The McKays Box Set - To Kill For, Blood Sport, Hard Time & Gang Land

by A. J. Carella

  The Chinese restaurant was just across the street and he was just about to step off the curb to cross the road when he saw Kat’s car pull up outside. He watched as she stepped out of the car, laughing, and waited for her passenger to join her on the sidewalk. It was not someone Finn recognized, but he obviously knew Kat very well as he put his arm around her shoulders as they walked through the front door and out of sight. Finn was taken aback to realize that his fists were clenched, his nails digging into his palms. There’s your answer. He was angry now. Angry at himself for the hours he’d spent worrying about what he should do. About whether he should take it any further and see if they could be together. Clearly, he was the only one who was wasting any time worrying about it. Well, no more. She’d obviously moved on. Annoyed, he turned on his heel and headed back to the station. If the squad wanted take-out, they could get it themselves. There was no way he was going in there now.

  Fourteen

  “So, what do you think?” Kat asked. It was late and the living room was a mess, covered in empty take-out containers, but clearing up could wait.

  “What do you think they’re up to?” Kyle addressed Jake. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. That Jake believed his life was in danger was obvious, but he had no idea why.

  “I don’t know, but I wasn’t about to hang around and find out.”

  “The problem is, what can we do about it? You’re in a ton of trouble and if you get caught here, Kat and Jamie will be, too. But if you hand yourself in, there’s no telling what you’ll be going back to.”

  “Don’t worry about us, Kyle. We’re a family and we’ll do whatever it takes to help,” Kat replied.

  “Have you thought about what would happen to Daniel?” He hated to say it but it needed to be pointed out. He didn’t think that Kat had quite grasped what could be at stake. “I know you want to help, but if Jake is found here you could lose him. Are you prepared for that?”

  “God, he’s right, Kat. I hadn’t even thought about that. I’ve been so wrapped up in worrying about myself. I can’t stay here.” Jake stood up from the couch. “I’ll go.”

  “Sit down, Jake.” Kat glared at Kyle. “You’re supposed to be here to help.”

  “I am here to help, Kat, but I need to be sure you know what’s at stake here.” He could see that she was annoyed with him again. “Well, if he’s going to be staying here, you need to be more careful. The police could turn up at any time. When we got back from town, the front door was unlocked and we walked straight in.”

  “That was my fault.” Jamie looked embarrassed. “I should have locked it after you left.”

  “And, we’re sitting here with the curtains open on every window. If anyone walked around the house, they would see Jake instantly.”

  Jamie immediately jumped up and pulled them closed.

  “I’m just saying that if he is going to stay, you’re going to have to change the way you think for now. For all you know, the police could be watching you.

  “No, I would know.” Kat sounded adamant.

  “Why? Because of Finn? If it came to a choice between you and his career, which one do you think he would choose?”

  “Okay, I get it! We’ll be more careful from now on. But that doesn’t help us decide what to do next.”

  He’d been thinking about that and as far as he could tell there, was no choice. There was only one thing they could do. “The only chance Jake has of getting out of this situation is if we can prove that he was genuinely in danger if he hadn’t escaped.”

  “But how do we do that? We can’t exactly march in there and ask them if he was, can we?”

  “No. There’s only one way, as far as I can tell.” He took a deep breath and looked at the others waiting expectantly. “I have to get into that jail.”

  Fifteen

  “Are you nuts?” Kat was pacing in front of the fireplace, unable to sit still. “Do you know what you’re saying?”

  “There’s no other way, Kat. If you believe what Jake has told us,” He turned and addressed Jake. “No disrespect, but I don’t know you.” He turned back to Kat. “Then the only way to find out what’s going on is to be on the inside.”

  “There’s got to be another way.” Kat stopped pacing and threw her hands in the air. “Jake escaped because they were going to kill him, so you want to put yourself in that very same position?”

  “It’s different, Kat. I’ve got no intention of going in as a prisoner and besides, I’m trained, you know that. Plus, I’ll be in contact every step of the way so if it gets too dangerous, I’ll say the word and then you can tell Finn everything and get me out of there.”

  “How would you get in, then, if you’re not going to go in as a prisoner?” Kat asked, puzzled.

  Kyle grinned. “I’ll be right back.” He turned and left the room, leaving the others looking at each other questioningly.

  He was gone less than a minute before he returned, holding something in his hand that he held up triumphantly. “This was given to me on the flight.” He unfolded it so they could all see what it was.

  Kat was still confused. “I don’t see how a newspaper is going to help us.”

  “The paper won’t, but this will,” he said, opening it to a page and handing it over so that she could see what he was talking about.

  “They’re recruiting guards at the prison.” Kat read out loud so the others could hear.

  “It’s easy enough to fake a work history. I’ll just apply for the job.” Kyle looked very pleased with himself.

  Kat turned it over in her mind. She had to admit, the idea had possibilities. “Okay, assuming you manage to get the job and assuming that they let the new guy in on whatever’s going on, we still won’t have any actual evidence.”

  “We won’t know what I’ll have until I get in there and see what’s going on, will we?”

  He had a point, but every fiber in her being objected to deliberately putting him in danger. “But what if something goes wrong? You’ll be in there on your own and we’ll have no idea what’s happening.”

  “I have my own P.I. company remember? There are ways. I’ll get in touch with Tara and get her to send what I’ll need.”

  “That’s another thing. How’s Tara going to take this? She’s gonna kill me.”

  “No, she won’t, because she won’t know.”

  Kat looked at him in shock. “You’re not going to tell her?”

  “No, there’s no point worrying her.”

  “Great. That makes me feel so much better about dragging you into this,” she said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

  “Look, Kat.” The tone in his voice told Kat that he was getting annoyed. “You called me and asked me for my help, and I’m glad you did, but you need to let me do it my way.”

  “You two have been very quiet.” Kat addressed Jake and Jamie who had been watching the exchange. “What do you think?”

  Jake looked embarrassed as he replied, “Obviously, I don’t want to put anyone else in harm’s way but I think he’s right, Kat. I don’t see any other way.” He pulled his hands down his face before letting out a big sigh. “If I go back, I know they’re going to kill me. I don’t know why, but I know they are. We can’t go to the authorities because they probably won’t believe me, and is that a chance we can take? I’m sorry, Kat. I wish I could see another way, but I can’t.”

  Kat turned her gaze to Jamie. “What about you?”

  “I’m sorry, Kat.” Jamie shifted under her gaze. “But I agree with Jake and Kyle.”

  She looked around at them all looking at her and knew she was beaten. “Well, I don’t like it, but it looks like I’ve been outvoted, doesn’t it?” She shrugged. “So where do we start?”

  Sixteen

  Not again. The guard had caught his eye and gestured with his head that he was wanted. He’d only just sat down in the cafeteria, but looking at the food on his plate that he’d waited in line for half an hour to get, he was no longer hungry anyway. It was alwa
ys chaotic at meal times when the cafeteria filled with all the prisoners who weren’t confined to their cells and the noise was almost deafening. It was his least favorite time of day. He didn’t like noise, never had. Even as a child, he’d never liked large groups of people, much preferring the solitude of his own company. Pushing his tray away, he stood up and made his way over to where the guard was waiting.

  “Warden wants to see you.”

  Alex didn’t bother to reply, merely nodding and following the guard as he unlocked the barred door separating the cafeteria from the corridor before stepping through and locking it again behind him. He was surprised, though he knew better than to ask the guard any questions. He’d only just completed a job and there had never been less than a month between them. He replayed the hit in his mind, going over every detail to see if he’d missed anything. No, it had gone exactly as planned and he hadn’t made any mistakes, so it couldn’t be because of that that the warden wanted to see him.

  After following the guard to the other side of the prison, he once again found himself in the warden’s office.

  “Alex. I hope I didn’t interrupt your lunch?”

  “No problem, there’s only so much swill you can eat.”

  The warden laughed. “Glad to see you’ve still got your sense of humor.” He stood up from where he’d been sitting behind his desk and walked over to a bookcase that covered the entire right wall. Pulling on a handle, he opened a door and revealed a concealed mini bar. “I have another job for you,” he said as he poured himself a drink of what looked like whiskey from a crystal decanter. “A big one.”

  “So soon?”

  “Yes.” The warden walked back to his desk and picked up a blue folder that sat there and handed it to him.

  Taking it, Alex flipped it open and his eyes widened. “No.” He looked at the warden. “No, I’m not doing it.”

  The warden’s face hardened, all trace of joviality gone. “I think you’ll find you are.”

  “Please, I can’t.”

  “You can and you will. You know what happens if you don’t.” The warden sipped at his drink. “I’m disappointed in you, Alex. I didn’t think I needed to remind you anymore.”

  The urge to reach across the desk, take him by the throat and squeeze until there was no life left in him was almost more than he could bear, but it would be suicide. As soon as he made a move, the warden would press his panic alarm and the guards right outside the door would come running. He wouldn’t even make it across the desk.

  “You don’t,” Alex replied, his hands squeezed tightly into fists at his side. “When?”

  The warden gave a satisfied smirk. “A week. Everything you need is in that file.” Without another word, he pressed the buzzer on his desk and the door was opened by the guard standing outside. The warden had already turned his attention back to papers on his desk, effectively dismissing him. Clenching his jaw and clutching the file so tightly that it bent, he turned and left the office.

  ***

  Alex sat on his bunk with his head in his hands. Was it ever going to stop? He’d been in this hell-hole for less than a year of a life sentence. He was considered lucky by the other prisoners, having a cell to himself, but Alex didn’t feel lucky. Lucky people didn’t get sent to prison when they were innocent. Lucky people didn’t have to murder people on someone else’s say so. He could feel the walls of the cell pressing in on him and it was all he could do not to scream out loud.

  If someone had told him eighteen months ago that this was where he’d be now, he would have laughed in their face.

  Eighteen months ago, he’d just received his discharge papers from the army after returning from Afghanistan for the last time. For fifteen years, the army had been his life but the time had been right to leave. Using all the money he’d been saving, he and his wife had found a place to settle and had bought a house. Amy had been so happy that they were putting down roots at last and their six-year-old daughter, Lily, had already started making some new friends. Life had been good.

  Disaster had struck swiftly, though. Barely a month after moving in to their new house, Lily had been at school and he’d gone for a run. He’d had a stupid fight with Amy—he couldn’t even remember what it had been about now—and had needed to let off some steam.

  Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary when he got back and he still didn’t understand that. How could something so terrible happen and there be nothing that screamed it from the rooftops? He’d thought she must still be angry and first, when he walked into the house and called out her name and she didn’t reply, he hadn’t thought anything of it. Sweating from his run, he’d gone straight upstairs to shower. It made him sick to think about that now. Would it have changed things? Probably not.

  He’d found her when he’d come downstairs and gone into the kitchen. The white kitchen she’d fallen in love with was covered in the red of her blood. It was pooled on the floor around her body and splashes of it had sprayed on to the kitchen cabinets and walls. So much blood. Lying at the epicenter was his wife. She had been sliced open from neck to groin, her insides spilling out of the gash.

  Despite everything he’d seen during his time as a sniper overseas, nothing had prepared him for that. Stumbling, he just managed to make it through the open back door before throwing up. When his stomach had stopped heaving, he’d fallen to his knees. He had no idea how long he’d stayed like that before getting up and going back inside. Keeping his eyes averted, he gone straight to the phone in hall and dialled 911 before going outside and sitting on the front step to wait for the emergency services.

  Everything after that happened in a blur. He didn’t remember what he’d said to the police as they spoke to him outside, didn’t remember being placed under arrest or being transported to the police station. The only thing that stood out in his memory clearly was the flash of the blue lights against the black of the body bag as they’d wheeled what was left of his wife out of the house before he’d been put in the back of the police cruiser.

  His mother had come from California to be at his side throughout the trial, never doubting his innocence, and when the jury had found him guilty, she’d taken on the responsibility of looking after his daughter in a heartbeat. She’d sold her house and bought one close to the prison so that they would be able to visit him.

  His heart broke as he thought of his little girl. She had been devastated at the loss of her mother and then she’d had to go through the trauma of seeing her father locked up for her murder. He was so glad that his mom was still around, knowing that if anyone could see her through this it was her.

  Taking the folder that he’d flung down on his bunk in disgust as soon as he’d been returned to his cell, he opened it. The prison was in darkness so he switched on his flashlight, one of the perks of being the warden’s pet, so he could look at the contents again.

  The target was a sixteen-year-old girl. Her face stared back at him from the photo at the front of the file. It was pale with a dusting of freckles across her nose. Her green eyes were surrounded by pale lashes and there was no trace of make upon her. She looked younger than her years, possibly because of the way she wore her hair in pigtails.

  All his targets had families, a fact he was acutely aware of, but never more so than now. She was just a kid, her whole life ahead of her. How could he possibly murder her?

  But how could he not? If he didn’t, the warden had made it clear what would happen to his daughter. He’d shown him the pictures he’d had taken of her coming out of school, playing in his mom’s front yard, on the swings in the local park. He’d been very clear; if he didn’t do as he was told, his daughter would pay the ultimate price.

  Seventeen

  It had taken Tara a day to get everything together that Kyle had asked for and another day for it to arrive from L.A., but now it had and everything had been unpacked and was set out on the dining room table.

  “So what does this do?” Kat picked up a small box containing a tiny dev
ice not much bigger than the head of a pin.

  “Please don’t touch everything!” Kyle reached out and took the box from her hand. “This is very sensitive, very expensive gear.”

  It was just the two of them and Jake in the house. Trying to make sure that everything appeared normal, Jamie had gone to work, dropping Daniel off at school on the way. Kat hated to drag Daniel into this, but she’d had no choice. She had to make him promise that he wouldn’t say anything about Jake at school. He’d taken it in his stride, though, simply nodding without question. With everything that he’d been through, Kat supposed that not a lot would faze him and he trusted her completely.

  “This,” Kyle said, answering her question, “is a transmitter.” He gently picked it up and placed in on the tip of his finger, holding it out so that both Kat and Jake could see it and appreciate its size. “It’s not the kind you can just go into a store and buy. This is the latest, most high-tech and most expensive of its kind. Think CIA.”

  “Surely you can’t just buy this stuff online?”

  Kyle laughed. “No Kat, you can’t. But thankfully I’ve made some fairly good contacts since I started the PI business. Done a few favors for some powerful people.” He held up his hand as Kat opened her mouth to ask another question. “Don’t even ask Kat, I can’t say.”

  “Okay I won’t ask. So, how does it work?”

  Kyle reached for another item on the table. “This,” he held up a tube, “is a special glue. You use it to attach the transmitter to one of your teeth. Once in place, whoever has the receiver will be able to hear and record everything I say or hear.”