Seeking Vengeance: Callaghan Brothers, Book 4 (15 page)

Nick looked around briefly, his eyes widening when he spotted the bank of electronics.  When he turned back to Sean, he found a hard, intense look that warned him not to even think about it.

Nick cleared his throat.  “I’m looking for Nicki.”

“Lose her, did you?”

Anger flashed in Nick’s eyes, but the kid apparently had managed to spare enough brain cells to tuck it away.  “She didn’t come home last night.” 

Sean was about to point out that there probably wouldn’t have been a problem if he had bothered to be there for his sister, but before he could, Nicki stepped out of the bedroom.  She took one look at her brother and the shape he was in.  “Ah, fuck, Nick.  No.”

“Nicki?” he said, surprised to hear her voice.

“You promised, Nick,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.

“What are you doing here?” Nick said, his voice growing stronger.  When she didn’t answer, he looked at her, then Sean, then back at her as it became clear.  “Fuck!”

“I buried our mother, yesterday, Nick,” Nicki said, her own voice taut with the strain.  “And I did it alone.”

“So you came to him?  To him!?”  Nick’s eyes were wild.

“Where else was I going to go?  Where were
you
?  Damn it, Nick!  Not again!  I can’t go through this again!”

“Did you fuck him, Nicki?  Did you?”

Faster than he would have thought possible, Nicki lunged toward Nick and pushed him.  Hard.  “Fuck you, Nick.  I so don’t need your shit right now.”

Nick reached out to grab her but she was much quicker than he was.  She spun around and bobbed up behind him, kicking him in the back of his knee once, taking him down to the floor. 

“Enough!” Sean bellowed.  He reached out and pulled her away from Nick, out of striking distance.  She tried to shrug away, but he held onto her arm in such a way that each struggle twisted her into a painful position.  He leaned down and spoke quietly in her ear.  “Calm down, hellcat.”

She stopped fighting him, thank God.  Nick, however, looked more pissed off than ever.  Sporting a nice rivulet of blood where he had split his lip, he staggered to his feet.  Sean pushed Nicki out of the way when Nick charged him.  The kid might be lean and wiry, but he was no match for a trained ex-SEAL.  With a smooth, practiced move, Sean easily caught and subdued him. 

“If you ever speak to her like that again I’ll beat you myself,” he growled into Nick’s face.  Nick’s body slumped as the fight drained out of him.

“How much, Nick?” Nicki asked wearily as her twin hung his head and tried to catch his breath, not an easy thing to do when Sean still had his arm around Nick’s throat. 

“Ah, fuck,” she murmured once again.  “Let him go, Sean.  He’s done.” 

Sean wasn’t convinced, but then Nicki looked up into his eyes.  “Please.”  It was a softly spoken request, one filled with more pain than he ever wanted to hear in her voice again.  Reluctantly, he released Nick, who crumpled and just barely caught himself before he hit the floor.

Nicki went to his side, attempting to help him up.  “Come on, Nick.  Let’s get you home.”  The weariness, the resignation in her voice led Sean to believe this wasn’t the first time she’d done this.

“I’ll come with you,” he said.  “Just give me a few minutes to change.”

She looked like she was going to argue with him, but she didn’t.  Thank God.  “Take your time,” she said, blowing out a breath.  “Mind if I try to get some coffee into him?”

“Hell, no.  Help yourself.”  With one last warning glance at Nick – who now looked like he hadn’t the strength to be a threat to anyone – Sean disappeared into his bedroom.

He finished dressing quickly, grabbing a shirt and some socks.  He could hear them talking in the living room.  They were speaking too softly for him to make out exactly what they were saying, but by the tone of their voices, he knew it wasn’t good.

Satisfied that they both seemed to have calmed down a little, Sean moved toward the back of his walk-in closet and popped the latch, into the hidden exit.  Pulling out his cell, he hit the speed dial; he only had to wait for one ring.

“Ian, man, I need you to run some shit for me.  Nicholas and Nicole or Nicolette Milligan.”  He cursed himself for not knowing her first name.  It seemed like the kind of thing a man should know about the woman he probably just impregnated and planned to marry.  “Yeah... thanks, man...  I need it like yesterday, hear me?...  Yeah, it’s important.. Right, fuck you too... later.”

Sean had no doubt that despite Ian’s grumblings, he would get on it right away.  Ian was just a little testy because it meant he had to crawl out of his nice warm bed (and his nice warm wife).  Sean couldn’t blame him. Now that he knew how it felt to be inside his woman, he wanted to spend as much time there as possible.

Including right now, as a matter of fact.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen.

He’d like to blame Nick, but he couldn’t, not for all of it.  Nicki was already trying to bolt before her brother had shown up, although Sean was confident he could have calmed her down and gotten her back in bed.  She was scared; he got that.  From the little bit he had pieced together of her life so far, he wasn’t surprised.  It didn’t take a psych degree to know she didn’t want to end up like her mom, pregnant and alone.

What she didn’t understand was that she would never be alone.  He would never abandon her or their child, if they’d just created one.  A chill went over him when he remembered her earlier question, asking about the nearest pharmacy soon after she realized what had happened.  She couldn’t possibly be thinking about the so-called morning after pill, could she?  Did they sell that shit over the counter now?  He didn’t think so, at least not in Pine Ridge, but it wasn’t worth taking the risk.  No matter what, he’d had to make damn sure she didn’t get anywhere near a pharmacy. 

Her brother, well, that was a bigger problem.  He’d suspected that at one time the kid had been into some bad shit, but he’d been clean for as long as he’d been working at the garage.  Sean was sorry to see him slip.  No matter how much Nick claimed apathy, his mother’s death probably pushed him over the edge, but that was no excuse.  Sean could only hope it was a one-time relapse and he’d get back on track.  He’d do whatever he could to help, but the decision was ultimately no one’s but Nick’s.  Nicki obviously cared a lot for her brother, but if the kid didn’t wise up, Sean would ensure that Nicki did not go down with him.

Sean tucked away his cell phone and re-emerged into his bedroom.  He could no longer hear their muted voices.  It was quiet.  Too quiet. A sudden, urgent fear gripped him.  He pulled open the door, only to find them already gone.

Sean cursed and grabbed his jacket and keys.

The quasi-Ducati was still there, parked where she had left it.  The beater Nick drove around town was gone, though, and now that he was thinking a bit more clearly, that made sense.  Given Nick’s condition it would have been stupid to trust him on her bike. 

Sean took a deep breath and forced himself to calm.  Nicki had control of the situation.  She’d obviously been through this kind of thing before.  Hopefully, she’d left for no other reason than to get her sorry-assed brother home and sobered up.

Compulsion made Sean cruise the CVS parking lot anyway, then the Rite Aid, then the Walgreens.  He was relieved when he saw no sign of Nicki anywhere.  He finally spotted the car parked in front of Nick’s apartment building.  From the next block Sean briefly caught sight of Nicki helping her brother up the steps to his apartment. 

He pulled over and sighed.  What the hell did he do now? 

He knew what he
wanted
to do.  He wanted to follow them into that apartment and do whatever he could to help his woman.  But something warned him that she might not be too keen on that, given this morning’s events.  Maybe it was better for him to give her a little space, let her do what she needed to do.  She’d already proven she could take care of herself. 

Sean thought again of the lightning quick lunge and sequence of moves he’d seen her execute, and even then, he had the distinct impression she’d been holding back.  She was poetry in motion, graceful, efficient, potentially deadly.  Definitely not something you would expect from your standard Vegas showgirl or gifted grease monkey.

Given the shape Nick was in, he’d keep her busy for a good part of the afternoon, more than enough time for Sean to do a little digging on his own.  He’d be back later with an offer of food and support and whatever else Nicki needed.  And if she had any more ideas about going somewhere without him, he’d set her straight on that.  His patience was at an end.

“H
ey, Sean,” Lexi said with a big smile when he appeared at the Pub a short while later.  Judging by the empathy in her eyes, Taryn had already filled her in. 

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.  “Hey, Lex.  Sorry about this morning.”

“Don’t sweat it, sweetie,” she said, handing Sean a cup of coffee.  “He’s in there working on it now.”

“You really are a goddess, Lex,” he said affectionately. 

She laughed, blushing.  Lexi was the master chef at the Celtic Goddess restaurant, named for her unique menu of Celtic and Greek cuisine based on her mixed heritage.  She made no secret of the fact that she was not comfortable with the name, so as their “sister”, they all teased her about it. 

“Come on.  He’s expecting you.”

Lexi led Sean into Ian’s “office”, then quietly closed the door behind her as she left.  The cursory glance Ian spared him when he entered the room did not bode well.  Neither did the sobriety in Ian’s expression or the distinct downturn of his mouth. 

“What have you got?”

Ian’s fingers moved like lightning over the keyboard as his eyes processed screen after screen, moving through them so fast it was hard to believe he could absorb any of it.  “It’s fucked up, Sean.  Really fucked up.  What did you get yourself into?”

Sean sank down heavily beside him, mentally preparing himself.    “Give it to me.”

“Let’s start with the mother, Charlene Milligan.  Died two days ago right here in Pine Ridge after being brought in to the hospital after a massive drug overdose several weeks ago.  Bad shit, too.  We’re not talking the usual recreational pharmaceuticals.”  Sean nodded.  He already knew about that part.

“History of indigence, drug use, prostitution, theft, domestic violence.  Had two children – twins – Nicolette and Nicholas at age sixteen.  Father unknown.  The kids were taken away and put into the foster system when they were around five.”

Nicolette
.  Her name was Nicolette.  “That young?” 

“The first time.  Apparently they didn’t fare much better in the system; they kept running away from their foster parents and returning home to Charlene.  Each time it took months before the law could take them away again.  No one wants to take kids away from a biological parent, even when the mom’s a real piece of work.  Doesn’t look like the foster homes were much better, actually.  Anyway, you get the basic idea.  I’ve got all the details here for you to peruse later, but I can tell you, it’s not pretty.”

Sean nodded.  He would go through all of it later, but he needed the highlights now.  “Tell me about Nick.”  He wanted to hear about Nicki last, sensing that whatever Ian had to say about her wouldn’t allow him to absorb much else.

“Classic troubled kid.  Scored really high in aptitude tests, genius level or above, especially in science and math, but never applied himself.  Had a couple of run-ins with the law – petty theft, mostly.  There are a lot of hints that the kid was a user, maybe even a dealer, but he was never officially busted.  If I had to guess, I’d say the kid had some friends in high places.”

“And Nicki?”

Ian’s face darkened.  “How much do you know about her?”

Sean shrugged.  “She’s very intelligent, very spirited.  Great with engines like her brother.  Worked in Vegas as a dancer six months before she came here.”

Ian’s frown deepened.  That was never a good sign.

“Why?” Sean asked.  “What did you find?”

Ian took a deep breath and exhaled.  “I found a marriage license.”

Whatever Sean had been expecting, it wasn’t that.  “She’s married?”

“Widowed.”

Something about the way Ian said it chilled Sean’s blood.  “Just tell me, Ian.”

“Here.  Check this out.”  Ian pressed a few keys and sat back far enough so that Sean could clearly see the the two PDF documents Ian had brought up.  One was a marriage license for Nicolette Milligan and Brian McMann.  Sean looked at the date and did a quick mental calculation in his head.  Nicki would have been just sixteen.  The other was a death certificate for Brian McMann.  Sean sucked in a breath when he saw the date.  It was the same.

“What the fuck?”  It was a miracle he managed to get even those words out.

“Official reports say McMann was shot execution style.  General consensus was it had something to do with a local drug dealer, but no one could ever pin anything on him.”

“And Nicki?”

“Eye witness accounts say she left the scene in an ambulance that was subsequently involved in an accident.  Nicki never made it to the hospital.”

“What happened to her?”

“Officially?  She was never in the ambulance.  She simply ceased to exist.  No footprint anywhere in the system until she showed up in Vegas six months ago.”

People did not just fall off the grid for eight years and suddenly appear again, not without some help.   Sean knew it.  And so did Ian. 

“What is she into, Ian?”

Ian shrugged.  “That, I don’t know. 
Yet
.  But I will.”

* * *

N
icki sighed when she heard the knock at the door, the instant thrum in her body telling her exactly who it was.  Frankly she was astonished it had taken him this long; she expected him hours ago.  Quite honestly, she wouldn’t have been surprised to look behind her when she’d first brought Nick home and seen Sean standing right there, ready to follow them in.  Sean Callaghan was big and strong and cocky, and his arrogance alone would have justified his presence, at least in his own mind.