Ending Evil (The Evil Secrets Trilogy Book 3)

by Vickie McKeehan

  “Understandable. How about now?”

  Dylan cocked his head. “Do you want a pinky swear? The women are big on it.”

  When Dylan looked up and saw the women standing in the doorway, he abruptly stopped talking.

  “You aren’t making fun of our pinky swear are you, Surfer Boy?” Quinn asked as she came farther into the room, crossed her arms over her chest, and announced, “I thought we agreed no more secret meetings. You guys aren’t very good at covert. You disappear all at once, you raise our suspicions.”

  “I believe this constitutes a clandestine meeting,” Kit accused as she stared over at Jake.

  “Sneaky is the way I see it,” Baylee concurred.

  “What gives, guys?” Quinn asked innocently.

  “We were just talking about the lousy Dodger season this year,” Reese lied.

  “Is that your official story? Because if it is…” Quinn took out her cell phone. “I’m two seconds away from dialing Cade Boyd’s number. I’m telling him to meet me at the Sea Warrior at ten o’clock tonight.”

  Kit took out her cell phone as well. “And I’m calling Collin with the story that I’ve finally come to my senses. I’m dumping Jake and desperately want to run off with him to Mexico to spend the rest of my life there. We’ll steal Jake’s boat while we’re at it and sail off into the sunset. And you know what? Collin will buy it because he’s two bricks shy of a full load.”

  “Now what’s it going to be?” Quinn eyed Reese. “We’re part of this whether you guys understand that or not. We have a surefire way to lure the Nutty Brothers out to the boat. Anyone interested in hearing a real plan?

  “You wouldn’t?” Reese accused.

  “Oh yeah, we would.”

  Just then Nick Tyler and Ben Griffin trailed into the room. “We’re in this, too. And we’re with them.” Nick nodded his head toward the women. “My daughter isn’t going anywhere without my backup.”

  “Or my twin sister either,” Ben said with a certain amount of pride in his voice. “I’ve only just now found her and I’m for keeping her safe.”

  “That’s just it. I’m trying to keep your daughter and your twin sister completely out of this so they’ll both be safe.” Reese glared at Tyler. “Neither one of you understand how dangerous these men are.”

  “Quinn and Kit filled us in. Besides, I’m done sitting around while these spawn of the devil try to kill my daughter.”

  Quinn cleared her throat. “As delighted as I am to have my father and my lover arguing about my participation, I’m fairly certain this is my decision. Kit, Baylee, and I are in this whether any of you agree or for that matter like it or not.”

  “What am I, chopped liver?” Gloria railed. “I got kidnapped. I had my chance at shooting one of them but I missed. I want another chance.”

  “See. We’re a united front. You either accept that or we find a way ourselves to take down Cade and Collin—without you.”

  Reese ran a hand through his hair. “You are without doubt the most stubborn, hard-headed woman on the planet. I’m trying to…”

  Jake grabbed his arm. “I strongly suggest you shut up while you’re ahead.”

  “That’s probably what got her through med school, don’t you think?” Nick pointed out. “And probably what you like the most about her.”

  Reese didn’t want to burst his bubble, but her hard head wasn’t it. On the other hand those deep almond eyes of hers could do a number on him.

  Reese gritted his teeth. “Fine. The plan is simple. We make it look like we’re all headed to Catalina in fear, with our tails between our legs. We load the boat with supplies, make sure they know when we’re scheduled to leave, draw them out in the open and finish it, one way or the other.”

  “We’re hoping once they see they’re outnumbered, they’ll give up,” Jake added.

  “But we aren’t counting on it,” Dylan finished.

  “That’s actually not bad,” Quinn muttered.

  “Of course we’re dangling the fact that they’re getting their money back as insurance that they’ll actually show,” Dylan said as he draped his arm around Baylee.

  “But we need weapons. What about it, Trevor?” Baylee asked.

  Dylan was not impressed. “Now, wait just a minute. Has it escaped your memory that you are the mother of a six-month-old baby? You will not…”

  Baylee stepped away from him, let his arm dangle in midair. Her eyes turned to slits. “Do not remind me I’m a mother, Dylan Burke. It’s because I am that…”

  Trevor shook his head. “Hey kids, maybe you could take this argument out of my very crowded room and downstairs until you figure these all important details out.”

  ‘Now see what you’ve done, you’ve upset Trevor,” Baylee said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “Me? I’m not the one inconsiderate enough to bring up guns when he’s the one lying in bed shot up.”

  “Like you didn’t already think about weapons. Wait, you did consider how we’ll all be armed, right?” Baylee asked. “Please tell me you’ve planned for the guns.”

  “Good point,” Quinn said. “Only a mother could think ahead like that, think on her feet, do that kind of planning, even if it is about—guns.” With that Quinn cracked up. “Baylee and guns, it’s official, we have definitely entered the Twilight Zone, people.”

  “Time out,” Kit shouted over the din. “What happened to the conventional method of dealing with the bad guys? You know, locking them away from decent members of society because they’ve committed numerous felonies and heinous crimes against said society. Why haven’t the cops already arrested the Nutty Brothers for blowing up Quinn’s building? And what about all those missing call girls? And what about Cade killing Claire?”

  “Turns out they have no actual evidence, no fingerprints, no DNA to link them to the arson and they’re just getting started on the call girl theory,” Reese said. “Although there’s a warrant out for Cade about Claire’s murder, they have to find him first.”

  Quinn blew out a breath. “And that falls to us.”

  “For chrissakes, how long does it take for them to do their jobs?” Baylee sighed, reality sinking in. “So it really is up to us?”

  “Looks like.”

  “Then I say we better make it count,” Quinn reasoned.

  CHAPTER 25

  Cade didn’t trust Collin enough to leave him alone for five damn minutes.

  For the past forty-eight hours since they’d allowed Gloria to escape things had gone from bad to worse. Not only were their bank accounts at zero, including their overseas accounts, but the financial institutions so far had been unable to trace each wire transfer. The money hadn’t stayed long enough in one account before it had jumped to another.

  The banks told him it might take weeks, even months to unravel the trail, if indeed it could be done at all.

  The people he’d talked to had assured him of one thing though. Whoever had transferred the money had been in possession of the correct codes, every last one of them.

  So how the hell had they gotten access to the numbered accounts?

  It didn’t matter. The money was gone and it wasn’t coming back unless he could get Reese Brennan and those bastards at Billing-Pro Software to hand it over.

  If that hadn’t been bad enough, Cade had finally talked his cousins, Adam and Jacob, into arranging a funeral for Connor, only to drive up to the service and realize the chapel had been crawling with cops.

  Because of that, he hadn’t been able to muster up the balls to crawl out of the vehicle.

  It might’ve had something to do with the fact he had five dead women buried in a grave near the nature preserve. In trying to put an end to Quinn, he’d taken the lives of eight people. He’d gotten his own cousin Scott killed in a drive-by in which he had yet to own up. And from what Adam told him there was an arrest warrant out for him.

  He had discovered just that morning Adam and Jacob had filed a missing persons report about Scott. T
he report meant it was only a matter of time before authorities went searching for the cousin he’d already put in the ground. And one more reason for the cops to shove a probe up his ass.

  Inside the motel room they’d rented, Cade looked over at Collin sitting on the bed. The seedy place sat back from the 101 as it met up with State Route 23 in what Cade thought of as a dump. It certainly wasn’t the kind of place he was used to staying. A steady hub of traffic noise coming from outside pissed him off, knowing he couldn’t afford a better place at the moment.

  He watched his sibling fidget and drum his fingers annoyingly on the built-in nightstand.

  At this point, Cade couldn’t be sure Collin wouldn’t spill his guts at the first opportunity and tell Adam and Jacob they’d already put their cousin in the ground, an unmarked four-foot hole next to a bunch of sluts.

  He didn’t think his cousins would appreciate Scott Geller’s final resting place.

  Even though he doubted anyone would discover the bodies on their own, the only other person alive who knew they were there was Collin.

  Since the scene with his brother at the burial site, for some reason that bothered him. He didn’t like the idea of Collin knowing so much because it meant he couldn’t leave him alone for five damn minutes.

  That meant he’d have to make the call to Reese, demand his money back within earshot of his brother. Very much afraid Collin loomed above some precipice and was about to fall off, Cade pointed out, “It’s time to phone Brennan. Are you okay backing me up? Because I need to know if I can count on you no matter what.”

  “I said I’d see this to the finish,” he returned in short, clipped tones. “I keep my word.”

  “I don’t have time to coddle you, nor do I have the patience. Pull out of this sulky mood or so help me…”

  “What? You’ll kill me too? Yeah, I got that already. You don’t like my mood, fine. I don’t like the fact you pulled me into this fucking mess.”

  Cade narrowed his eyes. “Me? You seem to forget a lot of things, little brother, like who was the first one of us to sic Auslo and Taft on Kit and Boston in the first place. You did. If those two clowns had been better at blowing things up, your precious Kit would already be out of the picture and that would be on your head, not mine. Maybe if you’d had the guts to do it yourself…”

  Collin stood up, balled his fists, ready to fight. “Kit was my problem.”

  “That’s right, one you let hang around way too long.”

  “What about Quinn? You did the same thing with her.”

  “My mistake, one I’m trying to correct. I know that now. Like Quinn, those hookers laughed at me one time too many, defied me after I’d paid them. I couldn’t let them get away with it. One said I tried to rape her. Imagine that, I gave her five-hundred dollars and she still wouldn’t do what I wanted.”

  Collin took a step back, fearing the brother he loved had come unhinged. “Let’s just get our money back. Once we get this behind us I want as far away from L.A. as I can get. Without Gloria, what’s the plan?”

  “We find a way to get one of the women alone.”

  “That’s it? That’s your plan? How the hell do we do that with cops crawling up our ass? You saw those rent-a-cops they hired. There are probably ten of them now guarding that place.”

  “Trust me, they won’t be looking for us in San Madrid right under their noses.”

  “Says you, I don’t like it.”

  “I’m not asking you to like it. I’m telling you this is the only way. Now, let’s go. We’ll need to make a stop at the warehouse, pick up more weapons and explosives.”

  Inside the kitchen at Crandall House, Reese roamed the room like a caged animal. Uneasy, jittery, he jangled the keys in his pockets and stalked back and forth. His movements bordered on annoying. But the rest of the people gathered there seemed oblivious, everyone that is except Quinn.

  “Will you please stop that? He’ll call when he calls,” Quinn reasoned.

  “He’ll want to talk to you. He did last time. I don’t like it.”

  “I know you don’t. But we’ve been over this. I’ve got my part down to the verb. I know what I’m supposed to say, Reese. Damn it, stop that—pacing. You’re making me nervous.”

  Quinn scanned the room, unwilling to own up to being just as edgy as Reese.

  While Nick and Ben sat at the table playing a game of gin rummy with John Griffin, Dylan and Jake sat at the counter, perched on barstools, meticulously poring through database after database. At this point, it wasn’t simply more financial data to untangle but they had to make certain they’d covered their tracks as well.

  Gloria was somewhere upstairs sitting with Trevor because she couldn’t stand to be in the same room with John for longer than five minutes at a time.

  She’d even taken to sharing her meals with the hit man.

  Everyone seemed to be trying to carry on as normal as possible—while they waited.

  Kit did what she always did. She baked. She stood at the counter putting the finishing touches on the cherry tarts she’d made for that night’s dessert while Baylee sat on the other side of Dylan trying to coax Sarah into eating some of Kit’s homemade applesauce.

  “Maybe I should take attendance. Our growing family seems to be swelling like a gigantic balloon,” Quinn muttered to Reese, who tried to settle down by fidgeting with a game on his iPhone.

  John, who had been downcast of late, spoke up. “I want to help out. It pains me to think that all of you consider me the enemy, that I had a part in all of this way back when.”

  Kit rolled her eyes, but it was Jake who looked up from his laptop long enough to enlighten him. “How many times do I have to tell you, every time you didn’t act and get Kit out of that environment you risked her safety, her life. My feelings toward you have nothing to do with anything but your poor behavior as a father.”

  Quinn studied John’s reaction, saw him hang his head. Sympathy wasn’t an option. “You know, Baylee and I used to look up to you. We believed you were one of the good guys. Finding out you played a role in taking Gloria’s babies away from her was like a stab to the heart. I don’t even want to imagine what it was like for Kit figuring that part out.”

  “But I explained how Alana forced me into it.”

  Quinn lifted her chin. Kit might be reluctant to have this out with the man but she wasn’t. “Come on, no one forced you to go along with anything, Mr. Griffin. Free will is a powerful tool. Any time during those months before Gloria went into labor you could have whisked her off to parts unknown, let her in on what was about to happen. You didn’t. How could you have been so cruel to the mother of your children? ”

  “Haven’t you ever been so afraid of someone you felt ill whenever you had to confront them about anything, knowing no matter what you did it was never enough to get them to leave you alone?” John asked, clearly battling for even a morsel of his former self-respect.

  Kit had heard enough. “Look, I’m trying to get past all that happened with Alana. I have been for years. Discovering you didn’t really want me with you, though, hurt. But again, I’m trying to get past it. If Quinn can forgive Nick Tyler, then I ought to be able to forgive you. At least you were there part of the time.”

  With that, she went over and put her arms around his shoulders.

  The hug caught him off guard, causing tears to fill his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “I know. But just because I forgive you don’t expect the same from Gloria. Did you know Jessica and Alana had her locked up? Were you aware of what they planned to do?”

  When he dropped his eyes, she huffed out a breath. “Well, for God’s sake. You knew about that, too. That might be the last straw. I’m trying to understand how someone does that to another human being, I really am but…”

  Kit threw her hands up in frustration. “Is there a reason you did everything Alana wanted you to do other than getting her to produce several of your films?”

  When he merely sat there
staring at the cards in his hands, she went on, “Yes, it’s fairly easy to check the credits, something I never bothered to do before now. Did any of you ever grow a conscience about any of the evil things you did?”

  John threw his cards on the table and stood up. “What do you want from me? I’ve apologized. I’ve brought Ben to your doorstep so you two will have the chance to get to know each other. I’ve come clean about everything. What more do you want me to do?”

  At that moment Reese’s cell phone buzzed. He knew by the blocked ID who it was, which had him pressing his advantage from the get-go. When he answered he went into his act. “Look, we get that you’re pissed. But we want you to leave us alone.” He let his voice tremble slightly to show his fear.

  “Pissed doesn’t cover it. We want the money back you and the assholes stole. And if I don’t get it…”

  But Reese didn’t let him complete his threat. “You’ll do what? Try and kill us. Hey Einstein, you’ve already tried several times—and failed. By the way, you’re a lousy shot, Boyd. So far all you’ve managed to kill is a lot of innocent people that never did a single thing to you and we’re still here. Admit it; you’ve lost the upper hand here, Boyd. The money your family stole forty years ago and used to build the most corrupt law firm I’ve seen in years is crumbling. I suggest you learn how to live without the silver spoon in your mouth, learn how to live life on the run, because I’m calling every major newspaper in California, airing all your dirty laundry in the press.”

  “I want to speak to Quinn Tyler. Now!” Cade bellowed into Reese’s ear.

  Reluctantly Reese handed off the cell to Quinn, who swallowed hard, prepared to take her cue and run with it.

  “Why hello, darling. Shouldn’t you be somewhere attacking helpless females? Or maybe creating a new identity and packing for Mexico since you’re on the run for killing all those prostitutes?”

  “What? How did you…? You bitch. You’ve been spying on me.”

  “And what if I have? What are you going to do about it, Cade darling? Mommy and Daddy aren’t around to protect your ass anymore and we’ve taken all your precious money away from you. Without your fat bank account you have no money to buy anyone off. It’s so sad, really. What will you do without money or Mommy to protect you?”