also to care about him.
Running a hand down his face, he could almost see his sister laughing at him right now. She’d tell him to stop being a dick and to just be a nice guy for a change.
“Sir, this was left at the gates,” his chief guard, Doyle, said.
In his hands was a box.
Getting to his feet, he opened the box and wasn’t surprised to see the head of the man who’d impregnated his sister. With his hands on his hips, he nodded.
“Is there a note?”
Doyle handed him a slip of paper. He flicked it open and read the script. Soon. That was all it said.
“Dispose of it.”
Turning back to the screens that overlooked the garden, he grabbed the radio and told the guard to bring them in.
He hadn’t been cautious enough for his sister, but he wasn’t going to risk Grace and James. The guard approached them, and he watched as James begged, stomping his foot. So much like his sister, but whatever Grace said to him clearly appeased him.
Shaking his head, he left the surveillance office and went to his own. The first note had come a month ago, warning him that something bad would happen to his sister. He’d lived with death threats all of his life. There was a time he’d have dealt with him swiftly, killing everyone.
This time, he’d fucked up by ignoring it.
His sister had been protected, until she hadn’t been.
At his sister’s request, he had James over to babysit so she could go out on a date. Only, he’d been so focused on James, he’d missed the first call. By the sixth, he’d been warned she never made it to her date, and when he went to her apartment, she’d been on the floor, gasping for breath with multiple stab wounds to her chest.
She didn’t know who her attacker was, but she’d been so scared. He’d held her as she took her last breaths, telling him that she didn’t want to die. She spoke of James, and finally, she’d begged him to… He didn’t know. She’d died in his arms before she could get the words out.
For an hour, he’d held her body.
Her death had been violent, but those last few moments, he’d been there for her, not that it had been any consolation. It hadn’t. She’d still died and he’d fucked up.
He picked up his cell phone and got through to his team.
“I’ve got another one,” he said and hung up. His team would know what he meant and within ten minutes, someone would be here to take this note and to investigate it.
The man who’d impregnated his sister had been beheaded. He would know that bastard on sight. His name was Frank and he’d somehow wooed his sister. They’d never married, but he’d been the one to get her pregnant and leave her to pick up the pieces. His sister had begged him not to hurt him. That she wanted to have this baby so much.
James was a true gift. So kind, and now that he had to take care of him, he’d have no choice but to turn that kindness into cruelty. He had way too many enemies.
When the paperwork was taken from his office, he made his way around the house, trying to find Grace and James.
The last couple of weeks, he’d been dealing with his own personal demons, and he hadn’t been able to spend enough time with them.
After looking in the games room, the library, James’s bedroom, even Grace’s, he went to the swimming pool and gym. Nothing.
Finally, he conceded and called the surveillance room. He didn’t know why he didn’t think of it first. Grace would take James to the kitchen.
Making his way to the room, he stopped in the doorway.
Grace’s long brown hair was pinned up on top of her hair, and she had this smile on her lips that twisted his gut. It was so sweet as she tilted her head back and laughed at whatever James had said. She released a chuckle, kissing his cheek.
They were both in aprons, and it looked like they were making cookies.
Flour covered her cheek, and he wanted to go in and wipe it off. For a few minutes, he allowed himself the pleasure of watching them.
A family.
Grace and James looked like a family. His sister would have loved her. She’d been sweet and kind, but she’d also known how to stand up for herself. She could curse like the rest of them.
“What would you like to