Hands shaking, he pleaded with her, prayed, shook her harder. “Oh, God, Mama. Wake up. Please, wake up!”
Nausea swirled, and he gathered her up in his arms, hugged her limp body against his chest.
He wailed.
“Mama, don’t leave me.”
Please, please don’t leave me.
But his Mama . . . she was gone.
Gone.
A needle still in her arm.
Ian’s body wrenched, and he scrambled back, unable to see through the violent stream of tears that ran hot down his face. His body recoiled, and he vomited on the floor, the memory of the last thing he’d told her forever emblazoned in his head.
I wish you were dead.
Thirty-Six
Grace
A thousand pounds of panic weighed down my chest as I shot up in bed.
Dread spiraling all around me.
I could feel it.
The riot of turbulence that roiled in the stagnant morning air.
Without giving myself time to clear my head, I fumbled out of bed and struggled to get my legs into my pants and my shirt over my head.
All the while, the disorder that had shaken through my sleep continued to echo from downstairs.
Shouting and clamoring that broke through the hint of morning that peeked through the window.
An upheaval that I could feel bone deep.
Anxiety blazed through my body, and my pulse was a jackhammer of nerves galloping at breakneck speed.
I scrambled out the door, tripping around the corner as I tried to hurry.
Manic, I started to fly downstairs.
It only took two seconds for my heart that had felt as if it had finally been made whole last night to go crumbling to the ground.
The scene in front of me one of my worst nightmares.
“No,” I begged, my hand on the railing to try to keep myself standing as I raced faster for the bottom floor. “No.”
Mallory was wailing, my sweet, happy girl nothing but a ball of fear and screams. “Please, Mommy, I don’t want to go. I want to stay here. Tell them I don’t have to go anywhere because I want to stay with you and Ian!”
She tried to jerk her arm away from a man. He was wearing a suit, not even giving her any comfort when he struggled with her flailing arms and legs to pick her up.
To restrain her.
To take her.
Oh my God.
My spirit roared.
A mother’s cry.
Outrage and hate and fear.
The cruelty that was being imposed.
The vile selfishness that would drive a man to do something like this. To his own children.
Appearance so much more meaningful and important than their happiness.
Used as bargaining chips.
No. I wouldn’t let this happen.
But that dread was spiraling through the middle of me when I met the malice in Reed’s eyes.
He stood firm in the middle of the porch with his arms crossed over his chest.
Smug.
A bastard with the upper hand.
Callous and inhumane and merciless.
As if he’d just executed a hostile takeover.
That was exactly what this was.
Hostile.
A hot frenzy burned through my blood.
Desperation took over. Mind racing frantically, searching for anything to say or do.
For my own weapon against the atrocity.
But my own fear only grew greater when I realized what Jace was trying to do. Getting in the man’s face who was tussling with Mallory in a bid to intercede. “You can’t just show up here like this. This is private property.”
An officer stepped between them and pushed Jace back by the chest. “Sir, we have a warrant and orders to remove these children from this premises. If you interfere, I’ll be forced to put you in cuffs. I hope you don’t make me do that.”
He gestured to the infant Faith was rocking where she stood appearing frazzled and shocked to the side of him.
Wanting to do something but utterly helpless.
I refused to be.
I hit the ground floor, my bare feet pounding on the worn wooden planks as I threw myself toward the double doors.
“Mommy!” Mallory screamed, one arm reaching out for me as her small body thrashed.
Sophie was already outside with another officer, her blue eyes wary as she sucked her thumb.
Confused and scared.
My pulse careened, hatred howling through my senses, the need to get to her—to them—more than I could bear.
“No, let them go. You can’t take them. I won’t let you.”
A gasp of pain shocked through me when I saw Thomas on the porch, too. Standing beside them with his face turned toward the ground as if he somehow thought this could be his fault.
“No,” I cried again. The same officer who’d pushed back Jace stepped in my way when I went for Mallory, my arms flying and hot tears streaking down my face as he pushed me back.
A barricade between me and the reason for my life.
“Ma’am, you need to stay right there.”
“No . . . these are my children. You can’t just come here and take them.”
Sympathy flashed through his expression, but still, he lifted his chin. “An emergency injunction was signed this morning by Judge Hirrod. These children are to be placed in the care of their father.”
Judge Hirrod.
Jonathan Hirrod.
One of Reed’s oldest friends.
Oh God.
Reed’s expression filled with cruel satisfaction. “Don’t stand there and act like I didn’t warn you, Grace.”
“You.” I started for him, hands balled into fists, only for Jace to reach out and snag me from around the waist. “Don’t do it, Grace. I know you want to fight, but you need to fight this in a different way.”
Pounding rattled the stairs behind us. I didn’t have to look to know that it was Ian.
That powerful presence surged from behind.
Anger and ire and barely contained rage.
He immediately was in attorney mode. “Under what order?”
“Parental abduction,” the officer replied.
“Bullshit,” Ian spat, reaching his hand out for the piece of paper. He snatched it out of his hand, his eyes roving over the document.
Hostility came off him in agitated waves, growing stronger as his attention darted over the words.
Mallory was still screaming, begging for me. My heart shattering and shaking.
How could I just stand there?
I had to do something.
Something.
Oh God, please, please help us.
In all his arrogance, Reed moved forward. “I went to pick my children up for their visit yesterday, and they were gone. Nowhere to be found. What else could I do?”
Ian was right.
Bullshit.
It oozed off Reed in nauseating pulses.
I wanted to puke.
Or fight.
Fighting seemed like a much better option. When he let my babies cry and wail and beg, and didn’t give what they were going through a thought.
Twisting out of Jace’s arm, I pushed around the officer and got in Reed’s face. “How could you do this? To your own children? This is ridiculous. We can . . . we can work out something.”
I was frantically scrambling to come up with a plan to waylay him. To assuage the situation.
I just . . . I just had to make him think he was getting his way.
“It’s too late for that, don’t you think, Grace? Considering the whole world knows my ex-wife is fucking her attorney?” He tsked. “Such an abuse of power, wouldn’t you think? Or is it you who was buying him off with the money you stole from me?”
Dizziness spun my heart, that nausea pushing at my throat.
This couldn’t be happening.
He had no proof. No proof.
I battled with my faltering spirit to regroup, to fight this man.
“You’re being absurd. I’m only here with him for safety. For the safety of my children. To protect them from you.”
His cold smirk only grew. “Huh, that’s not what the news is reporting right now.”
No.
No, no, no.
Dread dripped like ice into my veins.
Sickness clawed at my flesh.
The room spun, and my hand darted out to the doorframe to keep myself standing. “What did you do?”
“What I had to. You should do the same, Grace. Stop being a fool and get in my car with our children.”
Ian stepped in front of me. He pushed a hand behind him to keep me back, a physical shield. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”