Brother's Keeper V: Wylie (the complete series BOX SET): NEW RELEASE + Series Box SET included!

by Stephanie St. Klaire

  “Jesus,” C.T. said, making a note of what the doctor was sharing. “Really fucking lucky.”

  “Probably a prostitute who made one too many bad decisions,” the doctor replied.

  Dace’s fury at the doctor's comment took over as he shoved the man against the wall, holding him by the collar. “Are you fucking kidding me? You think she’s a whore? Only whores get beat up and shot at?”

  “Whoa!” The doctor panicked. “I’m just saying, those types of injuries…they don’t happen to regular people. Just the riffraff.”

  “Her name is Ivy Kimble, Doc, and she’s a fucking saint. Remember that name, Ivy Kimble. She’s good, kind, wanted to be a teacher, and volunteered for every goddamn cause this city had. The only bad thing about her is she’d forgive you for being such an asshole right now, but I won’t.”

  “Hey! What’s going on?” Dr. Rick Mendoza, a friend of the O’Reillys, stepped in and pulled Dace off the ER doc. “Jesus, Dace. Calm down. Take a breather, man.”

  With his guard still up, Mendoza quickly scanned the room, noting each of the brothers as well as C.T., before his eyes rested on Ivy.

  “I don’t think I need to remind any of you where we are,” Mendoza said, eyes still fixed on the hospital bed. “Got your text, Dec. Anyone want to fill me in?”

  Rick Mendoza was more than a friend. He’d served with a few of the brothers in their early years. They went on to serve in the private sector with their security firm, and Mendoza served as an oncologist. He was also the doctor who cared for Liam’s first wife, Cass, when she battled cancer not once but twice. She ultimately lost her battle, which was as hard on Mendoza as it was on the rest of the family.

  He’d do anything for them and with them. Together, they shared a past of unimaginable and dangerous escapades all in the name of the greater good, and he’d do it again if asked, just as they would for him. Like many of their close comrades, C.T. included, Mendoza ended up in Portland, close to the O’Reillys. They were like family, and they stuck together.

  “It’s Ivy,” Wylie said, nodding in Ivy’s direction.

  “Oh, shit,” Mendoza said, putting a hand on Dace’s shoulder. “What the hell happened? How’d she end up here…like this?” Mendoza paused, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath to calm his newly heightened nerves. “What can I do to help?”

  “How about you start with getting G.I. Joe out of my damn ER?”

  “Whoa, James. I’m sure we can sort this out,” Mendoza said to the ER doctor. “What I walked in on was a little heated, but I’m sure we can settle this calmly. Tell me what happened.”

  “Dr. James called Ivy a whore,” Dace said bluntly.

  “What? Is that true, James?” Mendoza questioned with disgust.

  “Not exactly.”

  Dace took a large step forward, forcing James, the ER doctor, to press his back against the wall. “We have a room full of witnesses who heard you say exactly that, asshole. Oh! And you referred to her as riffraff. I have to wonder, James…do your patients get the care they deserve in here, or are they all judged first, then treated accordingly second?”

  Offended, James puffed out his chest. “I took an oath. How dare you make such accusations?”

  “Well, they aren’t accusations if they really happened. So which is it?”

  “C’mon. This isn’t helping anyone,” Mendoza mediated.

  A team of two men in hospital scrubs walked in the room and paused before one finally said, “We’re here to take the patient up.”

  “You’re not taking her anywhere,” Dace said. “Mendoza, we don’t know what happened to her, and I don’t want her out of my sight until we know who did this and why. What can you do, man?”

  “You can’t be serious,” James said. “This is a hospital. She needs surgery, not a bodyguard outside her royal tower.”

  “Where do I scrub in, Doc?” Dace said sarcastically.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “He’s usually pretty…serious,” Declan said. “That’s why I buzzed you, Rick. What are our options?”

  “I really don’t have much pull here. I’m in oncology.”

  “But you’ve done surgery…” Dace started.

  “Dace, I get it, man. And I’m grateful she’s back home, though I wish it were under better circumstances, but this isn’t my area of expertise.” Mendoza grabbed Ivy’s chart and quickly scanned it. “Who’s on tonight in ortho and plastics?”

  James stalled. “Are these men even family? I’m not throwing away my career over some HIPAA bullshit because of a couple of chest-pounding apes. I think it’s time you escort G.I. Joe and his posse out of here, Detective.”

  Mendoza rolled his eyes. “Their identity is classified. I’d tell you if I could. Their clearance goes to the top, and I can assure you there will be no HIPAA investigation. The faster you fill me in, the faster I can get them out of your hair and in someone else’s.”

  James sucked his teeth as he scanned the group and thought about whether or not he was risking his career or life by telling anyone anything else. “It’s Finch and Reynolds.”

  “Perfect. I play golf with Finch, and Reynolds is a friend. They’re the best at what they do and what’s best for Ivy. I’d trust them with my own life. Let me make a couple of quick calls.” Mendoza stepped away and pulled out his phone.

  “I have patients to tend to. I’d say it was a pleasure, but…” The ER doctor walked off, leaving one final word with the orderlies. “Dr. Mendoza will let you know if you’re moving the patient or not. He can have this case.”

  Mendoza slapped James on the back as he slipped his phone back into his pocket, and the two doctors crossed paths. “Thanks, I owe you a round on the green.”

  “I’m scrubbing in,” Mendoza informed. “I’m not handling her care and will not be assisting, but I will be with her the entire time. You have my word that she’ll be safe. I’ll see to it.”

  “Thank you.” That was all Dace could say as he stood at Ivy’s bedside, watching her chest rise and fall with every breath. Dace found comfort in knowing Mendoza was a highly skilled doctor but also a highly trained warrior who didn’t need a weapon to be a lethal threat to anyone who tried to overpower him. Ivy would be safe on his watch. “I’ll just escort you up—”

  Mendoza cut him off. “That won’t be necessary, friend. She’s safe here. I’ll protect her with my life if I have to.”

  Dace and his brothers didn’t doubt that. Dr. Rick Mendoza might live a comfortable life in a big house on the hill where he drank expensive scotch and threw lavish gatherings for his equally privileged friends after countless ass-kissing rounds of golf, but at his core, he was a soldier. Hidden in that fancy home and under his expensive lifestyle was an arsenal that was likely as illegal as half the shit they did back in their days of covert ops. That instinct just never left a man like that – nor did the loyalty that accompanied it.

  “I’ve already got a couple of uni’s assigned,” C.T. said, nodding toward the other end of the hall where two uniformed officers stood guard. “They go where she goes until we get to the bottom of this.”

  Dace nodded as he watched the orderlies wheel Ivy to the nearby elevator with the police officers on their heels.

  “You really play golf?” Wylie questioned.

  “Some of us hung up our weapons and found other ways to relieve stress and relax, my friend. I’ll show you if you want to learn.”

  “Pfft. Did you forget how to shoot?”

  “Not a chance in hell. Like second nature, Wy. You know I always have your backs. But until that day, I have golf.” Mendoza laughed.

  He put a hand on Dace’s shoulder before leaving the room. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure this out, man. I got you.”

  Dr. Mendoza walked over to the waiting elevator and rode it with his newly charged patient, offering a confident nod to his friends as the doors closed.

  “She’s officially under our protection,” Dace said. “Let’s lock
it down. Nothing gets out on this case at all, Charlie Tango.”

  “Already done.”

  “If anyone inquires, you’ll let us know immediately?”

  “Absolutely. It’s off the wires too. No media, no press conference,” C.T. said. “Something about this doesn’t feel random. I may need your help expediting some shit. We have such a backlog that it may take longer for me to process evidence, and…well, protocol.”

  “You got it. Whatever you need,” Dace answered for the group. “I agree. It wasn’t random. I think someone was sending a message.”

  “To us?” Wylie asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  Wylie stepped away to take a call.

  Declan shook his head. “Bro, we don’t know where she’s been, what she’s been up to, or who she’s been affiliated with.”

  “She’s been off the grid for years, man. It isn’t easy to disappear like that, especially from us,” Luke added. “She was hiding.”

  “So you think she had help?” Dace offered. “Then we need to figure out who that was and why they were hiding her – or holding her. She may not have had a choice.”

  “You think she’s been held…all these years?” Declan asked with skepticism.

  “I don’t know what I think anymore. What I do know is that nobody hides that well because they’re pissed. She didn’t want me to extend my contract with my job, but she wouldn’t leave, not disappear. That never made sense.”

  “It didn’t, but until we have an alternative explanation…”

  “We’ll get one,” Dace said. “I’m telling you, those unknown calls were her. She needed help. She was trying to get back here, to us. To me.”

  “Let’s head over to Watermark and start listing our enemies.” Luke snickered. “It’ll be an all-nighter.”

  “When Ivy and I were together, I wasn’t working here full-time. I was only helping on special cases when my schedule allowed,” Dace mentioned. “You know I have a shit ton of enemies that go beyond Brother’s Keeper from back then. We weren’t sloppy. Untraceable. Or so I thought.”

  “You weren’t entirely untraceable,” Liam said. He made no secret about his days following each of his brothers around the globe – albeit from home and behind a computer screen. Highly illegal, absolutely. But knowing they had each other’s backs gave them peace of mind, even back then. “Maybe someone on your team flipped?”

  “Not a chance. Compromising one of us would mean compromising all of us and those we protected, including our government.”

  “I’ll start looking into your old team, family members, associates, and so on. I’ll be looking at those of Brother’s Keeper anyway,” Liam said. “It can’t hurt to rule out any personal vendettas and revenge from any foreign countries you pissed off. There’s no telling how far a real enemy will go. We deal with psychopaths, narcissists, and sociopaths, and those bastards are patient and relentless.”

  Declan rolled his eyes with a snort. “Right. Enemies acquired when you were traveling the world as a mechanic.”

  Dace just glared. He knew his brothers were very aware of what he had really done during that time. In fact, he’d run a few missions with a couple of them back then. But unsanctioned and off record meant he wasn’t at liberty to discuss that time in his life…ever. None of them were. It put too many people at risk and might have been what landed Ivy on the operating room table in critical condition.

  C.T. nodded in understanding and chose to redirect the conversation. “I’m going to hit the crime scene again, see if they found anything else. I’ll keep you in the loop.”

  “I’m staying here,” Dace said.

  C.T. intervened. “She’s in surgery, and you won’t be able to see her until several hours after that. I have guys on her. You’ll be more help to her at Watermark looking for answers.”

  “I may have our first lead,” Wylie said, rejoining the group. “That was Eva. We need to get back to Watermark now. I think we’ve been made.”

  “Care to elaborate?” Declan asked.

  “Cartel.”

  3

  “We aren’t sure why Oregon, why the coast, or what they’re doing here,” Eva Valdez said. “I know everything going on in the major cells, hell, even the small rogue cells, and I know nothing about this.”

  Eva stood at the head of the conference table at Watermark Tower – home of Brother’s Keeper Security and home to the O’Reillys – delivering the intel her team had collected. Her father, now dead, had been a longtime cartel leader the O’Reillys were commissioned to take down and hand over to the government. Only, he met his demise when Eva, his own daughter, took matters into her own hands under their noses and turned on him. Now, she worked undercover for the brothers, slowly infiltrating and bringing down her father’s former empire and anyone brave enough to challenge or assume his legacy. She was also the one who had Wylie’s attention, even if he denied any attraction.

  “There were two parties – assumed buyer and seller,” Eva went on, pointing at the image flashing on the screen they all had their gaze fixed on. “Can’t tell what’s in those crates, but we may be looking at arms dealing. It’s the most logical, but unless we can get nail it down and get a better look somehow…it could be anything from weapons to drugs. Hell, it could be cash that needs cleaning before it goes into circulation.”

  “The black SUVs…” Dace noted, staring at the surveillance video running on the large screen at the head of the room. “Do we know who’s in them?”

  “We do not. Plates are concealed, and no clear shots for facial recognition either, but they don’t appear to be cartel at this point – no real evidence, yet. They don’t look like cartel.”

  “Nah,” Liam said. “Too official. White dudes in suits. Doesn’t mean they aren’t working for or with one of the cartel families.”

  “My thoughts exactly.” Eva nodded to Liam in agreement. “Our team lost them somewhere in the coast range on the way back to the city.”

  “There are only so many ways through that mountain range. How the hell did they lose them? It’s a convoy of black SUVs, for Christ’s sake,” Dace chided.

  “That’s where the rest of the mystery kicks in. The only thing along that route is BLM and Forest Service roads – maybe a handful of private drives and some reservation land,” Eva replied. “Best guess? They split up.”

  “Did your team put the drones up to look for activity?”

  Liam chimed in while tapping away at his keyboard, bringing up multiple dead video feeds on the large screen for all to see. “And therein lies the mystery, Brother. The drones didn’t pick anything up, not even our rigs.”

  “Signal jammers,” Dace said, running his hands down his face.

  “Had to be. That means—”

  Dace interrupted once more with an angered tone while shaking his head in disappointment. “That means we aren’t dealing with petty shit here.”

  “It’s not easy to go total stealth. The technology is out there, but I developed most, if not all, of it and can’t crack this. For all we know, the technology was sold or stolen and then modified, making it harder to trace. But the quality of jammer needed to keep us off their tail? Not cheap or easy to get and takes a hell of a lot of smarts to operate. Our mark could be anyone at this point,” Liam said. “My guess is government – foreign or domestic?”

  “Let’s circle back to the cartel…who do they feed and feed off Stateside? Let’s hash out their friends and foes.”

  Eva let out a low, slow whistle. “With the pressure we’ve added, I have to agree with Liam that it could be anyone. The organized cells are crumbling and seeking allies anywhere and everywhere because they still don’t know who’s infiltrating and dismantling them piece by piece. They have no idea it’s us.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Amen.” Eva winked. “So, we have intel showing a buyer and a seller. I can’t identify either side, but it looks big, and deep-pocketed, no matter who these people are. Though we can’
t nail down either side of the deal we watched, we were able to identify a couple of randoms in the mix as old cartel muscle, probably working on their own…”

  “Contract work?” Dace asked.

  “Perhaps. Not sure they were on the buyer’s or the seller’s side, though. We should consider the possibility we could be dealing with a small or new rogue cell here too…lobos or a lone wolf, if you will. It wouldn’t be the first time we saw someone try to take advantage of the pressure felt by the big families. It’s the only thing that adds up at the moment.”

  “And that’s more dangerous than your typical garden-variety organized cell…” Dace said with sarcasm. “They take risks, make messes, and don’t give two shits about the casualties along the way.”

  “There’s nothing typical regarding these fools,” Eva said, her accent heavy on fools. “Even if we have a lone wolf trying to get in the game using some middlemen, we need to be careful. They contract out the big stuff and never do it themselves out of fear of it being traced back to them. They don’t have the resources and connections to get out of trouble, so they send in others and hide like snakes in the grass. This is far too close to home for me. I don’t like it.”

  “Agree,” C.T. chimed in. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear anything about this. Those assholes get anywhere near my city, and I expect a heads-up.”

  Declan nodded. “Heads-up and a hand getting them out of here, brother.”

  Eva continued with her final piece of intel. “They were exchanging unmarked wood crates; some appeared metal. Not sure what was in them; it was too windy at the jetty where they met, so we couldn’t get a drone up over the coastline and do a scan – just had good old-fashioned binoculars from a nearby sand dune. But I’m willing to wager we watched an illegal arms deal go down, which is usually funded by—”

  “Serious drug running…” Declan sighed.

  There was a brief silence as that bit of information sank in. The idea that someone was re-arming a militia they’d spent years taking apart and weakening its infrastructure as they slowly brought it to its proverbial knees sickened each of them. It hadn’t been an easy task, and someone may be rebuilding a poison they’d worked tirelessly to eradicate. The amount of danger involving a newly armed cartel was almost as disturbing as knowing they might have an ally with access to said arms, and none of this was lost on them. Each of them would lose sleep over the idea.