Ending Evil (The Evil Secrets Trilogy Book 3)

by Vickie McKeehan

  On the other end of the phone, Cade let out a string of obscenities so loud Quinn had to hold the phone away from her ear. She let him rant before she whistled into the phone. “Now you listen to me, jerkoff, I want you to crawl back into your hole and never stick your head out again. You won’t come after me, you don’t have the guts. Go crawl off to Mexico and take that witless little brother of yours with you.”

  She handed the phone back to Reese, who promptly disconnected the call. Quinn wiped her hands together in a gesture that said, ‘I’m done with him for good’ all the while taking several deep cleansing breaths to calm down.

  Reese put his arms around her shoulders, kissed her on the mouth. “Baby, if that doesn’t have him crawling out of the woodwork, nothing will.”

  “I believe that will do the trick. He sounded absolutely foaming at the mouth.”

  Less than two miles north of little San Madrid’s downtown, Cade was indeed foaming.

  His blood boiled so hot he didn’t even bother hiding his anger when a fist punched the wall inside the tiny motel room, putting a sizeable hole in the sheetrock.

  “I’ll get that bitch! So help me god, I’ll bury her with the rest of those… She thinks I won’t come after her… She’s wrong…”

  “I take it we aren’t getting a dime of our money back,” Collin surmised, watching his brother seethe with rage.

  “Maybe not but it’s time to go to plan B. And by the time I’m finished with Reese and Quinn they’ll both be worm food.”

  By late that afternoon, Cade and Collin realized it was a little tougher to get to the women than they had judged. They’d already driven by the Book & Bean four times. They’d gone up to the door once and found the place locked up tight for the night.

  But on the fifth pass as they circled the fountain in the square, Collin spotted a contingent of vans heading down to the harbor with Reese at the wheel of the lead truck.

  Cade waited several minutes before taking a side street and heading to the waterfront. From several hundred feet away, using binoculars, Cade watched Reese and Quinn, Dylan and Baylee, Jake and Kit unload supplies from three trucks onto the Sea Warrior.

  So that was it. They planned to use the boat to sail off into the sunset, probably tonight, Cade mused.

  Good thing that would work into plan B.

  “I think our luck just changed, little brother,” Cade sneered. “After those bastards finish loading, we board the boat.”

  “A surprise attack?”

  “You got it, dumbass. And the good news is we only need one of them left alive to get our fucking money back.”

  As darkness fell, the lights of the San Madrid harbor glittered to life.

  Located at the base of the cliffs, the port might have been tiny compared to its counterparts to the south in San Pedro and Marina Del Rey but it didn’t lack for its share of boats moored there.

  For a small fishing village, the old-fashioned wooden pier that jutted out into the water divided the waterfront into two major sections where a mix of moneyed yachts and sailboats bobbed in the water alongside the working man’s fishing trawlers and sloops.

  One of the more affluent fixtures, the Sea Warrior sat anchored closest to the wharf, making loading and boarding her easier and more accessible.

  Reese stood back from the glare of an old-fashioned streetlamp, hiding in the shadows, waiting.

  He knew they’d done everything possible to set the scene and make the ruse look as real as possible. Now all they had to do was wait for their antsy prey to come to them.

  Reese scanned the paved lot once more through Trevor’s night vision goggles until he made out the SUV Trevor had described to him.

  If the car were here, it meant they had taken the bait. God knows, the six of them had made enough of a show to alert half of San Madrid to the fact they were taking the boat and leaving town.

  Standing guard nearest the first piling, he was calculating how poorly lit the parking lot was and how long it would take the Nutty Brothers to get out of the car when the car doors flew open.

  Adrenalin shot through his veins in waves as he watched both of them crawl out of the vehicle. They started walking toward the Sea Warrior. But about halfway there, inexplicably, Cade stopped and turned to say something to his brother.

  Fearing they already realized they’d been had, Reese checked his Luger, gathered up another magazine, and crept closer to his position near the second piling.

  He hunkered down behind the largest post, not more than three feet high, trying to hide his large frame in the dark. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the two men continue strolling through the lot then walk farther down the landing.

  Reese spotted Jake crouched down behind another sailboat a good twenty yards away, holding a desert eagle automatic pistol clutched in his hand, while Dylan did the same at the opposite end of the dock, armed with his trusty Beretta.

  Knowing the three of them hadn’t fired a weapon since they’d shot at tin cans in middle school, Reese was more than a little nervous about the outcome.

  He did his best to steady his breathing, tried to focus on the reason they’d had to take this route in the first place. But it was too late to back out now.

  He reminded himself for the twentieth time this was the real deal.

  “Rock and roll,” he mumbled, balancing the barrel of the weapon on the surface of the wooden post, prepared to take aim. He had to wait though, one beat, then two, wait until Cade made the leap from wooden dock and onto the Sea Warrior.

  The moment Collin took his first step onto the boat right behind his brother, Reese yelled, “Give it up, Collin, Cade. It’s over. You might as well throw down your weapons.”

  But with no intentions of giving up, Cade turned and fired his weapon in the direction of Reese’s voice.

  Reese, Jake, and Dylan returned fire. Shots rang out, pinging from several different angles. About that time, from the other side of the parking lot, Quinn emerged. Hunkering down behind one of the other pilings, she fired off several rounds from the nine millimeter.

  On board the Sea Warrior, Collin screamed, “You stupid son of a bitch! You dragged me right into their trap.”

  “You idiot, this boat has everything we need to set sail, all we have to do is get it out of the harbor. Keep shooting at the bastards while I cast off.”

  While his brother made his way to unfasten the moorings, Collin did as he was told. Round after round exploded from the AK-47 he held in his hand. The hail of bullets made certain the enemy stayed well away from the yacht.

  Back on shore the steady rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire had Reese biding his time stuck behind a stingy slice of wood. He squinted in the poor lighting, trying to determine if Quinn was all right. When he saw her still firing away, in the few seconds he’d focused on her, he heard the engine kick in aboard the Sea Warrior.

  By that time, he realized they’d been out-gunned, maybe out-maneuvered.

  Cade nervously fumbled with the mooring as several bullets flew past him. Collin had done his job for once, giving him just enough time to untie the ropes, so they could get the hell out of the harbor.

  The minute Cade turned the engine over, the yacht rocked and swayed and started to move away from the dock. He didn’t bother with the sails as he gunned the motor, clipping one of the other boats in the process as he motored his way out of the tiny marina.

  From the other side of the waterfront Kit and Baylee stood on the deck of the Emerald Isle, a hundred-foot, gaff-rigged schooner anchored in the second row of boats farthest from the wharf, waiting for Quinn. Fisted in their hands they held matching nickel-plated Berettas.

  But when they saw Quinn jump from the shadows onto the boat that looked a good deal like a pirate ship, they stopped firing momentarily and ran to her. Now as a unit, from another angle entirely, the three women had the Sea Warrior and the two brothers in a crossfire. They kept up a steady stream of firepower while Reese and Dylan and Jake still dodged the spray of
bullets coming from Collin’s AK-47.

  At that moment, leaning heavily on Gloria, the injured Trevor managed to make it down the ramp that led to the pier onto the refurbished antique clipper. All at once, he slipped the detonator from his pocket and glanced around, taking the time to meet the eyes of each woman.

  As the Sea Warrior maneuvered further out to sea, Trevor announced, “Ladies, it’s now or never. What’s it to be?”

  As police sirens grew closer to the pier with every precious second, the gunfire from the escaping men became fainter.

  Kit eyed Baylee. Baylee in turn, met Quinn’s eyes before Quinn made certain they were all in agreement. When they each nodded their heads at the other and stuck out their hands in a show of unity, it was Kit who stated, “Good riddance then. We hate to pollute the ocean with such worthless trash, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

  With that, Quinn yanked the device out of Trevor’s hands.

  “For the Parkers,” Kit said as she continued to clasp fingers with Baylee, who held on to Quinn’s hand.

  “For Sarah Moreland,” Baylee uttered.

  “For Lisa Redfield,” Quinn finished.

  And with that, together the three women pressed the button.

  The Sea Warrior had almost made it out of the harbor when suddenly, the fifty-foot French-built sloop lifted out of the water in a gigantic fiery ball of orange flames.

  Not two seconds later another explosion shredded the pieces that remained into nothing more than loose debris.

  At the sound of the explosion on the bay, Reese uncurled his frame, searching for Quinn’s position near the pylon. But she was no longer there.

  He squinted into the night, scanning the dimly lit marina for any sign of her. When he located the Emerald Isle at the other end, he made out Quinn standing on the deck, clutching something in her hand.

  He took off at a fast clip.

  With Jake and Dylan on his heels, he hurried up the ramp to the sloop, vaulting onto the starboard bow.

  “You knew about this?” Reese said as he glared over at Trevor. “You might have shared this bit of information with the rest of us.”

  “Sorry mate, when I give my word to a lady, I try to keep it.” Trevor nodded his head in the direction of Quinn. “She made me promise not to say anything.”

  Quinn locked eyes with Reese. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but I didn’t want you risking your law career on something like this. I didn’t count on Cade opening fire on all of you, though. I know the plan was to have the Nutty Brothers give up and I thought they might do the right thing for once, throw down their weapons and surrender without a fight. That’s what you planned, right? But I should’ve known better. It needed ending and I’m fully prepared to accept the consequences.”

  Before Kit and Baylee could point out that they had all three been a party to pressing the detonator, Reese grabbed Quinn and pulled her into his chest. “From now on, we do everything as a team, you got that? And if there are any consequences to this then we share and share alike.”

  “I told you I was prepared to pull the trigger and end this. My career’s just getting started while yours is…”

  But he didn’t let her finish. “And I told you I’d do anything to keep you safe. I meant that.”

  “You did, Reese. You kept me safer than anyone ever has in my entire life.”

  He crushed his mouth to hers. “And my career means nothing to me if you aren’t in my life. In fact, yours is more important than mine.”

  She lifted her hand to his cheek. “That’s exactly what I thought you’d say.”

  Jake came up behind Kit, draped his arms around her shoulders, and stared hard at the device Quinn still held in her hand before turning to Trevor. “How’d you manage that?”

  “You might want to ask the ladies that question,” he answered, gripping Gloria’s hand.

  But when they all heard the first police cars screech to a halt in the parking lot, Trevor looked out to the fireball still burning in the water. “If I were you, though, I’d do that later after we explain to the cops how Cade and Collin snuck on board the Sea Warrior to steal her, carrying enough explosives to blow up the entire town. But novices that they were blew themselves to kingdom come in the process instead.”

  Reese eyed Jake and Dylan. “I believe they were trying to kidnap either Quinn or Kit or Baylee, don’t you?”

  Jake nodded. “After we prevented that from happening, we did our best to stop them from getting on the boat.”

  “And when we were fired upon, we were forced to defend ourselves,” Dylan added.

  “Damn straight we were,” Baylee said to Dylan, who in turn whispered, “I just want to know one thing, who is watching our daughter?”

  She elbowed him in the ribs. “Mr. Tyler agreed to stay behind for diaper duty.”

  Baylee glanced over at Reese and Quinn, who were wrapped up in each other. “I think his plan is to try and nudge those two toward grandchildren as soon as Quinn starts her clinic.”

  “He’s taking a lot for granted.”

  “I don’t think so. From what he tells me, Tyler’s agreed to foot the bill for the clinic.”

  Several hours later after dealing with the contingent of police officers and detectives and crime scene investigators, they gathered back at Crandall House.

  In the kitchen around the table, eating sub sandwiches, Reese explained what their plan had covered. “Part of the idea was to have Dylan provide the cops with altered surveillance video showing the Boyd brothers boarding the Sea Warrior.”

  “The Nutty Brothers didn’t let us down there. If I do say so myself, I think it’s some of my best work,” Dylan bragged. “I had to set the camera up to focus on the Sea Warrior. That was two days ago. Now I hand over a doctored tape that clearly shows their attempt to escape by jumping on the boat. We hit the bonus round when Collin took out his illegal assault weapon, which we knew he had from the two earlier drive-by shootings, and opened fire in the direction of shore, where we were conveniently out of camera range.”

  “As long as it looks like they stole the boat and took off under their own power, and the boat explodes, which it did, that’s all we’re concerned with,” Trevor pointed out. “The cops already suspect they’re responsible for blowing up Quinn’s building. This way, it simply looks like they got sloppy with explosives.”

  Reese turned to Quinn. “When did you put the bomb on board?”

  “Once I found out what you guys were planning, to lure them onto the boat, hoping they’d give up, I asked Trevor what exactly to do if it didn’t go down like we thought. Kit, Baylee, and I talked it over and decided if you guys got them on the boat, we couldn’t just stand by and allow them to escape. They’d come back. They’d always come back.”

  Kit picked up the story. “So we snuck out of the house last night, planted the C4. With a walkie-talkie Trevor led us through the steps as to exactly what we needed to do.”

  Baylee finished up. “We put the C4 next to the fuel tanks. Set up a remote detonator. While you guys kept them busy under fire, we slipped onboard Trevor’s boat, hoping one of us could get lucky and take at least one of them down, maybe lower the odds.”

  “It might’ve worked if we’d been better shots, but I’m not sure any of us ever hit either one of them.”

  Reese rubbed the side of his chin and looked at Trevor. “I guess that’s what you were trying to tell us. We aren’t expert marksmen.”

  “Your hearts were in the right place for all the right reasons, but your aim was off. You did more damage than I thought you’d do.”

  Kit turned to Jake, put her arms around him. “Sorry about your beautiful boat.”

  “Hey, if it got rid of scum, it was for a good cause.”

  From there, Reese went on to spell out the other facets of the plan. “What makes the story pop even better is the fact that Jake sent a ton of files to the DEA showing BBG&G laundered money for a Mexican drug cartel over a period of se
veral years beginning as far back as the ’80s.”

  “Icing on the cake,” Jake concluded.

  “In turn, the DEA will assure the cops the info came from an agent deep undercover, and that during his stint undercover he learned the drug cartel put out a hit on the firm’s entire top tier because, let’s face it, old Jessica and Sumner, Frank and Eva, too, for that matter, were known far and wide for their greed.”

  “So when the top tier burned the drug cartel, bang-bang, unknown hit man takes them all out,” Jake finished.

  Trevor smiled. “I like it.”

  Dylan added, “And I tipped off the IRS to the fact that the firm filed false tax returns. Actually, it was more like pretty Donna Fontaine did. She’ll also get credit and the reward that goes with it for blowing the whistle on corporate tax cheaters. I discovered she could use the money, single mom with two kids who works her ass off sixty hours a week for that damn place. She deserves the reward money.”

  “You’ve got a soft heart, Dylan Burke,” Baylee said.

  Jake went on to describe the rest. “Then we completed the hat trick by sending files to the FBI and the SEC to let them know all about the insider trading the firm managed to do over the last two decades. I don’t think we missed an agency or a detail.”

  But Dylan’s brow creased with interest. “Well, there is something I’ve been curious about, though.” He turned to Trevor. “How did you do it? How did you leave Jessica’s car in the middle of Cross Creek Road and Eva Geller Gatz’s car in the middle of a shopping center? How did you leave the scene?”

  Trevor shook his head. “Come on, guys, a professional never reveals his tricks of the trade.” He glanced over at Gloria, picked up her hand, kissed the palm. “Besides, I think those days are behind me. I’ve decided it’s time to retire.”