Grace Anne - By Kathi S. Barton Page 0,71
this nightmare to end.”
“Yes, I understand. But do you? Do you know that Grace is going to be my wife? I have no problem bringing her home, but you’re the one who is going to have to live with what you’re telling me to do here. Not just today, but for the rest of our lives.”
“I’ve made my peace. My mother is gone as far as I’m concerned. The woman inside there? She’s a monster and, what’s worse, she’s a sick monster.” Cain signed heavily. “She hated us all. I can see that now. She hated us so much she stole from us, lied to us, and murdered to get what she thought was hers. Yes, Michael, I can live with this. It’s all I’ve thought of since this started.”
Michael wasn’t sure what to say to him so he simply closed the connection. He handed it back to Sin and leaned his head back against the car. He looked around the mess that was here.
He could see several media vans parked just beyond the yellow tape some agency had put up. Beyond that there were several dozen cars and vehicles parked along the road all trying to see what was going on. Within shouting distance to him and Sin, there were several vans with letters embossed on the sides, men with the same lettering on flak jackets and vests. There was a tent set up with people milling around a large console and more phones than he’d ever remembered seeing in one of his offices. Michael looked over at Sin when she cleared her throat.
“When I had just joined the Army I met you. I doubt you’d remember. I think they had you pretty doped up on something at the time. You’d been injured, we’d been told, and we weren’t to ask you about it. Do you remember being at the base in Texas?”
He’d been hurt a great deal in the years he’d been in the Special Forces. Nothing to the extent that she’d been, but hurt all the same. Shamus had told him that his wife had also been a probable target of the women in the house and he was lucky to have her alive afterwards.
“I’d been held captive for several weeks. I’d been beaten and starved for the better part of that time and, when they weren’t doing that, they were trying to get information from me by other means. I just managed to get my ass out when I was mowed down by someone who couldn’t read Red Cross on the side of the chopper I was in.”
Sin grinned at him. “Yeah, seen that a time or two when I was out of country. Not a pretty thing to see one of those monsters go down like that.”
He waited for her to say whatever it was she had been leading up to, but she simply grinned again. When she did finally speak he was more confused than before.
“My husband is very smart, did you know that? I don’t tell him often enough, but he is.” She pulled out her gun, checked the magazine, and then the other clips she had in her belt. He did the same, hoping the two of them weren’t going to have a show down. He just wasn’t in the mood today. She started talking again as they each shoved their weapons in their holsters.
“Payton said that if she lives she’ll be institutionalized. My mother, not Gracie. Drugged up every day and then maybe someone will write an epic story about her life and times. People will copy her and she’ll be famous.” She grabbed his chin and brought his face to hers. “I want her dead, not famous.”
He nodded and stood when she did. He took the vest she handed him and slipped it on as she did the same. When he pulled his Glock out and fit it in his hand he was as ready as he was ever going to be.
“I go lead. You okay with that?”
She nodded.
“The boys aren’t going to be happy with us when we come out. You know that, right? They’ll be pissy about our messing with their show. Gonna take some fancy talking to keep us out of jail.”
“Nah,” she laughed. “You’re lead asshole, remember? I’m just making sure you don’t get dead in the process. You’re gonna have to talk yourself out of more than this one if this goes down the way it should.” She nodded to a very well-dressed man that