Page 22 of Avenging Kelly

“I thought they didn’t have a boat here on the island,” Kelly snapped, his tone accusatory as Rafe put the food on the kitchen island for lunch.

Rafe went to a cabinet and pulled out a few bags of chips, placing them on the island, as well.

My brother smirked, a smartass remark at the ready. “What? No homemade chips?”

Whatever was going on between those two was a mystery, but there was something there. Chemistry or malice, though, I wasn’t sure.

“I don’t peel potatoes. I have people for that,” Rafe stated before he pulled the skillet with caramelized onions from the stove and put them on a plate. The smells filling the kitchen were mouthwatering.

Chef then went to the fridge and retrieved a dip of some sort. It looked really great.

“What’s that?” Kelly asked as he sat down next to me at the table, offering me a can of soda that he’d noticed I liked.

“It’s garlic crab compote to put on your burger. I’ll spread it for you and put it under the broiler to brown it. It’s made with a garlic and spicy mustard base,” Rafe explained.

We all nodded and loaded our burgers with the delicious-looking concoction for Rafe to put under the broiler. As it browned under the heat, my stomach growled loudly, bringing a laugh from everyone.

When Rafe pulled them out and served the toasted brioche, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Kelly put some chips on top before he mashed it, bringing a laugh from Rafe at the sound of the crunch.

“I’ll have to keep the potato chips in mind when I feature these in my new restaurant in Vegas,” the chef announced as he sat down and joined us.

Nobody was talking. The food was too damn good to ignore with mindless chatter.

* * *

A gentle touch on my shoulder made me open my eyes. “You okay?” I asked Kelly, seeing his handsome face with a worried expression peering down at me.

I’d gone to take a nap after hiking to the other side of the island with Dallas to see if there were any campers to worry about. Thankfully, the campground was empty.

The weather had forecast rain for that evening with a drop in the temperature to the low thirties, which would explain why the campers had left the island. That was good news for us.

“I think I’ll do better going off on my own, London. Fuck the chip. They’ll find me sooner rather than later, so I should just go now.”

Kelly studied me carefully, but he could stare a fucking hole through me and it wouldn’t matter. No way was I letting him go off on his own.

“Why do you think you could do better alone?” I sat up, hoping to have a reasonable discussion, not an argument.

Kelly exhaled and sat down on the side of the mattress, sliding a foot under his ass as he glanced around the room before his eyes met mine. “I told some things to Mathis, and he’s—”

“Stop that. It’s not your fault Mathis is dead. The only people at fault are the ones who killed him. Now, we’re going to find them and deal with them, but you have to tell me what the fuck is going on, Kelly,” I almost begged as I scooted closer and took his hand.

“They offered me the opportunity to cut my incarceration time by joining an experimental program to test a new drug cocktail designed to enhance black ops soldiers’ field skills. They lied about cutting my time, just like they lied about me being out of the program after I was discharged. I’ve been trained to be an assassin, and I’m at their mercy until the day I die,” Kelly explained.

That was one for the books. The military was training its inmates to be assassins? What the hell was the country coming to? That was some fucked up logic, for sure.

“So, what did the program entail?” I asked, wondering for the first time if maybe Kelly was suffering from some sort of PTSD that could well have dated back to his time on active duty in the Army, though he’d said he’d been a mechanic.

I didn’t know what he’d gone through in a military prison, but I was sure it wasn’t a walk in the park. Was his hold on reality shaky? I definitely needed to know more before the two of us disappeared on an undertaking to avenge his sister’s kidnapping and Mathis’ death.

I could see he was about to protest my questioning, but I wasn’t having it. “You can fight me, but I’m coming with you. Tell me. I honestly want to help you.”

Kelly exhaled and glanced down at his hands. I saw they were clenched into tight fists, but I wasn’t sure if it was anger, fear, frustration… I could understand any or all of those reasons, given the situation. I was more than willing to share the burden, but he had to agree to let me.

“I’d been in Leavenworth for six months when I got on the bad side of an MP. He was walking backwards down an alleyway on the block, watching an inmate headed in the other direction.” I nodded to encourage him to continue.

“I was mopping the floors, and the asshole wasn’t paying attention. He tripped over the janitorial sign and slipped on the floor, falling on his ass. I laughed before I could stop myself, but I’d hated the fucker, anyway. He’d been on yard duty when two lifers started harassing a kid who’d stolen money from another inmate to send to his mother. He watched them beat the shit out of the kid and did nothing.”

Oh, I knew how it felt to deal with assholes who had a superiority complex. I’d handed a sergeant his ass when I was training new soldiers after I got out of advanced training during my limited Army career. Had the DEA not come a callin’, I’d have been in a world of hurt for sure.

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