The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (243 page)

He stared at me for a while before silently inclining and cupping my cheek with his palm, the slight roughness to his skin scuffing my own. “Do you know how much I wanna make you feel that free again? How much I want to watch the total peace consume you, take you and absolve all your hurt and pain. When I told you that your face tells a story, well last night, I have never in my life seen anything more beautiful than how you looked. You were perfection enhanced. For such a hard personality, your fragility surprised me and your soul showed itself to be truly amazing.”

My breath caught with his words and I swallowed the emotion that was clawing its way through my ribcage and demanding an audience. But I wouldn’t allow its arrival or its growth, I couldn’t allow it.

“I have things to do!” I said as I pulled on my jeans and boots and scurried from the room, leaving him staring after me with both shock and understanding. If I was honest, the alarm displayed on his face, his words had stunned him too.

Chapter Seventeen

Kade

I WASN’T SURE I liked where all this was heading.

Grace was quiet beside me in the car as we drove back down the M1. She had said we needed to return to London. Why? She wouldn’t tell me and I was beginning to think she may throw me to the vultures just to stop what our relationship was turning into.

Was it even a relationship? It had just been sex up to now but something had shifted last night. Grace didn’t seem to realise just how much she had given me when she had ceded so completely. To give that gift to someone, to offer your whole identity for them to mould and govern was the ultimate offering. The epitome of trust.

Grace was such a guarded and structured person and I would never have imagined how much she had absorbed from last night. It had shocked me how freely she had let herself go, how absolutely she had accepted its substance and how she had completely understood its reason.

“Wee?” Her voice cut through the close quietness and made me jump slightly.

“What, sorry?”

“Do you need the loo?” she repeated and I blinked hard to refocus my eyes.

“Not really, but I could do with stretching my legs.”

She nodded and flicked the indicator to lead us onto the slip road and then onto the small layby that held an old rusty caravan selling drinks and burgers.

“You use the toilet and I’ll get us coffee” I told her as we climbed from the car and pulled our backs into their original posture. She nodded and wandered off towards a block of portable toilets in the corner of the layby. I didn’t watch the sway of her fabulous arse in her tight jeans, no, I didn’t.

After scanning the menu, I ordered coffee and sandwiches and took a short stroll around to stimulate the dead muscles in my legs but stopped dead at the corner of the toilet block as Grace’s voice came into earshot and I peered around the corner to see who she was talking to.

“Please, just be ready.” She whispered frantically and I leaned closer to hear the phone conversation she was having with someone on a mobile that was supposedly not allowed on our trip.

“No. Listen to me, please . . .”

What the hell? Or rather who the hell?

“Please, just please.” She ran her hand through her hair in distress and rolled her head round her neck. Her anguish was screaming loudly from her and whoever was on the other end of the phone was not conforming to her instructions, “Fine, fine, five thousand.”

She rubbed at her forehead and sighed heavily as she ended the call, dropped the phone on the floor and smashed it under her foot before picking up the pieces and dropping them into the nearby bin. She turned and paled when she saw me watching her but then straightened her back and went to walk past me.

“Whoa, hang on.” I snatched hold of her arm and pulled her back harshly but she yanked her arm back and glared at me.

“Did your mother never tell you it’s rude to listen in on other people’s conversations?” She spat angrily as her chest heaved with her fury, however I didn’t relent as I stepped into her and backed her up against the wall.

“Didn’t yours tell you it’s rude to not include people in whatever the fuck is going on?”

I was furious with her. What the hell was she up to? And behind my back come to that. It was obviously something bad if she had to use a burner and bury it after.

“What the hell was that all about, Beaumont?”

“That” she hissed through her teeth as her eyes fired heatedly, “was nothing to do with you.”

I snorted and pushed her further into the wall. “Don’t fuck with me Grace; I’m not a good person to be fucked with.”

She laughed sardonically, her sarcasm flowing out in waves of antagonism as she smirked at me. “Oh and how you have proved that time and time again.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

We were drawing a crowd as our voices rose and our argument filtered across to the ears of the bored travellers waiting for their coffee to be served.

“Oh come on Kade, you couldn’t even defend yourself against a sixty year old woman. You have been saved from death how many times? And always by someone else.” Her eyes dropped to the scar running my neck and she scoffed loudly, “but you step up to the mark for Mrs Fox don’t you. Have to show
her
how much of a fucking hero you are!”

“Nice, Beaumont. But until you know the story, keep your vicious judgments to yourself. No wonder your fiancé fucked your best friend, the relief to screw someone warm and affectionate was too great a temptation after you.”

I wish she had laid me out or at the very least shot me through the head because it wouldn’t have hurt as much as the expression on her face did. My heart dropped through my stomach and I swear it leaked out of my arse and fucked off because if it had stayed the ache and pain on her face would have torn it apart viciously.

“Grace . . . I . . .”

She shook her head marginally and took a deep stunted breath before turning her back on me, “We have to go.”

She spoke so quietly, I almost didn’t catch it but I sliced my teeth through my bottom lip as her shoulders slumped and she dragged herself across to the car. Various heads turned to watch her but she didn’t seem aware as the trail of sadness that followed her pushed her forwards until she just about fell into the car.

I finally moved when I heard her fire the ignition but I made sure I picked her fallen pride up off the ground before I climbed back in with her.

* * *

The journey back to London was fun. She didn’t speak, even when I tried to apologise. She just leaned forward and turned the stereo up louder. I couldn’t feel more of a bigger dick if I’d murdered some child’s bloody puppy.

I frowned as we turned onto my street and when she pulled up outside my apartment I finally turned to look at her with wide eyes. “What . . . what are we doing here?”

“You live here.” It was said bluntly without any emotion but she still didn’t look at me as she killed the engine and waited for . . . me to get out I presumed.

“Beaumont, I can’t . . . They’ll kill me.”

“I’ll sort everything out.”

“What the hell? How can you sort it out?” I pressed. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to shake some sort of reaction from her or take her and hold her close to try and alleviate some of the hurt I’d delivered.

“How did you know about Brady?”

I closed my eyes and willed us not to get into an argument as I wasn’t sure which way it would go when I decided to be honest. “Mason told me.”

I watched the jerk in her throat as her distress took even more of her damaged pride but she just nodded. I turned slightly in the chair so I was facing her but she tilted her head towards the window and focused her attention on something in the park opposite.

“Ava was just worried about you Grace, and Mason was being his usual charming self and giving me a warning, that’s all. He didn’t tell me to hurt you; he was just worried I would . . .” I exhaled heavily, her detachment was frustrating and I had to fist my hands to stop myself from grabbing her.

“You would what?” she urged absentmindedly as she shifted in her seat and straightened her back but continued to gaze out of the window.

“Well, he was worried I would add to your upset by being an arse, which of course wouldn’t even be possible for me.” It was meant as an attempt to lighten the mood with a joke but she didn’t laugh as she slid her hand down her leg.

What the hell was she doing? I watched in silence as she slipped a knife from her boot and flicked it so it was hidden under the sleeve of her top and then secured her other hand over the gun she had tucked in the back of her jeans.

“Listen to me, Kade. I told you I was going to sort out this mess and I am but you need to adhere to what I’m going to tell you
exactly.
”

“Oh fuck, not again. I told you we shouldn’t have . . .”

“Shut—the—fuck—up!” she demanded as she lifted a hand to the window and a man who seemed a little familiar stopped in his tracks and stared at Grace through the window of the car from across the street. He seemed to frown in confusion at first then his eyes widened and he appeared to groan in either acceptance or relief, I couldn’t tell which.

“You need to go inside and let me deal with this.”

“What? No fucking way!” I scoffed as I reached over and grabbed her arm. She turned so sharply I didn’t have chance to react before she had the back of my head slammed against the car window and a hand around my throat holding me down.

Fuck, she was strong.

“I asked you to respect what I told you to do. For once in your damn life, if you want to live, you’ll do as you are asked!” She wasn’t showing anger, but her beauty was flawed by what appeared to be worry, “I will deal with this. You do not fuck with this man, Kade. Do you understand?”

“I won’t let you do this Grace, not for me.”

She bit into her lip in frustration and squeezed her eyes shut in annoyance as the driver’s door opened and the man leant in. “Come on Kid, I haven’t got all day.”

Holy Shit! It was the guy from the nightclub. The same fucking guy who was currently trying to kill me.

“Just give me five, Grant.” Grace requested with her jaw clenched but he laughed loudly and mockingly.

“I presume you are exchanging?”

“Yes” she replied frankly and I stared at her.

“Exchanging what?”

Nothing was making sense and I glanced from Grace to Grant as though the reason for all this bullshit would be written across their foreheads. He smirked at me, his jaw moving rhythmically as he chewed his gum cockily, “Awww, do you not understand the rules of the game, Mr Hamilton?”

Grace eyed me and I read the warning she gave me within them but I wasn’t taking this crap, I wouldn’t let her exchange her money for my life.

“You don’t need to take Grace’s money. I have some, you can have that.”

His eyes widened sharply as Grace’s closed in distress before he laughed so loudly and heartily that I jerked back further into the door in alarm. “My God, Kid, where the hell did you find this one?” He barked to Grace before his eyes moved back to me and he beamed at me with glaringly over-white teeth, “You think she’s exchanging money for your life?”

I shrugged at him. The twat was a complete moron but I didn’t voice that opinion. I sagged as Grace sighed and let me out of her hold, yet her gaze held me for a moment too long and the sadness that they conveyed ripped hard inside me. Something was seriously wrong but I couldn’t ascertain what it was as I took hold of her hand, “Grace?”

She smiled softly before she leaned in and pressed her lips to mine. The passion and sorrow in her kiss stole something away from me as she communicated everything in one short but deep moment. She pulled away, secured my gaze for a second then turned to Grant, “Okay.”

“Grace!” I shouted as she climbed from the car. I was fighting with the seatbelt in my desperation to get out but Grant leaned in as Grace walked away.

“Don’t mess with me again. People in my circle don’t give a gnat’s gonad about money. We don’t trade in pounds. We don’t exchange cash for a life.”

I frowned at him and shrugged as the illegible twat smirked again. “We trade in lives, Mr Hamilton. The divine Miss Beaumont has just exchanged her life for yours. Now that’s what I call love.”

My lungs shut down, my whole body turned to ice and my heart juddered to a stop as my brain established what he had just said. I stared frozen and motionless with an open mouth at him as he winked and shut the door behind him. My eyes watched whilst my body remained static and inert as he trotted up to the side of Grace and took her arm in his grip. She scowled and shook him off, causing his head to fling back in a deep laugh before he grabbed the back of her neck in a cruel hold.

I suddenly snapped into action and managed to release the lock of my seatbelt before I scrambled from the car, my palms hitting the pavement in my frantic attempt to catch them.

“GRACE!”

She turned, her face showing her displeasure but I carried on running towards them. She shook her head rapidly and mouthed ‘No’ but I kept on going, my legs shaking and trembling as I tried to reach her.

“NO!” she shouted and I looked up from where I had fallen to the ground in my frenzied effort to stop her. My breath caught when I watched her draw her gun alongside Grant and point it at me. “I told you no, Kade. Why the fuck don’t you ever listen to me?”

I stilled as both guns trained on me. Grace’s small pistol aimed lower than Grant’s slightly larger firearm which was targeting my forehead. I looked at her, my eyes narrow and stern as I shook my head, “I won’t let you do this, Beaumont. I’ve already proved that you won’t shoot me. No way are you giving him your life in exchange for my bullshit attempt at existence.”

Grant looked at her and shook his head in exasperation, “You either do it or I will. Please let me Grace, I really have an aversion to this annoying arsehole and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to let you play out your life like you were meant to.”

She shook her head at him, aimed and locked my gaze. The remorse and grief held in her eyes brutalised my soul and broke my heart as my lungs grasped at whatever oxygen they could get a hold of in my disbelief and hopelessness.