Page 60 of Possession

“Don’t worry, Intense Dude. I’m just going to crack the code and let you guys look at what’s inside. I’ve got clearance higher than your entire company combined. I don’t give two shits what’s on Granny’s diary.”

“Annabelle would be flipping out about all the shots about grandmothers.”

“Yeah, well, this granny kinda rocks,” Lucy said from the FaceTime screen. Her fingers flew over her double keyboard. “But I’m better.”

Ten minutes later, and another lesson in insults later, she slapped a cup down on the table on her side.

I jumped.

“Got it.”

Jack clapped. “You are my goddess, Lu.”

“And don’t you forget it.” She tipped her head, and I noticed the ends of her hair were the same blue as her lashes. “Peace out, bitches.”

And the screen went black.

Folders unfurled on the screen. Folders inside folders, and spreadsheets. So many spreadsheets. It was going to take us weeks to decipher it all.

“Holy shit,” Jack said.

I swiped my hand over my face. “What the hell were you into, Grandmother?” I frowned. “What’s that file? It’s not a spreadsheet.”

Blake pushed Jack out of the way and popped open the Word document.

“It looks like more diary pages.” He tabbed through them. “And a video file.” He double-clicked the file and my grandmother’s face filled the screen.

Eyes so much like my own stared back at me.

“If you’re seeing this video, then I’m dead. Whomever is watching this must protect my granddaughter, Grace Cordelia Copeland. She’s in danger.”

Redemption

Chapter 15

Blake

My assistant was in danger.

My lover.

My…Grace. She was mine in so many ways, and I’d wanted her for so long that I scarcely remembered what it was to breathe without her in my head. She’d intoxicated me from the first day I’d laid eyes on her so many years ago.

Now I had to worry someone wanted to cause her harm. Worse, that her grandmother’s tangled past and my own misdeeds would be the catalyst.

“It doesn’t make any sense.” She stared at the files from the old thumb drive plugged into my CEO Jack Hollister’s borrowed laptop, scouring them as she had been for hours. Jack had left a while ago, and I’d said Grace and I would be heading to bed.

But she couldn’t pull herself away. And because I’d intended to get her to sleep only so I could do some digging of my own once she was safely resting, neither could I.

“Why would she hide diary pages on here? In code, no less? Never mind all the rest of this stuff. It’s going to take forever for us to go through it all.”

“Who’s to say why anyone does anything?” It was a pat, hollow answer, and I wasn’t at all surprised that Grace narrowed her eyes at me.

She’d been surrounded by enough liars that she could probably identify them at fifty paces. I didn’t doubt one bit that she far from fully trusted me.

As she shouldn’t, because I was lying to her too.

“She lived a long, full life,” I began, shutting up as Grace turned her attention back to the computer screen.

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