A/N: Back to Grace's POV. I hope you likes Elle's!! :))
Enjoy, lovess!
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☆GRACE'S POV:
I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't think.
I couldn't say anything.
'Bertinelli was there at the race. Bertinelli tried to kill me. Bertinelli's known all along. What else does he know? Oh, God. Oh, God.'
"Grace." John began gently as he shook my shoulder lightly, trying to get my attention. "Grace, it's okay. It's all going to be okay."
But it wasn't.
'Who knows what else Bertinelli knows? Does he know about The Ring? Does he know about my real identity? Does he know where I go to school? Obviously, nothing is going to be okay!'
My breathing began to become erratic and my head began to spin.
I vaguely felt John try to soothe me by stroking the back of my head, but before he could say anything else to try to comfort me, my phone rang and The Ballad of Mona Lisa started playing as Scar's ringtone. I jolted in place, then hastily got out my phone to answer the call.
'Fucking hell.'
"Yep?" I blurted, my tone wavering in strength.
"Yo, Grace." Scar's voice answered the phone and I let out a breath of relief.
"Hey, Scar." I greeted, my voice rough and scratchy as I gripped the lunch bench beneath me.
"So, I ran those guys through facial recognition and I've discovered who they are." She started and I let out bitter laugh.
My hands were shaking so badly as I replied, "Let me guess. Ex-cons, firmly associated with our bestie Bertinelli."
"Mhm." She hummed, "The cops have been trying to arrest these guys for years, but they haven't been able to make anything stick since they have some quote-unquote 'friends' in high places."
I groaned loudly and rubbed my face in frustration. "Bloody hell."
"Wait, how did you know who they were?" She asked me, puzzled.
I sighed deeply before I responded airily, "His daughter told me."
"Grace." John hissed from beside me, but I gave him a flippant hand wave and ignored him.
"I'm sorry, his what now??" Scar exclaimed incredulously over the phone and I nodded, though she couldn't see it.
"Yep. His daughter." I repeated. "She's a classmate of mine and she told me just now."
There was silence before a loud, "Ewww! You're telling me that someone had so little self-respect that they actually fucked that demon?"
I let out a bark of laughter, my heart feeling lighter at the insult Scar choked out with a fake gag.
'She's not wrong.'
"Apparently." I replied with a small grin on my face, temporarily forgetting how dire our situation was.
"Okay, well ignoring that absolutely disgusting information you just hurled at me, I have some more info that you might want to hear." Scar told me, causing my brow to scrunch in thought.
"Shoot." I replied, concerned.
"Well apparently, another reason as to why Bertinelli's personal flying monkeys don't stay locked up in the clink for long is that there's a mole inside the police department that helps them get away."
I think stunned is the only word I could use to describe how I felt in that moment.
My jaw dropped as I replied, "You've got to be fucking kidding me." I threw my head back and groaned.
'Bloody hell.'
"What's she saying?" Gray impatiently asked from behind me. I jumped in surprise as a screech escaped me.
'Well, shit. I'd forgotten they were there.'
I sighed deeply and stood up.
'We're too exposed.'
I then jerked my head toward my oak tree I used to sit at, silently telling the guys to follow my lead. Ben nodded in understanding and stood up as well.
And so, assuming they were all following behind me, I walked to the oak tree and planted myself at the base of the tree.
"But wait. There's more." Scar continued. My jaw dropped in surprise and I froze my action of tracing my finger of the dirty bark.
"More?" I echoed incredulously and she hummed.
"I dug even deeper, into the extremely restricted files. By the way, their firewalls are complete shit. And I found something even worse." I laughed humorlessly at her words as the guys came to stand next to me. So, I put our call on speakerphone.
"How can something be even worse than crooked cops?" I inquired bitterly and heard the guys all suck in their breaths.
"What?!" Ben exclaimed loudly. I winced at the volume and shot him a withering glare. I put a finger to my lips in response, telling him it would be in his best interest to shut the hell up.
"Well, I have a feeling that extremely corrupt cops are worse than slightly crooked cops." Scar responded, ignoring Ben's outburst.
"What are you talking about 'extremely corrupt'?" John asked Scar very loudly as he came to stand next to me.
'I-I can't...' My hands started to visibly shake at that point and I could barely stand as my heart ached painfully.
"Hello to you too, Lassie." Scar declared from the other end of the line. I arched a brow at the nickname and gave John a questioning look. He simply rolled his eyes in response. "Well, you're not going to like the information I have to present, but I have an inkling that you haven't enjoyed any of the information thus far so why the hell not?" Scar rambled and I was tempted to laugh.
However, the more pressing issue of, oh I don't know, corruptness in the police department kind of drew me back to reality.
"It was a cop that broke Bertinelli out of prison."
My heart dropped into my vagina.
'W-what?'