easy on him when they find him.”
Lucas nodded. “No. And I hate to say this, but he’s finally getting what he deserves. He’s been doing things to lead up to this his entire life.”
The rest of the ride was made in silence. Michael wanted his Grace back. He wanted to take her to the big bedroom they’d shared the night before he’d been called back and make love to her until neither of them could walk. He wanted children with her, lots of them so that Trace would be a big brother. As soon as they pulled into the drive of the mansion his son came running out of the house and hugged him tight.
“They found a dead man at the end of the drive. Aunt Alyssa said this place is becoming a battle ground.”
Michael picked him up and was glad that he didn’t protest.
“Aunt Sin said as soon as I’m old enough she’s going to teach me how to use a machine gun. She said that way I can protect us all when they get too old to do it themselves.”
Michael looked up at the woman in question and she waved. He was going to have to have a talk with the little woman before she had Trace as scary as she was. He nodded before he spoke to Trace. “You might want to take that up with Grace. She might have a few things to say about that too.” Trace scrambled down and walked with him to the house. “Have they heard anything?”
Michael had lost the connection with the call not long after they’d gotten in the limo. He had called Payton and he’d told him that they still had a bead on the phone and that he would call him as soon as there was anything different. The closer Michael got to the steps, the more worried he got. Something had happened and he was sure it wasn’t good news.
Shamus, Payton, and Sin took him into the large office. His parents were taken to another office by Alyssa and Cain. When his father started crying again and his mother too, he knew that Thomas was dead. He sat down hard in the chair and waited. He didn’t have to wait long.
“Thomas was found about ten minutes ago. Single bullet to the head and then rolled from a moving vehicle. He was dead before anything happened to him,” Sin said in way of starting out. “He was rolled into traffic off of Seventy. Several other vehicles hit him before traffic stopped. They only knew it was him because Verrie Waite called the police station and told them she’d done it and that if they wanted Grace not to suffer the same they were to back the fuck up.”
“Where are they now? I’m assuming that we didn’t, right?” At Sin’s grin, he knew that they hadn’t. “I’m not sure I like that look. What the hell have you done?”
“She fucking knows everyone. And if she doesn’t, then Alyssa does,” Shamus said with a grin. He turned a large whiteboard from the books on the shelves lining the walls and pointed to it. “There are four non marked cars following the limo. Hard to hide one of those suckers. The dead man here was one of drivers, so we called them. They have GPS in all their cars so we have a firsthand look at where they’re going.”
He knew there was more, so he waited.
“We have a van at every exit between here and wherever. They take turns going to the next exit with a police escort on the back roads. By the time she passes one of them, there are two more racing to the next exit waiting.” Shamus handed him a thick file. “This is how we’re tracking her.”
There were IP, or Internet protocol, addresses for several different devices. They had a complete picture of every place the limo stopped, hesitated, and… Michael looked up. “You think it’s necessary to know when she rolls down her window? I mean, this is all good shit, but seriously, we know what radio station she’s listening to for Christ’s sake.”
“It’s not to know what she’s listening to, it’s to hear what is being said. We have a direct line into the thing and can control most of the electronics. We could even shut the sucker off is we wanted.” Sin looked at the two men before she continued. “She’s still alive. Verrie, or whoever she is, keeps talking to her and