Finding Gracie's Rainbow (28 page)

Jackson’s friend spotted
him and pulled his cell phone out pretending to talk as he passed
Jackson’s window. “Meet me at the next set of
apartments.”

“
Gotcha, Christian.”
Jackson drove over to the set of apartments that were out of the
view of his own. “They must not have Mark yet and don’t want to
blow their cover. You can get out now.” He saw that Gracie was
smiling as she reached for the door handle.

Jackson walked over to
stand beside her as Christian pulled up beside his car with Bea.
Christian opened the door, watching as the little girl rushed to
her mother’s waiting arms. He looked over at Jackson after standing
there for a minute. “Susan Cameron took a heck of a beating. She
had stepped in front of Bea when she realized what Mark was
intending to do.” Christian turned back to watch the mother and
daughter. “She says that she had wanted nothing to do with the
kidnapping but seeing as she was on house arrest, she couldn’t
leave.”

“
Will she be a witness?”
Jackson asked as Gracie glanced up at them.

“
She will.” Christian
slapped Jackson on the back as he started to leave. “I love a happy
ending.”

“
So do I.” He smiled as he
walked over to Gracie and Bea. Jackson hugged both of them tightly
to him. “Let’s go home and watch the rest of this on the evening
news.”

“
Home.” Bea sighed as she
got in the back seat of Jackson’s car.

Jackson looked back at her
through the mirror. “Yes, home, that' where the heart is.” He
turned to Gracie as she started dialing Kim’s number.

“
Not without the people
you care about.” Gracie added as she waited for Kim to answer. She
smiled as she told Kim that they were all on the way home and asked
that she call the rest of the family. She called her office
afterwards and listened as Addison screamed the news out to the
rest of her coworkers.

“
Gracie.” Mr. Foster had
taken the phone away from Addison. “Take some vacation. I can stay
for the rest of the week.”

“
Thank you, sir.” Gracie
flipped the phone closed and turned around to see Bea smiling while
they passed the familiar houses.

Kim was waiting for them
and smiled as she saw Jackson pull up into the driveway. She had
already called her parents and Paige.

Gracie looked up at Jackson
as Bea went to hug her aunt. “Thank you, Jackson.” She smiled as
she laid the phone down on the table next to the door. “I don’t
think I could've handled this if you weren’t here for
me.”

“
That’s what friends are
for.” Jackson looked down trying to read the expression on her face
as she shook her head. “What? You don’t want to be friends
again?”

“
No, I don’t.” She laughed
at the expression on his face as she added. “I think that I'm ready
to give us a chance.” She walked off into the kitchen realizing
that she was hungry.

“
Well, it’s about time.”
Janet chuckled as she had overheard what Gracie told Jackson as she
had walked into the house.

Gracie looked over at her
puzzled, “For what?” She took a jar of peanut butter out of the
pantry watching her mother smile before she walked off in search of
Bea.

Jackson laughed as he
walked over to where she was standing. “She overheard you,
Cinderella. Don’t stuff yourself. I'm taking the clan out to
celebrate Bea coming home.”

“
Sorry, I'm hungry now.”
She talked as she bit into the sandwich. Gracie threw half of the
sandwich away before she walked to Bea’s room. It felt so good to
have her daughter home.

Bea glanced up at her
feeling the same way her mother did.

Chapter 13

Gracie jumped out of the
bed when she heard screaming down the hall. She almost ran Annie
over as they both headed to Bea’s room.

Gracie sat down on the bed
and hugged Bea as she tried to wake her up from the nightmare she
was having.

Annie looked down as she
felt Garrison come up beside her. He had still not talked since Bea
had come home.

“
I’m sorry, Gracie.” The
little brown-eyed boy spoke out.

Gracie looked over at him
and then at Annie before she focused on Garrison again. “There's
nothing for you to be sorry about.” Gracie said as Bea opened her
eyes.

“
Yes, there is.” Garrison
looked up at his mother who was waiting for him to finish. “He came
up to me on the playground and asked where he could find Bea.”
Garrison paused. “We were told not to talk to strangers, and I did.
I pointed to where Bea was playing.”

“
It's okay, Garrison.”
Gracie smiled at him as she tried to reassure the boy. “You had no
idea.”

“
I was mad at Bea because
she wouldn’t play ball.” Garrison admitted as he glanced over at
Bea. “I knew better.”

“
Yes, you did.” Annie
didn't want to scold him too much because he was already feeling
guilty. “But you can help us now.”

“
How?” Garrison looked up
at his mother.

“
Bea needs a friend.”
Annie informed him. “And we need to have her talk about her
adventure.”

Gracie raised her eyes at
Annie’s choice of wording. She reached over to Bea’s dresser,
picked up the little pink brush and started brushing her daughter’s
hair.

“
I don’t like him.” Bea
finally spoke and they turned their attention to her. “I’m glad
that he left us.”

Gracie continued to brush
as she listened to her daughter. “Are you ready to talk about it
now?”

She nodded her head. “I
tried to let Mrs. Dalton know that it wasn’t right, but he pulled
me away too fast. She had motioned for him to stop.” Bea paused as
she watched Garrison starting to squirm beside Annie. “Garrison ran
over to Mrs. Dalton, and I saw her talking on the radio.” She
started to relax as Gracie continued to brush. “He put a paper bag
over my head, and we drove away. When he took the bag off, I knew
where I was.” She smiled as she remembered the Friday before when
they had visited Jackson. “We walked into an apartment, and he
introduced me to Susan.”

“
His wife,” Gracie
encouraged her to go on.

“
She didn’t like the fact
that he had taken me from the school, and they got into a big
fight.” Bea paused as her mother stopped brushing. “He told her
that since you sold your book you could afford to pay to get me
back; otherwise she was going to be my mother.” She heard her
mother gasp. “She screamed that he already killed her baby, and
that he wasn’t going to lay a hand on me. That was when he called
you the first time.”

“
What happened after
that?” Annie had sat down on the bed, and Garrison had plopped down
in the beanbag chair as they all listened to her.

“
He told her to shut up
and fix him something to eat and then he locked me in one of the
bedrooms.” Bea’s eyes were clouded over. “Susan waited until after
he left to meet you and snuck some food into me and told me that
she had a plan to get me out of there, but I had to patient. She
started talking about your book. She had really loved
it.”

“
She didn’t tell you her
plan?” Gracie asked as she felt gratitude to the woman that had
protected Bea from Mark.

“
Not until after,” Bea
stopped talking as she was about to tell the part that she had
dreamed about.

“
Bea, you can talk about
this later if you want.” Gracie noticed the tears that were
starting to form in her daughter’s eyes.

“
No. I need to finish.”
Bea wiped her eyes on her gown sleeve. “He came back really mad,
and I heard him open the bedroom door where I was at. I never knew
that you could see hate.” She wished her mother would start to
brush her hair again, and Gracie saw that she was looking at the
brush. Gracie started to brush again, and Bea continued. “Susan
stepped in front of me. He beat her up bad, but she didn’t let him
touch me.”

“
She was the silver
lining.” Gracie mumbled as she absently stopped
brushing.

“
She knew that he was
going to leave again, and after he had gone, she called somebody
named Carolyn to give you a message. She didn’t know your number,
and if she didn’t hear from you by the afternoon, she was going to
walk out of the apartment and set some kind of alarm
off.”

“
She was on house arrest.”
Annie spoke up after listening to Bea. “If she had stepped out, she
would’ve sent an alarm out to the police, and she would've been
arrested.” Annie smiled as Garrison glanced at her because his
father had been on house arrest. “That would've been a big
sacrifice.”

Bea glanced back at her
mother. “He came back angrier than before, but Susan asked him to
go to the store for her to get him back out of the apartment in
case you called. That was when she had given up on you calling back
and was about to step out the door.”

“
And then the detectives
were standing there ready to take you from the place.” Gracie
smiled as she remembered Jackson’s friend, Christian, carrying Bea
out with a blanket covering her in case Mark made an appearance.
“Jackson was really grateful to Christian.”

“
Christian?” Annie asked
as she smiled.

“
You know him?” Gracie
looked up in amusement at the look on her roommate’s
face.

“
Maybe, I’ve seen him
around the office and at Jackson’s place.” Annie motioned for
Garrison to follow her out of the room. “Tall, very good looking,
and he seems to get along with kids.”

Gracie made a mental note
of what Annie had said before turning to look back at Bea. “Would
you like to sleep with me for the rest of the night?”

Bea picked up her teddy
bear and slid out of the bed not having to give an answer to her
mother before they walked down the hall to Gracie’s bedroom. Gracie
hugged her tightly after they had settled down in the bed as she
thought about the last couple of days.

She had forgotten not to
set her alarm clock and was up at her usual time. Gracie didn’t
feel a need to go back to sleep, and she glanced down to look at
Bea still sleeping. Smiling, she walked into the kitchen where she
saw Annie sitting down at the table with Garrison. “Why is Garrison
up so early?”

“
I have to take him to
Kim’s.” Annie watched as Gracie walked over to the coffee pot and
poured herself a cup.

“
He can stay here. I was
ordered to take a vacation until Monday.” Gracie couldn't keep the
smile off her face as she sat down at the table with them. “We can
give Kim a break for a couple of days.” She watched as Garrison
rewarded her with a smile.

“
I’m taking it that you
like that idea.” Annie watched her son with interest as he jumped
up from the table.

“
I love that idea.” The
little boy ran to Bea’s room; frowning when he didn't see her. “I
thought Bea was home.” He started to panic as he started to think
that he had been dreaming.

“
She's in my room.” Gracie
laughed at him before turning back to Annie. “So what is the deal
with this Christian?”

“
Are you interested?”
Annie frowned as she thought about her cousin.

“
No.” Gracie hadn't told
her about what she had told Jackson. “But I might know somebody who
is.”

“
Good luck with that,”
Annie stood as she glanced at Gracie. “He's married to his job.”
She walked over to kitchen sink after she had picked up the dishes
from the table.

“
You think?” Gracie was
still watching as she planned on talking to Jackson about what she
had already figured out. “I told Jackson that I didn’t want to be
friends again yesterday.”

“
Tell me you didn’t,
Gracie. How much more torture can you put him through?” Annie
turned to her angrily as she caught the smile on Gracie’s
face.

“
You're going to be late.”
Gracie looked at the clock after she turned around from Annie
trying not to laugh because she was so happy.

“
Changing the subject. I
want to know what happened.” Annie glanced over at her before
grabbing her keys.

“
We’re going to give us a
chance.” That was all Gracie said as she stood up to refill her
cup.

“
So you've finally seen
the light.” Annie smiled at her before she walked to the door. “It
was past due.”

“
I think I have.” She
walked over to the couch and turned on the news after Annie left.
She watched the arrest of Mark on the television, and she also saw
Susan being carried out on a stretcher. She could feel nothing but
gratitude for Mark’s wife and wished there was some way that she
could thank her.

Gracie listened to Garrison
and Bea playing outside with the puppies before she went to check
her email. Mr. Foster said for her to take a vacation, but he
didn't say anything about not working from home. She smiled as she
finished up on the computer and walked out to the backyard where
the children were playing on the swing set.

She heard Kim talking to
her from the front of the fence and yelled that they were there and
to come on around. Sammie walked in with her.