The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  I sighed and tipped my head in thought. Kade slowly swung his face round to mine and I knew what he wanted before he asked for it. “No.” I shook my head rapidly, denying him any leverage but he quirked an eyebrow at me.

  “Sweetheart, there is just you and me. I won’t, and definitely don’t want to get involved with a war over a computer chip. We run it and it gives us access, then we put it back in the ground.”

  My teeth were massacring my bottom lip, pain jolting through me when I caught them on the split that Will had given me but I sighed and nodded. “Fine, but then we destroy it. It’s taken my family; I won’t let it annihilate us.”

  “Okay,” he agreed as he took my hand and pulled me upright. “Let’s go fetch it and finish this shit.”

  He stared in bewilderment as I reached under my vest and pulled out my pendant. I took my knife from my boot, which Kade had grumbled at me for carrying around the house, and dug it into the back, prising it open and revealing a tiny blue chip which I then handed to him apprehensively.

  “You had it all this time?”

  I nodded and smiled guiltily. “Only my Father and I knew where it was. He gave me this pendant for my thirteenth birthday but he didn’t tell me what it contained until the day he gave me the combination to the safe.”

  He blew out a breath as he took it from me then dug into his bag for an adapter. He lifted his face and held my eyes securely when he plugged the adapter into the laptop, “Ready?”

  I smiled nervously but nodded firmly. “I need to end this bitch. She destroyed not only both of my brothers but my life. I won’t let her take any more from me.”

  He nodded and then hit ‘Enter’ on the keyboard as we both took a deep breath.

  “I’m not even sure it works.” I revealed as I watched a series of files open almost instantly until we were staring at a bank account in Will’s name.

  We both studied it intensely and Kade ran his finger across a sequence of outgoings that deposited thousands into another nameless account.

  “Looks like he had yet another account” I said but Kade shook his head as he opened a new window and started to trace the account the deposits were made into.

  “No,” he answered as he peered raptly at another bank account. “They aren’t made to an account in his name but to an Evelyn Francis.”

  I frowned and inclined back so I could see the whole of his face. He gazed back at me expectantly as my heartbeat started to flutter dangerously. “I gather that isn’t the name of Will’s Mother?” he asked when he saw my expression.

  “Well . . . yes, but . . .”

  I felt the shock began to coil my stomach as I stared at the computer screen. “I need a visual on Evelyn just to make sure.”

  He nodded, “I can do that. Give me two minutes.”

  My hands started to shake as I watched him start to hack into files that would hopefully lead us to something with an image ID. I repeatedly swallowed back the bile as he worked, my blood pressure was reaching an alarming rate as my brain tried to dissect what information couldn’t possibly be real and my eyes remained fixed and unblinking with the revelation.

  “Okay, there you are.” He said as he leaned back so I could see.

  “No. . . .” My head shook with the rest of my body as my heartbeat finally peaked and everything swam before my eyes as I looked at a picture of Evelyn Francis.

  “Wait a minute,” Kade said as he peered closer at the image on the screen. His eyes widened when he turned to me with incredibility, “Holy Shit, Grace.”

  I nodded slowly as goose bumps erupted over my body and my mind refused to believe what was in front of me.

  “Is that . . . ?” he stared at me with his mouth wide open.

  I nodded in return as my expression mirrored his, “Evelyn Francis Iona Beaumont—my Mother.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Kade

  THE DOUBLE DOORS swung back and nearly slammed me in the face when Grace bounded through them. Each head in the department turned to investigate the loud bang as I scurried after her, trying to catch up with her and calm her down but she flung herself through Liam’s door.

  He looked up at her, initially frowned then closed his eyes and groaned.

  “You knew, you fucking knew . . .”

  “Calm down.” He tried but she was too fired up to back down.

  “What the fuck is going on?” she barked as she palmed his desk and leaned towards him angrily.

  “Well firstly,” He turned to me with a pointed glare “I placed superior security on that file, so would you like to tell me how you got through it?”

  I shook my head as he narrowed his eyes on me, “Not really no, but you know anyway so why bother to ask?”

  “Oh Grace, why didn’t you tell me you had it?” He sighed as he turned back to her with a sad expression.

  She snorted loudly and pressed further towards him, “The same reason you didn’t tell me it wasn’t my Mother who died with my Father.”

  “Sit down.” He sighed and tipped his head when neither Grace nor I bowed to his request. “Fine, don’t sit down.”

  He reached into a drawer beside him and pulled out a file then passed it to Grace. “The dental records from the two corpses recovered at your house.”

  She swallowed heavily and I shifted quickly beside her when she opened the folder then dropped into the chair he had originally offered. “As you are aware, the bodies you found were beaten unrecognisable. Did you never think it funny why, Grace?”

  “Well no,” she opened her hands with a slight shrug. “I just found them both. Marcus was crying and I had more things to think about than studying their bloody bodies.”

  Liam nodded then rolled his lips, “And you never thought it strange that Will just . . . disappeared?”

  She snorted, “No, Will was Will. He always thought of himself and I didn’t question the fact that he did a runner so he wouldn’t have to take custody of me and Marcus.”

  She looked down at the file then looked back at Liam and frowned, “The female body was Will’s real Mother.”

  Liam nodded and sighed, “Yes. When she discovered Will’s whereabouts and got in touch with him, she also found out about the software program your Father was working on. From what I can gather, she became a liability to both your Mother and Will. You know about your Mother and Will’s affair?”

  Grace nodded and I settled into the chair beside her and took her hand, giving it a small squeeze of support.

  “Basically, Will and Iona staged her death. They presumed that all Robert’s fortune would be passed to Will with him being the eldest.”

  “But that’s the thing; surely my Mother would’ve been next in line when anything happened to my Father?”

  Liam smirked and then smiled, “You Father was far from stupid, Grace. He found out about their affair and changed his will, that’s when you remember all the arguments they had. They both presumed that it would go straight to Will when something happened to them both. Hence Robert’s death and Iona’s staged death.”

  Grace sighed and held her face in her hands. I admit even I was gobsmacked and confused with it all, so I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through Grace’s head.

  “But surely,” she pondered after a moments silence. “Surely the coroner picked up on the dental records in the autopsy?”

  Liam nodded but then shook his head, “Yes they would have and that’s why I currently have a team investigating the Doctor who performed the autopsy, but I know it’s going to lead to either a whole load of nothing or a huge pay-out.”

  Grace stood and started to pace the room agitatedly before she paused in front of the huge window and stared out over London. “But Will was unaware that Marcus was his son.”

  Liam shrugged, “That is something I can’t figure out either. Why Iona led him to believe all these years that Marcus was still his brother is beyond me.”

  She remained quiet and pensive as all of us delved our imagina
tions and tried to find an answer.

  “Because he actually was my Father’s” Grace choked out as she palmed the window for support.

  “What?” I asked, even more confused with every minute this conversation progressed.

  She turned around and the fury on her face stilled the beat of my heart, “My Dad said on the video he left me that I wasn’t to worry about Marcus, he wasn’t involved with all this.” She said to me and I nodded in agreement.

  “Well this was all made to look like Marcus was the reason behind all of this. The arguments they suffered was because my Mother had an affair but she didn’t expect to be excluded from the will. Through it all, she knew my Father loved her and thought she would still be the main beneficiary. Yet, imagine her fury when she found out he had excluded her completely and left his assets to me and . . .”

  “Marcus.” I finished for her as it all started to sink in. “She named Will as the Father, therefore removing Marcus as a recipient in the line for the estate.”

  “Oh God,” Liam sighed on a deep breath as he pressed his fingers to his temples.

  Grace was silent and I went to her and pulled her against me, holding her close to give support to both of us. She sighed and wrapped her arms around my waist but then turned back to Liam. “I have to find her.”

  “No.” Liam said immediately, “This goes too deep for me to cover up, Beaumont. You end her then I can’t cover it up and you will go down for it.”

  She stared at him and I frowned when her face softened and she pleaded with the whole of her soul, “Not if you give me chance to be out of the country before you report it.”

  “What the hell? No, just no.”

  “I have to do this Liam. I have to finish it, for my Father and for Marcus.”

  He closed his eyes and I stared in shock between the two of them, “Are you fucking crazy?”

  She looked up at me and the pain in her eyes twisted my soul and made it bleed. “Probably,” she whispered. “But I want you with me.”

  My eyes widened when her words hit my brain with force and I stuttered slightly. “You . . . you want me to run with you?”

  She nodded, “Yes, I want you with me Kade. If you say no then I’ll understand but I want you.”

  “Yes.” It came out of its own accord. There was no thought to put into it really. I wanted her, I wanted all of her and if that meant skipping the country and relocating, then I was all for it.

  “A fresh start.” She smiled and I was amazed by how wide my grin was.

  “God, yes. Just you and me.”

  She nodded and then cupped my face gently, “But I need you to let me do this, Kade.”

  “But, what if . . .”

  She shook her head firmly, “Don’t even go there. I do this then I return. I promise I won’t leave you alone.”

  I was terrified. Scared that something would go wrong and she wouldn’t come back to me . . . alive anyway, and I took her hand in mine and brought it to my mouth. “Then I promise you that if you don’t return to me . . . then I will follow you. Do you understand?”

  She frowned but then nodded, “I understand.”

  We both nodded and then she turned to Liam. “I need that address.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Grace

  KADE HELD THE side of my face and rested his forehead against mine. “Please don’t take any chances.”

  I nodded and smiled softly, “I promise.”

  I pulled away and checked all my kit out as I fought against the emotion that was swelling in my gut. I knew my Mother would be expecting me, she would be waiting for me and the possibility of things going wrong was huge, but I needed to end this; my Mother or not.

  “There is one thing, sweetheart.” Kade started and I turned to face him as his guilty tone filled me with worry.

  My jaw dropped when I scanned the room, “Holy Shit.”

  Stood behind Kade were Mason, Ava, Greg and Sam, all with wide smirks on their faces and each dressed in black with guns attached to their sides. “You don’t do this alone.” Kade finished and my heart swelled as I glanced from one of my ally’s to the other.

  “I can’t let you do this” I said to each of them but Mason shook his head.

  “Kade means a lot to us, Grace, therefore so do you. If anything happens to you then . . .” he swallowed harshly and blinked. “Then we lose Kade and I’m not prepared to let that happen.”

  “Okay, but I go in alone.”

  “That’s fine but we remain right outside the door. Any shit and I take her down, you do understand that?”

  “Yes.”

  He gave me a single nod as they all filed out of the room and Kade took hold of my hand. “Listen to me, Grace. I know she is your Mother and when faced with the task of taking her life, you will falter. I want you to picture Marcus when that happens. That boy suffered his whole life because of her, she took his life away before she’d hardly given it him and now he needs justice.”

  I nodded as I swallowed the pain back. There would be time to grieve Marcus later but now I needed to be strong. “He knew he was loved, whatever happened Kade. He knew.”

  He smiled at me and kissed me tenderly.

  “Fuck, I love you.” He whispered as his mouth hovered over mine.

  I gave him a quick kiss and ran my thumb across his cheekbone. “Shit, I love you more.”

  His chest heaved and my eyes watched the bob of his throat as he too swallowed back the emotion. “Impossible,” he finished.

  I gave him a simple nod before I turned and left, refusing to look back and telling myself that I would see him again.

  That was the promise I told myself. I just hoped God was listening.

  * * *

  “Hello Grace,” my Mother said as I walked quietly and slowly into the room.

  I didn’t return her greeting; I just stood silently taking in the familiar features and wondering how a mother’s love could turn so easily into hatred towards her children.

  “You took your time, I expected you earlier.”

  She perched delicately into a chair and opened her hand towards the other one for me to take as she demurely crossed her legs. She tipped her head and regarded me, her eyes scanning my body as she pursed her lips reverently. “You grew into a beautiful young woman. I always knew you would be stunning. You take after me for that.”

  I sat immobile and quiet as I waited for her to come to the conclusion I was there to kill her, but I think she already knew that.

  “Would you like a drink?”

  I shook my head still muted by the shock of seeing my Mother sat in front of me after nearly eighteen years of thinking her dead. It was quite surreal and I frantically fought against the relentless thump of my heart as it also tried to take stock of what was happening.

  She sighed and rolled her lips in thought. “Despite what you may think, I do love you.”

  It was laughable really. Of all the things I expected her to say, it wasn’t that and I scoffed and then laughed in astonishment. “Always the surprise aren’t you, Mother.”

  “Oh come on Grace, if anything I was always a good Mother.”

  I stared in shock at her, “I think your idea of good parenting and mine are vastly dissimilar.”

  She shrugged then reached to pick up her glass from the table in front of her and swirled the amber liquid around before she downed the contents in one. “I suppose you want answers before one of us dies tonight?”

  “Yes.”

  She drew in a large breath and then nodded. “Shall I start at the beginning?”

  “Always a good place,” I mocked sweetly and smiled inwardly as her face faltered with my tone.

  “Robert was a bastard, simple.”

  I snorted but remained silent as I waited for her to continue.

  “Kelly, Will’s Mother, was my best friend, that’s how I met him. I was their chief bridesmaid but she suffered with severe post-natal depression after she had Will. Basically, she couldn’t
cope and turned to drugs, which then escalated and before long she was addicted to heroin. Robert tried to help her, we both did, but she was too far gone to come back from it and Robert left her. But she had an ace up her sleeve . . . Will.”

  I stood and walked over to the sideboard to retrieve the vodka when I realised I did need that drink after all. She continued when I sat back down.

  “She demanded one hundred thousand pounds from him in exchange for Will. What sort of Mother can put a price on a child’s life?”

  My eyes widened and I choked slightly on the trickle of alcohol that was currently being swallowed.

  Was she fucking serious?

  “Of course, Robert didn’t think twice,” She continued, completely unaware of my shocked amazement to her statement. “He just dished it out like it was small change.” She barked out a laugh but I didn’t join her. I just shook my head at her and sipped at my drink. I was sure she had gone slightly crazy since I had last known her.

  She scratched at her nose and sniffed. I narrowed my eyes on her but let her continue.

  “I was there just to help him out with Will at first but eventually we fell in love and married. I loved Will like my own but Robert made me promise to never tell him about his mother. Something like that could be hard for a child, knowing your mother is a dirty drug addict.”

  I ran my tongue across my teeth to stop myself from voicing my opinion about my Mother’s current drug status.

  She leaned across and took the bottle then filled us both up before she settled back in the chair and stared at the fire, lost in thought until I coughed to remind her I was there.

  She rolled her eyes. “You always were impatient as a child, Grace. It seems you never grew out of it either.”

  “Will you just get on with it instead of acting like the caring Mother we both know you are not.”

  She blinked at me and even had the grace to appear hurt by my words but she tutted and tipped her head. “I had you and Robert started to spend more and more time at work, developing that damn program for the government. He completely forgot he had a family. He started screwing anything with a skirt at the office and just left me to bring you up. It’s hard you know, dragging your sorry life through the daily routine of being a Mother with no reward.”