The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (254 page)

“Oh, and one more thing before I join Will, Grace.” She laughed with an evil malevolence and cocked her head. “Robert wasn’t your Father.”

I opened my eyes and fixed them on hers as she uttered the statement that became her final words and my whole world collapsed.

“Grant Baxter is.”

She tipped her head, smiled and then plunged the knife so far into her own neck there was no coming back from it.

“Noooo. . . .” I cried as my heart stuttered and I fell back, my eyes just staring at her lifeless ones as the shock took me and strangled my windpipe.

My head was still shaking from side to side as my life dimmed and petered out before me.

Why couldn’t she have died and remained dead eighteen years ago? Where had all the cruelty in her stemmed from? Were people born that way, was I born that way?

Her last words swam through my daze as Mason’s face blurred before me and I felt arms surround me.

Grant Baxter is your Father.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Kade

GRACE WAS QUIET when they returned and I pulled Mason to one side. “What happened?”

He shrugged and exhaled deeply, “I dunno. She went in; we followed when I heard a funny noise. Grace was on the floor and her knife was in the side of her Mother’s neck and she hasn’t uttered a word since.”

I nodded when he patted my shoulder and left me alone with her.

“Grace.” I whispered as I crouched before her, “What happened, sweetheart?”

She lifted her eyes to mine and the devastation in them bore through my soul and twisted my heart unbearably.

“She made fun of me.” Her voice was blunt and level and I cocked my head in confusion.

“Why?” I asked softly, urging her onwards with the tenderness I knew she needed right now.

“Because I slept with Marcus’s drug dealer to save his life, and then I got pregnant and I terminated it and they made a mess and now I can never have a baby.”

It all came out as a jumbled mass and I stared at her. Of all the things I expected her to be upset over, including killing her own mother, it was this she decided to indulge me with.

“Okay,” I sighed heavily and took hold of her hand. “Well at the moment I’m not sure how to feel about it or even how to help you deal with it because it’s obviously something you need to take in hand and deal with but Grace, after everything that has happened tonight, I think you should be taking care of how you feel about . . .”

“The death of my own Mother?” she asked as she tipped her head and narrowed her eyes on me. “You can say it Kade. Both she and I knew that’s where it would end tonight. We had both accepted it and she got what she wanted in the end.”

“And what was that?”

“To hurt me” she answered frankly.

I nodded and grasped her chin in my finger and thumb so I could tilt her face towards me and look in her eyes directly, “How did she hurt you, Grace.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly as they flicked rapidly over my face and she leaned closer to me. “She . . . she told me something,” she whispered as though it was a secret.

I nodded in encouragement for her to carry on but I released a faint growl when I heard the door open behind me.

I watched in shock as Grace slowly lifted her eyes to view our intruder then launched from the sofa, knocking me over in her mission to get to whoever had entered.

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD” She screamed as she leapt at Grant and took them both down.

I couldn’t move as I watched with a shocked reverence as she began to beat him to a pulp. Her fist crashed into his face over and over and my eyes traced the splatters of blood spray across the room.

“Whoa!” Mason shouted as he burst in and yanked her back. She kicked and screamed as she struggled to get back to her object of infuriation. “Grace!” Mason snarled as he struggled to hold her.

Grant scrambled to his feet and looked at her sadly, “I am so sorry, Grace. You have no idea how sorry I am.”

“Tell that to my
Father
when you meet him!” she spat, emphasising on the Father part.

Grant gave her a pained expression and I watched him as he swallowed heavily. “It was a mistake Grace, a drunken stupid mistake. It was once, a moment of weakness that has haunted me ever since.”

“Did she tell you?” she asked him and I grew dizzy with all the cryptic words between them.

“Yes, but she swore me to secrecy. She said it would kill Robert and we never spoke of it again but I demanded that I would be your Godparent. I was actually surprised when she agreed. I wanted so much to be a Father to you Grace, but she wouldn’t allow it.”

My jaw dropped when the latest revelation hit my brain and frazzled it even more. Where the hell would all this end?
When
would it end for Grace?

She seemed to calm in Mason’s hold but her face was still full of both anger and hurt. “You should have told me, Grant.”

He nodded briskly, “I know, I know but when your parents died, I was in prison and then it seemed to get harder and harder as time went on. I’m already a terrible Father to Elizabeth, I’m sure she hates me and who would want a Father like me, Grace? Who’d want a fucking villain and a murderer as a Dad?”

“Someone who needed one,” Grace said quietly. “A daughter who just wants to be loved.”

Grant screwed his eyes shut and opened his arms. We all waited with bated breath until Grace took a timid step closer then another until she fell into him and he enclosed her tightly in his arms, holding her so close I thought he was going to break more of her ribs.

“Oh my God, Grace” he breathed into her hair as they both began to cry. We all went to leave but as we approached the door, it opened and Liam walked in.

He looked sadly over at Grace then nodded dolefully as he held out an envelope containing passports, fake ID’s and cash, “It’s time to go.”

She drew in a breath and nodded as she turned to me, “Ready?”

I nodded in return and smiled as I left her and Grant to say their goodbye’s as I said mine to someone who I knew I would never see again.

I watched her as a tear trickled down her face but she smiled happily at me. I opened my arms and she walked into them and hugged me back hard. “You promise me that you’ll be happy, Kade.”

“I promise, Ava.”

“I know Grace can give you that. I know she can give you what I took away.”

I smiled and shook my head, “You never took anything from me, Ava. You always gave so much of yourself and for that, I’ll always love you but Grace owns both my heart and my soul.”

“I know and I’m so happy that you have found what Mason and I have. Don’t ever stop loving her, she needs you and you need her.”

She drew back and blew out a determined breath as she glanced at Grace behind me. “Please . . .”

“I promise to take care of him.” Grace finished for her as I held out my hand and she slipped hers into it. “Thank you for keeping him going until I got to him.”

Ava flung her head back and laughed but then shook her head rapidly as her tears started to stream her face. “Goodbye” she choked out before Mason slipped his arm around her and led her out.

Grace looked up at me and grinned, “Let’s get this show off the ground.”

I winked but as she opened the door to leave, Liam shouted after her. “Beaumont!”

She turned and gazed at him as he smiled tenderly at her, “Job well done. Thank you, Grace.”

A sob erupted from her but she nodded and then saluted him, “Thank you, sir.”

They gave each other a respectful nod, then we turned and left.

Epilogue

Grace

2 years later

THE PEACE WAS amazing, after a hectic day of chasing the damn bloody puppy round the yard, it was so nice to hang and be me.

I reflected on the previous two years and smiled at what we had actually achieved in such a short period of time.

We had settled in Italy, not too far for when I wanted to return and see Liam. My Father had retired and joined us, bringing along Nicola to finally make an honest woman of her. She had blessed us with a beautiful little boy whom I doted on and he filled my days with joy as Nicola helped Kade manage his IT Company whilst he studied to be a nurse.

We had buried the chip and had never spoken of it again. It was cursed and it didn’t belong in my new family.

I looked down and prised my eyes open as I savoured the sight of the wedding band on my finger. I was forever staring at it and it made my heart skip every time I read the words around the edge.

‘Fuck, I love you’

I had laughed happily when he had presented it to me in the tiny chapel where Kade made me his. He had looked bloody hot in his suit and I had been desperate for the ceremony to be over so I could ‘fuck’ my husband. There weren’t many that could say ‘I fucked my husband last night’!

“Are you ready?” Kade asked and I looked down from my hanging rope cage and sighed happily.

“I am.”

He grinned up at me as he took the rope from the bracket and lowered me down, “Good, you’ve been up there over two hours.” He tipped his head at me and his eyes softened as he smiled tenderly, “You are so fucking beautiful Grace Hamilton.”

“I know!” I grinned back.

He laughed as he undid my enclosure, then grabbed the hemp holding my body in a tight pose and pulled me towards him, “Any requests?”

I nodded and he brushed a stray strand of hair from my face. “I want you to love me.”

He closed his eyes, shivered then reopened them and gazed intently at me, “I’ll always love you Grace, always. Death won’t even cease the love I have for you. You’re my breath, the energy that courses my veins and the food that fuels my body.”

“I love you back you cheesy bastard. Now make love to your wife.”

He shook his head at my words but I knew he secretly loved my come backs. He growled playfully and wrapped me up in his arms before lifting me and carrying me out of the basement, or our playroom now it was converted, and straight into the bedroom where he lowered me on the bed gently and spread out above me.

My eyes widened when he slipped his cock inside me almost immediately and filled me with the most amazing sensation. “God, you always feel so damn good.” He moaned as he pulled out slowly then gradually drove back in.

“I didn’t even realise you had taken off your clothes you eager sod.”

He winked and nodded, “You are too bloody tempting, Mrs Hamilton.”

“As tempting as chocolate?” I asked as he withdrew and ground his hips, teasing my clit deliciously with his pelvis.

“More.”

I nodded as I arched my back, forcing him deeper inside me, “As tempting as bubbles in a warm bath?”

He chuckled and shook his head, “More.”

I opened my mouth to ask him more but before I could get the words out he placed his finger over my lips and smirked, “Shut the hell up and let me love you.”

I beamed at him, “Well get on with it then, we haven’t got all night. The pace you’re going at, we’ll be here till Christmas!”

He closed his eyes and growled mischievously, “But you said you wanted it slow.”

I pouted at him and sighed, “When the hell do you ever listen to me?”

He deliberated for a moment then shrugged as he pulled out of me and hovered at my entrance. “Never” he smirked as he slammed in roughly and I yelped as he hit my cervix and rebounded. “Better?”

“Never! Come on Husband, make your wife scream.”

He smirked and pulled out completely before he flipped me, grabbed the jute that ran across my back and lifted me towards him. “Hard?”

“Always” I growled at him over my shoulder as he plunged back in and pulled against my restraints at the same time.

“Fuck! I love you” I screamed at him as he started to increase the tempo and bring me nearer release.

“I love you more,” he rasped in my ear as he came to bite down on my shoulder.

I gasped as his teeth delicately sank into my flesh and triggered a shiver to possess my body as my orgasm tore into every nerve ending in my body and fed me the bliss as Kade followed me into ecstasy.

“That would be impossible because the love I have for you is unrelenting and unyielding.” I finished when we both came down from the high.

He stared at me in silence as my first gaudy statement stunned him. I beamed at him and he snorted, “Shut the hell up you cheesy bitch and let me cuddle you.”

I tutted and sighed as if forced into a cuddle, “You never learn.”

“Never” he whispered in my ear and huddled me close.

“And I never want you to” I replied softly as I snuggled into him and he snaked his arm around me, drawing me close as I sighed contentedly and curled into him.

He didn’t know but I relished this time with him and as he held me close and snuggled me tightly I lifted my eyes to the heavens and thanked God for bringing this sweet, tender and absolutely amazing man into my life.

Don’t tell him though, will you!

The End

Chapter 1

Ava

HIS MOVEMENTS STOPPED and a sad smile covered his face causing my heart to sadden with his expression. “Mason?”

His eyes held me, the deep hazel hue securing my soul beneath him as his throat bobbed and his palm rested against my cheek softly, “So beautiful. Always.”