Page 45 of Finding Silence
“Yeah, Duncan?” I suddenly hear Grace.
I shift my gaze to the doorway to find her standing there, a gun aimed at my attacker. Relief washes over me and I briefly close my eyes.
“Gracie?” He looks surprised.
“What are you doing?” she repeats my words, staring hard at Dunk.
He shakes his head, as if to clear it, but the knife remains at my throat.
“Taking care of business, Gracie”
“I don’t understand,” I interject, confused myself. “Call 911, Grace.”
Her eyes fix on me and the moment I look into them I immediately know something is very wrong.
“I will, but not yet,” she drawls lazily. “Not until Duncan here finishes the job. Finish the job, Duncan.”
“But you said?—”
“Not until you finish the job.”
“What job? What is going on? What are you talking about?”
My voice reaches a panicked pitch as I try to wrap my head around what is happening.
Grace?
“I need my fix, Gracie,” Duncan whines, the tip of the blade cutting my skin.
“And you’ll get it, as soon as you fucking finish…the…job!”
Suddenly the blade disappears from my neck, but as I start rolling away, I get punched in the side. A sharp hot pain spreads, taking my breath as I involuntarily roll back. My eyes lock on Dunk, who looks like he’s about to cry. I press a hand to my side, feeling something warm ooze between my fingers.
“Again,” I hear Grace order and I shift my attention to her.
“Why? Why would you want to kill me?”
“Wait,” Duncan interrupts. “You said hurt, not kill.”
I catch the narrowing of Grace’s eyes, before the shot goes off. A hot spray hits my face as the back of Dunk’s head explodes. He collapses on the bed beside me.
“We were fine, you and I,” she says calmly, as if she didn’t just blow a man’s brains out. “This would not have been necessary if you hadn’t gotten a wild hair and bought a fucking house out in the middle of nowhere. I knew it was only a matter of time before it came to light.”
“Know what?” I ask, my voice fading and my sight growing dim.
I’m desperate to understand, as Grace approaches the bed and reaches for the knife Duncan dropped, raising it over me.
But no answer is forthcoming and the last thing I hear is the loud reverberation of another gunshot before my world goes dark.
Chapter 15
Brant
* * *
Roy’s comment someone had to have known the locations of the cameras stuck with me.
Grace immediately came to mind, especially since—according to Roy—she had seemed extremely interested when he was installing the alarm, but I don’t think she was necessarily responsible for the damage to Phil’s belongings.
