GraceinMoonlight (6 page)

He’d been waiting for this. “Tell me what it is and I’ll let
you know if I can.”

“Promise me you’ll make sure Alex gets out no matter what.”

He nodded. “I promise to do everything I can to make that
happen.”

Her eyes dipped and her teeth came out to nibble on her
bottom lip. “Thank you. And…I have another request.”

His eyebrows lifted as he waited, having no idea what she
was about to ask.

“If my daughter’s there… I—I want you to help me get her
out.”

He’d heard about the daughter from Dr. Dane Dimitriou, heard
about the circumstances of her birth. And he could see the anguish even now in
Grace’s eyes. He’d kill Marrucini with his bare hands if he had the chance.

But… “Will she know who you are? Will she leave with you willingly?”

He felt like the world’s biggest son of a bitch when tears
welled in her eyes again but she held his gaze. “No, I don’t think she’ll know
me. And I don’t think she’ll go willingly. I just…need to try. She’s only
fifteen, Kaisie. If we get lucky, she won’t have come into her full power yet.
It usually hits at puberty. I didn’t hit puberty until I was sixteen and then
my power was mostly harmless. I’m hoping…maybe…”

That maybe the girl who’d been born
Mal
and reared by
the ruthless bastard who was her father hadn’t turned completely evil. That she
could be saved.

But as far as Kaisie knew, no one had ever escaped the
Mal
’s
hold. And how could they? They were literally
born
evil, cursed to crave
power and wealth and lacking any instinct for good.

“I can’t promise that, Grace. If it comes down to Alex or
the girl, we take Alex. But if we get an opportunity, I’ll try.”

She forced a smile. “That’s all I ask. Thank you.”

* * * * *

The flight to Florida was shorter than she’d expected and
surprisingly quiet, considering there were ten people in the airplane.

Grace knew most of them. Kaisie, of course, sitting next to
her, his eyes closed. His daughter Kaine and her mate John in the row next to
them.

Kyle, Duke and Nic, Kaine’s fellow
sicarii
, sat in
the two rows beyond Kaine. Another two
lucani
, Seth and Race, sat near
the front of the cabin, along with another man Grace had never met. He gave off
a steady wave of power that she couldn’t mistake. Or decipher.

She figured he was a
stregone
, a male witch, though
they typically didn’t have that much power. But this one…

Sighing, she shook her head. She should try to get some rest
but she couldn’t get her brain to shut off.

Last night…

She didn’t regret a single minute. She only wished—

No. No wishing. She needed to stay focused on the task
ahead.

She couldn’t let herself consider failure. They would get
Alex back.

They had to. Alex would be waiting for them, praying for her
to come get him.

And her daughter…

If her daughter was there, she wasn’t leaving without her.

“Grace.”

Kaisie’s voice startled her out of her thoughts and her gaze
snapped to his. Her breath caught in her throat at the intensity in his eyes
and the attraction she felt whenever she looked at him hit her low in her body,
right between her legs.

Damn him. Last night had been amazing. At least for her.
She’d almost expected him to be gone this morning when she woke. And to ignore
her today as if nothing had happened between them.

But now he acted as if he actually cared about what happened
to her. As if he didn’t care who knew.

He was confusing the almighty hell out of her so she kept
her mouth shut and waited for him to continue.

“You have the knife?”

He’d given her a blade in a plain leather sheath she now had
strapped around her waist. “You helped me strap it on.”

His gaze narrowed. “Don’t take it off.”

She nodded though she knew she’d take it off in a heartbeat.
If it came down to her son and daughter or the knife, she’d give up the knife.
Knowing that it might cost her her life.

Kaisie kept staring at her, as if he knew exactly what she
was thinking, as if he wanted her to confess.

But one night of great sex did not give him the right to
tell her what to do.

So she just stared back.

But she couldn’t hold his gaze.

She heard him sigh as she turned to look out the window,
where the ground was fast approaching. The plane had begun its descent and
they’d be landing in minutes. It wouldn’t take long to get to the compound and
they were counting on the element of surprise to get them in and out with a minimum
of bloodshed.

For the next few minutes, she tried to clear her mind of
everything but her goal—get her kids. Even the one who might not want her.

* * * * *

“Kaine.”

“What’s up, Dad?”

Kaisie drew his daughter around to the far side of the
idling plane, where no one would hear them over the noise from the engines.

“Whatever happens, you don’t leave her side.”

Kaine didn’t look surprised by his demand, just waited for
him to continue.

“I think she’s gonna do something stupid.”

Kaine’s head cocked to the side. “Like?”

Like trade herself for Alex. Or do something even more
stupid and get herself killed in pursuit of her daughter.

Even though Kaisie knew he’d do the same thing for his own
daughter.

“Just stick with her. Let the others get the kid.”

“Okay.”

Her easy acceptance made him smile.

But it died a quick death as the group got into the two vans
they’d had waiting for them at the private airport only twenty minutes from
Marrucini’s compound on the outskirts of Tampa.

Since everyone knew the plan, there wasn’t a lot of talk
during the drive and they drove to the staging area in relative silence.

He watched Grace without trying to make it obvious that he
was watching her, while she kept her gaze carefully trained out the front
window. He saw her skin pale with each mile marker, her eyelids flutter when
they turned off Interstate 4 to wind through an industrial area to get to their
destination.

Race had somehow found an abandoned warehouse near the
border of Marrucini’s property where they could park the vans and change, for
those shifting into their pelts.

Kaisie could see the silence was starting to get to Grace so
before he shifted, he asked John to keep her company until they were ready to
head out.

By the time he dropped his black-leather collar by his side,
removed his clothes and put them in the backpack John would carry, he felt
ready to crawl out of his skin. Because she looked ready to do the same.

Chill, old man. You won’t be able to function if you
don’t chill.

Through sheer force of will, he pushed the doubts to the
back of his mind and called his wolf.

When he stood on four paws instead of two feet, he shook his
head and his tail then picked up his leash and trotted over to Grace, where he
dropped it at her feet.

He didn’t know if she realized what he was offering her at
that moment. John did, though, which was why he didn’t bend to pick up the
collar.

Grace stared at it for a second before she looked at John,
questions in her eyes.

“He wants you to put it on for him.”

After a moment’s hesitation, she knelt down, picked up the
collar and took a few seconds to examine how it worked. She ran her fingers
over the embedded tracker and the latch designed to break apart with the right
motion.

Then she looked at him. And he knew she’d figured out what
he was offering her.

She bit her lip before she got onto her knees in front of
him and fastened the collar with gentle fingers.

Each collar was specially made for the wearer and fit
perfectly. So she didn’t need to fuss with it or let her fingers smooth his fur
around the leather. He let her do it, actually tipped his head to the side so
she could scratch his neck for a few stolen seconds before she stood.

“All right, people.” Kyle waited by the door, his dark gaze
taking in everything. “In and out. Fast and clean. Let’s go.”

Kaisie asked the Blessed Mother Goddess to give them a
fucking break and headed for the door on Grace’s heels.

* * * * *

Grace had assumed it would come down to a scene much like
this.

She just hadn’t imagined it would happen so easily.

She and the
lucani
had infiltrated Marrucini’s
compound with a minimum of drama. No flashing lights, no screaming alarms.

They’d snuck onto the property at different entry points,
the stranger who’d joined them on the plane working a complicated spell that had
weakened both the magical wards surrounding the grounds and the sophisticated
alarm system that served as its backup.

She had no time to wonder who the man was because they were
moving.

The wolves had streaked across the expanse of needle-sharp
green blades that passed for grass in Florida, racing for their point of entry.

The rest of them on two legs had followed as quickly as they
could.

She went as fast as she could, yet still lagged behind
everyone except John, Kaine’s mate, who stuck to her side like glue.

By the time they reached the house, Kyle, now in his skin
and dressed, had opened the door that had led them into a mudroom that backed
into the kitchen.

Since it was the middle of the night, the two rooms were
empty, as was the hallway outside the kitchen.

She’d thought,
This is just too easy
, right before a
guard passed the outside door they’d just entered.

Holding her breath until he’d continued on, after checking
to see that the door was locked, she’d tried not to make too much noise as she
replaced much-needed air in her lungs.

John had touched her shoulder, his expression concerned, but
she’d shook her head just once and waited for Kyle to give them the go-ahead.

She, John and Kaine had been assigned to check the first
floor, probably because Kyle knew most of the action would probably take place
upstairs in the bedrooms. And he didn’t want her in the way.

She could live with that, as long as Kaisie kept his promise
and found her daughter.

No one had expected Ettore to walk into the kitchen.

Grace froze at the sight of the man who still managed to
give her nightmares after all these years. Ettore looked like any other
middle-aged man in baggy jeans and a loose t-shirt.

But this man was a monster.

Her heart tripped all over itself as her fight-or-flight
mechanism kicked in.

But she didn’t have time to pick one because John shoved her
behind him, so hard she cried out as she hit the floor.

Her cry was lost in Kaine’s snarl as she leaped for Ettore,
aiming for his throat.

Which he countered by disappearing.

With nothing to stop her forward momentum, Kaine sailed into
the double ovens on the wall then fell to the ground with a painful-sounding
yip that had John rushing to her side.

Leaving Grace to scramble to her feet by herself. She got
about halfway up when pain shot through her scalp as someone grabbed her hair.

Ice coated her veins at his touch. She knew it was him. He’d
held her this way too many times for her to scrub the memory from her brain.

And when she felt the prick of a blade at her throat, she
prayed that Kaisie would remember his promise.

Because she was about to pay for her transgressions.

* * * * *

Kaisie, now in his skin, and Race, his claws silent on the
wood floor, climbed the back staircase to the third floor where they were
pretty sure the boy was being held.

They hadn’t encountered any security of any kind, either
magical or electronic and Kaisie couldn’t decide if it was hidden so well,
they’d missed it, or if Marrucini was that damn sure of his wards and outdoor
security.

Then he’d wondered if maybe the guy had known they were
coming and was drawing them farther into the building before picking them off
one by one.

They’d encountered no security men inside the house and
Kaisie just couldn’t wrap his head around that.

It made him that much more tense as they went deeper into
the house.

“This guy’s a fucking idiot or we’re about to get out asses
handed to us.”

Race apparently agreed. At least that’s what Kaisie assumed
Race meant when he shook his head.

As they reached the top of the stairs, Kaisie finally
detected the faint scent he was searching for.

The boy was up here. Somewhere.

And so was someone else. A female.

A nanny? Nurse? Or Grace’s daughter?

Didn’t matter. They’d sort that out later. First get the
boy.

Signaling for Race to follow him, Kaisie started off across
the sitting room that opened at the top of the stairs. Three doors stood on the
opposite side of the room and Kaisie followed his nose to the one in the
center.

The boy was through that door. But he wasn’t alone.

He waited until he had Race’s attention then held up two
fingers. When Race nodded, Kaisie started a countdown with his fingers.

On one, he turned the handle and opened the door.

Kaisie heard nothing, no change in breathing, no movement.
So he stuck his head through the door.

And caught sight of the gun leveled at his head.

“You don’t want to come any closer.”

The female voice was young but steady, as was the gun.

Kaisie froze, holding his hand behind his back in a fist to
stop Race from showing himself.

He didn’t want to spook the girl and have her blow a hole
through him. She might not hit his head but who knew what she could hit.

Then he held out his hands in front of him, palms up. “We’re
not here to harm anyone. We’re just here for the boy. He doesn’t belong here.”