Veils: A Killers Novel, Book 4

by Asher, Brynne

  “You cheated on mom and call it our issues?”

  He inhales so deep I’m surprised his lungs don’t burst. “Appearances aren’t everything, Noah. Take my word for it. Lives everywhere are cloaked from transparency.”

  Don’t I know it. “You mean how people bury their shit?”

  He shakes his head. “No. That’s not what I mean. How did you find out after all this time?”

  I look him dead in the eye. “You’re unbelievable.”

  “Dammit, Noah!”

  “Calvin. Calvin Prosk.”

  He jerks and shakes his head. “Who?”

  Fuck. He really doesn’t know?

  “Are you for real? He’s your fucking son.”

  And I thought my world shifted yesterday. My father’s face falls in an instant, and even through the dark lights, I can see something that looks similar to pain replaces his frustration. Even though I might be estranged from the man, I know him enough to realize he had no clue Calvin Prosk was walking the earth.

  I can barely hear him when he whispers, “No.”

  “Yes. Your son, whom you share with Camilla Prosk—the product of your infidelities years ago.”

  “Oh my God.” He takes another step back, the news washing over him like a tidal wave sucking him under its current. “She never told me. I had no idea.”

  And dammit my phone. I wouldn’t be surprised if it burns a hole in my back pocket. I pull it out and my insides go tight when I see the messages and calls I’ve missed and who they’re from.

  “Hold that thought,” I mutter and click on the most recent text because after I left Europe, I never thought I’d hear from her again.

  Donnelly – For fuck’s sake, Maverick! Answer your bloody fucking phone when I ring you!

  She’s called four times. Two more from Crew, one from Asa, and damn if Carson didn’t hit me up for the first time since I started working with Crew. Asa is his contact and I only have his number in case of an emergency. I’ve only contacted him once when I needed to find out everything I could about Gracie, which was an emergency at the time. But an emergency to these people is life and death—more death than life in most cases.

  I count even more texts which raises my blood pressure but I don’t have time to read them because I get another call and this time my gut tells me to answer it.

  “Tell me what the hell’s going on, Noah. How did you find out?” my father demands.

  I hold my hand up to him and take her call. “This is Jarvis.”

  I think it puts me even more on edge when Donnelly doesn’t criticize me. “Where are you?”

  “Annapolis. Why?”

  “I know that, you fruitcake.” There’s the condemning Spice Girl I’ve come to find irritating as hell. She’s winded and moving fast as she speaks. “I mean where are you and do you have your little lady close?”

  At that, my stomach sinks and I turn on my heel just as the first firework explodes in the air. I hear my father call after me but all I can think about is Gracie and ignore him. “I’m in the boathouse at the back of my parent’s property. The last I saw, Gracie was with my mom in the house but I have no idea where she is now.”

  “Find her and both of you stay put. Strong intelligence shows that people are on their way to your location right now.”

  “Who?” I demand.

  “O’Dowd’s family and they are brassed off he’s gone from this world.”

  “More of them? Shit. Keep me filled in.” I glance at my father on my way out and growl, “Stay inside the boathouse. I’ve got to find Gracie and Mom.”

  The sky is lit up, fire exploding as colorful as my mother’s art, enabling me to see my footing as I make my way up the hill to the house.

  “Noah!”

  I look to the side and can’t believe my eyes. As if this couldn’t turn into even more of a shitshow—it’s my long-lost brother. He’s rushing across the lawn toward me while the father he’s never met and who didn’t know he existed until about two seconds ago, is waiting behind me in the boat house. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  “I’m sorry. You wouldn’t take my calls and Hollingsworth told me where to find you. I was closer than him and you won’t answer anyone’s call. Look, you need to know—”

  I keep moving up the lawn and he falls into a jog next to me. “I don’t have time for this. In fact, something is happening and I suggest you get out of here.”

  “That’s what I came to tell you.”

  “Tell me what?” I demand without slowing.

  “My contacts tell me O’Dowd is dead.” I glance over at him and raise a brow as he continues, “Don’t ask. I’m a foreign correspondent—I know things. Anyway, I’m here to warn you, there are more.”

  I stop and turn to him. “More what?”

  He rubs his face that’s still bruised from my fists yesterday in the barn and then winces. “Irish who are related to O’Dowd. They’re not happy and they’re out for revenge. There’s a cell here in the US—specifically, here on the east coast. They claim to be Irish-American nationalists, but they operate like terrorists. When I was asking around trying to locate you months ago, I tipped them off. I got a call from my European sources about O’Dowd turning up dead and I found out they got a line on you.” He pauses and his eyes dart around. “I’m trying to make this right because I know I led them to you through my investigation. I think they know you’re here.”

  “Shit.” Two different people informing me of this within two minutes does not bode well for any of us. I can’t deal with any of this shit until I find Gracie and make sure she’s safe.

  * * *

  Gracie

  Evelyn can’t know why we’re here. How could she?

  “He found out, didn’t he?” Evelyn shakes her head and stress lines her face, that just minutes ago looked years younger than she could possibly be. The fireworks lighting up the dark horizon flash against the fishbowl of a room where Noah’s mother and I are locked in this weird standoff. Quite honestly, she’s nothing like he described.

  “What would Noah find out?” I play stupid because I’m not about to be the one who lets the cat out of the bag as to why we showed up at her Fourth of July party unannounced. All I know is, I’m done with the HGTV tour and need to find Noah.

  She studies me again as she wars with herself but doesn’t offer another word.

  “Evelyn, are you okay?”

  She huffs an exhale and shakes her head as if her life were coming to an end. Finally, she seems to make some sort of decision with herself when she throws at me, “Prosk?”

  I reach out to hold onto the desk I’m standing next to and wonder if I click my heels together whether Noah would appear at my side to take care of this nightmare. “You know Prosk?”

  Evelyn looks over my shoulder out into the fiery sky and almost sounds like she’s talking to herself. “That woman. We had a deal … one I paid dearly for. Even after all these years, she has no right to cross me.” Her tone breaks and I think she might tear up when her glare lands on me. “Noah knows, doesn’t he? That’s why you’re here?”

  I suck in a breath of air but I don’t really have a choice but to answer, “Yes. He knows.”

  “It was the worst time of my life. To have your husband cheat on you? To think that someone else might be better? Or worse, that you aren’t enough and never will be? My tiny world was spinning out of control.”

  “Evelyn, I’m so sorry.”

  “And the child?” Her laugh is sardonic and creeps down my spine like a tarantula. “Hell, I don’t even know what she had. Months after I found out about Alexander’s affair with Millie, I caught her trying to contact him. Luckily, he was deployed at the time—Noah was only two. It was the days before cell phones and texts and Facetime. It wasn’t easy, but I made sure to thwart any attempt she made to communicate with my husband. I would never allow my son to share his father with some love-child because Alexander couldn’t keep it in his pants.”

  I
cannot believe what I’m hearing, and just as it’s done from the moment Noah told me about his brother, my heart breaks for Calvin Prosk and I haven’t even met him yet. “Evelyn, that child was innocent. We can’t pick our parents.”

  Her expression turns hard and her glare on me intensifies. “But I picked Noah’s father. He was the one I chose for my child and there was no way I was going to allow some homewrecker to ruin my son’s life. Despite Alexander’s poor choices, he loves Noah. I wasn’t going to be the woman who wasn’t good enough—to our friends, my family. I took him back to save face. I wasn’t going to allow my son to have a part-time father while he doted all over some other kid who was a product of infidelity and lies.”

  I can’t imagine what that was like for her but I also can’t believe she’s known about Noah’s half-sibling all these years. I can’t help myself from asking, “What did you do?”

  “Alexander loved Millie. I could see how much it hurt him to break it off with her. I’ve never gotten that deep, soul-breaking love from him. I had to guilt him into coming back to me—I even went so far as to threaten him with taking Noah away because it was the only leverage I had. But had he known there was another child? Millie’s child?” She shakes her head and runs her hands through her hair. “I was lucky, Camilla Prosk was a low-level secretary. She had nothing and I had a big, fat trust fund. It’s amazing what a threat and a quarter of a million dollars can buy you. Alexander never knew, and from then on, I kept him on a short leash. It’s lasted almost thirty years. I thought, after all this time, the whole disaster was buried forever.”

  I can’t believe this is happening.

  “Millie’s son has been trying to contact Alex for the last couple months but I’ve done everything I could to avert him and I made sure Alexander’s assistant did, too. I guess he found Noah instead.”

  My phone vibrates against my ass for the third time. I would ignore it again but being rude buys me time until I figure out what to say to Evelyn Jarvis.

  I pull in a breath and greet my brother. “Hey. I’m sort of busy, can I call you back?”

  “Where are you?” he growls.

  Evelyn crosses her arms and glares at me. “Who is that?”

  I ignore her and focus on Grady. “I told you we were going to Annapolis tonight. We’re at Noah’s parents’ home to celebrate the Fourth.”

  “Is Jarvis with you?”

  “No.” I turn to look out where the water and yard are lit up in bursts of light. “He went outside to speak to his father. I’m still in the house.”

  “Stay inside. I’m on my way with Crew and Asa—we’re close and already have people on the property. O’Dowd’s dead but there’s a faction here in the states he was connected to. They’ve got a pin on Jarvis and we know from wire taps, they’re on their way right now to take him out. Hell, they could be there by now.”

  “Does he know?” I rush to the window and look down, searching for him—for any clue to where he might be.

  “I don’t know what you two are doing, but if one of you would’ve answered your fucking phones, you would’ve known twenty minutes ago, dammit!”

  “I’ve got to find him,” I whisper.

  “Stay inside, Gracie. Let Jarvis find you,” Grady demands.

  The night lights up in every color of the rainbow and my heart skips a beat when I see him. He’s running up the lawn that goes on forever from the Bay to the house. Other bodies emerge out of nowhere from the darkness and all the air leaves my body. I turn in my flip-flops and push past Evelyn.

  Panic laces her voice when she sees my face. “What’s going on?”

  I don’t answer because all I can think about is the man I cannot live without.

  * * *

  Jarvis

  “Jarvis!” With Calvin still at my right, I look to the left. One minute she’s spouting details over the phone about the Irish with IRA connections and now she’s here.

  Just like she did in Pakistan, Donnelly emerges from the dark shadows, but this time she tosses something through the night while we’re both still on the move. I catch the Glock, followed by an extra magazine, and stuff it in my back pocket. She’s wearing an earpiece and is dressed from top to bottom in black again, but this time she’s wearing a vest. I don’t have time to ask for one of my own or what the hell she’s doing in the States, let alone my parents’ backyard.

  “They’re coming from the water.”

  Just as I look over my shoulder, I hear a different blast, one just as loud but very different than the fireworks going off overhead. I know that sound well enough—it has nothing to do with celebrating our freedom and everything to do with ending a life.

  “Fuck,” I hiss and fall to the ground, pulling Calvin with me.

  I have nothing on me that I’m accustomed to—not my own weapon that’s become an extension of my hand or my night-vision goggles. My eyes strain to see what’s coming at us from the shore and the flashes of light overhead don’t make it any easier for my eyes to adjust.

  Calvin grunts from my side and I fist his shirt when he starts to scramble to his feet. Donnelly is on the ground thirty feet from us and damn if my father isn’t making his way up the hill. We’re sitting ducks with the night lit up like a fucking carnival while bullets fly through the air.

  “Get down!” I shout to my father, and he does, but not on his own accord. He falls, gripping his leg in the process.

  Shit.

  Screams echo through the night as chaos ensues from my parents’ house behind us and all I can think of is Gracie. It all comes rushing back to me, when she was in Istanbul and it took me hours to get to her, not knowing what I’d find in the end. But now, she’s only seconds from me and I feel just as helpless as I did then.

  Shadows move near the shore. Donnelly and I light them up simultaneously and three bodies hit the ground when we take on more shots from our sides. Fuck! Just like the climax of the celebration going on over our heads, we’re taking as much fire from the ground. I roll, staying low, and see my father moving, gripping his thigh, trying to do the same.

  Without taking my eyes off the horizon, I say, “Stay low and roll if you can.”

  I don’t get a response.

  I see a body peek out from behind the gazebo and I fire. “Calvin?”

  I look when he doesn’t answer and all of a sudden, an intense fire rains down on us. Fuck.

  Calvin is up and running across the yard to my father.

  Our father.

  Donnelly’s weapon goes off so many times in succession, she probably emptied an entire magazine then shouts, “Go—I’ll draw the fire.”

  The sky crackles over us—what I wouldn’t give for the cover of darkness right now.

  “Noah!”

  I hear her from behind me and I’d know that voice anywhere—my mother.

  Shit.

  Where’s Gracie?

  * * *

  Gracie

  “Evelyn, no!”

  I can tell the difference—the sound of gunfire on the ground is so different than the explosions overhead and it’s coming from everywhere. As far as I can tell, most of the guests got inside the house and are lying low.

  “I don’t know where he is! And Alexander is out there, too,” Evelyn cries and pulls away from me. She runs onto the deck before I could get to her. I catch up and am trying to hold her back, wrestling her to the wooden flooring while she’s clawing at me to get away.

  “You’ll get killed. We need to go back inside,” I beg. I have no doubt Noah knows what to do but he wasn’t prepared for this. Hell, he was wearing shorts and a polo and I know for a fact there wasn’t a gun hidden anywhere on him since he picked me up to kiss me right before we left and I was wrapped around him like a spider monkey.

  She escapes and I reach for the back of her shirt but let go when she jabs me in the ribs and pain shoots through my torso.

  And she’s gone, running the opposite way any sane person should right now.

  “E
velyn, stop!”

  * * *

  Jarvis

  Fuck. That’s Gracie.

  I change my magazine because I’m not running from this. This shit needs to be done once and for all.

  Donnelly aims toward the side yard and I take down two more by the water when she yells, “Vega is here.”

  The fireworks finally stop, and like a trusted friend who has my back, we’re blanketed in darkness.

  No more movement from the shore and gunfire slows to a trickle when I catch movement out of the corner of my eye.

  Grady’s voice hits me. “Jarvis! Eleven o’clock!”

  My eyes shift and see a body coming at me. Donnelly lifts her gun and shoots.

  She misses.

  Fuck. She draws his attention.

  And his fire.

  He aims.

  She shoots again.

  I lift my gun. When I squeeze the trigger, the man in black is hit from at least four different directions. He falls to the ground. I don’t question his status.

  And the night goes quiet.

  Until I hear her.

  Crew, Grady, and Asa emerge from the shadows.

  And for the second time in my life, I freeze under pressure. Only one person on this earth can cause that to happen.

  * * *

  Gracie

  I hate crying, but when I see him stand on his own two feet, in one piece after what just went down, my floodgates burst. I run through the dark, jarring quiet of the night after what he just survived.

  When I make it to him, I can barely see for my tears and he takes me in his arms, still gripping a gun that’s now pressed into my ass where he holds me tight.

  I run my hands up and down his back, his chest, and up to his face. “You’re okay?”

  He tosses the gun to the grass and puts his hand to my face but doesn’t answer me. “Fuck, I was so worried about you.”