Not five miles away at the Malibu Terrace Resort, a distraught Cade Boyd sat in his room at his laptop and plotted his own course for revenge.
While Collin sat on the leather sofa in the two-bedroom suite the brothers were sharing, drinking and doing lines of cocaine, Cade was stone cold sober, and―seething.
He had another goddamn funeral to plan.
The son of a bitch had gotten to Connor, taken his beloved older brother so quickly there hadn’t been time to get to him to help, to save him. And that bitch had hovered over him in the ER pretending to be a doctor, pretending to help him.
But he knew better. She might fool those assholes at the hospital, but she couldn’t fool him. Quinn didn’t know shit about being a doctor.
It was no comfort knowing at this very moment a contingent of police and forensics investigators were stationed at the Enclave, destroying everything, tearing up what belonged to him and his family, digging up the beautiful grounds, ruining everything his parents had worked so hard for over four decades.
“Maybe we should leave the country, get the hell out of town, Cade. You know and I know the guy’s coming for us. We’re next. It’s just a matter of time before he finds us. How about we go down to Tahiti?”
Cade thumped his brother on the head, a little side slap much like he’d seen Connor give him in the past. “Stop the drugs, Collin! Get a grip! Grow up! You aren’t thinking straight. I need you sober. I need you off the booze and drugs—now. Connor isn’t here to take care of everything like he always did. We have to do this for him. We aren’t running anywhere.”
“I know, I know,” Collin agreed, as he rocked back and forth trying to convince himself there was truth in his brother’s words. “But I’m scared. He’s out there, waiting, watching. He seems to know our every move.”
“Yeah, probably tracking us some way. I think that’s how he got to Connor. Jacob says the cops want to get a court order and confiscate our vehicles, all of them. They’ve already got Connor’s Hummer. I’m thinking it’s not such a bad deal to let them have our cars. We get new ones, ones without GPS. That way we know for sure there are no devices in them to give away our location.”
Cade took a deep breath, eyeing the fear in Collin’s eyes before admitting, “You think I’m not scared. I am. But we can’t let this all go down without putting the fear of god into Kit and Quinn. I have it all planned. And we start with the bitch that let Connor die in the ER.”
When he noticed the terrible physical shape Collin was in because of the drugs he’d snorted, he decided to level with him. “You gotta stop shaking so hard, bro, clean up your act. I’m depending on you for backup.” He gripped his brother’s shoulders. “Connor needs you. I need you. We’re both counting on you. It’s now or never.”
“What about Baylee? What if the baby is our niece?”
“I don’t give a damn about that squalling brat. That was Connor’s deal, not mine. I’ve got too much other stuff going on now to worry about some little bitch of a bastard that may or may not belong to our dead brother. And Dylan Burke keeps insisting the kid’s his. I saw the birth certificate. Yeah, the document was amended, but that means nothing these days. For all I know, Burke could’ve had a change of heart, decided to own up to his own kid. Either way, it isn’t worth my time.”
He shook Collin’s shoulders. “Come on, bro, snap out of it!”
“Okay, okay. I’ll go shower. I won’t let you down, Cade. You’ll see I can carry my own weight in this.”
Cade’s rage had him plotting the demise of the woman who six years earlier had promised she loved him—for about six weeks. He sneered at that. He’d made her pay even back then for laughing at him. Since the day she’d had him arrested, he’d vowed to get his hands, once again, around her throat.
No Hollywood slut would get the better of him. Trash like Quinn had to be dealt with and disposed of in the proper manner. She’d never appreciated the fact he was practically L.A. royalty. Hadn’t she known he’d had dreams of running for political office one day? His parents had assured him it was a done deal after he got a couple of more years at the firm under his belt. He had been so close to getting what he wanted, and now…
Quinn Tyler had ruined everything. She’d even let his brother die.
He thought back to how his life had gone downhill after the arrest for domestic violence. Even though his father had convinced Quinn to drop the charges, he’d been disappointed in him. His mother had simply slapped him across the face for his stupidity at not finishing the job and leaving Quinn alive to file charges.
He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
He didn’t know how he could have been so wrong in thinking Quinn cared about him. But it was a miscalculation he had not made since.
He would take care of her now, though, once and for all. He just needed to look up what he needed to know on the Internet.
He should have finished her years ago when he’d had the chance. Recalling what it had felt like to be inside her, what it felt like to have his hands around her throat, he went hard.
Like the other ones, he thought now.
The ones no one knew about.
As things wound down in the waiting room, as cops began to find better places to go than hassling a beaten-up single mother, Baylee got everyone’s attention. “Okay, Tanya is willing to sit with Dad for a while. I’m taking Sarah and going back to Dylan’s, getting something to eat, and then sleeping for about twelve hours. You’re all welcome to follow us home for food.”
Dylan wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “But don’t. We’ll let you know when we’re in the mood for company, say, maybe in a couple of months, around August.”
Reese smiled affably at his friend. Dylan had blood on his shirt, no doubt Connor’s blood. No one deserved a breather from all of this more than Dylan and Baylee did.
“Understandable, but just remember, Dylan, there are two more Boyds out there who have it in for all of us.” He thought again about Cade’s threat.
“So don’t drop your guard,” Reese reminded as he watched Quinn say goodbye to little Sarah and realized that in another two years or so, the woman would make a helluva pediatrician.
And Jake tossed in for good measure, “Kit and I are still scheduled to testify against Collin on kidnapping charges. He’ll do his best to make sure that doesn’t happen. He may not be very bright, but that doesn’t make him any less dangerous. They hired someone to try and blow up the Book & Bean. That person could still be out there…waiting to make his move.”
“I know, I know. But is it too much to ask for one damn night where Baylee isn’t scared out of her mind.” With that, Dylan winked. “She doesn’t know it yet,” he said as he shot a glance toward Baylee saying her goodbyes to Tanya. “But I am taking her to an undisclosed location where we plan to get all the sleep she wants and some much needed downtime. How about we meet up tomorrow and take a look at this whole mess with fresh eyes?”
“Sounds good,” Reese agreed as he realized it was time for him to make his move toward the doctor. She faced three weeks of suspension. Did the others know about that yet? They didn’t act like they had a clue, mainly because with everything else going on Quinn hadn’t seen fit to come clean and disclose the seriousness of what had happened downstairs with Cade.
Odd, he thought now. But then he’d spent more than a few conflicting moments over the last months mulling over why she seemed so unwilling to share any personal tidbits about herself to anyone, least of all to him.
But not letting her friends in on the scene in the ER seemed—off.
He knew one thing, though. The woman would surely go crazy with that much time on her hands. Reese knew exactly which buttons to push where Quinn was concerned. He hadn’t been studying her for the past two months to go brain dead now.
He decided to take on the doctor, one on one.
When she ambled back over to where he stood, he told her simply, “You look wiped, Tyler. Why don’t we go get s
ome dinner? Celebrate our truce.”
“Why?”
Skeptical to the very end, Reese decided. “Because I have an angle on how to get you reinstated. Did they mention taking you before the review board?”
“Yeah, I’ll have to answer a bunch of stupid questions. And won’t that be a delightful way for them to grill me—about nothing!” Even she recognized when she was backed into a corner and needed all the support she could muster. Wasn’t it good to show the review board she had a lawyer on her side?
She sighed in frustration. “All right, it’s about time one of your kind did something constructive instead of wreak havoc on the public filing useless restraining orders and petitions.”
With that, she gave him her sweetest smile and headed to the elevators.
As he watched her walk away, Reese decided he could get used to that hundred-watt smile when she decided to send it his way, even if it had been totally insincere. He reminded himself he wasn’t completely without appeal to the opposite sex. In fact, most women found him easy to talk to, a good dancer, generous to a fault on a date, an all-around engaging guy.
So why did he have to work his ass off to get Quinn Tyler to give him a break?
At a restaurant in Marina Del Rey over pan-seared salmon, Reese and Quinn took their newfound accord and sat outside on the patio under a patch of stars with a night view of the moon glistening on the water. Sharing a bottle of merlot they chatted, all the while listening to gentle waves slap against the concrete pilings below them near the waterfront.
It wasn’t the first meal they’d shared, but it might have been the first solid hour they hadn’t spent sniping at one another.
“There’s a better chance of fighting your suspension if they think you’ve hired a lawyer.” His eyes twinkled with amusement and his grin spread. He almost loved yanking her chain as much as she did his.
Those dark almond eyes of Quinn’s grew wider. “Then I expect you to use any angle. Do you need a retainer or something?”
He cracked up with laughter. “Define ‘or something.’”
Those chocolate eyes flashed with temper. She tossed the paper coaster at his head. “Bite me.”
“Absolutely.” He picked up her hand and nibbled a couple of fingers. “I’ll start here and work myself down. How would that be?”
It suddenly got very hot on the patio. “You like to use that mouth of yours—a lot.”
He chuckled. “Relax, Quinn. I’ll press our advantage until the other side shouts uncle. That’s what I do. And I’m good at it.”
She made a derisive sound and looked out into the blackness of ocean meeting night sky. “I’ve had enough of lawyers to last a lifetime.”
When she finally looked over at him again, she propped her chin in her hand and groaned, “The thing is I was just getting started, finally getting over that lump of nerves every time I walked into the ER, just at that point where I’d stopped being intimidated by Mendenhall every time he asked me a question.
“I was just getting comfortable leading rounds, too. And now, I’m out on my ass thanks to a rich boy who brought his temper tantrum to my public workplace. Ah, well, what am I so mad about anyway? A vacation is what it is. Maybe I’ll use the time to go to a spa and get one of those fancy masks put all over my face, a facial, or a pedicure, or maybe I’ll schedule me one of those indulgent mud baths.”
Reese didn’t buy her attitude for a minute. In the short time he’d known Quinn Tyler, she had no more chance of relaxing, let alone spending time inside a spa, than she did playing wide receiver for the Raiders. “And do you like mud baths?”
“I don’t know. That’s the thing, I might. I could get use to all the pampering they do there. I could certainly use a massage. Kit and Baylee and I keep promising ourselves to take a run at one. Maybe we’ll see how the other half lives.”
“My sister certainly loves going to one.”
“There you go.”
As much as he hated to put an end to the first banter they’d shared without ripping into each other, he bluntly asked, “Quinn, aren’t you worried about what Cade said in the ER?”
“Of course I am. I’d be crazy as a loon not to be. But at this point, what options do I have? Another restraining order?” She snorted. “Come on, Reese. Is that the best you can do? It’s a waste of paper.”
Reese ignored the dig and asked, “What happened between you two?”
She took several calming breaths to keep herself from getting worked up about it. She picked up her wine, took not a sip but rather a gulp as if she found courage in the liquid enough to talk about it.
“He beat the crap out of me. There, is that what you wanted to know? Kit and Baylee had warned me, multiple times. But he had this way about him back then. At the time he made me feel so…special.” She’d been nineteen and looking for that certain someone who made her feel as if the universe revolved around her for the very first time in her life. She’d been incredibly inexperienced and naïve about men and relationships.
That much she could admit now.
She shook her head. “He was generous to a fault, always bringing me little cards and gifts, even sending me flowers. He gave me the full court press. He was the first guy to show me any real attention, like maybe I was his world. And I fell for it. It was an act, of course. But after two months of saying no, one day, I suddenly said yes. When Kit found out, I thought she was never going to speak to me again, even thought she might pack up and move out of our apartment; she was that upset. But at the time I honestly thought Cade might be the one, you know.” She sighed audibly. It sounded so insane now.
“That lasted six weeks, lasted until one night we were at his place, inside The Enclave. We’d had a lovely dinner prepared by his personal chef. One minute we were discussing which movie to go see. The next, out of the blue, he thought I’d laughed at him about something. The next thing I knew, he picked me up and threw me against the wall. After that, he hauled off and slapped me, grabbed me around the throat. I went down for the count.” She paused, remembering the nightmarish scene.
Reese flinched. Just thinking about Cade having his hands around her throat had him wanting to rearrange the man’s face. And he’d never considered himself to be a violent sort, had never been the jealous type either, but now he had to admit this might be a different facet to his personality.
He didn’t believe in hitting a woman, couldn’t imagine doing so. He’d seen too many bruised and battered faces at the women’s shelters early in his career when he’d counseled wives and girlfriends who were hiding there trying to find the legal means to leave behind a violent home life.
Quinn went on before she lost her nerve. “I tried to hit him back. He pushed me down face first on the bed. I was wearing a short skirt at the time. He ripped off my underwear, started to…” She shifted gears.
“Because I had an idea of what he planned to do, I kicked my legs out, caused him to fall back enough to let go. As soon as he hit the floor, I got up and started running. But he caught me by the hair and dragged me backward. He threw me around some more, knocked me into a wall face first. Before I knew what was happening, I was on the floor again and his hands were around my throat. I guess I’d been screaming down the house because one of his cousins, Adam Gatz I think it was, came running in and pulled Cade off me. I got out of there and never looked back.”
“This is the first time you’ve shared those kinds of details with anyone except the police, am I right?”
Her mouth dropped open. “How did you know that?”
“Doesn’t matter. Go on, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“I’m convinced if Adam hadn’t shown up when he did, Cade would have killed me. I pressed charges. And yes, I told the police everything. Later, the son of a bitch tried to butter me up with flowers and presents for several weeks afterward. I sent the gifts back, threw the flowers in the trash.”
“Jesus, Quinn.” Reese reached across the table and took her hand in his. F
or the second time in as many hours, she left it rest there.
“It took me about six months to stop remembering how it felt when he had his hands around my throat, about how he might have finished me off right then and there if Adam hadn’t shown up to stop him. That’s why I got a restraining order against him.”
“Was he prosecuted?”
She looked away, dropped her eyes to the floor. “Sumner Boyd talked me out of going through with it.”
Reese cocked his head. “You know that’s never the answer.”
“Of course I do. But I have to admit, I was scared of him. I told Sumner if I dropped the charges I wanted assurance Cade would never come near me again.”
Reese lifted a brow. “And? How could Sumner Boyd make that kind of assurance and have you of all people believe it?”
“Maybe because I refused to cancel the restraining order. I wanted it to remain in effect. Plus, I demanded Cade make a deposition to a police officer with no ties to the Boyds that could be kept on file in case he got—any ideas about revisiting our brief time together.”
Impressed, he said, “Smart girl.”
“The strategy worked until recently. “
“What about taking out another TRO?” He put up a hand in a gesture that said he knew she’d object. “I know it didn’t work for Kit and Baylee. But getting one makes it official. You already know it’s the one thing that makes the authorities aware of the situation through proper channels. I’ll take care of it.”
She put her head in her hands. “Thanks. Since this afternoon, my life went from normal to this mess thanks to Cade. Up until today I was pretty much concerned with Kit and Baylee’s situation, not mine. But Cade has a way of weaseling himself back into my life whenever he finds a crack in the door.”
“Then we need to weasel him right out.”
Amusement flickered in her eyes. “Aren’t you going to offer to beat him up again? I could seriously get on board with that.”
“I could, but I’d rather see him in San Quentin for about twenty years.”
Ending Evil (The Evil Secrets Trilogy Book 3) Page 4