Chapter 16 Grace
GRACE
I’ve just driven past the leaning tower of Pisa. If I weren’t running for my life, I would enjoy the moment a little more. The adrenaline is fading the further I’ve gotten from Maxim and Sergei without being detected by the two of them.
I pull into a gas station, looking for a pay phone.
I need to get in contact with my family as soon as possible.
Pulling in, in a clearly damaged luxury car grabs people’s attention.
Maybe they will take pity on me thinking I’ve been involved in an accident.
Stopping the car, I get out and head inside.
“Buongiorno,” I say, the only Italian I know.
The attendant looks at me but says nothing.
“Do you speak English?”
He eyes me suspiciously. Totally get it as he sees the car I’ve driven in with.
“Do you have a telephone I can use?”
He stares at me again, and his gaze drifts to the telephone beside
him, then back to me.
“Please, I’m lost. I need to call my family. I have no money.”
He looks at me blankly. “Blow job?” he asks.
Is he fucking serious? What a fucking creep.
“Fuck you.”
He shrugs. “No phone.”
I stomp out of the shop, jump into my car, and start crying. There’s a tap on the side of the door.
A girl is smiling at me.
“I saw what happened, what an asshole. Here’s my phone, use it, I hope it helps. It looks like you might need it.” She hands it to me, her eyes accessing the luxury car with the shot-out windows.
I can’t believe it. “Thank you, thank you so much,” I say to her as the tears stream down my face. She is a fucking angel in this nightmare.
She smiles, moves away to give me privacy, and waits for me to use it.
I try to remember someone’s phone number, and when it comes to me, I press the numbers on the phone. Come on, come on.
“Hello?”
“Sophie?” Oh my god, it is so good to hear her voice.
“Grace.”
“It’s me, Soph.”
“Oh my god. Brooks, trace this call!” she screams at the mercenary.
“On it,” he calls out in the background.
“I just passed the leaning tower of Pisa. I’m not sure where I am,” I tell her, looking around at the gas station but there aren’t any signs.
“Don’t worry, Brooks will have your location in a couple of minutes. Are you okay? Did you kill Dmitri? she asks, bombarding me with questions.
“I’m fine, I promise.” Just brokenhearted, but they don’t need to know that. They also wouldn’t understand. “Dmitri doesn’t have me. I’ll explain more when we are together. All I know is I’m in Italy.”
“Brooks has your location. He’s getting the jet sorted, then we can
rescue you.”
My shoulders relax. I did it. I’m free. My family is rescuing me. A tiny twinge hits me when I think about not seeing Maxim again. Forget about him, it would never have worked anyway.
“Are you okay?” she asks me again.
“I promise I’m fine. I’ve been well looked after.”
“By the people who kidnapped you?” she asks, sounding skeptical.
“Yes, they helped me get clean. They sat beside me caring for me at some of the worst moments of my life.”
Sophie falls silent on the phone.
“I told you I can’t explain it, Soph. There’s too much to catch up on over the phone.
But I’m safe. No one touched me. And honestly, I feel the best I’ve felt in a long time.
” That bit is kind of true. I hate how things were left between Maxim and me.
I hate that he thinks I would use his dead sister to escape.
You kind of did. If I’m going to be accused of something might as well do it.
“We’ll be there in two hours. Do you think you can hang on
for that long?”
That long. “Yes, I’ll be waiting for you.”
The girl taps on the side of the car.
“I must go, Soph, the girl wants her phone back, but I’ll be
waiting for you, I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I love you, Gracie.”
“I love you, Soph.” Then the phone goes dead.
I hand it back to the girl. “Thank you so much.”
She smiles and wishes me luck.
Now I need to move this car out of sight and wait. Freedom is so close.
I must fall asleep as I’m jolted awake by the slamming of a car door. I open my eyes and look around.
“Hi, Grace.” Maxim smiles at me, pointing a gun at my face from the passenger seat.
I start screaming, but he lunges and cups his hand over my mouth. I bite his hand and try to push him away. Then I turn to open the door, but Sergei is standing there, a gun trained on me as well.
Fuck! No, no, no.
“I’m not going back with you!”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, you’re too late. My sister and her security team are going to
turn up at any moment. They know where I am. You’re too late.”
“Get out.” Maxim’s voice is calm, but there’s a definite chill to his
words.
“No! I’m so close to going home. Please, I’m so close.”
“Grace, I can’t let you go. Now get out.”
Sergei opens the driver’s door, and I follow Maxim’s instructions.
Hopefully, Sophie isn’t far. I glare at Sergei as I get out. I can’t believe he’s holding a gun in my face again.
Maxim moves into the driver’s seat, and Sergei pushes me around to the passenger’s side.
“Get in.”
“No, please, no. Just let me go home.”
He ignores me.
Maxim starts the sports car, and the engine’s rumble vibrates through my body. I have no choice. I get into the car.
“Put your seatbelt on,” Sergei tells me.
With a huff, I do as I’m told.
“Meet you back at the villa,” Maxim says to Sergei as he zooms out of the gas station parking lot.
I fold my arms across my chest and contemplate my chances of surviving a jump from a car going this fast, but all my calculations lead back to not surviving.
After what feels like forever, Maxim finally speaks. “I’m sorry.”
This gets my attention.
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about my sister.”
I go back to looking out the window ignoring him. I don’t care that he’s sorry.
“I deserve your silent treatment, Grace. I should have trusted you, and I didn’t. It’s hard for a man like me to trust. The only person I can trust in my life is Sergei. Everyone else in my world will put a bullet in my chest.”
I want to put a bullet in his chest right in this moment.
He doesn’t say anything more for a while, letting me wallow. “Did you really call your family?”
“Yes.”
His hand slams against the steering wheel, bumping the horn, which blasts through the quiet making me jump.
“I’m sorry that I stole you away again.” He looks over at me, but his eyes are too intense.
I turn back to the window and stare out at the scenery.
“I’ll return you to your family. I promise you that, Grace. I just … I just need you for a little longer.”
Ignoring him, I don’t want to hear it because I don’t believe him. He’s just as bad as Dmitri, he may not force himself on me, but he’s still not letting me go. I’m still a toll to be bargained with. He doesn’t see me as a human.
Maxim gives up talking to me for the rest of the way until we eventually make it back to the villa. I hate how some portion of my heart is happy to see the villa again, and the other side wishes I never saw this place again.
I step out of the car, slam the door for full affect, and stomp across the crushed rocks of the driveway.
I march through the front door and across the marble floors, then up the grand staircase.
Once at the top, I slam my bedroom door for good measure, rattling the hinges.
Collapsing onto my bed, I scream in frustration at how close I came to escaping.
How Sophie must be feeling finding me not there anymore.
She’s probably wondering if she was too late.
Did Dmitri find me? I should feel lucky that it was Maxim that found me and not Dmitri.
Either way, I’m back in a world that I don’t want to be.