Thirty

***Dominic***

“Well…?” I flashed my sister a look as she pointedly bored into me.

“What?”

“Are you just going to sit there like you just didn’t do anything?”

Honestly, I don’t see anything wrong in what I said. She has something somewhere she is clearly entitled to and I was trying to make her see that it was not only possible but right to get it back. “I am sure she needs some space,” I gruffly replied, my hand already reaching for my pocket when I recalled that Grace just collected my phone. Right now would have been the best time to check in with Dave.

“Do you even know what you did?” Janet was giving me those elderly, s*peech on the way*, kind of eyes.

“I know that,” I ran my hands through the surface of my jean as I tried to reason out a quick way out of the room. “, she should be the owner of that company. It is obvious. Besides Stanley always speaks of not being the…”

“Jesus Christ Eliot, the woman just sang into our ears that she doesn’t want anything to do with it. Why are you being such a pain in the ass?”

“Oh please cut me some crap.” I dismissed Quentin whose eyes narrowed at my response.

“Why would you speak to your brother that way, Eliot?” Janet asked with crossed arms.

“Who are you to ask, my mother?”

“Don’t you dare go there.” She growled, her eyes having this dangerous look that comes on whenever she gets really angry or frustrated. Since I was not ready to deal with the emotions that comes with that little face change, I got up abruptly.

“Fine. I will go talk to her.” I caught my father’s slight shake of head as I walked out of the room. I guess, even after all these years, they are still not used to my way of reasoning.

“I hope he doesn’t say shit that would make him lose that woman,” I heard Stephen’s voice comment, a deep frown instantly appearing on my face in reaction. I would never do such a thing. Not after I found something real with Grace.

“I hope so too. Grace is such a wonderful lady,” Janet ended her statement with a deep sigh. Well, at least it is good to know that they like her.

Soon, my legs got me outside, my eyes immediately fixing on Grace who had the phone to her ear. As my eyes further raked her backside, a short smile graced my lips. It sure is nice to witness the events that accompanied me successfully making her fall for my charms.

“What? What did you just say?” Startled by her exclaim, I rushed to her side, worry coursing through my mind.

“Grace, what is it?” Slowly, the phone lost contact with her ear and slowly, she turned towards me, a look of horror on her face which made me more worried. “What happened?”

“Ruby…” She softly called into the cold air, her hands reaching to grip my arms as she made to look up at me.

“What about Ruby?”

“S…Sam, she… she said that Ruby has been… k… kidnapped.” My heart jumped out fully of its casing as her words sank in. “Ruby has been…” Her eyes began to tear up, causing my heartache to increase. “We should have brought her with us. Dominic…”

My phone already in my hand, I proceeded to call Dave, my entire being trying as much as possible to keep emotions that could drag one’s thinking down, at bay. Hugging Grace to my chest to calm her, I dialed Dave’s number.

“We should have just brought her with us. Damn it!” As she cried into the atmosphere, I hugged her even closer, her arms wrapped around me a little tight.

“What the hell Dave!”

*‘What happened?’* A sleepy Dave replied from the other end.

“My daughter has been kidnapped. Are your guys even doing their job at all?” I angrily asked.

‘*Oh my God Dom.’* A lot of scuffling accompanied his response. ‘ *I am heading to Samantha’s house right now. Goddamnit!’*

“You had better. I will call you back in the next ten minutes, so you better have something. And have the helicopter sent right now.”

*‘Sure D*.’

After momentarily closing my eyes to reduce the increasing fear within me, I released Grace from my hold. “We have to go back to the cabin to wait for the copter.”

“Uh… alright.” She pinched her eyes several times before opening them finally.

“Hey,” I held her cheeks to make her look into my eyes. “Are you going to be fine?” I know it is a rather useless question, but there are some things you just have to ask no matter how silly they might be because they do a great job of showing that you can read someone’s else’s pain or feeling.

Pouting, her glossy lips shining in the night light, she said, “No.”

“Come here.” I gave her another hug. “Ruby is going to be fine. I promise you.”

“It is just that… she doesn’t deserve such a thing happening to her.” Her voice cracked as she talked, making me hug her a bit tighter in a comforting way. “ She has been through so much already … I …”

“Grace, don’t blame yourself.”

“It is my fault, okay?” Still in my arms, she looked up at me. “It is because of this crazy person that wants me gone out of your lives.”

“And we are going to catch that person before he or she succeeds.” Sweeping the top of her hair which was being blown by the breeze, I planted a little kiss there, my mind enjoying the moment and capturing it to help when things get tough. “Let’s go say goodbye to everyone.”

“We are not telling them about Ruby, right?”

“No, we are not.” My hand captured hers and we walked back into the house.

********

“So you are saying we have no lead, not a single one?”

“Not at all Dom. There are no security cameras around Samantha’s environment. The house is clear of any foreign prints, it is as though the person went in and came out like a ghost.”

“Hmm.” I murmured to myself. Turning to face the room, I asked, “What about Diane and Regina?”

“Their alibi checks out.”

“They could have faked it. They are our only suspects, so your eyes should be extremely trained on them.” Before Dave could reply, Grace’s footsteps filled the room, the both of us in the living room watched her as she descended into the room. As her eyes made contact with mine, she gave me a strained smile causing my chest to ache even harder.

“Hey.” She whispered as she found her stance right beside me. My hand immediately slinging over her shoulders, I pulled her even closer to me to give her a reassuring hug.

“Grace, I assure you we are doing our best to find Ruby,” Dave said.

“How would you possibly find her, if you have no idea who the kidnapper is?”

“I get where you are coming from. But regardless, we are still on the look out for something.” Grace nodded slowly to Dave’s words, her body sinking deeper into my sides. She didn’t need to say it, I just knew she needed me to be closer to her at that moment.

“So Dave,” My line of sight swept towards Dave who was looking down at his laptop. “What you are implying is, all we can do now is wait?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Until we have something from the kidnapper, like a message or something, we can’t do much. But right now, we have our eyes on both Diane and Regina and we have also informed the NYPD unit over here about the situation and they have their eyes open.”

“How did it even happen? What exactly did Samantha say happen?” I hugged Grace closer, her shaky voice was not a good sign at all.

“Well, according to Miss Shepherd’s statement, she and Ruby were about to watch a late night movie, so she went into the kitchen to make some popcorn, leaving Ruby to start the movie. While she was making the popcorn, she heard some scuffling and before she could run out, Ruby was gone.

While checking her statement, we noticed the front door lock was tampered with, but unfortunately we have no distinctive print on it. And our men noticed nothing at all.”

“They could have been asleep.” I attacked his statement.

“Or, the criminal made him or herself very invisible that even if there were any security cameras around, noticing him would be difficult.”

“If Diane and Regina are our only suspects, I don’t think they have the skills to do such things. I mean becoming invisible and all that shit.”

“Never underestimate anyone Dom. No matter how much you think you know someone, you can never know some things.” I nodded in agreement as I pondered on his words. As my eyes flickered to Grace who was staring ahead, lost in thoughts, I wondered the things that was unknown to me about her.

Talking about things I know about her though, I really need to make sure to create more time to get to know her the more- that is when all these drama is over. Even though I am not a man that adores the sort of futile topics most people like to talk about, I am more than willing to create time to discuss even the stupidest thing with Grace.

“I just hope Ruby is okay,” Grace suddenly dropped into the room with her voice soft like she was being careful with her choice of words. Head tilting to obtain eye contact with me, her light brown eyes carrying sadness similar to that she had when she was mourning her ex, she continued, “You don’t think she will suffer another breakdown, do you? I don’t want her to though. She really cried the last time.”

My face offered a short smile in response as I did not know how on earth to reply her. I also do not know what I have done to deserve a woman who loves my daughter so much that she cries for her. Even her real mother… well, let me not go there.

My eyes flickering to Grace once more, I made to plant a kiss on her forehead when the peace of the room was interrupted by a sudden barge of the entrance door.

“What happened to Ruby?” My eyes narrowed as the person screaming a question turned out to be Mark.

Untangling Grace from my hold, I walked towards the disheveled man. “Mark, what are you doing here? And why are you so worked up because of Ruby’s whereabouts?”

He rushed towards me, his chest almost bumping mine when he reached where I was. “Tell me,” he fumed. “,where on earth is Ruby?”

“Why are concerned about where she is?”

“Why won’t I be? Just tell me where she is!”

“I… Why is her doctor being so concerned about her?” I asked again. Mark growled as he appeared to struggle to get an answer out. “Well?” I impatiently asked.

“Because… because, because she is my daughter!”


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***Thanks for reading so far guys***.