COLE (Dragon Security Book 1) (43 page)

My head snapped up. “You’ve been feeding them information?”

The color had drained from her face. She was white as a ghost, her tears silvery as they rolled in big drops down her face.

“I had no choice. They threatened to kill her if I didn’t.”

“Who is
they
?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Brianna was in California, and I was supposed to meet her there, move to Los Angeles with her. But I got this phone call while I was waiting for her to join me at a diner and they told me…”

Her voice broke as her tears increased, sobs following. I went to her and drew her into my arms.

“What have you told them?”

“Names. Numbers. Reports I found on your desk.”

The reality of what she was saying slowly settled over me. Even as I held her tight against my chest, I wanted to strangle her. How could she invade my privacy like that? How could she help these mad men who might have killed Danny? How could she hurt me that way?

Almost as though she heard my thoughts, she tugged her cell phone out of her pocket. She turned it on and the main screen held a picture of a girl not much younger than my Stacy, a girl with red hair and green eyes like mine. I would have known her anywhere, on the streets, across a crowded room. She was my daughter; there was no doubt in my mind.

“That’s her?”

“Brianna.”

I nodded slowly. It hadn’t occurred to me before how much like my own name her daughter’s was. My daughter.

She scrolled through the menu on the phone and pulled up the text dialogue, showing weeks of messages that she’d exchanged with the kidnappers. Anger built in my chest when I saw the videos. I watched two or three and then couldn’t watch any more. I saw Rachel’s name and Danny’s and each of my children’s names and numbers and addresses.

“What did he mean that he already knew my children’s information?”

“I don’t know.”

I studied the messages for a long time, going back to the same ones over and over again. My heart sank with each of her responses, but I understood them. Who could say that they wouldn’t have done the same thing she did if faced with the same situation? If this was my daughter…but it was. It was my daughter.

“We’ll find her.”

“Brian—”

“We’ll find her.”

Brian

I left Cassidy in my bedroom, lying on the bed consumed by sobs. I had a difficult task in front of me and I didn’t want her to witness it, but it was something that had to be done if I was going to get Brianna back.

I called Killian and tasked him with gathering the others. I wanted to meet in a place where I knew we wouldn’t be spied upon. I chose a burger joint across from Fenway. There would be people there, especially this late in the evening, but we wouldn’t have to worry about bugs or cameras or other means of observation from our enemies.

And our enemies seemed to have multiplied.

“What’s up?” Kyle asked, as he walked up to the booth I’d staked out, leaning down to offer a kiss on my cheek.

“Where are the others?”

“Right behind me.”

They came in one at a time, Kevin, Killian, Sean, and Ian. I watched them, pride and fear mingling in my chest. What had I done by introducing them to the world I grew up in? What had I done, allowing them to work for me, with me? What had I done, putting them in contact with Jack?

“Something’s come to my attention that we need to deal with swiftly and quietly.”

Killian crossed his arms over the chest. As the oldest, he was always the first to volunteer for any situation, always ready to protect the others. I could already see the wheels turning in his head, trying to figure out how best to put himself between his brothers and me.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

“There’s no easy way to say it, so I’m just going to be blunt.” I sat back and studied their faces, recognizing everything from caution to fear to a warped sort of expectation. “Twenty-seven years ago, I had an affair while your mother and I were separated. There was a child—”

“What do you mean, a child?” Ian demanded.

“Please, just let me get this out.”

They had each stiffened, their spines straight as they stared at me from their places around the huge booth. Kevin was closest to me. He lay his hand on my shoulder, offering me a modicum of support.

“There was a child that I didn’t know about. And now she’s in trouble.”

“Cassidy,” Ian said. “I remember Mom saying her name a couple of times when the two of you got into one of your fights.”

I inclined my head slightly. “Cassidy’s the mother, yes. She came back to Boston because the child was kidnapped. She needs our help getting her back.”

“Why should we care?” Sean wanted to know.

“Because she’s your sister, and because whoever is doing this is blackmailing Cassidy for information about us. And that information led to Danny’s death, and it could lead to any one of you becoming a target.”

“We can take care of ourselves,” Kyle announced.

“I’m sure you can, but I’d rather you not be in a position where you have to.”

When they fell silent, I brought up the text dialogue box on Cassidy’s phone and lay it on the table where they could all see it. It was displaying the last message, the one that informed Cassidy that the information she’d given had directly led to both Rachel and Danny’s deaths. Killian understood immediately, I could see it on his face. The others had to piece it together, but they did. I knew they would. No one could keep secrets in this family, especially me.

“I believe one of my enemies, maybe someone from the old neighborhood, has decided to take me out. To this end, he kidnapped Cassidy’s daughter to force Cassidy to gather information he could use against me. And that led to this.”

“What do we do?” Sean asked.

“Brianna was in California when she was taken. We go to California and retrace her steps.”

“I can do that,” Kevin said.

“I don’t think—”

“That’s a good idea, Pops,” Killian said. “If you suddenly leave the state, people will wonder.”

I knew Killian was right, but Kevin had never really been a part of our business. He was a good boy, the boy who got out. Sending him to California—even though he went to Stanford and spent time in L.A.—seemed like a bad idea.

Abigail must be spinning in her grave.

“Okay. But you just look. You don’t engage with anyone.”

“Of course.”

“Ian, I’ll need you to do your thing and see if you can trace the number the texts come from. And Killian…I need you to make sure this doesn’t touch MCorp.”

“Danny’s funeral is in three days,” Killian said. “I’ve written a press release, but you should probably go over it.”

“I will.”

“We should go,” Sean said. “Danny was practically a part of the family.”

I inclined my head. “You boys watch your backs. Stay with your girlfriends or in a hotel. Don’t go home until we figure out what’s going on here.”

“What about you, Pops?” Kyle asked.

“I’m fine,” I said, though it wasn’t really true. I wasn’t fine. I was thinking about Cassidy and all the things she’d lied to me about. It was going to be a long few days while we worked all that out.

I had a daughter. A daughter who was my own flesh and blood. I was still trying to wrap my head around that.

“We need to find these people, find Brianna, and bring her back to her mother. And we need to know why they’re trying to hurt us.”

My boys didn’t hesitate. They each nodded, perfectly confident that the words that came from my lips were the gospel truth and that everything was going to work out just as I said it would.

I wished I was that confident in myself.

Cassidy

I was cried out, but the ache in my chest wouldn’t go away. I curled up on the bed, a pillow against my chest, wondering what it was Brian could do to solve this problem. Only the police could find Brianna, and that might lead to these people hurting her. I couldn’t bear it if that happened. If my daughter didn’t come back to me whole…I should have called the police when I first realized what was happening. I should have protected my little girl better. I should have done the right thing.

I should have…there were so many things I should’ve, would’ve, and could’ve done. But hindsight was always twenty-twenty.

Brian came back after a couple of hours, but he didn’t speak to me. He didn’t acknowledge me. He simply moved around the room, undressing, as though it was a normal evening.

“Brian…?”

“Kyle will take you to your place tomorrow to pack your things. You’ll be moving in with me until this thing is resolved.”

“Okay.”

“You won’t go to the office anymore. I can’t have you unprotected. You’ll stay here and one of the boys will always be with you.”

“Do you really think that’s necessary?”

“And you’ll tell Killian and Ian everything you told me, plus anything else you might have left out. We need every detail, no matter how insignificant it might seem.”

“Okay.”

“Things are going to happen over the next few days—weeks even—that you won’t like, but it’s what I know, and it’s the only way we’ll be able to get Brianna back. You have to trust me, trust that I can do this and I will make it work.”

“I do trust you.”

He threw a look in my direction that clearly doubted that. He headed for the bathroom. I followed and touched his arm, but he brushed me off.

“You should have told me.”

“I was afraid.”

He flipped on the water in the shower and turned to me, his eyes moving from my tear-stained cheeks to my desperately clasped hands.

“Was any of it true, Cassidy? Anything that happened between us these last few weeks? Or was it all just to get Brianna back?”

I felt heat rush to my cheeks, as I realized that he must have seen the videos and the text messages that instructed me to make him fall in love with me. I wanted to go to him, to reassure him, but I was afraid he wouldn’t believe me if I did it with touches.

“I love you,” I said simply. “That was never a lie.”

“Yeah? Then why didn’t you come back sooner? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Because I was angry with you. You chose your wife over me and…I thought we had something deeper than that. I thought it would be easy for you to walk away from her because you loved me.”

“I did love you.”

“But you chose her.”

“Because she grew up in the same world I did. You were an innocent from Texas, a little girl who had no idea what you were getting into with me. I couldn’t spoil that. I couldn’t take your sense of security away from you.”

“If you’d known?”

He started to turn away, but then he rushed up to me, grabbing my wrists to pin them behind my back. He pulled me hard against his chest, his angry eyes snapping just a few inches from mine.

“You never gave me the option of choosing. If I’d known…I don’t know what I would have done, but it wouldn’t have been such a clear choice.”

“I didn’t want you to choose me just because of the baby.”

“And I didn’t want to choose Abigail because of the kids. But I did.”

“Did you love her? Did you love her the way you love me?”

He stared down at me, emotion raging in his eyes. And then he was kissing me so roughly that I could feel my lips swelling against his. I kissed him back, nearly biting his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. He ripped at my clothes, and I tore at his naked flesh. Somehow we ended up against the sink, my thighs pressed so hard against the smooth marble that they felt bruised in an instant. He lifted my skirt, his hands rough on my hips, tugging me back and around, positioning me perfectly for penetration. I cried out as he thrust inside of me, cried out as his hands moved from my hips to my breasts, to my throat, cried out as his thrusts touched me in places that rejoiced to finally be included in this act of passion.

It was rough. There would be bruises and blood, but it felt like all the need that had built over the last twenty-odd years had finally found an outlet, like I was finally set free of the prison my own heartache and grief had placed me inside of.

I was his. He was claiming me in the most primal of ways and my heart rejoiced. This was what I’d wanted for so long, this was the confirmation I’d needed even back then, even when I crawled into his bed several times a week.

He was mine. I was his.

There was nothing else to be said.

Brian

Music played in the back of my mind, some tune I couldn’t quite remember the title of. Jack was pacing in front of me, anger radiating off of him. I’d just told him about Cassidy and Brianna. He didn’t like it, but I knew he wouldn’t interfere in what I needed to do. Like the rest of us, Jack had secrets he didn’t want revealed. He couldn’t begrudge me my secrets.

I let him rage, my eyes sliding closed. It’d been a long night, Cassidy telling me about the last twenty-some years, about her wedding to Sam Myers, the birth of our child, the fifteen years of marriage she spent miserable despite the fact that Sam was a good, gentle husband. He just wasn’t the man she’d wanted.

I thought about Abigail, about our life together. I had few regrets. Abigail was a passionate woman who’d done great things in her career. She was the opposite of me in so many ways, but in some ways she was so much like me. We both embraced our lives with great hunger, determined to get what we wanted no matter how many toes we had to step on along the way. I think it was that great passion that caused us so much grief early in our relationship. But once we learned to stay out of each other’s way, things settled between us.

No, I had no regrets in choosing Abigail. But that didn’t mean that I didn’t wonder what life would have been like with Cassidy. We’d had so many dreams, and I’d often imagined my life would be so different if just one of those dreams had come true. I would have liked to have had the opportunity to find out. But maybe things worked out the way they were supposed to.

Maybe I needed my life with Abigail in order to be the man Cassidy needed me to be now.

“If you bring trouble to my doorstep, I will have to separate myself from you.”

I focused on Jack.

“I know.”

“You need to resolve this, whatever it is.”

“I will.”

I walked out of Jack’s office, wondering if Ian had found anything on the number that contacted Cassidy. There were so many burner phones out there, I doubted he could find anything. But maybe if we had a location…if I were the kidnapper, I would be as far from Los Angeles as I could be.

Anthony was standing in the center of my office when I pushed open the door.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get over how far up you’ve come, Brian.”

“You had your opportunity, Anthony.”

“I did, but I couldn’t be like you and Jack. I couldn’t step on people in order to climb to the top.”

“But that’s the way it’s done. Look at Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Which ones a household name and which one’s a bit of trivia?”

Anthony inclined his head to acknowledge my point.

“At least Wozniak doesn’t have dead bodies falling all around him though.”

“Who does?”

The detective’s eyes narrowed a little. “Are we playing games?”

“Is this on the record?”

“It always is.”

“Then, yes, I suppose we are.”

“I only want to know who killed them, Brian.”

“So do I.” He had no idea how badly I wanted to know. “Them? When did it go from Danny to them?”

“I know you were having an affair with Rachel Thomas. The doorman at her building recognized you from a photo lineup.”

“So?”

“So, she’s dead, too. And her ex-boyfriend has an airtight alibi for the night in question.”

“I do, too.”

“I’m aware. But someone messed with her brakes.”

“And you think I know something about it.”

“I think it’s because you were having an affair with her.”

“Why would someone want to hurt my lover?”

Anthony shrugged. “Why not?”

I brushed past Anthony, going to my desk as if I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. And it felt like I did, to be honest. I knew Rachel died because of me. Someone was trying to hurt me. But I couldn’t tell Anthony that and keep Brianna safe until we could find her.

Kevin left for Los Angeles this morning. And hopefully Ian would be by in a few minutes with news.

I could hope.

“You and I both know that you get yourself wrapped up in things you shouldn’t,” Anthony said. “You’ve always been a trouble magnet. Even Abigail knew it.”

“Leave Abigail out of this.”

Anthony laughed. “Look at you, being a stand-up guy for the first time in your life.” He moved closer to the desk, his eyes narrowing. “Who’s the girl who was at your house last night?”

“None of your business.”

“Girlfriend’s only been in the ground for a couple of days and you’ve already moved on?”

“I’m not a very good guy, now am I? You said yourself—”

“You’re putting her in danger. I hate to see pretty women in danger.”

“What if she was ugly?”

Anthony glared at me. “I don’t like to see anyone in trouble.”

If only he knew it was Cassidy placing me and mine in trouble, not the other way around.

“How do you know that Rachel’s brakes were tampered with?”

Anthony crossed his arms over his chest. “The brake lines were dry when they took her car to the impound lot. And witnesses said she never tried to slow down as she moved into the curve.”

“It couldn’t have just been some sort of mechanical problem?”

“No. There was evidence of tampering.”

I sat heavy in my chair and crossed my own arms over my chest. “There are surveillance cameras on her street. Did any of them see anything?”

Anthony tilted his head. “Tampered with.”

“And that doesn’t sound like a professional hit to you?”

“Of course it does. That’s why you were the first to come to mind.”

“I didn’t do this. I wouldn’t have done this. If I wanted to get rid of a girlfriend, I have other methods.”

“I’m sure you do, but it can’t be a coincidence that two people with connections to you have died in the last week.”

“Don’t believe in coincidences?”

“Nope.”

“Me either.”

Anthony’s eyes widened. “What’s that mean? Are you admitting that these things are related?”

“You’re the detective. Figure it out.”

The music started playing in my head, a tune I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I closed my eyes, willing this day, this situation to go away. And then, as Anthony slipped out the door, I remembered the tune. It was the one that had been playing at the Rainbow Room just before everything went to shit.