Page 32 of His Paradise

The screen flashes as windows start popping up over my screen, and Isabelle pumps her fist in the air. “You’re a cyber genius, girl.” She says excitedly. Luna scrambles to come next to us, pushing her head between mine and Olivia’s as she watches intensely. David’s team hacked into our security system the moment we lowered our defenses, just like we knew they would. The fact that they didn’t appear to even question it is concerning.

But it also made way for me to break into their security system, disable their home alarm and play a looping feed on the security cameras that I had prepared this morning. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it would be enough for the men to get in before the entire mansion was on alert.

Leo starts fussing and Grayson brings him to me, turning his back as I quickly latch him on and keep going.

“You’re a dang icon, Nina.” Luna grins next to me and I preen a little under the complement. Isabelle taps the headphone in her ear, asking on repeat if anyone can hear her. We all wait, intensely staring at the phone that sits on the counter with the speaker on.

“We’re pulling up now, are you ready?” Jared asks.

“There’s four at the gate, and at least six more in the living room. The place has been turned into a camp for their entire army. Maybe we should just blow it up and call it quits.” I mumble the last words and Jared chuckles.

“We would have to be extremely sneaky to pull it off, and even then, we don’t have the explosives to blow this entire mansion to bits. We’re going in old school, kid.” He says. I hate when he calls me that and Luna rolls her eyes.

“Be nice, Biggums. Have fun for both of us.” She says, absentmindedly rubbing a hand over her stomach.

“Camera’s are down. Security system is disabled, you guys are as good to go as you can be.” I sit back, my eyes flicking over the three monitors that are on the counter in front of me.

Something in my gut is screaming, warning me that this is wrong. But I tamper it down and keep my eyes on the screens. The sounds of gunshots popping off, followed by shouting and the sound of men dying has everyone holding their breath. Markus’s laughter follows the moment of silence, and they keep with the plans on splitting up to take on three exits. They each take their places, and my access to the live video blacks out.

“Hold on, I just lost the cameras. Pull back until I can get them back up.” Sweat covers my brow as I sit forward, desperately trying to figure out what went wrong.

Words flash across the screen, at the same moment each group bursts through the doors. “I told you to wait!” I shout, but their mics all crackle, the speaker emitting a high screech and disconnects.

“Your life for his, knock knock.” Isabelle reads, bracing one hand on the counter as she covers her mouth with the other. Grayson tilts his head, pulling his gun from its holster on his hip.

“Do you have a safe room here, a door that you can barricade, anything?” Grayson asks. I bite my lip, but nod once. “Don’t try to be a hero Nina, take everyone there now.” He puts his hand on my lower back, pushing me towards the stairs. He sits on his heel, taking his daughter's hand in his as he smiles.

“You are going to go with your new friend, and you’ll stay right with Olivia. Do you understand?” Graysons tone is gentle and calm, but she throws her arms around his neck as he holds her tightly. When Olivia gently pulls her away Grayson nods to me once and turns towards the front door.

I rush everyone to the room, helping them through the door in my closet. But Luna refuses, trying to shove me in after Isabelle. I quickly pass Leo to Isabelle, and ignore her as she begins shouting at me. Luna and I slam the door shut and the lock clicks into place.

“You should have gone with them, this is stupid and dangerous.” She chastices me. I give her a look, waving my hand up and down as she rolls her eyes and pulls out a gun.

“I actually have a weapon.” She smirks. I drop under the bed, digging around until I pull out both hand guns and their clips from the case Aden keeps stashed. I can hear them now, people shouting outside and gunshots that make my jaw ache from how tightly I tense up. Luna just looks irritated as she creeps to the door, leaning against the frame while listening.

I pull out my cellphone to access our camera’s and show her Gray standing bravely by the bottom steps, giving directions to the guards that stayed behind. He taps on his phone, pacing before throwing his hands up in agitation and pocketing it. My guess is that he called for help and nobody answered, But he doesn’t waver.

I can’t just let him die. Especially when the people breaking in were coming from the kitchen and would sneak up on him. I shove the phone into Luna’s hands, popping an ear piece in as I run for the door.

“Where are you going?” She hisses, trying to follow.

“I need you here to give us back up. I’m going to get an earpiece for Grayson so we can all communicate and we are going to survive this.” I tell her, shutting the door before she can argue. I don’t miss the names she calls me, each one more colorful than the last while I roll my eyes and hurry down the hallway.

“Gray?” I keep my voice low, but the sound of glass breaking has my feet pounding over the floors. I lurch to a stop when I catch sight of him. Grayson’s cheek is bleeding and he’s rolling across the ground with a man who easily has thirty pounds on him. I raise the gun but can’t take a shot without possibly hitting Grayson, and his eyes flick to mine.

“Behind, Nina!” He roars, launching the both of them sideways and I duck, spinning on my heel. A woman looks me over and I can see the hesitation as she lowers her gun just a fraction.

“They want me alive.” The words slip out on a breath when I realize it. She steps closer and my finger tenses, pulling the trigger and lurching the gun in my hands. She drops her weapon, clutching her chest as blood pours from her wound and her body falls to the floor.

When I turn back to Grayson, he is on top of the other man, crushing his windpipe beneath his hands as he chokes the life from him. He looks like the grim reaper, with a skull tattooed on the back of his head and the curl of his lips.

“Gray, he’s dead. You need to get up before more people come.” I step closer, but he doesn’t stop. My hand taps his shoulder and his head wrenches to turn an empty glare on me. “Gray, it's me.” I say. He visibly shakes himself, rubbing a hand across his face as he blinks rapidly.

“Obviously it’s you,” He grumbles, climbing off the man's body and grabbing his foot to drag him away. That’s when I see the small pile of bodies, and my hands start shaking. Nausea is rolling through me and I press the back of my hand to my mouth to fight the bile as it threatens to spill.

“Nina, they were going to kill all of your friends. Even worse, it looks like they’re under orders to bring you in alive. You don’t have to enjoy killing, but don’t fall apart over surviving.” Grayson grips my shoulders, shaking me softly until I blow out a breath and nod once, following him past the woman I shot. He puts himself between me and her corpse, blocking my view as he grabs her gun.

“That hulk back there tossed my favorite fucking gun.” He mutters, frowning as he swipes the blood off on his pant leg and keeps walking.

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