Chapter 23 Grace
GRACE
Ihaven’t heard from Maxim in days, but I know he’s been busy working through Dmitri’s and Nikolai’s computers.
“A package arrived for you today,” Mackenzie, my sister tells me.
Who the hell would be sending me a package? My heart skips a beat. No, he wouldn’t, would he? Seems like a big risk.
“Thanks,” I say, taking it from her hand.
I make my way to the bedroom where I’ll open it in private. Staring down at the small package with an Italian postmark, I wonder what on earth it could be. Ripping it open, a USB stick and a note fall out.
Wildcat, give this to Interpol. Don’t watch it.
I stare at the note for a couple of moments before ignoring Maxim’s warning, grabbing my laptop, and plugging in the stick.
My screen is filled with folder after folder with the names of the jewels, including mine.
What the hell is this? I double-click on the folder bearing my name and see videos, photos, and a dossier pop up.
The images are confronting, and I slam the laptop shut.
Fuck.
My heart is racing.
I shouldn’t have watched it. He warned me.
I didn’t listen. Then I realize Maxim must have seen all of this.
He’s seen videos and pictures of that man violating me.
Tears fall down my cheeks as my hands shake, my stomach rolls and the dark cloud I thought I had vanquished appears as I try and steady my uncontrollable breathing, staving off the panic attack that wants to raise its ugly head.
Once I’ve gotten myself under control, I take the USB out, making sure nothing is saved to my computer, and I head toward where Sophie and Brooks have set up a makeshift command center where they work in their pursuit to track down the jewels.
It’s in the back of Mateo, Tomas, and Zoe’s garden, there’s a separate house right down the back away from everyone.
My hand shakes as I open the door, everyone stops what they are doing, and the room falls silent as they stare at me entering.
It’s the first time I’ve come down here since coming home.
Sophie and I have been keeping our distance, she’s upset with me for keeping things from her, and I’m upset with her for prying.
“I told you to trust me, Soph,” I say, handing her the USB stick.
Her brows pull together as she stares at what I’ve given her.
“Everything you’ve been searching for on the jewels is on that.”
Sophie’s jaw drops as she quickly turns around and hands the stick to Damon, Brooks’ IT man.
It takes a couple of moments for the file to open on Damon’s computer, but when it does, I swallow hard.
“Don’t play anything while I’m here,” I say quickly before Damon has time to hit play. “There are videos of Zoe and me on there.”
Sophie rushes over and pulls me into her, surprising me with her affection which she isn’t known to give much of. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
Hugging her back. “If it helps you find the other women I don’t care.”
“They sent it to you, didn’t they?” she questions me, stepping out of our embrace.
I nod.
“And how did they get this information?”
“They were able to hack Dmitri and Nikolai’s cloud and phones.”
“How the fuck?” Damon exclaims at my comment. “Are these guys Anonymous or something? That takes some hard-core hacking skills to do that. I’ve been trying for a month.”
“They did it in a week.”
“Motherfuckers,” Damon curses.
“You’re doing a good job, Damon. They know their target better than we do,” Sophie reassures her IT guy. “Who are these men?” Sophie turns and asks me.
“Bad guys with good hearts.”
Sophie raises her brow at me seemingly unconvinced. “If all this intel checks out and we are able to save the girls then I guess I can think of them differently.”
I appreciate that.
“You might want to warn Zoe and the boys, too. You don’t want them blindsided if they stumble in here and see something they shouldn’t,” Sophie asks me.
Leaving them to it, I close the door to the cabin and walk back through the gardens. Pulling out my phone, I send off a quick text to Maxim.
Grace: I got your parcel.
Maxim: Glad. Did you pass it on to your people?
Grace: Yeah.
Grace: They are excited and say thank you.
Grace: I think you upset one of the IT guys who has been trying to hack the cloud for the past month. I told him you did it in a week.
Maxim: Guy? What does he look like?
Maxim’s text makes me laugh.
Grace: Jealous?
Maxim: Extremely. He better not touch you otherwise I’ll cut off his fingers, and he will never hack again.
Possessiveness is usually a turn-off, but with Maxim, it makes me wet.
Grace: You have nothing to worry about, your dick’s bigger.
Maxim: How the fuck do you know what his dick looks like? Wildcat!
Grace: LOL
Maxim: Do not LOL me!
Then my phone rings and I know instantly it’s Maxim.
“This is not fucking funny, Wildcat. You’re driving me crazy. He better not have fucking touched you. I’ll kill him,” he shouts angrily down the phone.
It’s cute. “You don’t need to kill him. He hasn’t touched me and I sure as hell have no intentions of touching him.”
“Good.”
“But full disclosure, before I met you, I slept with Enrique the Interpol detective and Tomas’ cousin.”
A slew of Russian words echoes down the phone. “Him, I will kill.”
“No. There will be no killing of good men. Save it for the disgusting ones that touched me without my permission.”
“Tell me you did not watch what I sent?”
“I did.”
Maxim goes off in another Russian rant.
“I told you. Did you not read my note?”
“I saw it after I watched it.” A lie, but I don’t want him to feel bad.
“You weren’t supposed to see it. I’m sorry, Grace.”
“I’m sorry you had to see it, too.”
“It’s seared into my soul, my love. The way that I am going to dismember that man has become quite creative.”
Good. He deserves it.
“Did you see anything else on there?”
“I closed it down after seeing the videos.”
“Then you missed the profiles they had on each of the girls. Those fuckers thought they were so smart that no one would ever get this information that they laid it all out for us to see. The jewels’ real names, where they came from, and where they were stolen.
They added the time of death and where they dumped the bodies.
Also, Dmitri updated his most recent file with all his notes on the jewels and where they are now since Morocco. ”
“No way.”
“I know, he’s a fucking fool.”
“What about your sister and Anna?”
The phone falls silent. “My sister isn’t who I think she is anymore.”
Oh no. “What happened?”
“We read the text messages between her and Dmitri. She’s dating him.”
Fuck no.
“She is also an assassin. She kills men in the middle of fucking them.”
I gasp at this new bit of information. “Max, I’m so sorry. You must be devastated.”
“I don’t know who she is anymore.”
“She’s been gone for a long time. She’ll still be in there somewhere.”
“I sure as fuck hope so.”
I can hear the sadness in his voice. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. I promise when this is all over, I’m kidnapping you away and taking you to a deserted island where no one and nothing can find us.”
That sounds wonderful.
“Be strong, Wildcat. I’ve got to go.”
And with that he’s gone.
I head on back inside to find Zoe.
“Hey, Kenzie, have you seen Zo?” I ask my sister who has her head stuck in her laptop.
“She’s in her room.”
I nod and head down to my sister’s bedroom. I give the door a hard knock knowing with those three I could be walking into something I do not want to see.
“Come in,” Zoe calls out.
I enter her bedroom and find her lying in bed reading a book.
“Hey, you,” she says with a smile.
“You alone?” I ask.
“The boys are in Barcelona for work for the next couple of days.”
I join her on their bed and snuggle in beside her. “I have some news for you.”
Zoe waits for me to continue.
“I was sent a USB stick filled with everything they have found about the jewels on Dmitri and Nikolai’s cloud.”
“Really?” Zoe sits up and gives me her full attention.
“There are videos of us on there.”
Zoe’s face falls. “Bad?”
I nod.
“Shit. Fuck. Who has the videos?”
“I gave them to Sophie and her team.”
“Shit. What if Sophie watches? You know she will.”
“I think Brooks will stop her.”
“She can’t watch them. You didn’t, did you?” she asks in a panic.
“I saw a snippet of mine before closing the computer down. It’s fucked up.”
“I know we lived it. I don’t need to live it again,” she says, reaching out and squeezing my hand.
“There are notes on there with locations of some of the jewels.”
“No!” Zoe gasps.
“We’re going to find them,” I reassure her.
“Whoever this person is, will you thank them for me?”
“I will, I promise. I’m hoping one day soon you will be able to thank them in person.”
Her brows shoot up. “Are you ever going to tell me about him?”
“What do you want to know?”
Zoe chuckles. “Everything!”