by Victoria Sue
“Sebastian, get out of the car and come inside.”
Seb was scrambling out of the passenger side door. “Dad, what the hell is going on?”
Gray got out and stopped when one of the men nearest to him stepped forward to halt him. He looked at the man’s black eyes and stern jaw and recognized danger and experience. For the first time, he was scared for Seb. This man at least knew exactly what he was doing with the AR-15 he held. Gray looked at Armitage, but Seb had noticed.
“Dad, what are you doing? Tell them to lower their guns. This is ridiculous.”
“No,” Armitage snapped. “What is ridiculous is me paying any more money to a half-assed outfit that was nearly responsible for you getting hurt.” He turned to Gray. “You are fired. Get back in your car and leave my property. My son’s protection is no longer the responsibility of Rawlings Security.”
“What?” Seb cried. “No, Dad—”
“Get inside,” he ordered.
“No.” Seb took a step away from his dad and toward Gray. As if in sync, every gun was lifted.
“Seb,” Gray said warningly as a chill ran down his spine. Pointing guns at him was one thing; any threat against Seb was a completely different shit show. Fuck, there was absolutely nothing he could do. “Mr. Armitage, perhaps we can go inside and discuss this?”
Armitage glowered at Gray. “No,” he barked out the order and gestured to Seb. “Get inside, quickly.”
“No.” Seb’s defiant word was quietly spoken but loud all the same. “Gray is my bodyguard. I trust him. I’m not—”
“Fucking him?”
Everyone looked at the door and to where McKay had appeared. Seb’s mouth fell open, and Gray thought Armitage was going to explode.
“I just asked, because I can’t understand any other reason for you wanting someone who has failed so spectacularly. I mean, you were fucking Smith, so I assume you have a thing for your bodyguards.”
Gray inhaled the sharp hurt. Smith? Arron Smith and Seb? He glanced at Seb in confusion.
“What’s the matter, Darling,” McKay drawled. “Thought you were special?”
Gray ignored the horrified silence from Seb, shoved the whatever down deep, and focused once more on Armitage. “Sir, I really think we need to discuss—”
“Get off my property,” Armitage spat. Gray fell silent and looked at Seb. He wasn’t about to risk a standoff when the guns were also pointing at Seb. Armitage was dangerously close to losing all reason, and Gray needed to de-escalate things.
“Seb, go inside,” he ordered softly, trying to look reassuring. “I will talk to you later.”
Armitage took two steps forward and clasped his son’s arm. “No, you won’t. You are forbidden from any contact with him from this second onward.” Seb started struggling.
“Dad, get off me.” One of the men closed in and caught Seb’s other arm, and Seb tried to twist away.
“Seb, no,” Gray instructed. He was going to get hurt. The guard started dragging him away, and Seb lost it. Gray took an angry step, only to be faced with the black eyes and the assault rifle pointed at his head. Seb kicked and tried to throw punches, but another man stepped up, and in seconds, they had him in the house.
“You have one chance to remove yourself, or you will be shot. My men are perfectly within their rights to protect me from any threat on my property, and they know how to do the job properly.”
Gray was bundled forcefully into his car, and the gates were opened. With a desperate look at Ringo and Mac, who had been similarly forced back into theirs, Gray put the Merc into reverse and followed them as they drove away.
His phone rang nearly immediately, and Gray picked it up. “Mac’s calling Rawlings,” Ringo said. “What do you want to do?”
“Pull over,” Gray said to give him a second to think. Because what he wanted to do and what he thought he could do were two entirely different things. What was completely clear, though, was that there was no way he was leaving Seb in that house.
“LET ME fucking go,” Seb yelled, and as soon as his father appeared, the guards let go and backed away. He rounded on his father. “What on earth are you doing?”
“What I should have done years ago,” Quinn Armitage snapped out and walked into his office. Seb followed him.
“Dad, this is ridiculous. If anything, I’m not safe here.” He tried to calm down. He could already smell the sweetness in the air, and the last thing he needed was a migraine. “Rawlings had a large protected estate where I’ll be safe.”
“No.” His father stepped around the desk. “That is simply too far away. You have clinic and pre-op procedures to undertake. Have you forgotten you have an implant procedure in three days?”
Seb swallowed. It was now or never. “I don’t want it.”
Seb had always wondered what the phrase the silence was deafening actually sounded like, but the way his father froze and looked aghast, he was sure it just about covered it. His skin prickled, and McKay entered the room, followed by the guard who had faced off Gray.
Seb swallowed. “What’s going on?” He took a step backward as the nurse he recognized from McKay’s clinic also walked in, carrying a covered tray. She shot him a polite, disinterested smile and started removing small vials from her bag.
“Dad?” Seb backed up even more, but the guard behind him stopped him going any farther.
Armitage waved the tech away a little. “Sebastian.” He sighed. “Son, I want only what is in your best interests, always.”
“Dad?” Seb was officially panicked. When the syringes came out of the bag, he whipped his face back to his dad.
McKay sat down but flicked a glance at Armitage. “It’s very likely that the implants didn’t work because of the other distractions going on. The music especially may be detrimental.”
Seb interrupted. “Dad, you know how sick it makes me. I can’t go through that again.”
“But that’s the thing, Sebastian. You are so damn stubborn.” He smiled almost fondly. “You remind me of your mother in so many ways.” He glanced at where the nurse was filling a syringe with whatever was in the vial. “This time we are going to do it properly. Keep you calm, rested. Make sure you’re in a good headspace. I understand that can make all the difference.”
Seb’s breaths got shorter. He could feel his heart speed up and the tension wrap around his head. “No, Dad. I don’t want it, and you’re not drugging me against my will.”
Armitage swallowed. “Sebastian, I’m not drugging you—” He laughed nervously.
“Then what do you call giving me whatever is in those syringes when I have expressly said I don’t want them?” Seb fought to stay calm. To sound reasonable. He knew his dad was wavering.
“Armitage,” McKay said as if he had run out of patience. “We need to keep him calm, and letting him get worked up like this is helping no one, least of all your son.”
Seb swallowed. “Yes,” he agreed, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. “I’ll go lie down and get some rest.” He tried to back up again, but the guard behind him caught his shoulders. Seb twisted around. “Let go of me.”
He saw the guard nod at some instruction he didn’t hear, and before his panic tried to drown him once more, he was pinned by two of them. He turned, struggling. “Dad? What the fuck? You can’t do this.”
The tech pushed his sleeve up and Seb tried to yank his arm away, but he was held firm. “Dad, please,” he begged as the tech swabbed his skin. “This is nuts. You can’t do this to me.”
Armitage dropped his gaze, not answering Seb, but it was as if he couldn’t bear to watch, and Seb felt the needle pierce his skin. The tech was quick and efficient and Seb was forced into the chair in front of his father’s desk even as he could feel the cold going up his arm. “Dad?” he whispered as the room began to spin lazily. “How could you?” He tried to grab the chair arms and stand, but his muscles were like jelly and his fingers refused to curl around them.
“I’m sorry, s
on, but this is for your own good” were the last words Seb read on his dad’s lips as he fell into the tunnel that seemed to open under his feet.
GRAY PULLED the car into a gas station not more than five hundred yards from Seb’s house. Ringo jumped out, but Gray could see Mac was on the phone. Gray walked around to his side of the car as Mac opened the door. “It’s Danny,” he said, and Gray took the phone.
“Did Seb have his phone on him?” Danny asked immediately.
Gray swore and tried to pull his own out of his pocket with his spare hand. He could text him. He desperately wished Seb could hear him. The urgent need to hear Seb’s voice was overpowering.
“Gray?” Danny snapped out when Gray didn’t answer.
“I don’t know. I guess.”
“Good, get in the car, but don’t try and text him. That’s important. We’re on our way. Rawlings wants us to meet at the safe house. He’s sending you coordinates now. And Gray….” Danny paused. “Rawlings just heard from his contact with the FBI in Florida, and he says he’s on it with the lawyers.”
Gray could have cried in relief. Rawlings had no need or motivation to interfere in this at all, but Mac had obviously told them what had happened. He glanced at his phone as the text came through from Danny, and he saw that Mac and Ringo had gotten the same. Ringo held his hand out. “Gimme your keys. I’ll drive.”
Gray, who never let anyone else drive his car, handed them over without a second’s thought.
For the next three hours as they waited for Rawlings, all Gray saw was the fear and desperation on Seb’s face as he had been forced into the house by his father, like it was on some repeating loop.
A little after seven, when Gray was seriously considering going back to Seb’s with all the guns he owned, Danny and Rawlings finally arrived. Sadie rushed through the apartment, and Gray’s words stuck in his throat. She was looking for Seb. She ignored the others, then returned to Danny and lay quietly at his feet. Rawlings was on the phone as he stepped through the door. Danny ignored Sadie’s antics and just held out his hand for Gray’s phone. He immediately uncoiled an extension cable and got out a laptop from his bag.
“He hasn’t been moved,” Gray said. He had kept one eye on Seb’s location since Danny had given him the idea. It had killed him not texting, but Danny had pointed out that Seb might not have the notifications turned off, as he wouldn’t bother with them, and if they’d forgotten about the phone, he needed it left alone. The last thing they wanted was to draw attention to it.
“I know,” Danny said. “I can remotely check the location.”
“What are you doing?”
Danny was hooking Gray’s phone up to his computer. “These are synced in pairs. I’m not the NSA.” He shrugged. “I can’t turn on phones remotely, but your phone can use Seb’s phone as a listening device.” Danny typed a few keys. “If he has it turned on and if the phone is good for battery.”
Gray tried to frantically remember. He’d noticed Seb look at it as they left the house, but he’d gone to sleep on the drive here. It certainly hadn’t been on charge in the car, and he hadn’t let Seb go back to the house to grab anything like a charger or medication. Fuck. Rawlings ended his call and came to stand next to them. “I’ve just had a chat with Detective Carter. He’s turning up at the house in around ten minutes to insist on interviewing Seb. His doctor reported earlier he was medically unfit due to a severe migraine.” Rawlings swallowed. This was his fault. He’d never thought Seb might need his pills. “Carter was told Seb was in so much pain he had to be sedated.”
“That’s a lie.” Gray’s voice sounded like it was full of barbs. His chest definitely was. “McKay wanted to sedate him for the clinic tests, and Seb refused. He said the only time he had allowed it before, he hadn’t woken up until the next day. I saw him endure excruciating pain and sickness rather than take anything like that. If he was sedated, it wasn’t voluntary.”
He picked up his gun, checked it, and tucked it behind his waist. “He’s been forcibly sedated, and they’re going to do fuck knows what to him.”
Rawlings laid a hand on his arm. “His dad has the law—”
“I don’t fucking care,” Gray yelled, and everyone in the room fell silent. “He trusts me. I’m not leaving him there.”
“Listen,” Danny shouted and took off his headphones and fiddled with the volume. “I got it.”
Gray growled as Seb’s dad’s voice filled the room.
“Are you sure?”
“He’s going to be able to hear, for goodness’ sake. If it was me, I’d be on my hands and knees thanking you.” Dr. McKay, Gray mouthed so everyone knew who was speaking.
“It just seems to have escalated so quickly.” Gray could nearly see Armitage wringing his hands.
“A bone graft will work much better than an implant,” McKay assured him.
Gray felt sick. He closed his eyes in horror.
“You are out of options,” McKay replied stonily. “And more importantly you are out of money… as am I. If this works, which I am totally confident it will, we will be able to prove our research and get the board’s approval for production. It will make us millions.”
There was a pause.
“This was never about money,” Armitage’s small, unsure voice came back.
“Yes, but this has gone way beyond that, and you know it. Taking Sebastian’s money may be legal, but funneling research grants without the board’s approval will get you replaced at best and locked up at worst. Your company will be bankrupt within the year if your medical funding is withdrawn. Health of Many will be the first company you will lose, along with most of your other backers.”
Gray had known it all long. He’d known it would come down to money, whatever Armitage said.
“Your son has no life now. I think the risk of permanent nerve damage is a calculated risk. Many, many, patients would risk everything to be well.” Fuck. Risk everything? Permanent nerve damage? What the hell? Gray picked his second gun up. He’d heard enough. He wasn’t leaving Seb in that house for one second longer. Quinn Armitage was nothing but a fucked-up bastard who had been allowing his son to be abused for years. There was nothing wrong with Seb. He was perfect. He didn’t need “healing” because he wasn’t sick.
“Sir?” Gray didn’t recognize the new speaker. “A Detective Carter is here.”
“Damn,” McKay spat. “Armitage, go delay him. I’m going to transfer Sebastian immediately. We will operate tonight.”
Gray whirled around, half hearing Rawlings barking out orders to Danny to get a copy of that conversation in front of a judge. Guardianship and intentional harm were two completely different things, but they needed a piece of paper signed by a judge to stop the surgery, and from the sound of it, they needed it now.
Chapter Nineteen
FOR THE second time in a matter of hours, Gray had his car keys taken off him, but this time it was by Rawlings. “Do you want me to call Carter?” Danny asked.
“No,” Rawlings answered for Gray before he had a chance to. “Just get that conversation to a judge. I’ll worry about the cops when we have Seb safe.” Rawlings turned to him. “I’m not gonna attempt to make you stay here—I’m not that suicidal—but we both know you’re compromised, so you do what I say when I say it.”
Gray nodded his understanding. He was clear. So long as no one got between him and Seb, he was good. They didn’t even give the elevator a second glance as all four of them left the apartment. Danny stayed behind, doing what he did best, besides which, Rawlings had promised him when he took him on he would never have to do fieldwork. He simply wasn’t able to anymore, and Danny had other skills just as important… like getting a judge. Like getting a warrant. Like making sure Gray didn’t have to kill anyone and he wasn’t going to get arrested for kidnapping.
Not that any of that fucking mattered. If Seb was safe, he’d happily spend the next twenty to life in a box, and he didn’t care how small it would be. Gray got in the car witho
ut a word. They were twenty minutes from the house, and he had no idea how fast they would be able to move Seb or what condition he was in. He’d been so stupid. If—no. There was no “if.” When Gray got Seb back, he would spend every day making sure he was safe. Hell, he would leave his job if that was what it took. He didn’t think Seb would object. The want, the need, had been stark in his eyes this morning, even when Gray was refusing to see it and even if Gray was now hoping for another emotion. Something he’d never thought he was capable of, and something he hoped Seb was.
Rawlings drove up to the gates and paused for a fraction of a second before driving through as they were opening. Mac, Ringo, Rawlings, and Gray all piled out. Gray noticed the BMW was still there and the Explorer that meant Carter was also. Rawlings was met at the door by Keswick.
“Mr. Armitage isn’t here, but—” he started, but Gray just pushed straight past him and ran up the stairs, knowing because there were no guards trying to stop him, they were too late.
Rawlings demanded he be taken to Carter, Mac stood guard in the hall, and Ringo raced after Gray.
The room was empty, and Gray headed for Seb’s bedroom, even though he knew he wouldn’t be there. In another minute, he was heading downstairs for the study. Rawlings and Carter met him at the door. As Gray burst in, Carter put out a hand in warning and turned to Keswick as he said, “I insist on seeing Sebastian Armitage—”
“What the fuck have you done with him, you piece of shit?” Gray snarled and lunged at Keswick.
Keswick paled but stayed firmly behind Carter. “Gray,” Carter cautioned as Keswick stepped forward and thrust a wad of documents into Carter’s hands.
“His guardianship papers. You will see everything is legal, and Mr. Armitage is under no obligation to reveal his son’s whereabouts at all. Detective, I would ask that you remove these individuals from the property, as they are trespassing.”
Gray took one look at Carter’s face and knew it was no good. Unless Danny came up trumps with a judge, they had nothing. Fuck, they didn’t even know which hospital he’d gone to. Gray stilled—hospital? No, there was no way McKay would take him to a hospital with rules and regulations and even more significant, the mark on Seb’s face, which would make him stand out. McKay wanted this kept quiet. Gray pulled at Rawlings’s sleeve just as he was about to protest them being ordered to leave, and Rawlings took one look and caught on immediately.
