The State of Grace

NINETEEN

Xavier

It had been forty eight hours and there was still nothing from Grace. I had heard nothing from her, I had heard nothing from whoever had taken her. I assumed someone would contact me, a taunt of some kind.

It was radio silence.

"Did anyone come by the house?" I ask the same questions I had been asking to my mother for the past two days.

I could feel her anxiety getting worse by the second. She was worried, as worried as I was for wherever she was. I had to find her, there was nothing stopping me from finding her. I would do anything for her, I just had to have her back in my arms again.

I had fought for two years, I finally got her back but she was gone again. She had been taken from me yet again, this time I had no idea where the hell she was. Last time I knew she would be safe, but now I didn't know where she was.

"For the millionth time! No one was ever here Xavier!" My momma snaps at me, I look back at her with a look of anger.

I blamed her for this, if she wouldn't have gone out then Grace wouldn't have had to leave. I also blame myself for letting her go all alone, I knew we were a target but I just let her go without a fight.

"We were fine!" My mommà snaps at me, her hand hitting the counter top as she stood from her seat.

She walked over to me with her finger pointing my way. She was wishing bad things on me, I knew she had anger towards me. Over the past two years Grace had become her child, for a long time I'm sure she thought I would never come back.

Grace would have been her only child.

"Before you came back we were fine!" She shouts at me, her hand banging against my chest. "No one came for us! We were happy, I looked after that girl. I held her while she sobbed over my grandchild I-"

"She was my daughter!" I shout back to her, I had never met my daughter. But she was mine still, she was my child.

"Where were you?" She chuckles with a small breath leaving her mouth. "You were in prison because of your actions, not because Grace turned you in. You were there because you thought you were invincible, because of that you never met your daughter"

My mother had harsh words when she wanted too, I never bite back. It wasn't worth it most of the time, but this time I was here for the fight.

"Who called the FBI mother" I speak looking down at her.

I knew my mother had questionable morals most the time. I also knew she had been forced into this life with my father, she never loved him. Not for a second did she love him, he was an older man that she was forced to marry.

The only thing she loved was her children, Rosa and I.

My father got his hooks in me faster than she expected. I was taken into the life she didn't want for me, I did things she didn't want me to do. The day my father died I watched my mothers reaction.

While everyone else had tears falling down their faces, a small smile came to hers. She was free of a man that she never wanted, I knew he loved my mother but my mother never loved him.

I knew she called the FBI when my antics got worse. She didn't agree with what I was doing, I wasn't stupid.

"You were out of control" She speaks back to me with no remorse in her tone. "If I never called them you wouldn't have her, none of us would have her"

"She isn't yours" I speak softly back to her, I had claimed Grace as my own. Now my mother wanted her, my mother wanted me gone so she and Grace could live in happiness together again.

It was too late now.

"You ruined that girl, you tore her to shreds with your words when you got arrested"

"I was angry"

"She was pregnant" My mother hits right back at me.

"I didn't know that! No one told me anything I was left in a cell until I got myself out of that place"

"If you were still there, Grace would still be here"

I knew that wasn't true, whoever had taken her didn't want her because I was back. They must have wanted her before that, I had men that would die for me. Grace Hadley was the only woman that had torn down our entire business, she was the only person capable of that.

Someone wanted revenge.

"No Momma, she wouldn't be" I speak, I watch her face turn into a frown. "Whoever has her, they want revenge for what she did to me"

"So you're saying they're under your control?" she scoffs at me.

"I'm saying they once were"

I had been in charge of many men in my life, there were a lot of them that would kill for me. I had didn't know who would be on the top of that list. Sure Luca would, but he wasn't involved not anymore.

He was weak and always had been.

I knew he would be the easiest to breakdown, if I could talk to him he would tell me everything I needed to know.

"I need to talk to Luca" I speak before heading over to the phone.

Luca had been the only person who consistently spoke to me while I was locked away. I knew his number off by heart, I knew he had been calling me on a burner phone. No one really knew we spoke, it was all underground.

As I pick the phone up my mother slaps it from my hand. I look back at her with a frown across my face.

"You will not invite any of those men into my home"

"It's Luca Mommà"

"None of them are welcome" She snaps before walking away from me.

Fine, they weren't allowed in the house.

I pick up the phone and call the burner phone, I knew an unknown number would be to much for Luca to ignore. He was a curious man, he wouldn't leave things alone.

"Hello?" I hear his voice on the other end of the line.

I knew my cousin, he was an idiot but he wouldn't take Grace.

"It's me" I speak, I can practically hear the life leaving his body.

"X?" He speaks quietly, as if he was hiding from
someone. "You can't call me, I got expelled I g-"

"Someone took Grace"

"You're with her?"

"Not anymore, someone has her-"

"Xavier, you need to leave this shit alone. Let her go"

What the fuck was he talking about? Let her go?

He knew something that I didn't, he must know who has her. He must know who took over after him.

"Who is running the company now?"

"I don't kno-"

"Bullshit" I speak cutting him off.

"X" he sighs. "I'm not even in New York anymore, I left with Alana"

"Who?"

"My girl, listen things started getting too much so we left"

He didn't get expelled, he left.

Who the fuck had Grace?