Grace Anne - By Kathi S. Barton Page 0,51

me, I swear.”

Trace sat in the chair near the bed and looked at his shoes. Michael knew his son well enough to know that he needed to process. He was a brilliant little boy, but he was more of a thinker than he was a fly by the seat of his ass sort of kid. He waited also, knowing that rushing him would only upset him to the point where he’d clam up all together.

“Grace will leave us.” Trace looked at him now. “She’ll think she’ll be doing us this great big favor, but she won’t. My heart will hurt if she isn’t here when we get back. If I stay…” he said as he got up to pace. “If I stay, then I can make sure she’s doesn’t leave us. She wouldn’t leave me if I’m here. I can…I’ll make sure to call you if anything happens too.”

Michael had been afraid of the same thing. He’d even gone so far as to ask Cain and the others to watch her to make sure that she didn’t leave. He loved her with all his heart and he was sure she loved them both too, but she would bolt at the first opportunity.

“Your grandmother will be disappointed. She’s hoping that you’ll help her not think about what Thomas has done and give her hugs.” It was a cheap trick he knew, but the thought of leaving Trace where he couldn’t watch him was scary. “I can’t watch you if you’re not with me.”

“I sort of already called Grandma. I told her that Grace loves us, but… I told her I didn’t want to lose her. I need her too much to not want to be with her.” Michael couldn’t help but be very proud of his son. “She told me that if you were okay with me staying here to protect the woman I love then she was going to be fine with it too.”

Trace flushed and Michael knew there was more. “What did she make you give her back? I know there was something. Mom doesn’t just let an opportunity like this pass her by without extracting some sort of payment. Dishes for a month? Or was it something like weeding her flower beds for the summer?”

“She said I had to hug her at the mall,” Trace said with venom in his voice. “I don’t like hugs. Why would she make me do something like that when she knows it’s going to embarrass me to death? What if one of my friends sees me doing it? I’ll never live it down, Dad.”

Michael laughed. It was the first really good laugh he’d had all day.

“Because she knows it will embarrass you. When you do it, make sure you try to pull it off like it’s no big deal. She won’t do that again.” Standing, he knelt before Trace and looked up at him. This was as serious as it got. “Thomas is accused of murder; I know you know that. But do you know what else he’s done?” Trace shook his head. “He’s also accused of murdering two men and hiding them in the basement of an apartment complex. The police might not have known he’d done it if somebody hadn’t called them. It’s going to get ugly, son, and people are going to talk about this for a long time. Thomas killed four people, four innocent people.”

“Did he do it? I know what the news lady is saying, but do you think he did it?”

Michael wasn’t positive, but he didn’t want to say it out loud yet. He didn’t want to admit just yet that he thought for sure Thomas had done it. He didn’t answer Trace, but stood to finish packing. “Stay with Grace. I know I don’t have to tell you that, but for my peace of mind, please don’t leave her side. The others, all of her family, is going to help you watch her, but she’s tricky.” Michael smiled when Trace snorted. “She is and you know it. Thomas is in the hospital right now, but there are others…other people trying to hurt her and they might try to get to her by hurting you. Don’t let them. All right?”

“Yeah. Aunt Sin said that she was going to give me a whistle. That I was to blow it in the sucker’s ear if someone tried to grab me. She’s sort of scary, huh?”

That was an understatement, Michael thought. The woman was nursing a bullet wound that