by Karen Raines
The thing is, now that he’s standing right here, her calling him Uncle Keith… I know it’s him. How many times had he pushed us both on a swing? Taken us out for ice cream? Wherever she went as a child, I went too so I saw a lot of this man. And then one day he just stopped coming around and her mother couldn’t tell us why.
“What the fuck is going on right now?” Briella whispers. Her face has gone ashen and for a second, she looks like she is either going to throw up or pass out.
He glances pointedly at our surveillance equipment. “Ask your boy there, I’m sure he has it all figured out by now.”
She looks to me, all confused, and for some unknown reason I feel guilty. “I can explain…”
Her hand whips out and slaps me around the face. “You fucking asshole!”
My head slams to the right, nearly coming off my damn shoulders. That woman has a hell of a right hook. “First… ouch.”
“Never start a sentence with I can explain. You’re just asking to get slapped Maitland.”
“That explains a lot,” I quip, rubbing at my abused cheek.
She rolls her eyes, clearly frustrated with me. “Talk, Colby. Right now.”
I hold my hands up in the universal gesture of peace and move closer to her. “I didn’t have a clue about their identities until we were on the boat. You know that.”
I can see her mulling it over and finally she gives me a little nod.
“There was no way I was telling you that Colm is your sperm donor, not while we were on the boat with him. Just think Bri, it would have been an epic mistake and our cover would have been blown. No way was I putting you in danger like that.”
Her anger wanes as she takes a few steps back and drops down onto the bed. “Yeah okay. I get it.”
I want to go to her. I want to hold her and tell her that everything is going to be okay. That we are in this together. However, uncle dearest choses that moment to clear his throat and make his presence known again.
“This is all very touching, but we have much to discuss.”
Her anger jumps straight back to the surface. “No fucking shit. Want to explain to me what the fuck is going on? How the hell did you know we were here? Just what in the hell are you involved in?”
“I think the real question is…”
“Oh my god,” Briella jumps from the bed and runs for the toilet. She dry heaves, coughs, dry heaves some more and slumps down on the floor. “I’ve seen you banging the ho.”
He has the decency to look away, but I can tell he wants to laugh.
“It was horrific when you were just some random guy but now? Oh my god… you touched Gomez’s balls!”
“Hey now, that was an accident.”
“There was cupping Uncle Kei… Calvin, that wasn’t an accident.”
“Give me a break, there was a lot happening all at once. It was confusing.”
She points a finger in his direction. “Do I look stupid to you?”
He runs a critical eye over her Beach Barbie costume and opens his mouth to comment but Bri cuts him off. “That was a rhetorical question.”
“Are you guys done here? Because I think we need to sort some things out. Just saying.” I sigh and take position on the bed, back against the headrest. I have a feeling these two could keep going for hours if given the chance. If that happens, I’m going to need beer and maybe a few snacks.
Calvin acquiesces, walks over to a chair and gets comfortable while Briella sits there sulking. It doesn’t take long for her to come around however. One thing you can say for my girl, she isn’t one to dwell.
“Fine, but I need information from you Calvin, not some half-assed crap.”
He steeples his fingers under his chin and gives the slightest nod of his head. “I can do that, but I’m going to want something from you in return.”
I laugh. “That isn’t how this works.”
He makes a move to stand. “Then we have no deal.”
“Wait!” Briella turns to me with a scowl. “A word outside please?”
She stomps over to the door and pushes her way through it before I can answer.
Calvin on the other hand, finds this all to be highly amusing. “She’s just like her mother.”
I shush him quickly. “Jesus Christ, don’t let her hear you say that. Her mom drives her nuts.”
He holds a hand over his smirking mouth and gestures to the door.
Bri’s pacing the deck, her hands wringing in front of her. She looks so adorably confused and angry at the same time, that I can’t help grabbing her around the waist and hauling her back towards me.
She slaps at my chest and pulls away from my arms. Not quite the reaction I was hoping for. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she hisses. “We need to find out everything we can from him.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Well, you were about to lose him, so forgive me for thinking you were going to blow it.”
“Well ex-fucking-cuse me for not running everything by you before I speak. I didn’t realize you sucking my balls meant that you owned them.”
At least this time she slaps the other cheek. She stands there, breathing heavily and I take a moment to ponder whether that had been a good move on my behalf. My sore, red face tells me no. No, it wasn’t.
“I’m sorry.”
Her eyes light in surprise but she doesn’t respond which makes me nervous.
“That was out of line. It just pissed me off that you didn’t assume I had a plan. I always have a plan.”
The corner of her mouth turns up a fraction and I know I’ve got her. But of course, she’s going to make me wait for forgiveness. She has, after all earned the right.
“I know we need to find out as much as we can from him but Jesus Briella, this is a dangerous situation. He knows who we are, he obviously knows what we’re doing here, and we don’t know jack shit about him, apart from that he used to prefer strawberry ice cream to chocolate when we were kids.”
“I know, I know,” she whispers.
I take the cue and step up to her, wrapping her up in my arms. “I’m not prepared to make any kind of deal until we know what we’re dealing with.”
“I agree,” she leans her head on my chest and sucks in a deep breath. “This is a lot to take in Colby. I’m trying to not think about what him being my uncle means, but it’s hard. That slimy bastard Colm… is my dad.”
I don’t know what to tell her, the situation is surreal. Shaking my head, I rub her arms and get us back on track.
“We aren’t going to get any answers standing out here on our own. Let’s go back in, hear his terms and take it from there.”
She doesn’t look like she wants to go back inside our cabin, but curiosity wins out in the end. I follow her in and stop dead in my tracks when I see Calvin watching the monitors avidly.
“What the hell…”
“Shhhh,” he beckons us over and points at the screen. “You might want to see this.”
The image inside Nadia’s cabin is much the same as it has been since she arrived on this island. Her naked and someone going to town on her pussy. This evening was no exception, well, except for one glaring difference.
My gun’s in my hand before he has a chance to react. I hold it to his temple and growl. “If you’re setting us up I swear to god, I’ll fucking kill you O’Leary.”
His hands rise and drop down onto his head without hesitation. “I can put my hand on my heart and assure you this is nothing to do with me.”
I press the barrel of my gun harder into his temple and look at Briella. Her eyes are locked on the screen. “Briella.”
She doesn’t glance away from the screen, just holds a hand up to her forehead and rubs furiously at the skin there. “I need to call Sydney.”
She whips her phone out and doesn’t bother with pleasantries. “Check the feeds, we’ve been compromised.”
We share a concerned look until she turns away and starts pacing the cabin floor.
Grunting comes from the audio so I reach over and quickly kill that shit. Calvin offers an apologetic smile in my direction, then he turns back to the feed and sighs heavily. This is looking more like a clusterfuck with every second that passes. Briella mutters quickly into the phone behind me but I daren’t take my eyes off the screen because our lives are quite literally balancing on the edge of a knife right now.
Because the man banging the shit out of Nadia, her on all fours and her hair held back in a fist so her face can be clearly seen by the cameras, is Colm O’Leary.
And he’s staring right at our camera.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Briella
“What the fuck is going on?”
“We’ve been watching the feed while you’ve been gone and nothing seemed weird to me. After you left the boat we kept those feeds going, hang on, let me three-way Cross in. He’s been watching the boat.” Sydney goes silent and a ringing echoes through my ear.
After a few rings Cross answers. “What a fucking shit show.”
“Preaching to the choir Cross, what do you know?” I sigh.
“Not much. After you left Nadia called Colm and asked him to…”
“To?”
“This is your Dad; do you really want to hear about his sexual exploits?”
“If its relevant to the case abso-fucking-lutley. Colm’s not my dad and Calvin isn’t my uncle. They haven’t been family since they left.”
“Well, I can leave the part where she said she wanted to be ridden like a prized bull and how she was feeling neglected by him…”
“Neglected? That woman is anything but neglected. She has a pussy you can yodel into for fucks sake!”
“Can I continue?” Cross asks seriously, and I remember I need intel and I’m here to do a job. Not make remarks about a woman, even if she’s fucking my dad with a loose flappy vagina. Fuck, not my dad. Just Colm.
“Go ahead.”
“Nadia mentioned how she got a call from the Mayor and how paranoid it made her feel. Marcus is working on getting their phone conversation to see what was said because all we have is one-side of the story. But as far as we can tell, she thinks he’s spying on her. We can’t assume until we get the other side of that conversation.”
“Thanks guys, I’ll be in touch.”
I hang up my phone and take a deep breath. Never in a million years did I think I’d run into my dad. I’ve never cared to search for him after everything I’ve heard from my mom. If he’s truly that horrible of a human being and was unwilling to step up for me and mom why the hell should I care what happens to him? I suppose it’s obvious why he left us so long ago. Steve Fairbanks… what a joke.
I open the door and see Colby and Calvin in a heated stare down. Rolling my eyes, I walk between them and push Colby back.
“What’s going on now?”
“My dear brother’s still banging his whore so avert your eyes.”
There’s a moment of tense silence until Colby breaks it. “I was asking Calvin why he wants to work with us. There’s obviously a catch.”
“No catch, that’s what I was trying to tell your thug.”
I laugh because really, Colby… a thug? “He’s not a thug Calvin, but he has a point. You clearly have a loyalty to that sorry excuse for a human being, otherwise why would you be here? We know you’re doing his dirty work. That first time we saw you on the camera’s… well I don’t want to talk about what was happening. You played Nadia which is going against the choir boy act you’re feeding us. This feels like a text book set up to me.”
Colby comes to stand behind me in solidarity. He always has my back, there’s no question.
“What you don’t know is that I’m here against my will.”
“What are you talking about?”
“My brother decided he wanted to use me as a pawn and what he wants, he gets. I tried getting out of the family business months ago and he hasn’t exactly been compliant. Family isn’t sacred to him as you know, so he threatened the life of my wife and kid if I didn’t come out here and help him. If you were thinking I’d actually want to cheat on my wife, I’d most certainly do it with someone that could actually get me off.”
I groan. Men can be pigs.
“Sorry, but I’m being serious. That woman is vile, and I had to think of anything but her. That’s the last I’ll bring up that train wreck of a night.” He looks down at the ground before looking up at me with unshed tears in his eyes. “He has Linda and Billy in lock down. I don’t know where they are or if they’re even alive at this point.”
“Who’s Billy?”
“My son. He’s in his last year, a senior. I need to get them back. I thought going into hiding was enough, but he found us.”
“Okay, let us check to make sure your story lines up. I’ll be right back.” Colby kisses my cheek then brings his lips to my ear. “Don’t hesitate to shoot him.” He whispers then leaves the hut.
“I haven’t stopped looking into you over the years Briella. Disappearing wasn’t a question but a necessity. My brother started making me do odd jobs for him and I got sucked too far into his life. I never wanted to be in the family business. Hell, that’s a lie. I loved every second of working for my dad. It’s after he died and my brother took over that everything went to shit. He’s not a good man as you can now see, and I knew this. But money’s a huge factor when you’re six months behind on your mortgage and struggling to put food on the table.”
“What’s he into? I’ve never heard the name Colm O’Leary before and I generally hear a lot on the streets.”
“He keeps that name squeaky clean. But perhaps you should have your friends look into…” He looks skeptical of what he’s about to say. If what he says is true and why he’s here I don’t blame him.
“Frankie McGregor.”
My blood runs cold. Fuck, this is worse than I thought.
“Are you telling me Frankie fucking McGregor, the head of the Irish mob… is my father.”
“One and the same.”
“What the hell did you just say?” Colby slams the door and walks over towards me.
“I think you should call the rest of the team in, this is way beyond you and I at this point. Fuck, the Mayor’s been right this whole time.” I pace the room trying to wrack my brain and make everything fall into place, but I have one too many questions.
“Why Nadia?”
“She was strategic. The Mayor has been on our payroll for years helping us hide everything and taking a small portion of our earnings. He’s a slime ball with no moral code even though he comes off as a family man. Apparently, he grew a conscience as of recently. Or the Feds were breathing down his neck. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was in cahoots with the FBI and trying to take him down. Frankie sent me out to make a deal with him about using the ports in Boston. He has a new business venture…” He looks disgusted and completely defeated. “Trafficking. He’s been forcing people into prostitution and earning far more money than any of our gun or drug deals bring in.”
“You still haven’t explained why you’re here. It sounds like we’re being played which I don’t like. Not one fucking bit.” Colby growls the last part.
“I need your help to take my brother down. I’d like to take the family business in a different direction and for that to happen, Frankie needs to be out of the picture.”
“If what you’re saying is true, why not let the Mayor and the FBI take him down?”
“That’s purely assumption and if the Mayor’s working with the Feds he risks his entire campaign going down the drain. It is election season after all.”
“You’ll get intel and report it back to us immediately. There’s a lot of places we don’t have eyes and ears on this island.” I say running it all through my head.
“I’ll do whatever it takes.”
I walk away pacing once again. The Mayor must have sent us here purposely to get dirt on Frankie. There’s no way he didn’t know Frankie McGregor was a key player or t
hat it was just a “hunch” as he called it. If he’s been working with him he knows what he’s into, what he’s capable of.
I turn towards Colby. “We’re officially starting our own case and no longer on the Mayor’s payroll even though we’ll keep up appearances so he’ll be none the wiser. Why don’t you call back home and get that ball rolling?” I turn towards Calvin. “You need to leave, you’ve already been here long enough. You know how to get in touch with me if you find anything out.”
“You’ll be hearing from me.” With that he leaves our hut and disappears from view.
“Fuck Colby, this is huge. We could potentially take down someone the police have been after for years.”
“I know, but we need to be smart about this. This all comes with a lot of unknown danger. We still don’t know if our covers been blown. I’ll call everyone in and get them here as soon as possible. We need to work on getting other rentals because no way can we fit all of us plus all the additional equipment.”
“Agreed. I’ll talk to the people I booked this through. I’m sure they have more in a close vicinity.”
Colby places his hands on either side of my face and stares intently into my eyes. “Are you gonna be able to do this? When the time comes can you pull the trigger and turn your father over to the authorities?”
“There’s no question I’ll turn that piece of shit in, he means nothing to me.” I try to look down but his hands prevent that from happening.
“Look at me.” I look into his gorgeous eyes and get lost in the sincerity I see swirling there. “You have me… always. We do this together.”
I nod my head pushing any emotion that’s threatening to flood me other than the anger to take down my father. I’m not lying. When the time comes I’ll be the one to take my father down. I’ve never really thought about getting revenge on my piece of shit sperm donor, but the thought has me giddy inside.
“Okay, let’s do this Colby.” I look behind him and at the computer screen that I’ve been trying to avoid. “Look.”
