Position of Honor The Honor Series Book Two

Prologue

It wasn't until after Pierce was sure she was unconscious that he searched the house. God, he thought back, it had taken hours, it seemed, before he had found the book. He thought everything was there, everything he needed to save his reputation, to save his skin. He had been wrong. Candace had been smart, how she had been able to come up with it he didn't know. She must have bribed someone for help. That was the only conclusion he could come to that made any sense. Unfortunately, that meant there was someone who knew his secret. Pierce cringed. It had to have been the daughter. She would have been the last person he would have suspected and the first who would have profited from Candace's claim that he was her father.

His mind went over the details of that night. He had wanted to scare Candace, to knock her out just long enough to find what she was holding over him and get rid of it. If she wasn't able to use it against him, he could be rid of her once and for all.  If he could make her believe she was going to die by his hands if she ever tried again, then maybe, just maybe, she would back off. Pierce felt she needed reminding who held the power in this town. He didn't anticipate the drugs he gave her would react so violently with the ones she already had in her system. But then he had no idea how much she had already taken besides the two when he had arrived. It hadn't been his intention to kill her, although the effects of the situation worked to his advantage. Until now, Pierce thought he had gotten away with it.

When he realized she was dead, the sheer shock jolted his system. Even he was capable of feeling that small glint of fear. It wasn't enough to keep him from finishing the problem at hand. He moved calmly and fluidly around the room. Wiping away any trace of his presence. He had made sure no one would think twice about her death. She had been on prescription medication for years. Candace drank heavily. She had sex with every man she could and even a few she had to work for. She was an embarrassment to her child and to herself.

The poor kid had been a wallflower her entire life, hiding from her mother's indiscretions and making herself damn near invisible. She had been talked about in the local hair parlor, the diner and the bank. Any gathering of people would talk about how bad Candace had become and how sorry they felt for the poor child. The poor child, he thought. He could have saved her, he supposed. He could have taken her in and kept Candace's claws out of her, but that would have meant admitting the child was his. Candace was a blemish on his reputation, one he wasn't willing to acknowledge. He had made a mistake and wasn't about to make another by acknowledging the child was his.

Pierce knew he wouldn't hand over the deed to his home or even the items Candace had requested. He wasn't about to give up a thing when the child wasn't his blood. But perhaps a small token in his good will wouldn't be a bad idea. Provided his death was by natural causes. He had to think that one over carefully. He did just that for a few years after Candace's death. It was when he felt safe again, when he added the small addendum to his will. Rest in peace, Candace, he had thought as he took a drink. Lifting his rocks glass he toasted the wench. In the end, Candace was alone. The man she claimed was the father of her child didn't want her. Hell, her child didn't want her. She was desperate and alone. It wasn't hard to see she easily could have committed suicide. Pierce had managed to explain his presence at Candace's home, claiming he found her after she had made an urgent call for his help. Candace had called. He had the phone record to prove it. She was at the end of her rope. Everyone knew she wasn't in her right mind lately. In the end, it made things much easier on him.

"Contemplating life?" the rough voice in the doorway said, pulling him from the memory.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Pierce's anger was evident in his face as he turned around to see the familiar man standing in his office. "It's well past visiting hours. What if someone saw you?"

Smiling, Pierce's visitor walked into the room. No one had seen him. No one would suspect a thing even if they had. As an ex-Ranger, he was smart, he was known. Most of all, he was still on duty and his boss for the night was in that room. The idea of him being there was nothing he couldn't explain, if need be. He knew it and had made sure his cover was secure in every sense, before he drove out to the huge mansion on the hill.

Pierce was extremely meticulous when it came to his own safety. He had recruited men left and right from the Marines to the local police department. Anywhere someone could be bought, he would buy them. Pierce had many men at his disposal at all times. For him to call on one of his men from the police to come check things out was nothing new.

"No one saw me. No one knows I'm here...except you and me." He picked up the heavy granite paperweight from Pierce's desk and measured it in his hands. Taking in the weight and texture, he began tossing the rock from hand to hand. An edge came into his eyes as he looked up and smiled. "Isn't that convenient?"

The steel in the man's eyes told Pierce everything. Pierce Stone had never seen anyone look at him with such animosity and such anger as he was faced with at that moment. Even Candace, with all her hatred, never looked as wild and uncontrolled as this man did. Pierce stepped around the huge desk. He was large enough to intimidate most anyone he had a confrontation with. Hovering over the man, Pierce made it clear from his posture he wasn't happy at all with this defiant presence in his home.

"We already finished our conversation earlier. I don't see any point of you being here now. I suggest you leave, before I have you removed." It was usually all that was needed to get someone out of his home.

Everyone knew he had ten members of his staff available always. Pierce was never alone. He made sure of that for his own protection. You didn't get to where Pierce Stone was without precautions. You weren't as hated as he was without making enemies. Turning his back on the man who had annoyed him enough to ruin the night, Pierce walked back to his place at the window. "I'm tired. It's time for you to leave. If what you have to say is that important, we'll discuss it in the morning prior to your shift. Good night."

Pierce didn't turn around. He wasn't given the chance as pain seared through the back of his head. He could feel the warm trickle of blood running down the side of his temple as he reached up toward his attacker. Pierce's body crumpled to the floor. The man crammed something small and round into Pierce's mouth and held it closed tight.

"I think we'll talk now," he growled while struggling to keep Pierce down on the ground. "Let's see how you like it." As the capsules dissolved in his mouth, Pierce's fight for freedom grew weaker.

He felt his arms grow heavy. His legs trembled with a loss of strength he never knew. His body fell into a heap on the antique Oriental rug. With his eyes still open, the man hovered over Pierce briefly before moving to the far wall. Pierce's body was paralyzed as he watched. His breathing was labored, his heart racing as the drug kept him down. He saw the man remove the landscape portrait from the wall and open the safe that had been there for more years than anyone could count.

He knew the combination, he knew the security, and he knew the layout of the house all too well. He had been inside of Stone's domain too many years not to. He removed the black box and opened it briefly, checking the contents before securing the lid. He wiped all traces of prints from where he had touched and closed the safe back up. He hadn't touched anything else, but the granite paperweight. Quickly, he tossed the room sending file folders all over the floor, breaking vases, dumping drawers. By the time he was done, the office was in shambles. Pierce watched in silent horror as the room was destroyed. He could do nothing, but wait, watch and hope someone would come in time to save him.

The man took the paperweight as well as the box and left the room, leaving Pierce to struggle within himself and gag before his ultimate death.  It would take another forty-five minutes for the drugs to take effect. The first step was to immobilize him. The second was to get the evidence. Now, he waited for the man to die. In the end, with one phone call the daughter would be coming home soon and he could finish what he started all those years ago.