Fool’s Paradise: Cartwright Brothers, Book 5

by Anderson, Lilliana

  “Yellow brick.” He stretched one long finger towards the end of the street at a single-storey house with a rose garden and white-framed windows. “It’s pretty.”

  Another grunt.

  “Do you think anyone is watching her?”

  “Not that I can tell.” He kept his eyes on the house and didn’t look at me. “Why are you even here? Haven’t you done enough?”

  “If you’re talking about saving your life today, then you’re welcome.”

  “Occam’s Razor.”

  “What?”

  “The most obvious answer is the right answer. Everything was fine before you showed up, and now it’s gone to shit.”

  “Occam’s Razor? You think this is my fault?”

  “Absolutely. I’ve heard talk about a female bounty hunter who shows up right before people disappear for good. My guess is that’s you?”

  “I’m not the only one. And there are also male versions of me. And we aren’t bounty hunters, we’re private investigators.”

  “Same shit, different smell.”

  Whatever.

  “For the record, I had no idea Grey’s men were watching. Grey is probably the one person in this world I’d rather die than do a job for.” And that was putting it lightly.

  “You two got beef?”

  “Beef?” I laughed a hollow laugh. “If I can ever get close enough, I’ll cut the balls from his body and stuff them down his throat until he chokes to death.”

  He nodded slowly, eyebrows up, impressed. “That’s some beef. What’d he do to you?”

  “What didn’t he do?” I shuddered as the memories rattled against the vault door of my mind, mingling with a distant scream. No. Don’t.

  God, I could do with a drink right now.

  “I suppose that would be a shorter list with a man like that,” he agreed.

  “What would you do if you could get to him?”

  “Could?” He met my eyes. “There’s no ‘could’ because I will get to him. Once I make sure they haven’t found out about Lucy, I’m going to do what I should have done in the first place: track him down and put a bullet in his head. No one I care about is safe until he’s out of the picture.”

  “That’s a big ask. The Grim Order have been at war with him for the last year, and they still haven’t taken all his men out. Although, I honestly don’t know which is worse, the bikers or the smugglers.”

  “Neither is ideal, but I prefer the bikers. At least they have a code.”

  “And you know them, don’t you? Your file said your family was affiliated.”

  “We're kind of… related by marriage.”

  “So from your point of view, the Grim Order is much safer than Grey and his evil band of mercenaries.”

  “Evil band of mercenaries.” A shadow of a smile crossed his lips. “Sounds like something out of a movie.”

  “Except worse, because he doesn’t have a fatal flaw. That man doesn’t give a fuck about a single person in this world except himself, he’d kill his own kin if it benefited him somehow. I’m honestly shocked he has such a loyal following.”

  “How much have you had to do with him?”

  I shook my head and looked down at my hands. “Too much. He was responsible for a job going horribly wrong a few years back. I barely made it out.”

  His gaze softened a little as he observed me intently. It made my stomach flip and my chest ache, so I shook my head and changed the subject as fast as I could. “Have you always known about her?” I pointed to the house at the end of the street. “About Lucy?”

  Sweet relief came as those intense eyes quit searching my face and returned to watching his daughter’s house. “I have.”

  “And you hid her all this time?”

  He nodded.

  “That must have been hard.”

  With a slow release of his breath, he furrowed his brow. “We do whatever is necessary to keep the people we love safe.”

  I didn’t think anyone had ever loved me with such ferocity. The thought caused a lump to develop inside my throat. “Well, she’s lucky to have you.”

  “Is she?”

  Our eyes met again, and I could see the doubt in the depths of his. But I felt sure of it. He was risking being found to make sure she was safe. He’d spent years trying to escape his life so she’d have a father. She was lucky he cared that much. My own father couldn’t even care if I was alive or dead; actually he’d almost killed me twice now.

  “Yes,” I said with certainty. “Very lucky.”

  His gaze landed back on his daughter’s house as a quiet settled over us like soft gauze. “Listen, you don’t need to be here for this. I’ll wait till sundown, then if all is clear, I’ll say goodbye and meet you back at the house.”

  I settled into my seat, folding my arms a little tighter to get comfy. “No offence, but we haven’t exactly established trust here. I’ll stick around if it’s all the same to you.”

  Releasing an amused burst of air from his nose, he shook his head. “Where am I gonna go? I’m checking on my daughter then I have to go back home and finish cleaning up my brother’s stupid mistake. This doesn’t end until I do that. So, I’m a sure thing, lady. You’ve got your bounty.”

  “I’m not a bounty hunter.”

  “Yeah? Well, it fucking feels like it.”

  I shrugged. “I’m staying.”

  “Whatever.”

  Pulling my iPad from the glove compartment, I messaged Nick and told him he could go back to the house, warning him to be careful of Grey’s men since I had no idea what they knew or how they found their way here. I had assumed it was the photo, but Toby was right, it could have been my investigation that tipped them off. I was always careful not to broadcast my location or ruffle any feathers during my search. But, if the Cartwrights hired me and they were being watched, perhaps I was being watched too. We had to be cautious.

  Tension radiated from Toby’s body and filled the car with a thick and stifled air. I cracked the window and watched the street. A neighbour arrived and unloaded groceries while their kid screamed about not getting a Kinder Surprise. Then a man jogged by with a grey cattle dog on a blue lead. Thirty minutes ticked away in what felt more like an hour.

  “So, what’s your background?” I asked after a while, needing something to cut the air a little.

  “We don’t need to play this game.”

  “What game?”

  “Getting to know you.”

  I shrugged. “What’s it hurt? We almost died together today, and I already know your biggest secret.” I gestured to his daughter’s house. “Come on. It’ll help pass the time.”

  A long pause drew between us, making me think the travel from Wannanup to Torquay would be an absolute nightmare of uncomfortable silence.

  “Burglary,” he said finally, glancing my way.

  Thank fuck. He’s speaking.

  “How’d you get into that?”

  “Jesus. Are you going to ask me if I enjoy it, next? You’re almost making it sound normal.”

  “Isn’t it though? To you and to me, the darker side of life is normal.”

  He rubbed a hand over his face and leaned back in his seat. “I guess. How’d you get into your job, then?”

  “Big Jim took pity on me. I was practically homeless, living in one of those girls' homes for the kids no one wants. He gave me a job, trained me up and took care of me. I’ve always had to fight. At least this way I’m more in control over who that fight is with. Unless I’m being strapped to a bed, of course.” I smiled at the last part, watching him for a reaction. He barely gave a flicker. “Your turn.” I nudged him with my elbow.

  Placing his fingers on the steering wheel, he traced the silver lion badge with his thumb. “It’s the family business; tradition. My father taught my mother, and she taught us kids.”

  “There’s five of you all up?”

  He nodded.

  “And how did you go from burglary to killing off a bunch of Grey’s men?”<
br />
  Scraping his teeth over his lip, he stared off into the distance before answering. “My brother got mixed up in some shit he shouldn’t have. It got us all in over our heads until it became kill or be killed. I needed to eliminate some threats, make people pay.”

  “Just you?” I asked, picking up on the ‘I’ over ‘we’.

  He nodded. “As the oldest, it always fell at my feet to keep them safe.”

  “Because your dad wasn’t around.” I nodded, understanding it was natural for the oldest son to take on the role of the protector when the father was out of the picture.

  “Thank god. Bastard used to burn me on the thigh with his cigarettes and was an all-round bastard to everyone else. I haven’t missed him for a second. But Jasmine did. Lord knows why; he beat into her every chance he got.” He shook his head.

  “Maybe she felt like she deserved it,” I mused, my voice quiet. The human mind was a tricky thing, our inner voices the harshest of every voice available to us.

  “Who would ever believe they deserved a beating?” he asked, his brow pinched as he stared at me in disbelief.

  “So you kept your daughter away to protect her from a messed up family life?” I looked out the window, avoiding the question.

  “Pretty much. I was twenty when we had her. Broken condom with a girl I barely knew. I was determined to be a good dad though.” Looking over to the house, he worked his jaw from side to side. “We were still doing low level stuff at the time, but I always knew the life wasn’t for me. I was planning on getting out even before Lucy. But I tried even harder once she was born, thinking I could make a go of it with her mother. Every time I was close to leaving, something happened with the family that made me stay. It was like they couldn’t plan anything without my help, and whenever they did, there was a fuck up I had to fix. So, as my responsibility grew, it became more difficult to see myself living any life but the one I had.”

  “You gave up?”

  He knitted his brow. “On myself, yeah. But never on Lucy. We had this friend—my brother’s and I—this girl we grew up with. Her grandfather was our safecracker and had kept her shielded from all the shit we were involved with. He gave her a pretty normal life. I thought, ‘hey, I can do that with Lucy. I can keep her safe and hidden while I bide my time, waiting for the right moment to leave and come be with her’.” He paused and stared out the window as someone crossed the street in the distance. “I had this plan to set up a fishing charter and live a simple life out here. That was the dream.” Dragging his teeth over his bottom lip again, he looked at Lucy’s house and released a heavy sigh. “Now she’s twenty-one. Engaged to be married, and I’ve only ever met her a handful of times. I sent money. I kept in contact. But I wasn’t a good father. Not like I wanted to be. There was always something else. Something only Toby could do. Until I had so much blood on my hands I couldn’t see my own skin anymore.” He lifted his hands and looked at his palms before placing them against his thighs. “Finally, I said enough. I left, and I felt happy for the first time in… god knows how long.” He swallowed and sighed again, his voice getting coarse and gritty as he swung his gaze my way. “Then you show up and I’m dragged straight back in. All my dreams. Gone.” He clicked for effect.

  “I’m just doing my job,” I said, folding my arms back across my chest because his predicament wasn’t my fault. I was just doing my job as I always did. But seeing this side of him, knowing his family seemed semi-functional, made me wonder again why they came after him now. He’d sacrificed a lot for them. Waiting for him to settle into a new life before they sent someone like me seemed overly cruel. What’s the play here? Something felt off.

  “I get that this is your job.” His eyes held mine, unwavering. “But don’t you get sick of it? Tracking people down so someone else can kill them?”

  “That isn’t always how it works. Sometimes I send people back home, find someone being held against their will. I’ve even found teenage runaways and reunited them with their families.” My virtues were few and far between. But I had some.

  “And most of the time you find people who have flipped and gone to the cops or left because they’re trying to go straight like me.”

  “No one really gets out of the life, Toby. Changing your mind doesn’t change what you are, or what you were.”

  Lifting a hand, he raked it back and forth through his hair, agitated. “You know they call you Black Widow, right?”

  I looked out the window to the other side of the road. “Other people’s opinions don’t matter to me. I’m damn good at my job. That’s what counts. I don’t ask why I need to find someone. I just find them. The why and the what comes after aren’t any of my fucking business. I do a job. I get paid and move on. End of.”

  “Turning a blind eye doesn’t change what you do.” His eyes flashed, his words clipped.

  “And running away doesn’t change the fact you’ve got all that blood on your hands. We’re all the bad guy here, Toby. Don’t act like you’re above it when you’re as ruthless as the rest of us.”

  Silence. It descended rapidly, heavy with unspoken words and accusations. I understood that he was in a shitty situation and blamed me for it. I got that he wanted me out of his way so he could do what needed to be done. I understood. But that didn’t change my role. I needed to return him to get paid and figure out what the hell was going on. He couldn’t scare me away with threats or forceful words. I wasn’t afraid of him.

  “Listen,” I said after a while. “I know you don’t like me much, but the way I see it, we’ve got common goals. Most notable being we both wanna see Grey rot in hell. I reckon I can help you get to him.”

  “I can get to him fine on my own.”

  “You can’t, actually. He’s always surrounded by security. You’ll need an ‘in’ to get close.”

  “And you have this magical ‘in’?” He seemed doubtful as he swept me with those intrusive eyes of his.

  “I do.” I can’t believe I’m about to admit this out loud.

  “So, spill. Explain how you can get to Grey and I can’t.”

  Hating the words, I closed my eyes while I said them. “Because Grey is… he’s my father.”

  Chapter Eight

  Don’t Call Me Daddy

  I’d only heard of O’Keefe AKA Irish by name until a few years ago when we crossed paths during the dreaded Adelaide job. I’d been searching for the daughter of some stockbroker—one of my more noble jobs. The cops had been incapable of getting her back, despite saying they did everything they could.

  Cue hiring me.

  I tracked her down to a particular kind of whorehouse in Adelaide. It was one of those den of pleasures where any kink was for sale. They’d find pretty girls and get them hooked on narcotics, promising them the world then luring them away from their families, one hit at a time. The job got a little too personal for me because I’d grown up in a place like that. I decided to save more than just the one girl.

  After I tipped off the cops, I stepped back so they could raid the place and get them all out. I’d continued my surveillance until the raid team showed up, which was when it all went horribly wrong. The moment they approached the entrance, the whole place went up in flames, girls and all. I’d stood with a crowd of people attracted by the blaze and watched in horror as it burned to the ground and no one came out alive.

  The screams. Ear piercing agony.

  The smell. I could only describe it as death.

  “The boss doesn’t like people meddling in his affairs,” a man had said from beside me. When I’d looked his way, I saw a flash of a golden tooth as he blew out a lungful of cigarette smoke.

  “You did this?” I’d asked in a horrified whisper. He winked then told me his boss—who turned out to be Grey—wanted a word. It wasn’t a choice. I was forced into the back of a car and taken to meet my father for the first time. What happened next was the stuff of nightmares. I couldn’t even think about it without needing a drink.

  That w
as kind of when the whole drinking thing started.

  When Grey released me, I lived at the bottom of a bottle for weeks, trying to forget. Big Jim and Nick had needed to hunt me down and force me to sober up, get my shit back together, and return to work. But, nothing could stop the screams of those girls in the night. I still felt those awful blows and rough hands on my skin.

  That job was my open wound. One that wouldn’t close until I learned of Grey’s death.

  “His fucking daughter?” Toby stared at me with his mouth open, body tense like he wanted to throttle me.

  “I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but yeah. My mother was one of his hookers. She OD’d when I was a kid, and I guess he didn’t know about me back then. I only worked out who he was after I started working for Big Jim.”

  “Grey knows about you now?”

  “He does.”

  His eyes went wide. “And you’re surprised his men followed you? Is this some kind of joke, Blair? A fucking trap?” His body shifted back as though I were made of venom, his chest inflated, ready to pounce.

  I held up my hands in surrender. “I give you my word, I have nothing to do with the man. We basically agreed to deny all knowledge of each other. It’s been years since I’ve even seen him. Except in the papers, of course.”

  “And you seriously don’t think he’s been keeping tabs on you?”

  “I didn’t. But, now… I don’t know. But, I need to tell you, that guy I saw on the pier before your boat blew up. I know he knew who I was, and he didn’t stop me getting on board. I think it’s safe to say Grey is cool with his daughter biting it.”

  “Then how do you think you’ll get close to him?”

  “Because he asked me to join him once. If I show up there, alive, maybe I can get in?”

  “Or maybe he’ll kill you on sight. No. This is a suicide mission as it is. I’m not using you as bait. Think of another plan.”