Page 70 of Grayson’s Challenge

She didn’t finish the sentence, and she didn’t have to. Grayson pulled her to his chest and exchanged a look with Isabelle. He realized that she too was exhausted and that keeping up her spirits to help their mother cope was wearing her down. She needed a break too.

“Have you slept, Isa?” he asked.

Isabelle blew out a breath of air. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Yet she forces me to sleep,” Orlando said, appearing from the door that led up from the garage.

“An order you totally ignored,” Isabelle snapped and glared at Orlando. “What were you doing down there? ‘Cause last time I checked there were no beds in the garage.”

The massive vampire didn’t flinch. Instead, he folded his arms across his chest. “I checked the weapons and munition, making sure they are loaded and ready at a moment’s notice.”

To Isabelle’s credit, she didn’t look intimidated by Orlando. She opened her mouth, clearly ready for a retort, when the door to the study opened at the end of the corridor.

“I recognized one of the kidnappers on the palace’s database,” Faye called from there, Monique appearing by her side.

Monique carried a laptop, and together they approached. When Monique and Faye stopped in front of them, Monique turned the laptop for all to see. On the screen was a photo of a bald black vampire with a beard. Next to the photo, information about him was listed.

“He was in the palace’s employ before my time,” Faye added.

“Let’s check him out,” Grayson said. Finally, they were making progress. “Have you sent the info to Thomas yet?”

Faye nodded. “A few minutes ago.”

“Let’s see what he can find.” Grayson pulled out his cell phone, and called Thomas, setting it to speaker mode. “Hey, I’m with Mom and Faye. What about the guy Faye just identified?”

“I’ve got nothing.”

“What do you mean by nothing?”

“Alexander Brechtenz doesn’t exist,” Thomas clarified.

“But I’m looking right at his file from the palace’s database,” Grayson protested, when Orlando suddenly reached past him and took the laptop from Monique’s hands.

“I’m telling you,” Thomas continued, “there’s nothing on him anywhere—”

“That’s because that’s not his name,” Orlando said firmly.

Everybody stared at Orlando.

“You know him?” Grayson asked.

“Yes.” Orlando pointed to the screen. “He calls himself Matt Smith.”

“Where can we find him?” Grayson asked.

“You can’t. He finds you,” Orlando said cryptically. “But I can put out some feelers.”

“What do you know about him?”

Orlando shrugged. “Not much. He’s an assassin for hire and knows how to stay under the radar. Maybe a tracker might have some luck.”

Grayson contemplated his words for a moment. “Thanks, Thomas. We’ll be in touch.” He disconnected the call. “Orlando, put out some feelers, and I’ll see if I can get a tracker on this.” And he knew just the guy who could do this. He’d met him only once, and that was more than ten years ago, when Isabelle had been kidnapped. He’d produced results back then, and maybe he would do the same now.

“Will you be all right without me here?” Orlando asked, looking at Isabelle.

She rolled her eyes. “Orlando, we have four other guards, and William is fully healed. I think we can manage.”

Orlando grunted something unintelligible, before he turned on his heel and headed for the garage to get to his car without having to be exposed to the lethal rays of the sun. It was still daytime and would be for another eight hours.