I shudder as a chill runs down my spine. It hasn’t even crossed my mind that this could be a murder. Could someone have killed him? His dad was not a likeable man, and he likely had a lot of enemies. I yawn, feeling emotionally drained.
“Why don’t you get some sleep while they’re gone. You look exhausted,” Sophie suggests. I nod in agreement and finishing my brew, I place my cup in the dishwasher and head up to my room.
I lie down and stare up at the ceiling. Just two days ago we were planning our future and now, well, who the hell knows? Would Grayson inherit his Dad’s business now? Will the board expect him to step up and take the helm? Were our Ibiza plans now just a distant dream?
I feel soft kisses on my thighs that make me shudder in pleasure. I rub my eyes as I slowly awaken and it’s to find Grayson between my legs kissing up my thighs.
“Gray,” I mumble, sitting up on my elbows. “You’re back.”
He reaches up and puts a finger to my lips shushing me as his lips continue to drop barely there kisses up and down my thighs.
I frown. As much as I am enjoying what he is doing. He has just been to the police station to talk to them about his dead father.
I reach down and gently tug his head up, forcing him to look at me.
“Talk to me,” I urge him, searching his eyes for some clue as to how he was dealing with all this.
Grayson closes his eyes for a beat, and then he meets my concerned gaze. “They think he was murdered.”
A cold chill races through my body. “Murdered,” I repeat, unable to process this news.
Grayson sits up and nods. “Shot at point blank range.”
I sit up on my knees and shuffle towards him until I can sit myself in his lap and wrap my arms around his neck.
“I’m so sorry, Posh,” I tell him, dropping a kiss on his cheek. “Are you okay?”
Grayson scoffs. “Is it terrible that I feel nothing? No guilt, no sadness, no loss. I hated my father, there was no love between us.”
I nod. I understood. I know how fucked up their relationship was, but he was still his father.
“I’ve hated him for as long as I can remember. Thank fuck I was in Ibiza when he was shot or I’d likely be suspect number one on the polices list.”
He is right. It is something that hasn’t crossed my mind, and I thank the heavens that we were miles away in sunny Ibiza when his father took his last breath.
“Do they have a suspect?”
Grayson sniggers. “There’ll be a long line of suspects, baby. My father was not a well-liked man, he’d trample on anyone to get to where he wanted to be.”
Grayson yawns. He looks exhausted.
“You need to sleep,” I tell him. “You get your head down and I’ll see if dad has got any updates from his solicitor.”
I go to climb off his knee, but he places a hand on my thigh, stopping me in my tracks. There’s vulnerability in his eyes as he holds me. “Ev, would you stay with me? I just need to hold you?”
I nod. I’ll give him anything he needs. Whatever helps him get through this. I climb off him and guide him down onto the bed with me, and he pulls me against him so that my back is flush with his chest. He wraps his arm around my stomach and I place my hands over his, offering him physical reassurance.
“Sleep, Gray. I’ve got you.”
A HAND GENTLY TAPS my shoulder and I open my eyes to find my dad standing over my bed. He offers me a soft smile.
“Sorry to wake you both, but we need to get Emily and tell her what’s happened.”
Grayson tenses behind me.
My guy is going to have to tell his little sister that their father has been murdered in their family home. It will devastate her. As much as she has recently seen the darker side to her dad, she has always idolised him and held him up on some imaginary pedestal.
We’re quiet as we both shower and change. In the shower, I wash him while he stands there in silence and just watches me. He sits on the bed as I look through the pile of clothes that Sophie has laundered and dried while we slept for a couple of hours, and I walk over to him and hand him a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. He looks up at me as he takes the clothes from me and he smiles. It is a sad smile that breaks my heart. I hate that he’s going through this. He has been through enough in this life, finding his mother dead by her own hands at such a young age. Why is it that some people are dealt blow after blow and others breeze through life, experiencing no real tragedy of any kind?
Dad takes us on the two-hour drive to Emily’s boarding school. I’m sitting in the back with Grayson. His hand grips mine as he stares out through the passenger window.
Dread pools in my stomach when we pull up in the elaborate drive of the prestigious school with its high sweeping gothic towers and gothic architecture.
“Do you want to do this alone or do you want me or my dad with you?” I ask him before we climb out of the car.
He looks at me and then at my dad before he answers. ‘Would it be okay if you were both there with me? I’m not great at this kind of thing.”
I nod at the same time as my dad tells him we’ll both be there with him.
Chapter 9
THE HEAD MISTRESS GREETS us with and offers Grayson her deepest condolences. Grayson smiles politely as she informs him that Emily
