Loves Second Chance

Chapter Fourteen

Ryan has spent every day and night with Lacey and Grace over the last month. Ryan and Lacey went to sleep wrapped in each other's arms at night and woke up in the morning still entwined together. They had not made love though, they'd decided that day at the beach, that they would take their relationship one day at a time. They both had a failed relationship under their belts and the last thing they wanted to do was mess up what was between them.

Things started out great when Ryan and Lacey told Grace about their new relationship. Grace seemed excited about having both a mother and father figure around, and that there was always someone around, Grace would never have to be alone. That was until a few weeks later, when Ryan told them he wanted to take everyone to Miami to spend some time with Maddie. As soon as he said that Grace ran off to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her, leaving a very confused Lacey and Ryan seated on the couch. Lacey rose to confront Grace but was stopped by Ryan gently tugging her hand. He pulled her back into her previous position with his arm draped over her shoulders and her head resting against his chest.

"Sweetheart, I think you should give her a little time to deal with this. Let her sleep on it. We can talk to her in the morning, I'm sure things will be better then." He quietly spoke into her hair.

"Yeah, maybe you're right. It has been an awful lot for them to digest." Lacey sighed and reached down to clasp Ryan's warm hand.

"Come on, Sweetheart, how about a movie before we go to bed? We'll discuss the Grace behavior and possible solutions tomorrow over breakfast. Okay?"

Lacey nodded her agreement and Ryan kissed the top of her head, before grabbing the remote to surf the endless movie channels.

Unsure what had caused her to wake up, Lacey took inventory of her surroundings. Ryan was pressed tightly against her back, glancing at the clock she knew it wasn't the alarm, she reached for her cell phone and found she hadn't missed any calls. She lay there for a few minutes just listening, when she didn't hear anything, she turned over and tried to go back to sleep, but the uneasy feeling just wouldn't go away. As quietly as she could, she slipped out of bed, made her way down the hall and opened the Grace bedroom door. She flipped on the light, and what she saw made her freeze in her tracks. But the bed was empty; the

bathroom light was on, revealing it was empty as well. Quickly she turned and ran out of the room. She frantically searched the rest of the apartment, when she found it empty; she raced back to her bedroom.

"Ryan, wake up!" She shook his shoulder rather roughly.

"Sweetheart, what's the matter? Are you okay?" He sat straight up in bed, instantly alert.

"No, Ryan, Grace is missing! I have searched the whole apartment! Where could she be?" Lacey's voice was rising with hysteria.

"Sweetheart, calm down. She couldn't get too far; the apartment is completely monitored. I'll call the station, John's working, and I'll get a report from him." Ryan gave Lacey's hand a reassuring squeeze, before picking up his cell.

While he was on the phone with John, Lacey grabbed her own cell phone to check for any messages again. It was then that she noticed her purse was missing from the nightstand; she went in search of her handbag and found it on the kitchen counter. When she looked inside, she immediately realized that all her keys were missing. She headed back into the bedroom to tell Ryan, just as he was ending his call.

"Ryan, Grace took my keys! What did John say?" The panic in her voice was a tangible thing.

"Sweetheart, we figured she had your keys. At 0500, the monitors in the garage were scrambled, followed by the outside cameras, and then someone exited the emergency door in the garage. John figured we wanted some privacy and that we'd left for a run. He didn't check it out since only our keys can scramble the security system I have in place. The cameras automatically come back on after ten minutes, when they did, the yard and garage were empty." Ryan gave her the report; he'd just received it from John. "I have already had john send out a couple of guys from the station to start looking for Grace. John's going out as soon as someone takes over the monitors. John feels bad knowing Grace got past him on his watch. Lacey, you need to start making calls to anybody you think that Grace might run to and let those people know Grace is missing. It would probably be a good idea to give Joe a call as well. I know you won't want to, but you should let your parents know about this, do you think Grace might turn to them?"