Grace Anne - By Kathi S. Barton Page 0,63

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 fuck 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 fuck her when you brought her here. What the fuck happened?” Thomas was here as well.

“Shhhh, you fucking moron. I’m still looking for her. And when I find her