Grace Anne (12 page)

“But we are. A lot less than I
would like, but we are seeing each other.” He pulled her to him. “Like right
now, for example. I’d very much like to see what you have on under this pretty
blouse. Are you wearing one of those skimpy little pieces of lace like you had
on this weekend?”

Her body seemed to have a mind of
its own where he was concerned. While she was trying to tell it to back off and
stop it, it was leaning over him and running its hands through his hair. She
tried to tell her mouth to back the fuck up, but it was covering his with its
own. Grace moaned when he cupped her breast in his hand.

“I want you, Grace. I think about
all the things I want to do to you and where, and now that I have you right here
I can’t decide where to begin.” She moaned again when he pinched her nipple. “You
want me too, admit it. You’d like nothing better than to have me pull you into
my lap and suckle at your lovely nipple. Christ, I want you so bad.”

She tried again to pull back, but
he wouldn’t let her. “Michael, I have to leave soon. You’re not safe with me
around you. They will hurt you both if you keep this up.”

He pulled her to his lap and
opened her blouse. She had a moment to wonder about his son sleeping now two
feet away, but he had her breast free and in his mouth immediately.

Her entire body tightened. She
knew that, without much thought, she could gladly let him fuck her right now. He
let go her of her nipple with a small pop and looked up at her. She was panting
hard and she could feel his cock as he rocked up into her.

“Come home with me, Grace. Spend
the night with me and I promise you’ll not regret it,” he begged her.

She looked down at him and his
need. She brushed her hand over his face. “It’s not going to last. I have to
leave and make you both safe. They’re going to get me.”

“I can keep you safe. I want to
keep you safe. I’m…I’m falling in love with you, and I know that Trace is ready
to claim you if I don’t. Stay with me, let me help you. I swear you’ll be safe.”

She pulled her blouse down and sat
in the seat. She looked over at Trace and then back at Michael. “There are
things…people you have to know about before…” She looked away from him. “You
might want to change your mind after I tell you everything.”

He pulled her face back to his and
lifted her chin so that she could look him in the eye. “Whatever it is, whoever
is trying to hurt you, together we can take care of it. I love you, Grace. I’ve
never said that to a woman before, but I do.”

“Oh Michael, why now? I love you
as well, but our timing sucks.”
They made the rest of the
ride in silence. She wanted to start as soon as they reached his house, but
there was dinner to make and then Trace needed to find a place to put his new
pet. Walter didn’t seem to mind being put in the boy’s bed and Trace was happy,
so things settled very quickly.

She was putting the dishes in the
dishwasher when Molly came in with the last of the things from the dining room.
Grace turned to her when she heard her enter the room and was uncomfortable all
of a sudden.

“I don’t know if I did it right. I
usually just throw away whatever takeout I’ve eaten from and go to bed.”

Molly continued to stare.

“I thought that you’d want the
leftovers put…have I done something wrong?”

“No, miss. It’s just that…I don’t
think I’ve ever had the lady of the house help me before. It’s just that I
expected…well, I guess I expected you to be like the others.” Molly took the
dishtowel from her and put it on the sink. “You’re not a thing like the others
and you just don’t care either, do you, miss?”

“First, I’m not the lady of the
house. I’m a guest and nothing more. If you want to know the truth, I’m not
even sure how I came to be here tonight. And please stop calling me ‘miss.’ I
have no idea why it creeps me out so much, but I’d very much like for you to
call me Grace or Grace Anne. As for the others? I’m not sure what sort of
people you worked for before, but if they didn’t help you out when they brought
home unexpected guests then shame on them.” Grace took the last of the
leftovers and shoved them in the refrigerator. “Molly, what am I going to do?”

Grace could feel the tears
threaten. She didn’t know why she was so upset, but she had an idea that it was
because she liked being here too much. She loved having Trace come to her when
he had a problem, and she was in love with Michael. Things were moving much too
fast and she wasn’t sure if she wanted it to slow down so she could savor it or
just speed on by so she could leave before it was too late.

“Do you love them, mi…Grace? The
men, do you love them?” Grace nodded at Molly’s question. “Then there you have
it. There is no problem that love can’t fix. You just have to trust him.
Michael is a good man, a bit on the stubborn side, but a good man. Aren’t you,
sir?”

Grace turned to find Michael
standing in the doorway looking at her. She felt his love pour over her and she
wanted more than anything to do just way Molly had suggested. He stood and came
toward her as he spoke.

“Thanks, Molly. And yes, I’m a bit
stubborn, but not near as stubborn as some designers I know.” He stood in front
of her and pulled her into his arms. “Trace wants you to come and tuck him in.
He said he’s never had a person who wasn’t related to him do it before.”

They walked up the stairs together
holding hands. Grace knew that they were going to talk and she also knew that
what she was about to tell him would either be the end of what could have been
or the beginning of his worst nightmare.

“My mother has split
personalities,” she told him as soon as his door was closed. “And she murdered
at least one man while I was still living at home.”

Chapter 12

Cain looked down at the file in
front of him then back up at Drew. Payton was pacing the room and neither man
was saying anything. They were waiting on Alyssa to come back from the meeting.
Cain started to pick it up again, but couldn’t bring himself to touch it. It
was just too…too much.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I have… What
is it? What’s happened now?” Alyssa came to sit near him at the conference
table. “Cain? Tell me.”

“The money,” he started, and then
cleared his throat. “The missing money has been traced to my mother. And she
may be in New York.”

“Oh my God, Grace. We have to call
her—what the fuck are you two doing standing there? Go and get her and bring
her back here right fucking now.” Alyssa stood up, started toward the other two
men, and Cain pulled her back.

“We can’t. Not yet at any rate. We
need…” Drew looked at Payton before he continued. “He has a plan to catch her
in the act. We think she might have been the person all along trying to murder
all of us.”

That was the hardest thing to get
his mind wrapped around. His mother was a murderer. He thought about all the
things she’d been up to, the way she’d been—

“If they catch her in the act of no
more than just stealing from you then all she’ll get is a slap on the wrist. If
we catch her at trying to get to Gr—”

Alyssa cut Payton off. “If you
even whisper the words, ‘I’m going to use Grace as bait,’ I will drop kick you
across this room, then out of the building from the highest window.” Her voice
was low and Cain knew she meant every word.

“She’ll be watched at all times,”
Payton said. “I have a…she’s involved with a buddy of mine. A good friend who
served as a Navy Seal. He’s the best at what he does and he’ll keep her from
harm.”

“The guy in her bedroom,” Cain
asked. “If you pimped out my sister to make this happen, so help me Christ,
whatever Alyssa has planned for you is nothing compared to what I’ll do to your
sorry ass.”

Payton backed away with his hands
up. Cain had a moment to remember he was armed, but kept moving. It wasn’t
until Drew stepped between them that he stopped. He glared at the men, but didn’t
back down.

“She and Mr. Cunningham hooked up
on their own. I swear. Michael called Payton a few days ago to ask him about
her and that was before we found out where the money was going. He was asking
if she was attached and to tell Payton that he was seeing her. He didn’t know;
none of us did.”

“Michael Cunningham of Cunningham
and Cunningham? I know him. Well, my father knew him. He is some big deal buyer
in New York. He buys and sells…well, everything, I guess. Last I heard he was
making arrangements to purchase fallen rail cars as they come up on shore. He
nearly had that in the bag, last I heard.” Alyssa sat at her desk and began
clicking on the computer. “Here, look Cain. He’s the real deal and almost as
rich as we are.”

Cain walked around the desk, but
still wasn’t convinced that Payton hadn’t set this up. He liked the guy and he
was really good to his sister, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill him if he
got Grace hurt. Cain sat in the chair that his wife got up from and started
skimming the articles about the man who his sister was seeing.

“It says here he has a son. What
happened to his wife?” Cain looked up when no one answered. “Drew? I asked you
a question.”

“He never married. Terrance
Michael Cunningham is the result of a long affair Michael had with a woman he
never really liked.” Payton sat down, took the file, and slid a picture across
to them. “She was killed about a year and a half after the kid was born. So far
as we can tell, she never had a thing to do with either of them after he was
born.”

Cain read over the file again. There
was something he was missing, he knew it, but he couldn’t quite put his finger
on it. He looked up when Payton cleared his throat. From the look on his face,
he knew that whatever it was, he wasn’t going to like it.

“Your sister is in deep shit. Grace
has been harassed for several months, it seems. Michael said that the calls and
the threats have become quite violent. He said that whoever is threatening her
has also targeted him and his son.” Payton shifted in his seat. “Has she ever
said anything to you about it? Not even a slip of the tongue?”

“No,” Cain said sadly. “She talks
with Jazzie the most, but I’m sure she would have told me if she’d said
anything. Gracie moved to New York and, as you know, doesn’t come home all that
much. She left, literally, in the middle of the night while I was away at
school.” He pulled Alyssa into his lap when she came to him. “How bad is it,
Payton? Is it as bad as the rest?”

Payton pulled out another bunch of
papers. “Michael took the tape from her machine, had a copy made, and sent it
to me. She doesn’t know and will probably be pissed at him when she finds out,
so let’s keep this between us. He claims she’s not heard the messages. She told
him that she doesn’t listen to them, simply erases them as soon as she thinks
about it.”

“But you don’t believe her, do
you?”

Payton shook his head.

“What does this Cunningham person
know? Has she shared anything with him?”

“He told me yesterday that he was
taking her to his house and sitting her down and talking to her. Whether or not
that happened, I don’t know. Michael said that he would come with her this
weekend even if she didn’t invite him. He…he’s in love with her.”

Cain hugged Alyssa tighter. He had
to ask, but he wasn’t sure he could without breaking down. He looked at Drew
then at Payton. He took a deep breath. “My mother, she’s been trying to kill us
all since the beginning, right?”

Payton nodded.

“Why, do we know?”

He shook his head this time.

“Then how do you know it’s her? I
mean, maybe she’s taking the money because, hell, I don’t know, maybe she
thinks she’s owed it…Holy Christ, my father. She’s taking this because of my
father. And we’re all…”

“We’re all paying because she
feels we are the cause of his death,” Alyssa finished for him. “What are we
going to do to finish this? Because I, for one, want this over with.”

~~~

Guinevere watched the house. Well,
she watched the gate. She had been told by Ginny that if anyone got by her
without her warning someone, she’d be hurting. Guinevere huffed. Ginny was
becoming entirely too full of herself. Closing her eyes against the small pain
that was just behind her ears, Guinevere thought about the past few weeks.

Ginny was the least of their
problems. Verrie was becoming impossible to control. Her violent outrages were
getting to be messy. Just last night it had taken her over three hours to clean
up the blood and gore after one of her episodes. And the man…Guinevere felt her
stomach lurch at what she’d done to him.

Not only had she eviscerated him,
but she’d cut off his cock and every other appendage that he had. His fingers
were put into his mouth, along with his cock. But it was what she’d done with
his entrails that made her think of going to the bushes and throwing up again. He’d
been decorated with them. And if that wasn’t enough, she’d even draped them
around the headboard and foot board like a canopy in a little girl’s room. Guinevere
hadn’t even known there was that much belly in a person.

“You loved it and you know it. You’re
just jealous that I can make murder a work of art.” Guinevere stiffened when
Verrie’s voice entered her head. “And don’t be such a prude. You’ve killed your
fair share of men over the past few years. Like those idiots you hired to take
out the money-grubbing whore.”

“Killing for hire and killing for
pleasure are two different things altogether. I killed those ‘idiots,’ as you
called them, because they fucked up. You killed that man because…why did you
kill him?” Guinevere watched a car pull into the drive, but not go through the
gates before it pulled away. It didn’t enter, but simply pulled in. She didn’t
bother making note of the license plate number.

“Because I could. And it sounded
like fun. Have you ever stuck a knife into someone’s soft parts and felt the
way it slid in? It’s quite invigorating, let me tell you. Then there is the way
the guts smell when you unearth them.” Verrie made a noise that reminded
Guinevere of kissing and her stomach lurched again. “You need to have a little
more fun. Think of the possibilities.”