27. Dane
TWENTY-SEVEN
Dane
This so-called business meeting was a farce. My father didn’t actually want me to talk, just to stand here like some kind of show pony.
But you know what? I was going with it.
If I could smile and shake the hand of Kip’s new father-in-law and make this all go faster, then I was willing to do it. I could be nice.
I just wanted to get back to Grace so we could enjoy the rest of our evening together.
After my father released me, I went looking for Grace. But she wasn’t by the bar or mingling with the other guests at cocktail hour. I tried the dining room, where the staff was still putting the finishing touches on the tables before dinner.
Grace wasn’t there either.
But I spotted Ainsley on her phone in a quiet corner of the patio, like she was avoiding her family responsibilities as much as I wanted to. I went over to her. “Enjoying your duties as maid of honor?”
Ainsley put her phone away, rolling her eyes but not bothering to look guilty. “Bristol is always a lot, but on her wedding day? Bridezilla doesn’t even cover it. She and Kip are off somewhere, so I made my escape.”
I chuckled. “I was just roped into a talk about our fathers’ potential hotel deal. The excitement never ends.”
“If only our parents would leave us out of it.” She crossed her arms over her bridesmaid dress. It was plain black, since Bristol and Kip had gone with a black-and-white theme. “I didn’t get the chance to apologize for our fathers’ scheming about you and me being an item.”
I shrugged. “Par for the course. I didn’t let it get to me, and it sounds like you’re the same.”
She laughed. “I’m just grateful your date didn’t hate me over that whole thing. Not like you need my approval, but I like her.”
I smiled fondly. “I like Grace too. A lot. I was just looking for her, actually. Last place I can think of to check is the ladies’ room. Not exactly my turf, though.”
Ainsley set her empty champagne flute on a waiter’s passing tray. “I can check the bathroom for you. I’m all for a strategic alliance. Even if it’s not the one our fathers were plotting, heaven forbid.”
We passed through the maze of wedding guests guzzling free booze and eating hors d’oeuvres.
“Have you noticed all the plotting that Kip and Bristol have been doing lately?” Ainsley said when no one else was in earshot. “It’s painful to watch. They think they’re so subtle.”
I tensed. “What exactly do you think they’re up to?”
“Pretty sure it’s something to do with the hotel partnership. But more than anything, cutting you and me out of things.”
That tracked. Yet I couldn’t understand my brother’s latest tactics, and I wondered if Ainsley had any insights there. “Do you know a guy named Dirk Lancaster, by any chance? An investor in one of Kip’s projects.”
We paused by a sitting area just outside the women’s restroom. There was no one else here, so it was safe enough to talk. “Lancaster?” Ainsley asked. “Sure. Bristol knew him before Kip did, though. She’s the one who introduced them.”
Now that was interesting. “What about a woman named Nina Jamison?”
Ainsley looked thoughtful, then shook her head. “That name doesn’t ring a bell. Why? Who is she?”
Before I could answer, someone screamed.
Ainsley and I exchanged a concerned glance, then followed the sound down the hall and around the corner. A woman with gray hair was bent over, hovering over someone else lying on the carpet.
“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to get a better view.
“I just came out of my hotel room and found her here.” The woman stood, and I saw who was lying there.
My heart lurched straight up into my throat.
“Call an ambulance.” My voice was harsh and guttural.
“Oh my God,” Ainsley said. “Is that Grace ?”
I knelt beside her. Grace was crumpled on the floor like a rag doll. She had a gash on the bridge of her nose, and blood covered her face. Her glasses were broken. She blinked slowly like she was just coming back to consciousness.
“Dane?”
I’d heard people talk about seeing red, and I had experienced something similar before, but right now I saw fucking black. “Someone call a fucking ambulance,” I shouted.
“On it,” Ainsley responded.
I couldn’t risk moving her. Instead I tried to murmur comforting words, gently holding her down by the shoulders when she tried to get up. “You need to stay right there. Don’t move yet.” I had to do something about that cut on her nose. Wrenching off my jacket, then my shirt, I tore a piece of the white fabric to hold against her nose.
“Ice!” I shouted. Then I leaned down close to her again, holding the fabric to the cut. She winced. “Grace, who did this?”
“I…”
She seemed confused and in pain. It took everything in me to stay calm and keep my voice relaxed. “Baby, listen to me. Who did this? Who hurt you?”
“Vincent,” she choked out. “My phone… I think he took it.”
Vincent . I didn’t know that name. But whoever he was, when I found him, I’d make him pay.
I lifted her hand and kissed it. “I’m going to fix this. I swear to you.”
“It was my fault,” she whispered. Tears spilled from her eyes. “I shouldn’t have…”
“This was not your fault. Erase that thought from your head. You can tell me the rest of what happened later, but for now, just stay still. I’ve got you.”
“Okay. Don’t leave.” The fear in her voice knifed through me.
“I’m going to stay with you. No matter what. I’m not going anywhere.”
Then I straightened and turned around. A small crowd had started to gather around us. “Get the hotel manager and security up here,” I yelled at anyone and everyone who was listening. “Someone named Vincent did this. He could still be in the hotel, and I want him found.”
“I’m sure you do,” Ainsley said quietly. “So do we all. But if you burst a blood vessel, that isn’t going to help Grace.”
Ainsley probably had a point. But I felt like I was turning inside out.
Within a few minutes, someone with a first-aid kit ran toward us. A member of the hotel staff. He held out an ice pack and a wad of gauze, like this was a simple skinned knee.
“She could have a concussion,” I barked. “Where are the damn paramedics?”
Ainsley put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m still on the line with emergency services. They said the ambulance is a couple minutes away. We’re going to sort all of this out. Grace will be fine.”
But I couldn’t stop trembling as waves of rage crashed through every inch of my body. Someone had hurt her, and I hadn’t been there.
I had sworn to Ashford that I would keep his sister safe, and I hadn’t been there .
I was going to find that piece of shit named Vincent. And I was going to kill him with my bare hands.
* * *
I lifted Grace out of the wheelchair and laid her on my bed, making sure the pillows were nice and fluffy.
“How’s your pain?” I asked.
“You don’t have to ask me about it every five minutes. The pain will get a lot worse if I have to scream out my frustration.”
“I certainly don’t want that.”
“Want to help me work out my frustration in other ways?”
I sat beside her on the mattress as gently as possible. “I might have a tendency to defy authority figures, but you have a concussion. Sex is not on the agenda.”
She stuck out her lower lip. “At least kiss me. This is the first time since yesterday we’ve been alone together, and I’m sick of feeling like an invalid. It sucks.”
I stretched out beside Grace and brushed my lips over hers.
“A real kiss,” she insisted. “Please?”
“All right, gorgeous. I can’t deny you.”
Annoyance flashed in her eyes. “I’m hardly gorgeous right now.”
The lead weight that had been sitting on my chest since I had found her last night seemed to get even heavier. “Yes, you are.”
We had spent all night and much of the morning in the hospital getting her checked out. Grace had a concussion and some bruised ribs. She was lucky that her attacker hadn’t broken her nose. But there were bruises spreading out over her beautiful face beneath the bandage. He’d broken her glasses too, but she’d packed a spare set in her bag. Margot had brought them to the hospital.
Our mouths connected again, my lips and my tongue gliding more firmly against hers. But I stopped myself, pulling back sooner than I wanted to.
“The moment you’re better, I plan to show you just how irresistible I find you. But for now, I’m going to be gentle. For my sake as much as yours.” Because if I added even a little to the pain she’d already been through, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. “Now, you should get some rest. You’re barely keeping your eyes open.”
“It’s these pain meds. I hate them.”
“But your body needs sleep. I’ll be right here with you.”
She shifted around uncomfortably. “I was thinking about what you said last night. That it’s not my fault.”
“Because it’s not .”
“I know. I agree with you. After having more time to process what happened, I don’t regret trying to help Lexi. But I’m sure she’s still in danger. Nina too. That guy, Vincent , he was so… awful .”
In the back of my mind, I couldn’t stop repeating every word Grace had told me about what happened. A doom loop. It was going to haunt me. Knowing I had been just a few minutes away with no clue that she’d been in danger.
Grace had been sticking up for some woman she didn’t even know. I couldn’t get over that. How courageous she was. Vincent had taken her phone, most likely because of the pictures and video she had taken of him.
The same man who’d been in Silver Ridge. Who Grace had apparently seen at the rehearsal dinner, too. Then at Kip’s wedding. I mean, what the fuck?
“I know you’re worried about those women,” I said. “I doubt I’ve ever met someone with a heart as big as yours. But at the moment, there’s nothing that you or I can do.”
“Promise you won’t keep anything you learn from me. I want to know all of it. Anything you find out.”
“Grace—”
“ Promise me.”
“Alright. I promise. If you close your eyes and get some sleep.” I brushed a lock of hair from her cheek.
“And I need to tell my brothers. Ashford and Callum will be furious if they hear I was in the hospital and I didn’t let them know.”
“Taken care of. I texted them last night. Rest . That’s an order.”
“I don’t take orders from you.” But a yawn obscured the last part of that sentence, and her eyes were already sinking closed. I lay my head on the pillow beside Grace’s, smoothing my hand up and down her arm to provide whatever comfort I could.
But inside, I was seething.
NYPD officers had come to the hospital to take our statements. They’d shown up to the hotel as well, but Vincent had gotten away. Same with the woman named Lexi. The police hadn’t found a single witness so far who could identify either of them.
Neither Vincent nor Lexi had been on the wedding guest list. And for all the security cameras in my father’s hotel, the footage wasn’t helping either. Vincent had seemed to know where every camera was and managed to duck his head.
There was a slight possibility that the location of Grace’s phone could lead us to the man, but I had no doubt her device was in pieces in a dumpster somewhere not far from the hotel.
There were clearer security images of Lexi, but still no leads on where we might find her.
The detective assigned to the case hadn’t even wanted to give me those few details until I’d called in favors from the mayor’s office. I hated using my privilege to pull strings that normal people didn’t have access to, but for Grace, I would do a lot worse.
All I cared about was finding the man who’d hurt her. Maybe Vincent was the person who had broken into Grace’s home too. The guy seemed to be everywhere, and I had no idea why.
But as soon as we found him, I wanted answers. Like who Nina Jamison really was, why she had disappeared, and why Vincent was so determined to find her.
And what my brother had to do with all this.
At some point in the future, after the police had finished their questioning and Vincent wasn’t looking over his shoulder, I was going to make him pay. Didn’t matter to me how long it took. I would not let him get away with what he had done to Grace.
While Grace napped, I responded to the messages I’d gotten since we left the hospital. I’d been keeping in close touch with Margot. Thank goodness for her, because if she hadn’t stepped in to help, I would be going off of zero sleep and zero food. At least I had eaten.
Margot was in her office right now, updating our private investigator and doing anything else she could think of to drum up info for me.
It was more than my family was doing. When Ainsley had suggested she would leave early to check on me and Grace, Bristol had thrown a fit that her maid of honor couldn’t leave in the middle of her reception. Kip and Bristol had kept on with their party even though Grace had been attacked.
My dad had stopped by the hospital last night after the reception ended. Predictably, my father protested that he knew nothing about anyone named Vincent, even though the man had turned up at two different properties owned by Knightly Global.
Whether my brother had some connection to Vincent, I didn’t know, but I planned to find out. One of the many things I was saving for later when I wasn’t so damn exhausted.
Finally, I succumbed to my need for sleep. My dreams were not pleasant. Full of images of Grace lying on the floor, bleeding. And me standing beside her, so close yet unable to reach her. Powerless .
The buzz of my phone in my pocket woke me. I slipped out of bed as quietly as possible, glad when Grace continued to sleep peacefully. Closing the door behind me, I answered the call. It was from the doorman downstairs.
“Mr. Knightly, your guests have arrived. Should I send them up?”
“Please do. I appreciate it.” I opened my front door and waited there for the elevator. I probably looked ragged. Hadn’t shaved, hadn’t showered.
I’d contacted Ashford last night, asking him and Callum to come to New York. I’d arranged to fly them on my jet as soon as possible this morning. Grace needed her family close just as much as they deserved to be here in person.
For the first time, I wasn’t eager to see my closest friend. But I also needed him here. Not for me, but for Grace. And she needed her best friend. Which was why I’d asked Piper to come along too.
When the elevator opened, Ashford and Callum stepped out first. Piper was right behind them. She smiled at me cautiously, while Ashford pulled me in to a hug when he reached me.
“This isn’t the way I wanted you to finally visit Manhattan,” I said.
Ashford patted my back roughly. “Grace inside?”
“Yeah, she’s resting. Come on in.”
Ashford pulled back, and Callum stepped toward me next, his expression hard as stone. “Callum,” I said. “Thanks for coming.”
“I came for my sister, not for you, Knightly. Don’t expect me to thank you for the ride on your fancy-ass jet.” He brushed past me on his way into my apartment.
Okay, then. Pretty much what I’d expected. But if Callum wanted to take out his anger on me, I could handle it.
Inside, I showed them to the guest rooms to drop off their bags.
“Can I see Grace?” Piper asked.
“Of course. She’s in my room asleep, but I’m sure she’d love to see you when she wakes up.” I showed Piper to my room, opening the door silently so she could slip inside.
When I returned to the living room, Ashford was sitting on the couch looking like he hadn’t slept in a week. And Callum was glowering at me. “Grace is sleeping in your bedroom?” Callum asked, doing nothing to hide his disdain.
Ashford sighed. “Cal, I already told you to expect?—”
“Yeah, but I don’t get how you’re okay with this. He’s supposed to be your best buddy, and yet you’re fine with him messing around with our sister? Letting her get beat up while he was—” Callum advanced, his arm barring across my chest. He slammed me against the nearest wall. “What the fuck were you doing while some thug was giving my sister a concussion?”
I had told myself I wouldn’t react if Ashford or Callum were pissed off at me. I’d planned to accept it and let them get anything they needed off their chests.
But Callum could really be a little punk sometimes.
I grabbed his T-shirt in two fists and spun him, shoving him up against the wall. Switching our places. I kept my voice even, but I brought my nose an inch from his. “I don’t blame you for being angry. But don’t think for one second you’re more furious at me than I am at myself. You have no clue how much I care about Grace.”
“From where I stand, my sister deserves a hell of a lot more care than you’ve shown her.”
I pushed back from him, turned away, and stalked into the kitchen. There, I grabbed a glass, nearly breaking it against the stone counter when I slammed it down and took the most expensive whiskey from my cabinet.
I’d taken one shot and was pouring another when Ashford walked in. “Callum’s just upset. We all are.”
“You think I blame you? I promised you I’d keep her safe.” I nearly choked on the bitterness of those words. As long as I’m around, I swear I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe and sound . I had failed. “Surprised you’re not the one who shoved me up against the wall.”
I took another glass from the cabinet and pushed it toward Ashford. He poured himself a finger of whiskey. “Same reason I accepted you dating her. You’re a good guy. One of the best, in fact. Not perfect, but last I checked, I had plenty of flaws myself. Including leaving Emma vulnerable in spite of my best efforts. It’s what you do next that counts.”
My first priority was to make Grace smile again. Make her feel safe again. Make her feel loved , because I was falling for her so fast it made my head spin. Seeing her injured, imagining losing her, had only convinced me of that.
But the flip side of that coin was much darker.
“Next? I plan to hunt down the piece of trash who hurt Grace and make him regret he was born.”
“That’s what I was hoping to hear.”