An Echo in the Mafia (Echo Reid, Reid Family Book #1)

Part 61

"Grace!" Nadia waved her arm as she tried to get Grace's attention from across the street. 

It had been a strange few days. She hadn't seen Grace since that time at her apartment and she'd been out on sick leave at work. She was honestly a little bit concerned. Grace hadn't been working their for very long and if she kept calling in, she'd end up getting herself fired. 

What was stranger still was that she'd spotted her in the city by complete coincidence but when she tried getting a hold of her in North Town, it seemed near impossible. Nadia looked left and right before running across the street, ignoring that she wasn't at a crosswalk. She had quite a bit on her mind lately and worrying about Grace wasn't helping. 

Nadia hardly slept the last few days, the guilt was getting to her. She realized that she had let her shock cloud her judgement and she never should have let Luke know what she saw... what she thought she saw. She'd messed up, BIG TIME. What she needed to do was go over to Luke's house and explain what it was she saw and give Echo a chance to clear things up. The more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed that Echo would do something like that. She'd realized immediately she'd over reacted but Luke wasn't answering his phone and although she'd been to his house a couple of times, he was never there. 

Short of going to his office, she wasn't sure what to do but she was sure she needed to fix this. 

"Hey... Grace!" She called out again, noting how she continued to walk in the opposite direction. Nadia moved quickly, trying to catch up but there was a lot of people crowding the streets. She wasn't surprised, tomorrow was Christmas eve and everyone was doing their last minute shopping. 

"Grace..." Nadia said with a sigh, watching as she disappeared around the corner. "Damn it."

Nadia turned, running into the door of the corner store, cutting across the store to the door on the opposite end.  She smiled, noting how Grace stood just outside the opposite door. 

"Gotcha..." Nadia muttered to herself as she moved to the push the door open but she stopped. Nadia watched as Grace turned, speaking to a man in a dark suit. There really wasn't anything too unusual about the scene except that Nadia had never seen the man before... had she?

She had a strange feeling like she'd seen him before...

"Excuse me." 

Nadia stepped back as an older woman pushed the door open. She followed her out the door, deciding she needed to talk to Grace and make sure she was alright but the moment she stepped out... it was to find that both Grace and the mystery man were gone. 

---

"What the fuck are you doing here?" 

Luke didn't get up from his spot by the fireplace. He was sitting quietly, the room illuminated by nothing but the fire that was burning brightly in front of him. In his hand, a glass that was less than half full with an amber liquid that now seemed to dance with the light from the fire.  

He was completely caught up in it, replaying the scene from earlier over and over in his head. He'd been sitting here when she walked out, bag over her shoulder, only hesitating for a second as she passed him by. She seemed like she would stop and ask him again to come with her, but instead she kept moving, leaving the house without so much as a goodbye. He hadn't expected her to ask him again, although a party of him wanted her too. It was so fucking confusing. 

One part of him was glad she left, that she had enough pride not to beg but another part of him was angry. He was hurt that she'd gone. She was his wife, after all, her place was here... with him.  Of course at the moment, he wasn't sure he could look at her. Every time he caught a glimpse of those beautiful lips he picture them smiling and pouting for someone else. It drove him crazy. And she had the nerve to act so innocent, act so hurt.