Knocked Around Read online

  Other Titles by Calle J. Brookes

  Paranormal

  The Blood King

  Awakening the Demon’s Queen

  The Healer’s Heart

  Once Wolf Bitten

  Live or Die

  The Seer’s Strength

  The Warrior’s Woman

  The Wolf’s Redemption

  A Warrior’s Quest

  The Wolf God & His Mate

  Out of the Darkness

  Warrior Blind

  The Witch

  Balance of the Worlds

  God of Nightmares

  The Outcast

  The Forlorn

  Romantic Suspense

  Beginning

  Waiting

  Watching

  Wanting

  Second Chances

  Hunting

  Running

  Redeeming

  Revealing

  Stalking

  Burning

  Gathering

  Suspense/Thriller

  PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0001

  “Knocked Out”

  PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0002

  “Knocked Down”

  PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0003

  “Knocked Around”

  Coming Soon

  The Healer’s Soul

  Falling

  Calle J. Brookes is first and foremost a fiction writer. She enjoys crafting paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She reads almost every genre except horror. She spends most of her time juggling family life and writing, while reminding herself that she can’t spend all of her time in the worlds found within books. Calle J. loves to be contacted by her readers via email and at www.CalleJBrookes.com.

  For my grandfather, the best man I have ever known.

  You will be missed.

  Oct. 2015

  For my grandmother, who gave me the courage to try. Without you and your love of romance, I never would have made it this far.

  Feb. 2016

  PAVAD: FBI CASE FILES

  #0003

  KNOCKED AROUND

  Calle J. Brookes

  Lost River Lit Publishing, L.L.C.

  Springs Valley, Indiana

  Est. 2011

  The Lost River Lit Publishing, L.L.C. name and imprint are the sole properties of independent publishers Calle J. Brookes and B.G. Lashbrooks. They cannot be reproduced or used in any manner; nor can any of their publications or designs be used without expressed written permission.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, or locations, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  Copyright © 2015 Calle J. Brookes

  Cover by Lost River Lit Publishing, L.L.C.

  All rights reserved.

  KNOCKED AROUND

  Prologue

  MOTIVATION was always the key.

  He had six dead, and forty-two possible suspects. And no way to figure out which of those suspects was responsible.

  Mal Brockman, head of CCU Team Two, poured over the files in front of him and wished—not for the first time—that he had a desk job that he actually rode a desk in.

  It was seven minutes past ten in the evening and all he truly wanted was something to eat…and his wife.

  Jules had clocked out over four hours before and had probably already settled Auggie and Ruthie, their two children, into their beds.

  She was most likely waiting for him, wearing nothing more than one of his tee-shirts and a smile. Damn, he wanted to be home with that woman instead of pouring over a fifteen month cold case that he somehow doubted anyone other than the killers could solve.

  It hadn’t even been his case to begin with. It had come his way through the Internal Affairs division his younger brother ran.

  Mick had stumbled upon the case and when he took a look, his younger brother had passed it on to a more appropriate channels.

  Unfortunately for Mal, those channels could be summed up in one way—him.

  Mick was probably laughing his damned head off knowing his brother was stuck in the office so late while Mick was curled up with his new wife in the home they’d just moved into a little over four months ago.

  Someone knocked on the door and Mal looked up, grateful for the reprieve.

  Well. Apparently his brother wasn’t at home after all. “Mick? What’s up? Shouldn’t you have left hours ago?”

  “I found a bit more on that case. Paige got called out with Lorcan on a consult. She’ll be back in a few hours. And the kid is spending the night at the Reynolds’, so…Didn’t feel like heading home to an empty house. Thought about swinging by and begging dinner off of Jules, but that didn’t seem quite fair.”

  Mal looked at what had passed as his own dinner. If his wife knew he’d settled for fast food again, she’d be a bit snippy.

  He loved her all snarky and sassy. He just wished he was with her at the moment. “What did you find? I’m not seeing anything that tells me this is an imminent case. I’m going to head home and start on it with the team tomorrow—with fresh eyes.”

  “Sounds like a good idea. I’ll meet you here at nine.”

  “What for?’

  “Didn’t Dennis tell you? I’m doing a tag-along of all of the CCU teams. Got to trim any wheat from the chaff. Figured I’d start with you.”

  “Isn’t that a conflict of interest?” Of course it was. His brother was married to a woman on Team Three. Mal headed up Team Two. Mick’s wife’s sister was on Team One. Any way he looked at it, his brother could be questioned on his integrity over any case.

  “I’ll be bringing another agent with me for these. Hope you don’t mind. She’s not half bad, and her main function for this case will be to be the objective observer. This is something that will be happening every six months. Comes from higher up than Dennis. I personally think it’s that damned phantom’s way of messing with Dennis again.”

  The Phantom. The moniker had been given privately by Mick to the individual or individuals responsible for under the radar sabotage laid against the PAVAD division’s leader, Ed Dennis. Mick had been trying for months to flush out the saboteur. He’d yet to find more than a hint anywhere.

  His brother was almost making it his personal quest. “You’ll find this guy. Don’t let the obsession take you away from the good in your life. We both know that that can happen quicker than we realize.”

  “I have Paige. She’s well aware of what I’m doing. And heaven knows that woman can keep me in the here and now. I know what I’m doing, Mal. But the fact remains that I am your shadow for a while. Think you can handle the pressure?”

  “Somehow I think I’ll manage…” Mal grinned when something occurred to him. Something Mick obviously didn’t know. “And someone should have told you…Sebastian’s taking a few weeks off to go to Texas with Carrie’s family. As soon as he walks off the plane. And a few others on his team will be off on leave, as well. Chalmers and two others are working with my team to fill in where I have holes. Guess which two?”

  Mick looked up at him. “Tell me? I’m anxious to know.”

  “Let’s just say I’m making sure to book my own hotel room far from you and your wife for this one. Think you can keep it professional for this one, if the two of you work together?”

  The last case Mick and Paige had worked on together had resulted in their marriage. Mal had to wonder what this one would bring…

  Chapter 1

  The moment the plane took off and the all clear sign was lit, Paige jumped from her seat and started pacing around the small jet. She ste
pped over his feet then circled around. “Well. What do we have? I assume you’re in charge?”

  She wasn’t looking at Mick, but his brother. Mick took the time to study his wife. She still wore mostly black, but this time it was a sleek business suit that made the best of her figure.

  And she had a beautiful figure. His hands curled thinking of how closely he’d examined that body just a few hours earlier.

  They were still newlyweds, after all. They were free to engage in all sorts of marital activities.

  He sighed; it was time to put wife-Paige in her compartment and drag out colleague-Paige. Sometimes he still struggled with that.

  His brother took charge with Paige’s cue. “You’ve all been sent copies of the files. And for those that don’t know, this is Agent Leina Howell. She’s a part of Mick’s division, but has been assisting Sin Lorcan in just whatever it is that he does.”

  Mick snorted. He knew exactly what Sin Lorcan was doing with the PAVAD division. The man had been temporarily assigned to ferret out the damned phantom traitor that Mick had been tracking for months. Neither of them had found anything yet.

  Mick and Director Dennis, head of the Prevention & Analysis of Violent Acts Division, had spoken at length with Mick regarding the traitor. And they’d determined that Mick was just too close to the division to do much good. No surprise there.

  So was Lorcan, being related to several members of the PAVAD division, but the man hadn’t been around St. Louis as long as Mick had. But the eldest Lorcan brother had a reputation in certain upper circles of the FBI, especially in the IA division, of being one of the best damned ferrets in the business. If there was dirt in a department, Sin Lorcan would find it. It was just coincidence that the guy had family in St. Louis.

  Still, Mick wasn’t entirely certain what Agent Howell did for Lorcan. He studied her for a moment. The brown-eyed redhead was young, not yet thirty? She was a small woman, but seemed to fidget a lot.

  Much like his wife.

  Paige passed in front of him again, and Mick reached out. He grabbed her hand. “Sit. You’re making me air sick.”

  “Unh huh.” But she sat. Paige stretched out her long legs in front of her. “Hate to see you puke all over your new suit.”

  “It does make him look somewhat handsome, doesn’t it?”

  Mick had almost forgotten that his sister was on the plane.

  She looked like she’d swallowed a whole cantaloupe, but he’d never tell her that. His nephew was in there somewhere. Or niece; it might be a girl. Al had refused to tell. “I’m always handsome.”

  “Can we focus here? I know Mick is handsome. I say so to myself all the time. But…”

  “Ken’s right. Back to work,” Mal said.

  Mick didn’t know many of the agents surrounding them well. No surprise, those in IA were often ostracized. He hoped Howell was prepared for that. After Sin Lorcan found what he was looking for, she’d be transferring to Mick’s department. Under him.

  He was using this case to evaluate her ability to handle the pressure.

  Agents didn’t like I.A. messing in their business, their careers. And it took agents with balls of steel to be able to handle it.

  Howell certainly didn’t look like she had balls of steel.

  She sat eying the other agents with a total look of bewilderment.

  “Howell, has anyone bothered to introduce themselves yet?” Mick asked, as it occurred to him she’d spent most of her time in the upstairs department with Sin Lorcan, instead of downstairs with the masses of PAVAD. “That may make things a little clearer.”

  “Um, no, sir. They haven’t. I just transferred into PAVAD and haven’t had an opportunity to meet anyone. Yet.”

  “You know me. I’m the head of I.A. now. I’m filling in on this case until we have a few spots in our department filled. This is Dr. Malachi Brockman, head of Team Two. He’s also my brother. That’s incidental. This is Agent Alessandra Lorcan—my sister.”

  “And I’m Agent Daviess—”

  “Agent Brockman!” Mick couldn’t help himself. He knew why she hyphenated, and it was just temporary. Not temporary enough in his mind. He liked hearing her with his last name. He wasn’t that far off from a caveman at times, and he damned well knew it.

  “Agent Daviess-Brockman.” Paige reached across the table and shook Howell’s hand. “I’m married to this guy. For some strange reason.”

  “Wow.” Howell blushed. “I’m sorry. I mean. I’ve never met married agents before.”

  “Well, it’ll get worse. I’m married to Sin Lorcan’s brother Seth. Paige’s sister is married to the other brother. She’s with Hellbrook’s team.” Al gave the woman a sympathetic pat on the hand. “If you stick around PAVAD, you’ll meet a few more couples. Mal is married to the medical examiner. The scary little woman who rules supreme in the morgue.”

  “The rest of us are not married to anyone in the Bureau. So we’re not all crazy. With four hundred agents in PAVAD, the married ones are the real oddity here.” Ken Chalmers looked at the rest of the agents. “Shouldn’t we get down to business?”

  “Ken’s right.” And it had only been a few moments of their time. Something that they were probably going to run into a lot on this case—with so many Brockmans floating around. “So what do we have?”

  “A family reunion gone terribly bad,” Mal said. “Six dead, spanning two days.”

  “How is that even possible?” Paige asked. “Method of death?”

  “One from heart failure, one stroke, a teenaged boy drowned, a pregnant woman hit by a car, and two undetermined.” Mal’s tone turned grim. Mick understood it. They’d had a few not-so-pleasant family reunions themselves, but nothing this horrific. Mick resisted looking at his sister, and the bump that was his nephew or niece. At his brother who was also his friend.

  At his wife. His world.

  There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to protect his family. “How do we know these deaths were intentional? I hate to say it, none are shouting murder to me.”

  “All the dead stood to inherit some serious cash, for one thing,” Mal said. “Another is that they were supposedly perfectly healthy—most of the victims were under forty. And the boy who drowned was captain of the swim team. And the pond was less than four feet deep.”

  “M.E.’s didn’t find anything conclusive?” Paige asked. “Once again, how do they even know this is PAVAD worthy? Someone explain?”

  “There were a few findings, plus the inheritance, plus a call from the local field office requesting a personal look. It just met the parameters of a CCU case, so I passed it along.” Mick looked at the eight others surrounding the jet’s conference table. “We’re here to take a look, poke around a bit. Determine if this should be considered a murder investigation or just a horrible family tragedy. Tread lightly, remember this is a family that has lost six members—young members, at that.”

  Mal nodded. “You’ll report directly to Mick or me. Or Ken, due to the fact that there are too many family relations on this team. Any questions? Ken, you’ll take Paige and Al and Agent Howell. Mick and I will oversee. Mick will take Thompkins and Djorn, I’ll keep Stephenson.”

  Mick agreed with the divisions, though he would have far preferred that Al or Paige be with him or Mal.

  He couldn’t help himself, and he knew it.

  He loved them—and wanted them where he could see them. Mal was the next best thing.

  Still, Ken Chalmers was one hell of an agent, and Al and Paige, too. He trusted them, but it was hard not to worry, wasn’t it?

  Chapter 2

  Ken Chalmers knew most of the agents surrounding the table. It was hard not to. He’d started off as a member of Mal’s team, then had been transferred to Sebastian Lorcan’s team, with Al and Paige. Long before Al had married their team leader’s brother—or Paige had married Al’s.

  Agent Howell was definitely new, and when seated right next to Al and Paige like she was, she looked like a little kid.

&
nbsp; Was she five-foot-four, maybe? She almost reminded him of a former teammate, except where Ana had been all nerves, this woman was just…fidgety. Fidgety and young. Very young, perhaps twenty-five?

  PAVAD was known to pick younger agents the director or team leaders thought were full of potential. Still, she had big brown eyes and freckles. Glasses and curly red hair.

  Not exactly what people would picture when they thought of the FBI.

  She caught him looking, and bit her lip. There was a question in her eyes. He fought another smile.

  She reminded him of his little sister, too. Molly had been twelve when he’d left home for college. He hadn’t seen her much since then. After he’d turned down scholarships to seminary and joined the Atlanta Falcons, his father hadn’t wanted much to do with him.

  He’d known the decision he was making, and when he’d broken his leg in a tackle-gone-wrong in practice, he’d known he couldn’t go home again.

  He went toward the FBI instead of the pulpit.

  His father had never forgiven him for not following in his footsteps.

  Still, he’d stared at Agent Howell—what was her first name again?—a bit too long. “Welcome to PAVAD, Agent Howell. It’s an interesting division to be a part of. We never know what may happen.”

  “I see. Thank you…A-a-gent Chalmers.”

  “We’ll land in the next hour. After that, let’s get settled in first with the locals. This case is fifteen months cold,” Mal said. “We can afford to pick the brains of those more familiar with the case before we risk upsetting the family again.”

  Ken agreed. There was nothing worse than strangers looking at your family, asking questions, stirring up emotions best left alone.

  He’d learned that growing up as the preacher’s only son in a town of less than fifteen hundred.