Aidan hauled Grace to her feet and fairly dragged her into the office.  “Look what we found, Dad.”

 

Bryce looked up.  “Sit,” he ordered.  “Both of you.”

 

Grace remained standing.  “I don’t take orders from you…*Dad*.”

 

Aidan looked up, alarmed.

 

Bryce remained in control.  “You get your ass in that chair and shut your mouth.  All I have to do is pick up this phone and that little brother of yours gets sent back to you in a matchbox.”

 

The color drained from her face.  As she sat, she jammed her heel against Aidan’s leg.

 

“Better.  Aidan, what happened?”

 

“We infiltrated the Spencer wedding reception and fulfilled our objective, and this-“ he indicated to Grace, “was just a bonus prize.  I saw her dancing with the younger Spencer son and gave the signal.” Aidan explained.

 

“We can discuss the objective in a minute.  How many’d we lose?”

 

“Ten dead, one injured.”

 

“Who’s injured?”

 

“Me.”

 

Bryce sighed.  “Then the objective.  What little whore has he decided to marry now?  If we can do something about her – particularly *after* the honeymoon when it’s a new little Spencer to boot – that’ll be a powerful bargaining tool with Nathan Spencer.”

 

“Interesting enough, he’s married Cassidy Kincaide.”

 

Bryce turned to Grace.  “And what do *you* have to say, you little shit?”

 

“I have to say I was having a good time until Beavis over here shot me in the shoulder.”

 

“Special.”  He picked up the phone.  “Do it.”

 

Grace’s eyes widened.  A familiar numbing seemed to take over her body.  Dylan was dead.  The little brother she’d done everything for…made so many sacrifices for was dead.  Grace stood up and pulled out a gun.  “Too bad your boy isn’t as smart as you’d hoped.” Grace spat as she shot Aidan in the back of the head.  “Looks like you lose.” She turned and ran out of the office.

 

“GET THAT LITTLE BITCH!”  Bryce screamed, but he knew it was too late for Aidan.  The sole successor to the IMF was dead in his father’s office, and whether or not Grace survived wouldn’t bring him back. 

 

She was right. 

 

He lost.

 

~*~*~*~

 

“I feel stupid,” Cassidy said with a sigh as Garrett helped her up a flight of stairs.

 

“Don’t.  I want this to be a surprise.” Garrett told her.

 

“Will you take this stupid thing off me now?  We’re not walking.”

 

Garrett took the blindfold off.  “Wait.” He said, unlocking the door to the villa and carrying her inside.  “Surprise.”

 

“You… Garrett, where are we?”  She asked.

 

“Home.”

 

“This place is ours?”  Her voice was almost a whisper.

 

“I bought it for you.”

 

“For… for me?”

 

“For you, my lovely wife, I have purchased a lovely little villa in Cartagena, Spain.  With a view of the Mediterranean Sea.” He said, showing her a window.

 

“I…”  She kissed him firmly.  “I don’t believe it… I… this is amazing…”

 

“Good, time for my present.” Garrett smiled devilishly, carrying her to the bedroom, where their suitcases had been brought.

 

“Which present?”  She asked with a smirk.

 

“There’s more than one?”

 

“Well you’ve got a present, but then again you’ve also got me, and God knows I’m not getting out of this dress all by myself.”

 

“The present first.” Garrett decided.  “And then I hope you weren’t wishing for our daughter to wear that dress someday.  Because there are a lot of buttons and I’m a very impatient man.”

 

“Yes, I know,” she said dryly, handing him a box.

 

Garrett opened the box and pulled out a gun.  “Ooh… a toy…” Garrett grinned.  “Thank you.”  When he picked it up, however, a note fell into his lap.

 

Garrett – first you have no idea how hard you are to shop for.  It’s not fair.  So now you’re asking yourself why I’ve gone and bought you a gun when we both know you’re never without one anyway.  You’ve done nothing but protect me, and I guess I’m thinking of the many, many times you’ve saved me; from the very first night we had together up through now, when you’re saving me from myself and my insecurities by making me your wife and proving to me that I really am worth loving.  So for you, my protector, keep doing what you do best. 

 

All my love,

Cass

 

Garrett put the gun and note on the nightstand and pulled Cass to him, kissing her firmly.  “I am never going to stop protecting you.”

 

“I know.  I thought I might as well help you out.  I guess we shouldn’t have packed it, you could have used it this very afternoon.”  She teased, sitting in his lap.

 

Garrett undid some of the buttons on her dress.  “You really are amazing.”

 

“So are you, Garrett Spencer.  So are you.”

 

~*~*~*~

 

Grace kept running even after the pounding footsteps behind her faded away.  At some point, she couldn’t remember when, she’d stopped to take off her shoes and was now carrying them as she ran down the street to the first place that came to her mind.  She ran to the place she’d once called home, where this whole mess had started, where she hadn’t gone near in the past four years.

 

Getting into the house was easy enough, no one bothered to remove the spare key from the broken light by the garage.  Once she was inside, Grace made her way around to her room carefully, half expecting her mother to come in and demand where she’d been all this time…or her little brother the come running down the stairs…or even Cassidy…who would be coming in around this time…she walked straight past that office, where she thought he was in there….just waiting for her…waiting for her to make some kind of noise as to give him an excuse to beat her to near death as her stepfather had done so many times before.

 

Grace passed the cellar door where – if she listened hard enough and close enough – she could hear Cassidy screaming for their mother to stop…or for someone to unlock the door.  Catching a glimpse of herself in the sliding glass door in the back, Grace caught sight of the one place that even now, at twenty years old, she was still terrified to go near.  She saw the old shed. 

 

She left the kitchen, afraid if she stayed there long enough, someone would leave the shed and come into the house, someone who, even though he was dead, still terrified her.  Going up the stairs, past all the blood stains on the carpet, Grace pushed open the door to her room.  Opening her closet, she pulled out some clothes to change into and cleaned up her shoulder. 

 

Picking up the phone on her old desk, she dialed Gavin’s number.

 

The number should have been familiar, he thought, as he picked up the phone.  “Yeah?”

 

Grace paused.  “I…I just killed Aidan Callahan,” She said in a low voice. 

 

“What – Grace?”

 

The only response was the click of the phone as she placed it back on the receiver.

 

Gavin rushed down the stairs to his mother.  “Mom, she didn’t do it, and you’re either going to help me find proof or help me pack because if you don’t believe me, I’m leaving.”

 

Holly gave her younger son a piercing glare, and then went to the closet and pulled out his suitcase.  “Enough is enough.  Ruining your brother’s wedding was the last straw.”

 

Gavin blinked.  He’d always known Garrett was the favorite child, the firstborn son who could do no wrong… but that his mother would throw him out before believing him… he fairly ran from the room, headed for the security center.  There had been surveillance during the reception… all he needed was a couple seconds of audio.  And if that *had* been Grace, and he knew it had, it would be all over the papers.  They couldn’t fight that.

 

“What are you doing in here?” Nathan sounded tired as he entered the room.

 

“Here!  I’ve got it,” Gavin said, playing back a piece of tape for his father during which Aidan threatened once more to kill Grace’s little brother.  “Do you trust me now?  Do you accept I might not be your golden boy but I’m not as stupid as you give me credit for?!?”

 

Nathan watched Gavin.  “What did she say on the phone?”

 

“She killed Callahan’s son.  The one who led the team that infiltrated the reception.”

 

Nathan nodded.  “Find her, I want to talk to her…but Gavin…” Nathan hesitated.  “I’m going to set you up in an apartment in the city, closer to headquarters.  Your mother believes that this was the final straw.  I’m sorry, son.”

 

“No, you’re not.  You and her were always on the same page.  Garrett got everything, and I could go to hell.”

 

Nathan shook his head.  “She’s just upset.  Maybe in a while she’ll cool down…but until then….” he trailed off.  “Just…find her and bring her here.”

 

Gavin stood up.  “Yes, sir,” he replied as he left the room.

 

~*~*~*~

 

There was no hesitation as he pushed open the door, but once inside the house, Gavin felt… like an intruder.  Well, he was, technically, but… the house seemed to give off an energy of its own, an energy that clearly was not inviting even to those who lived there.  He searched the downstairs rooms before going upstairs, checking the room on one side to find it empty before continuing down the hall.  The room looked to be that of a young boy, and Grace was sitting on the floor in the middle of it.  “Grace?”

 

“He was seven years old, the last time I saw him…he would have been eleven next month.” She said aloud, as if she were the only one in the room.

 

Gavin sat on the floor next to her.  “You can’t stay here.  You have to leave, get out of here.  If I found you they sure as hell will.”

 

“He’s dead.  And it’s my fault…because of me someone else I loved had to pay…”

 

He wasn’t sure what she was talking about, entirely, but he knew that every time a car passed by the house he felt slightly sick.  “Grace… we have to go.  Come on.”  He lifted her to her feet.  “You’re going to be fine but we have to go, now.”

 

“You promised me you’d keep him safe.  You said you’d get him somewhere he’d be safe.  But he’s not.  Dylan’s dead.”

 

“Well no one’s going to hurt him now,” Gavin pointed out.  There wasn’t time… he picked her up and carried her downstairs.  “He’s safe now, and it’s not what you wanted and it’s not what I meant, but no one’s going to hurt him.  He’s gone to heaven, and from what I know there’s no way in hell he’s going to meet up with your parents or David Kincaide or any of the Callahans there.”

 

Grace clung to him…similar to the night when Garrett had proposed to Cass…when he’d pulled the gun.  Grace felt the guilt of her baby brother’s death.  She knew what was going to happen in Callahan’s office, even before Aidan shot her.  She had a gnawing feeling of what was going to happen to him if Callahan’d ever see her after she’d left the first time.  “I killed Aidan.” She said once Gavin had pulled the car away from the curb.

 

“And that’s why we have to get you away from there.  Get you someplace where they can’t find you.”  He placed a hand on hers.  “Nathan wants to talk to you, but then you’ll be able to stay with me if you’d rather.  They can’t stop you.”

 

Grace simply nodded.  “I…I had to do something…Bryce took my brother from me…so I killed his son.”

 

Gavin knew what that meant for his own family, but he said nothing.  “And we’re glad you did.  His wife’s too old for kids, that’ll mean the IMF changing hands.  And that never goes smoothly.”  The car pulled smoothly into the driveway, and Gavin helped Grace out.  “Come on.  Nathan’s waiting.”

 

 

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