Undone (24 page)

“Quite fucking right.”
Shaking his head with a wide grin on his face, Matt headed for the door, Ace at his heel like the good, loyal guard dog that he was.

The name on the invitation card was not his, but it wouldn’t really matter anyways. Matt had been ensured that he would clear security with no problem; the card was just a precaution; he had several of those.  In fact, one was placed strategically in the Grayson household, a nice little spy Matt had acquired through old fashion blackmail. It hadn’t been easy to get Edward Littleton to betray his loyalty to Nicholas when Matt approached him several months ago and he’d gone so far as to call Matt’s bluff. So Matt had been forced to show him exactly what was at stake if he failed to cooperate. He’d sent Ace after Edward’s eighteen year old daughter, a sweet little thing with the sexiest mouth and prettiest blue eyes. Edward had watched the screen in horror as the big burly man brutally violated his daughter from the motel room they’d kept her in. He’d been much more susceptible to cooperating after that.
A wise decision in Matt’s opinion.

That was what one had to do to get their way these days. Asking didn’t cut it anymore. Strong-arming was so much more effective. That’s what Nicholas needed.
A strong arm to bend him, to show him how to kneel. Matt was more than ready for the task. 

~*~*~*~

The party was well underway with the guest of honor beginning to relax somewhat when he found himself engaging in conversation with friends he hadn’t see in some time. His beautiful wife hung by his side sharing in his revelry and giving him the peace of mind he needed to loosen up and forget for a moment that there was a lurking threat. Dinner was a four course meal served at the long dining room table by efficient waiters. With everyone seated and chatting with each other, someone would occasionally stand, clink on their glass to get attention and say some things about the birthday man, most of the speeches were in a form of roasts that brought on bouts of laughter from everyone at the table. It was a cheerful atmosphere and when Ellie rose to her feet a gentle hush fell over the table as everyone quieted to hear what she would say. She was Nicholas’s equal in every way, his complete opposite but unequivocally made solely for him. The unmistakable depths of her love shown like a beacon in her hazel eyes as she looked at him.

“If someone were to measure my love for you, they wouldn’t even come close to how deep it goes. In all the years I’ve been with you, I learned so much about you as a man and as a person. You are fierce in your love, loyal and epically sweet and caring with our children. ” Her smile was only for him. “You are my best friend, my love and the father  of our children and for that I thank God each and every day for bringing you into my life. Nicholas, I pray that I will be with you for as long as God allows it and that our love takes us into the very last moment of our lives together. I loved you then, I love you now and I’ll love you always. Happy birthday, my love.” While everyone stood and clapped, Nicholas drew his teary wife into loving embrace, kissing her senseless.

With the guests settling back down to resume their dinner, one old man remained standing, continuing his slow and steady clap until he gained everyone’s curious stare. There was something slightly off about him, about the unsettling long smile that pulled at his wrinkled face. His chair screeched in protest across the marbled floor as he pulled back and maneuvered himself from his seat. “So sweet,” he rasped, leaning heavily on his cane as he progressed rather slowly to where Ellie and Nicholas sat. “Who knew it would’ve lasted this long, huh, Nicholas?”

Nicholas came to his feet, brows coming together as he tried to remember his connection the old man. “You’ll have to forgive me…I don’t recall your name.”

The old man chuckled but then that turned into a fit of coughs that had Ellie vacating her chair to help him. “Someone get him a glass of water.” She held him and when he finally settled, taking the offered glass of water, he handed it to her and pinioned her with haunting light blue eyes.

“So fucking sweet, guess the sun does shine out of your pussy too.” Ellie gasped and recoiled at the whispered words but she didn’t get too far when he clamped a surprisingly strong grip around her wrist.

“I’m going to have to suggest you take your hand off my wife…”

“No,
Nicky
,
I’m
going to have to suggest you sit right the fuck down,” he said with chilling softness, the gun in his hand insisting for him to do so. When Nicholas reluctantly returned to his seat, he turned to the table of horrified guests and said, “A word of caution to anyone who wants to play the hero, that includes you, Nicky, I’m high as fucking shit right now and I will not hesitate to shoot your brains all over this room if anyone so much as blinks the wrong way.” He yanked on Ellie’s arm and she stumbled behind him colliding with a wall of muscles. Ace held her put, curtailing Ellie’s panicked struggles.  “Now let’s put all cell phones on the table.” When everyone hastily did as he said, he pulled the chair that Ellie had been sitting away from the table and brought it to the center of the room.

“Have a seat, golden pussy,” he advised with saccharine sweetness, pushing Ellie down on the chair. And then finally, he turned to Nicholas, the savage expression on his beautiful face gave Matt a slight pause but then he smiled. Nicholas always did know how to do intimidation well, Matt had studied him for years.

“I swear to God, Bates, if you hurt her in any way…”

“Ah, I shit, I thought I had you with the old man mask, Nicky!” He laughed. “Man, I fucking paid a shit load of money to fool you! How’d you know? What gave it away?”

“Matt…”

“You know I practiced what I was going to say to you after all these years. I was sitting in that little room you had me in and I was thinking of all these smart things I was going to say. Like little anecdotes and shit like that, but man, I’m just happy as fuck to see you.” He trudged over to where Nicholas sat and stood over him, extending an arm. “Give an old friend hug?” When Nicholas remained seated Matt shrugged. “Suit yourself, you were always such a sourpuss. But I fucking love that mug of yours, Nicky. I’d worship it in a second if you wanted me to.”

Nicholas wanted to throttle him, he wanted to smash his face into the marble floor and not stop until he felt his blood on his hands. He was twitching, but he held himself in check, for now. He would do nothing because Matt’s instability put Ellie’s life in grave danger. All the while he wondered where the fuck the security team he’d installed in the room and around the house was.

“No one is coming, Nicky. I had all your security camera’s disabled and your security team has been told of the explosives around the mansion, so I’m pretty sure their hands are tied. It’s just us.”

Fuck. Nicholas cursed as his mind worked on a plan B and C, wondering how he was going to get his family out of this without anyone getting hurt.

Bright ice blue eyes turned to him, the smile from his wrinkled face one that he remembered from a memory. “God, Nicky, I know! I tried to stay in that institute like you wanted me to, but I couldn’t anymore. I had to come and celebrate your birthday with you. Did you like the presents I sent? Although I think the Ducati was yours to begin with. You did win it fair and square by fucking golden pussy over there.”

He doubled back to Ellie. “Do you have any fucking idea how much I hate you, Ellie?” He fisted a hand through her hair, gripped her by the roots and tugged her head up to meet his unsettling crazed eyes, the mask giving him the appearance of a monster from a nightmare. “You and your fucking twat took him from me!” He smacked her with the butt of the gun provoking a resounding intake of breath from the onlookers. “You are the bane of my existence and I’m going to make you feel every single ounce of pain I’ve felt over these years.” He brutally rammed the head of the gun between her bleeding lips and deep into her mouth until it touched the back of her throat. He relished her tears, savored the sound of her gagging on the gun.

“MATT!” Nicholas roared, jumping to his feet and moving all at once towards the man who was torturing his wife. But he didn’t make it very far when Matt’s mastiff bodyguard loomed over him.

“It’s OK, Ace, let him come and see…”

Ace stepped aside and Nicholas rushed over, halting when Matt looked up. “I can shoot her, Nicky, I can shoot her and all of our problems will go away. We can be best friends again, we can go away together and it’ll be like it was. The drugs, the sex, the money—you can be glorious and I’ll be happy living in your shadow. We can be kings again.”

“We were kids, Matt. We were kids playing adult games and we’ve spent most of our adult life paying for those mistakes. We can’t go back, we have to move forward. You
have
to let me move forward, Matt. Ellie and I…”

“NO!” he screamed, his movements thrusting the gun further down Ellie’s throat. “There’s no
you
and
Ellie
! There was
never
supposed to be a ‘
you and Ellie
!’ It was supposed to be Nicholas and Matt. Fuck, I worshipped you! I would’ve done anything for you! I would’ve killed my own father if you asked me to!” he railed.

A movement out of the corner of their eyes from the table caused Ace to pull out his gun and shoot whoever it was that dared to move. The shot sent everyone ducking and screaming until they heard a woman’s devastated shriek. “Gabe!” Ronnie’s held her husband as blood gushed from his left arm. “Oh, God!”

“I warned you people! Now settle the fuck down before Ace shoots someone else!” Everyone tearfully quieted, the only sound heard was Ronnie’s muffled sobs and the tearing of fabric. “Alright, Nicky, you love her so much, I’ll trade her life for anyone of your kids. If she means more to you than anything, chose her over your kids.”

“Matt…”

“Who will it be?
One of your twins, hmm? Or how about Tony’s little bastard bitch over there. She’s not yours, there’s absolutely no connection there. I’ll trade you your wife for her.”

When he looked towards the table at Sophie, Roan’s grip on her thigh tightened painfully, instantly aware of what she was about to do. With her heart racing at an alarming pace, Sophie wrestled free of Roan’s hold and shot to her feet. “Y-yes… please let go of my mom and I’ll take her place.”

“Sophie, no!”

She was walking shakily towards them despite Nicholas’s protests and when she finally stood in front of the crazed lunatic who held her mom captive he turned to Sophie and she was reminded of her nightmares. He was utterly frightening, the malevolence she saw in his ice blue gaze freezing the blood in her veins. Sophie concentrated on her mom’s face and she did not stop when the man withdrew the gun from her mouth or allowed her run to Nicholas, who enveloped her in a fierce hug that brought tears to Sophie’s eyes.

Everything stopped in that moment, like a scene from a movie, nothing could be heard but the fluttering of her pulse and the booming thunder in her chest. Filled with a sense of purpose, she believed that this was what her entire life had led to. This moment, this sacrifice, this was what she was meant to do. Peace washed over her as she took in her family, she saw her brothers and sister, her uncles and her aunts, her grandparents and finally… Roan. Roan, her knight, her protector, the man who’d given Sophie so much in such a short amount of time. It was going to be a doomed romance after all, she thought, sadly. 

If there was any good reason to die, then Sophie wanted this to be it. For her family, for her mom, Sophie would do anything so that they would prosper. Her family was her everything. She heard the crack of the gun and then felt the bullets shred through her chest. There were tears in her eyes as she fell taking with her the images of everyone she loved, and the love from the man she would never have. The pain was excruciating and with every last gasping breath she called his name, whimpered it until he was there.

“Ro..Ro…”

He was crying, tears coursing down his beautiful face as he held her. “Sophie…Jesus, Sophie…please…please…” He held her face to his chest, rocked her steadily as he desperately whispered his prayers. “Please, Sophie, I love you, baby, please don’t…”

Her hand shook so badly, she wanted to touch him, comfort him, but she couldn’t lift her hand high enough to do anything. “Love…” was all she could manage before her eyes widened and she took one last painful breath.

***

Breaking News, A hostage situation earlier this evening had led to the death of Sophie Holbrook-Grayson, the daughter of business mogul Nicholas Grayson, owner and CEO of Grayson Inc. Sophie was rushed to the local general hospital and after attempts to resuscitate her, she was pronounced dead at 8:45 p.m. The suspect was also killed in a round of gunfire at the Grayson home. We will have more for you as the story develops.