Chapter 20

Opening his older brother’s mail seemed to be just another reminder from his mother that he was only of secondary concern, Gavin mused as he opened another package. This one contained a sort of plastic shoebox, and he looked at it puzzled for a moment before he opened the envelope sent with it.

Spencer –

Just thought I’d pass along a little wedding presents of sorts. Congratulations, you got her pregnant. Not a difficult task from what I’ve heard.

In fact, perhaps I’m the one who deserves the congratulations. You’ll find the contents of this little present to be of interest, as we ripped them from your precious wife. So much for your firstborn. Congratulations, it’s a boy.

Callahan

Gavin knew immediately that if any of this reached his brother, Garrett would most likely do something that would just get him killed all the faster. And despite not really liking his brother, he didn’t particularly want him dead either. So when someone knocked on the door, he hurried to stuff the box aside. Not that Garrett waited for Gavin to answer the door.

“Mom said you’re screening my mail now.” Garrett stormed into the room. “Has there been anything?” He looked through some of the letters and picked up the one package that Gavin had hoped he wouldn’t see. “What the hell is this?”

“Nothing, I haven’t finished with that one, don’t touch it in case it blows up or whatever,” Gavin said all too quickly.

“You really are a horrible liar.” Garrett glared, picking up the letter that went with it. The color seemed to drain from Garrett’s face as he opened the box. Garrett had to set the box down and forced himself to turn away before he began retching. “That sick bastard…I’m going to kill him.” He said, throwing the box into the trash. “He killed my son. I’ll finish the blood war that your little slut started.”

“Don’t call her that, this isn’t what she wanted,” Gavin said sharply.

“Well it’s what she caused…and I’ll end it by killing her.”

Gavin was suddenly reminded of why he’d left this house in the first place. “Because everything has to go just exactly how you want it, right? In case you forgot, you’re next on his hit list. He’d like to curl you up in a pool full of blood in your own nice plastic container and send you to Dad. So knock it the hell off and stop being such an idiot.”

“She’s the one that caused all this. She killed Aidan Callahan. If we hand her over to Callahan…he’ll give Cassidy back…he won’t need her….he’d have satisfied his revenge…it’s not like she’s worth anything to anyone.”

“This isn’t about revenge, it’s about the fact that the IMF is now fucked and he wants us to be just as screwed over.” Gavin was fairly shaking with suppressed rage. “And she’s worth everything to me. You really think he’s just gonna give you back your wife? He’ll shoot you dead and let her watch, and then he’ll kill her too.”

“He didn’t take Cassidy until after that slut killed his son! It’s her fault. If we hand her over…that’ll be done. And she obviously doesn’t mean as much to you as you claim.” Garrett retorted, trying to suppress the urge to pick his brother up by the hair and shake him up.

“He took her to make sure you don’t have kids because he doesn’t have anyone to turn the IMF over to! How fucking dense are you?!?”

Garrett slammed Gavin against the wall. “Well he sure took care of my son, didn’t he? I bet you’re glad this is happening to me….aren’t you?”

“Put him down, Garrett.” Nathan was not yelling; he had never needed to yell at his sons. They simply knew that orders were orders and not obeying them hurt. “He’s right on this one.”

Garrett couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He dropped his brother roughly and shook his head. “But…wouldn’t it make more sense to go after me *before* I got married?”

“Yes. But it didn’t matter as much then, you see. He was training Aidan to go against you. He’d given up on taking me down. But now… he doesn’t have a son to teach, and the only solution to the shaking up the IMF is facing now is to make sure we have the same problem. Sit down, son, I think you’ve had a rather difficult past half hour.”

~*~*~*~

Garrett sat in his car and waited until the last light in the apartment went out. It was close to 2 am and he figured she must’ve been waiting up for Gavin but finally decided to get to sleep. He waited twenty minutes – the longest twenty minutes of his life – before going up and breaking into the dark apartment. He had to get Grace before Gavin came in. He didn’t care if she died, as long as he got Cassidy back. Nothing else seemed to matter.

Garrett made his way back to where he figured the bedroom must be and pried open the door. Inside, Grace’s sleeping form was visible. He crept into the room and approached the bed. Garrett reached down to put the duct tape over her mouth and then everything went black.

“Idiot, I *knew* you were dumb as a stump,” Gavin muttered, dragging his brother out of the room before he revived him. “You shouldn’t fall asleep like that in the middle of big kidnappings. It’ll get you in trouble.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” He demanded, “I need to get my wife back!”

“And if you take Grace then three people are going to wind up very dead, and even though I only care about one of those three, you’re sure as hell not using her as your ticket in. If you’re going after your wife, then you’re going yourself, and you’re going to get her out of there using the precious few brain cells you’ve got, not by trying to start a frickin’ trading post!”

Garrett glared at his brother. “She’s worthless…and she’ll betray you in the end because you let her get so close. I’m going after Cass, and if I have to do it alone, I will.”

Gavin simply handed his brother the pipe he’d cracked him over the head with. “Here. Works better than I expected, big brother.”

Garrett paused before accepting the pipe. “Thanks.” He walked to the front door. Garrett turned to his brother. “Do me a favor and don’t get yourself killed. Dad needs one of us to not be stupid.” Garrett turned and left, leaving the door wide open.

Gavin went and shut it, ignoring the little voice in his head. ‘If he gets killed and you knew he was going… it’ll all fall to you, and your mother’ll kick the shit out of you…’ But in the end, he decided if Garrett wasn’t going to get Cassidy back, he’d be better off dead than postal.

Grace came up from behind him. “It’s 2:30…why are you up? And dressed?”

“Garrett stopped by to say hi.”

“In the middle of the night?” Grace asked him, yawning.

“Yeah… he’s going to get Cassidy, he was hoping to come pick up a bargaining chip.”

Grace was quiet for a second. “He tried to take me?”

“He got within about three feet of the bed and I knocked him out.”

“Are you going to go after him?”

“No.”

“He could get killed…probably will.”

“Yeah… yeah, I know.”

“Does anyone else know? Or were you the only one who figured it out before he thought that if he turned me over everything would be okay?”

“He made that pretty clear. Maybe you’d better sit…” She did so and he continued. “Turns out Cassidy was pregnant when she was taken, Callahan basically forced the medical staff to give her an abortion and sent a nice little fetus in a box to Garrett today. He went nuts.”

“Oh God,” Grace muttered, covering her mouth. “That’s sick.”

“I know. Needless to say, Garrett’s about ready to do anything to get Cassidy back here safely.”

“And he convinced himself that if he gave me to my—to Bryce—then he’d get Cassidy back?”

“Yeah. A little warped, but I think he’s entitled today. The important part is, you’re here, safe, and he’s doing something that will hopefully be productive.”

Grace pulled him onto the couch and kissed him. “It’s all up to him now, I guess.”

“Guess so.” Gavin held her close. “Let’s hope it turns out okay.”

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