Grace Anne (8 page)

His father turned away from him,
but not before Thomas could see the disappointed look in his eyes. He just had
one more reason to hate his brother. For giving him a reason to disappoint his
father.

Thomas decided that he was going
to get back at Michael. He wasn’t sure how, but he knew it was going to have to
be big. He glanced over at Trace when he felt someone staring at him, and he glared
at the kid. That brat saw way too much and, when he did, he ran to his daddy
every time. He thought maybe he’d just found a way to hurt Michael. Trace was
going to suffer where the father could not.

When Grace and Michael retuned
Trace got up and walked to his father. He didn’t say anything, though Thomas
knew he would tell on him later, but the kid did lean over and hug Grace. Thomas
was surprised when she hugged the kid back and pulled him onto her chair to sit
next to her. Thomas thought maybe it was time for him to get out of here before
he hurt someone.

Chapter 8

Ginny watched the people leave the
restaurant. She’d been at the big building when Grace Anne had left with the
man and was surprised when they both got into the limo and left. She ranted for
nearly twenty minutes before she realized she should have followed them to see
where they were headed. Lucky for her, she saw the sleek limo parked right
across the street from where she’d parked her car.

“You should just bring a gun and
shoot her in the head. Then we could get out of this fucking town. It’s too…too
everything, and I hate it. I want to go back to the house we had in Ohio.”

Ginny had gotten better at
controlling the others. And they no longer needed a mirror to converse. She
could simply hear them now, both Guinevere and Verrie. But Verrie was getting
stronger as well. There were times, like last night, when Ginny had no idea
what she’d done. It wasn’t until she came back that she’d realized that Verrie
had killed someone.

“I don’t have a gun and, even if I
did, don’t you think that the other dozen or so people might notice a woman
waving one around shooting at her? Guinevere, do you ever think things through
or are you forever flying by the seat of your pants? Fuck off and leave me
alone.” Ginny waited for her to comment again, but she simply faded away. Seconds
later she knew why.

“I know damn good and well we have
a gun,” Verrie said. “I brought it with me when we left. But you’re right about
shooting her here. Too many witnesses. If we get caught here Cain would
probably leave us here to rot.”

Ginny didn’t comment. All she
could think about was Cain. She wanted that man, and badly. She’d gone to him
the day before they’d left to get him to give them money to leave and she’d
taken one of his shirts. She’d also gotten the private number of Grace Anne.

Ginny had cut the shirt up into
small strips and carried pieces of him with her wherever she went. Pulling out
the small rectangle now, she buried her nose in it and inhaled. Christ, but the
man smelled like sex. She smiled when she thought of what she’d done with a few
of the pieces last night. Best climax she’d had in a while.

“Pay attention,” Verrie told her
with a snap. “See that one over there? The younger one?” Ginny nodded. “He’s a
looking at them like he wants to kill them. Think we could use him? I mean, it
would be easier to get to the little cunt if we could get into that fucking
building of hers.”

The system that Grace Anne had on
her building was tight. And no matter how many times they’d tried to sneak in,
someone would catch them and run them off. And that guy with the funny voice
had told them that the camera had her picture now so, if anything came up
missing, he’d give it to the police. Ginny had left and not returned.

“I know that one. His name is…let
me see…Thomas. He’s the younger brother of the man. I’m not sure about him. When
I was watching the older man the other day, Michael, I could see that that one
is a little shit. He goes out of his way to be a prick and he’d be hard to
control. And money wouldn’t work on him.”

Ginny had had Guinevere go to the
big building downtown where Michael Cunningham worked and apply for a job. Ginny
had seen the way the man had looked at Grace Anne and wondered about it. After
they’d gone shopping together and then left for the day Ginny decided to get to
Grace Anne through him. Now that they had a little more information on Michael
she thought maybe he was going to be more of a problem than any of the other
men that had attached themselves to the other girls. Ginny closed her eyes
against the frustration of not getting any one of them.

“We just need to kill one of them.
And this one seems to be our best bet. She lives here all alone and far enough
away from the others that they won’t come in and start making our life more
difficult.” Ginny agreed with Verrie. “Besides, she seems to have done all
right for herself. Maybe we could kill this one off and live in her big
building before anyone could notice.”

That, too, had its merits. The
hotel they were staying in was expensive and eating out every day was killing
her. She hated that she couldn’t just go somewhere and eat; she had to fight
with the other two on every choice.

 They were quickly running out of
funds and she needed to get to her guy in Atlanta soon. He’d been slacking in
the money part of their deal. She pulled out her cell phone to call him now,
but was distracted watching Michael pull Grace Anne into the limo. Christ, but
the man looked at her like she was his last meal and he planned to get his
fill. The kid, Trace, was getting into another limo that the older couple got
into.

“Looks like someone is going to
get lucky tonight,” Verrie said sardonically. “I just think there is no
accounting for taste for these women. Give me a big man with a lot of push
behind his fuck and I’ll be a happy woman. Unlike you, who can get off with a
couple of fingers and a piece of cotton.”

Ginny’s anger boiled over the top
and she forced pain into Verrie’s head. She knew that it would hurt her too.
She’d learned that a couple of days ago when she’d tried it on Guinevere. Blood
trickled from her nose and she knew that she’d have to pay for this. Verrie was
the meanest and the most vindictive of the three of them. She was also quickly
becoming the most unstable.

When she was gone Ginny pulled out
her phone and called Shawn in Atlanta. He answered on the first ring and he
sounded strung out. Great, Ginny thought. He was extremely difficult to try and
deal with when he was only just high; this way, he’d be paranoid and mean.

“I need more money. Send me what
you have.” She didn’t like his laughter at her demand. “You think this is funny,
dope boy? Well, it’s not. How much and how soon?”

“I got myself a little need myself
here. And just so’s you know, I think I’m not making enough on my cut. I want
you to send me more stuff. And the good kind, not that bullshit you sent me the
last time either.” Ginny nearly hung up and thought about calling him later,
but knew that the five thousand they had left wasn’t going to last much longer.

“Tell me how much you have and I’ll
send you the stuff accordingly. And you’ll send it today, not when you get the
stuff either.” She heard him laugh, maniacal and loud. “Are you paying
attention to me? I asked you how much?”

“I got you fifty grand. Pretty boy
up north is really working hard on trying to impress his new missus. He’s got
that project, the Madison one, almost finished. We’ll have to…” He laughed
again and Ginny felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. “We’ll have to find
us another cow to milk.”

This time his laughter was long. She
was ready to go to Atlanta and kill the son of a bitch and would have if she
had the time. But she needed the little piss ant and knew that, as soon as this
was over, she was going to let Verrie have her way with him. She chilled when
she heard the other woman agree.

“I’ll send it out today,” he sang
at her. “Today, I’ll send it out today. And when I do, you’ll send me my drugs,
my drugs you’ll send to me.”

She closed her phone knowing that
he’d have to be called back in a few hours to be reminded to send it out again.
She hated using such an unreliable source, but in this thing she needed money
and he was her easiest source.

~~~

“The money is moving. Daniel got a
hit on it about an hour ago and now it’s in the system.”

Alyssa looked up from her desk as
Nathan came into her office.

“It looks like it’s our boy Shawn
Nicholson. He’s been in the program several times over the past five years, all
on your tab.”

“So, now what? Do you know where
the money is going?” She had little knowledge about how this worked and was
glad that several months ago her brother had brought Daniel Steward in to talk
to her. She’d been both impressed and terrified about what he could do with a
computer.

“Daniel said that the tracer he
has on the money will lead us to wherever the money goes. Once it stops it’ll
be up to someone on the other end to figure out where and who picks it up. It
will more than likely go to some post office box and, from there, we’ll have to
sit tight until it’s picked up again. Could be soon, but maybe as much as a few
weeks; it’s hard to tell right now.” He pulled her a bottle of water out of the
small refrigerator and opened his while she went through the ritual of checking
hers for pin holes.

She hated to wait. She wanted this
person now. They had taken well over a million dollars over the past eight
months and she wanted them caught. But if they wanted to just catch the thief,
she’d been told that it could have ended already, but she wanted the one at the
other end, the one getting the actual cash.

“Are we paying Daniel for this? I
don’t want him doing this for us without repaying him. He has spent a great
deal of time helping us out.” And Alyssa was more than grateful for his
discretion too. “Tell him he’ll have a job if he wants it when this is over.”

Nathan smiled. “He is having a
blast, but I’ll tell him you insist that he take payment. He told me last week
that he’d never had so much fun playing with so much money.”

Alyssa looked at her brother
sharply and he laughed again.

“No, he’s not playing with your
money like just ran through your head. He said the only money he likes stealing
is his family’s. Not other peoples.”

Alyssa leaned back in her chair
and looked at her brother. He was happy, anyone could see that, but there was
more. A lot more. She grinned when he flushed. “Married life must be treating
you well, big brother. Is there anything you want to tell me? Something about…I
don’t know, a baby?” He flushed again. “Oh my God, you are, aren’t you?” She
stood up and walked around the desk to him. He stood and hugged her to him. Another
baby in the family. How wonderful for them all.

“She wants to tell everyone next
weekend,” he told her softly. “I’ve never been so terrified in my life. What if
the baby wants to know about me? I mean, I don’t exactly have a very good life
to tell him about.”

“You’ll tell him everything. And
he’ll love you all the more for it. Besides, you turned out just fine. And you’re
my brother, so you are just perfect the way you are.” He laughed and hugged her
again. “Does Cain know?”

“No. Just Grace. Jasmine called
her first before she even told me. They really are close, aren’t they?” Alyssa
sat in the chair next to him as he continued. “Grace and Jasmine talk almost
daily. I wondered why, but she told me that it was because they were the only
singles and they had simply depended on each other when the twins had each
other. Weird, if you ask me.”

Alyssa had heard Jazzie say that
before. That her and Grace had formed their own “twinship” when they’d needed
each other. Alyssa guessed that growing up like the Waite children had they
would depend on each other more than most children. She knew that Cain felt
responsible for all of them all the time.

They talked for a few more minutes
before Nathan was called away for another meeting. Alyssa was sitting behind
her desk again when a sharp knock at her door was the only thing that warned
her she had company. Her son was across the room and into her arms before she
had a chance to toss her pen on the desk.

“I thought I’d come here and
seduce you, but he insisted on coming to give you a kiss.”

She looked up at Cain, her
wonderful husband, as he flopped into the chair that Nathan had just left.

“I don’t think we’re paying the
nanny enough. I’ve been with him for just over two hours and I’m exhausted. I
don’t know how she does it for the eight hours she has him.”

“She makes him mind; you don’t. If
you’d make him listen to you instead of the other way around, then you’d have
more control.”

Cain snorted, a nice habit she’d taught
him.

“And I know what you’re thinking
and it isn’t the same with me. I let him have his way on some things and you do
on everything.”

He snorted again. “Yeah, that’s why
he has every toy known to man and more clothes than he could wear in three childhoods.”

“Connor want to have lunch. Connor
is hungry.”

Alyssa smiled at her son. He’d
just picked up the habit of talking about himself in the third person.

“Connor want french fires and
catups.”

“Okay, but you have to have a
sandwich too. How about a grilled cheese with pickles? Or a burger? And if you
eat all of the sandwich, I’ll let you have a sundae too.”

Connor put his finger to his chin
and looked like he was thinking it over. Cain laughed, got up, picked him up,
and put him on his shoulders. They both seemed to enjoy the trip to the
elevator like that. Alyssa was just telling her assistant they were going to
the cafeteria when Cain’s cell went off. She knew that ring tone and was happy
that he didn’t answer. His mother could be a real fun-sucker when she called.