3 comments/ 24179 views/ 8 favorites 4. My Father's Son Ch. 01-03 By: inspirixis1 CHAPTER ONE FALL, SENIOR YEAR It had to be a joke. It was an awful, cruel joke and Nicholas would come through the door any minute and she would yell at him and tell him that it wasn't funny. But it was getting late, it was almost ten o'clock and Nicholas never stayed out this late without calling her. He wasn't answering his phone. It wasn't a joke. Grace read over his note again. Dear Maria, I'm sorry. I have to find myself. I'm going to japan to find a kyosa-nim to help me. go back to Adrian, He is good for you. nick A. p.s. don't eat the cookies in the fridge, they have peanuts in them. give them to Adrian. Grace started to cry again. It made no sense. If it wasn't a joke, then what did it mean? There were so many things that felt wrong about it. Nicholas never called her Maria. Even though it was her first name nobody ever called her that. It was the name her birth mother gave her. Her real parents gave her the name Grace. Nicholas didn't need to 'find himself,' she didn't know anyone who was more introspective and aware of who he was. Even if he did want to find himself he wouldn't look for a Kyosa-nim in Japan. Kyosa-nim meant teacher in Korean, if he was looking for guidance in Japan he would need a Sensei, he knew that. Besides, Nicholas out-ranked a Kyosa-nim, he was a master himself, if he wanted more training in taekwondo he would need a grand master, a Kwan Jang-nim. She knew these things because he had taught them to her. He had told her to go back to Adrian. She couldn't think of anything more absurd than getting back together with Adrian, they had never even really been together in the first place, not the way she and Nicholas were together. Had been together. Why had he signed his name Nick? The A. was easy enough to explain, his middle name was Amir, but he hated it when people called him Nick. And why shouldn't she eat peanut cookies? It was pecans and walnuts that she was allergic to not peanuts. Nicholas knew that. There was something very wrong, she could feel it in her bones. It was after ten, Nicholas wasn't coming home. She turned the dead bolt on the door and went to bed but she couldn't sleep. Where was he? Why had he left her such a strange note? The next morning she walked to rowing alone for the first time in years. She didn't feel safe. She couldn't tell if it was just because she wasn't used to walking around alone at this time of the morning or if there really was danger out there. Even as the day pressed on and the sun came up and she had her friends and classmates around her she didn't feel safe. It was probably just because her fiancé had mysteriously disappeared, that would probably be enough to make anyone feel unsafe. She went to Aikido practice that night, she didn't see a reason not to. She felt sure that Nicholas wasn't coming home, there was no point in sitting around the apartment waiting for him. Besides, she wanted to ask their Sensei if he had said anything unusual to her. Nicholas and Charlotte Sensei had just given a special seminar together on Sunday, the day before he disappeared, if he really did want to 'find himself' he might have said something to Sensei about it. "Where's Nicholas-san?" Sensei asked. "Um, he's sick," Grace replied. She didn't know why she lied. Maybe it was just too much for her to handle to say that he had left her. "Oh, that's no good," said Sensei. "Tell him to get better soon." "Mm... Hey Sensei?" "Yes?" "Do you think he's been acting weird lately?" She shook her head. "Not that I've noticed. Why? What's up?" "Oh, it's nothing," she lied. "He's probably just stressed out about the new semester. He said something about 'finding himself.'" Sensei lifted one eyebrow and made a funny face. "Yeah, he must be stressed out, that doesn't sound like the sort of thing he'd say." After practice it was dark outside and she didn't want to walk home alone. She asked Robert, a big burly man who looked like he could beat the crap out of anyone, if he would walk her home. "Is Nicholas out?" He asked. "Yeah, he's sick." She felt kind of stupid as they walked through the quiet tree-lined streets, it didn't seem like this was the sort of neighborhood crime occurred in, but Robert didn't seem to mind. She knew he was happy to do this for Nicholas. There was a fair bit of hero worship that went around the dojo when it came to Nicholas. Nicholas was a superior martial artist to Sensei. He didn't do the exams to advance his rank so he still wore a white belt when he practiced Aikido but it was obvious that he was the best. Everyone knew it but nobody said anything. His skill wasn't the reason that everyone worshipped him though, it was because of his attitude. Despite his obviously superior talent and form Nicholas was respectful and submissive to Sensei. He always bowed lower and longer than her. He always did whatever she told him and he never pointed it out when she made a mistake. This won him a huge amount of respect from Sensei's long time students, like Robert. "It looks dark in there," Robert observed as he waited for her to open the door to the apartment. "Yeah, he's probably already asleep. Thanks for walking me home, I appreciate it." Robert nodded. "Any time. See you on Thursday?" "Yeah, probably. Good night." Robert waved a hand as he walked back down the front path. Grace closed the door behind her and immediately flipped the dead bold shut. She didn't turn any lights on, she stood behind the door and watched out the peephole. She waited. She had almost given up when she saw him. A tall lanky man dressed in jeans and a black hooded sweater passed her front door and looked up at the apartment as he walked by. He didn't belong in this neighborhood. Grace knew all of their neighbors from months of watching and waving out the bay window. He had been following them. That must have been why Grace felt so uncomfortable. Someone was following her. She moved over to the bay window and watched him walk a few hundred feet down the sidewalk then cross the street and get into the driver's seat of a dark sedan, but he didn't drive away. She couldn't tell what he was doing in there, it was too dark to see. Was he arming himself? Was he going to break into the apartment in the middle of the night and kill her? Was he in the same gang as the men who Nicholas had killed and was he looking for revenge? Had he killed Nicholas? Her heart was beating at a million miles an hour. Where was Nicholas? Surely he wasn't dead. Nobody could kill Nicholas, he was too good at martial arts, he would never let anyone kill him. Even if he was out numbered and they had guns he would be able to get away. Besides, he had left her a note. He wouldn't have been able to do that if he had been killed. No. Nicholas was alive. He had been kidnapped. That was the only explanation that made any sense. He had been kidnapped by someone who had allowed him to leave a note. It still didn't make much sense. The man that was following her wasn't a martial artist, she could tell by the way he was holding himself. That meant it was unlikely that anyone working with him was a martial artist, they were probably from the gang that the men Nicholas had killed were in. Why would Nicholas let himself be kidnapped by someone who he could defeat? And then it clicked. The man didn't necessarily start following her today, he had probably been following her for a long time. He was probably following her when Nicholas disappeared. Maybe that was why Nicholas had let himself be kidnapped, maybe her stalker had been pointing a gun at her and threatening to shoot unless Nicholas went with them. What should she do? Should she call the police? Something was warning her against it. If the police showed up here they would dismiss her as a broken hearted stupid woman who couldn't get over the fact that her fiancé had left her. And what would happen to Nicholas, wherever it was that he was being held? No. She wouldn't call the police. She had two options. She could continue on as if she didn't know she was being followed or she could try and outsmart her tail and escape. Maybe if Nicholas figured out that she had gotten away he would escape too. Maybe. She had no idea what anyone would want with Nicholas, apart from revenge for killing gang members. But if it was revenge they wanted then why didn't they shoot him here in the apartment? Maybe they wanted to torture him. The thought sent a disgusting chill down her spine. She couldn't think about that. If she was going to outsmart this guy and get away she needed a plan. She couldn't come back to the apartment. She would have to pack a bag and go somewhere else, but where? She needed to leave Boston and she needed to go somewhere where she could get help. Denver was the obvious choice. Her dad would be able to help, he was smart, he would see what was going on and figure out how to get Nicholas back. That is if Nicholas' mom and dad didn't flip out and call the cops. But wouldn't they be expecting that? Wouldn't they expect her to go home to her family? They probably already had her and Nicholas' home addresses. And could she really bring this sort of danger to their doorsteps? Could she risk her brothers' lives? Could she lead dark shadowy men to Aunt Maya and baby Madeline? No. She could go to Uncle Josh and Aunt Anna in San Diego, they probably wouldn't expect her to do that, but Josh would flip out. Josh had a major soft spot for Nicholas and he wasn't the sort of person who dealt well with stressful situations, he would probably flip out and call Nicholas' dad. She would go to Zach. That's what she would do. Unless they had really done their homework on her family they wouldn't know about Zach. Zach would help her to figure out what to do, he had some street credentials. He hadn't always been the responsible hard working husband that he was now. He would know how gangs like this think. She went to the kitchen and got her laptop. She was still too afraid to turn any lights on so she moved slowly and carefully, groping for the corners of their furniture to guide her. She got online and was about to search for tickets to San Francisco when she thought of something. She had no idea how sophisticated these people were, what if they had access to her file history and bank account information? She didn't even know if that was possible, but she had seen her share of spy movies, wasn't it better to be safe than sorry? She booked a ticket to Denver. It would be what they were expecting. She bought a first class ticket so that she wouldn't have to pay anything extra when she changed the destination to San Francisco. She packed in the dark. First she went to the safe box in the filing cabinet and got out her passport, just in case. Nicholas' was in there too. He wasn't in Japan, he had no intention of going to Japan. She took his too. She didn't know why she wanted to take it with her. She packed the sari Nicholas' grandma Priya had given her when they told them they were engaged. That had been such a nice weekend. Grace had been worried that his grandparents would not approve of her. On the two other occasions she had visited they had smiled at her politely but never shown much interest in her. She was pretty sure they wanted him to marry an Indian girl. When Nicholas told them he was going to marry her they looked at each other for a moment in shock, but then they had smiled and hugged her and fawned over her ring and given them some clear sweet liquor in little crystal glasses and made a toast to their future happiness and prosperity. Nicholas' grandmother had taken them to an Indian dress shop and Grace had stood there and felt self conscious as the assistants had wrapped and unwrapped her in dozens of different saris until his grandmother had finally chosen the ones that she liked the best. "This one for now," Priya had said in her thick accent as she patted the simple grey-blue and cream one, her ancient eyes soft and warm. "This one for later." She smiled as she laid her hand on the ornate bright red and gold one. Nicholas stood there watching the scene with a smile on his face. Seeing her in a sari must have awoken some dormant Indian desires in him because when he took her home after that day he made love to her with an intensity and an urgency that she hadn't seen in him before. She folded the fabric of the sari but before she put it in her bag she lifted it to her face to breathe in the fragrance of that day. It was too much. She sank to her knees and doubled over, clutching her stomach. What she wouldn't give to be back there, safe with Nicholas and his grandmother. "Where are you Kolya?" She whispered into the fabric. The pain in her chest was overwhelming, it fingered out and grasped at her every thought. Nicholas was gone. She had no idea where he was, but she knew he wasn't safe. Her heart searched, trying to locate him, as if she had some super-power that could find her soul mate if he was lost. She searched for him but he was gone. She reached out for him but he was nowhere to be found. She woke up early the next morning, probably because she was extremely uncomfortable having slept in the closet beside the front door. She had figured that it was the safest place in the apartment because she would be able to hear it if anyone came in the front door, and it would be one of the last places an intruder would look for her. It was a small closet so nobody would look at it twice. There were some advantages to being small. She quietly opened the sliding door and stood in the hallway. Pale grey light streamed in the windows and she looked around as she moved through the apartment. Nothing was out of order. Nobody else had been in here last night. That was good. That meant the man outside was just for surveillance. He wasn't there to kill her. Yet. She inched up to the window that looked in the direction of the car that she'd seen last night. It was darker inside the apartment than outside so she was pretty sure that nobody could see in the windows. The car was still there but she couldn't tell if there was anyone inside it, its windows were too heavily tinted. She got out her phone and used the zoom function on its camera to try and get a better look. Still no luck. She decided to take a few photos while she had it out, there was no reason not to. She walked to rowing alone again and she felt exposed, but nothing happened. She purposefully didn't look around to see if anyone was following her, she didn't want him to know that she knew. She asked her coach if she could film the crew that morning. Every now and then they filmed the crew and picked apart all of the ways they could improve. Her coach shrugged her shoulders and said "Sure." Out on the water Grace pretended to concentrate on the crew but she was actually watching to see if there was anyone following them. She put the camera on her lap sideways so it was filming the scene along the bank of the river, but she swiveled the screen around so she could look down and watch without having to look around. It wouldn't look suspicious. Grace had to look down periodically to check the readouts from the sensors on the boat anyway. She saw him a few times and caught him on film. It was hard to tell much about him because he seemed to be good at staying just far enough away that he could be anyone. He was tall and skinny and she was pretty sure he was white. When they got off the water she downloaded the video file onto her laptop and then she walked over to campus for breakfast with her friends. It was so hard not to look around to check if he was following her, but she did her best to pretend that she had no idea what was going on. After breakfast she went to the bank in the student union and withdrew ten thousand dollars from her and Nicholas' savings account. She was glad that Nicholas believed in liquidity and insisted on keeping part of their assets as cash. She had asked him once why he didn't reinvest everything in the stock market. "You can never know what is around the corner milaya," he had told her. "I want to make sure we always have enough cash available incase there is some unforeseen problem." She thought this counted as an unforeseen problem and so she withdrew the money. She was paranoid, is what it came down to. She was afraid that she would be able to be tracked by when and how she used their bank accounts. She wanted to be untraceable. She got her first good look at her stalker at the airport. She got in line to check in at the front counter and he joined the cue behind her. There were two people between them. She got lucky and the agent that called her up was the furthest one from the cue, so he wouldn't be able to hear her change her destination. The agent was almost done checking Grace in when the one next to her called him over. She made sure not to look at him but observed in her peripheral vision. He handed some cards over to the agent and she typed a few things into her computer. Grace got her phone out and pretended to make a phone call, but she was really turning the video function on. She held the phone up to her ear so that the camera was pointing at him. "Hi mom," she said into the phone. She paused as if she were listening to her mom talk to her. "Yeah I'm at the airport." Pause. "I should land at about a quarter past three." Pause. "No don't bother, I'll just take one of those door to door shuttle busses." Pause. The agent handed her the boarding pass and Grace smiled and nodded at her and walked away. She continued to talk into the phone for a while, just in case. After she had gone through the security check point and walked to the gate of the flight that was going to Denver she went to the bathroom. Once she was in a stall she pulled out her headphones and plugged them into her phone so she could watch the video and listen to it in private. He was a white guy. He was tall and pale with spiky blonde hair and a big nose. She listened carefully in the pauses that she had left to try and hear what the agent had said to him. "Going to Denver today Mr. Stover?" "Yes." She listened to her own voice pretending to talk to her mom. The camera caught him glance at her and then she must have gotten the boarding pass and walked away. Now she knew two new pieces of information. His name was Stover and he had somehow known that she had booked tickets to Denver. Maybe her paranoia was well founded. She wondered if her computer was bugged or if there was a way to monitor the internet traffic from outside the apartment. There wasn't much time to try and figure that out. She opened her bag and started to put on the weird ensemble of clothes that she had brought to try and trick Stover. She swapped her jogging shoes for high-heeled boots first, then she pulled a bulky sweat suit on over her jeans and shirt and put the sari on over the top. She got out the cream scarf that almost matched the sari and wrapped it around her head. She was glad that her friend Aicha in the physical therapy program was Muslim and had showed her how to do this once. When she looked at herself in the mirror she hardly recognized her body. She looked taller and chubbier. All she would have to do was hide her face and she might get away with this. What she wouldn't give for a burka right now. She couldn't believe her luck when an old lady who looked Indian and was dressed in something that was not a full sari but looked distinctly Indian came out of a toilet stall behind her. Grace washed her hands very, very thoroughly while the old lady washed hers and then dried them and then walked very slowly out of the bathroom. Grace shuffled behind her, keeping her head down. 4. My Father's Son Ch. 01-03 She walked beside the old lady very slowly. It made her nervous. She wanted to run but she bowed her head and shuffled instead. She made it to the San Francisco flight right after it started boarding and got on immediately. She sat in her seat and watched the people file in through the door. Finally the boarding was done and they closed the door and she breathed a sigh of relief. She had gotten away. She was pretty sure Stover was the only one following her and he wasn't on this plane. "Welcome to California," the flight hostess said after they landed. Grace fought to hold back tears as she thought of the last time she had been in California. It had only been a few weeks ago that she and Nicholas had left Los Angeles after spending the summer there. Nicholas had filmed what he swore would be his last movie. It was the first time that he had to say lines as a character and he was actually a really good actor. Grace had done an internship in the physical therapy department of a nursing home. The work had not been fun, but being with Nicholas had made up for it. They spent every spare moment together. They played in the waves at the beach, they jogged up and down the hills near the apartment they rented, they drove down to San Diego to visit Uncle Josh, Aunty Anna, Babushka and Dedushka. At the end of every day Nicholas took her in his arms in bed and hugged her close and told her how much he loved her. It had only been a few weeks ago. She took the train and then a caught a cab to Zach and Beth's apartment. "Gracie!" Zach looked surprised and shocked and worried all at once. She couldn't blame him, she had shown up unannounced on his doorstep wearing a sari and a headscarf with her eyes all red and puffy from crying. "What are you doing here? What's wrong? Why are you dressed like that?" "Zach..." She practically fell into his embrace. She was so tired, she hadn't slept properly in days. "What is it? What's wrong?" "Nicholas has been kidnapped," she sobbed into his sweater. "What?" "Nicholas was kidnapped and there was someone following me." Zach looked up and down the street behind her, then pulled her inside the apartment and closed the door. He led her into the living room and sat her down on the couch. "Just calm down, okay? Let me make you a hot chocolate." "Tea?" She asked. "Can I have some tea?" He nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. Grace slumped into the couch and removed her headscarf. "Tell me what happened," Zach said when he reappeared with a steaming mug of tea. "Everything was normal, then on Monday when I got home from my classes Nicholas wasn't there like he usually is," she heard her voice crack and swallowed hard to try and fight the tears. "He left this note..." She pulled the note out of her pocket and handed it to Zach. His eyes scanned over it and his brow furrowed. "This makes no sense," he said. "Who is Adrian?" "He's a guy I dated for a little while before Nicholas and I got together, but we're still friends with him. He's more Nicholas' friend now." "Nicholas is friends with your ex-boyfriend?" "Yeah." Zach shook his head. "Okay. So he leaves you this weird note, then what happens?" She filled him in on everything that had happened and showed him Nicholas' passport, the photos of the car outside the apartment, and the videos of Stover beside the river and at the airport. Zach watched and listened carefully and then he looked down at the note again. "Do you think it is a gang?" Grace asked. "Do you think they're trying to get revenge for him killing those men last year?" "No." Grace was surprised, that had been her leading hypothesis. "Why not?" "A street gang wouldn't wait ten months to get revenge, and they wouldn't take him hostage. If it were a street gang they would have done a drive by as soon as you moved into the new place." "So who do you think it is?" "I don't know." His face softened as he looked at her. "Gracie you look like you could use some sleep. Why don't you leave me to think about it tonight and we can talk about it again in the morning. He was right. Grace was fighting to keep her eyes open. It was the first time she had felt safe in days and her body was ready to surrender to sleep. Zach set her up in the guest room. For the first time Grace was glad that Nicholas had been wrong about Zach and Beth being pregnant. She felt bad enough about risking their safety by asking for their help, she couldn't imagine how bad she would feel if they had a baby. Zach hesitated as he left the room. "Gracie, we'll get him back," he said. "I haven't figured it out yet but we will and then we'll get him back." Grace nodded and the tears spilled over her cheeks. She knew Zach was the right person to come to. CHAPTER TWO Grace unlocked the door to the apartment and stepped inside. Her heart leapt when she saw him. She was so happy and relieved, the past couple of days must have just been a nightmare. "Kolya, you're here!" The tears flowed down her cheeks. She ran towards him but as she got closer he started to change. He was old. He had aged twenty years or more. His skin was rougher, his eyes deeper set, his eyebrows bushier. She stopped in front of him. She didn't want to touch him. His mouth spread into a smile, it was the right shape but it wasn't his smile, it was... sleazy. It wasn't Nicholas. "Maria," he said as he opened his arms for her. She sat up suddenly and looked around her, not recognizing anything. Her brain flew into a panic. Where was she? She could hear the sounds of traffic out the window. There were the sounds of pipes creaking and dishes clanking against one another. Then she remembered. She was at Zach and Beth's place. Zach was going to help her to find Nicholas. Zach was already up and cooking breakfast when she came into the kitchen. "Gracie, that note bothers me on so many different levels that I don't know what to make of it." He said. "I know, it's weird huh?" She said as she sat at the kitchen table. "In so many different ways. Has Nicholas started going to church?" "Huh? No. He's an atheist." Zach nodded. "So why does he capitalize the H in he as if he is talking about god?" She shook her head. "I don't know. Give me the note." Zach handed it to her and she read over it again. Dear Maria, I'm sorry. I have to find myself. I'm going to japan to find a kyosa-nim to help me. go back to Adrian, He is good for you. nick A. p.s. don't eat the cookies in the fridge, they have peanuts in them. give them to Adrian. She hadn't noticed the poor grammar before. It wasn't like Nicholas to be so sloppy, even when he was text messaging on his phone he used correct spelling and grammar. "Give me a pen," she said. Zach went to a jar on the counter and came back with a pen. She started writing letters down in the margin of the newspaper that was sitting on the table beside her. "What are you doing?" Zach asked. "I'm writing down all of the letters he capitalized." D M I I I A H A A "Do you think it means something?" Zach asked. She wrote them down again without repeats. D M I A H "Oh shit," she whispered. "What?" It wasn't Nicholas that she had dreamed about, it was someone who looked like Nicholas but was older. She wrote the letters out in their correct order. HAMID She looked up at Zach. His mouth was gaping open and his dark eyes bulging out of his slender brown face. "His father? I thought he was dead?" "Me too. So did Nicholas." "Holy Fuck," Zach swore. "Do you think we should tell Maya?" "No. Are you kidding? If she knew her ex-husband was alive and had kidnapped her son she would flip out." Zach picked up the note and read it again. "You're right." He slammed the note on the table. "This is the guy we tell." He pointed to Adrian's name. "Adrian?" Grace scrunched up her face. "Zach you haven't met Adrian, he's a nice guy but he's not exactly the sharpest stick in the forest." "This is who you are supposed to tell Grace." He tapped Adrian's name again. "Nicholas told you... twice." She still wasn't convinced. What on earth could Adrian do to help? "Gracie, we're going to see this Adrian guy." They rented a car and drove across the country, Zach agreed that it was too risky to fly and driving would give them the chance to check on everyone in Denver. Grace waited in the car while Zach said goodbye to Beth. She felt horrible for bringing Zach into this, but she didn't really feel like she had a choice. Nicholas needed help. They had been driving for almost a full day when they got to Denver. The first thing they did was to get a hotel room so they could shower, and then they went back out to see if Nicholas' family was being followed. It was already 3:00 so they went to check on Lucas first. Neither of them had ever tried to stalk anyone before so they didn't really know how to go about finding out if Lucas was being followed. They waited in the parking lot of his high school and watched the students pour out and drift away in groups. Grace nudged Zach and nodded over to where Ollie was sitting on his bike chatting to a boy she didn't recognize. Micah barreled down the stairs towards the bike racks and quickly unlocked his bike and jumped on. Ollie waved to his friend and tried to catch up with Micah who was already half way across the parking lot. They passed right in front of the rental car that Grace and Zach were sitting in. It made Grace's heart contract painfully to have them so close but not be able to talk to them. "Micaaaah, wait up," they heard Ollie complain. Grace was still shocked when she heard Ollie speak in his deep grainy voice. Even though his body clearly demonstrated that he was now a man it was difficult for her brain to accept it. They watched after them but no suspicious looking cars pulled out to follow them. They waited and waited for Lucas. "Maybe he's in detention?" Zach said. "Luka? I don't think he's the sort of guy who gets detention." "Mm. Maybe he's sick? He could have taken the day off." They were just about to give up when a group of guys emerged from around the side of the school, jogging. It was easy to pick Lucas, he was at least half a foot taller than the rest of them and he wore a wide brimmed hat to protect his pale skin from the sun. He was smiling and joking around with a couple of the guys, they were punching each other playfully. The group crossed the parking lot and continued jogging down the street. Just as the last of them turned the corner out of sight a silver sedan with dark tinted windows, which had been parked on the opposite side of the street, pulled out, did a U-turn and followed the joggers. "Bingo," Zach said. It made Grace nervous. She didn't want anyone to hurt Lucas. "Should we follow them?" "No. We know he's just trailing him right? And we know that Luka is coming back here before he goes home, so we position ourselves so that we can do a bit of reconnaissance ourselves. We'll get the license plate number and photos of the car and if we're lucky we might get a look at who it is. If we end up going to the police it can only help." Zach started the car, drove it out onto the street and parked it a few cars in front of where the silver car had previously been parked. Grace was twitchy and nervous the whole time that the cross country team was gone. It was almost an hour before the first guy got back. They started to trickle back in singles and pairs. Lucas was nowhere to be seen. "Zach..." Grace felt her heart rate accelerating. Where was Lucas? "Settle down Grace, he's just a slow runner, he'll be back soon." Each second felt like an eternity. She hated Lucas being in danger. When she finally saw him round the corner with another slow runner she started breathing again. "See, I told you," said Zach. "It's just because he's a fat ass." Grace gave a meager attempt at a laugh. "Yeah, right." Lucas was anything but fat, he was only a slow runner because he was lugging around massively built swimmer's shoulders. Just as Lucas was approaching the high school the silver car turned the corner and pulled up into its original parking space. Zach copied down the license plate number and then started the car and pulled out into the street. "What are you doing?" Grace asked. "Going to the Grays' house." "But what about Luka?" Grace didn't want to leave Lucas alone with that psycho trailing him. "Luka's not going to get hurt, that guy is just following him." "But..." "Gracie, Lucas is going to be fine. Let's go over to his parents' house and wait for him there." Zach parked under a tree a few doors down from Nicholas' parents' house. Nothing looked amiss. "What if we kidnap Lucas?" Grace asked. Zach shook his head. "If Lucas was out of the picture they could just as easily tag Maya, and if we took Maya out of the picture they'd just go after Tyler, then they'd start going after our brothers, then Sam and Emma, then Josh and Anna..." Grace could see his point. There were too many people who Nicholas loved and who loved him. They sat and waited. And waited. And waited. And then finally Maya's maroon Volvo passed them and pulled into their driveway and a few moments later a black sedan pulled into the street and parked across the street from the house. "Shit," Zach swore under his breath. "This is a lot bigger than I know how to handle Gracie. I hope this Adrian guy knows what to do." Moments later they saw Tyler's truck with Lucas in the passenger seat pull into the driveway and then the silver sedan pulled into the street and parked a few houses away. The driver's side door of the silver car opened and a man got out and walked up the street towards them. "Shit. Get down Gracie," Zach ordered. "Where's your phone? Give it to me." Grace ducked down into the space under the dashboard and handed Zach her phone. "How do you turn it on?" Grace took it back off him. "What do you want? Camera or video?" "Camera." She switched the functions and handed it back to him. The quiet click of the camera function filled the car as Zach snapped photo after photo. "The other guy's coming over to talk to him," he said. Click... Click... Click... "We've got a tall white guy with blonde hair, probably the guy who was following you, and a stocky light black dude with a goatee." Click... Click... Click... "Okay they're breaking up, looks like the black guy is going home for the night." "Should we follow him?" Grace asked. "I don't know. The last thing we want is for him to realize that we're tracking him." Zach rubbed his palm over the stubble on his chin. "No. I think we should go to the hotel and eat and sleep and then drive over to Boston and see your friend Adrian." "He's not going to know what to do Zach," Grace warned. "I wouldn't put too much hope in Adrian having the answers." "Well Nicholas seemed to think he would have some idea so lets just work off that until we figure out a better way." It was a very, very long way to Boston. They left in the early hours of Friday morning and each took four to five hour shifts driving while the other slept. The sun was up and it was Saturday morning by the time they finally got to Boston. "Do you think there might be someone following Adrian?" Zach asked. "I don't think so, but I can't be sure. He is kind of our best friend out here." Zach nodded. "Better to be safe than sorry. We'll track him down and follow him for a while until we're sure that he's not being tracked. Do you know where to find him?" "Yeah, that's easy." Grace drove them to the Northeastern boathouse. She drove past a few times and circled around keeping an eye out for anyone that looked suspicious but they didn't see anything. They waited in a side street until they saw the Northeastern vans drive past and then they examined the row of vehicles behind them. None of them looked suspicious. They drove over to the Northeastern campus and turned the corner in time to see all of the guys piling out of the vans at one of the turn around points. Grace lagged behind and made sure that there was nobody else watching from the cover of a vehicle and then she pulled up behind the vans. "Roll your window down," she told Zach. "Which one is he?" he asked. "The one that looks like dad." Zach gave her a side-ways glance but the description was spot on. "Hey Adrian," Zach called out when he saw him. Adrian looked around, confused. "Adrian, come over here," Zach repeated, sticking his head out the window. Adrian walked towards them slowly, his gym bag slung over one shoulder, his flip flops slapping against the sidewalk. "Zach?" He asked. Zach was obviously taken aback, they'd never met before but Adrian must have recognized him from the photos at hers and Nicholas' apartment. "Yeah. I need to talk to you. Get in the car." Adrian looked hesitant. He squatted down to peer in the window. "Gracie?" "Yeah, come on Adrian, we need to talk. We'll buy you breakfast," she said. Adrian seemed to perk up at that idea. "Is it about Nicholas' bachelor party?" There was a note of excitement in his voice. "Yeah, come on, let's go," said Zach. Adrian got in the back seat closed the door and Grace stepped on the gas. "Wow, at least let me get my seat belt on Gracie." "Sorry." She checked the rear view mirror but there weren't any cars behind them. "Where have you guys been? I tried calling Nicholas like a thousand times and I even went over to your place. I was starting to get worried." Zach turned around to face him. "Adrian, what do you know about Hamid Chandrasekhar?" Grace watched all of the blood drain from Adrian's face in the rear view mirror. "He was a criminal. The worst sort of criminal." Adrian said. Zach nodded. "Is. He has Nicholas." Adrian was silent for a moment. "Gracie, pull over." "What?" "Pull over," he repeated. "I'm going to drive." Grace pulled over and they swapped seats. "Where are we going?" She asked. "To see my dad." "Why?" "My dad was a District Attorney in New York City before we were born. Hamid Chandrasekhar was the head of the largest and dirtiest organized crime syndicate the city has ever seen. NYPD and the FBI were working together to gather evidence against him, they had an agent who'd infiltrated the mob and was bringing back all sorts of information. "Then all of a sudden Chandrasekhar disappeared. The charred remains of someone who fit his description were found in the burnt out shell of one of his fancy sports cars wrapped around a telephone pole, but it was never positively identified as him because his dental records mysteriously went missing." Grace was stunned. It was so far beyond any wild fantasy that she could have dreamed up, but as soon as the words came out of Adrian's mouth she knew them to be true. They were up against the mob. "Did Nicholas know?" Zach asked. Adrian shook his head. "I don't think so. I tried to pry a few times to see his reaction but he seemed clueless. He was actually delighted at the idea that my dad might have known something about his dad, he said his mom never talked about him and he had always wondered." "He didn't know," Grace agreed. "At least at the time of Zach's wedding he didn't. We had a conversation about him in the rooftop garden. He was upset because he was worried that his mom never loved Hamid." They were driving through an extremely posh suburb West of the city. Huge manicured lawns stretched in front of enormous brownstone houses. "So Nicholas went missing?" Adrian asked. 4. My Father's Son Ch. 01-03 "Yeah, on Monday," Grace explained. "Fuck." "He left a weird cryptic note that said I should go to you. He must have known that you knew." Adrian nodded. "Not necessarily me, he probably figured out that my dad knew." He pulled into a driveway with enormous wrought iron gates. He punched a code into a keypad and the gates swung open. They drove through a yard filled with those stupid trees that are cut into shapes and short thick green grass so perfect it belonged on a golf course. The cobblestone driveway wound slightly uphill towards an enormous brick mansion. Adrian pulled off the driveway and into a parking area. "Adrian, why would Hamid want to kidnap Nicholas? What would he want with him now, after all these years?" She asked as they got out of the car. "Gracie think about it, what is Nicholas good at?" "Lots of things." "C'mon, what is he really good at?" Loving me, Grace thought. That was the answer but it wasn't the one Adrian was thinking. "Martial arts," Grace said. "Uh-huh. Nicholas is really, really good at killing people." "What? No!" She cried. "Yes. He has a talent for killing. He is his father's son in that regard." "No! Adrian, you know that's not true. You know Nicholas would never kill anyone." "Grace, he already did." "He had no choice." Nicholas had only killed those men in their apartment because he had no choice. "Exactly. When he feels that he has no choice Nicholas will kill to protect the people he loves. That is a fact. I'm not saying that I think he is a bad person, I'm just saying that if he is manipulated properly he could be used as a deadly weapon. You asked what Chandrasekhar wanted with him and I think that is the answer." "It explains why you had a stalker and why his mom and brother have people tracking them too," Zach said. Adrian turned back to her quickly. "Someone was following you?" There was concern in his voice. "Yeah, I have video footage of him watching me." "Come on, let's go inside. Bring your stuff." The inside of Adrian's parents' house was even more impressive than the outside. The furniture was ornate rich polished wood, and expensive looking antiques adorned the surfaces and walls. He led them through a number of different rooms until she finally recognized a kitchen. A tall attractive blonde in a tailored athletic sweat suit was sitting at the kitchen counter watching one of those morning T.V. talk shows with a tall glass of thick green liquid in front of her. "Hi mom," Adrian greeted her. He walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek. "Adie!" She exclaimed. "What a nice surprise." "These are my friends, Grace and Zach," he said, motioning towards them. "Oh, Grace, how nice..." she got up and shook Grace's hand. "And Zach? But I thought...?" Zach is her brother," Adrian explained. "Oh." She smiled at Zach. "It's very nice to meet you," she said as she shook his hand. "Is dad here?" Adrian asked. "He's in his office." "We need to talk to him," Adrian said as he moved to leave the kitchen. "Okay," his mom shrugged her shoulders and went back to her seat at the kitchen counter. Like the rest of the house, Adrian's dad's office was richly furnished. He sat behind a huge mahogany desk, his face and hair a picture of perfection. Even in his Saturday morning garb of a tailored polo shirt and slacks he looked fit for television. He looked surprised when he saw Adrian but the surprise quickly turned to wariness when his eyes passed over Grace and Zach. "Adrian?" There was a warning in his voice. "Dad, something has happened. We need your help." He shook his head. "Adrian, you know how I feel about this." "Please, at least let her explain what happened." He sighed and motioned for them to sit in the overstuffed chairs. "Go ahead," he said impatiently. Grace told him the story. She showed him the note and the photos and videos. "He needs help," she begged him. "I think he thought you could help him." Adrian's dad shook his head and turned to his son. "This is political suicide Adrian, I'm not touching it. I stuck my neck out for you on this kid's behalf once, I'm not doing it again." "Dad, he's my friend..." "Whom I warned you about," he cut him off sternly. "That kid is bad news. He is a Chandrasekhar. He is a killing machine." "No." Grace didn't like the way this was going. "Nicholas never even met Hamid. I've known him since I can remember, he's not a killer." Adrian's dad sighed and turned to a filing cabinet behind him. He unlocked it, took out a file, walked around to the front of his desk and dropped a stack of photographs on the coffee table. Grace leaned over and gasped in shock. It was one of her rapists, he was sprawled across a staircase that looked familiar with his arm jutting out in a direction that was not physiologically correct. There was blood all over the stairs and his face and head were deformed into an unnatural shape. She felt bile rising, pushing against her throat. Grace didn't want to touch the photo so she nudged it to the side to see the ones underneath. Teeth. Blood and teeth on the carpet of the stairwell. The third photo was a broom that looked eerily familiar. The handle end was covered in blood and there were two bloody hand prints near the center point of the staff. Her heart sank. Even as she denied it to herself she knew in her heart that Nicholas had been responsible for it. She shook her head. The Nicholas that she knew would never do something like this, the Nicholas she knew was gentle and sensitive. He had told her that he had killed men but he hadn't elaborated, he hadn't explained how violent it had been. "Grace, is it?" Grace looked up at Adrian's father. "He tricked you. Nicholas' father was a master of deception, I don't doubt that Nicholas has the same gift." "No." She shook her head. "I'm not stupid. I would have known if he was tricking me." He blinked slowly, as if he were trying to be patient with her. "Do you know Maya Galloway?" "Yes." "Do you think she is stupid?" "No." "Maya Galloway slept with a cold-blooded murderer for almost two years. She married him, she had a child with him, and I am ninety-nine percent sure that she had no idea who he was. She wasn't stupid, she was in love. Love does strange things to your judgment." No. She didn't believe it, she hadn't always been in love with Nicholas, he couldn't have been pretending all his life, could he? "But... what about the note? He left clues for me, he told me to go to Adrian, the one person who knew." Mr. Wheeler rolled his eyes. "You're grasping at straws. He told you to go back to your ex-boyfriend. That would seem like a logical thing to do to a lot of people." "What about the stalkers? Why are people following his family?" Zach asked. "Maybe he wants to make sure nobody makes a fuss. Maybe he's trying to ensure nobody looks for him." He raised his eyebrows. Grace didn't know what to say. Surely that couldn't be true. That wasn't Nicholas. "I suggest you go back to your life Grace. Do what you can to move on. It would be stupid and dangerous to go after a Chandrasekhar." He turned to Adrian. "In fact Adrian I forbid you from getting involved with this, for your own good you are not to pursue this." "But dad..." "No buts Adrian," he was cut off abruptly. "This is not open for negotiation." Adrian bowed his head and gave a single nod. There was an uncomfortable silence and then she felt a hand on her arm. "I'll walk you out," Adrian said. He was silent as they walked through the house, he didn't say anything until they were outside. "There's a hotel in town on Center Street," he said. "It's called The Regal, they do a good breakfast." Something caught his eye down near the front gate and Grace turned to follow his gaze. It was a police cruiser. Adrian's hand was on her arm again and he squeezed her lightly. "Go get some breakfast." Then he turned and walked back into the house. Zach drove. Grace felt like she was in shock. She felt numb. She kept on seeing the photo of the dead man in the stairwell when she closed her eyes. "It's not true Grace," Zach said quietly. "I know." It couldn't be true. Nicholas loved her. That knowledge was all she had, it was what she had rebuilt her life around. "If biology ruled I would have knocked Beth up and left her rather than marrying her. Nicholas is more than what his genes define, we all are." She nodded. "What do you want to do now?" He asked. "I don't know." It was all tumbling down around her. "I don't know where to look for him. Adrian was the only lead we had." Grace was fighting to keep it together, tears prickled the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill. "It's okay Gracie, we'll figure it out. Let's go eat and shower and sleep and then make a decision once we're feeling better." "Okay." She agreed even though she knew she wasn't going to feel better after food and sleep, she was only going to feel better once she was together with Nicholas again and that was starting to look like a distant dream. CHAPTER THREE "Amir, is there anything I can get you?" Nicholas looked up at the man who was offering to help him, the man who had been there since this horrible mess began. "A telephone." Hamid shook his head sadly. "I whish I could. I remember what it was like when I was first brought here. But it is for the best my son. The life you had is gone. I'm so sorry. I wish with all of my heart that I could have prevented this." He really did look sorry, that was the part that was so confusing. Nicholas didn't know what to believe. Reading people was not what he was good at. He needed to talk to Grace about it, but he couldn't. Even if he could get a phone he couldn't talk to her. Grace was dead. Even now, three days after she died, the realization that he was alone hit him like a ton of bricks. He would never see her again. He would never again hear her sweet clear voice or feel her soft body pressed against his. Except in his dreams. He hoped Grace would always haunt his dreams. Hamid laid his hand on Nicholas' shoulder. "Your girl, Jaidee, is she okay? Do you want a different one?" Nicholas shook his head. "She's fine." "I know it's not the same Amir, but you can have a good life here. I remember what it was like with your mother..." He stared longingly into the distance. "I will never love another woman the way I loved Maya. It is the reason she is still alive. It is the reason you are alive. All of these years I have protected the two of you, the way you must go on protecting her now." Nicholas nodded his head slowly. Self sacrifice. It is what he had preached to Grace back when she was deciding whether or not to testify against McCarran. 'Those things which are precious are saved only by sacrifice,' he had told her. David Kenyon Webster's words had been one of his favorite quotes, he'd just had no idea what they meant. It's funny how he had spouted out so much shit and people had listened. He had put himself on the moral high ground so often. How easy it had been to preach non-violence. Spew out a few Ghandi quotes, add a little MLK Jr. and you can actually start believing that you are a good person. Now he knew what self-sacrifice was. He would spend the rest of his life assassinating people he didn't even know in order to keep his family safe. So Luka could go away to college and fall in love and have all of the things that Nicholas had lost. So Madeline could grow up and try ballet and swimming and find out who she was and what she loved. How many people would he kill to keep them safe? "I will send for your girl," Hamid said. Nicholas looked up at him. His features were so familiar, his voice warm and affectionate. When he had first seen Hamid he had known who he was immediately. His brain had been ticking over at a million miles an hour, trying to compute what his eyes were seeing. His instincts were warning him to be cautious but his heart was elated. His father. He was looking at his father. He could not have begun to imagine just how badly things would turn. How Grace would be 'accidentally' killed and how he would be forced to kill someone he'd never met. How he would be doomed to such a miserable future. Through it all Hamid had been there, supporting him. He had allowed Nicholas to write Grace the note. He had come to him after he had been told that she was dead and comforted him. He had gone on the job with him and made sure that he got out of there cleanly. He hadn't been in the room with him when he did it though, Nicholas had been alone with his victim. "Jaidee is a good girl Amir. She is clean, I made sure." Nicholas looked away but continued to nod his head. He knew Jaidee had come to him a virgin, she had gone to great lengths to prove it to him. He watched as Hamid left his room. It wasn't locked. All the security they needed on Nicholas was for him to know that guns were pointed at his mother and brother. It wasn't long before Jaidee knocked on his door. He let her in. Over the five days since he had been brought to the house they had come to a reasonably comfortable agreement; she stayed in his room on the condition that she did not try to touch him. She slept on the bed and he slept on the floor. Nicholas had no interest in her. Even though Grace was dead he had no interest in any girl, he doubted that he ever would again. But he worried about her safety in this house where she was expected to provide men with pleasure. She had looked afraid when she had come into his room that first night, but that was nothing compared to the fear that passed across her face when he had turned her away, and so she slept in his bed. She smiled and bowed her silken head as she passed him to enter the room. He guessed that she was probably considered beautiful. She was petite to the point of looking fragile and she had a slender face with big dark eyes and plump shapely lips. She hovered near the bed with an air of uncertainty. This was the first time she had come to his room during the day, all of the other times had been at night. At night it wasn't so uncomfortable, sleep kept them occupied. During the day he wasn't sure what to do with her. He motioned for her to sit on the bed and she obeyed. Her hands came to the buttons on her blouse and she looked up at him for guidance. Big dark brown eyes searched his for direction. He shook his head and her hands fell to her sides. She didn't speak English and he didn't speak Thai so their communication was limited. He turned from her and sat on his knees on the floor with his feet tucked underneath him. He would try to meditate. He didn't care what she did. He concentrated on his breathing, on the air entering and leaving his body. He felt his heart beating and the blood coursing through him. He tried to think only of his body, his gateway, his bridge to peace, but he couldn't find it. He couldn't stop thinking. What were Sam and Emma feeling right now? Did they know, or were they enjoying the last days of their old life? The last days of freedom before everything would change, before they realized that they had lost their only daughter. Hamid had said that her body had been 'taken care of,' he said that it would never be found. Grace didn't have a body anymore. She didn't have anything anymore. She didn't even exist. That was the worst part. He could deal with his own loss, but Grace's loss was unbearable. There were so many things she would miss out on. She would never row again. She had been so excited for her senior year on the water, she thought Boston University had a good chance at winning the national titles and she was looking forward to racing. She would never finish her degree. Never treat and rehabilitate world-class athletes the way she had dreamed. Never get to wear the white dress she had picked out with her mom. Never know the joys of motherhood. He felt a hand on his shoulder, a small timid hand. Jaidee was not Grace. She was not the woman he loved. But she was soft and warm and her heart still beat. He took her in his arms.