Entangling: Book One of the Kirin Lane Series
Page 25
Yet.
She’d overheard Sam and Steve talking one night. Some die hard members of The Club were talking retribution. It made sense they’d come after Sam and Kirin for Saul’s death.
She’d heard Saul’s son, Todd, took over the business. But with their leader gone, most operatives fled. A few of the decent ones kept up with Sam, who was expunged from all wrongdoing by the government since he was trapped into service at sixteen.
Stacy transferred from day-shift with Kirin and moved to nights. Abruptly, she shut down all contact not only with Kirin, but with her brother Steve. Through the nurse grape-vine she discovered Stacy and Todd had flown out to Vegas and gotten married. Stacy still spoke to Laura, who encouraged Kirin to keep trying, hinting that maybe Stacy didn’t know who Saul was or how he’d died.
She missed her. Missed Stacy’s infectious laugh and her mischief. Missed their long talks and calling up at any hour and meeting for coffee to bounce things off one another. Kirin prayed her friend knew what she was doing. She worried about Stacy more and more. But all her attempts to reconnect were ignored.
Kirin busied herself with other things, not wanting to focus on it. She’d spent the last months being a paranoid wreck and she refused to go down that wormhole again. All she could do was pray Stacy would come to her senses and the organization would disband since their ruthless leader was dead.
One evening during their weekly Sunday cookout, Sam got an odd call. He’d developed a bond with a few guys on Steve’s team and they offered him a civilian desk job within the FBI. Sam howled. The irony of offering a member of a well-known organized crime outfit, a job where they’d seek justice. He smiled as he told them although he was flattered, but he couldn’t accept. He and Uncle Dean stood by the grill and pondered all the implications of it over a beer.
Aunt Kathy pulled an apple pie from the oven and it made Kirin smile at the thought of Kidd. She hoped he was safe and living somewhere tropical. She’d hadn’t thanked him for his help, but she was sure with his connections, he knew Saul was gone by now. The boys grabbed Arthur, Rosa and her sister and set up board games in the living room for after dinner.
As Sam walked into the kitchen carrying the burgers, his face fell. He set the burgers down and walked toward the front door. Kirin followed his line of sight. An old four door sedan had pulled down the long driveway. It sat running with the lights on just a few feet away from the porch. The driver hadn’t turned off the car and the headlights prevented them from determining who was inside.
Sam adjusted the pistol he carried on his hip. Kirin followed him to the front door, holding her breath. Sam pulled Kirin around behind him, protective as usual, and opened the front door a crack.
The engine cut. A long moment passed. When the creaky old door opened, a woman stepped out wearing a flowered dress, rings on her toes and holding a camera. Kirin squeezed Sam’s shoulder and pushed past him. Sam opened the door wide, with an even wider grin.
No matter what name she went by, Kirin’s Aunt Maggie had finally pushed past her fear and answered the dozens of invitations to come and be part of a family again. They welcomed her with open arms.
Maggie had saved them all with her pictures, and finally, they could give her lonely existence some life. As she walked through the front door, two little boys ran from the living room and hugged the woman they recognized from the store. Her face changed in an instant from anxious to full on joy.
Kirin glanced around at her life as loved ones bustled toward the dining room, food-filled plates in hand. She stood at the threshold of the door and smiled. Sam joined her and kissed the top of her head wrapping a warm arm around her. Like taking off a winter coat two sizes too small, she felt a release.
Kirin had turned over all the evidence to the FBI except for the smelly old Marine Corps Manual. She let them keep it for a few weeks to inspect it but demanded it back.
It had a special place on the mantle next to a picture of both of her parents.
Her family was intact, together, safe and happy.
Kirin knew her parents were proud.
~*~
Turn the page for a sneak peek of Book Two in the Kirin Lane series titled, Unraveling.
EXCERPT from Unraveling~
For a woman who lived the first thirty-nine years of her uneventful life wishing for more excitement, Kirin Lane now begged for ordinary. It was the second time in less than a year, she thought she was dead.
Obviously, she wasn’t livin’ right.
The first time, Saul Calamia—the leader of the crime group who enslaved her father and killed her mother—pressed a desperate gun to her forehead. She’d prayed then for a quick end.
As if that hadn’t jolted her enough, this time…she felt dead. Noise had ceased to exist. She lay face down on the cold, cafeteria floor of her employer, St. Mary’s hospital. Shards of glass rested comfortably next to her face like someone had sprinkled a sack of rock candy all around her. Vibrant rays of purples, reds and yellows reflected and bounced off the glass from sunlight filtering through the demolished wall next to her. It was terrifying and beautiful at the same time.
Black smoke hung in what was left of the hospital cafeteria, choking her like a dark cloud that refused to rise. She felt the pressure of a second blast, and closed her eyes, but still—no noise.
Nothing made sense. Her mind flashed images of the crisp fall day, her short drive to work and the smart, yellow scrubs she’d worn to instruct a fresh crop of incoming nurses. She remembered her jittering nerves dancing in her stomach in anticipation of today’s lunch date. Today was the day she was to see Stacy, her BFF who’d abruptly ended their friendship the night Saul died in her back yard.
Their mutual friend, Laura had been the one to hatch a plan to put them in the same room to air things out. She’d invited Stacy to lunch in the cafeteria where they’d all once worked.
In the few short months since Saul’s death, Stacy had become a recluse. She’d quit her nursing job, moved in with Todd—her fiancé nobody particularly liked who was also Saul’s son—and cut all ties with some friends and family. And most especially Kirin. Gone was the audacious, southern, spitfire she’d loved since nursing school. Now, she was skittish, pimped out with Saul’s money, and closed off.
The plan was for Kirin to grab food, waltz over and sit with them. Laura was positive they’d laugh and talk, like old times and pull Stacy out of her trance. The perfect plan. Except for one person who shouldn’t have been there—Scar. He was Saul’s brother and right-hand man. The undertaker of “The Club.” The same man who’d chased her in the airport and ransacked her house.
Kirin had snagged a chicken salad sandwich and an unsweet tea. As she’d waited to pay, she caught sight of a familiar face with a scar running down one cheek. She’d frozen in place. His head snapped up at that exact second. Their eyes met. A smirk trickled across his lips. She’d been so nervous to see Stacy, she hadn’t thought to check her surroundings first, like Sam and Stacy’s estranged FBI brother Steve, had cautioned her to do, always.
Now, her hearing came back. Every noise sounded like loud whispers directly in her ears. Muffled screams, glass breaking, thuds that sounded like blocks falling on tile, car alarms—or maybe hospital alarms, she couldn’t tell, all were jumbled inside her ears.
She was a nurse for Pete’s sake. She’d been trained to help in an emergency. She should get to her feet and help the others. But in that moment, she only wanted to close her eyes and let the dark overtake her. The scraped fingers on her left hand however, had other plans. They walked curiously toward one large piece of the blown-out window to touch it.
Squinting, she pulled her eyes into focus. Through the broken glass, a distorted wave of sandy brown hair covering a face, came into view. The person’s neck was coated in dust and blood.
Focus. Kirin pushed off her toes and balanced her weight on her left elbow. Then she dug her elbow in like an oar, barely registering the sharp glass cutting it. She used
the momentum to shift her body forward. A few more inches and she could move the hair covering the person’s face. Her right arm must’ve been broken or gone because it wasn’t responding. And she couldn’t turn her head to the right without unbearable pain shooting through her right shoulder.
She pushed off once more to align her good arm within reach of the hair. As her brain and eyes focused better, she realized this was a woman. With her fingers outstretched, she gently lifted the blood-soaked hair off the woman’s face. Kirin’s hand recoiled as if she’d touched a snake. A sob bubbled up in her throat right before everything went dark. One thought screamed in her subconscious as tears fell and she let the dark pull her under…
Laura. They got Laura.
End of Excerpt
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Other titles by Kelley Griffin:
Binding Circumstance Find it here
A Mind Unequal, Book One of the Casey King Series Find it here