The Steve Williams Series Boxed Set

by J. E. Taylor

  “How do you know?”

  “Because it always does,” he said. “What happens if you’re wrong and it doesn’t draw the killer out? What if he just fades into the woodwork and you’re left sitting on death row with a taped confession?”

  The smack of flesh against wood pulled their attention to the living room. Tom stood in the entry to the kitchen, his face red with anger and his palm firmly planted on the wall. “No,” he said clearly and with such force that CJ dropped his gaze to the floor.

  Just because you’re supercharged, doesn’t mean you should always step in to protect me. I can hold my own and if anyone is going to be bait, it’s me.

  Tom’s thoughts intruded into CJ’s mind, leaving his ears ringing at the volume and he raised his gaze to meet his brother’s fiery glare.

  For a fucking genius, you can be such a stupid ass.

  “I’m just…”

  Stop. Just stop, okay?

  “I can catch him,” CJ said.

  “That is just as arrogant as the killer thinking he’ll never get caught,” Steve said. “And the price of thinking like that is way too high.” His gaze traveled to Tom and back. “Arrogance isn’t something we can afford right now. Neither is lying.”

  “But…”

  “No,” Steve cut him off. “I can’t condone you lying to draw the killer out.”

  CJ snapped his teeth together against the derogatory comment that filled his mind.

  “The press is already going to have a field day once word of Tom’s arrest leaks out and right now, my primary goal is to make sure they don’t convict him.” He drew in a breath. “We’ve got a month before the next new moon and if nothing changes between now and then, that tracking device on Tom’s ankle will clear him when the psycho kills again. In the meantime, we’ve got to get his defense ready.” Steve turned his gaze from CJ to Tom. “Your lawyer will be here tomorrow at ten. Make sure you’re up and ready to talk.”

  Tom nodded and sent a warning glare to CJ, his thoughts echoing the look. Don’t do anything stupid.

  Chapter 13

  Steve waited until the boys settled in their rooms before crossing into the gym. Jennifer was still going on the elliptical, flipping the pages of the script, her lips moving silently as she read. He took a sip from his scotch and leaned on the doorjamb, waiting for her to look up. Sweat beads dripped down her face like sprinkles on a windowpane and he smiled.

  Jennifer flipped the page and her gaze bounced to his, her expression transitioning from concentration to surprise and she reached up, pulling the buds from her ears. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “Just a few minutes,” he said and pointed to the script. “Are you reconsidering?”

  Jennifer’s gaze dropped to the pages in front of her and back. “No. I just needed something to take my mind off everything.”

  Steve’s smile soured and he nodded, raising the glass. “Me, too.”

  Jennifer sighed and slowed her pace. “You shouldn’t be drinking.”

  “I’m not on duty,” he said and refrained from adding he probably wouldn’t be on duty ever again after all this settled, but he didn’t want to see the relief cross over her features. She hated his job, and always had, especially since it put him in the path of danger.

  Bitterness swept through him at the full realization that his career was over. There was no way he’d be allowed to continue in the FBI with felony charges on his record, even if it never went anywhere. He drained his glass to quell the budding frustration.

  Her lips thinned in response, pressing together in that look of disapproval that always irked him. He cocked his head in a silent challenge and wiped his lips with his shirtsleeve.

  “So you’re choosing to get drunk?”

  “Seems like the best option right now,” he said.

  The elliptical stopped and Jennifer leveled a glare at him. “What kind of message is that sending to the boys?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Look, I need to blow off some steam,” he started and when she opened her mouth to counter his logic, he put his hand up. “My career is over. Tom may go to jail for the rest of his life, and CJ wants to play cat and mouse with the killer by confessing and drawing the media attention to him instead of his brother. So right now, my option is to drink, otherwise, I’m going to lose it. And it isn’t pretty when I lose it these days.”

  Voicing his frustrations left his blood boiling and he clenched his teeth, storming out of the room and onto the terrace. He wanted nothing more than to catch the Windwalker and throw the bastard in jail for life, but now, he’d have to sit on the sidelines and watch while others figured it out. Anger bloomed, lancing his skin, pooling in his stomach, and he needed to let the coiled beast out, otherwise, he would self-destruct.

  His gaze landed on their Olympic size heated pool and he allowed a fraction of power to escape, aimed at the pristine pool. The water burst into a boiling mass, pushing gales of steam toward the sky.

  The release of power did more than the drink had, and the burn of frustration lessened into a dull ache. He closed his eyes, reining the power back in and sending a counter command for the water to cool back to the balmy one hundred degrees they set for the winter. When the hissing stopped, he opened his eyes.

  More than half the pool had evaporated under his flash of anger and he sighed, crossing to the controls and turning on the faucet to fill up the pool via underground water lines.

  “Are you finished with your little temper tantrum?” Ty’s voice echoed in his head.

  “Yeah. I’m done,” Steve muttered. In more ways than one, he thought.

  “If you tell them the truth, will they go easy on you?”

  Steve scoffed and flipped the water off. “The truth? You really think the truth will help me?” Steve laughed and the bitter edge filled the night. “Which truth are you talking about, Ty? Let’s see…that I knew exactly who you were for a good couple weeks, or that I blackmailed you into helping me? Or that I decided it would be better to utilize your skills to catch Kyle instead of bringing you in. Wow, yeah, thank you for your insight,” he snarled at the air over his shoulder.

  “No need to get sarcastic,” Ty said and his wings fluttered.

  “I should have hauled your ass in the moment I got Eric’s memories,” Steve said.

  “I wouldn’t have let you.”

  Steve spun and stared at CJ. “I thought you were in bed.”

  CJ shrugged. “You haven’t done a good job of keeping your thoughts under wraps tonight. I don’t know if it’s the alcohol or what, but dude, your anger is pelting me like a hailstorm. You need to chill.”

  The alcohol definitely had an effect on his tongue and conveyed his sarcasm to the surface, but this time, he was entitled. “If your father hadn’t been such an idiot, we wouldn’t be facing this predicament.”

  CJ smiled. “I can’t argue with you there.”

  “I wanted something to remember my brother, considering I was the one who got him killed,” Ty said and the ruffle of feathers accompanied the thought.

  Steve paused and the heat in his face dissolved. “What exactly is on those video’s Ty?” he asked instead of trying to filter through the man’s memories embedded in his mind.

  “There are only a couple videos with Chris, but they are damning enough. One shows the first time I bet on Jessica and she didn’t disappoint me and the second is Chris’s death. The rest are Jess and I. I couldn’t erase any of them, even after Jess and I got married, so I just hid them away.”

  “So you’re telling me the real truth is about to blow wide on this, not just that your brother was involved?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fuck,” Steve muttered and met CJ’s stare wondering what the whole truth would do to both CJ and Tom.

  “I already know what my father did. He denied killing for sport like his step-brother did, but he was the one who orchestrated the explosions that convinced the world the people they kidnapped were dead.” CJ sighed.
“He isn’t innocent by any stretch of the imagination, and if I had been a little older when you came into our lives, I might have felt differently, but at that time, there was no way I was letting my father go to jail.”

  “He really tried to atone for his sins,” Steve said, coming to the criminal’s defense.

  CJ nodded and offered a smile even though his eyes misted over. “I know, but that’s only because of my mother.”

  “Just so we’re on the same page. I’m going to be under the gun for this,” he said. “And if they ask me if I knew who your father really was, I’m going to tell the truth.”

  “I’ll back you up if you need me to. I know you didn’t blackmail him for money.”

  Steve smiled at his naivety. “Thanks, but…”

  “I made provisions for that,” Ty’s voice interrupted.

  Steve cocked his head. “What?”

  “Contact Lynn Trueman. She’s got a few legal documents that will help.”

  “Why didn’t you pipe up sooner?” Steve asked, looking at the sky while irritation snaked over his skin. The chuckle from the great beyond set another fire in his stomach.

  “It’s because he’s still an asshole,” CJ said, his jaw tense with aggravation and he turned, stomping back into the house, leaving Steve alone with his father’s ghost.

  Chapter 14

  The coffee maker rumbled as the last of the brown fuel filled the pot and Steve glanced at the clock. Neither Tom nor CJ was up and he closed his eyes, focusing on Tom. “Get your ass out of bed,” he whispered and shot the thought with the accuracy of a master archer.

  A thump upstairs was his reward and he focused back on the fry pan, flipping his eggs. He grabbed the plate and slid his breakfast from the pan before settling down at the table.

  Tom wandered into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. That was mean, he signed.

  Steve met his gaze. “I could have dumped a bucket of ice water on you.”

  Tom rolled his eyes and stared at the spread on the table. His stomach growled in response and he took a seat where Steve had put a stack of pancakes.

  “I told you I wanted you up and ready to talk before your lawyer got here.” He pointed toward the clock. “You’ve got enough time to eat and clean up.”

  Thanks, he signed and downed the stack before Steve was finished with his breakfast.

  After Tom disappeared upstairs and the shower started, Steve flipped open his phone, pressing the speed dial. Cleary answered after the first ring. “Ron, did you follow up with…”

  “Tom wasn’t at their house that evening. They were out at a dinner party.”

  “Shit,” Steve said.

  “The lab results came back and there were traces of Tanya’s blood on the knife found in Tom’s room.”

  “I’m aware of that. Tom said Tanya got a splinter in her foot and he used the knife to remove it. They should have a record of her getting a tetanus shot,” he paused and rubbed his face. “Please tell me his knife doesn’t have the same signature as the one used on the victims,” he said and waited.

  “That’s about the only good news I can offer you.”

  Steve let out the breath he was holding, exhaling audibly. “Thanks, Ron.”

  “Are you one hundred percent sure he is innocent?”

  “Yes, I am. Tom is not the Windwalker.”

  Cleary responded with silence. Paper shuffled in the background. “One more thing…”

  Steve closed his eyes, gleaning the information through the phone line even before Cleary said the words.

  “The press was given a heads up, so expect things to get even nastier.”

  The conversation with CJ surfaced and Steve sighed. “Maybe that’s not a bad thing.”

  “It’s going to make that kid’s life a living hell,” Cleary said.

  The creak of the stairs caught Steve’s attention and he glanced up into Tom’s questioning stare. “I imagine it will, but if we play this right, it could also draw the real killer out of the woodwork.”

  Silence greeted his comment from both Tom and Cleary.

  “I don’t know what you’re thinking…” Cleary started.

  “Thanks for giving me a heads up,” Steve interrupted. “Tom’s lawyer just arrived.”

  “Don’t do anything I’ll have to arrest you for,” Cleary shot through the line before Steve terminated the call.

  Steve put the phone on the table and met Tom’s inquisitive gaze. “Expect the press to hound you wherever you go until this is over.”

  Tom’s eyebrows rose.

  “Someone leaked the details of your arrest to the press.”

  Tom crossed the room and took a seat, his eyebrows scrunched together in thought. When he raised his gaze, he signed, “So do you think the press being focused on me will bring the killer out?”

  Steve didn’t have an answer for him. He hoped it would, but he wasn’t sure what kind of backlash this would cause. “I don’t know,” he answered.

  “What’s the worst that could happen?” Tom asked and shrugged.

  Steve stared at him for a moment. “He could come after you,” he said, finally voicing his underlying fear.

  Tom’s gaze widened and his thoughts jumped to his last view of Tanya. The shiver that followed was visible and Steve gave a nod and stood from the table, crossing to the front door and glancing out at the gate.

  His mood soured at the sea of reporters lining the road outside the gates and he closed his eyes. “God damn vultures,” he muttered and crossed to the television, flipping it to a local news station.

  Tom made the headlines all right, and that wasn’t the only buzz on the airways. The fact that Chris Ryan was really Ty Aris was all over the news channels as well. Steve threw the remote onto the table and stared at the continued speculation of the media, none of which had a grain of truth.

  The phone rang and Steve picked it up without looking at the caller id. “Hello.”

  “Can I speak with Agent Williams?”

  “This is Steve,” he said, recognizing the frail voice of Russ Campbell, Jessica’s father.

  “Did you know?”

  Steve closed his eyes. “Yes, sir,” he said, not offering the litany of excuses filling his mind.

  “That bastard…” he started.

  “Jessica knew who she married, sir. She knew it was Ty,” he said stopping the pending rant.

  Silence met his statement.

  “How do you know?”

  Steve inhaled, “Because she offered to help me in return for not arresting him.”

  More silence.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Your daughter was in love with Ty for years, and when he came back into her life, neither one of them was willing to walk away again.”

  “But…” he trailed off.

  “Ty laid his life on the line several times for her, sir,” Steve said.

  “How did you figure it out?”

  “Something happened with Eric and that’s when I found out,” he said. The Campbell’s never knew about her special talents, or that of her children, and Steve didn’t want to be the one to try to explain that.

  More silence.

  “I knew there was something off about Chris, but I had never seen my daughter that happy,” Russ whispered.

  “She was happy, sir,” Steve said, remembering the way she looked at Ty. She was happy until he walked into their lives. A lump formed in his throat and he swallowed it.

  “How did he do it? How did he make it out of that place alive?”

  “Supernatural intervention,” Steve said.

  Silence filled the line and then Russ said, “Eric.”

  Shock filtered through Steve. Maybe he knew more than Steve gave him credit for. Russ was one of those people he could never get a read on and now he knew why. The man knew how to create static. “Yes. Eric was a very special kid.”

  “My Jessie was special too, but I didn’t think she knew it.”

  “She
didn’t until she met Ty.”

  That statement hung on the air and Steve heard Russ blow a stream of air through his lips. “They are accusing you of blackmailing him,” he said. There was no underlying question, just a statement in a fashion that left it open.

  Steve glanced at Tom and then out the window at the sea of reporters. “I traded my wife’s life for his freedom,” he admitted. “But I never blackmailed him for money or custody of their kids.”

  “Can you explain to me why he insisted that you raise those boys?”

  “It’s going to sound insane,” he said.

  Russ laughed. “Son, right now nothing would surprise me,” he said.

  “He wanted me to watch over CJ.”

  “Why?”

  Steve turned his back on Tom’s blatant stare. “Because CJ is more special than Eric, Jessica and Ty put together,” he whispered. “And I’m now equipped to deal with that,” he added, hoping Russ would be able to piece together the truth through his cryptic answer.

  When Russ didn’t speak, Steve added, “The transfer started with Eric when we were at Quantico and that’s how I knew who Chris really was.”

  “Did anyone else know who he was?” Russ asked. The bite in his tone traveled through the line and Steve winced.

  “More people than you realize, but there was no proof to back up the accusations. I didn’t have proof to haul him in. I only had what I saw in Eric’s memories, and that wouldn’t have stood up in court.”

  “Who else knew?”

  “Besides Jessica and Eric?”

  “Yes.”

  “Emily, Tom and Dan,” Steve said.

  Russ coughed on the line, wheezing as he sputtered and tried to catch his breath. Finally, his wheezing calmed. “Dan knew?”

  “He figured it out around the time they got married.”

  “And Tom?”

  “Yes, he knew the minute Ty walked back into their lives.”

  “And they didn’t kill him?”

  “No, but that’s not to say they didn’t want to. Dan did get a punch in and Tom pulled a gun on him once, but that was about the extent of it.”

  Russ exhaled on the phone. “If I had known, he wouldn’t have been so lucky.”