Grace Anne

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 f*ck 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 f*cking 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 f*cking 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 f*ck 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 f*ck 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…f*ck, when I think of all the shit she could know, it makes me want to find her and kill her right f*cking 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 f*ck else would you have named them such ridiculous names? And for as much as I want to f*ck that son of yours, there ain’t no way I’m going to go to some institution for it. F*ck 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 f*cking 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 f*cking 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 f*cking tote her f*cking 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.”

Like she cared, but nodded all the same. Verrie hated kids. They were messy, loud, and couldn’t have a single function that she could think of that made them worth nine months of being a cow and then years of putting up with their shit. Then to have them turn on you…well, that shit was going to be laid to rest right now. They were pulling off the main road when she thought of how much fun she was going to have.

~~~

Grace was exhausted. After talking with her family for over three hours and then the tense fight she’d had with Trace she just wanted to close her eyes and sleep for several days. The frantic call from her employees made her grind her teeth. The nerve of the man moving her offices into his building and not telling her. They were going to have a nice long…conversation when he got back.

Margo had called to say that her office wasn’t set up and the redecorators weren’t listening to her. They were hanging the pictures in the wrong order and the mural she’d made wasn’t among the things they’d packed up.

“What decorator and what office? Take a deep breath and tell me what’s going on.” Grace had closed the door to Cain’s office to speak to her in private. “What do you mean my mural isn’t among the packed things? Who is packing things and why?”

“Michael came by with some guy the other day. He said that we were moving to another building and he said you knew.”

She knew she was moving, but thought it was to a storage shed, not to some place that had an office.

“The place is awesome, by the way. We even have off street parking and there’s a cafeteria on the second floor that—”

“Focus, Margo. What is going on? Why are our things being put away in a building?” Grace’s head hurt even after an hour of talking to her. “Tell me where we’re moved to.”

An hour later, she still didn’t have a clue where her mural was because Margo had gone back to the warehouse to look for it. It had been sandblasted off the walls, she’d said. As was, she went on to tell her, most of the floors on the main level. The men had gotten to work on the building the moment the last piece of her business had been moved out.

Grace pulled out the sheet of paper of things she was going to talk to Michael about and the first was doing things without her being aware of them. She might have had some say in the move if for no other reason than to tell him she appreciated it. The limo driving over a particularly hard bump had her bumping her head on the window she was next to. Grace looked out the window and her skin dampened with terror.

They were no longer on the highway on their way to the airport. She had no idea where they were, but she was now sure that something was wrong. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Michael’s number when the window between her and the driver slid down and a gun appeared.

“Hello, Grace. I’m Verrie, and you and I are going to have a bit of a talk and then I’m going to kill you.”

Grace slid her cell phone to the seat as soon as the window whined as it rolled down. She didn’t even look to see if anyone answered, but hoped that someone had. “I know who you are. You and the others are about to get your asses handed to you.” Verrie waved the gun and Grace moved to the middle of the seat as indicated before continuing. “My brother is looking for you right now with a bunch of agents and cops. You won’t get away—”

“Shut the f*ck up,” Verrie snapped. “You have no idea what you’ve done. And even if they did know about where we were you’re still gonna be dead. And at the lovely funeral, your poor mother won’t be able to attend because she’ll be so heartbroken that she’ll be in the hospital when the entire entourage is killed in a massive explosion. All of you will be dead and we’ll have it all as sole survivors.”

Grace threw back her head and laughed. “You think it’s going to be that easy to kill me? Think again, bitch. I’m armed too.” The gun slide out of her purse and was in her hand in seconds. She was glad to see the shocked look on her face. “Now put down the gun, Verrie, before I have to kill the lot of you. Not that anyone will miss you all, but I really would like for you to stand trial.”

The gun went off, narrowly missing Grace. She felt the wind shear her cheek as it whizzed by. Then, for only a second, Verrie froze. That was when Grace knew she was looking at someone else.

“Run,” the voice said. “Hurry, run.”

Grace knew who it was before she moved to the door to go. Guinnie was helping her escape. Grace was glad; she really wasn’t sure she could have killed the woman who was basically her mother, but she would if she had to. She was out of the car and running for her life when she felt the first bullet tear through her arm. The laughter coming from behind her made the hair on her neck rise, and her to stumble from terror. She’d forgotten her phone too.

Crawling to the fallen tree, she could hear someone running up behind her quickly. She wasn’t sure she could make it, but when the person went by her she felt she might be safe long enough to catch her breath and to look at her arm. It was throbbing like a toothache and she wanted to scream every time she touched it.

It wasn’t until she was sure she wasn’t going to bleed to death that she started to sit up. She was glad she’d worn her dark pants and jacket, because the moon was nearly nonexistent and she didn’t want to die out here in the middle of nowhere. She could make out the shiny car from the stars and decided that if she could get to her phone she might be able to call for help. Her gun had dropped when she’d gotten shot and even if she had a way to find it she was right-handed and had never been able to make her left shoot worth a damn. Closing her eyes, she decided that if she lived through this, she was going to make Sin teach her how to shoot the sucker with her toes if she thought she could learn it. The slight noise to her left had her opening her eyes and straining hard to see who was there.

Verrie walked by her without a sound. Grace might have been impressed if she wasn’t so terrified. The woman didn’t make a single sound that would have let her know who was coming. Then another voice, this one chilling, made her nearly whimper.

“Did you find her yet? You said I could f*ck her when you brought her here. What the f*ck happened?” Thomas was here as well.

“Shhhh, you f*cking moron. I’m still looking for her. And when I find her I’m going to f*cking empty my clip in her. F*cking bitch was a lot faster than I thought she’d be.”

She didn’t know, was Grace’s first thought. She either didn’t know about Guinnie at all or just that she’d helped Grace escape. She thought it highly unlikely that she didn’t know about Guinnie when Grace knew about them, but she was glad for the younger girl’s help.