Kade (NSC Industries) (12 page)

I nodded firmly and saluted her, “Promise, Boss.”

She smiled and shook her head, “You’re learning.”

***

“You are joking, it’s way too scrawny” I grumbled as
Grace stood beside me looking lovingly at an undernourished and scraggy fir
tree.

“Ssshhh, you’ll hurt his feelings”

I stared at her with my tongue in my cheek to hold back
my retort but I softened when she reached out and took a few leaves in-between
her fingers and rubbed lightly. She smiled, more to herself than to Mona and me
as she tipped her head and nodded, “Perfect, he will make an excellent one.”

Mona smiled also and Grace turned to her with a huge
grin. “He taught you well, pet.”

“Who did?” I asked as I looked up to the sky when a few
flakes of snow fluttered to the ground.

“My dad,” Grace said with a smile. “If you rub the
needles and they are still a little waxy and don’t fall off in your hand, then
he will be a good one.”

“Ahh,” I returned her smile as she granted me with one of
her cheery grins. Her eyes were sad though and something inside me shifted with
the melancholy she exposed. “How old were you when he died?”

She sighed and stared into the distance, “Fourteen.”

“So Marcus was…?”

“Five… just five.”

I watched a frown develop on her face as her eyes
narrowed and I wondered if she was fourteen again in her mind.

“And Will?” I pressed as I tried to prise any information
I could from her but I frowned when she seemed oblivious to my last question
and her head rotated a touch as though she was listening for something. Her whole
body locked down, her feet shuffling apart marginally as a faint current of electricity
crackled from her and I watched in trepidation, noticing the tiny hairs on the
back of her hand stand to attention as she moved it very slowly behind her and
settled it on the gun that was tucked in the back of her jeans.

“I want you both to very slowly crouch down and make your
way to the entrance. You stay together, you go into the site office and you wait
there for me.” There was a no nonsense tone to her voice but she remained
completely focused on something her eyes had located.

“I’m not leaving you.” Mona whispered as she started to
bend her legs and lower herself to the ground.

“Do it!” Grace hissed as she drew her gun and held it to
her lap with both hands. “Get down Kade!” she said slowly without moving her
head or her lips.

“Beaumont, I really don’t…”

The poor scrawny tree that Grace had fell in love with
exploded into tiny pieces as a gunshot tore through the air and sent the birds
into a wild frenzy, scattering them noisily across the skies and dragging along
others in their terror. “GO!” She screamed before she moved fluidly and quickly
into the wooded area in front of us, stealthily shifting from tree to tree as
she used them as shields.

I grabbed Mona’s hand and pulled her towards the office
as Grace had told us but she stumbled when the quiet was suddenly disrupted by
a volley of piercing gunfire.

“GRACE!” Mona screamed but I continued to pull her,
bringing her in front of me protectively as I pushed us both closer to the
office. More shots sounded and I swallowed the bile as I tried to take a glance
behind me, frantically searching the area for Grace but I tripped over a tree
root and hissed as my ankle twisted painfully.

“Fuck!” I grabbed hold of it, studying it with a squint
as I tried to determine whether it was broken. “Damn.”

I looked up for Mona. My lungs tightened, my blood froze
and my gut constricted in fear as I came face to face with the muzzle of a gun.

I couldn’t voice the words that were scurrying around my
head and I grimaced when all that came out was a whimper.

“Get up and turn around.”

My mouth opened and closed but all I could manage was
another bleat and a shrug. “Do it!” I nodded briskly as I fumbled around on my
hands and knees and managed to push myself upright, stumbling as I did so when
my ankle screamed with the pressure. “Turn around.”

I turned slowly, shuffling on one foot as I fought to
ease the load on my ankle. The whole area had gone silent and I wondered if it
was God’s final wave of peace before I was welcomed into the dark stormy depths
of hell.

“I really don’t like shooting people in the back but with
you, I’m afraid it’s going to be necessary.”

“Why?” I managed to ask weakly as I stalled for time,
making a last ditch attempt to drag out another breath before my lungs became
redundant.

“You really are quite stupid aren’t you!”

I nodded as I closed my eyes and waited for the end.
Grace’s smile eased my nerves as her beautiful face swan behind my eyes. God,
she really was quite exquisite and I shivered at the thought of never seeing
her again.

“Any last words?”

“No” I answered as a calm aura enveloped me. There really
wasn’t anyone or anything in my life that required my last words and I pulled
in a heavy breath when I heard a gunshot shatter my eardrums.

I hadn’t been on the receiving end of the bullet and I
spun round to see what was happening. I gasped as Mona fell to her knees and
grabbed at the back of her knee. She wasn’t giving up though as she raised her
pistol to me once more, her eyes fixed on mine with determination as I looked
straight down the barrel of her gun.

Her eyes widened and blood trickled from her open mouth
before she fell forwards and exposed a hole in the back of her head, her white
hair quickly turning red as blood seeped everywhere.

A scream tore through the silence and I closed my eyes
sadly as running footsteps grew nearer.

“No, no, no, no….” Grace sobbed as she skidded to her
knees and pulled Mona onto her lap and palmed her pale face lovingly. “NO!”

She suddenly dropped Mona to the ground and shot upright,
her gun pointed to the Asian guy who had killed her nanny as her face distorted
with fury.

“Beaumont, put it down” he told her calmly but I watched
with anguish as her shoulders heaved and her hands shook.

“You killed her, Jamal. What the fuck do you expect, a
pat on the back?” Her voice was steely quiet but there was no mistaking the
vehemence in it. “YOU FUCKING KILLED HER!” She screamed as she took a step
closer to him.

He lifted his hands steadily, his palms open and held out
gently to soothe her. “Yes, I did.”

Grace’s whole body was trembling now and I inched forward
ready but she growled loudly, her anger shivering like a mist around the three
of us. “If you want to live Kade, you stay the fuck where you are.”

I halted but I remained ready and alert. “Why?” she
stuttered to Jamal but he tipped his head sadly as he secured her gaze. I knew
he was one of Grace’s colleagues from the expertise and intelligence he held
her with, his body held firm and showing no amount of fear whilst he comforted
her with his eyes.

“You know why, Grace. You even suspected it.”

“No!” she denied furiously as her head shook briskly.

“Yes, you did,” he reiterated slowly. “Liam found her
connection to Baxter, Beaumont. She’s been his bloody right hand woman for
years. Now put your gun down and let me hold that damn frigid body of yours
while you give in.”

“No!” It was choked and I stepped forward to catch her
when her legs finally gave way and she crumbled to the floor.

“Get off me!” she screamed as her whole body gave in and
she punched me repeatedly, turning into me at the same time as she begged me to
hold her.

“Let it out, sweetheart” I whispered in her ear as her
distraught sobs tore through me and her arms clung to me tightly, her hands
frantically fisting tightly to the back of my coat. The intensity and grief she
cried with was so overpowering, I could feel each of her tears pierce my soul
with their acidity, burning into me and scarring me deeply. The heartache in
her was completely engulfing and every single one of her devastated whimpers
touched something inside me, ripping me apart slowly from the inside out but I
held on, held onto her for dear life as I tried to take it from her and appease
the despair inside her.

Jamal gave me a small nod as he turned and pulled his
phone from his pocket and my eyes dropped to Mona. What the hell was happening
here? What the hell
had
happened here?

It was all crazy and a shiver racked through me. Who
we’re we dealing with if he could make an old woman turn on the only family
she’d had for the last thirty odd years?

“You’re lying!”

Jamal sighed angrily and slammed the file on the desk in
front of me. “God damn it, Grace. Why the fuck would we all lie?”

“I don’t know, but I know you’re lying.”

He shook his head in frustration, his hand pushing back
his floppy hair from his face with his annoyance and held out his phone. “Fine,
ring Liam then.”

I chewed desperately on my lip as the last six hours
dragged at my spirit and I repeatedly swallowed back the vomit that wanted to
be liberated. “But… it just doesn’t make any sense. Are you positive?”

He tipped his head as he lifted a brow at me, “You really
think Liam would send me up here, with actual evidence in the file, if he
wasn’t sure? Even you know him better than that Grace.”

I ran my tongue across my teeth and shook my head in
disbelief again. None of this made sense and I pinched the bridge of my nose to
stimulate my brain. “But….” I couldn’t seem to find the right questions to ask
or the right words to voice as my brain continued to frazzle with all the
information and my heart ached for Mona.

Why would she do that? Why would she try and kill Kade?
She didn’t even know him, and there was no way she would ever hurt me. I was
like a daughter to her.

“You want me to stay?” Jamal asked, pulling me from my
sombre thoughts as he crouched before me and took my hand.

I looked at him and smiled gently as I shook my head,
“No, get back to Samira. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

I shook my head again and rubbed my hands over my face to
wake me from the weariness that was threatening to overtake me. He patted my
knee before he stood up but he paused at the door and turned back to me, “You
know what Liam said, Grace. Heed it, please. You are too involved in this.
Concentrate on Hamilton’s protection and leave Will to Liam.”

I nodded, “Yeah.”

He smiled and winked before he pulled the door shut.

I stared at it for a while before a cruel smirk lifted my
lips. “Not a fucking chance!” I whispered as I flicked on the computer and
logged into the bureau’s homepage, entering Liam’s master password, the one he
didn’t know I was aware of. I knew it would alert him if I was logged in for
more than seven minutes but right then, I didn’t give a camel’s left shitty toe
and I drew in a breath when the customary desktop to my sectional division popped
up.

Working quickly, I manoeuvred through all the separate
procedures and private log in screens until I was in Liam’s personal database
and then retrieved all his recent operations. Will’s name jumped out from one of
the files and I inserted the USB into the drive and started to download, my
eyes shifting to the small clock in the corner of the monitor as my eyes
carefully watched the time, my nerves hurrying the damn thing on.

Four minutes remaining.

 “Come on!” I muttered as the door opened and Kade stood
watching me with narrow eyes and his arms crossed across his chest

“What the fuck is going on, Grace? You’ve been in here
all day and now Jamal’s buggered off and told me not to leave your side.”

“Nothing!” I snapped as I flicked another glance.

Two minutes remaining.

He stalked over to me, his lean fluid body leaning around
the desk to peer at the monitor but I stood in front of it, blocking his view
as he scowled at me.

“Tell me.”

“No, this doesn’t concern you, back off.”

“No!” he said stubbornly as he tried to move my body so
he could see what I was doing.

I drew my gun on him and he stilled immediately, “What
the hell?” His eyes were wide and I scoffed at the small amount of fear in
them.

“Do – not – fuck – with – me, Kade!”

“Okay, let’s just calm down, sweetheart. I’m just
concerned, that’s all. I know whatever you are doing on that PC is going to get
you into a shit load of crap and I’m worried about you.”

“Whatever I am doing on that PC is going to feed me the
crap I need to take out…” I grit my teeth and stared at his confused expression.
“To finish what I need finishing.”

His tongue swept out to wet his dry lips but his eyes
never left my gun. “What the hell is wrong with people today? That’s twice I’ve
been looking at one of those.” He reached out and took it from me and placed it
on the desk when I lowered my eyes to the PC, “But at least I know you won’t
actually shoot me.”

“Fuck!”
I hissed when the timer showed minus four
minutes.

Think! Think, Grace.

My eyes landed on the huge portrait my father had done of
the family and I snapped my eyes to Kade. “Go pack a bag. Hurry.”

His face wrinkled in puzzlement but I ignored him and
lifted the painting off the wall, “Move Kade, now. We need to get out of here!”

“Why?”

God, this man was bloody hard work but I held him with a
stern glare until he sighed and relented, giving me a disappointed shake of his
head, “Fine.”

He shuffled from the room and I wondered if a kick up the
arse would move him any faster or maybe a bullet in the back of his heel.

I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep lungful of oxygen
to calm my nerves as I spun the combination lock, my heart leaping at each
satisfactory click the dial made. It had been seventeen years since I had accessed
it and I prayed to God that everything was right where my dad had left it for
me.