Grace Anne (16 page)

“Yeah. Aunt Sin said that she was
going to give me a whistle. That I was to blow it in the sucker’s ear if
someone tried to grab me. She’s sort of scary, huh?”

That was an understatement,
Michael thought. The woman was nursing a bullet wound that she’d gotten a few
months ago during a raid on a house which was harboring a known cell that was
plotting against the United States. She’d been shot because she went in first
and came out last. She’d been hurt because she was the bravest woman he’d ever
met.

“Yes. But she knows her stuff. So
does her husband Payton and Lilliane’s husband Shamus. If they tell you to do
something, I want you to listen to them as if I were telling you. They’ll keep
you safe. Grace too.”

Trace came to sit on the bed and
he played with one of the few things Michael was taking back with him. He
waited for Trace to say whatever it was he needed. He was shocked when he
finally spoke.

“I have a friend, Taylor Bennett. His
dad just got married last year. His new mom was okay, he said, and he was
excited about having someone to have fun with.” Trace didn’t look up as he
spoke, his voice low and tense. “Then about a month ago, she decided that she
wanted her own kid and had his dad put him in a different school. Taylor has to
stay there all the time and wear this uniform like he’s in the army or
something. He only gets to come home once in a while. I miss him.”

“I wouldn’t do that to you,” Grace
said from the doorway. “Never in a million years would I send you away from
your father, and especially not away from me.”

“But what if you get tired of me? I’m
not your kid, you know. I’m his.” Trace pointed at him, and Michael nearly told
him to take it down a notch as his voice had hardened. “And my mom and dad weren’t
even married when I was born. She didn’t want me.”

Grace walked into the room and sat
in the chair. Michael knew that this was something the two of them had to resolve
so he excused himself and left the room, closing the door behind him. Leaning
back against it he closed his eyes, overwhelmed. The thought of Grace swollen
with his child and Trace being a big brother had him thinking that he was the
luckiest man in the world. He went down the stairs to find Cain’s little boy
Connor, who he knew was tormenting Walter.

~~~

“I have something to tell you.
Something that I’ve never shared with anyone in my life,” Grace told Trace when
they were alone. “I’m telling you this so that you’ll know just what you’re
going to be related to when I marry your dad. All right?”

“Yes. But if you think I’m going
to let you go and run away then it won’t work. I love you even if you send me
away.” Trace moved to lean against the headboard. “Are you going to have Dad’s
kid?”

“No. Not yet. We’ve never talked
about having other children. Though I would like to, but it’s a family
decision, not just something that he and I can decide without your input. We’re
going to be a family, all three of us, and any other child that comes along.” She
watched as he absorbed this. “Trace, what do you know about my parents?”

“Your dad is dead. Captain Grant
killed him when he tried to kill your sister, Aunt Quinn. He was in prison for
a long time and he…” He didn’t finish, but looked at the empty fireplace.

“He killed someone. Yes, it’s
true. He was drunk and drove up on a sidewalk because the cars in front of him
weren’t going fast enough for him and he killed a man. My mother isn’t any
better.”

Trace got up and sat on the
footstool at her feet. “I heard Aunt Alyssa say that she was a peach. I don’t
think she meant the warm and fuzzy kind that Molly cuts up on my oatmeal.”

Grace laughed. “No, she’s not. She’s…she’s
evil. Do you know what that word means?” He nodded, but she didn’t wait for him
to tell her. “My mother has split personalities. I’ve told your dad that. He
also knows that she killed someone when I was a teenager. I didn’t see her do
it, but I knew that she had. Or at least one of the people she has in her head
did it.”

“She has people in her head that
kill people? She’s crazy then?” Trace reached out for her hand. “I’ll protect
you, Grace. I swear I won’t let her hurt you.”

“You have to stay away from them,”
she told him quickly. “There are several of them. I’ve met them all and they’re
dangerous. Promise me that you’ll keep away from them.”

“I will. I promise. What did she
do to you, Grace? I know she hurt you. Tell me what she did to you.”

Grace looked away from him,
ashamed. She was ashamed for what she’d allowed her to do to her and, worse
yet, let her get away with.

“She had someone rape me. She held
me down while she…she encouraged my father to rape me.” She still hadn’t looked
at the little boy in front of her. “I wasn’t very old, seventeen. She’d tied me
down after I’d been sleeping. I always thought she’d drugged me, but I couldn’t
remember. When I told her about it later, she’d acted like she had no idea.”
She was crying, the tears falling down her face hot and quick. When Trace said
her name she didn’t want to look at him, didn’t want to see the look on his
face. When he said it a second time, she turned.

“I have a favor to ask you. I’ve
been thinking about it for a long time. You can say no if you want to, but I’m
not sure it’ll keep me from doing it. Will you let me?”

She nodded.

“Will you please let me call you Mom?”

Grace stared at him for several
seconds. He started talking again very quickly. “I’ve been thinking about it
since that day you took me to the vet’s for Walter. You were so brave when that
kid threw that cat on that lizard. And when you told his mom to shut up and
mind her tongue I about busted with love. She looked like she’d swallowed a
bug. A big one. Then that nurse was starting on you.” He laughed. “She backed
up right away when you gave her that look. The one that said ‘I’m not going to
take your crap either, lady.’ I still laugh about it sometimes.”

“I’m not going to be a pushover
with you either, you know. I’m going to expect you to be the worst little boy
sometimes, and I might let you slide on some things, but then you’ll be
grounded when you need to be. And I’ll want you to have a sick day from school
even if you aren’t sick; you’ll have to help me plan stupid birthday parties
for your dad and when we all have another baby, if we want, then I expect you
to be big brother to it.”

He looked like he was thinking
about it then grinned at her. “Deal. But don’t expect me to hug you in public. Grandma
does it enough and I hate it.” Then he grinned wider. “Not really, but I can’t
let her know that. She’s my favorite grandma.”

“Trace, I would be honored if you
call me Mom. Just please don’t call me Momma. I detest that stupid name.”

“You got it, Momma.”

Chapter 16

Joey looked at her stepson. Thomas
had been a horror since the day she’d married his dad. And he hadn’t improved
one bit in all the years since. She supposed she should have put her foot down
more, but the kid wouldn’t listen to anyone. The few times that she had had to
discipline him he’d rebelled so much and retaliated so harshly against the
other children that she’d finally given up. She blamed herself for a little of
what he’d done now.

She turned to the door when it
opened. She burst into tears when she saw her husband and Michael walk in. Rushing
to the men she was pulled into a tight hug and held. Sometimes, like now, a hug
could make all the difference in the world. She was still crying when she
pulled back.

“The nurse said that he’ll be fine
in a few days and the police are going to take him to the infirmary at the
jail. They thought about leaving him here, but they just don’t have the
manpower.” She looked over at Thomas who was cuffed to the bed by his ankle and
wrist. “I’m actually afraid for him. He killed one of their own and I know they
aren’t too thrilled about the fact that he survived whoever shot him.”

“Have they figured out what
happened yet? Payton said that he was screaming about being framed for those
two men, that a woman had actually committed the crimes.”

Joey knew from Michael’s tone that
he didn’t believe his stepbrother, not that she blamed him.

“They didn’t say, but then I doubt
very much they would tell us. They took both bodies to the coroner’s office to
see what they could find. I did hear that both of them died about the same time
and that one had been cut up, the other stabbed through the heart.” Joey sat
down on the couch next to Michael as she continued. “They have him for the
other two murders, so I don’t suppose they care one way or the other if he
killed these two or not.”

Joey glanced over at the cop she’d
forgotten about. He’d not left the room since Thomas had been brought back from
surgery. She wondered if he would save Thomas if someone, the supposed woman,
came back to finish the job. She doubted it. She also doubted that she would care
all that much either. The thought made her feel like a horrible person and she
felt more tears fall. Before she could say anything Lucas started talking.

“The older man was the super of
the apartment complex where he died. They aren’t sure what the connection was,
only that he had been stabbed in the heart and that he had a blunt force to the
back of his head. They are doing a room to room search to see if he was killed
there. The younger man had been cut badly. They said that he’d been wrapped in
plastic and put down there first because he was beneath the older man. He’d
been stored down there for at least twenty-four hours.” The cop coughed, but
didn’t speak as her husband continued. “There are seventy-two apartments in
that complex and most of the people are…less than trustworthy. I understand
that any one of the residents there could have killed either man as it seems to
be a regular occurrence in that neighborhood.”

“Four to five per week,” the cop
said. “We get a call there four, sometimes as many as ten times a week for one
thing or another. The man, the younger one, he’s a known prostitute in the area
about three blocks from there. And the kid here is going to trial. It’s a
capital to kill a cop in this state.”

Joey shuddered. The death penalty
was almost a guarantee for Thomas. She looked at him again before she spoke to
the cop. “Did you know him; the other policeman, did you know him? And did he
have a family? I’m not sure…my family would like to make a donation to whatever
fund you have for them. And I know you’ll keep that to yourself.’

He nodded. “Officer Bill Abbott,
ma’am. And Officer Tyler and I will. I know…your husband is a good man, fair
too. I was before him on a few cases.”

Joey smiled as she looked at her
husband. He’d been a sitting judge for a few years before they’d married and he’d
become a well-known and very well respected circuit court judge before he’d
retired. He still presided over some cases when needed, filling in for
vacations or some other thing, but he’d been retired for a few years now.

Thomas stirred and they all looked
at the bed expectantly. The doctor had told them that he would be out for a bit,
but when he came around they would make sure that he could move about before
sending him on his way. They’d been told they could stay with him until then,
but after being transported he was going to be in lock down. Mostly, they’d
been told, for his own safety.

The bullet had entered his right
arm. The doctor who had treated him said that it had gone through his bicep. He
said that it hadn’t been anywhere near as life threatening as the person who
had called it in had said and he’d wondered to them if it was a lover’s quarrel
and that she’d had remorse over trying to kill him. Thomas had been awake when
they’d brought him in and, at that time, they hadn’t discovered the bodies.
Nor, it seemed, had they realized who they had. It wasn’t until he was
transported that they made the connection to him and the cop killer at his
home. By then Thomas had already been taken to surgery.

“Dad? Where…what am I doing here?”
Thomas pulled on the cuff at his wrist. “What the fuck is this? Why am I…am I
in trouble for something? That bitch shot me and you have me in cuffs? I want
these things taken off me right fucking now.”

“Shut up, you little prick,”
Michael said softly. “You’re lucky that you’re not in prison, you fool. What
the fuck did you think was going to happen? That they’d throw a parade in your
honor? You killed the senator’s daughter, you spoiled little bastard.”

“I didn’t kill anyone who didn’t
deserve it. And who the hell do you think you are talking to me like I’m
subhuman? You have a dead hooker on your lawn. What the hell is your precious
Grace going to think about marrying you now, huh? And that little bastard of yours?
What do you—”

Officer Brent Tyler was standing
over him with his baton out and at his throat before any of them could move. Michael
put his hand on his shoulder and the man seemed to ripple with anger. Joey was
suddenly very afraid for his stepson.

“Officer Tyler, let him go,”
Michael said calmly. “He’s not worth it. I know what you’re thinking, but he
isn’t worth losing your job over. He’s been a selfish little prick all his
life.”

Joey looked at her husband as he
backed away. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but she had a pretty good
idea. He was blaming himself, as she was doing. He was thinking just like her
and that, if they had done more, maybe none of this would be happening.

“He can’t say things like that. We
have him…there is a tape that shows him killing that girl. That little girl was
seventeen.” Officer Tyler pulled back, but not before he put a bit more
pressure on Thomas throat. “But you’re right, Mr. Cunningham, he just ain’t
worth it. Nobody’s worth the death of a cop killer who is going to get the
chair anyway.”