Deadly Games

by Mary Stone

  “Because you and Jacob are best friends.”

  Linc raised an eyebrow, confused as Faith grabbed Kylie’s bottle of Merlot and opened the cabinet. She took down a glass and helped herself as Linc watched, waiting for an explanation. “What?”

  Faith did that hair-flip thing. “Don’t tell me you’ve been that blind. You had to notice it, every time we went out together?”

  Suddenly, the pieces fell into place. He thought of all the times they’d gone out double dating, and then, this morning, when they’d chatted together so easily, they hadn’t even realized Linc was still there. “You and Jacob?”

  She nodded. “I’m crazy about him. And I know he listens to you. Respects you.”

  Linc opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

  “Of course, we never cheated on you or anything!” she quickly pointed out. “Jacob was too good of a man for that. But we did have some conversations and…Linc, when I saw him today, none of those feelings had gone away. It was like they were even stronger than ever. I think he felt it too.”

  “Okay.” Now he wished Kylie was down here. “And how do you expect me to help?”

  “Well, you guys have a code, don’t you? He doesn’t want to make a move on your ex-girlfriend, you know, since you and I were almost engaged. He’s too loyal to you for that.” She drained the glass of wine and smiled. “I was hoping that you could put in a few words where I’m concerned? Give him the all clear?”

  Linc couldn’t help it. He laughed. And here he’d once thought Jacob was putting the moves on Kylie. But yeah, while they switched between girls in high school, it’d been messy and strange. By college, they’d been keeping a certain respectful distance between themselves and each other’s girlfriends. He should’ve known. All signs were pointing to it. Jacob rarely let just one woman hold his gaze, but this morning, in the coffee shop, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Even in law school, he’d seen it.

  He shrugged, relieved. “Yeah. Sure. Of course.”

  She smiled but still looked uncertain. “You’re not upset about it, are you?”

  He shook his head. “Hell, no. You guys are good together.”

  Her smile grew, and she looked like she was going to give him a hug. That was the last thing he needed, so he quickly walked toward the door, holding it open for her.

  “Sorry. I don’t mean to kick you out, but my girlfriend had a bad day. I have to go talk to her,” he said.

  “Oh. So, it’s serious between you two? You and…Keely?”

  “Kylie,” he said, looking up the stairs. The door to the bedroom was closed, and if he knew Kylie, she was probably thinking about that voodoo doll again.

  “Kylie Hatfield, right?”

  Linc raised an eyebrow. “Right.”

  Faith just stood there. “You’re a good person, Linc. An amazing person, in fact. I’m just glad you found someone who makes you happy.”

  Unsure what to say, he chose silence, and let the open door do the talking for him.

  Faith nodded, her eyes sliding toward the steps as she took the hint and left. He watched her as she got into her car and started to drive away.

  She was right about one thing. He was happy. Happier than he’d ever been. And it was all because of Kylie.

  20

  Still feeling dazed, Kylie sat on the edge of the bed, trying to sort out all her thoughts.

  Not about the woman downstairs.

  Okay, maybe just a little about the woman downstairs. But her thoughts didn’t focus there. Linc loved Kylie. Kylie loved Linc. She was the one sitting on his bed. It was her clothes hanging in his closet.

  So what if Faith was thinner and prettier and clearly richer than Kylie?

  So what if this was the second time she’d come around in as many days?

  So what if she was sniffing around, trying to rekindle her relationship with Linc?

  So what…

  Kylie heard Linc laugh, and her stomach churned.

  She crept to the door and tried to listen.

  Linc was kind of stingy with his laughter. Few things made him that amused.

  Stop it, she told herself. He already told you, you’re the one he wants.

  That didn’t help. Maybe it was the nerves. The confrontation with her father. Her mother’s accident. The bullet that had nearly hit her. But after the day she’d had, this was the last thing she needed, and she resented that woman for it. She was so on edge, she thought one touch might make her shatter into great big Kylie chunks.

  She breathed out a sigh of relief when the screen door slammed shut. Before the car outside even started, Linc’s boots were thudding up the stairs.

  He was coming to her.

  She backed away from the door and perched on the edge of the bed as the door swung open. Linc appeared in the doorway, his eyes seeking her out. He seemed relieved when she simply smiled at him. He couldn’t control the actions of others.

  “Everything okay?”

  He advanced on her, then knelt between her legs, taking her cold hands in his warm ones. For a moment, Kylie wished he’d propose. She would simply say yes.

  Yes to the possibility of heartbreak.

  Yes to the risk any relationship posed.

  Yes to it all.

  “She’s in love with Jacob and wants me to tell him it’s okay for them to hook up.”

  Kylie blinked. That was unexpected.

  “Seriously?”

  Linc shrugged. “Supposedly, she’s always been. And I think he cares about her too. She wanted me to give Jacob the go-ahead to ask her out, because Jacob’s loyal and wouldn’t want to step on my toes.” He took in Kylie’s shocked expression and stroked her palm with his callused fingers. “All right?”

  Kylie’s nose wrinkled up as she processed this. “And you’re…not upset about that?”

  “Hell, no. I told you, whatever I had with her is ancient history. Probably shouldn’t have happened in the first place. She and I don’t fit. You and I do.”

  Something melted inside of her. “Yes, you and I do.”

  He pulled her close and kissed the side of her face. “Tell me why you were shaking when you came in. What happened?”

  Inhaling deeply, she lifted her chin to meet his gaze. “I need to tell you the truth.”

  He sat back on his haunches. “About?”

  “About the trip. It wasn’t a business trip. I went up to New York to find my dad.”

  Linc scrubbed a hand down his jaw. “Yeah? Wow. Why didn’t you tell—”

  “I should have. I should have brought you with me. I knew you were okay with me searching him out, but I was nervous about what I might find. I wanted to process it on my own first.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “Wow. So you went up there on your own. And what did you find?”

  “I found him,” she said, clenching her teeth at the thought of him sending her out of his office without a second look. “He wasn’t hard to find, since his name’s on half the real estate up there. He’s even worse than I thought he’d be.”

  “Seriously?”

  “He’s a billionaire owner of a construction company,” she said, still looking at her knees. “D & H Construction. He owns a bunch of properties in the city. He’s got it made.”

  “So? That doesn’t sound bad.”

  Kylie let out a grumble, low in her throat and punched a pillow. “Oh, it’s bad. He’s a billionaire, and aside from initial money and her house, he never gave another cent to raise me. He wanted to pretend we don’t exist.”

  Linc shook his head. “He gave her a house?”

  Kylie waved his question away. “And it gets worse from there. He practically threw me out of his office when I confronted him. He wants nothing to do with me. But the worst part is, he’s a bigamist. He’s still married to my mother, but he left her four days after I was born and married another woman less than a month later, in Vegas. He has this whole other perfect family, and it was clear I was just an intrusion.”

 
He nodded, taking all of this in. “Holy shit. No wonder you’re on edge. What does your mother say?”

  “I didn’t tell her any of this. I told her I was going up there to find him, and she didn’t want me to. She doesn’t want to know. I think in her heart, she wants some kind of closure but she’s worried that he’ll be the big douche that he used to be. And, guess what? She’s right.”

  “Wow. That’s messed up.”

  The burn of emotion returned, and she tried to force it away. Her cheeks felt tight from all of the tears she’d cried in the past twenty-four hours. “When I was up there, I learned that before he started working in construction, he was in tight with some people who later were arrested and tied to the mafia. I wonder if my father picking up and leaving so abruptly might have to do with that somehow.”

  His face twisted, and she winced, knowing exactly what he was thinking. Kylie’s gone and stepped in it again.

  “The mafia? Are you serious? That’s some really dangerous shit, Kylie.”

  “I’m know. I’m sorry. I just needed to know who he was. But now, I almost wish I hadn’t gone up—”

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  Kylie jumped to her feet, her heart pounding in her chest before she realized it was just someone knocking on Linc’s front door. The dogs went wild and Linc headed to the window.

  “Hell, Grand Central Station,” he muttered.

  “Who is it?” Kylie asked. “Faith?”

  “Jacob,” he said and headed toward the stairs. “I didn’t even hear him drive up. Probably another SAR call.”

  Kylie watched him head down as Jacob continued to bang on the door. He sounded a lot more urgent than he usually did for a search and rescue call. Linc opened the door and let him in. “What’s the deal?”

  “Kylie here?” he was asking as she came down the steps. He was holding his hat in both hands and looked agitated, which wasn’t usual for Jacob. Jacob was steady, reliable, and not one to get his feathers ruffled. “Oh, hey.”

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  He got straight to the point. “Did someone take a shot at you at your apartment about an hour ago?”

  Kylie sucked in a breath and looked at Linc, whose eyes were wide. He spoke first. “Shooting? What do you mean?”

  Kylie opened her mouth to explain, but Jacob beat her to it. “Got a call that someone was shooting at Kylie’s apartment building. The guy I interviewed said that he thought they were shooting at Kylie.”

  Kylie’s heart began to pound again.

  “What the…” Linc’s eyes shot to hers, nailing her to where she stood. “Is that why you were crying?”

  She nodded slowly. “I—”

  “When were you going to tell me about this?”

  His interrogation pissed her off. She crossed her arms, indignant. “As soon as your ex-girlfriend left.”

  Jacob held out his hands. “All right, all right. Calm down. Let’s take a step back for a second here.” He looked at Kylie. “Did you see who it might have been?”

  She shook her head. “No. It was dark, and I was too busy getting out of the way to survey my surroundings. Then, all I wanted was to come…” her throat closed as emotion hit again as she looked at Linc, “to you.”

  Linc’s face softened, and she knew she really would cry if she kept looking at him, so she turned her focus to Jacob in time for his next question.

  “You happen to be working any cases that might have gotten you some unwanted attention?”

  It was a good assumption, considering Kylie’s line of work had made her a target more than once, but Kylie knew he was barking up the wrong tree. All the real baddies she’d had run-ins with as part of her caseload were currently serving time. “No.”

  “Are you sure?” Linc asked. “I mean, first your mother’s hit by a car, and now you—”

  “I’m sure. Things are so slow right now that I’m working from home. I hardly have anything going on right now. So, it can’t be that,” she said as something terrible flickered in the back of her head.

  You need to leave. You’re not safe. Leave New York now.

  Had her father been serious? Not just rushing her out of his sight with a random threat?

  Jacob sucked in a breath and let it out as he scribbled some notes into his pad. “Any other idea of who might be trying to shoot at you?”

  She already felt foolish enough about her trip to see her father. They’d surely think she was even more foolish to believe that something bad followed her home. She needed to think about it a little more.

  Kylie shrugged. “It could have just been some punk trying to scare people,” she offered, chewing on her bottom lip.

  Jacob and Linc looked at each other, then back at her. She knew exactly what the two best friends were thinking. It was written all over their faces.

  They didn’t believe her for a second.

  21

  Kylie was gnawing on her lip something fierce, something she only did when she’d screwed up. So, it was all over her face. She’d stepped in it. Again.

  Linc knew there was something she was hiding from Jacob, and he had a pretty good idea of what. Her apartment wasn’t in that bad a section of town. He’d never seen any major crime there. It was mostly a bunch of college students. Rowdy, but not ones to go off firing guns haphazardly. And she’d been honest about the fact that she hadn’t had a lot to do workwise, lately. She’d complained about that enough that he knew it wasn’t one of her Starr Investigations cases.

  Whoever was shooting at her, Linc had a very good idea where that person had come from.

  Kylie went upstairs to sleep, since she’d had a crazy day, so Linc and Jacob went out to the back porch to talk. The air was still, and a light drizzle had begun to fall, thrumming softly on the metal roof. Finally, Linc got that beer he’d wanted, and a chance to relax, even though it was nearly eleven. The two of them sat down on the rocking chairs, Storm and Vader at their feet.

  Jacob stroked the dogs’ ears and took a gulp of his beer, then let out a loud, satisfied, ahhh. “Geez. What a day. Your girl is trouble with a capital T.”

  Linc frowned. Yeah, that was the truth, but he had a strong feeling that this type of trouble wasn’t Starr Investigations related. “I don’t think this is from one of her cases, though.”

  “Yeah?”

  He’d come out here to relax, but the second he leaned back against the rocker, he knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not while Kylie was in danger, again. His body itched with the need to do something, to protect her.

  “She just got done telling me she went to New York. She met her long-lost father, and she told me she has reason to believe he’s part of the mafia.”

  “The mob? Jesus.” Jacob scratched at his chin. “You think the mob followed her here?”

  “She said that when she was a baby, her father left her and got a new family. Maybe he doesn’t want anyone to know she exists, and as long as she was down here, he didn’t have to worry. But when she came into the picture, he panicked. Maybe he sent someone after her, to get her out of the way.”

  “You realize what you’re saying, right? That someone put a hit on your girl?”

  Linc shrugged. “Tell me. You don’t believe that shooting was unintentional, do you?”

  Jacob shook his head. “No. Not in that neighborhood. And even in the worst neighborhoods, in my experience, people don’t take a couple of wild shots for the fun of it and then disappear. But hell…the mafia? Down here?”

  Linc set his beer down beside his feet and ran both hands over his sheared scalp. “I don’t know. But I know what I’m going to do about it. I’m getting on the next flight to New York and confront this asshole, William Hatfield. If he’s responsible for putting Kylie in danger, then I need to know what we’re dealing with. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”

  Jacob stiffened. “Whoa. No way, man. You can’t.”

  “I can’t? The guy abandoned his family and then treated her like shit whe
n she found him. He needs to see what he’s done to his daughter, and he should be made to pay. And…if he has anything to do with all this, then maybe I can make him call off the dogs. Keep her safe.”

  Jacob didn’t look convinced. “You going up there and beating the shit out of him won’t suddenly make him remorseful after twenty-four years. All you’ll likely do is get a hit put on you. You go there, and if he really is mafia, you’ll probably come home in a body bag, if your body is ever found at all. That what you want? The mafia don’t play, and they don’t pay. They make other people pay them.”

  Linc dropped his chin to his chest, thinking. Kylie didn’t talk about her dad much, but when she did, there was so much hurt there. William Hatfield had done a number on her that he could never undo, no matter how much love Linc showered on her to make up for it. Kylie’s heart would always have a hole in it, made by her father. And instead of helping to heal her wounds, this last visit had just ripped it open all the wider.

  He hated William Hatfield for it. How could any human being be that shitty to another person, especially one related to him by blood? Linc’s father could be an asshole, but he was present, at least. He’d raised him into a man. When Linc thought of Kylie’s father, all he thought of was a gutless, spineless piece of scum.

  “I don’t know. I’ve got to do something,” he murmured, lifting his beer and bringing it to his lips. Before he took a drink, something occurred to him. “You should put a watch on her mom. If they put a hit on Kylie because they want her out of the picture, they’d want Rhonda out too, especially if they’re officially married.”

  Jacob nodded. “All right. Done.”

  “And while you’re at it, man, go talk to Faith Carter.”

  He raised an eyebrow at the total one-eighty in the conversation. “Why? Is she in trouble too?”

  He let out a soft laugh. “No. But she’s got it bad for you. And if you don’t ask her out, she’ll likely go mad. She was just up here about an hour ago, asking me what she had to do to get you to get your act together and make your move.”