Chapter Two
Danny finished knotting his bowtie and snagged his phone off the desk. Dark still. No more texts from Mel. He hit the call button. Straight to voicemail—not Mel’s recorded voice—automated instead, reciting a random number generated by Jamie’s embedded kill switch.
He turned the device end-over-end in his hand, giving himself reasons not to worry. Mel was on US soil, the most dangerous part of her job done. She had all the necessary paperwork and permits, never leaving for any gig without them. She could out-interrogate anyone, especially a couple of customs agents. She’d serve them their balls for dinner, and if things got physical, he had no doubt about her combat skills. He’d witnessed her take down multiple mercenaries at once, single-handed, without ever drawing a gun.
But the fact she’d activated the kill switch, the fact she’d had him phone Nic Price at the US Attorney’s office, and the fact that sixty minutes had turned into ninety and now bordered on one-twenty, meant he was worried, regardless of all the reasons not to be.
This had to be karma, retribution for sleeping his way through his teens and twenties. Don Juan Danny, Mel had once called him. Then of course he’d fallen for her, the resident badass who could break his neck as easily as she could break his heart. Which almost happened last spring when she’d nearly died, twice.
He could still remember her unconscious form, thrown against the wall and hair singed off by an explosion. And not twelve hours later, her blood, her life, pooling under his hand and staining her white sweater, bleeding out from the gunshot wound she’d taken to save his brother and their niece.
Miraculously, she’d pulled through, both times, and so had they, but Mel refused to be caged, and Danny knew they’d never last if he tried to put her in one. Granted, he got a stomach ulcer for it, no matter how calm he seemed on the outside, but if that was the price he had to pay for being with her, so be it. Having come close to losing that love, to losing her, he didn’t want to experience that awful feeling again for many, many years.
Years. They’d have years together, a lifetime, he reassured himself, as he tossed his phone on the desk.
His confidence waned, though, as the device landed next to the polished wood case he’d brought out of the family safe. Reaching for it, he toggled the patina latch and carefully opened the lid. Nestled inside, cradled by green silk, were two gleaming silver pocket watches, inscribed with initials on one side and the Talley crest on the other, and in between them, an empty space for a third. Danny had thought he’d have a lifetime with his older brother too. Not Aidan—Sean.
Thirty Years Ago
Danny squealed as his brother lifted him onto his shoulders, bringing him closer to the sky. He grabbed Sean’s hair, holding tight, and stuck out his tongue, catching the cold, wet snowflakes falling from above. He laughed as his brother spun them round and round, until the spinning made him feel sick. He patted Sean’s head, like he did Mama’s cheek. “Down!”
He flew through the air again, off Sean’s shoulders and into his lap as Sean sat in a patio chair. “You look green, baby bro,” Sean said, tugging the scratchy scarf around Danny’s neck tighter.
Danny tried to push it away, even though it was warm, until Sean held something shiny in front of his face. “Look at this, Danny,” Sean said, and Danny forgot all about the scarf.
He liked shiny things. He reached out and ran his fingers over it. It was rough, not scratchy like the scarf, but not smooth like a spoon, or like Mama’s necklaces he liked to grab. He tried to grab hold of this new object, even though it was bigger than his hand.
“No, no, no.” Sean laughed, holding it away from Danny. “It’s too heavy for you just yet.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a watch.” He mashed the top and it broke apart.
“Oh no! You broke it!”
“No, Danny, it’s okay. Look, I just opened it. See? Open, close, open, close.”
Sean was making the shiny part go away and come back, go away and come back. When it went away, there was another different shiny part with something dark, like a stick, moving on it.
“What’s it do?”
“It tells time. You know, like the big clock in the corner of Da’s office.”
Danny made the noise the big clock made. “Ding, dong.”
“That’s right, but this one’s smaller. I can carry it with me, so I know when it’s time to come home.” He ruffled Danny’s hair and pulled him closer. “Back to you.”
Danny needed a watch too then, to tell him time so he’d know when to come home to his brother. “How’s it work?”
Sean took Danny’s hand in his and put it on the watch. He couldn’t touch the moving parts, glass between his hand and them. “The arm—” Sean put their fingers on the stick piece “—goes around once each hour.” He moved their fingers, round and round, like how they’d spun. “And there are twenty-four times around in a day.”
Danny yanked his hand back and stared up at Sean. “I want it.”
“I’m sure you do.” Sean snapped the first shiny part back on, and Danny reached for the watch again. Sean put it in his hand but he couldn’t hold it. “See,” Sean said, catching it. “It’s too big for you right now, but one day, you’ll get one too.”
“Me?” Danny said, looking up at his brother again.
Sean’s eyes, the same color as his hair, the same as Danny’s and Da’s, were shiny too. He kissed Danny’s forehead. It was cold and wet like the snowflakes from the sky. “Yeah, baby bro, there’s one waiting for you too.”
Danny’s eyes went back to the watch. “Open it,” he said, repeating his brother.
Sean mashed the top again, and the shiny part went away again.
“Close it,” he said, and Sean made it come back.
Over and over, open and close, until Danny laughed and clapped himself to sleep.
Present
That was the only memory Danny had of his oldest brother, his first memory ever, from a cloudy winter day right before his third birthday, right before Sean was killed by the IRA in a car bomb. The Garda Síochána, Ireland’s police force, had seized Sean’s personal effects at the crime scene, including his book bag and pocket watch, and Danny’s family had fled Ireland before they could collect them. When Danny and Aidan had returned decades later, the Garda had said Sean’s things were lost, like their brother, and the surviving brothers had kept their pocket watches in the family safe ever since. Danny had only pulled them out tonight in honor of his family’s special occasion, though now Danny worried his doing so had been a curse.
His worry grew when Jamie entered the cabin, distress etched on his face.
Danny closed the lid on the box and pushed it aside. He wouldn’t take his out until Aidan arrived, and judging by Jamie’s face, he guessed there was bad news on that front too. “Aidan?”
“Activated his kill switch.”
Danny’s stomach sank. Both Mel and his brother—Jamie’s fiancé and acting SAC of the San Francisco field office—had gone dark.
“Any further word from Mel or Nic?” Jamie asked. He’d gotten an auto notice when Mel activated her kill switch. Danny had told him it was a customs issue and that Nic was on top of it. But now, with Aidan’s activated too...
Danny shook his head. “Nothing. When did Aidan go offline?”
“A half hour ago, at LAX. Didn’t make his flight.”
“Where’s Cam?” Danny asked, referring to Aidan’s new partner.
“On deck running through security protocols with your security deputy.” Head down, Jamie was already typing a text, and Danny could read Nic’s name on the screen.
“You think it’s related to the party tonight?” Danny asked.
“I hope not, but the timing’s suspicious.”
Danny’s stomach bottomed the rest of the way out. He closed his eyes and lifted his hands to run them through his hair, then, at the last possible second, remembered it was styled and balled his hands into fists instead. His parents, siblings and friends of the family were here. TE’s investors and employees were here. Members of the financial and tech press were here. If something happened tonight, everything, everyone, was in jeopardy.
“Hey.” Jamie lightly grasped his arm. “The wheels are in motion. Nic’s at SFO—” he flashed the phone at him, displaying Nic’s curse-laden confirmation “—the LA SAC is headed to Aidan, and Cam is coordinating here. You and I both know if Mel and Aidan want out of whatever boxes they’re being held in, they’ll find a way out. Our bases are covered.”
“What do we do? Just go out there and pretend nothing’s wrong?”
“Nothing may be wrong,” Jamie replied. “If it is, panicking a ship full of fancy-dressed people won’t do us a damn bit of good. I’ll go out there and keep my eyes open with Cam.” He swiped back his tux jacket to reveal a gun at his waist, which eased another fraction of Danny’s tension. “You go out there and be Daniel Talley, charming, funny COO of Talley Enterprises. Future CEO, once your dad retires. This is as much your commissioning as it is this ship’s.”
Danny tipped his head. “Nice use of nautical terms.”
“I’ve learned a few spending the last six months designing software for this baby.” He patted the wall, smiling. “And I did spend many a summer with Cam’s family on the water.” Jamie stepped closer, pulling a long narrow item from inside his coat pocket. “Aidan and I were going to give this to you at the end of the night, but I think it’ll give you some comfort now.”
The slim black case Jamie handed him was top-of-the-line leather, hand stitched and embossed with his initials and the TE clover and star logo. Danny folded back the flap and ran his fingers over the polished tension wrench, pick and rake inside.
Lock-pick tools.
Comfort indeed.
“And now you can get yourself out of any box too,” Jamie said.
Danny drew him into a crushing hug. “Thank you, Jameson, for everything.”
“You’re welcome.” Jamie gave him two manly backslaps before stepping back. “Now, your guests are arriving and we’re due onstage soon. Let’s mingle.”
Mingle, right, and trust that the bases were covered. He had the best in the security business on his staff and in his family. They should be good, safe. He slid the new lock-pick set inside his jacket pocket, ran a hand over the box of watches, and grabbed his phone off the desk. Still dark. He dropped it in his pants pocket where it made a muffled clank against Mel’s gift.
He put on the smile that had stolen a thousand hearts, praying that the one and only holder of his would be here soon.