Forever Grace by Linda Poitevin Page B

suspect you’ll be fine with him there.”
    Grace blinked. Now there was a tidbit she hadn’t expected. “Sean is a cop ?”
    “Fourteen years with Ottawa Police Service, I think he said. So you can breathe again, sweetheart. You and the kids are safe where you are.”
    Grace closed her eyes, holding back tears of sheer relief. Until Luc had spoken those words, she hadn’t realized how worried she’d been. The idea of packing them all up and moving them again, of having to find somewhere else that would be safe from Barry…
    But still. A cop? Given the kids’ history with their own “finest,” she’d have to keep that information away from them.
    “Thank God,” she said quietly. “I’m not sure what I would have done if you’d said otherwise.”
    “Rough week?” Luc’s voice was gentle. Concerned.
    That didn’t help ease the whole self-pity thing she had going at the moment. Grace swiped at the tears that spilled over. She tried not to sniffle.
    “Challenging,” she admitted. “Annabelle is teething, and the girls seem to be taking turns having nightmares. I’m up just about every night with one or the other.”
    “Hell, Grace,” her friend muttered. “You can’t keep this up. Not on your own.”
    “It’s not like I have much choice. Even if I could afford a nanny, it’s not like I can hire one all the way out here.”
    “I know. I just wish there was something I could do to help.”
    She laughed a short, bittersweet laugh. “Besides letting us live rent-free in your cottage, you mean? Or having Paul give me a safety rundown? Or looking after Julianne for me?”
    “All things that take next to no effort on my part.”
    “It’s more than you think, Luc, believe me. I don’t know what I would have done without you.” She took a steadying breath. “Speaking of Julianne…”
    “Unchanged.”
    A single word, filled with so much.
    Unchanged. Still in hospital. Still breathing on her own but attached to tubes and wires and machines monitoring the shadow of life that remained.
    Still not Julianne.
    She glanced toward the cottage where her sister’s four children sat at the picnic table on the deck with their drawing materials. It took several attempts to force the next question through a too-tight throat.
    “And Barry?”
    “Every cop in the city is watching for him. The blue line ends with what he did to Julianne, Grace. They want him caught at least as much as you do.”
    She curled her free hand into a fist so tight, her fingernails dug into her palm. “I know. But he’s smart, and he knows how they work, and—”
    “They’ll get him. Give them a chance.”
    “It’s been four weeks, Luc. Every single day he’s out there puts him closer to tracking us down.”
    “You’re still following all of Paul’s instructions? Lying low?”
    “Of course. We go to Perth no more than once every two weeks, and I never shop in the same place twice in a row.” She extracted her fingernails from her palm and rested an elbow on the arm of the chair. Wearily, she cradled her forehead. “Hell, I don’t even gas up at the same station two times in a row.”
    “Then you’re good. The van is rented in my name, Barry doesn’t know about my connection to your sister, you’re using a burner phone, you’re not in touch with anyone you know…there’s no way he can find you, Grace. I promise.”
    She nodded, needing to believe him.
    “Now, about Sean McKittrick,” he said.
    Grace’s heart kicked against her ribs. “What about him?”
    “I think you should tell him about your situation. He might be able to help.”
    “How? By throwing a crutch at Barry if he turns up?”
    “I don’t know. With the kids, maybe.”
    “The man is in a full leg cast and on heavy-duty painkillers, Luc. The last thing he needs to be doing is chasing after a two-year-old.”
    “Right.” Luc sighed. “Maybe not. Well, at least he makes for adult company.”
    “Yes, because he totally came out to his cottage in