by Kelly Oram
“From now on you will consider Ethan your boss. You will respect and obey him. Is that clear?”
“Dad, please,” I whispered, my voice cracking as I fought back silent sobs. “Anyone but him. Hire whatever goons you want and as many as you think I need. They can escort me to the bathroom if it makes you happy and I won’t complain, but please don’t do this to me. Not him.”
“Grace, he’s the best. He’s in every single one of your classes at school. He can protect you at all times and your classmates won’t even have to know. That’s what you wanted. I’m doing this for you.”
“No you aren’t!” I shouted. “You like the idea of having someone watching my every move. You want even more control over my life. Does the US know they’re about to elect a dictator?”
“That’s enough, Grace.”
“Fine. What about my suggestion to go to boarding school?”
Ethan’s head jerked up. “Boarding school?”
“I’d be completely safe in Switzerland or wherever, at some school I was never allowed to leave. I’d get good grades, Dad. I’d stay out of trouble. I’m asking to go. I want to go.”
“Boarding school in Europe is not an option.”
“Why? You wouldn’t have to worry about me ever again except to send the school tuition checks.”
“But we couldn’t keep that quiet and we’re less than two weeks away from the election. Do you know what kind of father I would look like if I just shipped you off to be someone else’s problem in some foreign country right as I was about to go into office?”
So once again this had nothing to do with what was best for me. It was all about his image. “Yeah, I do,” I said, my voice having gone stone cold. “You would look like exactly the type of father you are.”
My dad reacted without thinking and smacked me across the face. The hit wasn’t hard enough to knock me over, but it wasn’t just a slap, either. I instantly felt welts rise on my stinging cheek and would not have been able to stop my eyes from tearing up even if I’d tried. Which I didn’t.
To his credit, my father looked as surprised by his actions as I felt, but he didn’t apologize. “If you have anything else you need to get off your chest, you’d better say it now,” he warned me. “Because you will not have another outburst like this again, do you understand? Not at home, and especially not at school. I will set up regular weekly appointments for you with the psychiatrist, and you will go to them until he tells me you are better. Now, I’ve got to go. I have a meeting tonight and won’t be home for dinner. You are not to leave the house under any circumstances without Ethan so call him if you absolutely must go somewhere, but respect his time. He has already been briefed on all other instructions.”
He turned to Ethan then and handed him my prescription. “Make sure she gets these, and if you have any other questions call me.”
Ethan nodded and my dad walked away calling out “I’ll be ready to leave in two minutes, Randy,” as he headed up the stairs.
After he was gone, the only noise in the room was the sound of my sniffling until I felt a hand come down soft on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Grace,” Randy whispered.
I wiped the snot from my nose with my sleeve, not caring in the least how pitiful I looked. “I’m fine,” I muttered and shrugged out from under Randy’s grip. It hurt too much to know that my dad’s bodyguard cared more about me than my own father. His gentle touch was salt in the wound.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I really thought you’d be relieved with his choice.”
“Don’t worry about it. You did your best. Ethan does fit all of my requirements. Not your fault I wasn’t more specific.”
Nobody said anything else until my dad came back downstairs. “Be a good girl. I’ll be home around eleven,” he said, and then kissed my cheek as he breezed past me out the door.
I don’t know if he meant to kiss the cheek that he’d probably just bruised or if he was just so busy he’d already forgotten what he’d done, but it made me sick to my stomach and I was hit with another wave of tears.
When the door slammed shut, Ethan crossed the room to me so fast it startled me. He was full of so much rage I nearly screamed. “Was that the first time he’s done that?” he demanded.
“He didn’t mean to,” I mumbled miserably. “I’ve never stepped out of line like that before.”
My answer wasn’t good enough for Ethan. “Has he ever hit you before?” he demanded again, raising his voice to nearly a shout.
I looked away, hiding the red side of my face from Ethan’s view. “No.”
“If he ever tries it again—”
“He won’t. He has too much to lose to make a mistake like that again.”
Ethan reached his hand out and I flinched away from him reflexively. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, and then pulled my chin up to examine my face.
As his fingers came into contact with my skin, I gasped. Ethan tried to hide the fact that he felt something too, but I saw the way he flinched and nearly pulled his hand back.
I was shocked at how tenderly his fingers brushed my stinging face. His touch was as soft as a feather and flooded me with a feeling of goodness that I couldn’t explain. It was so calm and relaxing that my eyes drifted shut and I released a long, exhausted breath.
“The marks are already fading,” Ethan whispered as he traced what I imagined were fingerprints on my face. All hints of anger had vanished from his voice.
“Are you sure?”
“It won’t bruise,” Ethan promised, wiping the last of my tears off my cheek.
When he pulled his hand away, my body trembled. I wanted nothing more than for him to touch me again. What was going on with me lately? Why did I feel as if I were going completely crazy every time someone touched me?
“Don’t worry,” Ethan said, misunderstanding the look on my face. “No one will ever know what happened.”
Except that was a lie. “You will.”
“I won’t tell anyone.”
I couldn’t stand the pity in his voice. “But you’ll still know.”
“Grace.”
“Why did you have to come here?” I cried. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“Because you need me. You know you do. Please just accept my help.”
I’d never been so confused. Ethan always helped me. Always. He had ever since I’d known him. But we’d never in all these years become friends. Sometimes he looked at me with so much bitterness that I was sure he hated me. So why was he so desperate to have my approval right now? And why when he’d touched me a minute ago was it so painfully tender?
I gave up. “Fine, Ethan,” I said. “You win. Do whatever you want. Move in if it makes you feel better. I’ll be in the living room. I’ve got a ton of homework to do.”
Ethan looked almost disgusted at my concession, but his voice sounded full of relief as he asked, “Do you need any help with it?”
Seriously? “No thanks. Studying is the only thing I’ve ever been able to get right.”
Ethan gave me a few minutes before he joined me, and then he didn’t say much as he did his homework. I wondered if he ever planned on going home, but I didn’t want to ask and make him mad. Besides, knowing my dad, Ethan probably had instructions to stay with me until he got home. I’d probably never be allowed to be alone ever again.
. . . . .
Ethan stayed for dinner. Awkward is not nearly a strong enough word to describe the atmosphere when he offered to cook because I shouldn’t be on my foot so much. Then, when I tried to help clear the table after, he carried me to the couch and handed me the remote. “I’ll give you your crutches back when I’m finished with the dishes.”
“What if I have to go to the bathroom?”
The corners of Ethan’s mouth twitched before he disappeared back into the kitchen. He was still in there when Cynthia showed up for Supernatural night. “It’s not my fault!” she said first thing when she let herself in.
Before I could ask
what she meant, Caleb barged in the room right behind her. “How ya doin’, Gracie?” he asked with a smile that only the Layton brothers could pull off—one that makes you unsure if you should be excited or run and hide.
I was surprised when I hoped Preston would walk in the door next and disappointed when he didn’t.
“Why the big frown?” Caleb asked.
I wasn’t about to admit I wanted to see Preston, so I turned to Cynthia and asked, “You brought your brother?”
Cynthia looked at Caleb with a huge scowl. “I told you she wouldn’t want you here. Thursday nights are sacred Gracie/Cynthia time.” She quickly turned to me and said, “Sorry. He was insistent, but all you have to do is tell him to leave and he has to go home. Our dad said so.”
“You don’t want to do that, do you Gracie?” Caleb sat down next to me on the couch, draped his arm over my shoulder, and grinned widely at his sister. “We totally connected today.”
My anxiety spiked enough that goose bumps rose on my arms. Caleb, like all of his siblings, had piercing green eyes so intense they looked wild. Those eyes were staring at me now, daring me to reject them.
“Um…” I gulped nervously and looked to Cynthia for help.
She looked really pissed off, but all she said was, “It’s your call.”
I wanted to tell him to go home but for some reason I couldn’t. “I guess it doesn’t matter if he stays tonight. We already have unwanted company.”
Caleb grinned at his sister. “There, you see? She wants me to stay.”
“She called you ‘unwanted company,’” Cynthia argued, and then stopped. “Wait! Who else is here?”
I cringed. I was not looking forward to telling Cynthia about Ethan. She would be five hundred times more relentless with the matchmaking attempts now.
“New bodyguard?” she asked so excitedly she was practically bursting at the seams.
“I wish I shared your enthusiasm.”
“You have a security detail now?” Caleb asked at the same time Cynthia said, “Is he hot?”
I was spared having to answer because Ethan came back.
“Dunn is your new shadow?” Caleb asked with a huge frown.
I didn’t answer him because I was too startled by the smile Cynthia gave Ethan. It was the smile of a co-conspirator. Suddenly the day made perfect sense. “You didn’t, Cynthia! Tell me you didn’t!”
“Okay, I didn’t,” she deadpanned.
“That’s what you were doing at lunch! You brought him to see my father! This is your fault! You helped him get the job!”
“I just got him the in. He earned the job on his own.”
The sense of betrayal was so strong I felt like crying, even though the logical part of my brain told me I shouldn’t be too surprised. “How could you do it?” I asked, the quiver in my voice giving away exactly how hurt I was.
“Please don’t be mad,” Cynthia begged. She’d paled after realizing how much she’d hurt me. “I know you and Ethan aren’t on the best terms, but he’s really good at what he does. Someone tried to kill you. I just want you to be safe.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Yes we do, Grace,” Caleb argued. “My dad looked into what happened. Nobody could find anything wrong with the light that almost crushed you. Nothing else was faulty in the entire place. The only explanation was that it was tampered with.”
A shiver ripped through me. Caleb pulled me into his lap in response. I gasped, turned red as a cherry, and tried to escape until Caleb laced his fingers in mine and told me to relax. Just like before, my body settled down as if of its own accord. “If that were the case,” I said quietly, giving up my struggle for freedom, “my dad would have people all over it. The FBI inspected every inch of that stage yesterday and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.”
“They weren’t looking in the right places,” Ethan muttered.
His voice was full of so much fury that I glanced up at him, startled. “What is it?”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed in a way that made me blush. “I didn’t realize you two were so well acquainted.”
I didn’t understand that Ethan meant Caleb and me until Caleb squeezed me tighter and said, “Is that a problem?”
“Just surprising,” Ethan answered coolly.
“Very surprising,” I muttered forgetting that Ethan had the ears of a hawk.
Caleb chuckled, but Ethan looked more closely at my face and then his whole body went stiff. “Is he making you uncomfortable?”
“Um…” I didn’t know what to say. Caleb knew I was uncomfortable and didn’t appear to mind that in the least. He seemed determined to claim me as his, anyway. That basically terrified me. But then, I didn’t necessarily want Ethan going all commando on him if I said as much.
“Actually,” I said once I could work up the courage to say anything without my voice shaking, “I’m not feeling very well. I don’t think I’m really up for watching anything tonight.”
Yes, this was a total cop-out, I am aware. I didn’t really care, though.
“Grace, come on,” Cynthia said. “Don’t do that. I told you all you have to do is say the word and he has to go home.”
“Sorry, Cyn. I’m going to bed. You can stay and watch the show anyway. I don’t want you to miss it.”
I picked up the crutches Ethan had set on the floor at my feet. When Ethan followed me across the room as though he were going to help me up the stairs, I shrugged away from him. “I can do it.”
Ethan shook his head. “I’ve seen you in PE—and that’s without crutches.” He lifted me into his arms. “I don’t trust you with the stairs.”
Tears burned my eyes again as he carried me to my room. “Haven’t I already lost enough of my dignity today? Do you really need to tuck me into bed, too?”
Ethan rolled his eyes but then sighed. “Your dad was out of line,” he said, sitting down next to me on my bed as if settling in for a long conversation.
I held my breath for a minute. When I was sure I wasn’t going to cry I said, “Can you do me a favor, please?”
“Anything.”
“Don’t ever bring up my father. He’s not my favorite topic of conversation.”
Ethan looked completely frustrated with me again. I didn’t understand why, but I was done trying to figure him out. Finally, he nodded. “Okay.”
We sat in awkward silence for a minute and I wondered why he wasn’t leaving.
“I really need this job, Grace.”
I didn’t want to hear his excuses. I especially didn’t want an apology, which is what looked like was coming out of his mouth next, so I lay down on my bed and rolled myself away from him. “It’s okay. I get it. I already told you it’s fine.” When Ethan still didn’t go anywhere I added, “Would you mind shutting the door on your way out?”
Have you ever had that feeling when you know you’re asleep and you can’t wake yourself up? I was doing that now. There was a cold breeze coming from somewhere that had stirred me from the unconscious state I’d been in, but hadn’t quite pulled me all the way to the land of the living.
I felt fingers on my cheek and realized I was dreaming. It made sense that I was dreaming about someone touching my face since in the last thirty-six hours or so I’d had three exceptionally cute guys each stroke my face so intimately they’d rattled me inside and out.
I wondered which of those three guys I was dreaming about right now, and hoped it would be a good dream and not a nightmare.
“We meet again, Grace St. Claire,” a voice whispered.
“Andrew?”
“Yes, love.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “You knew I would come for you, didn’t you? You felt the connection, too.”
He coaxed my lips slightly open and dripped a warm, sweet liquid into my mouth. When I was forced to swallow, I finally woke all the way up.
I opened my eyes, but my dream didn’t end. Andrew was really there, smiling down at me. He was holding his hand in a tig
ht fist over my face, letting dark drops of blood drip into my mouth.
Andrew realized I’d woken up and immediately clamped his bloody hand over my mouth.
I screamed and screamed, but the sound was so muffled I doubted anyone would ever hear it.
I thrashed hard enough that Andrew had to climb on top of me and pin me with all of his weight. I’m so small it wasn’t that hard for him to have me completely trapped.
“Shh,” he cooed and wiped at the tears streaming down my face with his free hand. “You are resistant to my charms, but I promise you, once you turn you will not fear me.”
I could taste the blood still running from his hand. It didn’t taste the way I imagined blood tasting, but it made me sick to my stomach anyway. I welcomed the nausea. I wanted nothing more than to vomit.
I jerked my head from side to side, but I couldn’t get myself free from Andrew’s grip.
“Don’t be frightened, Grace. My blood is a gift. Six hundred years I have searched for someone to share my immortality with. The moment I met you, I knew the wait was worth it.”
I had to still be dreaming.
The things he was saying made me feel like I was in one of Cynthia’s books. I’d even told her Andrew reminded me of a vampire. I was just manifesting my fears with my crazy imagination.
Yeah, a nightmare. That’s all this was. I’d gone to bed angry and frustrated. I’d fallen into a restless sleep, and was now having the world’s most realistic nightmare.
Still, even if it was a nightmare I wanted to wake up.
Call for Ethan.
It was just a fleeting thought, but I swear it hadn’t been my thought. It was a voice in the back of my mind.
How could I call for Ethan when I couldn’t scream?
I tried anyway. I screamed again so hard my voice began to hurt.
“There is no use fighting me, love. It is too late now. You will be mine soon.”
I pinched my eyes shut and called out with my mind. ETHAN!
Ethan! Ethan! Ethan!
A moment later there was a knock at my door and Ethan grumbled, “What is it, Grace? Would you stop screaming?”
Andrew whipped his head around and hissed at the door.