Decker's Fate (The Decker Brothers Trilogy Book 1)

by K. R. Richards

  “A planchette? Like a Ouija board thing?” Brody grinned.

  “We use a plate, it’s easier for a larger group, but yes, it’s the same idea,” Jade explained.

  “I’ve always heard Ouija boards bring in bad spirits,” Liam said with a frown.

  “They can, with the inexperienced and those not of a higher vibrational energy. We always purify the energy of our space before we begin and we say a prayer of protection for the group before we start. We know how to keep lesser spirits and negative energies away,” Jade explained.

  “We cast a circle and allow only the highest Light beings into it. We only work with the Light, never the dark,” Erin assured him.

  “Okay, cool.” Liam gave Erin a nod and a smile.

  “Then that’s what we need to do. We’ll set up a schedule tonight after the barbeque,” Decker agreed.

  “We need to go meet Jackson, plus Liam and I want to get a good look at the outside of your place again before his team gets there.” Brody rose. “We’ll stop for groceries and be back in time so I can take you girls to the shop.”

  Liam rose. He started to follow Brody then stopped. “Oh, hey, we need a key and the alarm code.”

  “I’ll get mine.” Erin rose and ran back to the bedroom she and Harper were sharing.

  Liam and Brody were waiting in the entryway when she brought the key. She had written down the code for them on a lime green sticky note.

  “Can you guys do me a favor? After the police see everything, can you dispose of the dead fish? There’s a fish net in the cabinet below the tank.

  “Sure,” Liam said as he held out his hand for the key. “Just flush them?”

  Erin nodded. “I just don’t want Jade to have to do it when we return. Besides, I think they will start to smell.”

  Liam and Brody nodded.

  Chapter Seven

  Jade woke up in Decker’s bed. She sat up quickly. Sam jumped into her lap and purred loudly. She vaguely remembered Decker carrying her into his room. She was on his bed, which had been made since they arrived that morning. An ultra soft throw was pulled over her. She searched the clean, masculine room for a clock. She spied his digital clock on the nightstand on the other side of the bed. It was one-thirty. She guessed she fell asleep sitting on the sofa around eleven-thirty, not too long after Harper and Erin left with Brody for the shop. She felt a little better, a little more rested, in any case.

  Decker’s furniture was modern, dark wood with clean lines. His bed was king size and covered with a geometric print comforter in browns, deep green, black and gray. Several big black and gray pillows lined the headboard. Two nightstands flanked the bed. A large chest of drawers and a long desk, with a very comfy-looking leather office chair were the only other pieces of furniture in the room. There was a PC, printer, laptop, a charging station, and a landline phone on his neat and organized desk. There were two large photographic prints in the room. A black-framed print of a moody Grand Canyon with lightning splitting the sky hung over the desk on the long wall. Above the bed was smaller scene of Sedona’s famed red rock mountains.

  There were two stand-up, beautifully grained, large wood photo frames on his chest of drawers. The smaller one held recent-looking pictures of him, Brody and Liam, possibly in Sedona. She guessed Sedona because there were brilliant red mountains in the background. The larger frame held photos of the three brothers and their parents in various locations over the years. There was even one of a very young Decker family. The larger photo in the center was of his parents, probably close to the time they perished in the accident. Jade’s heart hurt when she looked at the collage of photos. Decker and his brothers must really miss their parents.

  She rose and went to the bathroom. Though it was broad daylight, the large window reminded her of the previous night. She splashed water on her face, dried it, brushed her teeth, and left the bedroom in a record amount of time. She wondered how long it would take her to get over being afraid of being alone in a room.

  Decker and Liam were in the large family room emptying boxes. Decker looked up when she came into the room. The warm smile he flashed her way put her immediately at ease.

  “Do you feel better?”

  “I do. I apologize for falling asleep.”

  “There is nothing to apologize for. You had a bad night and you were exhausted. Liam and I decided to look for the books in our parents’ boxes we kept here. We found the one we knew was here, but not the other one yet. Have a seat. Are you hungry? I was just about to fix sandwiches.”

  “I am hungry now. That would be nice. Can I help you?”

  “You sit down and relax. I have turkey or ham and you can have it on nine grain or whole wheat. There are pita chips.”

  “I have some Fritos stashed in the cupboard. I want turkey and ham on nine-grain.” Liam grinned. “I like junk food. Mikey likes the healthier stuff,” he explained.

  “Turkey on nine-grain for me, please,” Jade told him.

  Decker rose. Jade did too, and followed him into the kitchen.

  “I told you to sit down.” He grinned at her. “You’re my guest.”

  “I’m helping.” She sent him a challenging look.

  “Okay, you can help.” He flashed that great smile her way.

  He took out a head of leafy green lettuce, baby spinach, an avocado, and a tomato. He placed three packages of thin sliced cheese and two large bags of deli turkey and ham on the black granite counter. He opened the pantry and brought out a loaf of bread.

  Jade moved to the counter and started working on the vegetables. She washed some of the lettuce and spread it on a hand-towel to dry. She began slicing tomatoes.

  Decker decided it was nice to have Jade in his kitchen, and in his bedroom – even if there was no sex involved. Yet. And there wouldn’t be for a while. Her being here was only temporary, but he liked it. A lot. He couldn’t help but notice how good she looked in her yoga pants and tank either. She was slender and toned but had some curves. Very nice curves, actually.

  “Hey!” Liam spoke while looking through the notebook that had belonged to their mother.

  “What is it?” Decker asked as he put a handful of Liam’s chips on his plate next to his sandwich. He carried it over to Liam.

  “This notebook is full of Mom’s genealogy notes on the O’Flynns. Apparently, when her grandfather came to America, he dropped the O’ from O’Flynn and just used Flynn. This appears to be a family tree of sorts. Her cousin Sean O’Flynn and his wife, Rose, live near Cork City, Ireland. They have two children, Niall and Fianna. By their dates of birth, they are about our age, Niall would be a year older than you, Mikey, and Fianna is the same age as me.”

  Decker shook his head and looked at his brother. “We need to find that other book. I’ll bet money the info we really need is in the one we didn’t find.”

  “You’re probably right,” Jade agreed. She lifted her gaze from where she worked at the kitchen counter to meet Decker’s. He gave her one of his heart-stopping smiles.

  Jade made two sandwiches. When he returned she said, “I made you a turkey on nine-grain with pita chips. It was what you ordered at Connor’s that day. I put your vegetables on the side because I wasn’t sure what you wanted on your sandwich.”

  “Thanks.” Decker gave her a wink as he opened the fridge. “I don’t have green tea, but I have sun tea, water, milk, orange juice, and Liam likes his Dr. Pepper, so that is always here.”

  “Oh, I love sun tea!”

  Decker poured two glasses of tea and took their drinks into the family room. Jade followed carrying their plates. They joined Liam.

  “Thanks, Mikey.” Liam took the can from his brother and popped the top. He took a big gulp.

  “The name Sean O’Flynn sounds familiar. Maybe that was the cousin she made contact with.” Decker popped a chip in his mouth after he looked over Liam’s shoulder at the page he was now studying.

  “You could be right. It does sound familiar.” Liam set his plate down a
nd turned some of the pages in the spiral notebook. “Here’s our page.” He turned over the next page. “And from Mom’s father, is where the rest of this goes. Sean O’Flynn was our grandfather O’Flynn’s second cousin, I guess. As we go further back in time, past the eighteenth century, I can’t even pronounce some of the names.” Liam continued to turn pages. When he reached the back of the genealogy section in the notebook, he shook his head. This all goes back to a Bearach O’Flynn, spelled O’Floinn, with a guesstimate of late twelfth century, thereabouts. He was the chief of the O’Floinns of Ardagh and born at Ardagh Castle. His first wife was Maeve O’Sullivan. He had a stepson named Ciaran. His second wife was Aoife, and they had three sons, who married and between them had a total of six kids.”

  “Geez I can’t even begin to know how these names are pronounced.” Liam shook his head. “There is no genealogy here before this Bearach and Aoife.”

  Liam let out a low whistle. “Mom penciled in that Sean told her the curse began at Drombeg stone circle.” He reached for his laptop on the wide, walnut coffee table.

  “This is interesting. Isn’t it unusual for one to be able to go that far back in genealogy? I mean they probably didn’t keep birth records back then,” Jade remarked.

  “That’s what I was thinking,” Liam offered. “Baptismal records can be found, but you have to know what parish or county to look in. I don’t know about that far back though. I only got as far back as eighteenth century Ireland on the genealogy site I used when I was working on our family tree right after I came back from Afghanistan. Getting just that far took a long time and a lot of digging.”

  “But, some O’Flynns are still in that area, and a lot of the history of the clan has probably been passed down by word of mouth,” Decker suggested. “Mom did make contact with her cousin. She said she learned a lot from him.”

  “You’re right, Decker. There were Bards in ancient times, and I’m sure families told stories of their ancestors through the centuries. It makes sense that descendants still in Ireland would know the history from the stories. And there has been a long-standing curse involving your mother’s family, so I am sure that story was passed from generation to generation.” Jade set her plate upon the coffee table.

  Decker gave her a pleased smile when he saw the empty plate.

  “I was starving,” she offered with a grin.

  “I’m glad you ate since you maybe had two bites at breakfast.”

  “My appetite is back now.” She grinned.

  “Good. You needed to eat.”

  Liam worked in silence. The only sound was the tapping on the keyboard.

  “Ardagh was a castle, but it’s not there anymore. This article says there’s not much left, only a few stones where the foundation once was. But it was on top of this hill.” He turned his laptop around to show Decker and Jade.

  “It’s in County Cork, Ireland between villages called Skibbereen and Baltimore in southern Ireland.”

  Decker looked at the photo. Perhaps it was just the image, but the sky looked black and ominous. An old farmhouse stood at the base of the steep hill. The hill was completely barren save for some rocks, grasses, and weeds.

  He closed his eyes for a moment. He was surprised when the image of a large, dark-haired, bearded man, wearing a chest plate that looked like it was made of thick leather, lifted his arm in the semi-darkness. He held a huge sword in his hand. He let out a blood-curdling yell, followed by words in a language Decker did not understand. Lightning split the sky behind him, lighting up the night.

  Behind the man was a hill looking much like the one from the photo. It was topped with a tall, narrow keep or castle that appeared to be of gray stone. The man moved forward. There were men behind him. The large fellow ran now, his sword raised in the air. They faced one man, who stood shadowed in darkness and was dressed in dark clothing that appeared to be pants with a dark plaid cloak wrapped about him. When lightning split the sky again, Decker could see the lone man’s face. It looked just like the man stalking Jade, the creep from the bar the other night.

  His tumbler hit the tabletop with a thud. Eyes open now, he noticed Jade reached out to keep his glass from tipping over. He saw her quickly wipe away the few drops of tea that had sloshed onto the table when the glass leaned to the side. He was really digging this girl. If things between he and Jade went further, he doubted there would ever be a fight between them about a messy house. He couldn’t help himself, he grinned. They were so much alike in the clean-freak area.

  “Are you okay, Decker?” The tone in her voice was one of concern.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I just had a weird vision. I closed my eyes for a second after I looked at the photo because a strange feeling came over me,” Decker offered. He explained the scene that had just come to him.

  “We need to figure out where we can learn who this creep is, find out why we are being hunted by him, and how we are supposed to get rid of him.” Liam shook his head. “Otherwise we are in this blind.”

  “We do. We will.” Decker nodded and smiled at Jade as she entwined her fingers with his. “I’d kind of like to know who the big guy with the sword is too!”

  “Okay, so I understand that you are Flynns, from the Irish O’Flynns, and there was some sort of curse that goes back to…what was the name of that stone circle?” Jade looked to Liam.

  “Drombeg. Here’s is a photo of the circle. It’s not too far from the location of Ardagh castle. About ten miles, as near as I can tell from the map I looked at.” Liam turned his laptop around again.

  “Wow, that’s a full stone circle. And the one stone looks like an altar stone.” She took a deep breath and continued, “So I get why the three of you are involved, but where do I come in? Why me? I don’t understand that part.”

  “I don’t know the answer, but the most obvious thing is that your last name is Murphy. I’m guessing you are of Irish descent. Perhaps your ancestors were involved in all of this somehow,” Liam posed.

  “Liam, Murphy was her married name, right?” Decker looked to Jade.

  “No.” She shook her head. “When I got married, I hyphenated my name Jade Murphy-Howard. I was going to ASU at the time, so I didn’t want my records messed up by changing to a different last name. After Austin died, I just started going by Jade Murphy again, even though my legal name is still Jade Murphy-Howard.”

  “So your maiden name is Murphy,” Liam said as he tapped on the keyboard.

  “It is, you could be right, Liam. There could possibly be a connection somehow to the Murphys in Ireland. I don’t know anything at all about my family’s genealogy.”

  “I’m looking up Clan Murphy of County Cork right now. When I entered Murphy, some websites for Clan Murphy came up.” Liam was silent for a time while he read. There were more clicks. He looked at the notebook then flipped a page. He laughed and grinned.

  “Bingo. The old Irish Gaelic spelling used by the Murphys is MacMurchadha, the same as the family name given for Caoimhe, the wife of the eldest son, Daragh, of Bearach and Aoife.” Liam passed the laptop to Jade. She and Decker read it together. He passed the notebook to them.

  “Oh my God. Wow. So, if my Murphy line goes back to those Murphys of County Cork, we might be related.” She turned to Decker with a questioning look.

  Decker laughed. “From over eight hundred years ago, yeah, I guess so. Not close enough to matter.” He gave her a wink. “We’ll have to get the genealogy king here to trace your roots.”

  “To start on that, I need your birth date, place of birth, and those of your parents and grandparents if you have the info.”

  Liam’s phone rang. He picked it up.

  “Hey, bro. We found some things here. We think we might know how Jade is tied in with us on this thing. I’m going to do a genealogy search for her.” There was a pause. “Yeah, okay. I’ll explain it all to you tonight. Is everything going okay at the shop?” Another pause. “Good deal. See you about five thirty then.”

  Jade was alread
y writing down her info for Liam on a pad of paper Decker handed to her.

  Decker picked up the book that belonged to his parents. It appeared to be nothing more than a genealogy history of the Flynns from Boston and the O’Flynns of Ardagh and County Cork. He flipped through the pages. There had to be more than this that they needed to know. What they really needed must be in the other notebook, and he hoped like hell that they still had it somewhere.

  Jade handed Liam her information.

  “Thanks.” Liam rose. He yawned. “I’m going to take a nap. When I get up, I’ll start on Jade’s genealogy info if there’s time before we get ready for our barbeque. You should get some sleep too, Mikey. You hardly had any last night and you have to work tomorrow,” Liam said as he limped from the room.

  “I’m fine, Mom.” Decker rolled his eyes and shook his head. He laughed when Liam turned and gave him a look. Had Jade not been there, he would have received a colorful rebuttal along with the finger. He leaned back against the sofa cushions, turned his head, and smiled at Jade.

  “You have to get up at four. You really should take a little nap,” Jade urged him. “I feel better after mine.”

  “I’m not leaving you up by yourself. I’ll be fine. I’ll just hit the bed early tonight.”

  Jade yawned. “I could use more of a nap myself, I guess.” She laughed.

  “Let’s stretch out here, on the sofa and find a movie. If we nap fine, and if we don’t, then we have something to watch.”

  “That sounds like a great idea.”

  “We can cuddle, or you can have this sofa and I can take the recliner or other sofa if you want. It’s your choice,” he told her.