Evil Secrets Trilogy Boxed Set

by Vickie McKeehan

  He went on muttering as if to himself. “Shame, too, this is such a pretty place. Good thing I took to burying what belongs to me. Wouldn’t do to leave them dead in a bedroom where they can take all kinds of DNA evidence. If they can’t find the body there’s no DNA. If you leave them, someone else will come along and find them. Not a good idea. Boston should’ve been arrested, should’ve been charged, prosecuted.” He puffed out a huge sigh. “Just can’t trust the cops to do their fucking job anymore.”

  The hairs on the back of Collin’s neck stood up. “So it was you who killed Claire Boston?”

  The question caused Cade to snap out of his rambling. “Another slut who made the mistake of laughing at me.” He found that incredible funny. “Last thing the bitch ever did, too. But God did she put up a fight. I didn’t think she’d ever quit clawing at me. Had her damn scratch marks on my face for days afterward.”

  He glanced up at Collin who stood staring. “What? You didn’t really think Boston killed her did you? Nah, he’s such a pussy. Help me get Scott into the hole, will you?” he asked as he stuffed Scott’s body into his makeshift grave and began scooping up loose soil to go on top.

  Collin hesitated, but only briefly. He didn’t want to piss off his brother, especially not in this mood. Soon both men began their task of tossing dirt back in to fill up the hole. “You seem pretty goddamned comfortable putting someone in the ground,” Collin grumbled as he sweated in the June heat.

  Cade said nothing, seeming intent on his chore, as if reliving a better, more gratifying episode.

  “What is that smell, anyway?” Collin asked a little sick at his stomach.

  But Cade went on as if not hearing anyone. “Here you go, ladies. This time, I brought you a man to keep you company since I’m going to be a little busy for a while. It’ll be just like old times,” Cade finally said, and took to muttering incoherently all over again.

  CHAPTER 17 Book 3

  That night as they were moving what few things Quinn had brought with her into Reese’s bedroom, he decided to dangle his toe into perilous water. Because he was running out of time, he needed to take a few risks. “Quinn, were you ever told anything about your Native heritage?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Never got curious enough to ask Ella? I mean, don’t you want to know more about the circumstances surrounding your birth?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Reese, even if I had bothered to ask, which I didn’t, what makes you think Ella would have told me the truth? She didn’t exactly have a history of sticking with the facts and since she never saw the need to mention it, I sure never asked.” She shrugged. “More like, she’d have made something up for sure, so what was the point in making a big deal out of it?”

  “Okay. Good point.”

  She finished hanging up her clothes in his closet, turned around to meet his eyes. “Now that we’re involved, is that something you’re interested in knowing more about, my Native American roots? You’re interested in my Irish ancestry? You knew before we headed into this thing I had a difficult childhood. If my history bothers you that much, if I don’t have the proper lineage for a high profile attorney…”

  “Will you stop it? Just stop it. Did I say or do anything that has you thinking I want to dig around in your past for any other reason than simply trying to get to know you better?” He threw up his hands in exasperation. “Who the hell gives a damn about your lineage? Geez, you were a prickly pear before but…”

  “You mean before you knew about my stepfather, before you knew what he did to me?” she accused.

  “For God’s sakes, you’re the exact same person I took to bed.” Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair. “See, this is why I think you need to talk to a professional. That chip on your shoulder you’ve been carrying around for too long by yourself is starting to get pretty damned heavy and is starting to piss me off.” With that, he stormed out of the bedroom. leaving her with her mouth hung open.

  “Arrogant bastard!” she shouted at his back. She most certainly did not have a chip on her shoulder. Did she?

  At other times in her life plenty of people had looked down on her for no other reason than the fact she’d looked Native. Oh, God.

  What was happening to her anyway?

  She plopped down on the bed so she could sulk. Reese of all people did not look down on her. But she’d acted that way all day, ever since last night, ever since he had discovered her secret.

  And she resented him for knowing.

  About that time, Baylee came into the room carrying Sarah. “I just passed Reese in the hallway. Did something happen between you two? He looked upset.” She tilted her head and studied her friend. “You don’t look so good yourself.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “If it’s advice about men, you’re out of luck. They’re a strange breed, grubby, farting little boys, the lot of them. But then…no man on the planet understands why our breed feels the need to travel to the bathroom in a pack, either.”

  It made Quinn’s lips curve but only briefly. “If you found out something bad about someone you cared about, something horrible, something they did, would it change your opinion of them?”

  “Did they kill somebody?”

  Quinn shook her head.

  Baylee’s maternal instincts kicked in then, ever wary of anyone passing judgment on Quinn, she asked, “Did Reese pick at you about something? Because if he did, I’ll speak to him…”

  That did make her smile. “No, Mom, it isn’t that.”

  “Did you pick at him about something?”

  “I guess I did.”

  “Did he deserve it?”

  “That’s just it, I don’t think he did. In fact…”

  “Looks like you’ve got a big, fat, ol’ I’m sorry in your immediate future then.”

  “Yeah, I guess I do. Here, give me the baby. I need to borrow your daughter. It’ll go better if I have a cute, adorable bundle in my arms.”

  Baylee relinquished Sarah into Quinn’s waiting hands. “Wow, it must be bad if you need a prop.”

  “I guess I have been acting like a jerk.”

  “You? But Quinn Tyler is always so objective, so willing to listen to reason, so sweet-natured.”

  “Oh, shut up. I said it was my fault, didn’t I?”

  “Boy, you must really like him to admit that.”

  She sighed. “I fell into that trap. He wore me down. When you stop and think about it, this is really his fault. He knew I was a prickly pear. He called me a prickly pear, Baylee.”

  Baylee smirked at that. “Why that bastard! How dare he say such things to you? Why the next thing he’ll call you is hard-headed.”

  “I guess, I—care about him.” When exactly had that happened? She wondered.

  Baylee could see that plain as day. It wasn’t like Quinn to show vulnerability to anyone, especially to a man. Not since a young Quinn made a mistake and let Cade in, albeit briefly, had she seen her friend so raw. “You spent time on Catalina. It’s the Island. That’s where it happened for me with Dylan. He wore me down, too.”

  “I’m not used to…”

  Baylee laid her hand gently on top of Quinn’s. “I know, but sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason to love.”

  “I never said anything about love.”

  “Hmm, that’s right you didn’t. My mistake. Now bring back my kid in ten minutes or less, okay? It’s nearly bedtime and I guarantee your prop will get cranky if she doesn’t get her bedtime snack soon. Get it?”

  “Got it, Mom.”

  Quinn found Reese outside on the back deck with his laptop open and his iPod buds in his ears, his fingers tapping to music. She laid a hand on his leg to get his attention.

  He glanced up, saw she had Sarah sitting on her hip. His heart did that little two-step and then went straight into a West Coast Swing. He removed the buds from his ears.

  Quinn sank down next to him in her own chair, settled the baby on her lap, or tried to. Little
traitor that she was, Sarah immediately stretched out her arms for Reese to hold her.

  He accommodated the baby by setting his laptop on the table and then scooping Sarah up out of Quinn’s arms.

  “Little flirt, she didn’t waste any time going after my guy.”

  He cocked a brow. “Am I your guy, Quinn?”

  “I guess you are. Wow, maybe I should pass you a note in chemistry class. Look, I came out here to apologize. I’ve been acting like an ass all day. It’s just…I guess knowing you knew, I thought maybe you wouldn’t want to, you know, be with me. I thought you’d somehow think you were better than me or you’d judge me or—something.”

  The self-assured Quinn Tyler suddenly insecure, took some getting used to. He didn’t like it. He wanted the smartass back. “Let me write this day down on my…”

  “Oh, shut up. What more do you want me to say?”

  “I want you to stop all this insecurity that’s surfaced the last twenty-four. Self-doubt and Quinn Tyler don’t exactly go together. I want the smug Quinn back.”

  She put a fist under her chin, leaned in on the arm of the chair. “Smug? I’m as down-to-earth as you could get.”

  He bounced the baby on his knee, shifted in his seat to meet her halfway. “Not snobby, smug as in major smartass.”

  She let out a sigh. “Oh. Well. Hmm, I guess I am a smartass. But in a good way.”

  Sitting there holding the baby Reese thought this might be the perfect time to mention the reason he was so edgy. “When you’re working on a patient in the ER, you don’t always have time to stop and ask that patient what treatment he or she wants, what’s best for them? Correct? You do whatever it takes in the heat of the moment to make a gut decision to save his life no matter what, right?

  “Sure, what’s your point?”

  “Over the course of working on someone you choose what’s best for them in the long run, even if it might upset the patient later, right?”

  She eyed him suspiciously. Believing he was making his case for therapy again she said, “Absolutely. But therapy isn’t the answer for everyone, Reese. Where are you going with this?”

  “Sometimes the only way to deal with an issue is meet it head-to-head. Before you can move on with your future you have to resolve the issues rooted in your past.”

  “Stop using that bullshit psycho analogy on me, will you? You don’t know a thing about it. I’m not going back into therapy and talking about this with another living soul. That’s the end of it.”

  “You don’t even plan to tell Kit and Baylee, do you?”

  “No. Don’t you understand how mortifying it is? I feel like I let them down.”

  He gaped at her. “That’s ridiculous. You’ve shared so much with them already. You know they won’t judge you.”

  “I won’t do it. You know, and that’s enough. I don’t want to hear any more about therapy or talking about it or baring my soul to Baylee and Kit either. I would never have told you…except…”

  “And here I thought it was because you trusted me enough. I guess not.”

  She sighed. “Reese…it isn’t that.” She squeezed his hand.

  When Sarah started to fuss like she was sleepy, Quinn reached over and snatched the baby out of his lap.

  He ran his hands through his hair and watched her walk back into the house, knowing he’d have to meet her wrath straight-on when the time came.

  Because in less than twenty-four hours she’d have to deal with yet another traumatic event—and come face to face—with the father she hated.

  CHAPTER 18 Book 3

  In Agoura Hills, fifty-year old Gloria Gandis pulled her car into the garage, her mind anticipating the arrival of her son, Ben, a son she had yet to lay eyes on.

  Two days. In two short days she’d get to look into his eyes, gaze upon his face for the very first time in her life.

  She was so nervous about meeting him she’d gone shopping for a new outfit. She’d already gotten her hair styled in a new ’do, a sassy cut that spiked just below her chin. The hairdresser had told her it made her look ten years younger. Even though she doubted that, she did feel energized. She’d had her nails done in a French manicure that made her feel better about herself, better than she had in years.

  She might not be the twenty-five-year old that had given birth to him, but she could damn well put forth the effort to look her best the very first time she saw him.

  Her tall, statuesque frame had dropped six anxious pounds waiting for him to finally get to L.A., a fact she would admit to no one, even though it had precipitated the shopping spree.

  She unsnapped her seat belt and crawled out of the car wearing a pair of brand-new, low-riding Capri jeans and a snazzy purple button-down shirt.

  Once out of the garage, she set Morty down to wander off and hopefully take a pee on the grass while she headed to the mailbox at the curb to get her mail.

  With her hands full, she walked up to her front door. Doing her best to balance her purse along with the mail without dropping anything, she took out the key and stuck it into the lock.

  She had just taken a step inside when Morty set up a din of barking in warning. A noise behind the door had her turning around.

  Envelopes fluttered to the floor.

  She backed up, made a dig for her cell phone lodged somewhere in the bottom of her purse. But she never got the chance to make a call. She was still digging when a man hit her on the head with the butt of his gun, knocking her to the floor.

  Her head came back hard on the sandstone tile. For a minute she saw nothing but stars.

  Brandishing a handgun, Cade Boyd went to her, pulled her upright by her hair. “Come here, you old bat. You’re going to do what we say, you got that?”

  Through the pain, Gloria recognized the voice before she saw that Collin too held a gun in a nervous fist. She watched as Cade went over to the phone in the living room, jerked the cord out of the wall. He stripped the cable and used it to bind her hands, tight.

  Meanwhile Morty kept up a steady yip-yip-yip.

  “Collin, shut that fucking dog up. He’s getting on my nerves.”

  “Nooooo! Don’t hurt my Morty!”

  Collin picked up the little Chihuahua and started to hurl it against the wall, but Morty bit down, clamped his teeth into the man’s hand, and held on for dear life, taking out a chunk of skin in the process.

  Collin dropped the dog to the floor. “That little bastard bit me.”

  “Shake it off, will you? It’ll be okay. We’ll put something on it later. Take care of that mangy mutt. Do it now! This’ll be home base for the next couple of hours until we figure out what to do from here. They’ve cut off our fucking money and this old bat is going to be our key to getting it back.”

  Cade turned to Gloria. “You do what we tell you, when we tell you, and we might let you live. You understand?”

  When she said nothing, Cade approached her, delivered an open hand slap across her face. “Nod your head if you understand me.” When she still said nothing and made no move to respond, this time he backhanded her. “Look, I can kill you right now, it doesn’t matter to me. But you’re going to answer me, show me some respect.”

  He held his hand around her throat.

  Still hurting from the dog bite, Collin grabbed a hunk of Gloria’s hair and made a production of nodding her head up and down. “See, she does understand. This was fucking genius, Cade. No one is going to be looking for us here. We hide out here until we get ready to make the call. And we can use Gloria to get Kit to come to us. All we have to do is sit back and wait.”

  Cade bumped Collin on the back of the head. “How many times do I have to tell you to keep that mouth of yours shut about the plan? This is about taking them all down by surprise and getting them to give us the money back. Get that through your thick skull now. Gloria’s gonna help us, though, no question about that. Aren’t you, old woman?”

  Eyeing the sandwich makings the two of them had already set out on the ki
tchen counter before Gloria got there, Collin announced, “Hey, she can cook us up a real meal. No need to eat this crap when she’s a terrific cook. Aren’t you, old woman? You need to get your ass over here and fix us a decent meal. From now on when I say move, you move.”

  Trevor Dane did a double-take when he zoomed in on the address that had already changed twice since he’d plotted their course. He punched in the location again on his phone just to make sure. It couldn’t be. Could it? The only person he knew connected to this mess who lived in Agoura Hills was Gloria Gandis, Kit Griffin’s biological mother.

  Why would Cade and Collin be at Gloria’s house? Unless…

  He threw the Chevy into gear, made a U-turn in the middle of the Coast Highway and headed southeast to where he knew Gloria lived.

  Thirty minutes later, he parked his car several streets over. He grabbed his weapon and crawled out of the vehicle, quickly making his way through the back alleys, approaching Gloria’s house from the rear.

  Knowing she had a yappy little dog, he had to be careful not to set him off. He snuck around through shadowy patches of shrubs and bushes, felt spider webs cling to his face and even had to vault over a fence until he got to the backyard.

  Carefully, Trevor crept along the house peering in window after window looking for any sign of Gloria. Knowing these two men as he did, he feared the woman might already be dead.

  The only light source inside flickered from the living room as though someone might be watching TV there. As quietly as he could, he headed that way. Watching through a set of half-closed blinds, he spotted the Boyd brothers lounging on the sofa, staring at the telly, deep in conversation.

  While they were occupied in that part of the house, he moved to his right and to another window. He saw Gloria sitting in a kitchen chair, her wrists bound, her blonde hair matted. Blood trickled down the side of her head. She had a gash to her skull.

  She was either asleep or unconscious.