Grace's story ~ part 21

Read the first part of Grace's story here.



Grace started awake and realized she had been dreaming. Drained by the adreneline overload of this maddening day, she had collapsed in a heap at the roadside phone when Mike hung up on her.

She realized she couldn't stay here. Bastian might find her on the side of the road, not that far from the cottage where he'd left her. Grace was shaking when she slid into the driver's seat of the Mercedes and buckled up. Now she needed to sort out what had happened, what was real, what was not, and most of all, what to do next.

The need for action, the need to do something, anything, must have propelled Grace into that realistic dream of avenging herself against Asia. Where had that person come from, the one who thought to check the clip of a gun? Had she been watching too much television? Grace was afraid to trust her own thinking, but who else did she have?

Starting the engine, she drove off in the direction away from the cottage, trying at the same time to use the car's navigation system to figure out how to fly under the radar. She needed to make some decisions quickly before Bastian's henchmen figured out she had this car and found a way to use the car's own system to track her.

As she approached the city, she saw a Starbucks and decided coffee would give her the jolt she needed. And then she remembered she had no money, no credit cards, no way to do the necessary things for survival. Who could she call?

When she glanced into her rearview mirror, she realized that car had been following her for some time now and decided to make a few turns to get rid of it. When she turned left at an intersection, so did the other vehicle. When she turned left again, the car followed suit. Panic began to well up in her, constricting her throat. When she slowed down, the car zipped around her ... and then stopped so suddenly she had to slam on her brakes.

The man who jumped out of the car with his hands in the air looked familiar. Had she seen him with Bastian? Grace was terrified.

The man yelled, "Grace! It's okay!"

She had slammed the car into reverse and was starting to back up when he shouted, "Grace, it's me! It's Mike." And she started crying with relief as she recognized his face.

* * *

They abandoned the Mercedes behind a grocery store so that it was not visible from the road, and Mike was questioning Grace about everything that she had experienced since the day before. When she told him about ramming Asia against the wall and shoving the muzzle into her mouth to kill her, he looked at her gravely.

"That didn't happen," he said.

She began to doubt her sanity. "Did I dream it, as I thought earlier?"

"I don't know, but you didn't return to the cottage, so you didn't kill Asia. Unless she bled to death from the cuts sustained when the glass top of the table shattered," he said.

"I'm afraid to tell you about another phone call," she whispered, and he turned to look at her.

"What phone call?"

"I thought it was Bastian. The name 'Seb' showed up in the caller I.D."

"Seb?"

"Bastian."

"You're saying he called you?"

"No, he was calling Asia. The phone was ringing in her pocket, and I answered it."

"After you killed her?" Mike asked.

"Yes," Grace said tentatively, almost whispering.

"But that didn't happen," he reminded her gently. "If you didn't kill her, then you weren't there to answer her cell phone."

"What's happening?" Grace wailed softly. "Am I going crazy?"

"You are stressed out," he responded.

They drove several miles in silence, but he could see that Grace was beside herself. He knew he'd have to find a safe place to revive her physically and mentally, with coffee and some information.