Cyrus
“Mr. Grave? You have a call on line two.”
I looked up from the files in my hand to find my assistant standing in the doorway of my office. I frowned.
“Who is it?” I asked. “Actually, never mind. Take a message and tell them I’ll call back. I’ve got to focus on this contract, and I don’t want any distractions.” I was working on a major deal for my company that was proving to be a major pain in my ass. The company we were negotiating with was flaky and kept dancing around issues that needed to be addressed, all in the hopes of getting more out of this deal than they deserved. I wasn’t interested in playing their petty games, but the deal itself was so massive, and had such huge profit potential, that I couldn’t simply dismiss them either. I had to find a way around their nonsense, and so I’d declared that I wasn’t to be disturbed for any reason short of an emergency while I worked through this mess.
When my assistant didn’t immediately leave my doorway, I gave her a confused and irritated frown.
“What?” I snapped. “What is it?”
“I’m afraid it’s Miss Bruns, sir,” my assistant explained. “She says it’s a rather urgent matter.”
That got my attention. Without saying another word to my assistant, I picked up my desk phone and accepted the call.
“Miss Bruns?” I said in a tight voice. “What’s going on?”
“Mr. Grave, I’m really sorry to bother you at work,” she replied, sounding genuine. “But I couldn’t reach you on your cellphone…”
Frowning, I picked my cell up off my desk. It had been facing down, so I hadn’t seen it light up at all. When I saw I had several missed calls, I was confused…until I realized the phone had been set to silent.
“What the hell?” I asked under my breath. Had I forgotten to turn it back on after my meetings earlier?
“Mr. Grave?” Miss Bruns’s voice reached me through my office phone. “Are you still there?”
“Yes.” I sighed, casting the useless wonderings aside in favor of the obvious emergency. “What’s going on?”
“It…it’s Megan,” she stammered. “She’s okay, physically, but…her father approached her at the park today.”
“What?” I roared, surging to my feet. “What happened? How’d he get close to her?”
“I…I don’t know,” she replied, letting out a small whimper.
It struck me at that moment that Miss Bruns was obviously shaken up. I’d been ready to yell at her for neglecting my niece, but I could hear in her voice that she was scared.
My shoulders tensed at that. I didn’t like that she was frightened. I was suddenly furious that I hadn’t been there to protect her and Megan.
“Never mind,” I said in a gentler tone. “I’m going to come home, all right?”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Hanging up the call was so difficult. I didn’t want to leave her feeling so shaken. I buzzed for my assistant, and she appeared in my doorway within moments.
“Yes, sir?”
“I’m leaving,” I told her. “There’s an emergency at home that I have to deal with. Cancel my afternoon meeting and forward any messages and documents to my home, got it?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. She didn’t question why I was going home. Her ability to take my directions at face value was one of the reasons she was so good at her job. She did what I needed her to do when I needed her to do it and very rarely needed clarification or more details than I was willing to give.
“Have my car brough around,” I told her. “I need to get home. Now.”
Nodding, she turned and hurried back to her desk. I collected my things and stormed out of my office. I made my way down to the first floor and out the front door of the building. My car and driver were waiting, and I didn’t break my stride as I hurried over and climbed in the back seat.
“Get me home,” I snapped. “Now!”
“Right away,” my driver replied without batting an eye.
He pulled away from the curb and entered traffic. I bounced my leg anxiously as we navigated our way through the city. It wasn’t a heavy traffic time of day, but I still felt that we were going way too slow.
“Faster,” I barked at my driver. “We need to get home right away!”
“Yes, sir,” the man replied without argument. Smart of him. I was on the verge of a total and complete meltdown, and one wrong word would set me off.
Megan had been put at risk again. Miss Bruns as well. Ralph had come back. No amount of threats had kept him away. I was going to kill him. I was so furious, that thought was the only thing I could come up with at that moment to possibly stop him.
Shoving that thought from my mind, I forced myself to think of only Megan and Miss Bruns. Sadie. I needed to get home to them. I needed to see for myself that they were safe.
When we arrived at the townhouse, I threw the door open before the car was even fully stopped. Jumping out of the vehicle, I ran up the front steps and burst through the house’s door.
Chapter 23
“Sadie?” I called out, completely dropping all pretense and the forced formality I’d implemented between us. “Sadie? Where are you?”
“Mr. Grave?” She appeared at the top of the stairs. She was flushed and looked as though she’d been crying. She hurried down the stairs toward me.
“Are you all right?” I demanded to know. “Where’s Megan?”
“She’s up in her room,” she replied with a rush of breath. “Playing. She’s fine now.”
“What about you?” I asked, grabbing her shoulders and looking her over. “Are you okay?”
She swallowed. “Honestly? Not really. I held myself together in front of Megan, but…”
At that moment, her knees buckled, and she nearly dropped to the floor. I caught her and held her upright.
“Come on,” I told her, guiding her into the living room off the foyer. We sank down onto the sofa together, and I kept my arms around her. “Breathe, all right? Breathe.”
She did, sucking in deep gulps of air. I held her tight as she caught her breath, and she clung to me. Her fingers dug into my arms to the point that I was pretty sure she would leave bruises. I didn’t say anything, though. I let her cling to me as hard as she wanted. If she needed a lifeline, I could be one for her.
When she was somewhat calmer, she said, “Megan is okay…I got her to calm down. She was shaken, though. Really shaken.”
Sensing she needed me to anchor her, I squeezed her to me and rubbed her shoulder.
“You did good,” I told her. “When I got your phone call…I was so…I can’t even describe what was going through my head. But you took care of her, Sadie. You protected her. She’s here and safe because of you.”
Sadie let out a sob. “I don’t know what happened. She just…slipped away. I should’ve been paying more attention. I should’ve…”
“Stop it,” I commanded her. “This isn’t your fault, not by a longshot. And you weren’t by yourself. Where the hell was your security detail?”
She shook her head. “It all happened so fast. He helped try to find her, but…”
“But he wasn’t there to keep her from being taken in the first place,” I said, fury pumping through me. “Hold on.”
I released her, but she clutched at my arm. “Please, Mr. Grave, it wasn’t anyone’s fault…”
“The hell it wasn’t,” I said, digging out my phone and dialing up Caleb.
“Cyrus,” he said, answering on the second ring. “I was expecting a call from you.”
“What happened today, Caleb?” I snapped. “How the hell did Ralph get a hold of Megan?”
“I’m sorry, Cyrus,” he replied. He sounded angry himself, but I didn’t care. “Megan somehow slipped from view before Sean knew she’d gotten away…”
“That’s not good enough!” I roared. Sadie jumped next to me. “He was supposed to be watching her! What the hell am I paying your men for if they can’t do their goddamn jobs? Sean is lucky I’m not the one he has to answer to. I’d beat him to a pulp and then fire his useless ass. You send your men out and find Ralph! Immediately! I want this threat to my niece taken care of. And I swear to God, Caleb, if your men slip up again and put Megan or Sadie at risk, I will bury you, got it?”
“Got it,” Caleb replied firmly, not a quiver in his voice, but he knew not to take my threat lightly. He knew I didn’t make empty ones.
Shoving to my feet, I ended the call and threw the phone across the room, my temper getting the better of me.
My vision turned red and the urge to smash my fists into something overwhelmed me. It was just like when I first realized what Ralph had been doing to my sister. I’d barely been able to hold back my rage then, and I struggled to hold it back now. For a moment, the entire world melted away, and there was only my fury and my desire to hurt Ralph for all that he’d done to my family.
Just when I was on the verge of losing my control, a sharp voice broke through the haze that had settled on my mind and yanked me back from the edge.
“Mr. Grave!”