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

by Stephanie St. Klaire

  “Who, little brother?” Dace chimed in. “Who would have taken her?”

  “Oh, I don’t know…” Wylie tossed his hands in the air as his tone took a sarcastic turn. “It’s a pretty long list. We’ve pissed off a lot of people over the years. How about we start with the cartel? Maybe some asshole is trying to steal her dead father’s empire from her. Or maybe her cover in said empire was blown, and they’ve…”

  Wylie paused. He couldn’t bear to think what crossed his mind next, much less speak it. They all knew what the cartel was capable of…especially when they outed a traitor who sat on a throne at the top.

  “Okay, okay…” Declan, the oldest O’Reilly, chimed in as the always present voice of reason. “Let’s calm down. Let’s not borrow trouble. What do we have that indicates foul play? Let’s start there.”

  Wylie rolled his eyes in dramatic fashion. “Pfft. She’s basically a double agent playing the role of good and evil here. She’s taking them all down. Is that enough evidence for you?”

  “Motive? Yes. But that’s hardly evidence,” Dace offered. “What else have you got? Has her place been turned, her car shot up, any bodies been discovered?”

  The men all stilled as they stood around the conference room known as the lair, and a collective chill coursed through them at Dace’s words. It wasn’t too far-fetched to expect the things he mentioned when dealing with the cartel, especially of late. Brother’s Keeper Security had many enemies around the world, from lone psychopaths they’d hunted down to foreign governments they’d been contracted to implode. Yet their constant and by far biggest enemy over the past handful of years was Esteban Valdez’s cartel.

  Esteban had been neutralized, but his empire was alive and well and a leading force in the criminal activity that plagued them and an entire nation. Eva—Esteban’s daughter—was working undercover with Brother’s Keeper to help take down what her father had spent a lifetime building. With her clout and resources, she proved to be an asset beyond the Valdez Cartel and was instrumental in taking down many similar brand conglomerates.

  And now she was missing.

  “Look,” Wylie started as he took a seat, defeat lacing his words, “the cartel split, turning on David Kimble and each other. Maybe they’re after her too? Maybe they figured out she was the one on the inside dismantling them piece by piece?”

  “Let’s just say she is missing.” Liam sat at his station of computer screens and began to peck away at the keyboard. “Isn’t David Kimble a more likely suspect? He knew she was working for us. If he was right about everything going down with the cartel and it all linking back to Washington, DC, then there are far more suspects than just the cartel in play here.”

  “David’s in a coma, man. I hardly think he’s behind much at the moment,” Luke reminded his twin brother, Liam.

  “I’m looking everywhere.” Liam didn’t glance up from his screens as he continued to ravage his keyboard. “I don’t see Eva leaving the building, nor do I see anyone else in the area out of the ordinary. I have the facial rec program running through all of Portland, including the airports and mass transit. If she’s still here, it will pick her up. I’ll set up Miami too. If she doesn’t show up in either place in the next day or two, I’ll broaden the search.”

  “A day or two? Are you fucking serious? She could be dead by then,” Wylie argued. “I’m telling you, this is dirty. Something isn’t right. She’s in trouble, and we owe it to her to find her. She needs us.”

  “In light of the Kimble scandal and bread crumbs to DC by way of cartel—there’s an odd match-up—I have to agree. A lot of what we do is based on intuition, and his is kicking in. What else can we do to look for at least a clue that something sinister’s at play here?” Dace was sympathetic to his brother’s desire to find Eva. It had only been a handful of weeks since he was in Wylie’s very shoes.

  David Kimble’s status as a friend or foe had yet to be determined. In the weeks leading up to this point, he’d been both. He’d deceived the brothers more than once, but it was as if they were tests to determine their loyalty and effectiveness in his own mission. David had revealed two problems. One, the cartel was up to something big, and it threatened the country as a whole. Two, the United States government was an accessory.

  There hadn’t been much to go on other than David was initially a part of the scandal but then had a sudden case of conscience and remorse that led him to the brothers for help. They thought they were chasing him as an enemy, but instead, he led them right to the scene of the crime and their first big clue: illegal drug and weapon smuggling.

  David took a bullet for his actions and now lay comatose in a hospital with the rest of the puzzle pieces dormant in his unwanted rest. And Eva was gone. Used to having her finger on the pulse of all things cartel, the events leading up to this point had slipped by.

  “Given nothing moves in or out of the country without Eva’s approval—or at least knowledge—and this did, I’d say we have more than we think on her disappearance. I just don’t know how it all fits together.” Wylie raked his fingers through his hair and dropped his fist, pounding it against the table. “She would have told me. We always knew where each other was. It was kind of a…system. We had each other’s back.”

  “I thought you two couldn’t stand to be in the same room together, and now you know her every move, huh? Something you want to share, baby brother?” Dace wagged his eyebrows.

  “Jesus, Dace. You think this is funny?” When Wylie stood, he kicked his chair out behind him in a dominant manner. “She’s a pain in the ass, and I don’t like being in the same room as her most of the time, but she’s a part of this team—an important part. What the fuck is it going to take to get you guys on board here? She’s sacrificed everything to help us. It’s Eva.”

  “Nobody is working against you, Wy. We just need something more than you saying you can’t find her,” Luke chimed in. “She plays a dangerous game, no doubt, but we’ve had her back all along, and some of the Keepers are even doing undercover work with her.”

  Wylie looked at Declan. “And have you heard from any of them?”

  Declan crossed his arms and dropped his head. “No. I haven’t.”

  “Okay. There you go. Is that enough for you? They should be checking in,” Wylie affirmed.

  “They aren’t always consistent. Sometimes, they’re days late because they don’t want to compromise the mission. But I’ll get the team to reach out and see what we can find.”

  “Eva was wide open at the coast when we rescued Cash,” Dace said, referring to his son who’d been abducted and held as leverage by whoever was behind the incident surrounding the cartel and the illegal drugs and arms deal they busted. “Remember, there was a long gun up on the knoll. Who knows what he saw before he shot David. We’d be naïve to think he was the only lookout there taking notes too.”

  “She wasn’t on the front lines, but she was definitely there and a part of the rescue. It was her team that took Ivy to safety and protected her and the chopper while they waited for us.” Luke added, “She took a huge risk there and left herself wide open. It’s possible she was recognized.”

  Wylie looked at his brothers. “Did we just get her killed?”

  2

  “They’ve all gone quiet,” Carter sneered, frustration coursing through his words. “The interrogations were going well. They were turning on each other left and right and giving up some of the bigger players.”

  “So what happened?” Wylie asked.

  “Not sure. They just stopped talking. No visitors in or out, so it’s odd. It’s okay, for now. We have a lot of information to dig through and piece together. I don’t have any confirmed players in DC yet, but I have solid leads. This goes far beyond the cartel.”

  “So our government is in bed with one of its most elusive enemies,” Wylie added, leaning back in his chair.

  “If I’m being honest…” Carter continued. “They always have been. We’ve just never been this close
to proving it or had this level of intel. The agencies I’m looking at right now are those who turn a blind eye at ports of entry and drag their feet with evidence processing and even tampering at crime scenes. It’s low-level shit, but everyone says it goes higher. I just don’t have names yet or know just how high it’ll all land.”

  Carter had joined the brothers in the lair at Watermark Tower—the hub of their operations. As an assistant US attorney, he was privy to more information than most. He even contracted the brothers to assist when his own department and its support resources couldn’t be trusted or relied on for various reasons. He’d been at the bust with the brothers, and his office had assigned him lead prosecutor on the case.

  “The Valdez Cartel has been named but not Eva specifically. Not yet. I can’t confirm or deny she’s been made. Sorry, guys.”

  “The fact that her family has been named, but she knew nothing about it proves someone wants her out of the way.” Declan let out a deep sigh and turned to Wylie. “The question is who?”

  “We’ve got two angles here. Her own people are trying to take her out and claim the throne, which happens all the time in organizations like this. Power and greed are hefty motivators.” Wylie began to shed light on his theories, but his emotions hung on every word. “Or something much bigger is at play here, and she wasn’t made by her people. Maybe it was another player in this fucked-up game we saw going down at the coast, and the cartel is nothing but a pawn being toyed with by an outsider.”

  They all knew where Wylie was going with his theories, even if it was hard to swallow. They’d just busted one of the biggest trade of arms and drugs in history on US soil. The entire operation may have been run by cartels from different crime families doing each other a solid—drugs for weapons and weapons for drugs. Having men on both sides from the same family is what doesn’t make sense. That just never happens.

  It appeared as a house divided, and each side was going their separate ways. But everyone knew cartels didn’t operate that way. They didn’t split amicably and go their separate ways like an easy divorce. No. Once you were in, it was for life. The only way out was by death or through a takeover. Either way, one side prevailed, and the other died. Period. The incident at the coast just didn’t happen in real life. Something more was going on—something big—and they all knew it, despite the lack of evidence.

  Portland wasn’t immune to illegal trafficking of any kind, especially with ports along the coastline a short distance away and a northern border that tended to fall weak to greed and corruption. The Russians had their drugs, the Irish had their weapons, and the cartel had both. Though mortal enemies, each made exceptions when it came to trade. It was how they all survived and funded their chaos. However, the one thing they all had in common was that you were never a house divided. You didn’t part ways. You didn’t sell out.

  So, who was really behind the cartel split? Or was it a united front to begin with? Who was playing brother against brother and breaking the hierarchy to turn it against itself? Or was there more here, and it was a case of double-dipping in a house united? Either way, this wasn’t how the cartel operated. Ever. Someone was behind the curtain pushing all the buttons, but who?

  “It’ll come out,” Carter assured. “It always does. I may need support on my end, though, because something doesn’t feel right. Everything fell into place a little too easily on my end, and my gut’s telling me to be careful who I trust.”

  “We got your back, man. Always do,” Declan offered. “I’d be lying if I said I thought that was a legit bust, and everything was fine.”

  Dace took a seat at the table and leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowed. “It seemed to fall in our laps somehow even though it didn’t. It tidied up a little too easy for me. I think the deal that was going down was legit, but the rest…”

  “So you think the guys on the docks and ship were played? Set up?” Wylie asked as he was trying to piece it together and figure out where Eva fit.

  “Maybe?” Dace said, recalling the day he stormed the ship looking for his son, who had been kidnapped and held hostage in a crate among the seized contraband. “David was trying to tell us something that day, more than just that he knew Cash was there on that ship. He wanted us to see it firsthand.”

  “Do you think we missed something?” Wylie asked. “He told us there was a backroom club in DC full of powerful dignitaries and that it was all linked. But what went down at the port was all cartel.”

  “So how are they linked?” Carter chimed in. “We know the guys at the port were paid off. That’s how the ship got in, to begin with, and was going to leave just as easily. But that’s low-level shit. Those aren’t powerful people over there, just the guys on the dock and a couple of supervisors. Hardly political.”

  Carter picked up his phone and quickly glanced at it when it buzzed but then clicked it off.

  “Why didn’t Kimble just tell us what it was if there was more?” asked Luke, always a literal thinker who saw very black and white. “Why lure us out there the way he did and leave it all a mystery?”

  “Maybe because what he knows is too big to wrap our minds around without seeing it firsthand. Maybe what we witnessed is just the tip of the iceberg. He said this was big, so maybe he meant bigger than an illegal arms trade in our ports,” Wylie chimed in. “Those weapons came from somewhere, and we know they weren’t stolen.”

  Carter’s phone buzzed once more, and he quickly silenced it.

  “If our government was ripped off to that degree, do you think they would be forthcoming about it? It’d be a little embarrassing, wouldn’t it?” Dace was falling into sync with the vague theory Wylie was suggesting.

  “Exactly. They’d want to keep that quiet. Broadcasting vulnerabilities just sets them up for more hits. We know their government stockpiles and seized property aren’t well managed. They probably didn’t even know they had all those arms to steal, hence not knowing they were gone. Pretty fucking embarrassing.” Wylie paused as he leaned forward. “Or they weren’t stolen at all.”

  Carter let out a slow whistle. “That’s a pretty big implication.”

  “Why would our government want to arm the cartel?” Declan asked. “We have our own highly trained military branches. What would the government gain from that?”

  Carter’s phone continued to buzz, and he clicked the button once more to silence it.

  “And according to David, this group in DC has their own little militia, so why the cartel?” Carter tried to fit the pieces together.

  “I don’t think David gave us everything,” Dace deadpanned. “I think he intentionally withheld information. What is it he wanted us to find that day? What was the clue?”

  “He said he was getting close to something. Something big,” Wylie recited as though from a script. “He said there was a resurgence in the cartel, which we’ve seen. And that they didn’t make such a big comeback quietly on their own, which we can also attest to. Eva is the head of that organization and didn’t know it was happening. This was all in play behind her back. She’s clearly marked here.”

  Carter picked up his phone as it began to buzz yet again. “He also said he couldn’t trust his own team. He’d been running an investigation and was ready to hand everything over to Homeland Security when shit hit the fan. He’d been infiltrated and sold out by someone on his own team.”

  Carter looked at his phone and began to read the messages.

  “What team, though? I think it was made pretty clear he was playing multiple sides, including being a part of this off the books secret club of his,” Wylie continued. “He referred to our government as being full of outlaws with nothing to lose. That’s corruption in the highest offices and beyond. A mighty big conspiracy that makes the cartel seem pretty small. How does it tie together? On record, he’s a CIA operative, so there’s a clue. Does that mean we can count them in as dirty?”

  “I still don’t see how Eva connects to all of this,” Luke replied.

  Lia
m fired back with the only thing obvious from his standpoint. “Eva was running ops on that thing at the coast. She had a team on it and was collecting intelligence. Then it turned out to be her people running the thing with the agents on the beach that day. They either knew she was watching and found her a threat, or they wanted her to see it…which is just as much a threat. I’m with Wylie on this. She’s connected and in danger. We need to look harder for her.”

  “Thanks, brother,” Wylie said, reaching out to pat his brother’s back. “I feel this, guys. I feel it deep in my gut. She’s in trouble.”

  “We just need something more than that gut of yours to start looking,” Liam added, pecking away at his keyboard once more. “I can’t get her on any of my systems. It’s like she just disappeared and hasn’t moved since.”

  “That’s pretty ominous,” Wylie said. “If we’re too late…”

  “Fuck!” Carter interrupted, jumping to his feet as he scrolled through his phone. “We have a really big problem.”

  3

  “If she wasn’t before, she’s in trouble now,” Carter said, pulling his laptop from a bag.

  “Are we still talking about Eva?” Wylie rolled back in his chair, ready to spring to action. “What happened, Landry? What did you just get?”

  Carter’s fingers were rolling over his keyboard with Liam looking over his shoulder, waiting for a place to jump in and help. “These cases. All of them. They’re falling apart. I have one email after another.”

  “What cases?” Dace asked.

  “Shit.” Liam rolled his chair over to his station and went back to work. “Let me see if I can find anything on the servers out there. It makes no sense.”

  “Some of the stuff David was working on. You know those cases he said were falling apart? Well, now ours are too.”

  “What about the busts we just made? The guys from bust on the coast?” Wylie was on his feet and pacing.