Page 52 of Unexpected Complication

“I tried getting into the drug scene. I thought I might be able to find out the identity of this guy my dad seemed so concerned about. I knew he had something to do with my dad’s death, and I was hell-bent on revenge.”

Her eyes widened. “That was dangerous.”

I nodded. “I wasn’t really thinking clearly. Then Sean found out.” I arched my eyebrow at her. “Now, that was dangerous.”

“What happened?”

“He screamed and yelled at me for days.” I shook my head at the memory. “Threw me in his car and brought me here. He said it was for my own good.”

“So, it’s family trait, then, this kidnapping urge you have.”

I chuckled, lifting her hand and kissing it. Even as hard as this was, she made me smile.

“So, I was stuck here, isolated with him, and he yelled. He yelled a lot. And as loud as he wanted to—which was pretty fucking loud. He refused to let me leave until I talked to him and told him where my ‘dumbass-fucking mind’ had come up with ‘such a stupid, inane plan.’”

“And?”

“I finally snapped and told him what I was doing and why. We talked for hours. He told me he felt the same and was trying to find out information. By then, he had established his own surveillance company, and he did a lot of work, discreetly, for the force and other government agencies. He is incredibly gifted when it comes to software and computers.”

I huffed a sigh. “He said there was an investigation going on and what I was doing was only hurting it. He talked to me like an adult. Man-to-man. He made me see sense, and I agreed to stop my behavior and let him handle it.” I used my free hand to scrub my face. “It felt good to get it off my chest.”

“You needed to know someone understood your pain. That someone else heard you.”

“Yes, I did. I needed to feel like I wasn’t the only one who remembered my dad—or what happened to him.”

“Sean did.”

I nodded. “Sean did so much for me I never really appreciated until I was older. He gave up his life and career for me—he put me first. He knew he was all I had and it was too dangerous to stay an active agent, so he left the force and started working on his own. He concentrated on being behind the scenes—he’s brilliant at it.” I grinned at her. “As you well know.”

She shook her head, even as she grinned back at me.

“And?” she asked. “What happened next? I still don’t understand.”

I shrugged in resignation. “And nothing. The trail grew cold. They were never able to pin the murder on anyone.”

“So, how did you get here, then?”

“I finished school. Went to college. I joined the police academy and became a cop. Sean wasn’t happy about it, but he knew I had it in my blood. He met Julia, and they got married. Life sort of moved along. Until…”

“Until?”

“One day, I got called into my superior’s office. I was told there was a special case they needed help on. A hit man, well-known to them, had voluntarily approached them, offering all his secrets.”

“Why would he do that?”

“He was dying. He found out he had six months to live. He wanted to take someone down, and he needed help to do so.”

“How did you fit in?”

I smiled ruefully. “Tony Malone was known as the Irish Killer, Skylar. He had red hair. And aside from the string of bodies he was rumored to have left behind, that was the only thing that was known about him to the world outside the criminal one. He was not only a killer for hire, but he specialized in stepping in and cleaning house for someone if needed. He never showed his face to anyone who lived to tell about it unless he wanted you to see it. The photos they had of him were few and far between and most of them grainy. All his hits were done with the greatest of secrecy. He was a mystery. A ghost.”

“With red hair.”

I nodded. “I met him and almost fell over. We could have been body doubles. We were the same height and build, and our hair was the same wild, crazy shit—all over the place. Facially, we didn’t look alike, but that didn’t matter. We were even close in age—his, ah, career began very early in life for him.”

“And he wanted this Orson taken down?”

“Yes.”