A Brother's Honor (31 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

T
wo days later, Shana knew she couldn’t put off telling Jace any longer. Her morning sickness wasn’t going away, and he had spent the past two nights with her. But again, she was grateful he’d left before morning. What if he decided to stay the entire night without leaving early the next morning? She ran the risk of his being there when she was sick in the mornings. If that happened, she would be forced to tell him what was wrong with her, and she preferred not having to tell him that way.

Drawing in a deep breath, she knocked on the door that connected her office to Jace’s. He opened it and smiled down at her. “Hello, beautiful.”

She couldn’t help returning his smile. “I need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay, what is it?”

She shook her head. “It’s private. Personal. I’d rather do it at my place. I just wanted to make sure you were coming over again tonight.”

He leaned in the doorway. “Yes, as long as you have a welcome mat for me, I’ll be there.”

She met his gaze. “The welcome mat is there.”

He reached out and touched her cheek. His eyes darkened with concern. “You okay?”

She nodded. “Yes, but I’ll be better once we’ve had our talk.”

Jace knew that to be true. He had been putting off telling her how he felt and decided tonight he would do it. He wasn’t sure what she needed to talk to him about, but they would discuss whatever was on her mind tonight. As well as what was on his.

“Expect me at the usual time, and I’ll bring dinner,” he said.

“No, it will be my treat this time.”

He lifted a brow. “You’re cooking?”

She chuckled. “No. I plan to stop and pick something up for us on the way home.”

“That won’t be an inconvenience for you?”

“No more than it’s an inconvenience for you whenever you do it.” He’d fed her for the past three nights. Now it was her turn.

“All right, if you’re sure it’s okay.”

“It’s okay, Jace. In fact, I want it to be a special evening.”

He definitely liked the sound of that. He leaned down and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Then I can’t wait.”

* * *

Jace glanced at his watch. It was a little after six and time for him to call it a day. He looked forward to leaving to head over to Shana’s place. He stood to slide into his jacket and lifted a brow when he thought he heard a sound outside his door. As far as he knew, everyone had left for today.

Moving to the door, he opened it and glanced out. He frowned when he saw Shelton Fields at Brandy’s desk. “Shelton, is there anything you need?”

The man jerked around nervously. From the expression on Shelton’s face, it was apparent he hadn’t known Jace was still at the office.

“No, I was just leaving. I needed to place something on Ms. Booker’s desk.”

Jace nodded as he locked his office door. “I’m about to leave, as well. We can walk out together.”

“All right.”

Jace made a mental note to read Shana’s report on Shelton Fields again first thing in the morning. The last time, there hadn’t been any red flags, nothing to give the man a second look, but now that he thought about it, Fields had been acting kind of strange lately. But then, he hadn’t been the only one. Once word had gotten out about Melissa, Arrington and Freeman, a number of the other employees were acting like they thought someone suspected them.

“We had nice weather today,” Jace said when they stepped in the elevator.

“Yes, it was.”

And that was all he said. Jace tossed around in his mind just what he knew about Fields. In his early forties, the man had been hired by Jace’s grandfather around seven years ago. He was divorced, and his ex-wife lived somewhere in Oregon. Jace recalled his grandfather mentioning that, after his divorce, Fields had become a ladies’ man around the office. But all it had taken was his grandfather letting Fields know he disapproved of such behavior to put a stop to it.

They left the building together and walked out to the parking lot not saying anything else to each other until they needed to part ways to go to their respective parking spots.

“Have a good evening, Jace,” Fields said as he moved in the direction where his car was parked.

“You do the same, Shelton.”

Jace continued to his car, thinking of the evening ahead and how he couldn’t wait to get to Shana’s place. He pulled the keys from his pants pocket to open his car door and that was the last thing he recalled after feeling a needle sting in the back of his neck.

* * *

Shana smiled as she looked over at the table she’d set for two. Whenever Jace brought the food, they would eat right out of the carry-out boxes. Tonight, things would be different. She had no idea how he felt about her, but she would tell him he would be a father nonetheless.

She was about to step on the patio and relax a minute when her cell phone rang. It was Kent. “Yes, Kent?”

“Get to your computer. I’m about to send you a report that you need to see.”

She glanced at her watch. It was forty minutes past seven. Jace’s arrival at her place was always like clockwork. He was late tonight. “Is it something I can look at later?”

“No, I believe it’s something you should look at now.”

Shana had worked with Kent long enough to know when he was onto something. “All right. Give me a second to boot up my system.”

“Okay. I’m hanging on the phone until you do.”

Shana walked to the extra bedroom she’d made into an office and slid into the chair behind the desk. “You’re still there, Kent?” she asked as she placed her phone on speaker.

“Yes, I’m still here.”

Once the system came up, she immediately pulled the file Kent had sent her. She began reading, and her eyes widened. “Holy cow! How did you find out about this stuff?”

“Doesn’t matter. Jace Granger needs to know.”

Shana agreed and glanced at her watch again. It wasn’t like Jace to be late.

“Hold on, I’m switching to a new line so I can call Jace’s cell phone.” He should have left the office a good forty-five minutes ago, Shana thought.

She tried Jace’s phone and didn’t get an answer. Maybe he’d been detained at the office for some reason, so she decided to call his office number. When he didn’t answer, she clicked back over to Kent as she nibbled on her bottom lip. Something wasn’t right...she could feel it.

“I couldn’t reach him on his mobile line, and I even tried his office and couldn’t get him. It’s not like him not to be accessible,” she said.

“Maybe you need to contact his brothers. There’s a chance he might be somewhere hanging out with them.”

Or his ex-wife, Shana thought, and then forced the thought from her mind. When she saw him at the office, he’d said he was looking forward to tonight. “Okay, I have their numbers. I’ll give them a call.”

* * *

Jace’s head was hurting something fierce when he slowly opened his eyes, regaining consciousness. He glanced around, and the first person he saw when he tried focusing his eyes was Titus Freeman.

And as Jace began coming around, he realized that Freeman was bound to his chair with his hands tied behind his back like Jace was. The only difference was that Freeman was also gagged.

“Welcome to my secret hideaway, Jace.”

Although it hurt to do so, Jace twisted his head to glance up at the man standing in the doorway. He closed his eyes, certain he was seeing things, but when he reopened them and sharpened his focus as best he could, there was no denying the man standing there with a gun in his hand.

Jace’s tongue felt thick, and his mouth felt dry, but he forced the words through his lips. “What’s going on?”

Vidal Duncan let out a screeching laugh, one that grated on Jace’s skin. The man then placed the gun on a table and sat in a chair. “What’s going on is that you messed up my plan, Jace. So this is plan B.”

Jace frowned, ignoring the ache in his head. He wasn’t sure what Vidal was talking about. Vidal laughed again, then said, “You are so clueless and so damn trusting. A pity. There’s so much you don’t know, so let me tell you everything before you die.”

Jace’s body jerked. What was Vidal talking about? What was going on?

“And yes, you’ll die. I’m going to make it seem as if Freeman did you in before turning the gun on himself. Nice end to the both of you, don’t you think?”

Jace glanced over at Freeman and saw the fear in the man’s eyes. Whatever Vidal was involved with, Jace would not let him get away with it. Shana would be expecting him, and hopefully she would think something was wrong when he didn’t show up. And he still had the tracker on his phone enabled. He had to believe help would be coming. What he needed to do was to keep Vidal talking.

“Why, Vidal?” Jace asked in a raspy tone.

He watched as the man filled his glass with wine and stretched his legs out in front of him. “I guess I should take the time to tell you since you don’t need to die right away. Besides, you might appreciate my plan.”

Jace doubted it.

* * *

Dalton and Caden stepped off the elevator. Dalton frowned. “I can’t believe you came back here for a stack of papers you need to read tonight.”

Caden rolled his eyes as they walked toward his office. “Stop whining. You could have stayed at McQueen’s.”

“I could have, but I didn’t.” There was no need to tell Caden that no other woman had interested him since he’d seen that woman Saturday night at the club. There had been something about her that continued to plague his thoughts, although he wished otherwise. Jace had suggested he hire a private investigator, and he’d been giving it a lot of thought. Just the idea that he was considering such a thing was crazy, but there had been something about her that had pulled him in, and he wouldn’t be satisfied until he found out what it was.

“I noticed Jace’s car is still in the parking lot, and I thought he told us he had someplace to be by seven,” Caden said, glancing at Jace’s closed office door as he entered his own office. “I wonder why he’s being detained.” He headed toward his desk and Dalton closed the door behind them and then dropped down in the nearest chair.

Caden’s cell phone rang, and he lifted a brow when he saw caller ID. “It’s Shana Bradford.” He answered the call. “Yes, Shana?”

“I’m trying to locate Jace. There’s been a major development, and I need to talk to him immediately.”

Caden leaned against his desk. “His car is still here, so I assume he’s in his office. Hold on, let me check.”

He muted the phone and then glanced over at Dalton as he headed for the door. “Jace never showed up for his seven o’clock appointment.” Jace hadn’t had to tell them his seven o’clock appointment was with Shana. They weren’t dumb.

Dalton followed Caden out of his office to knock on Jace’s door. After several knocks, Caden glanced over at Dalton. “He’s not here.”

Dalton’s lips dipped into a frown. “Where would Jace go without his car?”

Caden put his phone on speaker so Dalton could hear his conversation with Shana. “He’s not here, Shana.”

He could hear her deep sigh. “Is there a chance he visited Eve at the hotel?” she asked.

Caden snorted. “I doubt it.”

“We need to make sure, so can you check? If Jace isn’t with her, then I’m worried.”

“Why are you worried?”

“Because Kent was able to dig up info on another one of your employees, and what he found is disturbing. This person covered his tracks well and has no idea we’re onto him. And I have a feeling he’ll do anything to make sure he’s not found out.”

Concern appeared in both Caden’s and Dalton’s faces. “What employee are we talking about, Shana?” Caden asked.

Shana paused before briefly saying, “Vidal Duncan.”

* * *

“Well, you see, Jace, my plan started four years ago,” Vidal said, sitting down and sipping on a glass of wine as if he had all the time in the world. “With your wife, actually. That year when the two of you came home for Thanksgiving, she approached me asking that I talk to you about returning to Virginia and working alongside Richard. I pretended I was all for it, even promised her I would do what I could.”

He chuckled. “Then I asked how badly she wanted me to succeed in doing what she wanted, and she claimed she would do anything. So I had her prove it. We became lovers that night and our affair continued after the two of you returned to California. Nice little piece you were married to. She could become a real freak in the bedroom. And just so you know, that baby she aborted wasn’t yours. It was mine, and she did so with my blessing. There was no way we could let her give birth to a kid that might come out looking like me.”

A sharp pain sliced across Jace’s chest and he drew in a deep breath, not wanting to believe what he was hearing. “No!” he shouted as loud as he could.

Vidal chuckled again. “Having a hard time believing it, huh? I understand. Eve is a rather good actress. I’m going to let you digest that for a minute before I continue.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

W
ith cold fear running up her spine, Shana quickly stepped off the elevator at Granger Aeronautics with Marcel at her side. After Caden called her back to confirm that Jace was not with Eve, Shana immediately called Marcel. She had reached him just minutes before he left the FBI office for home.

“Heard anything?” she asked Caden when she headed straight for his office.

“Not a thing.” He then glanced over at Marcel. “What do you suggest we do?” Caden just couldn’t believe that the man who had been a longtime trusted family friend, someone who was like a godfather to the three of them, was the same person Shana was painting him to be. But she had forwarded him and Dalton the same report her man Kent had given her and the information was pretty damn damaging.

“I already have a couple of my agents scouring the parking lot and checking out Jace’s car,” Marcel said. “Hopefully, we’ll find something. And we have someone keeping an eye on Duncan’s home. We don’t want to tip him off that he’s under suspicion about anything, especially since we don’t know for certain that he had anything to do with Jace’s disappearance.”

Shana shook her head. “I can’t believe Vidal is doing this. My suspicions had been focused on Shelton Fields. He’s been acting strange lately and hanging around Brandy’s desk a lot.”

“They’re having an affair,” Dalton spoke up and said.

Everyone turned to Dalton. “And how do you know?” Caden asked incredulously.

“She told me. That’s why we aren’t sleeping together,” he said as if there was nothing wrong with his having an office affair. “She’s already involved with him.”

“He’s divorced and she’s single. Why are they keeping it secret?” Shana inquired and then thought that she of all people was a fine one to ask, considering what she and Jace had been doing.

“They weren’t sure how Jace would like it, so they decided to keep it hush-hush.”

At that moment, one of the agents who’d been searching the parking lot approached. Marcel looked up. “Yes, Greg?”

“This was found in the parking lot near where Mr. Granger’s car is parked,” he said, lifting a see-through baggie that contained a syringe.

Marcel frowned. “Get it to the lab immediately. I have a feeling it was used on Jace.”

* * *

Eve nervously paced back and forth in her hotel room. Jace was missing? What on earth was Vidal doing? Was he certain no one would suspect him? Or her?

Caden had called, questioning Jace’s whereabouts, and she had made sure he believed she hadn’t seen or talked to Jace in a couple of days. There was no way she would get pulled into anything.

She had tried calling Vidal, and he wouldn’t answer. So she would sit here and wait and hope like hell he wouldn’t do anything stupid.

* * *

“Your ex-wife keeps calling me,” Vidal mumbled, placing his cell phone next to where he’d set the gun on the table. “I guess people are looking for you, and someone called her to see if the two of you were together. That’s funny.”

He then took a sip of his drink and said, “Now to take up where I left off. You didn’t take the bait and return to Virginia like Eve wanted. Then you found out about the abortion and kicked poor Eve to the curb. In the meantime, your grandfather began suspecting that someone was selling trade secrets. He wanted to bring Ms. Bradford on board to find the guilty persons. Unfortunately, he died before doing so.”

“Why would you encourage me to hire Shana knowing her reputation for success?” Jace asked. “Weren’t you afraid she would find out what you were doing?”

Vidal chuckled. “No. I had covered my tracks too well. Besides, I wasn’t into trade secrets. I was growing money.”

“Embezzling,” Jace said with disgust.

“Yes,” Vidal said smiling. “So I decided to throw you a bone. Let your girl go after Freeman here and his group and not give any thought to what I was up to. Remember, I was the trusted company attorney. I was considered part of the family.”

Jace didn’t say anything as everything Vidal said sank in. He hated to admit it, but the man was right. Vidal had worked for the Grangers for years. He was like part of the family. They’d never given a thought to his being involved in anything shady.

“I’m going to let you absorb that bit into your mind while I take a few more sips of my drink here.”

* * *

The lab verified that the syringe had been used recently to inject a drug known for rendering a person unconscious. Everyone was in Caden’s office listening to the update Marcel was providing when suddenly Dalton said, “Holy shit! I’d almost forgotten.”

Everyone glanced over at him. “Forgotten what, Dalton?” Caden asked.

“The tracker. I had Security place a tracker on Jace’s phone.”

“But he said he wouldn’t let you track him after hours,” Caden said, running a tired hand across the back of his neck. “He probably turned it off.”

“But what if he forgot or didn’t have time to do so?” Dalton asked, moving to the door. “The guys in Security are still here. I’m going to see if there’s a chance they can pinpoint Jace’s location.”

* * *

“Imagine my joy when the FBI focused their investigation on Freeman and his group,” Vidal was saying. “That just made my day, and things were working in my favor...until you began getting chummy with Ms. Bradford. I happened to be there one night when the two of you walked out together. And then I deliberately drove by her condo another night, and your car was parked outside.”

He shifted in his chair and continued. “I figured she had done what I needed her to do, and I wanted her to move on. A relationship with you wasn’t in my plan, because she could start snooping again later. That’s when I called Eve. I paid her a lot of money to fly to Charlottesville and break things up. She was certain once you saw her again you’d forget all about Ms. Bradford. But you didn’t bite. And then all hell broke loose when Eve overheard that conversation Ms. Bradford had with her sister the other day at Long Meadows. Ms. Bradford told her sister that she thought she was pregnant with your child.”

The lashes that shadowed Jace’s eyes flew up at the same time he was hit full force in the gut.
Shana thought she was pregnant?
Was that what she had to tell him tonight?
The thought that she was pregnant with his child sent shivers of happiness through him even when these could possibly be his last breaths.

“That’s when I knew I had to come up with plan B,” Vidal continued. “So, this is how it will work. Everyone is looking for Freeman. When they find you with a bullet in your gut and that same gun used by Freeman to put a hole in his own head, everyone will assume that Freeman, in despair over how things went down with you finding out what he’d done and the authorities tracking him down like some kind of animal, killed you and then himself. Caden and Dalton will be totally heartbroken and distraught. It’s bad enough to have a father in jail, but now to have a brother dead? That will be too much for them. They will be overwrought with grief, and being the close family friend that I am, I will advise them to live the lives they’ve always wanted to live. I’ll encourage Dalton to return to Europe and Caden to his music. I’ll recommend that they agree to a merger with Barnes Aerospace. Of course they will take my advice, since they will feel you were killed because of Granger Aeronautics and would want to wash their hands of the company.”

Jace couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You think you have everything figured out, don’t you?”

Vidal answered, “Yes.” He stood. “Now for what I have to do. And I wouldn’t advise you or Freeman to give me any problems. I will carry this out, and then I’m going to go and take care of Eve. She’s become a liability.”

“You’ll never get away with this,” Jace growled.

“Of course you’d think that. You keep that thought in your mind while I put this bullet through your head.”

Vidal reached for his gun, and the moment he did so, a shot rang out, hitting him in the arm. Federal agents burst through the door, and within seconds, he was overpowered and taken into custody.

An agent rushed over to Jace and another to Freeman to untie them from the chairs. Freeman was handcuffed and taken into custody, as well. Jace smiled when he saw Marcel. “Boy, am I glad to see you guys.”

Marcel chuckled. “I’m sure you are. While Freeman was sitting by the window in plain view, one of my agents, a sharpshooter, has had Vidal within his scope all the while. That made him an easy target and as soon as he picked up that gun, we took action.” Marcel then smiled and added, “You have your brother to thank for putting that tracker on your phone. Unlike other trackers that merely provide a fifty-mile radius, the one you have pinpoints your location precisely. It definitely made finding you easier.”

“I’ll be sure to thank Dalton. He can be a pain in the ass at times, but I think I’ll keep him.”

“You better,” Dalton said, grinning as he and Caden walked through the door. “I’m beginning to like this spy stuff.”

“Jace!”

Shana then burst through the door and ran straight into Jace’s arms. A flood of heat and love encompassed him when he lowered his head to kiss her, not caring that they had an audience. She curled her arms around his neck and slid into his body. She felt right in his arms.

Suddenly, he broke off the kiss, and Shana found herself being steered to a corner of the room for privacy.

“Don’t go too far, Jace,” Marcel called out. “We’ll need you to give a statement.”

Jace nodded before glancing down at Shana. “I am so glad to see you,” he whispered.

“And I’m glad to see you, too. I’ve never been so scared in my life. I never thought Vidal could be so...”

“Evil,” he finished for her. “Neither did I.”

Jace shook his head sadly. “And just to think he’s a man I’d considered trustworthy. He worked for Granddad for years. He was there for us when Dad went to prison and when Granddad died...or so we thought. He’s admitted to skimming off Granger for years.”

He didn’t say anything for a minute and then he reached out and placed his hand on her stomach. “Are you pregnant?”

Shana’s mouth dropped open. “Why would you think—”

“Eve.”

She was almost too stunned to speak. “Eve?”

“Yes. She overheard a conversation you and your sister had at Long Meadows.”

Shana’s head began spinning. “I don’t understand.”

“I’ll explain Eve’s part in all of this later. But please answer me. Do you think you’re pregnant? Do you know for certain?”

Shana drew in a deep breath. This was not how she had planned to tell him, but since he was asking, she would. “Yes. I found out Tuesday when I took a home pregnancy test. That’s what I wanted to tell you tonight. And I
was
on the pill like I told you. But the antibiotics I was taking affected their potency. I’m sorry.”

Jace pulled her into his arms. “Don’t apologize, baby. I love children and always wanted some of my own. The reason I divorced Eve was because I came home from a business trip early to discover she’d had an abortion. For three years, I’ve been heartbroken over what she did.”

He paused for a moment and then added, “And tonight Vidal had the gall to tell me it was his baby.
His
baby. He and Eve had an affair, and she had the abortion with his blessing.”

The shock of what Jace had just said almost made Shana’s heart hurt. She couldn’t say anything, and stood there speechless. And then she couldn’t stop the tears that formed in her eyes. How could any woman deceive him that way? Jace was such a beautiful, kind and honorable man.

“Don’t cry, sweetheart,” he said, reaching up and using the pad of his thumb to wipe away her tears. “Nothing Eve can do will ever hurt me again. Only you can do that, because I love you.”

Talk about another shocker. This one almost brought Shana to her knees. He tightened his arms around her. And just in case she didn’t get it, Jace said. “I love you, and I want you, and I want our child.”

His words filled her with joy, and she felt totally elated. “And I love you, too, Jace. I love you so much.”

Jace kissed her again. There was no doubt in his mind that she was the woman meant for him. The woman who had his heart and his love. The woman who was having his baby.

He took her hand as his lips curved into a smile. “Come on, sweetheart. I need to give Marcel that statement, and then we’re leaving. We have a future to plan.”

* * *

Later that night, Shana lay in Jace’s arms. His statement had been given at police headquarters, and they’d both been there when Eve was brought in for questioning. There was nothing the woman could say, since Jace knew the truth.

“When do I get to meet your dad and sister?” he asked her, smiling.

“You get to meet Dad this weekend, but Jules left for Seattle this morning, and no telling when she’ll return. She’s working on a new case.”

He lifted a brow. “A new case?”

“Yes, she’s a private investigator and owns her own company.”

“Is she any good?”

“The best. But then, I would say that because I’m biased.”

Jace didn’t say anything for a minute then said, “I want to marry you, Shana. Not just because I don’t want my child born out of wedlock, but because I love you, and I want you to have my name.”

Shana felt her heart expand with happiness. “You sure?”

“I haven’t been so sure about anything in my life. So, will you marry me?”

She threw her arms around his neck and held his gaze that was so full of love and a mirror of her own. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Emotions ripped through Jace. Since returning to Virginia, he felt as if he’d gained more than any person had a right to claim: a company that had always been his legacy; the kind of relationship with his brothers that he’d always wanted; a beautiful fiancée and a child on the way.

He couldn’t wait to tell his father, and Jace was determined that his son or daughter would get to know Sheppard Granger as a free man, and not a man behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. He, Caden and Dalton would move heaven and earth to make that happen.

He bent his head and captured Shana’s lips with his. This was only the beginning.