Grace Anne (18 page)

“There you are,” he said as he
found the address. Taking off the top sheet he stuffed it in his pocket and,
after tossing the clipboard back on the seat, he walked away quickly. Like he
was concerned about where her shit was. As far as he was concerned she was
going to be a widow, long before she was associated with his family for very
long.

~~~

“The doctor said I’m going to be
fine. As soon as he clears me I’m coming back. My parents are coming with me
and we’ll all sit down and talk about this mess.”

Grace wiped at the tears. “I’m so
sorry he hurt you. I wish I could be there for you.” She looked over at Trace
as he sat staring at her from the other chair. “Trace said you’d be all right.
He seems to think you have a hard noodle.”

“I do. Tell him I’m fine. He
worries as much as my mother. I’m going to be home by nightfall. Then I want to
find you in that big house and make love to you several times.”

She grinned at the phone as he
continued.

“At least you’ll know that I will
never complain about a headache when you want to jump my bones someday.”

She tried not to think about
making love with him whenever she wanted. He simply made her melt like she was
an ice cube on the sidewalk in mid-July. Glancing over at Trace she decided to change
the subject. “I’ve set up a meeting with my family. I…if you’re not here I’m
going to start without you. It’s time they knew everything.” Grace knew that
she should have told them any number of times she’d been home over the years,
but just couldn’t bring herself to do it. “Cain is worried I’m going to tell
them I’m pregnant. I assured him that I’m not.”

“Do you want to be? Pregnant, I
mean. I know we haven’t really talked much, but I’d like to have a child or
several with you. The thought of you big with my baby makes me smile like a
sap.”

Grace glanced at Trace before she
answered. “We’ll all need to talk about that, including Trace. If we’re going
to be a family then we’ll need to make those decisions as one too.” She lowered
her voice enough so that only Michael could hear. “He thinks I’m going to send
him away when you and I have a child. I couldn’t do that to any of us.”

“It happened to his buddy,” he
told her just as quietly. “We’ll talk more when I get there. The doctor is here
now. I’ll call you from the airport. I have a car already here, ready to get me
there.”

After telling her he loved her and
she him, they hung up. Trace looked at her with a smile. She was beginning to
think that was all he did and it made her feel good.

“He’s leaving the hospital soon.
He’ll call from the airport. He should be here very soon.” She laughed when he
nodded. “What is it? Are you so bored with being my protector that you have
nothing to say to your dad coming home?”

“No. I was thinking about what you
said about talking to your family. Are you scared?” he asked her. “I would be.
I’d be really scared they’d be mad at me.”

“I am. A little anyway. They’re
not going to be very happy with me for not telling them. But I’ve…” Grace took
a deep breath. “Trace, if you ever need me, ever to just talk or anything, I
want you to know that I’m here.”

He got up and came to her. “I know
that. And Grace, why don’t you and I go tell them together? I’ll have your back
and if they give you any crap, I’ll…I’ll tell my grandma and she’ll kick their
butts for them.”

Grace laughed and pulled him to
her lap. She was so in love with this little guy that she ached from it. She
kissed his forehead and laughed again at his groan. Watching him become a man
was going to be a blast.

They entered the room that had
been set up to accommodate them all with snacks a few minutes later. Connor had
wanted to take Trace to his playroom, but he said he wanted to stay with her. She
assured him she’d be fine. After a few more tugs on his arm Trace went with her
nephew and closed the door behind him.

“Nothing you have to tell us is as
bad as you look like it might be,” Cain told her as he sat down. “We all love
you very much and whatever it is, we’ll work it out. I swear.”

Grace nodded. “I know that, but…I
guess I should start at the beginning. And before you interrupt me after I
start, I know that I should have…I know that I should have told you before. Before
all of this started happening, before I left home, and long before…” She took a
deep breath. “Mother has split personalities. Several, as a matter of fact. I’ve
been in cont—”

“Wait. You can’t just jump in like
that and expect us not to have questions.” Quinn looked around the room as she
continued. “We all know she’s a little off, but split personalities? The next
thing you’re going to say is that she is the one who has been killing all the
people surrounding us and has been the one who tried to have us kidnapped.”

“She is,” Payton said quietly. “We
didn’t know about the personality disorder, but the rest, we figured it out a
few days ago. She’s also the one who has been stealing the money from Alyssa
and Cain’s account.”

Quinn got up and jerked away from
Drew when he tried to pull her back. “No. She can’t have killed anyone. You’re
wrong. If she is the one who… Oh my God, are you saying that she is the one who
shot Payton, the one who tried to… No, I won’t believe it. A mother just wouldn’t
do those things. Not to her own child.”

“You knew,” Sin said as she
watched Quinn. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew what she was too and you didn’t
say anything thing either.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” Quinn said as she began pacing the room. “You’re all wrong. It was just
a fluke of the lighting that’s all. I didn’t see anything.”

“I saw her too,” Jazzie said
suddenly. “The day I was kidnapped from the restaurant. I remember thinking it
was her, but I…she was different. More…aggressive, I guess. I remember thinking
that she was younger looking and more put together too.”

“That would have been Ginny. Their
names are Ginny, Guinnie, Verrie, and of course, Mother. Ginny is the thinker.
She’s also the most organized. Verrie is violent. She is the one who murders,
and Guinnie is…she’s a child. I would say if she hasn’t grown up over the years,
she’s about ten or so.” Grace started to reach for a glass of tea and noticed
her hands were shaking so she dropped them back in her lap. “I spoke to Guinnie
more than the others. She’s the one who made me understand what was happening.”

“Maybe you should start from the
beginning. Start with the first time you talked to…did you say her name was
Guinnie?” Shamus grinned. “Their names, they’re all just variations on
Guinevere’s, aren’t they?”

Grace shuddered. Yes, she knew
that because Guinnie had told her that they were all a part of the whole so
they had to share the one name. She looked up at her brother-in-law and began. “I
was six and father had just beaten me with an orange race track thing that boys
race their cars on. Mother was in the kitchen and…”

She talked until Michael called
and said that he’d landed at the Columbus Airport.

Chapter 18

Verrie waited until the gates
closed before she shot the driver of the limo. He was useless now anyway, so
she simply opened the door to the limo on the way up to the main house and
rolled him out. He was just one less person she had to deal with in a long line
of fuck ups. Starting the limo again, she smiled at her good fortune.

She’d been trying to figure out
how to get to the house and where they all were since yesterday. Cain and the
money-grubbing whore had the place locked down like they had all of Fort Knox
in there instead of a bunch of brats and her target. Time to fucking end this
shit. She slowed as she approached the house and sneered at what Ginny thought
of as the most beautiful house she’d ever seen.

The fucking others were starting
to get on her nerves too. Especially Guinnie. That kid was the first order of
business when this was over. She and the others had been pandering to her
childlike stupidity since day one and it was time for her to grow up or shut
the fuck up.

Verrie frowned when she thought
about the things she’d found out yesterday. The simple fact that Guinnie had
been telling on them to the girl, Grace, for all these years was bad enough,
but her knowing that she was lying about the host scared her just a little. How
the fuck did she know?

And how did she get to talk to the
children when they hadn’t been aware? Verrie had asked the other two and, not
only did they not know, but they’d been surprised that anyone other than them
knew about the others. Grace knowing made them have to step up their game and
end her. Grace wasn’t just a means to the money and other things they would get
when they were all dead, but she was a liability too.

But, now, she was going to finish
this. In fact, it had been with Ginny and Guinevere’s blessing to kill Grace
first. She smiled when she thought of the conversation she’d had with them
yesterday, marveling that they could as easily block out Guinnie as she’d been
doing to them for all these years. Verrie stopped the limo that was to take
Grace to the airport to pick up the bastard and thought about it.

“She knows how much, I wonder? I
mean, does she know everything or just…fuck, when I think of all the shit she
could know, it makes me want to find her and kill her right fucking now.” Verrie
had been pacing in the filthy apartment they’d found in an abandoned complex. “She
could know nothing, but she could know everything.”

Verrie had a long list of things
that Grace could know. None of them very good. In fact, most of them would get
her the chair or worse. She couldn’t stand the thought of being locked away for
the rest of her life. They’d drug them all up and she didn’t want to think
about not being able to have sex the way she’d grown to love.

“Any one of us could get into
trouble if she knew only half of what we’ve done. Even you, Guinevere. Think of
all the shit you’ve done to your precious little brats.” Ginny laughed when
Guinevere huffed. “Oh you know that you hate them. Why the fuck else would you
have named them such ridiculous names? And for as much as I want to fuck that
son of yours, there ain’t no way I’m going to go to some institution for it. Fuck
that shit.”

Guinevere huffed again. “I never
wanted them in the first place. My Roscoe told me that I had to get in the
family way and when they were born, they’d take care of us in our golden years.
Now look. He’s dead and I can’t get my only son to provide for me. It’s all
that money-grubbing whore’s fault; every single thing that has gone wrong can
be traced back to her and her ways. I think we should just kill her and get it
over with. No more fucking around with those girls. They’re pretty useless
anyway.”

Verrie agreed, but she didn’t say
anything. She was trying to make sure that Guinnie didn’t move in on their
conversation. She didn’t feel her there and every time she’d asked the other
two, they hadn’t either, but Verrie was sure the fucking shit had been
listening. And now they had a plan. Take Grace out and, once she was out, get
the rest of them at her funeral. They even knew someone who could make a bomb
big enough to take out everyone at the burial.
Bang!
No more kids, no
more grandkiddies and, best of all, no more issues.

She settled back to wait. Verrie had
heard the guy on the intercom tell her, who he thought was the driver, that the
miss would be out directly, to wait for her to come out.
Sure
, Verrie
thought,
and I’ll fucking tote her fucking ass out of here too.
She
looked down at the gun and knife on the seat.
Yeah, I’m going to enjoy this.

The kid coming out was a surprise.
Verrie had never seen this one before and realized he was probably the man’s
brat. Michael Cunningham, she thought his name was, and grinned when she
thought about the two for one she was getting. Then he simply hugged Grace and
turned and went back into the house. She closed up the window between the seats
and started the car again as soon as the door closed. They were pulling out of
the long drive when Verrie’s phone went off. She simply slid the thing to go
straight to voicemail.

Traffic was light this time of the
evening she realized. Verrie knew from the conversation she’d had with the
driver that they were going to the airport and that they were picking up some
people from a private airstrip. Money again, and Verrie knew that if she had
the time she’d take whoever got off the plane, cut them to pieces, and spread
them all over the front lawn. But she couldn’t, not yet. The plan had to be
followed or it would be bad for them all. But getting into the gated area was
where they’d fallen short on ideas. Then she’d happened upon a solution by
trying to hire a limo to take her to the house.

She’d found the driver at the Ride
in Style limo service. In fact, she’d met him once or twice before when some
event had the family using the same service for events. She’d tried to remember
his name when she’d walked up to him earlier and had it not been for his name
badge, she wouldn’t have had a clue. But Bob had been very happy to see her and
more than happy to give her a ride to the “big house” when her own car had
broken down.

“Can’t have the boss’s mom walking
back to the ‘big house’ now, can we? You just hop your little self inside of
that cool ride and I’ll take you to the front door.” She wanted to throw up at
his flirty ways, but simply smiled and got into the front. They were on their
way when he told her he was to pick up Grace and take her to the airport to get
her man. “They seem like a nice couple. Took them both to the house with his
little boy when they landed yesterday. Real polite kid. Didn’t get stuff all
over the seats like some of those rich people’s brats do when they ride. Nope,
sat there talking to his daddy and Miss Grace like a real good boy.”