Chapter 29

Sadie

K eelan took my wrist and led me away from the casino floor, where the noise of people and slot machines was less deafening. We found an alcove with a cushioned bench and hardly anyone around to eavesdrop. He gently sat me down and then stepped back until his back hit the wall.

“Please understand that everything I’ve kept from you was for your protection,” he said, running a hand through his black hair. “I didn’t want to lie to you, but I swore to Patrick to keep those secrets on your body—secrets that could take everyone down in both our families.”

I looked at the floor and swallowed. “How? What is this code, Keelan? And Patrick? Really?” I said. “You involved my brother?”

It was clear Keelan was biting the inside of his cheek. “No, Sadie. Patrick involved me … and you. He stole crucial files from your father and hid them. Patrick knew that once those files were discovered missing, it would only be a matter of time before the people in those documents came for him. It was the only way to ensure no one found it except us.”

I blinked as the realization hit me before he even said it.

“The code is the coordinate to where the lockbox is. He created the code and told me how to place it in the design we did for you. Patrick made sure that when the time was right, the two of us could get that box together.”

All the air I had been holding in released from my lungs.

I was a fucking map.

“You could have said no or put the code on your own goddamn body, Keelan!”

Keelan smirked. “Where would I put it, honey?” he retorted, holding his arms wide. I covered my eyes and hung my head. He was right. Keelan’s entire body was covered in tattoos.

“So … you don’t even know where the box is? He didn’t tell you anything?” I asked. No more games. Before my brother died, he instructed Keelan to put a code on my body to where he’d hidden secret files. I needed answers. I deserved them. “What’s in those files, Keelan? Did he tell you that, at least?”

“Before he died, Patrick began gathering files to blackmail your father and his associates. He wanted out, and he wanted to take you with him to protect you. During his search, though, he found something. It was something that scared him so badly that he took those files and came to me. This was darker and more sinister than anything our families had done before. That’s all he told me; it was enough for me to do what he asked. Patrick was my best friend, and I had never seen him so frantic before.”

I dragged my hand from my eyes and cupped my cheek, pressing my lips into my palm. Patrick had so many secrets he kept close to the vest. Despite our extremely strained relationship, my brother did try to help me. I knew that deep in my heart. His bullying persona mostly had been an act to spare me from our father’s fists as often as possible. Although, I knew part of the bullying was to cope with the immense pressure that he was under. He constantly pushed me away from the business so the corruption wouldn’t taint me or result in getting swept up in a raid if the feds came for us. Patrick didn’t want the sins of our family to take me down with them.

So instead, he hid them on my body—the ditzy, na?ve daughter that no one paid attention to.

“From what he told me before his death,” Keelan continued, “he secured three files’ worth of documents containing enough information to take down the entire Ryan and Blake empire, company and all. The lockbox has everything. Every dirty cop, politician, lawyer, and everyone else involved with your father and mine would go down in flames. He was waiting for the right time to hand over the documents to the FBI since it was too risky with so many people in your dad’s pocket. Then he died with only the code leading to where they’re hidden.”

Shock and horror hit me all at once. We were so fucked.

“Patrick loved the wealth the business gave him, but he cared more about your safety. This was the only way to save you,” he continued. “He knew that his death was imminent, so he was desperate to hide the documents. These files had to be protected, and he knew I would guard you with my life. Putting the code for the map onto you was our best option.”

It was so hard to wrap my mind around all of this. There was a code hidden on my skin this entire time. While I knew I wasn’t as skilled as my brother—and never would be—I couldn’t fathom that I hadn’t noticed until now.

Because the last year left you so traumatized that looking at the tattoo was too difficult. Before then, you were too selfishly wrapped up in fucking Keelan to notice.

“Sadie, even if I could read that Morse code, I don’t know how to use the program to decrypt the image. I just tattooed the key to the hiding place. My father protected our side of the family by ensuring we didn’t learn anything beyond that. It was too fucking risky with so many enemies. When it was safe to do so, Patrick expected you to do it.”

I stood, the skirts of my dress swishing around my legs as I paced the hall. “The program is like riding a bike. It’s been a while since I used the software, but if I can get through the access point, it should be straightforward.”

“And the key phrase?” he asked.

“That’s simple Morse code, Kee. That’s the easy part. Though I don’t need an online translator to help me, it will take some time to read the letters. If I don’t type in the phrase exactly how it’s entered, it won’t work, and the program is designed to lock us out. I basically get one chance before it would prompt the administrator of a breach in the system. And, well, the admin is dead, so …”

Keelan smiled. “You won’t mess up,” he said reassuringly. “You’ve let your bastard of a father’s criticism make you believe you can’t do it. But you’re just as skilled as Patrick. I’ve watched you, Sadie. Since we were little, I’ve seen you learn and memorize every detail of what your brother and cousins did, even when your dad stopped teaching you. You’ve got this. ”

My eyes welled with tears. No one ever told me I was smart, valuable, or needed. Patrick did what he could, but Dad was determined to drive us apart. For a long time, I believed my brother hated me. But he didn’t. He wanted to destroy our father and save me.

Taking a breath, I looked down at my exposed midriff and pulled up the hem of my top to expose more of the constellations.

“So, did you intend for it to be written upside down?” I asked.

Keelan looked around, checking to see if anyone was nearby. The hall by the alcove was empty, save for a couple of college kids who were on their phones. He then took my hand and leaned in, as if to kiss my cheek. “We can’t talk anymore about this here,” he whispered directly into my ear. “Let’s take a picture of the entire piece back in the room and read it together. Once we find out where Patrick hid that lockbox, we’ll pack up and get to Los Angeles.”

My heart ached from being kept in the dark for so damn long. But I understood why Keelan did what he did by not telling me. Patrick had a reason for doing this: placing the code with me. I wouldn’t let that reckless idiot have died in vain by doubting the one person he could trust with these secrets.

“Alright. Let’s do it.”

Keelan nodded, and we headed toward the elevators. Once we were alone inside the cab, he turned to me. “Gavin sent me the software to a laptop he gave me before I left Burbank. It’s installed in a secured folder, and any data will be wiped when I press the kill switch so no one else can see the information. Once we read it, I’ll call Gavin, and we’ll have to leave. Are you ready for this? ”

The nagging, dark voice in my mind told me this wouldn’t be easy and that I was not good enough. I shoved that doubt aside and squared my shoulders, keeping my eyes on Keelan as I answered, “Yes.”

Once back in our hotel room, I stripped off my top and skirt, letting the beautiful pink fabric pool at my feet. Keelan’s eyes flared, but he pulled out his cell phone and snapped a photo of my entire torso. I changed into leggings and a white T-shirt, and we sat down at the small table to examine the photo. I took the picture and brightened the image as far as possible, altering the contrast until the dark was sharp and stark against my skin. Using a notepad and pen, I examined different sections of the image in detail.

“Okay, so obviously, this right here is Morse code, but there are so many stars in this design that I need to make sure I know exactly what is part of the code and what isn’t,” I said. “Before putting it into the stars, did he show you anything?”

Keelan shook his head. “I just remember the code starting here,” he said, pointing to the blended shades of black at the top of the first constellation. “It’s so tiny, but you can see how some of the lines are broken up into dashes and where the dots start.”

I narrowed my eyes at the design, hoping it began where my finger pointed. “One dash, two lower dots.” I turned to him. “Write that down.”

Keelan began jotting down the short dashes and dots and looked at the design with me .

“The code’s design is a series of what we call dits and dahs interspersed throughout. The way Patrick designed it is all within the stars and the colors that connected them. It looks like it continues until it gets to the upside-down crescent moon.” I pointed to the tattoo. “Dark,” I said. “Write that down. The first word is ‘Dark.’”

We kept working as I gave him more dots and dashes to jot down.

“Shit. The way this looks, I can’t tell if it’s a dash or a dot,” I said. “It’s blending too much with the darker colors.”

Keelan leaned forward to look at the image with me. “Looks like a line ... er, dash. I’m pretty clean with my work, Sade. That’s definitely a dash.”

I squinted my eyes at the small speck that irked me. After a moment, I saw the tapered ends of a line, so I nodded. After directing him to write down several dashes, dots, and a sideways dash, I gave him the next set of words. “I think this section means ‘Skies Kiss.’”

Fuck. I think.

“Are you sure?”

“No, Keelan. I’m not sure. Even if we put it into some Morse code translation website, if I mess up the sequence, it won’t work. One mistake and it can spell out an entirely different phrase.”

Keelan reached out and placed his hand over mine. “You got this, Sade.”

I grinned. “Let me see the pad.” I took the notepad from him and jotted down the last of the dits and dahs. “Alright, I think I have it.”

“What does it say?”

Holding up the pad, I read, “Dark Skies Kiss Stars Good Night.” I turned to him. “Pull up the program. ”

Keelan walked over to his duffle bag and pulled out a silver laptop. He powered it up and double-clicked on a yellow folder on his desktop. Immediately, a pop-up came, and he typed in a few numbers Gavin had sent him. “Okay, we’re in.” He turned to me. “You’re up.”

I nodded, pulled the laptop in front of me, and spotted the program hidden in a subfolder. It took about ten minutes to get the program up and running.

It had been years since I used the system my family created, but the moment it showed up on the screen, everything I had learned came flooding back. With the login prompt on the screen, I entered the specific sequence of numbers and symbols Patrick had me memorize as a kid to access the data. The screen flashed blue, and then it turned white.

“Did Gavin give you a USB cable or Bluetooth?” I asked.

“Oh, right. Give me a second.”

Keelan rushed to his bag, pulled out a short black cord, and grabbed his phone. He plugged the two together, and another small pop-up window appeared, asking if I wanted to upload images. I clicked a few buttons, and the photo transferred into the program directly.

Another prompt appeared, asking for the six-word phrase to unlock Patrick’s map.

“Well, we’re about to find out if I wrote it down correctly.”

I typed in the words Dark Skies Kiss Stars Good Night.

Then, I clicked “Enter.”

Please work. Please work.

When the system scanned the image without locking us out of the program, we knew we did it, and my shoulders relaxed .

Thank God.

“What are we looking at?” Keelan asked. “Is that it?”

“It’s pulling up the location through something similar to Google Maps. Look,” I said, pointing to the GPS coordinates.

“Well, will you look at that,” Keelan said.

I turned on satellite imaging and zoomed in on the spot with the mouse pad. “It’s the Los Angeles subway, but this is an old tunnel we used to explore as kids. See the red symbol? It’s been closed off for twenty years. That would make for a good hiding space if you think about it.”

Keelan saw the look on my face, and his eyes softened. “Are you okay? I mean, I—”

“I’m okay, but Keelan … I need to call my mom. If Patrick left such catastrophic information for me to find, she’s in danger, too.”

I stood and ran my hands through my hair. My body felt like wires were zapping my skin and bones, making me shake. “I know Aisling was a shitty mother to Patrick and me, but she’s still as much of a victim of my dad’s monstrous behavior. She helped me escape. It’s now my turn to save her.”

Keelan placed his hand on my arm as he nodded. “I understand. Let me make a quick phone call, and we’ll start packing. I’ll type the coordinates in my phone since mine is encrypted. We’ll have to wipe the computer with the killswitch and shred the notepad.”

He then turned and walked to the hotel door, and that’s when I took a moment to breathe.

I did it. We did it.

As he stepped out, I went over to our bags and started packing, taking a few more breaths to calm my nerves. As I folded one of Keelan’s shirts and placed it inside, I noticed something folded on the bottom, another shirt wrapped around it. I pulled the shirt free and unwrapped it. My brows furrowed as I saw something I wasn’t expecting … and my breath caught.

It was the magazine I had posed for. I knew it was the same one from that night Keelan killed Richard because I had accidentally torn the bottom right corner of the cover when I pulled it from my bag.

I opened the magazine, seeing dark, reddish-brown fingerprints on the cover. Every muscle of mine locked tight as if bound by invisible chains. Keelan’s hands were covered in blood in the warehouse. This was Richard Wertz’s blood.

Oh, my fucking God.

The edges of the pages were also wrinkled from water damage after I dropped the magazine in a puddle. My vision tunneled, and there wasn’t enough air in my lungs. I stood and stumbled back.

It had been over a year since I stopped having panic attacks like these over what happened. Back in Vermont, they would happen late at night when memories of the murder would resurface. Why would Keelan keep this? Not just keep it, but bring it on the trip. Was this a trophy of his last kill before being locked up?

Fear and anger overwhelmed me, but I tried to push them back. I didn’t want to feel like this anymore. I accepted the fact that Keelan was a murderer, a cold-blooded killer, but seeing this again after all these years made my body feel like it had fallen into icy waters. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.

I need fresh air.

I was spiraling.

Having no idea where I would run off to, I walked to the hotel door and opened it. Keelan was standing in the hall talking to someone on the phone. He turned and saw that I was moving away from him.

I’ll be back. I just need air.

The words were lodged in my throat; I couldn’t speak. My lips were tingling and numb, my hands aching with sharp, electric pulses. The attack had me firmly in its grasp.

“Sadie?” Keelan said, his eyes examining my face before going down to my hands. Words, so many screaming words, died in my throat. I could only take a few steps before I bolted for the elevator.

I wasn’t running away. I just had to get away from him then . To breathe. To breathe outside these hotel walls.

My finger jammed the elevator button as I heard Keelan running after me. The world seemed to blur around me as the doors slid open. Luckily, there was no one else in there. But once I was inside and the doors started to close, Keelan’s hand caught them, causing them to re-open. He stepped inside, reaching for me. I backed up until my back smacked into the metal railing.

“Sadie, breathe,” Keelan said, putting his hands on mine. I felt a sharp tug and realized he had taken the magazine from me. In my panic, I didn’t even know I was still holding it.

“Please,” I begged. “Please get it away from me.” I wrapped my arms around my chest in a hug, hunched over, closed my eyes, and tried to control my breathing.

“Hey, it’s gone. Okay?” he said. I opened my eyes a little to see him fold the magazine and tuck it into his waistband before pulling his shirt over it. “It’s gone.” He cupped my face. “Fuck. Baby, take a breath.”

The elevator doors slid shut but didn’t move since I hadn’t pressed a button. I shook my head. “Why would you keep this? I testified against you because you killed a man in cold blood and then smiled about it—so fucking happy with your handiwork while he bled out. Now I’m here, reliving that awful nightmare. Why? Why did you do it, Keelan? Why did you ruin everything?”

Keelan stepped closer, and the smell of his cologne filled the air. I felt my shoulders start to relax.

“I should have burned that magazine, but I couldn’t. It was all I had left of you. I had no idea if I would ever see you again, so I had Gavin keep it safe. I just—” He ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t regret what I did to Richard. He deserved to die, and I will never be sorry for taking his life.”

I looked up, and my eyes went wide. “Why? Why does death and violence give you so much pleasure?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t. But you wouldn’t be standing here with me right now if I didn’t do what I did. I would have lost you.”

I blinked. “I don’t … I don’t understand.”

“Sadie …” My name trailed off his tongue, and he swallowed as if his throat had tightened. “Richard was going to hurt you.”

The pain in his voice was so raw that I snapped my head up to look at him. My mouth gaped at those words. “Wha—what?”

“Richard Wertz worked for your father as a software engineer. But Finn had also tasked him with following you. Patrick found out about it and came to tell me. He wasn’t sure why Finn would do that, and that bastard only told him to ‘trust the process.’ That was when Patrick knew something sinister was at play and started collecting information. But then, Patrick died, and I saw Finn slip Wertz an envelope at the cemetery. After the funeral, I followed Richard back to his house and broke in after he left. I searched his office until I found the envelope.”

“What was in it?” I asked, terrified of the answer.

Keelan sighed. “There was cash and a contract to have Patrick killed.”

My body felt frozen, but I wasn’t in shock that my father would have a hand in this. Tears filled my eyes and dripped down my cheeks. My father arranged to have Patrick, his golden child and the future of his company, murdered. I wanted to scream and rage and curse the man. But I couldn’t yet. I needed to hear the rest.

“Go on.”

“I was fucking furious. That asshole had the audacity to look upset at Patrick’s funeral. I decided to return later that night and find out more information before I made plans to kill him. When I returned to Richard’s office, I saw the magazine on his desk, opened to your picture and your tattoo on display. I didn’t know you had done the photoshoot as a gift for me. Patrick’s cell phone wasn’t found by his body, so once we realized it wasn’t suicide, it was pretty clear that whoever killed him took the phone.”

“He had his phone?”

Keelan nodded. “It was on the desk where the magazine was, and a secured text exchange I had with Patrick was open. Richard used some kind of backdoor to hack into the phone, bypassing the lock and other security measures. He read all the messages. Richard knew what that tattoo was. There was a magnifying glass right beside it.”

My mouth gaped.

“He was obviously looking for those missing documents. I don’t believe he told your father about it, though. If he did, your father would have come for you months ago. Richard had been working for your family for years. You never crossed paths with him because he was assigned to Patrick as a mentor. He was the one who taught Patrick how to utilize Morse code in the designs before sending them to my family. It wouldn’t take much for him to figure out what we had done.”

Keelan’s words hit me like a wave, pulling me under. Richard. A name that meant nothing, yet somehow, this man had single-handedly destroyed everything I loved. This stranger took everything from me.

“There were a few other messages on Patrick’s phone. One was a text exchange between Patrick and Richard. He was trying to recruit him to help blackmail your dad a few weeks after Finn hired him to track down the files. When Patrick refused to help him, Richard shot him in the chest and then collected the payment from Finn.”

I pressed my hand to my chest. “Oh, God.”

Richard Wertz’s business ventures were mentioned during the trial, and my father looked furious at the news. It made sense now. Richard had planned on screwing him over after he had paid him to kill his son. The police never found out who killed my brother, not that they investigated all that much. The official ruling was suicide, but Mom and I knew that wasn’t true.

“So, why was my dad having this man follow me?” I said while shaking my head.

“My guess is to make sure that you were behaving appropriately, especially after our engagement. It’s likely that he discovered you went to that photoshoot, too, and took a copy once it was published to try to decode it. The business ties between Finn and my father needed to stay intact if they were going to expand their fortunes. But Sadie, your father beat you and your mother your entire fucking lives until he handed you over to me. There is no depth of depravity that rat bastard won’t go to.”

Keelan was right, but I didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want to think that my father would go so far as to have a man follow me for something other than protection. Or that he would hire someone to kill his own son.

“After Patrick told me he was going to expose the families and that he had been working on taking them down for months, he had finally figured out how to do it. He refused to disclose the files’ contents but had a graphic ready with the key phrase and code embedded in the image. He knew I would protect you with my fucking life if I had to. I never, ever thought someone would see that tattoo.”

More tears flowed down my face. “But then I messed up and posed naked, showing the entire world where our family’s biggest and darkest secrets lie.”

Keelan shook his head. “Don’t blame yourself; you didn’t know.”

He dropped his hands from my cheeks and wrapped his arms around me as my breathing picked up. “Easy, baby. It’s okay. Richard would have taken you from me, decoded the message, and then killed you to tie up loose ends.”

My legs buckled beneath me, but Keelan caught me by the waist to keep me from falling.

“Sade, look at me,” he said softly, and I looked up. “Yeah, I killed someone for you. I would do it again and again if it meant keeping you safe and keeping you from being hurt by someone, just like I did with those men behind that bar. And I’ll sleep well at night every time I do it, knowing no one can touch you.”

“But ... why? You have always been cruel to me.”

Keelan shook his head. “You saw what you wanted to see, but that is so far from what I felt—so far from the truth.”

“Then tell me, Keelan.” I slammed my fist against his chest. “What is the truth? Why would you kill anyone to protect me?!”

“Because I’m in love with you!” His voice rose as he spoke. “Because I fucking love you, Sadie. I didn’t realize what it was to love a person so much until this trip. I’ve always had this desire to protect you since we were kids. The night in the cemetery, when I said those awful things to you that made you ignore me for months, was only to get you to run out of that cemetery. Patrick wanted to throw you into that open grave and leave you there for hours as a prank. I knew you wouldn’t believe me, so I did whatever I could to get you to leave. I even broke Jeffrey Stevens’s leg on the football team my senior year because those guys had a bet on who could take your virginity first.”

I blinked, but a small smile reached my lips. “You did that?” I chuckled at the memory. “Jeffrey said he fell down the stairs, but his story kept changing.”

“I can’t get you out of my fucking mind. I can’t even think straight half the time.” His eyes began to glisten. “You’re the first face I see when I wake up and the last thought before I fall asleep. The idea of you becoming my wife, not because our parents forced us to but because you want me just as much as I want you, feels as natural as it is to breathe ... like you have always been a part of me—that missing piece to my fucking sanity. Losing you would destroy me, Sade. ”

As those words left his lips, the elevator moved, taking us up to the fourteenth floor. Keelan quickly moved to the side as a couple with a small child entered the elevator and pressed the button to the lobby. My mind was racing now, unable to grasp his confession.

Keelan loves me , I repeated in my thoughts. I wasn’t just a possession to him. He loves me.

He saved my life.