by Sheila Kell
With red-rimmed eyes and a tissue in hand, Diana waited on her brother’s khaki couch that had seen better days. The spots of black dog hair that clung to the woman’s peach-colored blouse made Moira notice the absence of said dog. Normally, Moira would’ve been bowled over by the beast before she made it through the entryway.
She turned back to her brother, who’d closed the front door behind them, sliding the dead bolt. “Where’s Bella?” Really? Those were the first words out of her mouth? Where was the dog? She’d heard someone wanted to kill her brother and Diana, and she asked about the dog. Great. Avoiding serious situations had been one of the things Cassie had told her she had to stop doing. Moira would consider this fitting right into that realm.
When he ignored her, she walked over and plopped on the sofa beside a pale Diana. Hadn’t Boyle said she was pregnant? Once again avoiding the main issue, she repeated, “Where’s Bella?”
Declan dropped into the chair opposite the couch. He looked ten years older than yesterday, and her heart clenched at his obvious pain. This couldn’t be easy for him. She’d be freaking out worse if the threat had been against herself. Maybe it was the cop thing that helped him remain calm. “The neighbor has her. Don’t try to stray. Tell me what happened. Then we’ll make some decisions.”
“I’m here.” Justin returned and stood near the front window. After he peeked through the curtains that she’d just realized were closed on this beautiful day, he gave the room a nod. “Tell us.”
With a sudden fierceness, she wanted to rail at Justin. It’d hit her hard that he worked for the man who wanted her brother dead. And, how could he? The Frankses had been good people. While Justin appeared to be a good man, his choice of profession stymied her. He’d been deadly serious in his response of “No” when she’d once asked him if he was a cop working undercover to catch Boyle’s criminal activities.
Before she dug into her recitation, she allowed part of her anger to spring forward. Turning her gaze from Justin, she pleaded with her brother, “How can you trust him? He works for the man who wants to kill you? He could be here to kill you now.”
Before she realized it, her hand slapped over her mouth. She’d said all that out loud—in front of Justin. Good grief, why not give him a chance to kill them all now? This was the time a person’s loyalties would be tested. It scared her to know that she had no idea where Justin’s lay. How could her brother have allowed him inside knowing of the threat? Heck, he’d even brought Diana with him. Kill two birds with one stone. Now three since she’d opened her big mouth.
Justin laughed, and she tossed him a venomous gaze. Why hadn’t her brother tied him up or something?
“If I planned to kill you, I’d have already done it and been long gone.”
She bristled. Okay, his lethal tone and the fact his statement was probably true nearly put her in her place. Nearly. Declan had always told her she didn’t know when to stop, so she opened her big mouth, once again. “Well, what are you going to do then? Take us some place and do away with us, so no one can find the bodies?”
Leaning back, with his feet crossed, against the wall beside the window, Justin assumed a relaxed pose with his arms draped over his chest. Under eyelids that seemed to droop, he slowly stated, “It depends on what you have to say.”
As her heart pounded at his threat, her gaze raced back and forth between her brother and the man she no longer knew if she could trust. If Declan wasn’t jumping up to fight Justin, he must trust him. Although, his tenseness when looking at their friend didn’t go unnoticed.
Diana bolted up and rushed into Declan’s lap. “I can’t believe it. I knew he was upset when he found out I was pregnant and wouldn’t tell him who the father was, but this?”
Closing his eyes, her brother pulled Diana into his arms and rubbed his hand up and down her back. Her brother’s loving, soothing touch appeared to calm Diana, somewhat, but she remained glued to him. “We knew things wouldn’t go well if he found out about us. We’ll figure this out.” Looking pleadingly at Moira, he demanded she tell them everything.
Pushing aside her jealousy for the attention her brother bestowed on Diana and not her, she spent the next fifteen minutes speaking. It should have taken less time, but Moira halted every time Diana wailed for Declan to calm her. Justin only broke in for clarification.
In wonder, she observed the closeness of the couple. Their love for each other glowed in their gazes, even with the fear in Diana’s and the combination of fear and anger in Declan’s. As she thought back, she remembered all the sensual looks, light touches, and whispers between the two when the group had connected. She’d not put it together more than that, and it made her feel like such a fool for being blind to her brother’s happiness.
While it’d become glaringly obvious Justin had known of the relationship—actually helping push it along—her irritation at him swelled. Although, she should’ve wondered why the four of them hung out more often. When Justin had started offering to take her to her flat, she’d thought maybe he’d been doing it for time alone with her. He’d been friendly but never crossed a line. She’d found that odd but hadn’t questioned it. Long hugs and kisses on the cheek or forehead always seemed sisterly to her.
Now she knew that he’d been giving Declan and Diana time alone without her father knowing. Of course, Declan had wanted Diana. Heck, the woman was beautiful and elegant. But Declan was a policeman and her father was a criminal. How did he ever think that’d work out?
Shaking her head, she reminded herself that sometimes love was blind. Which was why she hoped it’d never happen to her.
“You said you tried to record them?”
It took her a moment to realize Justin had circled around to the beginning of her earlier activities. She cleared her mind of the stupidity of love and returned to the present conversation. Given everything else—like the threat of murder, a blank recording didn’t seem important. She reached into her pocket for her phone, then stretched her arm out to him. “Here. There’s nothing there.”
Justin’s face tightened with what she thought was worry. He moved forward and accepted the phone, his eyes never leaving hers. “Christ, Moira, were you trying to get yourself killed? If it’s the three people you say—”
Ignoring the irony of his words versus the threat hanging over them from his boss, she nodded firmly and interrupted him. “It is.” They’d breezed over Fitzgerald and Donnelly being in attendance. Her curiosity about why the meeting occurred had been flushed down the toilet at the murder threat.
“Passcode?” he asked.
Instead of telling him her stupidity in never changing the code from the factory setting, she jumped from the couch, snatched the phone from his hand, entered her pin, then opened the recording.
Pulling the phone close to his ear, Justin closed his eyes as he listened to what was low tones.
Even now, she didn’t hear anything but unrecognizable mumbling. “See, nothing.” She couldn’t help the sarcasm. Her hackles were still on alert at Justin’s being there while they discussed everything. It seemed so… wrong. Yet, observing how he was handling everything made her feel like he was on their side. No matter his boss. But the scales hadn’t fully tilted completely in his favor. As long as he didn’t pull a gun, that she knew he hid under his jacket, all would be fine. At least she told herself that.
At her snide remark, Justin narrowed his eyes at her in what she expected to be a “shut up” directive, but she ignored the threat. Abruptly, he tapped keys on her phone, presumably, deleting the recording to protect his boss, then he removed the sim card. When he slid the phone into his pocket, she opened her mouth to object.
As if expecting her retort, he held up a hand to stall her and withdrew his mobile from the front pocket of his jeans that had just dinged. Holding her tongue, she waited while he did something on his phone. Heck, he could’ve been ordering dinner for all s
he knew. Nay, she knew better.
When she couldn’t hold her tongue any longer, he held up his phone and restarted the conversation. Although some words were more garbled than the others, the conversation could be heard. Whatever app Justin had used, he’d amplified their voices somehow.
“What’s in this for me? Sounds like you’ve turned, hanging me out to dry.” Although she’d not heard Boyle’s voice until today, his threat stuck with her, so she recognized those as his words.
“Boyle, I’m not doing anything of the sort. We’ll remain partners,” Minister Donnelly said in a soft, easy politician voice that seemed insincere to her ears. Being the only female, she’d been easy to identify.
“Partners?” she mouthed to Justin, who only raised an eyebrow. This made no sense to her.
“You’ll allow Fitzgerald to make a few busts, and you’ll operate more secretly,” Minister Donnelly explained.
Boyle’s angry voice rose. “What? Let you take people, product, and money from me?” he demanded.
Fitzgerald—she thought by process of elimination—cleared his throat. “We already do that. What we’re talking about is targeted, so we’re on the same page. We’ll discuss when and how. As far as personnel, if you have any people you’re done with, have them work the location of the planned bust with a quantity we can afford to lose.”
We? She couldn’t be hearing this right. The three of them together? Having Boyle visit during daylight seemed awfully bold to her if they wanted their “partnership” kept confidential.
“Other than that,” Minister Donnelly stated, “we’ll have the gardai go light on daily drug arrests.”
“Yeah.” Boyle sounded frustrated. “Ten percent to each of you is too much. I take all the risks and only have these verbal promises that won’t do me shit if something seems to put a smudge on your career.”
Eyes wide, Moira was glad she’d not understood this when she’d been standing there. Those were huge accusations.
Thank God she hadn’t actually heard this conversation. Maybe they didn’t know about her. But then there was the noise she’d made. And her name was on the list of employees. Much as she tried to convince herself she might not be in trouble, she mentally fell flat on her face accepting the truth.
A bit more mumbling happened before the explosive words she’d heard while standing in the hallway outside Donnelly’s office. Boyle wanted to kill her brother and Diana.
“Why can’t we just leave earlier than planned?” Diana asked.
Stunned, Moira’s attention turned and sharpened on her brother. “What does she mean?” A feeling of betrayal bit into her gut.
Clearing his throat nervously, Declan stilled his hand on his pregnant girlfriend. “Since we know Diana and I can’t be together here, we were planning to leave Ireland. To disappear.” He said the last part staring lovingly into Diana’s eyes.
Selfishly, Moira asked, “What about me?” Her mind couldn’t grapple on how her brother would leave her—forever—for someone he’d only known a year or so.
“You’re leaving the country as well.” Declan’s matter-of-fact statement took her aback.
“What do you mean I’m leaving Ireland?” Moira shouted. It seemed extreme to her. Moving from Dublin might be acceptable, but the country itself? Ireland was her home. Cassie was her best friend and she lived here. Moira hadn’t done anything wrong. Okay, maybe, she silently accepted, I did overhear them threaten the two people sitting before me. But how did Boyle know for sure she’d overheard? And he surely had no idea about the recording. Her eyes narrowed on Justin. Unless he snitched.
“Listen to me—” Declan began in his attempt to explain or pacify her. She didn’t care which one. This wouldn’t happen.
“No.” She jabbed her finger at him. “I am not leaving Ireland. In case you didn’t understand, I said nay. N A Y.”
Declan released an aggrieved sigh, which, knowing him as she did, he didn’t like what he was about to say and that had her squirming in her seat. “I think you need to get far away from here. Out of Ireland and their reach.”
Panic set in and her heart pounding erratically. “What? Why? This is where I grew up… where I live.” She shook her head, hoping to dislodge her unease. “They didn’t know I was listening.”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
Declan slid the hand that’d been rubbing Diana’s back only a moment ago over his face, as if to wipe away the weariness that permeated his mood.
“Why do I need to leave?” she persisted like a petulant child. Moira allowed her gaze to slide back to Justin again, who appeared bored with the conversation. He was the wildcard. If he was on their side, she’d be fine. But, if not, this conversation was a waste of their time.
“Be realistic. Don’t you think if they are looking for me that they’d come to you to find me? And, if they want to kill me, what extreme do you think they’d go to find out what you knew?”
Justin stepped forward. “Okay, here’s my plan.”
His plan? His plan? her mind screamed. He should be the last person who knew what they would do to save themselves.
However, she listened. Mostly because her brother told her to keep an open mind. Worse, he told her he trusted Justin to keep them safe.
Justin’s phone rang, and they all froze, conversation ceased. She just knew it was his boss. Just knew it. Somehow, they’d figured out she was there and overheard. Something inside her screamed that her brother’s trust in the man was grossly misplaced. Her mind began to think of avenues of escape. Only, she wouldn’t run and leave her brother and his pregnant girlfriend to their death.
“Franks.” His gaze bore into Moira and became darker as he listened to the caller.
She swallowed hard. It was his boss. No doubt in her mind. Her thoughts scrambled on what to do.
“Are you sure you want all three dead?”
Oh God, they’d waited too late.
Before her, Justin transformed into what she’d expect a cold-blooded killer to look like. His lack of voice inflection in the call scared her. Those scales had just tipped back to not trusting Justin. He’d just been humoring them until now to see what they knew. And she’d given him the recording. The only evidence they had.
“You can count on me to take care of it.”
After he ended the call, it appeared the other room occupants held a collective breath.
The menace in Justin’s voice grew as he continued, “Time’s up.” He turned to Diana, and his eyes appeared pained to Moira. Not lethal like they were seconds ago. Maybe he had more feelings for Diana than he’d expressed. “I’m sorry, Diana.”
Diana burst into tears and turned back into Declan’s chest.
Justin straightened and a terrifying transformation overcame him. “My orders are to kill all three of you.”
If the blood in Moira’s veins had grown any colder, she’d have frozen to death at the next few words as they’d contradicted his earlier plan.
“There’s no time like the present.”
Chapter Six
When Moira, Declan, and Diana remained frozen, Justin continued. To Moira’s everlasting relief, he relaxed and spoke authoritatively, but not threatening. “If you want a life, you have to leave now. With me.” He checked his watch. “We don’t have much time, grab only what’s important, and let’s get out of here.”
As if expecting them to jump into action at his command, he punched a finger on his phone, then put it to his ear. “It’s time. I need wheels up ASAP.” He paused. “I’ll text you the specifics for the flight plan. Expect long enough that it’ll take two pilots.”
Moira shrank in a bit at his statement. Her eyes watered thinking of leaving friends, but mostly her home. Homeland. Inside, she screamed, Why me? Why do I have to leave? She’d heard the men and understood, but she didn’t want to leave. Maybe if she thought of it
as a vacation. Yeah, that’d work.
“Moira, where’s your passport?” Justin asked after he ended his phone call.
Passport? All the talk had been about leaving Ireland, so a passport sounded like a normal thing she’d need. Yet her brain seemed to have short-circuited. She wished she could swish away the fog in her mind and focus on the larger problem that included her brother.
Justin had agreed to kill them. Or, so it seemed. The question was whether he was lying now, or had he lied to his boss? She wanted to trust him. Nay, she needed to do it. Turning toward her brother, he nodded as if to answer her unasked question. They’d trust him. Which meant, getting her butt in gear and moving.
“Moira?” Justin asked again.
“Um, I have it in my purse because I wasn’t sure if I needed it as a second piece of identification to work today.”
He stretched out his arm. “Give it to me.”
Diana and her brother stood. “I’ll grab mine,” Declan said. “Did you already get the fake ones?”
Fake ones? She’d missed something crucial.
“Justin helped me get what I’d need before we left,” Diana informed them before Moira could ask more about passports. For someone whose father wanted her dead, Diana appeared relatively calm. The crying aside. Then again, Moira was more prone to rant and rave, whereas Diana had been more on the quiet side.
“Okay, when you have the flight time, I’ll call Danny and let him know we’re on our way.” Declan kissed Diana softly. “I just need to grab a few things and we’ll be ready.” He strode out of the room.
Moira’s mind ran through a list of what she’d need to travel. “I’ll just need to drop by my flat to get a few things as well.”
“No time,” Justin informed her, as he shoved over the kitchen table. Glass shattered from the centerpiece that she’d bought for her parents one Christmas. She saw her heart shattering with it. If only they were here, none of this would be happening. Her father would’ve smoothed it over. He could fix anything.
