Grace Anne - By Kathi S. Barton Page 0,26

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