Love, Cass

by St. Klaire, Stephanie

  “Lydia?” Trinity gently interrupted. “Honey, I think he’s right. We’re a means to get to you. Even if he finds us, he won’t kill us…he needs us to find you.”

  An eerie calm crossed the room as Lydia sat quietly, staring at her sleeping son. What an odd circumstance to be in, to think that your sister and infant son are safer in the hands of your predator than to have him hot on your own trail. It felt almost selfish to send them off with that knowledge, even if it was the most logical approach to an illogical situation.

  “Lydee, I promise to take care of Jax as you would. I’ll talk about you and make sure he remembers. We can do this, Lydee. I swear to you, I will protect him with my life.”

  They were right, and Lydia knew it. She was just struggling with how to say okay, and kiss her son goodbye for who knew how long. The reality was, she had no choice, and the only people in the world who she could trust at that very moment were in that room.

  “Lydee?” Jason asked, anxious to get everyone out of there before they had to fight their way out.

  “What if he starts looking?” Lydia knew the answer to that but needed another moment with her son, and it was the only way she knew how to get it…stall.

  “He won’t if you both keep your cover. He won’t even know you’re alive.”

  Shock raged through both women at Jason’s last statement, and though they wanted to know what he meant, neither asked. They had enough to process tonight; they’d figure out the rest when they had to.

  “Trinity, your car is waiting. Everything you will need is already in it. Financial resources have been set up for you – only use what is provided. Do not, under any circumstances, try to access your personal accounts. And whatever you do, nobody knows who you are or where you’re from. Just remember, you’re always being watched…let’s make sure it’s only by the good guys.”

  She nodded, “I’m trusting you on this because my sister trusts you. How do I know it’s safe where we are going?”

  “Because I arranged it myself. Only myself and your escorts know where you are going,” he said with confidence.

  “I wish I felt confident in that right now.” An awkward chuckle escaped Trinity as she gathered the courage she needed to leave and take her sister’s baby with her.

  “Trin, he’s a target, too, now. He is risking everything to help us. He’s safe. If he arranged it, you’ll be safe.” A weak smile skimmed her face, and she stood, holding Jax’s baby carrier. A single tear slid down her cheek. “It’s time to go.”

  Huddled around the cars, the sisters said their tearful goodbyes while their escorts waited in the distance. Lydia peppered Jax with kisses, trying to remember every last little detail, down to that unmistakable fresh baby smell.

  “I’ll figure it all out Lydia. I won’t let you down. I won’t let him down,” Trinity added to assure her heartbroken sister.

  Jason gently took the carrier from Lydia and whispered something to him before placing him in the back seat of the car they were to leave in. He nodded to Trinity, holding the door for her so they could be on their way. She stopped just before climbing in, giving her sister one last encouraging smile before ducking down into the car next to Jax.

  Lydia turned away, unable to watch them drive away. It was too painful – more than she thought. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had days, or even weeks, to ready herself for this – how do you prepare for your heart to be ripped from your chest? You don’t.

  Jason swiftly lead Lydia to the car they would be leaving in, one much like the one that just left with her family in it. It was all a blur, watching the second car leave, following her sister. When her car pulled out of the parking garage and up to the street, she could see the two cars traveling down the eerily semi-vacant street until her car turned the opposite direction, and they disappeared into the night’s traffic. Then, she cried herself to sleep.

  CHAPTER 5

  Parked outside of what looked like an abandoned gas station, Lydia woke up in the car, alone. Sleeping in a car for who knew how long wasn’t her best idea. It was damn painful. She tried to stretch and work out the knots that her odd sleeping position created, and that’s when she saw him.

  Jason was standing outside of the car, talking to the two men who had followed them. When she stepped out of the car, their conversation stopped and all eyes were on her. As different as the two men looked from one another, there was something oddly similar, too. Something familiar even, but she couldn’t put her finger on it, nor did she have the energy or desire to figure it out.

  “Are you okay?” Jason asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

  When she nodded, he handed her the duffle bag he had packed for her and pointed her in the direction of the bathroom. “You can change and clean up a bit while we finish up here.”

  Politely being dismissed – that was new, but she didn’t feel much like protesting when she looked down and realized she was still wearing the dress from the night before. She suddenly felt a little too exposed and even a little trashy, given it was daylight in the middle of nowhere. Slowly stalking toward the restroom sign he had pointed out, she took in her surrounding, looking for clues as to where they might be.

  There was nowhere to go, no one to talk to. What would she say if there were? Hey, I voluntarily got in the car with muscles over there because my husband might want to kill me and feed me to the sharks, but I feel a bit trapped, kidnapped, and imprisoned…can you help me? Oh, and I’m not crazy at all.

  All three men were watching her; she could feel their deep judgy stares. They were still silent, too, waiting for her to get out of earshot before they resumed whatever they were discussing. What the hell did they have to say that she couldn’t hear? It was her rescue mission; she was the victim they were protecting as a witness; she deserved to know. Tossing a dirty look over her shoulder, she made sure each saw her judging them right back before she walked into the restroom.

  Staring in the mirror at someone she hardly recognized, it became clear what they were looking at…a hot mess. Quick to get out of her expensive couture, she found a pair of black yoga leggings and jacket to change into. The dress that was bought with hopes and dreams went into the trash where it belonged since becoming a nightmare full of bad memories. After splashing water on her face to remove the residual sludge-like makeup, she ran a brush through her hair, tossing it into a simple ponytail for the day.

  She still didn’t recognize the fresh-faced girl staring back at her in the mirror. She looked tired, sad, and maybe even frightened. It occurred to her in that moment that she probably wouldn’t recognize herself for a while, not until she discovered who she was now, this new life that she was supposed to adopt. Life was starting over, and she didn’t deal well with change. It had been less than 24 hours since her world tilted on its axis, but it felt like a lifetime ago.

  Slipping on her sneakers so she could get back to the car before the cavalry came looking for her, she couldn’t help but laugh. Jason had said they were on the run, and here she was, tying up her running shoes. There was a little more of that irony crap that kept happening.

  With her black duffle bag slung over her shoulder, she headed out the door. She remembered seeing a payphone attached to the wall when she was going in. For some odd reason, she felt the need to lift the receiver and see if it worked as she passed back by. It was dead, of course, probably for the best. Who would she call anyway? She was trapped in her own little world, cut off from everyone and everything she knew. A victim of her own circumstance.

  Catching Jason’s intent stare, she shifted where she stood, feeling equal parts uneasy and something she couldn’t quite identify. That look made her nervous – he made her nervous. She chalked it up to their current circumstance. Before, he was more a fixture who went nearly everywhere she did. Now, her life depended on him.

  A rolling door, coming from her left, startled her from her thoughts and caught her attention. The spikey haired man with muscles for days, from the car behin
d them, had put the car she exited only moments before in the stall and locked it up. Looking back to Jason, she noticed that their car was now an SUV. How had she missed that, and why were they using another car? Part of being on the run meant car swapping apparently.

  The spikey haired man rejoined the others, and she noticed he looked much like his less edgy partner. Where the one had spikey hair, the other had a slightly longer style that was clean cut and combed back. Spike – she didn’t know his name – wore a nearly too tight t-shirt that hugged his physique and low hanging jeans, where the guy, who looked more like a Ken doll, wore an appropriately fitting athletic shirt with matching shorts. Spike had tattoos, whereas Ken doll didn’t seem to have any. Both were easy on the eyes, but the obvious physical contradiction was like that of a dive bar versus the country club.

  After a quick nod from yin and yang, they were back in their car, pulling back onto the highway to a destination unknown. Not very chatty, she thought. Perhaps all muscle and lacking in intellect. It was no matter; Jason had said it was just the two of them on the road, on the run. There were those nerves again.

  Jason stood at the rear of the new vehicle they were to leave in, hatch up, waiting for her bag. He had a brown bakery box in one hand, while eating something from the other.

  “Donut?” he asked. “You’ve got to be hungry by now. You slept clear through the morning.”

  “Slept through the morning?” She was surprised by the statement, sure she heard him wrong. “What time is it?”

  “It’s well after noon. Hungry?” He held the box out so she could see its contents.

  “Um, I don’t know. Are they vegan?” she questioned with her nose turned slightly up and a judgy tone.

  “Vegan? What the…sure, yeah, vegan. You need to eat something. We’ll stop later for actual food, so take a few of these for now. We won’t be to our destination until tomorrow night. You need to eat when you can.”

  “If they’re not vegan…” the sight and smell went right to her senses, and they sounded the alarm in a loud belly growl. So much for playing it cool and waiting for something vegan. Her body was betraying her over some sugary donuts. “Fine, since they’re vegan…I guess I’ll have one; I’m not that hungry.”

  “Uh huh.” He chuckled at the sound of her rumbling stomach and handed her a second donut. “Why don’t you hold this one, too…for me. I might get hungry.”

  “Okay, fine.” She reluctantly took the second donut and got into the passenger side of the vehicle without another word.

  He closed the back and got behind the wheel, pulling back onto the highway, driving the opposite direction of the men who just left.

  “Well that answers that,” she said under her breath.

  He gave her a strange side-eye glance. “What answers…what?”

  Finishing the first donut and eyeing the second, she went on to ask what she really wanted to know. “Oh, I was just wondering if we were still being guarded by yin and yang or going on our merry way. They went left; we went right…question answered.”

  “Yin and yang?” he chuckled at her deadpan response.

  Raised eyebrows and an amused smirk looked good on him, she thought – better than his typical steely stare. “Yeah, yin and yang. The two guys who have been traveling with us? They look almost exactly alike other than the bad boy, good boy, opposite thing they have going on. You know them – personally, I mean.”

  Nodding, he was impressed with her observation. That kind of attention to detail would benefit them while they ran and come trial time. “Yeah, I know them pretty well. Why?”

  “You smiled at one of them – the one who looks like a Ken Doll. You never smile, not like that.”

  His smirk faded to bewilderment. “Yeah, he was telling me about his kid. She’s pretty…cute. Wait, Ken Doll? Are you serious?”

  With a mouth full of the second donut that she didn’t want, she replied, “Yeah, the pretty one. Looks like a Ken doll or something…especially next to the other one.”

  A sound that startled her as much as it brought her joy escaped him…laughter. “So, if the pretty one is a Ken doll, what’s the other one? Please let this be good.”

  “Oh, Spike? He needs bigger shirts. He doesn’t have to shop at Baby Gap. They have clothes for adults, too.” She shrugged at the thought, surprised Jason hadn’t noticed.

  “Yeah, his shirts are a little tight. He works out a lot.” He paused, his expression falling to one of serious emotion. “They are 2 of the only men we can trust right now; the other two are with your sister and Jax.”

  When it was apparent that he wasn’t going to elaborate, she dug a little deeper. It was curious to her how mention of them evoked emotion of any kind – he didn’t do emotions. “So, I don’t get to know who they are? Why they’re important to you and the only people we can trust?”

  “It’s better if you don’t know, the less you…” her disappointed sigh let him know that she already knew what he was going to say. Though he thought better of it, he decided to give her something more than just, you don’t need to know. “Look, they’re from my team, personal team. Not the…agency I work for. We’re in the wind – off the grid for now – my agency doesn’t even know where we are, and they’re ultimately the group taking Esteban down.

  “We can’t trust whatever government, military something or other agency you were undercover for, but we can trust a couple no name blondes with muscles?” A little unease crept in. “Is that even safe? Isn’t that going rogue or something?”

  “I suppose it is rogue, and yes, it’s safe. Esteban’s reach is massive, and his pockets deep. I don’t know who I can trust. Highest military and government clearance doesn’t make a person honest; it just makes them in the know about a lot of big stuff. Money and blackmail can make people do things they never thought they would or could. We’ll stick with my personal team and worry about the agency later.”

  “I suddenly don’t feel very…safe.” She pulled her legs up under her in her seat and took another bite out of that donut. “Can we call Trin and Jax, make sure they’re okay? You said they were parting ways with their team at some point, too, right? She’ll be alone.”

  “No. We can’t call them. They are never entirely alone. They’re always being watched and people are nearby. If something goes wrong, I’ll know.” He took one look at her and realized that his words offered little to no comfort – he would know probably didn’t offer much comfort. “Look, I check in at my office, just like the others do. I use a burner phone then dump it in the mail to a random address. If it’s traced by someone we don’t want on our trail…they’ll follow it to an undeliverable address far from where we will be. The whole team operates this way when we are this deep. I’ll know if something happens. They’re safe.”

  With each no and sliver of information, she became more and more aware of the danger she was in. She should be grateful to have this man protecting her, but truth be told, the more she learned about him, the more she feared him, too. He’s the guy you want on your side when murder and mayhem ensue, but he’s also the guy who you don’t want to cross or meet on the wrong side of a deal gone bad. She didn’t find comfort in either scenario…just anxiety and a lot of new questions that she would never get answers to.

  She turned to him, studied him; there was something big staring her right in the face, and she was finally putting it together. He was undercover, with a fake identity working for a non-existent branch of what was probably government, and the means to disappear altogether, even from them because he had his own team who could do so. The more she learned about the stranger beside her, the more she realized she knew less and less about who he really was. He was exactly who he wanted her to believe he was, real or not, and that was it. That didn’t sit well with her at all.

  “Your name,” she started, “it isn’t Jason Carmichael, is it?”

  His jaw tensed, and his grip on the steering wheel tightened when he shook his head no. He wouldn’t look at
her.

  “What do you really do; who are you?”

  His answer wasn’t immediate. There was a lot on the line, and he had to be careful how much he shared. He felt like he could trust her, wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to gain her complete trust and tell her why he was really there – why he stayed undercover so long and that it was for her. Letting her in, however, would be breaking the cardinal rule in his line of work. It was too personal and dangerous. There was too much at stake, with everything on the proverbial line. He found himself conflicted. The professional in him was losing to personal desire. He caved.

  “My name is Declan O’Reilly.”

  CONTINUE READING DECLAN HERE...

  COPYRIGHT © 2018

  Stephanie St. Klaire

  Brother’s Keeper II: Liam

  Book Two in the Brother’s Keeper Series

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, or other status is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever known, not known or hereafter invented, or stored in any storage or retrieval system, is forbidden and punishable by the fullest extent of the law without written permission of the author.

  EDITOR: Dawn Yacovetta

  FORMATTING: The SSK Group

  CHAPTER 1

  She was being followed.

  It didn’t surprise her; she expected it, really. Most women wouldn’t go out at such a late hour – alone – because they received a cryptic text message, but Felicity Nichols wasn’t most women. She was smart, savvy, and trained by the best. She was taught to protect herself by any and all means – again, by the best – the O’Reilly brothers.