Brother's Keeper V: Wylie (the complete series BOX SET): NEW RELEASE + Series Box SET included!

by Stephanie St. Klaire

  “First stop…” the man at the front of the bike hollered, already three sheets to the wind with the rest of the crowd. “O’Reilly’s Pub,” he said in his best, or worst, Irish accent.

  The drunken crowd cheered, as they pedaled on. It was probably a mile, maybe two before they were near the Pub and Watermark Tower. They played along, acting as their drunken fellow riders did, hiding in plain sight. Or maybe they were pedaling right into the next trap. Who really knew?

  “Everyone is staring at us. Why do I feel like we are in the middle of enemy territory?” Felicity asked.

  “You’re safe. You’re with me,” he reassured her. “It could just be the flashing pot leaf on your hat.”

  “Touché.”

  The bike came to a rough stop in front of the Pub after passing Watermark. They couldn’t very well jump off and cause a scene, so they rode the extra few blocks to their destination. The crowd cheered as they filed inside O’Reilly’s, but Liam and Felicity fell back and quickly made their way the two blocks in the opposite direction.

  With Watermark in sight, time seemed to slow because every step closer felt unproductive. When they reached the side closest to them, Liam hauled them up the side, tapped his smart watch, and entered through a back-pedestrian door that lead to the parking garage rather than trek the final half block to the main entrance. He was desperate to get Felicity inside to safety, so he could finally breathe again.

  Once they were safely inside the confines of Watermark, Liam spun Felicity around, holding her against the wall and said, “It would destroy me too, okay? If anything happened to you, I couldn’t deal with it. Reagan needs you…I need you.”

  “Liam…”

  He shook his head to quiet her. “The thought of someone coming for you, harming you… It’s almost too much to handle. I can’t lose twice what someone should never lose once. We need you, City.”

  The feeling that coursed through him was almost overwhelming as he searched her eyes with every word he spoke. His voice was course and demanding like the levity of his promise pained him as he thought of the alternative to such. “It will be over my dead, cold body that this Wells or Dunham pieces of shit get their hands on you or my daughter…got it?”

  Bracing himself against the wall, his body nearly resting on hers, he stroked her cheek with his free hand. Liam finally rested his forehead to hers and let out a deep sigh of relief when she nodded her head. He slid his free hand to the back of her head and leaned in to take her mouth, but the heavy, metal security door began to rise, startling a distance between them.

  When Dace’s car pulled in, Liam was pulled completely away from his moment of weakness. Felicity was quick to slap the elevator call button on the wall next to where they stood, anxious to get out of there and reconcile what had just happened between her and Liam.

  As soon as Dace parked, Luke pulled in after him. The mood in the space was a mixed bag of frustration, anger, and something intoxicating, depending on who you looked at.

  “I lost him,” Luke said. “I kept going for another mile or two, hoping I’d find him, but then he was coming right at me. Fucker turned around on me and ran me off the road. Couldn’t pick up his scent after that. No dust trails off the road, nothing.”

  “There are so many old farm access roads and forest service trails out there. It would be easy to disappear. They could have taken any one of them,” Dace offered in what felt like an odd effort to console his brother.

  “What the hell happened on the bridge, man?” Dace’s attention turned to Liam. “I looped around and hit the other bridge. The bridge was back down, and your car was gone when I finally doubled back on the other side of the river.”

  “I don’t know. Somehow, he got control of the car again. Took us off the bridge…while it was up.”

  “What?” Luke’s eyes went wide. “How the hell did he do that? You two okay?”

  The elevator door dinged, and Dick jumped out of Dace’s car and ran to the open doors, laying down on the elevator floor. “He’s had a hard-ass day. Declan is going to be pissed we ruined his dog.”

  “That’s what he gets for taking a bounty case,” Luke said. “What’s next, Liam?”

  “Well, they sent their message today. They mean business, and they aren’t stopping until they get what they want.” Liam looked to Felicity. “We just need to get ahead of them, keep hitting back.”

  “How’d they find you?” Luke asked. “You secured the vehicles.”

  Liam laughed. “The old fashion way – without technology. He followed us. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The car was parked in a secluded parking lot for quite a while. We gave him the perfect opportunity to screw with it then.”

  “That’s how he gained control while you were on the bridge,” Dace said, rolling his head back with the epiphany.

  “We’ve been watching him with algorithm’s and recognition programs when all we had to do was look over our shoulder.” Liam shook his head, angry with himself for not seeing it coming. “We weren’t expecting it or prepared for it. He won this round. We’ll get him next.”

  With the large steel door still up, Liam’s car pulled in, stopping right in front of them before the ignition died and the horn started honking. The men each pulled their weapons on it while Liam tucked Felicity behind him and backed her into the elevator, slamming the button once she was inside. With her out of danger, he dropped the rolling door and approached the car.

  “No driver. Son of a bitch,” Luke said.

  Liam reached inside the driver’s side door and popped the hood after looking and feeling around under the dashboard for clues. Nothing. The brothers joined him under the hood, looking for anything that appeared out of the ordinary, mostly for support because they hadn’t a clue what they were searching for.

  “Ah, he has jokes.” Liam laughed, pulling his arm out from deep in the mechanics. He pulled out a round silver disc and held it in the air, inspecting it. “He attached it to the car’s firewall between the engine and interior of the car. Get it? Firewall?”

  “It looks like a LoJack,” Dace said.

  “It is a LoJack. That’s how he tracked us. Old school, right?” Liam said, flipping it over. “It’s souped up though. I think this is how he controlled the car.”

  Liam tossed it up and down in his hand, staring off with his brow furrowed as he thought through the technology that supported a basic LoJack and all of the ways that could be exploited.

  “This is how he got around all of my shit. He was blocked from the computer. No way he could hack my firewall; I have too many traps. He’d have to take down my entire system just to get into this car. My stuff is designed to regenerate new code every few minutes, so good luck finding a backdoor to get in. You’ll be booted almost immediately.” Liam looked at the confused faces of his brothers and elaborated. “He only took over the car for a few minutes – on the bridge. He could have run us off a cliff out in the country and drowned us in the ravine…but he didn’t because he couldn’t get in yet. I’m sure he found a backdoor. He’s good, just not as good as me. He couldn’t find a way to stay in there without being kicked right back out. He designed a payload. It wasn’t ready to toss in until we got back to town.”

  “Uh, Wonder Nerd? Mind Translating? Payload?” Luke questioned.

  “Basically, he used this to do his dirty work because he couldn’t get around my stuff. Think of it as a small window you don’t fit through,” Liam went on. “When the window was open, he tossed in a bomb before it closed again. Once the bomb was inside, boom. He was able to disable parts of the car and regain control, just not all of them. This little LoJack held the payload. He remote detonated to save time transmitting his signal so he’d make the window.”

  “But you said he didn’t have it figured out until you got to town,” Dace reasoned.

  “Right. The LoJack told him where we were. It was also where he sent the payload when he had it ready. Once it was sent, he just waited to execute.” />
  “Like a game of relay.” Luke nodded in understanding.

  “Exactly! Old school shit.” Liam laughed.

  “If you say so.” Dace shook his head, overwhelmed by the information. “Why are you so excited?”

  “He didn’t know how long he had to execute or even if it would work. He wasn’t confident; he was guessing at best.” Liam’s smirk was cocky and full of arrogance. “I’m still ahead of him, but he’s catching up. I have some work to do, starting with this disc. I need to take it apart and find out everything I can about him. He’s good, but I’m better.”

  13

  Liam practically skipped off the elevator when he reached his floor. Finding a clue such as he had could give them a major upper hand. As advanced as technology had become in recent years, it was still flawed and never really anonymous. Hackers, programmers, coders – they all had their own personal style and left traces of themselves behind at some point. If you were really good – and Liam was really fucking good – you could find those traces and learn a lot about the person behind it.

  The rug was quickly pulled from under him, as it often was, when he and his brothers entered his apartment. Reagan was sitting on the couch crying, flanked by Wylie who had stayed with her, and Felicity on either side. His heart sank. That familiar nagging sensation to retreat back into himself settled in, and he began to shut down before he even knew what the crisis was.

  Wylie looked up, tears in his eyes. “Hart died.”

  Grunts and groans filled the space as the sadness Reagan was exuding fell upon everyone. Hart was her mini ginger pig and best friend. After her mom passed away, the brothers tried everything to put the sparkle back in that little girl’s eyes. Luke finally succeeded when he took her to a pet store, giving Liam time to grieve alone one day.

  The animals made her smile, sure, but the minute she saw Hart’s ginger hair that matched hers, the twinkle was back. Luke didn’t care what Liam would say on the matter; he bought the pig. Hart wasn’t any bigger than a house cat and was easily box trained. He even walked on a leash. Though he had his own kennel, he tended to sleep on Reagan’s pillow right next to her every night. It was like he knew how badly she needed him.

  Reagan named him Hart because she said he made her heart feel better. She just couldn’t spell it. He was the best thing in the worst time, and now he was gone. Her devastation was their devastation.

  Wylie straightened, trying to push the sorrow aside, which wasn’t easy for him as the sensitive brother. “The vet said he, uh, had a heart attack.”

  “I told you guys to stop giving him so much junk. Jesus,” Liam fired in response. He pointed to Luke. “This is your fault.”

  In an attempt to break up an impending argument, Wylie continued, “The vet took him with him, said Hart will be back in about a week.”

  “Back in a week?” Liam threw his hands out wide, assuming Wylie meant a new pig to pass off as Hart. “What the hell, Wylie?”

  “We’re having him cremated,” Wylie defended.

  Liam cocked his head to one side. “Is that even a thing?”

  “Yes. Yes, it is a thing,” Wylie fired back a little more hastily than intended. He nodded his head at Reagan and said, “Jesus. Lighten up, Liam.”

  Luke plopped down on a nearby chair, resting his head in his hands. “I should have got her the turtle. Those things live for decades.”

  Liam shook his head at his brother. He needed someone to blame and didn’t want to deal with death, even if it was the death of a pig. “I told you that pig was a bad idea. Now look what happened – what I get to deal with. Thanks, Luke.”

  “She wanted it! It was years ago, and you’re still hung up on this.” Luke took to his feet again, ready to put his brother in his place. “You should have seen her face. You would have bought it too. It was the first time she’d smiled since…”

  Luke didn’t get to finish and say since her mom died because Reagan had had enough. “Stop it, all of you. Stop fighting.”

  “Sorry kid,” Luke said, his expression full of regret. “Let’s head over to the pet store. Pick out anything you want.”

  “I don’t want anything else.” This time Reagan stood, tears streaming. “I don’t want to love another thing. It hurts too badly, right dad? That’s why you don’t smile anymore. It just…hurts.”

  Liam’s heart sank. Her words pierced his heart in such a way he didn’t think he could breathe. Is that what she really thought of him – how he lived?

  “Rea…”

  “It’s true though, right?” the little girl continued, a sob breaking through her words. “That’s why you don’t love anything anymore.”

  Liam just stood there, his mouth moving but absent of words. All eyes were on him, and he knew those sullen looks were as much for him as they were Reagan’s broken heart. He was speechless. He couldn’t lie to her and say she was wrong because he didn’t know if she was wrong.

  “City? Do you think there is a page in mom’s book for this? Do you think she told me what to do?” Reagan cried. “I need her right now.”

  “Oh, honey. I don’t remember exactly, but I’m sure there’s something.” Felicity stood, stroking Reagan’s hair, trying to comfort her. “Your mama thought of everything. Let’s go look together, okay?” Felicity tossed a pained look over her shoulder at Liam and followed Reagan out of the room.

  The brothers looked around at each other, each waiting for the other to say something.

  “What do we do?” Dace asked, breaking the silence.

  “I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” Luke replied. “She didn’t even want to pick out a new pet.”

  Dace rolled his eyes. “Because the other one just died, man.”

  “She…” Liam tossed his head back and searched the ceiling as if the answers were all there waiting for him. “She needs time. That’s all.”

  “Yeah…to grieve,” Luke agreed. “Then maybe we take her to the pet store.”

  “No,” Wylie corrected. “The shelter. We can rescue a dog this time. She’s older; she can handle it. She’s great with Dick. He’s in there with her now, actually.”

  Dace nodded; it made sense, and he was on board. “How long do we wait. When will she be ready? After Hart’s ashes come back?

  Luke looked to Liam. “Maybe we can have a little service for him in the rooftop garden?”

  Felicity walked back into the living room but stopped when she saw all eyes on Liam. He looked as though he was reliving his own personal hell and about to totally lose his shit.

  “I-I don’t know,” Liam finally answered. “I don’t know when or if it’s supposed to get better or easier. Saying goodbye…it doesn’t fix any of it. It’s just…always there.”

  When Liam walked off and left the apartment, his brothers reacted with regret. Despite thinking he was in a better place all these years later, they’d triggered him. He was back in that moment, wanting to feel something again, something that didn’t hurt. There were muffled oh shits going around the room, none of his brothers sure how to fix whatever he was going through at that moment.

  Liam found himself on the rooftop, as he often did when he needed to clear his mind or feel closer to his wife. It was her favorite place in the building, therefore it became his. It was a different world up there. You could see the bustling city all around to one side, the river disappearing in the distance on the other side. It was quiet, you could hear yourself think up there, and it felt like the clouds were within reach. It was peaceful.

  With his foot on the ledge and his arms slung over the railing, he recalled what Reagan had said. She didn’t want to love anything else and thought he understood that. That’s what she saw in him – what she had learned from him. It hurt him that she felt that way. It nearly killed him that he taught her to feel that way.

  Guilt was a daily occurrence for Liam. He never felt like he was doing anything right as a father, brother, son, friend…husband. Guilt consumed him when he saw the way eve
ryone looked at him, that they pitied him, and he couldn’t be more for them. But the moment he gave in to joy and let go of the pain, even for a moment, he felt guilty for feeling anything but grief for his wife. Like he was letting her down by being happy.

  Sure, he knew he was being ridiculous with his mixed bag of emotions, but there wasn’t a rule book. There wasn’t a guide to any of this. How do you act when you lose the most important person in your life before you get to live out your hopes and dreams? When someone like that dies, part of you dies. It’s like living as half a person.

  All of his hopes and dreams included Cassidy. Without her, they were nothing. Right? That’s how it felt when you didn’t know life any other way but with the person you lost. Now he’d passed on all of those questions and pain to their daughter because he didn’t know how to be a father if he wasn’t a husband too. Cassidy was their whole life, and she was gone. There was no filling that void. Life just stood still.

  “Oh Cass…what am I doing?” he said out loud as he often did. “It’s been seven years, and I still don’t know what to do without you. It all still feels like…yesterday.”

  He dropped his foot from the ledge and stood with his hands in his pockets, smiling as he watched the river. “Reagan is amazing. She’s growing so fast, too fast.” He laughed.

  “You probably know that though, right?” He looked to the sky, leaning against the railing. “You’re up there watching, right? Yeah, you are. I feel you around us. You see her…us.”

  “She really is the spitting image of my sister. She has Carigan’s fire and stubbornness; she’s such a redhead.” He shook his head and laughed. “Ragin’ Reagan. I don’t think she’ll ever outgrow that.”

  “She has your sass, though. Sassy Cassy.” He watched the ground, his foot rolling over a small rock as he continued on. “She has your grace and kindness too. She’s an old soul who loves hard…just like you.”

  He took a deep breath, and looked out to the river again. “Until today. I’m messing up. I’m doing this all wrong, Cass. Reagan’s had too much of me and not enough of you, and I’m so bad at this.”