Love, Cass

by St. Klaire, Stephanie

  When she read the business card and its significance settled in, she didn’t know whether she should have felt relieved or more frightened. Carter Landry, US Attorney. Scrawled below the name in small, neat handwriting were the words: Big Scary Guy. A US Attorney – that meant things like the White House, Capitol Hill, Washington DC. Finding herself in the hands of one of the land’s highest powers meant whatever she witnessed must have been more than an assassination. Daisy wasn’t an expert, but she didn’t think it was common practice for a US Attorney to hide her versus going to some sort of facility – whatever the federal equivalent to a police station was.

  Slow to her feet, unwilling to make the same mistake twice and tempt vertigo, she made her way to the window. Outside, she saw a balcony-like deck resting above a tree-lined river. From her vantage point, there didn’t seem to be any other homes around them.

  “A river house,” she whispered. “Why does that sound like it should mean something to me?”

  Figuring the pastries and water were indeed safe – he was a federal officer of the court, after all – she grabbed a scone and the bottle before making her way out of the room in search of more answers. The long hall led to an open space of rustic charm with windows all around, boasting stunning views of the surrounding wilderness. There was a man and woman standing with their backs to Daisy just outside the open sliding glass door, each with a steaming coffee mug in hand.

  “Good morning, sunshine,” the blonde said without turning in Daisy’s direction. “Have you calmed down, or are you going to pick up where you left off last night?”

  The man, Carter, Daisy assumed, chuckled before turning her way. “Ignore her, Daisy. Sheridan’s not very nice until she’s had a few gallons of coffee.”

  “You’re…Carter.” A statement, not a question. “US Attorney, Carter…Landry?”

  “She can read,” the woman chided, her back still turned to Daisy.

  Carter gave the woman a sharp look before turning his attention to Daisy. With a warm smile that lightened his hard, chiseled features, he suggested, “Let’s go inside, have a seat, and…talk. You up for that?”

  With a nod, Daisy made her way to a nearby sofa and sat, pulling her legs under her. With her pastry and water on the side table, she grabbed the throw pillow to her side and hugged it for comfort. Though she knew she was probably safe – there was no guarantee she was – she’d seen enough of those crime shows to know even the good guys could be bad.

  The dead senator had been good, or had seemed to be, but given what went down in his house, at his party, he kept bad company. What did that say about him? Maybe nothing, or maybe she should have done herself a favor and kept her guard up until she knew she didn’t have to.

  Carter took a seat across from Daisy on the matching club chair while the woman – Sheridan, he’d called her – sat on a wooden barstool at the nearby wet bar. With that friendly smile back in place, she couldn’t help but feel safe with him. He had that big brother vibe going for him…not that she had her own brother to compare – but if she did, she was sure it would be like that.

  “Where are we?” Daisy asked. “Why am I here?”

  “We’re in a small town on the Mississippi River, about six hours from Nashville.” Carter paused to see how she handled the information, given the hysterics the previous night. “You’re officially off the grid and under our protection.”

  “I’m in the witness protection program?” Daisy questioned.

  “Pffft. The goal is to keep you alive, sweetheart. Not feed you to the lions.” Sheridan chuckled.

  Daisy’s brow furrowed. “But…witness protection. It’s…government, right? Like FBI or something?”

  Sheridan nodded with a dramatic eyeroll. “Exactly.”

  Confused for a moment, Daisy stalled before what Sheridan was suggesting dawned on her: a corrupt government. “Oh. Ohhh.”

  “Senator Martinez was just another high-profile casualty of something bigger than we understand at the moment,” Carter began. “It seems each of the witnesses who have been put in protection somehow turn up dead or missing. The senator had information for meinformation we’ll never get now.”

  “This time, we’re doing things our way,” Sheridan said. “There is something dirty in Washington, and we aren’t risking another eye witness. You’re with us until this is over. The feds don’t even know about you.”

  Daisy was shocked, to say the least. Her simple life of odd jobs and music was suddenly very complicated. “You…grabbed me right away. You weren’t inside the mansion, so how did you know the senator was murdered and I was there to see it so quickly?”

  The sliding door suddenly opened, and a man walked in – a man she recognized. On instinct, she grabbed the closest thing she could use as a weapon and stood in defense. “Oh my God. He…he found me! He…he was there…in the hallway! He chased me.”

  “Freeze, asshole!” Sheridan jumped to her feet, pulling a weapon from the holster at her waist and aiming at the man in question. “Are you sure that’s the guy, Daisy? He’s the one who killed the senator? Say the word, and I’ll save everyone some trouble and put a bullet in his head right now!”

  “Knock it off, Sheridan. You put a bullet in my head and Ma will have your ass,” the man said before turning his attention back to Daisy. “I’m Ryker O’Reilly. I wasn’t chasing you to hurt you, I was trying to protect you. Put the…banana down, and we can talk this out.”

  Daisy looked at her chosen weapon, then the bowl of plastic fruit it came from. She lowered her arm, disappointed with her faux weapon. When a second man entered through the same door, her banana went back up, ready to strike. The man laughed, and she nearly lost it until she saw who walked in beside him.

  “Do you want me to shoot that one too?” Sheridan asked. “He probably deserves it more than the other one.”

  “Jesus, Sher, put the gun away already,” Ryker said. “Meet my kid brother, Ronan.”

  “His twin brother. He’s only a half hour older,” Ronan said. “He likes to hold it over my head. And our sister over there is always trying to shoot us. Ignore them. They’re both assholes.”

  “Twin? You two look…nothing alike,” Daisy replied.

  Sheridan holstered her weapon and offered her two cents. “They act just alike, though. Sometimes they even get that twin ghost pain thing and have simultaneous thoughts. They’re…weird.”

  “And you,” Daisy began, “you don’t look like you’re related to either of them. They’re so…big. And you’re so…well, not big.”

  “What Sheridan lacks in size, she makes up for in attitude,” Carter added, locked in a near awkward stare with Sheridan. “She grew up an O’Reilly, surrounded by big O’Reilly boys. She can hold her own.”

  “Oh, so you’re the older brother?” Daisy asked of Carter.

  Ronan and Ryker laughed as if they were in on some sort of joke, but the heated stare between Carter and Sheridan remained. “Oh. I see.”

  Breaking the awkward silence, Daisy tossed her plastic banana aside and made her way to where Ronan stood with her dog. Kneeling, she wrapped her arms around the mess of a dog’s neck and hugged it while scratching its back. “You brought Gibson. How did you know…?”

  Her words trailed off when she remembered exactly how they knew she had a dog. She’d let that question go unanswered and forget her hysterical behavior the night before ever happened. “Were you scared, Gibson? I bet you were.”

  “He didn’t want to be found, but he also didn’t hide well – under a blanket on the couch,” Ronan said, patting the dog’s head. “What happened to his fur? Some kind of rash or something? He sure likes to run.”

  “Actually, he’s a she,” Daisy corrected with a giggle. “She’s a licker. Nervous. Just licks patches of fur off. She looks so much better than when I adopted her.”

  “Didn’t you call him – her Gibson?” Ronan asked.

  “Sure did. Gibson, like the guitar. It suits her.” Sitting on the floor w
ith her legs crossed, the dog lay down, as much of her on Daisy’s lap that would fit. “I used to call her Dolly, like Dolly Parton. But she never responded. She was having a panic attack one night, so I played a soft song with my guitar and sang to her. Calmed right down. So, Gibson it was. She prefers it.”

  With tears in her eyes, Daisy looked up at the two men towering over her. “Thank you for bringing her. We are all each other has besides Gran.”

  “Wait—” Daisy hurried to her feet, “my Gran, she’ll worry if I’m not there to visit every day. I have to tell her I’m safe and—”

  “You can’t tell her anything, Daisy,” Carter interrupted, his tone near menacing. “You can’t tell anyone anything. No calls, no emails, no texts, no…anything. Understood? It’s your life on the line, and the people we are dealing with will go to any lengths to get to you. Reaching out to someone puts them in danger.”

  Daisy’s face paled, and for the first time since meeting them, she was speechless. Sheridan stepped in with a rare display of kindness. “Your grandmother is safe. The boys had her moved last night to a place where no one will find her, and she’s under an assumed name, just to be extra cautious. We have people posted in the area too, just to watch over her.”

  Daisy nodded her head and gave a weak smile. “Thank you. When…when can I see her?”

  “You can’t. In fact, you can’t know where she is either. It’s safer for you both this way.” Somewhat out of character, Sheridan shared a semblance of a smile. “You have to trust us, Daisy. The only way you both survive this is if you trust us and do everything we say without question. Can you do that?”

  Running her hands through her wild, honey-colored curls, Daisy stared at the floor for a moment, as if the answers were laying there, waiting for her. With a quick nod, and a lone tear trailing down her face, she agreed. She’d do whatever she had to to stay alive…for Gran.

  “Okay. We all have places to be and things to do,” Carter ordered. “Grab a quick shower, change your clothes, and let’s hit the road. I need to keep you moving.”

  “Clothes. I…don’t…”

  “There’s a bag in your room on the chair. The boys brought it in with them this morning,” Carter informed.

  A look of surprise flooded her expression. “My…clothes?”

  “Don’t worry. Ryker is really good at matching bras and panties,” Ronan teased.

  Eyes wide and jaw dropped, Daisy gasped. “You went through my…uh, you went through…those?”

  “Relax. I didn’t look,” Ryker ribbed.

  Ronan waggled his eyebrows, chuckling. “But I did.”

  In a bit of shock, and clearly overwhelmed, Daisy left the room with flushed cheeks and her dog. It was time to get ready for the road.

  Hair still damp, Daisy wandered outside with her dog and a small bag when she didn’t find anyone inside. There were two different SUVs in the driveway with escorts standing around, waiting for her.

  “Where’s the flower truck?” she asked.

  “Gone. And don’t get used to this truck. We have four more vehicle switches along the way. Can’t be too careful,” Carter explained.

  “Why don’t we fly?” If they were in a hurry and trying to get as far from Nashville as quickly as they could, driving didn’t seem logical to Daisy.

  “We fly, we’re found,” Carter said sharply, like some kind of warning. “With the kind of technology the government has, we’d be found through facial recognition alone in no time. We stay under the radar. That means no major highways or freeways, toll roads – anything with security cameras that can capture us. Back roads, small towns, and anything…dated won’t have the kind of tech that’s easily hacked.”

  “Hacked?” Daisy chuckled. “You sound paranoid. It can’t be that easy to…”

  “It is,” he cut her off. “You’re about to see just how easy with where we’re going.”

  “Which is?”

  Carter smiled. “Portland.”

  CHAPTER 3

  “Fuck,” Luke said under his breath, hiding behind the bar’s karaoke stage. “They found me.”

  With his eyes on the crowd, he backed away from the stage and made his way to the rear exit. “Maybe they didn’t see me?”

  Safely in the back hallway leading to the exit he was seeking, he stalled when his name came over the sound system. “Son of a bitch.”

  “Big, bad Luke O’Reilly is up next, y’all,” Wylie announced, heavy on the y’all. “Get on up here, boy. Sang for us, brother.”

  “Asshole,” Luke said to the bouncer laughing at him before he slammed the door open and left. He didn’t need to stay for the rest. He knew how it ended.

  “No? No Luke O’Reilly out there?” Wylie continued to harass, working the crowd for shits and giggles – something he was pretty damn good at. “Well, that’s a damn shame, y’all. I wanted to hear that big boy’s pipes. How about we have a round of drinks on that other big guy right there leaning on the bar?”

  When Wylie indicated Declan as the man at the bar, he earned himself a middle finger from his brother. He turned to the bartender, and said, “Put a few pitchers on my tab, Sully. Call it a round.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Wylie said, after joining the rest of his brothers at the bar. “Maybe we can get to the pub before him and start singing when he walks in – really fuck with him.”

  They walked outside, making their way to Declan’s SUV, when Dace warned Wylie, “He’s going to thump your ass if you’re not careful. Maybe not today, but he will get even.”

  “Eh, he can try.” Wylie shrugged. “I’ve got weight on him. I’m a pretty big guy too. Just ask the ladies.”

  “The ladies?” Liam questioned. “The only lady you talk to is Ma, and if she heard that, she’d smack the back of your head.”

  “We all know there are no ladies in your life – except one,” Dace cued in, referring to their associate Eva. “And she won’t give you the time of day.”

  “Besides, anyone who has to tell you how big their pecker is and how many ladies they have clearly has a small dick and hasn’t seen a naked woman outside of pictures. And Luke has kicked your ass before, big boy,” Declan added, earning a round of high fives from his brothers.

  “I’m a monster. There’s nothing tiny about me, boys,” Wylie said to his brothers as he opened the rear car door. “And I can kick Luke’s ass blindfolded with both hands tied behind my back.”

  When the three brothers started laughing, unimpressed by Wylie’s declaration, he followed their gaze to see what was so funny – Luke, sitting in the backseat of the SUV, waiting for them.

  “Just tell me when, baby brother,” Luke said with a wink to Wylie, the youngest, but biggest of the O’Reilly brothers.

  The men piled in and headed back to Watermark Tower, where they lived and worked at Brother’s Keeper Security – a high-end, elite cyber and personal security firm. Their client list went above and beyond Hollywood fame. They worked for the world’s richest and most powerful, including their former employer, the US Government. Each brought something different to the table, from special forces, elite ops secret agent type experience, to technology-based intelligence that challenged the best of the best in the tech field. Brother’s Keeper was the best.

  Not one to back down easily, Wylie turned the radio up loud, and began to sing. His brothers followed suit. All but Luke.

  “I hate you fuckers,” Luke said.

  Liam turned to him, and asked, “Where’s your truck?”

  “I didn’t bring it.” Luke shrugged. “Didn’t want you hacking my shit and tracking me.”

  “Then how’d you get over here?” Liam could hardly contain the snicker eager to escape.

  With a straight face, and eyes fixed forward, Luke replied as matter-of-fact as he could, knowing full well what was coming. “I…Uber’d.”

  Laughter filled the space, not because he’d used Uber, but because they already knew, and the punchline was about to hit.


  “How was that little smart car, anyway? Have enough leg room?” Liam asked.

  “It was…” Luke started to answer, until he realized exactly what Liam had just revealed. “How did you know I was in a fucking smart car, asshole? Did you hack the Uber app?”

  Liam was as brawny as his brothers, but he had all the brains. Not to say the others weren’t intelligent, Liam just excelled, specifically when it came to technology. Programing was his thing – hacking was his specialty.

  “Me? Hack Uber?” Liam said in mock surprise. “That’s illegal…I think.”

  “You did. You hacked Uber.” Luke tossed his head back and ran his hands through his hair. “You’re such an ass, man. I’m going to report you one day. You know that, right?”

  “No you won’t,” Liam laughed. “And I might have made sure that when you did your thing on the app looking for a ride, the only guy who would see it was the guy with the smallest car.”

  If it had happened to any of the other brothers, Luke would have been amused. “Why would you even do that? I barely fit in there. The guy gave me a discount because he felt bad that I had to ride hunched over the whole time.”

  Hysterical laughter erupted. If the O’Reilly brothers knew how to do anything, it was how to have a good time.

  Dace was breathless, hand clutching his chest from laughter when he asked, “We were watching. Oh my God. It was the funniest shit ever. He had to drive with the passenger seat folded forward, so you’d fit! It was like watching a ridiculous cartoon with half of you hanging out the window.”

  “It was hot. Only my arm was out the window,” Luke admitted.

  While the brothers cracked a few more jokes at Luke’s expense, he just sat in silence with a blank stare, shaking his head. He loved his brothers, but right now, he didn’t like them all that much.

  A buzz and ping drew his attention to his phone – a text. “We have company coming in.”