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

by Stephanie St. Klaire

  The men laughed as they made their way to the house. As they climbed the steps at the entrance, Dace paused and leaned down to pick something up. A toy motorcycle.

  “I left it in case he should wind up back here for some reason or Ivy, maybe. He’s a lot like you, ya know? I see it now. Ivy always said he was the spitting image of you, and I thought that was just a mother's wish for her son who’d never met his dad, but she was right. I’d listen to the stories she’d tell Cashel about you, and I thought they were just fairy tales so the boy felt like he had some kind of connection. But it was all real. He’s truly just like you.”

  “She told him about me?”

  “Almost daily. Anytime she saw something that reminded her of you, or he did something like you. Even an expression. The boy was proud to get to know his dad.”

  “It’ll be nice to get to know him too.”

  Wylie broke the moment and brought attention back to why they were there. “Hey, I got Eva on the phone, and she’s confirming affiliation on those two guys you took out, Eli. Small cell, rogue operation, mostly into small stuff and for hire. Cartel.”

  “We nailed that profile then. Next question,” Dace went on. “Who fucking hired them?”

  “Oh, there’s more,” Wylie interrupted. “C.T. is in the lair with Liam and Luke. There’s been another murder back home. Similar to the first, lowlife drug runner made to look like a drug deal gone bad, total setup.”

  “And Ivy?” Dace asked.

  “Her picture was at the scene with an X through it,” Wylie confirmed.

  “Murder for hire,” Dace said, “Someone has a hit on her.”

  “Looks that way. C.T. is rushing forensics, and Liam is assisting. They’re trying to link the vics to DNA found on Ivy from her attack.”

  “Sounds like they’ll find it,” Dace said.

  “Dace. There’s a cell phone. Liam’s dumping the data now, but the number is already traced. It belongs to the cute nurse.”

  “Carly’s missing cell phone.” A chill crept up Dace’s spine. It went missing right after Ivy arrived.

  “Yeah. Looks like a lot of calls back and forth to McKenzie Ridge, makes sense. But there were a few local numbers Liam’s running right now and a couple that he already confirmed as probable burners. The kicker is, the local numbers pinged a tower just three miles from the murder scene. Closest tower and it’s right between us and that house.”

  “Of course it is.” Dace sneered.

  “I don’t think Carly is calling drug runners.” Wylie laughed.

  “She’s not. I need to find her phone, and I have a pretty good idea where it is.”

  20

  “There was nothing left in the old man's office the night it all went down,” Eli shared as they were checking each room. “I thought it odd that in the midst of a crisis – a kidnapping, if you will – one of the victims took the time to pack up all his things and take them with him. Nothing was left in here.”

  “Because he knew it was coming. He was ready to go.” Dace grabbed a loose photo he found tucked away between books on a shelf.

  It was Cashel. Dace recognized the little boy he’d never met. He saw himself in that smile, the glint in his eye, the crooked smile that spelled mischief. He was definitely his son. Dace studied everything he could in the photo, how soft and fine his hair was, his long lashes, and green eyes that matched his own. Cash even had the same freckle Dace did right above his eyebrow.

  “This had to be staged, but for who?” Eli questioned. When he turned around, he noticed Dace studying the picture of Cash, and gave the man a private moment with his son by turning around and continuing his thought, whether Dace was listening or not. “Why send a cleaner to take care of the mess if it was all for show? Who was supposed to see it? I was sent out to the wolves. I wasn’t a part of the master plan. I am certain I was supposed to die that day.”

  “Maybe he wanted to disappear again? Send a message to someone?” Dace tucked the picture away in a pocket and moved down the hall.

  They were standing outside what was quite obviously Cash’s room, and suddenly, his son became that much more real to him. Though his heart swelled at the idea of his son, it also grew bitter because of how he was getting to know him. “Maybe because Ivy needed a believable crime scene to send us to?”

  “Ah, mate. Don’t go there. You don’t really believe that, do ya now? Why? Why would Ivy need something like that? For what purpose?”

  “You said it yourself. He knows who we are and what we’re capable of, and he’s doing it right in our backyard. He needed a distraction. You said he’s just using her. What if this is what it’s for? Using her to send us on all these wild goose chases while he does whatever? Send her in as bait, use the kid if he needs a plan B.”

  “No. No way Ivy would use her son that way. She loves that boy more than life. She’d never let him be a pawn in some sick game.”

  “Maybe not willingly,” Dace fired back. “Did Ivy look for you when she got back from the farmers’ market that day? Did she check to see if you were among the dead?”

  “I don’t know what she did inside, but outside, she didn’t look at faces. I imagine it was overwhelming for her to see something like that. She was after her son.”

  “Or maybe it’s because she expected you to be one of the dead guys outside. She was awfully surprised to see you in the lair.”

  Eli just shook his head. “No. No, I don’t believe that for one second, and neither do you. You’re angry. Angry she left, angry she hid your son from you, and angry she didn’t tell you about her father and what she saw that day until I showed up. I get it, Dace. You’re allowed to be upset, but think clearly, man. You’re here to clear her name and save your son.”

  “I am thinking clearly,” Dace yelled. “I’m not here for her. I’m here for my son and because it’s my job right now. I don’t know Ivy anymore, no idea where’s she’s been or what she’s been up to.”

  “Jesus, man. She’s the same girl you used to know. She’s just broken and scared. You see it. I know you do.”

  Dace stood in the middle of Cash’s room and turned on his heels to face Eli. “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “I know what Ivy has told me, and what she’s told your son. I do know you. In fact, I know you enough to know you still love her.”

  “Pfft. Right…how exactly?”

  Eli swallowed hard and puffed out his chest in some odd alpha move. “Because I love her too. And I think you know that or you wouldn’t have brought me with you…to keep me away from her.”

  “I brought you for intel. You’ve been here and know who she’s been the past several years.”

  Eli laughed. “And to keep me under your watch. You don’t trust me. Not her…it’s me.”

  “You’re here to consult – you’re what we call an asset – and watch my six, not play therapist, Eli.”

  Dace noticed the bedside table was the only storage and opened the drawers – empty, just like the closet. He pointed at the lack of contents, and Eli continued to talk. No clothes. Odd.

  “Yet you’re the one watching me? You think I don’t see it? Dace, you forget I’ve been in this game as long as you have, and I know how it’s played. You’re watching my every move, reaction, and emotion to see if what I say is fact or fiction. Don’t worry, mate. I’m playing the role honestly.”

  “Or it was lack of options. Another body in case we run into trouble.”

  Eli tossed his arms in the air. “Bullshit. You and your brothers have bodies you can call up everywhere. I know about The Keepers – your loyal army of men and women all over the world, sitting on your payroll. You could have had Gannon’s guys out here to watch your back, man. And you didn’t. You brought me. It was a test and because I’m a threat.”

  “A threat? Believe me, I’m not the least bit threatened by you.”

  “Where Ivy is concerned, you certainly are. You’ve searched for her for years, and the entire time she was with me.
That has to fuck with your head just a little.”

  “How do you know that?” Dace asked.

  “Because I’m good at my job, really fucking good.”

  “What exactly is your job, Eli? Your accent has you all over the fucking map. You don’t give anything away…what’s your damn job that you’re so good at?”

  “Protecting Ivy, which you should be doing too.”

  Dace raised his voice and stepped toe to toe with Eli. “Why the fuck do you think I’m here? Huh?”

  “Is it for her or you, Dace? Is this protecting the girl you lost or closure for your ego because she left you?”

  “None of your fucking business.”

  “Whoa. Hate to break up a good bitch sesh, but Gannon’s guy Gravy just left,” Wylie interrupted, making sure to step between the feuding men.

  “Gravy? That’s his name?” Eli’s accent grew heavier with disgust. “Who names a person that? May as well call him bacon or taco.”

  “Well…” Wylie started, his grin giving it all away.

  “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Eli said. “I don’t even want to know which one is actually a name. I thought bikers were badasses with names like Slash or Reaper.”

  Wylie tilted his head and bobbed it back and forth. “Well…”

  “Oh, for Christ's sake, move on with it, O’Reilly.” Eli moved past the men as Wylie continued.

  “Gannon’s guys are working this thing for us. They’ve been digging, and they don’t have anything on what went down, but they do have a lead. A guy with a van. A black van.”

  “Okay?” Dace questioned. “What’s with the guy in the black van?”

  “Sort of cliché, really. He came through town, stayed in the hotel out by the freeway, stopped at the bar, stood out. Creepy looking fella. When they got Gannon’s call yesterday, they headed out to the property and passed him on the road. Place was clean, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Got back to town and no black van anywhere. He was gone.”

  “Wait. That means they had him out here yesterday?” Dace asked.

  “As far as they know, he’d been in town the day before that, left yesterday.”

  “It’s like they knew we were coming.” Dace looked at Eli. “Interesting.”

  Eli tossed up his hands. “At least you’re back to me being the mole and not Ivy. I haven’t called anyone, texted anyone…ask Liam. I’m sure he has me flagged and my jammer already blocked now that he knows how I got so close.”

  “Why leave a scene like this for weeks, then a sudden cleanup?” Dace asked.

  “Good question. Something came up?” Wylie suggested. “The game changed? He wanted to present a different theory.”

  “One that makes you” – Dace looked at Eli – “or Ivy look full of shit and guilty of something.”

  “The old man doesn’t know I’m alive.”

  Dace blew out a deep breath. “Or does he? Let’s get out of here. Gannon’s guys can keep working it from here. Let’s get back home. I have a feeling having us this far away gives him the upper hand.”

  Wylie headed out. “I’ll have the plane waiting, ready in thirty?”

  “Sounds good,” Dace said, right behind him.

  “Dace.” Eli caught his attention and handed him a picture frame from the shelf. “The only picture they keep, and it sits on Cash’s bedside table. Thought you’d like to keep it…for when we get him back.”

  Eli left Dace standing in the room alone, holding a brass-framed picture of him and Ivy during their last Christmas together. An unexpected emotion came over him. It was a hard time for their family. It was the last holiday they had with Liam’s wife, Cass, and the last Christmas he spent with Ivy.

  Seeing his son’s face for the first time in a picture, standing in his room and smelling the air he breathed, was overwhelming. He felt so close to his son at that moment and to Ivy, yet the distance was great, and it ultimately left him feeling helpless. That wasn’t a common emotion for him, and he didn’t know how to reconcile it, so he decided to table it, revisit those feelings later, and get back to the mission at hand.

  Dace punched the glass and dumped it on the floor so he could pull the picture out. With one last look, he stroked Ivy’s face in the picture, smiled, then tucked it away in his pocket.

  Everyone had cleared out of the house when Dace left his son’s room. The team had already cleared all the rooms, and there was no need for him to continue walking through them. But the one across the hall caught his attention. There was a long floral dress hanging from the wardrobe in the corner — Ivy’s room.

  He stood in the doorway and scanned the space, taking note of the simplicity. They moved around so often, they had to pack light, and that was evident in the sparsely furnished room, bare of any real décor. The whole house reflected such. He sat at the edge of her bed, held her pillow, and breathed it in, filling his senses with the scent of her. There wasn’t much in the room, but what was there was hers.

  He’d been staring at a picture resting on the nightstand without even realizing it. It was their son, who was so clearly an O’Reilly. He was younger than in the first image he found. His cheeks were rounder, arms and little hands were plumper, he couldn’t have been more than three years old.

  He looked in the wardrobe, then under the bed, and found a bag. It wasn’t large, just enough to toss her things in and run, he imagined. Those few things probably meant a lot to her since it was everything she had. Thinking it would be nice for her to have a few of those things, he began to pack the bag. He tossed in the few toiletries and makeup on a nearby vanity. A bottle of perfume. Then emptied the only drawer that had clothes in it.

  This was all that she had – what fit into the small duffel. She’d sacrificed so much, living the way she had, and it pained him to think of her that way. Doing without. Dace grabbed the dress that hung on the wardrobe, displayed with appreciation, and likely the only nice thing she possessed, and put it in the bag for her. Before leaving, he grabbed her bedside picture and tossed it in her bag.

  Dace wasn’t worried about anything from Cash’s room. It seemed to have been cleared out minus the child-like bedding and a few small toys and books. Anything in that room represented a time he didn’t want his son to remember. He’d replace anything the boy missed and give him new memories to hold. They’d get him new clothes, new toys – hell, his family would make sure of that.

  It brought a smile to Dace’s face when he thought of his family meeting the son he’d yet to meet himself. That boy was already loved a thousand times over, and they’d fight fiercely to find him and bring him home. As he took the steps out the front door to meet the rest of the crew and head out, he bent down and picked up the one thing he knew his son would miss. Dace tossed his son’s favorite possession in the bag he carried…the toy motorcycle.

  21

  It was late when the team arrived at Watermark Tower. They’d decided to wait until morning for their debriefing since there really wasn’t much to discuss. The house gave them little to go on beyond a few possible ties and more confusion and theories than they’d arrived with.

  He opted to skip stopping at his own apartment and went straight to Ivy’s. He’d convinced himself it was out of pure exhaustion and not that he wanted to see her and surprise her with her things. That would mean she was innocent, and he cared about her happiness. He couldn’t – not yet. There were still too many unanswered questions and clues that led right back to her, over and over.

  The benefit of the doubt was long gone since there was more evidence aiming her direction than there wasn’t. As much as it pained him, he had to agree with his brothers and proceed with caution. He was committed to clearing her name if she was indeed innocent, but if she wasn’t, what could he do but serve justice and deliver her to the authorities?

  God, he wanted to be wrong. His anger over the loss of time with her and their son made it easy to think the worst in those moments of haste. But when the dust settled and the fury cooled,
that deep feeling in his gut that she was innocent was ever-present. The Ivy he knew wasn’t capable of hurting a soul, and he didn’t think a character like hers was interchangeable.

  People like her didn’t flip a switch and suddenly become cold-blooded mercenaries. Victims? Sure. Easily manipulated? Of course, especially if you kidnapped their child. The pieces were mostly all there – they were just having a hard time fitting them all together. It was like getting to the end and realizing that one odd-shaped piece in the middle was missing, and it prevented you from seeing the whole picture.

  Dace placed his thumb over the reader, and the door to Ivy’s room unlocked. He was quiet to enter, not wanting to disturb her sleep, but quickly found that his silence was unnecessary. Ivy was seated on the couch, surrounded by family, his family. His mom and a few of the sisters-in-law, along with Carly, filled the space.

  They all laughed when he walked through the door, and his ma said, “What are the odds of him walking in at this very moment?”

  Another outburst of laughter filled the room. Dace took note of the empty wine bottles and glasses in her hands. “Are you drunk, Ma?”

  Laughter broke out once more. He wasn’t sure what he said was as funny as they found it, but it was nice to see Ivy smiling and laughing. There was a sudden pinch in his chest when he realized she was sitting with some of the most important people in his life. Was it safe to let her be around anyone? What if she was the calculated, methodical murderer she was being made out to be? Was it worth putting everyone at risk? Was it fair to label her that way before she was proven guilty? Just as quickly as the panic rose, it settled.

  At that moment, no matter what the vague evidence they’d collected alluded to, I knew she wasn’t a killer. Nor was she dangerous. She’d risked her life to save their son and to find Dace. She’d then lied out of fear to protect him and his family. Those weren’t the actions of a lethal con. Those were the actions of someone who loved and loved big. He needed to prove it.