Bound by Secrets (Deadly Isles Special Ops Book 2)

by Amy McKinley

  “You get off on watching?” Roy interrupted, his interest piqued.

  “Shut up, Neanderthal. I know this place. They fished that reporter chick outta the water here. I did my homework. She dated you. You’ve got Kayla here. It was perfect. Two birds, one stone. Why the hell didn’t you finish her off?”

  “She’s—”

  “That was rhetorical. I don’t care.” Her lips sneered back. “But you are going to choke her. End her. Now.”

  25

  Kayla

  “You want him to kill me?” My mouth hung open, and I snapped it shut. I should have known she hadn’t changed. “What the hell, Vivi?” Fortunately, I knew Roy well, and he didn’t answer to anyone.

  She rolled her eyes and tossed her mane of blond hair over her shoulder. “Of course, I want him to. But nothing has worked out the right way since we rolled your brother.”

  I took an involuntary half step back, feeling as if she’d punched me in the gut. “What are you talking about?”

  Roy shifted at my side. It was subtle but enough to alert me to his intentions. He would never save me—he would save himself. I worked to keep her attention on me. “You rolled Kieran?” I couldn’t even process what she meant by that.

  Then he sprang forward. The gun went off. Someone screamed. A second passed, and I realized it was me. I clamped my mouth shut.

  She shot him again. It was loud—final as the warehouse amplified the sound. Tears rolled down my cheeks. Roy lay in a hump at Vivi’s feet. I couldn’t see where she’d shot him, but his head had jerked back. He was facedown, and the wound wasn’t visible—nor was the vacant stare that I imagined was in his eyes. For that small favor, I was grateful.

  The cold from inside the room invaded my bones. My entire body convulsed. I couldn’t stop shaking. “W-What?” I shook my head, trying desperately to regain control. “W-Why?”

  A slow smile spread over her thin lips as she stepped over Roy’s lifeless, hulking form. “Why the hell not? Your boyfriend was a risk. If he wasn’t killing you, chances were high he’d come after me after I interrupted. No matter. I’m capable of seeing this through.”

  After several shuttering breaths, I got myself under enough control to stop my teeth from chattering. I took another step back, trying to maneuver toward one of the large vats that held shaved ice when the fish were harvested and brought in from the boats. If I could dive behind it, find something to throw at her, I might stand a chance. “I don’t understand. Why would you want to kill me? I have nothing to do with your life. I never have.”

  “No. Not back then. But your brother did. You know, I tried to get him to notice me. To dump Leslie.” A dreamy sigh paused her words. “He was going places. But when he flat-out rejected me, it became clear he was an obstacle. That was when I fully committed to Mateo. But I couldn’t let it go, not completely. Your brother stood in the way of the life I wanted.”

  “How?” She was insane. I inched back another half step. I couldn’t take my eyes off her—or stop wondering why the place was so clean. The panic that had been so close before tested the fragile bonds that held it at bay. I felt them slip. She was going to shoot me. I couldn’t see a way out.

  “How did your brother stand in the way of the life I wanted? Deserved?” She shook her head, and that fanatical, unhinged gleam came back into her blue eyes. “Oh, honey. My Mateo should have gotten that full ride that your brother stole out from under him. Mat was the top pick at the University of Hawaii when your brother declined.”

  Oh God. “But Kieran changed his mind.”

  “At the last minute. Yes. They bumped Mateo to second string, since he hadn’t committed—that was on him. We had words over it. Then they went with Kieran instead.”

  I had never understood Kieran’s change of heart, but the pregnancy made it make sense. At the time, I hadn’t cared because he would be closer. We were all happy about that.

  The pieces of Vivi’s craziness were falling into place, and horror held me in its embrace as I waited for her to confirm what I’d come to know in my heart: the second shark’s-tooth necklace, the picture of the guys all hanging around Mateo’s car, which had been the same car Mateo had said he’d gotten rid of shortly after high school. It had been evidence.

  I could see no way out, and that was it for me—Vivi intended to clean house and sweep any piece of the past from the playing board.

  26

  Jaxon

  I headed into the police station to get Roy’s address and check out the file on Kayla’s coworker, Stephanie, to see if anything stood out and would lead me to where Roy held her. Someone called out to me. My foot was poised on the stairs, but I paused at the heavy weight that reverberated in the way he’d said my name.

  Caught in his tone’s snare, I waited. My instincts pricked at me to listen, despite the intense need I had for action. I couldn’t waste a single second when it came to finding Kayla.

  I pivoted. Beneath a streetlight in the parking lot, Mateo stood in front of his car’s bumper, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. The laid-back, chill guy I’d known was gone. He looked as if he was facing a terminal sentence. What the hell is going on?

  “You’re looking for Kayla, aren’t you?”

  I gave a sharp nod, absorbing everything about his downtrodden demeanor, piecing together the cause for it and not liking where it was leading me.

  His head fell back, and he closed his eyes. He forced out a resigned breath. “I think I know where she is. I’ll hop in your car and tell you everything on the way there.”

  Fuck. I hated to think of what secrets he might share. I would almost have preferred that he didn’t. I wanted to go where Kayla was without any distractions.

  Behind the wheel and on the road, Mateo told me exactly where to go. It clicked, then, and I called it in. The fish-processing warehouse was near where Kayla’s coworker had been pulled out of the ocean.

  As I put my foot to the floor and raced through the streets, Mateo recounted his story. “I couldn’t lose her.”

  I bit my tongue as he filled me in enough to gain an understanding of her mental state.

  All those years, the Kane family suffered pain, not knowing what had happened. It was time everything was out in the open. Her parents needed to know the secret Leslie and I held about that night and all she and Kieran had lost.

  Kayla

  A loud squeak caused Vivi’s attention to shift to the heavy steel door as it opened—it was my chance. I pivoted and put the metal storage bin filled with ice for holding the fish between us. She swung back and locked her beady gaze with mine. “Stop.”

  I froze. Mateo stood in the partially opened door. His hand was around the steel, keeping it from slamming shut. Regret shadowed his features, aging him and stealing the easygoing vibe he wore like a second skin.

  “What are you doing, babe?” His voice was velvet soft.

  “Tying up loose ends,” she snapped, but a tremor ran through her hand, and the gun briefly wavered. “She wouldn’t leave it alone… asking you about that night, about the car. I couldn’t let her steal more from us.”

  “Kayla’s never taken anything from us. Let her go.” He reached his free hand toward the gun.

  Vivi shook her head. “No. First the scholarship—”

  “You ran Kieran off the road?” I couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out. Mateo turned to me, and I swear he’d aged a couple of years.

  “Vivi and I’d gone to the point. We were drinking. Upset about the change in circumstances. I’m so sorry, Kayla. Your brother—”

  “Ruined everything!” Vivi shouted. Her body shook with rage. “Everything was so clear that night. Leslie told me they were coming to the point. But they were late. When I spotted their car on the curve, it was the perfect opportunity. It was fate.”

  Mateo winced.

  I had to know. “You weren’t driving, Mat?”

  With a tiny shake of his head, he told me he wasn’t. “But I might as well have
been. I wanted to come forward. Kieran was my friend. I loved him like a brother.”

  “Shut up.” Vivi snapped. “He wasn’t good enough to be your friend. That position was yours, a guarantee to get picked up for the NFL—”

  “Stop.” Mateo’s voice cracked like a whip and shut her up. “I was good but not good enough for the NFL. Kieran was. I didn’t have the delusions you did. Please give me the gun, Vivi. It’s over.”

  She shook her head with tears running down her face. “I can’t, Mat. I have to protect us. What we have.”

  “What we have is built on a lie, and I don’t want it anymore. Not if you hurt Kayla too.” Mateo moved closer to her, the door still in his hand. Why is he doing that? Then I saw the reason: Jaxon.

  Our gazes caught and held. An air of control surrounded him. He motioned down. I sank to my knees while Mateo continued to argue with his crazy wife, unnoticed by the two. But I had to watch. I wouldn’t have been able to handle it if Jaxon was shot.

  Mateo moved forward, the door wide. Jaxon slipped behind him then around in two seconds flat. Vivi didn’t even get a chance to scream. Jaxon disarmed her and had her in flex cuffs before any of us knew what had happened.

  Then he was by my side, helping me to my feet. I threw myself into his arms. The horror of why my brother died replayed in my mind. “She killed him for a spot on a football team. For the possibility of Mateo getting drafted for the NFL.”

  Cops poured into the building while Jaxon held me. Vivi was taken outside and to a waiting squad car. The blues and reds flashed in the dark and painted the walls with each opening of the door as more officers secured the scene.

  Mateo, his hands bound behind him, convinced one of the officers to let him have a word with me. They stood off to the side but close enough so that we could talk. I had the side of my face pressed against Jaxon’s chest, but I met Mat’s gaze, waiting to hear what he so badly needed to say.

  “I’m sorry, Kayla. I loved your brother. When Vivi slammed into his car, I had already consumed most of a bottle of Jack. I was barely conscious. When she got control of the car and kept going, I—well, I never saw what she’d hit. Everything came together when I found out your brother was in a fatal car crash. I wanted to go to the police. Vivi convinced me not to. And I was scared. Then there was the other night. When she overheard you asking questions at the bonfire, I knew she wasn’t going to let it go. I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner. I’m glad the truth is out. His memory deserves it.”

  It meant something, his confession. In time, I thought I’d be able to forgive him. I couldn’t say anything as Mateo was led away by Matheson.

  Jaxon kept his arm around me as we walked out, skirting around Roy’s body to exit through the open door.

  27

  Kayla

  Jaxon and I were back at his place, but I didn’t remember the drive home or going inside the condo. I vaguely remembered talking with my parents on the phone. Jaxon had taken it from me to tell them I was okay and that we would see them soon.

  I was wrapped in a blanket and tucked into his side, and the two of us cuddled together on the couch as the numbness faded. The TV was on in the background, and its low murmur added comfort. I shifted in his arms, and our gazes met. “Thank you.” It needed to be said. He’d come for me.

  A sad smile curved his lips. “I’ll always be there for you, Kayla.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “You’re my life. There was no other option.”

  I couldn’t help but voice my fears over those last few seconds before he had arrived. “I didn’t see any way out of it. I couldn’t reason with her.” My body shook. “There are so many regrets. All those years I wasted being mad at you… I blamed you for keeping something from me about Kieran because I could feel the secrets between us, see them swimming through your eyes. And I couldn’t bear to have anything about him withheld. And I don’t know, maybe it was also a maturity thing.” I took a stuttered breath. “We’d only recently found our way back to each other, and Vivi was going to end my life. It wasn’t fair.”

  “There aren’t any more secrets. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you Kieran would elope with Leslie or about the baby. His loss—their loss—was so devastating. I didn’t want to add that to the grief you already shouldered.”

  “We can’t do that ever again.” Tears filled my eyes, the pain of losing my brother swimming beneath the surface of my fragile control all over again.

  “No more secrets.” Jaxon’s vow flashed in an ironclad determination in the strong set to his square jaw and in the steel that swirled in his gaze. “I love you more than I can ever say, Kalya. Let me show you just how much for the rest of our lives.”

  He smoothed the pad of his thumb over my trembling bottom lip. I needed him. Tilting my chin up, I parted my lips in invitation. He didn’t disappoint. The caress of his mouth was drugging. When he slipped his tongue inside to tease and torment, I melted against him.

  Unhurried, he stoked the heat that was always between us to a slow burn—just what I needed. When he broke away and rested his forehead against mine, our breaths mingling, warmth had soaked from him into every inch of my body. He’d fed me some of his energy, chasing away the worst of the shock of the night. I—we—will be okay.

  “Do you want to move to the island early?” he asked gently. “The painting is done here. The only thing left to do is pack up and settle in over there.”

  It was tempting, but I didn’t feel right about it yet. “No. Let’s wait until my parents have moved. Another week or two isn’t long, and I want to be here for them. It’s going to be painful when they learn about everything that happened.”

  “Your dad already knows.”

  Of course. He was the police chief, and Jaxon had talked with them when I couldn’t say much more than that I was okay. “Let’s spend tomorrow with my parents. We can help them pack up the house fully and lend a hand when they move. Then we can start our lives on your family’s island.”

  He grinned, and another flame of heat unfurled in my stomach at how handsome he was. “You do know we’re only a twenty-minute boat ride from seeing them?” He tweaked my nose. “We’ll bring them breakfast tomorrow and stay as long as you want. Tyler is keeping his condo here in Honolulu for all of us to use whenever we want. We can sleep there after your parents are settled here. Until you’re ready to go to the island.”

  I laced my fingers with his and squeezed. “That’s perfect. Thank you.” Once they were situated and weren’t reeling from the loss of Kieran all over again, we would move too. I didn’t want to abandon them. I looped my arms around his neck and smiled. We would be okay—I knew it.

  Jaxon turned toward the TV. Something had caught his attention. I loosened my embrace and snuggled back into his side to see what it was that had locked his emotions behind that impenetrable wall of the soldier he was and always would be.

  A bar of red slashed the TV’s bottom portion with Breaking News stamped across it in white. An image of a Black Hawk filled the screen. Four people made their way from the helicopter, tired, unkempt, and sandwiched by several Navy SEALs.

  They were the remaining hostages. But it wasn’t until Jaxon spoke that I realized what was wrong.

  “There are only four of them. Five were still missing, and where is my brother?”

  28

  Kayla

  My toes curled in the foamy surf as the first rays of the sun reflected off the rolling ocean waves in a glistening display. It was peaceful, with only a few surfers to the north end of where I stood. Stephanie’s article about Roy had run that morning. Another would follow, regarding his death. With that chapter wrapped up, I was free to go anywhere I wanted. The funny thing was, I was where I should have been all along.

  I wound my arms around my waist from the slight chill to the morning, waiting for the sun to chase it away. The scents of ocean and spice and a hint of coconut mingled with sand and surf, drifting on the warm tropical breeze. “I miss you, Kieran,” I whispered, h
oping my words would find a way to reach him.

  “I’m never far, Little K.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, my brother towered over me, looking hale and happy. “I popped in on Leslie today. She had her baby. A boy.”

  Pain and happiness warred in my heart. “That was supposed to be you guys, all those years ago.”

  A sad smile curved his handsome face as I turned to him. “It was.” He brushed a tear from the corner of my eye, tingles following in the wake of his feather-soft touch. “You know everything now.”

  “I do.” I ached for what he and Leslie had and lost.

  “Don’t worry about us. Leslie and I will find each other again, in another life. I’m happy for her. The last thing I would want is for her to be alone. She deserves to be loved, to have another baby.” He chuckled. “She’s been sending leis into the water in hopes that I’ll come back to her. Those damned flowers came back every time. She knew I was close, even if she couldn’t see me.”

  Leis were typically made of plumeria flower, a flower chock-full of meaning. Not only did the flower indicate whether the wearer was single or taken by which ear it rested over, but the sweet-smelling flower was cast in the ocean in hopes of loved ones returning. Long ago, when ships sailed, a lei was set adrift in the water. If it returned to shore, the vessel would too. If not, all those lives would be lost in the ocean.

  The meaning behind why Leslie was tossing the fragrant, velvety petals in the water wasn’t difficult to decipher. She’d harbored hope that my brother would somehow return, even if only in spirit, which he had.