Deadly Truths: Kiss Her Goodbye #3

by Royce, Rebecca

  “All right. Sounds like a plan.”

  We remained in silence, and I didn’t try to predict their thoughts. My own were difficult enough to manage. If Trace were dead… Marcus and his crew were going to wish they’d never been born. They might end up feeling that way anyway, but if Trace were dead, they were going to hurt, badly.

  I’d needed space from my guys after I’d killed my father. Everything had been too much. Yet, somehow the world was supposed to understand that these were my guys. They weren’t to be touched, they weren’t to be bothered. They were to be left alone while I sorted things out. Warden had been shot. Trace was missing. Kade and Judson both looked like they’d been through hell. And Derrick… he held his secrets to himself, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t suffering.

  I wanted to cause the Alliance nothing but pain.

  Derrick stroked a finger down my cheek. “You’re having dark thoughts.”

  “Deadly ones.” There was no point in hiding it. “I don’t carry a gun anymore, Derrick. I can’t be trusted not to shoot the wrong people. But I’m armed with knives, and I know how to use them. I will take out anyone who comes near us the wrong way.”

  Kade touched his foot to mine, like he wanted to play footsie on the lounge with me. “Just think, if you hadn’t met us, you could have gone your whole life without saying something like that.”

  I grinned. “What a sad life that would have been.”

  Derrick ignored our exchange, bringing back up what I’d just said. “I’m giving you a gun. You need one in this scenario. You made a mistake. You shot your father under extraordinary circumstances. That is on me, actually, not you. I’m deeply experienced, and I should have been guiding you better in that moment. I should have shouted don’t shoot. The blame belongs on me, not you.”

  “I pulled the trigger. I killed him.”

  Kade shook his head. “Is no one going to say that your father was doing bad shit? That he was most likely not in that elevator to go negotiate a ceasefire? Are we all going to pretend it wasn’t possible, particularly because he was armed beyond belief, that he wasn’t going there to hurt Ben? Only Ben’s people had access to the elevators in that moment. I couldn’t get on. How did your father get to the room to begin with? Did he know that Ben was coming there to kill his daughter?”

  My ears rang. I’d had these thoughts myself, particularly in the beginning, but there were no answers for them, no way to know, and so it left one resounding truth. I’d killed my father. I didn’t get to automatically assume it was self-defense because I’d never know. Anyone who could have told me was dead.

  “Should I not have said it? Are we all going to be silent and not speak the truth?” Kade sounded tired.

  I took his hand in mine. “I actually think you’re trying to make me feel better. For that, I thank you, Kade. But I get to live with my own guilt and not one of you fuckers is going to talk me out of it.”

  He kissed my fingers. “We’ll see.”

  The plane touched down, jolting us all and reminding me that landing really went better when I wore a seatbelt.

  7

  I had my knife strapped to my back, where it usually was. I’d even gotten used to ignoring the way the tape that held it in place irritated me. I’d had it off since the plane with Derrick and Warden, not strapping it back on with Judson, but now it was back. My first weeks of wearing it when I’d gone back home had driven me crazy. I’d wanted to scratch all the time. Now, I could tune it out if I got busy doing something else. But the gun I had in my pocketbook, making it just slightly heavier than I was used to, seemed to make me crazier by comparison.

  Derrick insisted I have the damn thing, and as much as he was all about me having what I wanted, whenever I wanted it, it turned out that when he put his foot down, he was unmovable. We were, apparently, not getting off the plane if I didn’t take the gun. Only my concern for Trace had allowed me to abandon my own intractability.

  I tried not to notice how Kade smirked through the whole exchange.

  We’d pulled over a block away from the late James Robert Michael’s home.

  I was in the front passenger seat while Kade drove. Derrick sat forward, his body tense, alert, in the back. I could feel them like they were somehow inside of me. I was that attuned to them in that moment.

  “What do you think, Derrick?” Kade’s eyes stared straight ahead. “Just bust through the door?”

  Kade held up his phone. He’d installed an app he invented that allowed the zoom function on the camera to be as far reaching as a sniper rifle. He could actually see the door. I hadn’t looked yet, but even as he passed it to Derrick, I knew bust through the door wasn’t the right move.

  “Are there guards?” I asked both of them. Whoever wanted to answer could go right ahead.

  Derrick nodded. “One. They have one police officer stationed outside the door.”

  “Is he young?”

  Kade blinked at the question. “Ah, I’d guess mid-twenties. Why?”

  He’d catch on fast. Kade didn’t need me to hold his hand through this. “Run a quick facial recognition on him. Is he gay or straight?”

  “Give me half a minute. Ah… Okay. Jeremiah Green. Back living here after going to school in Texas and working there for two years. He’s relatively new to this job. Oh, and very, very straight. His online presence…” He stopped speaking for a second before piping up again. “He’d like to be a player, but he isn’t one. Straight. Twenty-six years old.”

  I nodded. “Great. Then I’m getting inside. You two, hide in the back. Get down. I’ll drive up and go have a look. You can watch from my phone. Or sneak in behind me if you can be quiet enough. No needs to go busting in anywhere.”

  Kade groaned. “Are you going to sleep with him?”

  I laughed. “No. But I’m going to let him think that I might.”

  “And what would you have done if he was gay?” Derrick lifted his eyebrows.

  “Then I guess it’s such a good thing you and Kade are so cute, D.”

  He groaned, and I laughed. This shouldn’t have been so amusing, considering the seriousness of the situation. Kade narrowed his gaze at me. “What if he were married?”

  “How many people do you know who wouldn’t cheat if given the chance by a willing person and the assurance of never getting caught?”

  Kade took my hand. “Me. I wouldn’t. Not on you.”

  My amusement died. He was dead serious, and from the look Derrick was shooting me from the back, so was he. It was time for some truth. “I’d never cheat on you either, but let’s face it. I don’t really get to say that, right? I have five boyfriends, and I’m dating all of you in front of each other after having basically broken up with all of you in a group shout. Well, four of you. I don’t actually know if Trace is going to want back yet.”

  “He will.” Derrick shifted in his seat. “We’re all good, and as far as I’m concerned, this is our version of monogamy. Maybe single guy over there would be the same or maybe Evs is right and people are generally pieces of shit. I don’t know. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about human nature. I just kill whoever gets in my way or threatens someone I care about. In any case, we’re lucky today. If he’d been taken and loyal, we’d have had to run over him to get in there, and if he’d pulled his gun, I’d have had to kill him. So, yes, go flirt with him. If he doesn’t take the bait, we still have that option.”

  Kade dug in his pocket. “Forget your phone. This is a live stream. Put it right there on your shirt. He’ll never see it unless his last job was as a spy. Even then, this is a new design. Looks more like a water stain.”

  He pushed the camera onto my shirt before he got out of the driver’s side to crawl in the back with Derrick. One step closer to Trace. I had to keep my eye on the goal.

  He needed me. I just knew it.

  * * *

  “Oh my god.” I got out of the car and headed toward Jeremiah Green. His eyes widened at my approach. I was a girl in shorts an
d a tank top. It helped that I’d deepened my southern accent. I’d always possessed a light weight drawl, but I knew how to do my best Steel Magnolia version of Louisiana in my voice. I always had.

  I used it on police officers when they pulled me over. That and my breasts tended to get me out of tickets. I was counting on both of those things to get me in that door.

  “Is this where that old guy died?” I pointed at the door. “The rich dude who was gunned down days ago?”

  “You don’t belong here.” Jeremiah had a stern voice, but his gaze was on my breasts.

  “I know.” I shrugged. “I’m here on vacation. Staying with my great-aunt Bessie. She retired here from Boston. Couldn’t do winters anymore. You know how it is. Or maybe you don’t. Anyway, I’m visiting, and I’ve just been thinking for days of getting in there. I have… a thing… about murder. Oh, I can’t believe I just said that aloud.” I laughed, throwing my head back. “Don’t you find it really exciting?”

  As I spoke, I moved closer and closer to him until I had completely invaded his personal space. This was a police officer. He should never have let me this close. Part of me wanted him to reject me, just to prove to me that my breasts and my pretty accent couldn’t get me what I wanted. The other part, however, didn’t want him to get shot. I hoped that Jeremiah Green wanted to fuck me. Really, really badly.

  “You like… murder?”

  “Well, I’ve only ever seen those documentaries on Netflix. They show the dead bodies. It’s just so… exciting.” My breasts were officially hitting his shirt right now. It was hot outside, and I fanned at myself. “You can show me, can’t you? I should have introduced myself. My name is Julia.” Steel Magnolias was really on my mind. “What’s your name?”

  He stammered. “Jeremiah. You don’t belong here. I should ask you to leave.”

  “You should.” I grinned at him. “But you won’t. I know it. You’re going to show it to me.” I tugged on his shirt. “You look very handsome in your uniform. Ours back home are different. They’re kind of blue, the ones the police officers wear, and…”

  He cleared his throat. “How long are you here on the island, Julia?”

  I had him. I knew it. Trace had feelings like this. When the person he was playing gave him or herself over to him. There was something ridiculously on point with this. I was using Trace’s tricks—the ones I’d learned on this island—to rescue him.

  “I’ll be here till September. I’m finding myself.” I touched his chin. “Maybe you could help me with that.”

  He backed up fast, nearly falling in his haste, but he opened up the door to James Robert’s home. I’d thought of the man in pretty derogatory ways while he was alive, most of which he earned for being a total douche bag. Now that he was dead I was thinking of him in a kinder manner. He didn’t deserve the shift, but maybe that was just what people did for the dead, making them nicer than they were in life, sometimes.

  Or not. I’d never think highly of Ben. He could rot like the scumbag he was. I followed Jeremiah inside.

  There was tape and chalk all over the house, but otherwise the place looked exactly the same. “He was killed here?”

  I spun around like this was the first time I’d seen the place. It felt like yesterday I’d been inside pretending to be Trace’s assistant. “Someone just came inside and shot him?”

  “It was a sniper rifle. He and another person were hit. We’re not sure what happened to the second person. We have evidence there was someone else here, but they seem to have vanished. Ran out the back door and then we can’t find any trace of him.”

  I almost choked on his choice of phrasing. I stared at him for a long second, trying to judge if that had been purposeful. Was he being sneaky and showing me he knew? No. I didn’t get that reading. He was still going on and on about the gruesome murder and blood.

  The other person had run out the backdoor and disappeared. My mind was already off Jeremiah.

  I needed him gone so I could get going and…

  His phone rang. He paled before he put it to his ear. “Sir? Oh, sir. No, I’m not inside the house. I…”

  Kade had done this. He’d known what I needed without me saying anything. I rushed past Jeremiah and out to my car. When I got into it, the vehicle was empty. Derrick and Kade had moved on to the back of the house. I’d put money on it. I had to ditch this thing where Jeremiah wouldn’t see it.

  My phone pinged, and I looked down at the text Derrick sent. Half a mile down the road behind the big rock. Leave it there. Then come back around to the house.

  That was just what I did. My heart rate kicked up, and by the time I got to where Kade and Derrick waited, I bristled with excitement. Trace wasn’t dead when he left the house, and if anyone could disappear, it would have been one of my guys. The questions were: could we find him and had he managed to get help, still undetected, since.

  Kade fiddled with his phone holding it in the air like he searched for a signal. I wrapped my arm around his waist. “Anything?”

  “Not yet.” He shook his head. “Fuck. I did this too well. I always seem to be defeating myself.”

  “Okay.” Derrick nodded at me. “That was gross to watch, but good work. Don’t do that thing with your voice again. I don’t like it.”

  I rolled at my eyes at him. “Like you’ve never played on how good looking you are to get what you want.”

  He winked at me. “What’s good for the gander in this case is not good for the goose.”

  “Ugh.” I waved my hand on him. “Talk about gross. Nice comparison. What now?”

  He squared his shoulders. “I am asking myself what I’d do. I’m Trace. Being shot at is not something that happens regularly. I’m hit. James Robert is dead, and I’ve run for it. I’m bleeding but not enough to leave a trail. We don’t know where I’m hit. I have to hide; I have to get help. I have a phone, but I haven’t used it, not to call to any of us anyway. Why is that? Where do I go?” He spun around. “I’m acting on instinct, but I’m a genius. I’ve had training. I got the shit beat out of me learning this crap in the Alliance the same as everyone else. I’m not in pain yet.”

  The fact Derrick knew that caught my attention. “How many times have you been shot, Derrick?”

  He chewed on his lip and didn’t answer me. Kade held up three fingers and pointed to Derrick. That many? Well, fuck that. We were all done getting shot at. When this was over we were somehow going to live a bullet free life.

  I rolled my eyes at my own thought. That was never happening. If we managed to have an after-this part of our life, it was going to be as blood soaked and dangerous as this one was.

  “This way.” Derrick nodded toward the ocean. “He’s going to think that the beach is the best way to go. It was sunset. He’ll think he can follow the sand to wherever he’s comfortable going. Also, if he’s thinking at all, he’ll know that the fact that the sniper hit them through the kitchen side window means it’ll be hard to see him down here. Now, I just need to figure out how long Trace would go before the pain would take him down.”

  I chased after Derrick who, now that he’d picked up an idea, was running pretty quickly. Kade caught up to me and together we trailed after Derrick. “Does it matter where he was shot?”

  “It does,” Kade answered, looking left and right when he did. “But we have to go with the idea that if it were an automatically fatal thing, he’d have been found when he dropped dead. Unless the Alliance picked him up. Then I think we’d also know. They’d parade around his body through the dark net so I’d see it and know. Marcus doesn’t seem to be pulling any punches.”

  “Why is that? Was he so devoted to Ben and the others he has to get revenge? Or is he scared you can take it from him?”

  Kade shook his head. “We need Trace and Jud for this. I’m just the dude who can hide us from the satellites.”

  “You’re a lot more than that. And you know it.” I kissed him on the cheek. “But it’s seriously cool you can hide us from the s
atellites.”

  His smile was genuine and adoring. “Everly Marrs. I let you go once. I won’t again. Leave and I’m going to pull a Derrick and follow you.”

  We ran down the beach and Derrick stopped. “Wherever he was shot by now he’s feeling it.”

  I looked all around. The beach was lined here with small huts. I sighed. Would he go into one of them and look for help? That didn’t sound like Trace but maybe he didn’t have a choice.

  “What do you think?” I needed Derrick to tell me what to do here. “Where would you go?”

  He took my hand. “We’ll go look, Everly. We’ll…”

  A woman who sat by the water’s edge turned and looked at us. Her movement was so abrupt that it caught my attention, and I stopped Derrick from talking. I held up my hand.

  “Pretend like you’re moving on. Don’t go far.”

  Kade nodded. “You’re still on feed. Come on Derrick.”

  They continued to walk on, and I paused. “You go on. I need a minute to collect myself. I’m so worried about him.”

  I’d not been letting myself really feel any of this. How could I and still do what had to be done? Emotions were to be put away when they got in the way of things. Or so my grandmother used to say. A lady didn’t make a scene in public. Everything I felt and thought didn’t have to be at the front of my mind. That didn’t, however, mean I couldn’t dredge them to the top when I needed them as I did now.

  Trace had been shot days ago. No one had heard from him. He was probably dead. I let my tears flow down my cheeks. They were real, even if my manipulation of them wasn’t. Funny how that could be, how something could be both real and not real at the same time.

  The Caribbean was beautiful, but I’d hardly gotten to enjoy it the last time I was here, and the bright pinkness of the sky seemed startling mean to me tonight. Nothing should be beautiful while I was this worried.

  I didn’t wipe my tears away. Somehow I had to not overplay this. There could be a million reasons the woman reacted to my name. One of them might have been that she’d heard Trace say it. It wasn’t like saying a name that people heard all the time. I’d never run into another Everly.