Grace Anne - By Kathi S. Barton Page 0,74

staying at the house with her family then—”

“Then you’d be hurt too. Don’t think like that. You did what needed to be done. That woman would have had you both and I would have been insane without knowing. Well, insaner anyway. I need you as much as I do Grace, son.”

They sat for another two hours before they got to see Grace. Cain had told them that she was in recovery and would be for a bit. She came through surgery like a trooper and they didn’t foresee any problems with her injuries. Trace laid down on the couch and fell asleep. He’d had a really long day.

Chapter 22

Michael tried to get comfortable in the chair, but his ribs hurt and his arm was aching again. He looked longingly at the bed Grace was sleeping in. What he wouldn’t give to crawl in it beside her and sleep for the next hundred years. Smiling, he wondered if that would be long enough.

“Come over here,” she whispered to him. “I want to feel you close to me. If you don’t hog all the covers I think we can just manage it.”

“I was thinking the same thing. I want to just stretch out beside you for a little while.” He glanced over at his mother on the fold-out couch. “She wouldn’t leave. She said she needed to be here in case you needed her.”

“I need you both. Please? Just until they make you leave.”

He moved toward the bed, toeing off his shoes.

They needed to talk, he knew that. Things had happened in that house and the police, along with several agencies, had been trying to get him to come to their respective offices for the last few hours. He’d gone to Patterson to see if he could get them to back off and he’d not heard a single word from them since. He pulled the covers back and gently laid beside her. She turned around and laid her head on his chest, careful of his cast.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her after a minute or two. “The doctor said you’d be okay to go home in a few days. But you’ll have to take it easy. And stay off your leg for a bit.” He’d told him a great deal more, but he didn’t want to share that with her right now. He was happy she was alive.

He felt her laugh. “Cain came in and told me what the doctor said. You can’t give me half-truths when I have a doctor at my beck and call.”

“Your brother and I are going to have to lay down some ground rules where you’re concerned,” he told her with a pouty tone. “You lost a great deal of blood, but they gave you some to replace it. He said that the bullet wound in your leg is going to be your biggest concern. He said that there is some deep muscle damage and that you’ll need physical therapy for a long time. By the way, Sin said she’d run with you in the mornings if you want.”

She nodded before speaking. “She said you and her have been to the range and that she outshot you nearly every time.”

“She and I shot three clips and she hit the target once more than me,” he huffed. “You know that she has a gun on her all the time? I’m betting that she’s in her daughter’s room right now reading her the Three Little Pigs with a Glock strapped to her ankle. She is one scary woman.”

She laughed like he hoped she would. Then she was quiet for so long he thought she’d fallen asleep. When she started talking he didn’t interrupt her, but let her say whatever she wanted.

“They wanted me dead at first. They said that as soon as I was dead my ‘mother’ would have a nervous breakdown and that she’d be unable to attend my funeral. There was going to be a bomb in the casket with me and it was going to take everyone out.” He felt a tear hit his chest. “They were going to kill the children as well so that they could inherit all of the money.”

Michael had figured it had to do with the money. He’d been told by all of them that Roscoe had gone so far as to kidnap one of his own daughters and hold her at gun point to get what he wanted. It seemed that Guinevere had wanted the same thing.

“Guinnie was trying