass trimmed neatly and the minivan in the drive. Why couldn't our lives be that simple?

"Richard," Godric said softly. "This is what is best for her, even if she cannot see. Better to have her alive and angry than happily dead."

I paused, considered the words.

"Is there any way I could change your mind about this?" I asked. "About killing him?"

"Richard, think about it. Even if I was to spare him, do you really think you could go on living your life with her knowing he is out there, too? Knowing that any day he could come back, that he could ruin both of you? Could you live in fear, Richard? Because trust me, even if you think you can, you can't."

I sighed, head in my hands. Godric passed me, put one hand on my shoulder.

"Everything will be fine."

With that, he slipped inside, the wire door screeching as he shut it behind him. Maybe he was right. Maybe we could get over this, move on, and most importantly, live normally and happily, but it was just as likely that this would be the end of Grace and I. Tired, I followed him inside as he stopped in the doorway to Russo's room.

"Ugh, what do you want now?" Grace demanded.

"I canvass entire neighbourhood and nobody has seen Russo since yesterday morning. This tells me that he must have hired somebody to help him clear out. I have people working to find these employees. I've men stationed outside your house should he come back, and another tracking his credit cards and mobile phone. In meantime, I think it best for you to go home."

Grace scoffed, smiled humourlessly.

"You're joking."

"No," he said. "No, I'm not 'joking'. We have scanned every inch of this bare house and found nothing, therefore there is nothing more you can do. So it is best you leave."

"Well, I'm not leaving. I'm not going anywhere until I find him."

"Grace you are liability and I cannot keep you safe if you are in my way. Go home."

"Fuck you. You don't understand. I need to find him before – " Grace paused, locked eyes with me. She gulped. "Before he finds me."

I sighed, stepped forward.

"Grace – "

"No, I'm not talking to you. Leave me alone."

I bit my tongue, lowered my eyes. She was never going to forgive me.

"What if I spare him?" Godric said.

We both fell silent, looked up at him like the god he was.

"What?" We said in unison.

"Well, if you go home now, I will spare him. I will do what you say – beat him, leave him at hospital to recover. I will let him go."

Grace narrowed her eyes.

"And why would you do that?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Because you hate my nephew for what he's done and it's tearing him apart."

I crossed my arms, stared at my shoes. I could feel her eyes on me.

"It is painful to watch," he said. "And I see how much you both want me to change my mind so perhaps I make exception, for family."

Grace, unconvinced, tilted her head.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Because as bad a person as I am, I love my family. I would die for them. And I will always do what is best for them." He looked at me, his eyes soft. "And Richard is my family, just as Athelstan was."

He lowered his eyes, met Grace's.

"So," he said. "Do we have an accord?"

He stuck out his hand. Grace stared at his fingertips, calloused white, and pressed her lips together.

"Okay," she breathed, shaking his hand.

"Fantastic. Now, please." He gestured towards the door and Grace, reluctant and unhappy, shuffled outside, into her car, and back to her beautiful mansion.

© A.G. Travers 2018