Skye Cree Boxed Set Books 1 - 3

by Vickie McKeehan

  As the music added soft drums and lilting chimes to the sound of the woodwinds, the two dropped down cross-legged on opposite sides of twelve large stones set in a circle. Glistening with the glowing embers, the fire smoldered with fragrant cedar and pine. As the wood sizzled and popped, the smoke trailed upward in soft wisps, making their two shadows seem to float and merge together as one on the dirt walls.

  Travis used lavender to heal all past wounds, juniper to protect and ward off evil spirits for the future. To attract the Mother Spirit and her wisdom, he crushed sage and spread it over the low flame.

  As the smells grew thicker and stronger, Travis loaded the sacred Chanunpa pipe with fragrant tobacco, a plea and gift to Mother Earth to open the door to the Great Spirit.

  Travis inhaled deeply taking in one puff, then two, before handing it to Skye, who did the same. He began to chant. “We call now to Grandfather Sky and Grandmother Earth, our ancestors, our forefathers. We wish for our prayers and questions to be carried to the Great Spirit that we may receive the answers we seek. May they allow my daughter to rekindle the bond with her spirit guide, the wolf, that walks among men.”

  His hands waved through the air to get the smoke moving. He began to sing. “Ee ah hay, ee ah hay, ee ah, ee ah hay. Oh Great Spirit, we sit before you tonight to help my daughter reconnect to her wolf. Ee ah hay, ee ah hay, ee ah, ee ah hay. Guide Kiya back to her human so that my daughter may continue to walk along the path that is her destiny. Continue to guide her along her path and keep her safe from the evil she must hunt. Ee ah hay, ee ah hay, ee ah, ee ah hay. Renew the connection to Kiya’s spirit and return them both as one so my daughter may walk the path of the future. Lead the wolf to the Land of the Spirits so that she may continue to guide and be strong for her human. Ee ah hay, ee ah hay, ee ah, ee ah hay.”

  While she and Travis alternately smoked the pipe, Skye took up the chant, too.

  And suddenly she found herself missing her mate.

  By the time the ritual ended, and Travis helped Skye back up the steps to the top, Skye felt drained. The air rushed past her and she fanned her face.

  “You okay?” Travis asked as he thrust a bottle of water into her fist, tilted the plastic up to her lips to make her take a sip. “Better?”

  She nodded, tried to get her breath back. “Why does that take so much out of a person when it’s such a brief ceremony? What was that? Twenty minutes maybe?”

  “It’s because the heat in there can sometimes raise the skin temperature a good ten degrees. That’s why the custom doesn’t equate to spending a lengthy amount of time in such a confined environment. It doesn’t lend itself to a long, drawn-out event. It’s meant to clear the mind and usually does.”

  As they started walking back to the house, Skye blurted out, “I miss Josh.”

  Travis smiled. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t. You’re in love with him.”

  “He asked me to marry him.”

  “You don’t sound too happy about it.”

  “I didn’t give him an answer. In fact, he got upset about it.”

  “Ouch. I bet.” Travis rocked back on his heels. “Why not? Why didn’t you answer him?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “It seems it’s a night for such things. And as much as I’d like to hear it, at the moment, you look wiped out. Your experience in the lodge should put you in a meditative state of mind, able to accept whatever you’re meant to do. You should take advantage of it and sleep. Why don’t we put this conversation on hold until morning?”

  “I think you’re right. I’m suddenly exhausted.”

  Travis showed her to the same room she’d slept in with Josh, which didn’t help her pensive state any. After a cool shower, she dug out her cell phone and called Josh.

  “Are you surviving without me?” she asked the minute she heard his voice.

  “Barely. How’d it go in the sweat lodge?”

  “I’m drained.”

  “Then why aren’t you asleep?”

  “I wanted to hear your voice before I dozed off.”

  “Excellent. Are you coming home tomorrow?” he asked.

  Home. She was glad he’d used that word. “Yes, I’ll be back in the morning.”

  “Good. When will you know if it worked?”

  “Soon, I think. What if it means you won’t have access to Kiya?”

  “I’m confident it doesn’t work that way. But if it does, I’m prepared to go it alone without my wolf.”

  “You are?”

  “I am. But you sound exhausted. Having been through one of these things, I know how much you need sleep right about now. And Skye?”

  “What?”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you, too. Josh? I miss you.”

  “That’s my girl. Same here, baby. Drive safely coming back to me.”

  She’d barely disconnected and plugged her phone into its charging station, before she drifted off into a deep slumber.

  The video in her head played like a vacation reel from a travel agency.

  Skye found herself in a thicket of woods among giant oaks and redwoods. There was a narrow trail to follow that took her to a trickling creek, barely enough water to wet the surrounding rocks. But when she lifted her head, she realized that up ahead, the stream picked up momentum and became a deeper, babbling brook. It raced faster, winding its way between sandy shores toward rock formations that began to build in height and beauty.

  Skye hiked the terrain, trudging up craggy peaks and down valleys. At one point she crossed over the stream just before it widened. Here, she left the forest behind entirely. She trudged along until the landscape evened out and the trail ended in a canyon hidden by lush deep green foliage. The roaring of a waterfall as it thundered over the top of huge boulders had her looking up to watch the force crash into a crystal clear pool of blue at the bottom.

  That’s when she spotted Kiya. Drinking from the pool, the wolf glanced up. Their eyes met, blue to blue. Here, everything seemed bluer, greener, clear and clean.

  Instincts guided Skye to drink from the pool alongside her wolf. She knelt down to cup the liquid, to sip from the cool water. But when she tried to hold it in her hands long enough to drink, it kept spilling through her fingers.

  The wolf dipped her head. That’s when Skye did the same. Together she and the wolf quenched their thirst and drank their fill until Skye heard Kiya’s voice like an old familiar friend. After so long apart, Kiya came alive again inside her head.

  Your path is as it once was. From this moment forward, we will be as one again. Nothing will change that.

  “What about Josh?”

  Josh will always be a part of me and I a part of him. But he is your mate. Stop denying what your heart feels for him and you will be much happier.

  Three sharp cracks in rapid succession, like a rifle going off, broke the peaceful silence and had Skye glancing to her right. The tropical scene started to dissipate. The waterfall changed from brilliant blue to blood red. The scene ended slowly, morphing from rich deep blues to bright violet before turning much darker purple, and then fading to black.

  For several long minutes Skye stood before the opening of a room or maybe it was a cave.

  Whatever it was, the contrast of white came out of nowhere.

  Skulls. Three of them. Skeletal remains. Bones.

  Be patient. The bones will tell.

  Skye knew then that Kiya had taken her down a road until they hit a dead end—a wall of sheer darkness.

  The video ended like a long, exhausting journey, leaving Skye out of breath. Coming awake, she wanted to reach for the phone to call Josh, to tell him about the vision, to talk about babbling brooks and tropical waterfalls—to warn him about the bones—the bones that waited in the darkness for someone to find them.

  Chapter 21 Book 2

  Skye got back to Seattle a little past eleven in the morning. When she pulled her Subaru into the space next to Josh’s car in the loft’s unde
rground lot, she was surprised to find him home at this time of day.

  Her senses went on alert.

  She’d talked to him less than an hour out and he hadn’t hinted at working from home or that anything was amiss. Had he been holding something back while she’d been in Everett?

  She considered their conversations while she’d been gone. Josh had stuck to the simple topics at hand, keeping his comments brief. He’d talked about her coming to terms with Travis. She’d responded in kind by admitting she’d done quite a bit of soul-searching while spending time at The Painted Crow. She hadn’t gone into detail yet about her vision. She planned on doing that face to face.

  It wasn’t just the dream she had yet to share with him. Getting Kiya back had given her a different perspective about a lot of things. That included his marriage proposal, such as it had been. She loved Josh. It was time she thought about their future together.

  Making her way to the elevator, she rode the car up to the penthouse. When the doors opened and she saw Josh waiting for her, she dropped her bags where she stood and leaped into his arms.

  He covered her mouth.

  She started to unbutton his dress shirt. When he stilled her hand, she pointed out, “Okay, the day you don’t want to make love, something’s wrong. What is it? I get this sense you’ve been keeping something from me this entire time.” She put her hands on her hips to challenge him to deny it.

  Instead of that though, he kissed her again before stating flatly, “We had a visitor while you were gone.”

  Skye raised one brow. “Oh really. Anyone we might know?”

  Josh strode across the room to his desk, turned his laptop screen around to where Skye could get her first look at their intruder. “Recognize the build? And he isn’t wearing his creepy mask this time. What you see is the get-up that matches what the maintenance team in the building wears. Because there was no reason for any of them to be in our home, I asked the building superintendent to take a look at this video. The man isn’t one of his.”

  “Where did you get that? That’s not surveillance from the security system here, is it?”

  “No. Although he did tamper with the building’s security tapes. Luckily I had my own cameras set up around the loft. Something he didn’t count on.”

  “Since when?”

  “Since this bastard’s been on our radar. He posed as a member of maintenance, somehow managed to obtain a card key—beforehand. So when I tracked the info from the card he used I was able to trace it back to Mrs. Dellingham on the second floor. She’s at least seventy-five if she’s a day. But she told me she didn’t remember giving anyone her card key or losing hers, which means our guy must have been in the building once before to steal a card and duplicate the data.”

  The realization finally hit home. “Ohmygod. He’s been watching us, following us,” Skye stated.

  “I’d say for a while now. He knew you were out of town and I was busy at work. He saw an opening and took it, simple as that.”

  As the surveillance continued to play on Josh’s computer screen, Skye’s heart raced with varying degrees of anger. “But how did he actually know we wouldn’t be coming back right away? I could’ve turned around and come back at any time. You could have, too. Wait. Do you suppose he’s been spying on us?”

  Josh threw her a disbelieving look. “I took precautions against that from the first time I walked into the home Julie and Tracy shared. I knew he was a voyeur. That he liked to watch.”

  “That’s just one of the things troubling you about this guy. You’ve been expecting him to do something like this? Look how calm he is, Josh. He walks in here bold as brass without a care in the world. How long was he in our home?”

  Josh stifled a grin at the knowledge she’d referred to the loft as home. “Exactly two hours, precisely. He set a timer. See what he does when it goes off, he packs up, hits the road in no short order.”

  As she continued to stare at the screen, she was mortified by what she saw. “Yeah, but before he does that he goes through everything. Look at him. That son of a bitch is ransacking through my underwear drawer. You caught him in your own safety net, with your own security system, didn’t you?”

  “That’s right. And I have Leo, Winston and Reggie working around the clock, searching every facial recognition database at their disposal to come up with the bastard’s name. Skye, this is our guy. And the asshole made a huge mistake when he walked into our home.”

  “Could he have planted any type of camera in here to keep an eye on us?”

  “He did. But don’t worry, I got rid of them. The same day he was here. He isn’t as clever as he thinks he is.”

  “He’ll miss the live feed. He’ll know we’re on to him.”

  “Not if there’s a substitute feed in its place.”

  “God, you’re brilliant! What about a listening device?”

  “Had the entire place scanned for bugs. Reggie picked up four—one each in the bedroom, living room, kitchen, and the master bathroom.”

  “Bastard,” Skye uttered.

  “We’re fortunate, Skye. He could have used that card key at any time to come in here at four a.m., like maybe right after you came in from your rounds, dead on your feet, maybe got careless. Think about it. I want this bastard. Bad.”

  “No more than I do. By the way, I think I know what your bones will tell means.”

  “Your vision showed you that?” He pumped a fist in the air. “And the three of us are back on track. So what does it mean?”

  She took him through her dream, trying to describe the brilliant blues of the waterfall in detail and then how it all abruptly changed at the sound of three rifle shots. “The waterfall turned red and then much darker until the whole scene moved to a small black room. I took that to mean it was maybe a cellar or a black hole of some sort. Then I saw this flash of white and saw three skulls hidden in a very dark place. Then I heard Kiya’s voice. ‘Be patient, the bones will tell.’ Josh, there are three victims somewhere with shots to the head. They’re waiting for us to find them.”

  “Then we’ll find them.”

  For the next few days, Josh, Skye, and their crew spent almost every hour of the day and night sitting in front of a computer screen. During that time, the five of them learned every nuance about facial recognition software. In addition to that, Josh and Winston came up with their own personal software app that tracked a cell phone’s Wi-Fi usage. They patterned the application on the same premise retail stores had used in testing to track customer behavior while people shopped. But thanks to Winston they were able to soup-up their app to take it to the next level. If their killer happened to use his phone at all to locate any free Wi-Fi network within one thousand feet of the dummy service they had set up, it would capture that person’s phone number and his ID.

  Once the team had that information they could track the location of that specific device within one hundred feet at any given time by going through several different hotspot providers.

  The good news was, they had a plan. The bad news, they still had no idea how long they’d have to wait to lure the guy into their trap.

  But then, they got lucky.

  Chapter 22 Book 2

  Skye and Josh met up in a conference room on the third floor of the Cherry Street police station. As they waited for Harry, Josh noticed how edgy Skye was.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m dying to know who it is. After he went through our home, I’m in no mood to play twenty questions at this point or wait for Harry to get here.”

  “Leo, Reggie, and Winston used every waking hour to scan millions of faces. It finally paid off.” Josh removed a copy of a photo that looked like it came from the DMV. “Prime suspect. Frank De Palo, Jr. Twenty-nine, grew up in San Caruso, California.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “Some little coastal town down in Monterey County, south of San Francisco. And get this. Believe it or not, De Palo came from a prominent family with several
million in the bank due to old money, that and the ranch land that’s been in his family for over a century. It means Frank has unlimited funds at his disposal to—”

  “To disappear,” Skye finished. “Crap. That’s all we need is for the bastard to run. So give me the rest. I’m no good at this waiting game. I want to know what you know. Start at the beginning. I want to hear this Frank De Palo’s life story.”

  “It’s fairly colorful. But let’s start with the immediate. De Palo lives one block over from the loft. That’s right, our loft, in his very own upscale digs. The guy’s worth millions, Skye. His parents, Frank Sr. and Elena, still own the ranch land that’s been in the family for generations. They also own an extensive string of San Caruso businesses, real estate, and part of a brokerage house in San Francisco. The family even has a wing of the local hospital named after the grandfather, Vincenzo De Palo.”

  “Where did all this money come from?”

  “Vincenzo immigrated to California from Italy in 1901. Once they got to America, the family settled in San Francisco. Then a couple of years later they made their way down to San Caruso where they somehow managed to buy land and a lot of it. At one point, they practically owned the town. They branched out, tried their hand at ranching and apparently made a killing supplying beef to the railroad workers.”

  “A multi-millionaire serial killer? Unbelievable.”

  “And then some,” Josh said. “Even though his family could’ve easily sent him to any college in the country, Harvard was begging for him, Frank ended up staying local. Stanford offered him a full wrestling scholarship. ”

  “An athlete?”

  “I’ll get to that in a minute. But yeah, it looks like he’s able to leap six-foot-tall fences in a single bound.”

  “I’m liking this guy more and more as our killer.”

  “There’s a lot more to Frank. He isn’t just physically fit. He was also considered a whiz kid early on. His placement tests put his IQ off the charts. In high school his teachers deemed him genius material and then in college the same thing. His professors were impressed and echoed that assessment all through his files. A bit of an oddity though. That too, was noted. According to the university database we cracked—he breezed through his core classes, sailed through his major, which ended up being chemistry—to graduate from college in three years. He was twenty at the time and was immediately offered employment at a pharmaceutical company as a junior chemist—in Portland.”