Ball & Chain

Kelly covered them with his own, lowering Nick’s hands into his lap. “It’s okay,” he whispered. Then he took both sides of the shirt and pulled Nick toward him. He buttoned the shirt in silence, only meeting Nick’s eyes when he was done. “We have another night on this island. And there are still a lot of lives in danger. You did what you had to do.”

Nick stared at him. “We’ll keep telling ourselves that, huh?”

Kelly nodded. Then he took Nick’s hand and helped him off the ground. “Get out of those pants.”

Nick managed to huff a laugh.

“Because they’re wet! Pervert.”

Nick shed the remainder of his wet clothing and changed into the dry garments Kelly had brought him. He hated to admit it, but it felt better just being dry and warm. Kelly took the cuff of Nick’s soaked jeans and wiped at his hands for him, holding the flashlight between his cheek and shoulder so he could see the dirt and blood.

Nick remained quiet, even when Kelly held his hand and watched his fingers trembling for a few seconds. There was nothing further to say about any of it.

“Come on,” Kelly murmured. “Zane had an idea about the computer files. He said he wanted your help.”

When they reached the study, they found a fire blazing and giving off enough light to see the darker corners of the room. Zane was seated behind Milton’s laptop. He and Ty were having a heated discussion, one that cut off sharply when Nick and Kelly entered the room.

“You found something?” Kelly asked.

“Fraser’s still talking,” Zane told them. “He said he met with a man in a pub on the mainland a month ago who offered him a million US dollars to do this. He was to recruit Maisie as well. Neither could turn down that kind of money for something they thought would end with a ransom job and everyone returned safely.”

Nick sat in a chair by the fire, beginning to shiver. Kelly hovered near him, the fire casting odd shadows over the lines of his frown.

Ty was watching both of them, his expression unreadable. “He said he didn’t know who killed Milton, just that it wasn’t either of them. They had nothing to do with buying his information; their sole purpose was to get to either Stanton or Amelia.”

“That’s where Nikki comes in?” Nick guessed. “Milton was her mark?”

“We can only assume.”

“What about Kline?” Kelly asked.

Nick glanced up at him. “Who?”

“The hot, kickass lady you shot in the face,” Kelly provided.

“The back of the head, really,” Zane added.

“Yes, thank you!” Nick snapped.

“She was a backup to make sure the others got the job done,” Ty said. “I guess. I don’t know. She thought she was the last man standing and panicked.”

“Burns does like his backups,” Nick said.

Ty narrowed his eyes.

“But!” Zane said loudly. “Fraser said that the morning Milton’s body was discovered, he did stumble over Maisie and the body. But Maisie told him she’d been slipped a handwritten note under her door in the middle of the night. It told her to go find the body, break the watch, and change the time. If that failed, she was to take it and dispose of it.”

Nick scowled hard enough that the bruises on his face hurt. “Why?”

“Presumably to destroy what they thought was stored info about his past movements. Jockie didn’t know, and he didn’t ask. But he said that before Maisie could change the time, they were interrupted by other staff.”

“Wow,” Kelly whispered. “That means if Nikki was in the walls and Maisie was the one who wanted the watch, they were probably the ones who cut Milton open. Dude, talk about nightmare nannies.”

“Focus. You have no proof of any of that,” Nick said.

“Oh, excuse me Mr. I’m Not a Cop Anymore.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “So if Maisie just broke the watch but didn’t change the time, why is it wrong? Did Milton do it?”

“We can only assume the time on Milton’s watch is something he wanted us to know,” Zane said. “The question is what does it mean?”

“It’s the file number,” Nick realized.

Zane grinned and nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. Milton left it as a hint in case he didn’t make it. He knew that watch was special, something connected to Burns and even Ty. He knew they’d know that type of watch wouldn’t show the wrong time unless it was set wrong. The only reason it didn’t ping was because Maisie broke it.”

“Speaking of Burns, where the fuck is he?” Kelly asked.

“Dad has the villagers out with their pitchforks looking for him,” Ty said.

“It wasn’t the killers who left that note for Maisie, or they’d have just done it themselves. That was the big kahuna. Burns would sure as shit know to tell Maisie to get rid of that watch, though.”

“Burns isn’t masterminding these murders, Irish,” Ty snapped.

“Our job is to get into that file,” Zane said with a pointed look at Ty. He turned his attention to Nick. “I think the file number he used for this information was also the code to his part of the DOD info. What was the time?”

“3:48,” Nick answered.

“They’re six-digit file names.”

Nick’s eyes widened. “You want me to remember the seconds?”

“Do you have your iPad with the pictures?”

“I . . . I don’t know what happened to it.”

“Then yeah, I want you to remember the seconds,” Zane said.

Nick glanced at Kelly, incredulous. Kelly shrugged and tapped his temple. “You were obsessing about it. You know what time it said.”

Nick snapped his mouth closed and leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand. “It looked like a smiley face,” he finally said. He stood and took a clock off the mantle. “Ten, maybe. Give or take five seconds.”

“That, I can work with.” Zane turned back to the computer, stretching his shoulders before beginning to type. He was at it for almost ten minutes, long enough for Ty to get twitchy and start pacing, for Kelly to lay himself out on the couch, and for Nick’s mind to travel back to the sound of a billiard ball cracking ribs and a man begging for mercy.

“Found it,” Zane finally announced. “It was military time. Fifteen, not three.”

They crowded around his seat, all of them trying to see the computer screen. Dozens and dozens of files were contained in the password-protected folder. As Zane clicked from one to the next, they began to tell the story of what Milton had been involved in, and what he’d been trying to do on the island.

There was evidence and documentation of all the threats Stanton had received. Evidence that Amelia was indeed a target. Evidence that someone intended to hit them at Livi and Deuce’s wedding. There were photos of Nikki Webb and her true identity, her fake passports, and several jobs she’d been suspected of being involved with. She was a professional hitter.

“This says she always works alone, never with a partner. Why’d she change up her MO?” Nick asked.

“A million-dollar payday will do that,” Ty reasoned.

The files had nothing listed on her partner, though. Whomever she had been spotted on the beach with was still a ghost. Still on the island. Still a threat.

Milton related in a document that he intended to engage Nikki by agreeing to sell her the information she was after, and then take her out. Obviously, things hadn’t gone to plan. Milton hadn’t been expecting a second person at their meeting.

“Explains the crack to the back of his head,” Kelly said.

There were communications from Richard Burns, labeled with shorthand that Nick recognized as meaning a third party had provided the information. They detailed three of Stanton’s island staff who were involved and warned that the two groups might be controlled by the same people, and therefore aware of each other and able to join forces if need be.

“Burns knew all this was coming,” Nick said through gritted teeth. He turned and shoved at Ty. “Why the hell didn’t he tell Deacon to cancel this shit?”

Ty was speechless, still staring at the screen in disbelief. “Burns isn’t responsible for this.”

Nick turned away, shaking his head. Kelly moved with him, patting his stomach like he was trying to keep him calm. Nick knew, though, that Kelly had determined over years of practice that the best way to keep Nick from attacking was to grab him right around the hips and upend him before he could get going. Kelly wasn’t comforting him, necessarily, he was just preparing to put him on his ass if he lost it.

And he was damn well about to lose it.

Zane could see the warning signs, he just didn’t know what the hell to do about them. Before coming here and spending more time with Nick and Kelly, he hadn’t even known Nick was capable of losing his temper, much less the many and sundry things he’d demonstrated tonight. He really was more like Ty than Zane had ever guessed. Looking between the two of them, at the two friends squaring off against each other, at the rock and the hurricane, Zane couldn’t guess who would win the coming fight. He didn’t want to find out, either.

“Something bigger’s going on here, Ty, something it sure as hell looks like Dick Burns knew was coming. If he didn’t plan it all to begin with!” Nick hissed. He pointed toward the staircase. “Now either you go up there, find him, and find out what the hell it is, or I will!”

Instead of bellowing back at him, Ty put his hands up in appeasement.

“Don’t,” Nick snarled.

Ty closed his eyes and nodded. “Okay, just calm down.”

“I’m tired of being calm,” Nick said, his voice dropping to a measured murmur. “I’m tired of being used. This ends tonight, whether by your hand or mine.”

Zane was of the opinion that Nick was far more threatening when he was cool and composed than when he was shouting. Kelly seemed to agree; he took a careful step away from them, moving to stand beside Zane.

“Just give it the night, okay?” Ty tried. “Everyone is safe right now. The ferry comes tomorrow, and then we’ll have time to deal with everything, figure this shit out. Just one night of peace for everyone before we go demanding answers and stirring shit up.”

“One night of peace?” Nick repeated incredulously. “Six people are dead! We’re investigating this bullshit on an island in the middle of fucking nowhere because we’re trapped here! There are people panicking all over the fucking place, all the weapons are still missing, and we are one pig’s head on a stick away from Lord of the Flies! A night of peace went out the fucking window when we landed, Beaumont!”

Zane was pretty sure Nick was going to have a stroke if Ty opened his mouth one more time. He and Kelly both moved closer, prepared to break up yet another argument between them.

“Burns may still have you like a puppy on a leash, Ty, but I’m not his fucking golden retriever. National security or not, family or not, we have to get answers from him. We fucking deserve answers from him, everyone on the island does.”

Ty’s nostrils flared and he pointed a finger in Nick’s face. “Don’t even pretend this is about closure for these people, that this isn’t about your beef with Burns,” he snapped.

“I’m not. I’d gladly lock that bastard up and throw away the key. Far as I’m concerned, if it weren’t for him, Eli would still be alive and I wouldn’t have a box of his things sitting on my boat that I’m still afraid to go through!”

Ty took a step toward him. Nick put a hand on his chest, pushing him back. He held up his finger like a parent scolding a small child, daring Ty to come at him again.

“Eli was loyal!” Ty shouted. “If you hadn’t left us, if you’d stuck with us instead of crawling home with your tail between your legs, maybe he’d have had someone watching his back and he’d still be here!”

“Oh,” Kelly said. He grabbed Zane’s sleeve to stop him from moving to interfere. “Nope. He’s going to get what he deserves now.”

Nick grabbed Ty’s jacket and pulled until they were almost nose to nose. “Did you ever stop and think, Ty, if you had listened to what I was saying then, listened to what I was trying to tell you about Burns and his fucking job offers, none of it would have gone down the way it did?”

Ty’s jaw tightened. He began to shake his head, and Nick let him go, shoving him away.

“Of course you didn’t,” Nick snarled. “It’s never on you, Ty.”

Ty still looked furious, but Zane could see something else creeping into his expression: the realization that Nick might be right.

“Eli was loyal. He could have taught you a thing or two about it,” Nick said tiredly.

“Fuck you, O’Flaherty!” Ty shouted. “I know what loyalty is, and that man is like a father to me! If you had a father you gave a shit about, you’d be doing the same thing!”

Nick’s jaw clenched and he took a step back, putting himself out of Ty’s reach. Or perhaps putting Ty out of his reach. His next words were whispered. “I’m tired of risking my life for you, Ty.”

Ty staggered back as if Nick had shoved him. He couldn’t form a response even as Nick turned and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him and rattling the ancient glass panes in the windows. They watched him go, all of them stunned into silence.

Kelly shifted his weight, and the floorboard creaked under his boot. Ty tore his eyes away from the doorway to blink at Kelly and then Zane. ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">