𝙽𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝙴𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑

Twenty-One

Grayson

I couldn't get my bike to move fast enough. Why the hell wouldn't it go faster? And why wouldn't everybody get the hell out of my way? Didn't they know I was in a hurry?

I couldn't stop. I couldn't slow down. I couldn't get the sound of David's voice out of my head.

"I think they took my mama. They hurt Tony. Please come. The bad guys were here."

The bad guys. Yeah, they were the bad guys, all right. Very bad. If I knew Nikolai was behind the whole thing, I wouldn't have left them alone. Even with Tony. Hell, I would have gotten them out of town. Maybe out of the country. No wonder he wouldn't leave her alone. No wonder it felt so personal. It was personal for him. Why, I never really knew. Why he couldn't let it go. Why he couldn't leave me alone. Why I hadn't fucking killed him when I had the chance.

My fault. My fault. All my fault
. If I had just killed the son of a bitch when I had the chance. No, I left him there. Why? It would have taken two fucking seconds. Less than that, and he would've been out of my life forever. Out of my family's life. They didn't do anything do deserve it. Why was he back? Why did he have such a hard-on for me and the people I loved? I would think he'd give me a fucking break since I spared his life. I shouldn't have. God, I shouldn't have. I would never forgive myself for letting him live.

I roared, screaming into the wind as I rode faster than I ever rode on a crowded street in my life. Cars swerved out of the way for me, and I didn't pay attention to the way they sounded their horns and yelled at me. They were nothing, less than nothing. It didn't matter. I needed Jess. I needed to get to Jess.

I knew Spike and Marco were behind me. I didn't know who else followed. I hoped there were enough to go with me to follow Nikolai-not that I thought I needed backup against him, but I didn't know how many guys he had. If somebody had taken Tony down, there had to be a good number. He was a big guy. I had seen him fight off two, three men at once. I needed all the help I could get.

I was hardly in a parking space before I jumped off my bike and ran for the doors. My kid was in there. Alone with a guy who might have been dead.
Tony. What did they do to him?
I took the stairs two at a time instead of waiting for the elevator, my feet pounding down the hall as I ran for my apartment.

"David?" I shouted his name before I got through the door, and he ran to me. I picked him up, held him close. "Oh, thank God. Thank God you're still okay. Where were you when it happened?"

"In the bedroom. I was taking a nap. I heard noise out here, and I got scared, so I hid under the bed."

"Oh, smart kid. Smart boy. I'm so glad you did that. I know your mama would be, too." Where had they taken her? I didn't have the first idea. "Did you hear anything, David? Anything they said to her?"

He shook his head. I put him down, going to Tony. He was a mess, blood all over the floor. David cried a little, and I told him to look away. "It's okay, buddy. He'll be all right. It looks worse than it is." I hoped I wasn't lying to the poor kid. I didn't know how bad it was or if Tony would ever wake up. Or if he would be the same guy when he did.

I held my fingers to the side of his neck. He was breathing, at least. I smacked his cheeks with the backs of my fingers. By that time, the others came in. I motioned for them to help Tony, while I went to David.

"My friends are gonna help me find your mama," I said, crouching down so we were face-to-face. "And we're gonna bring her home, okay?"

"Do you know where they took her?" he asked. I couldn't lie to the kid.