Pursuing Dace, Signed

This broody bunch of Irish Alpha's with heart are the brother's you want on your side when things go wrong... 

Five brothers. One mission. Justice.

Ivy Kimble wasn’t just the one who got away. She was taken. Vanished without a trace and has remained elusive for years.

When she finally returns, beaten within an inch of her life, the need to protect her is overwhelming. So is his hunch that she’s hiding something.

Dace O’Reilly spent years searching for his fiancé, and with every victory and disappointment, the alpha badass adds more ink, another piercing. A tribute. A battle scar.

When she shows up out of thin air, she’s not the innocent woman he once knew.

Ivy is at the top of a suspect list. Conspiracy, murder, cartel, arms dealing, and drug running— the crimes stack up like bodies leaving Ivy standing in the middle.

He wants to believe her story, but the evidence reveals she’s more villain than victim, a criminal mastermind in a high-stakes game.

A game Dace intends to win.

He’s fiercely protective and loyal to a fault. As former “off-record” special ops he’s used to playing by a different set of rules. His own.

Rules be damned, revenge is coming.

Dace and Brother’s Keeper Security fight to clear Ivy’s name and bring down those who tried to destroy him and everything he stood for by taking her. Just when they think they’ve accomplished that… plot twist.

“So intense that it will keep you up reading because you will not want to put it down!”

“This book and series has it all…suspense, technology, secrets, heat, murder, romance, lies, plot twists, family, swoon-worthy characters, humor…I mean there is a perfect blend of everything in this story!”

“A lip-biting, heartbreaking lead-in to a fantastic story!”

“This is an intense, intricate evolution with so many twists and turns to keep you riveted and doing anything but reading until it says The End.”

“Brothers’ Keeper is a one-of-a-kind series and I love it!”

“This story keeps you sitting on the edge, has a lot of danger, suspense, around every single corner, keeping you turning the pages to see what happens next until the end…”

“Oh boy! What a ride.”

“Intrigue and twists from the start to the end, excitement, lots of sleuthing and technology stuff. WOW!”

“I absolutely loved sinking into this.”

“Stephanie St Klaire continues to amaze and enthrall readers with every book.”

“This is a fast pace, suspense and surprise filled story with tons of heart and heartbreak that I could not put down.”

“St Klaire’s books are filled with heart and intrigue like no other.She is always a must read.”

“A can’t put down rollercoaster ride of emotion, secrets and suspense.”

“Stephanie St. Klaire writes amazing romantic suspense filled books.”

“There were twists & turns throughout the story & I could not put it down!”

“Lies, deceit, and the unknown will have your head spinning in this book!!!”

“Packed with suspense, mystery, secrets, and unexpected surprises.”

“Action packed and full of romance. I couldn't put it down.”

“OMG!!! OMG!!!! Smoking Hot Must Read!!!!”

“Stephanie St. Klaire is a fantastic author and does a fantastic job with this series.”

“This book deserves all of your attention. When you open this book, you are going to be sucked in to a world of intrigue beyond comprehension.”

“I loved it!”

“This is a well written action packed story filled with family drama, danger, murder, mystery, suspense, humor, romance and a great storyline that held my attention from the first page until the last.”

“Lots of Excitement & Suspense – a Real Page Turner!”

“Stephanie St. Klaire came out swinging from the very first page of this book & she did not hold back nor let up for a second!”

“This book is hard-hitting at every turn & these characters never waiver.”

“St. Klaire doesn't just develop characters for a story, they exist within her & she is a beautiful, genius medium that gives them a voice. And every single one of these people have got one heck of a story to tell!”

“Dace isn't just good, it's riveting, sultry, bothersome, funny, and satisfying. Kudos St. Klaire!”

“Stephanie St. Klaire truly knows how to write an emotional, intense, and intriguing book that you cannot put down until the very end. She knows her suspenseful romance.”

“The twists and turns thrown in this book had me hooked.”

“Thrilling read!”

“This story is non stop action & emotion. From the beginning, you are drawn in by Dace’s despair & the action & storyline keep you reading.”

“If you like suspense and romance this will keep you on your toes. I can't recommend this enough!”

“Ms. St Klaire is an awesome author. Everything she writes is so well researched and believable.”

“ If you like suspense and romance this will keep you on your toes. I can't recommend this enough!


“I don't know how Ms. St. Klaire comes up with all the stuff she puts in her books (think Black Ops), but it makes for a really exciting read.”

“This book is full of the twists and turns that St. Klaire is so good at.”

“O...M...G... What a rush! From the first page until the last, this book captured my attention.”

“ If you enjoy romantic suspense with a little spice, this is a must-read book!”

“This book has all the elements I enjoy in a novel. Suspense, romance, misunderstandings, passion, and revelations.”

“Stephanie St Klaire has this scary ability to weave a suspense that pulls you in and has you on the edge of your seat through the entire book.”

“This book is filled with twist, turns and surprises that holds you intrigue and interest all the way to the end.”

“SSK has done it again! She’s back, better than ever with Dace.”

“If you’re a fan of romantic suspense, you need this book and series in your library. Loved it!”

“Fast paced thrilling romance…”

“Stephanie has once again, proven that when life throws a curve ball, she throws back a grab ya in the seat book. This one won't let go until the end.”

“I am a major fan, and this is one of my all-time favorite stories!!!!”

“There is always lots of action when the O'Reilly brothers are involved and Dace's story was no exception!”

“This book will knock your socks off!”

“OMG...SSK has done it again! Just when you think this series can't get any better, BOOM...SSK proves you wrong!”

“Amazing storyline with lots of action, mystery, and hotness from the members of Brother's Keeper! I highly recommend that you...READ...IT...NOW...you won't be disappointed!”

“I could not put this book down!! From the first page, this story had me on the edge of my seat!”

“If you are a fan of romantic suspense and second chances, you will want to read this!”

“I now have a book hangover and this will be on my re- read list!”

“SSK delivers yet again. I was on the edge of my seat. So many twists, I didn't know who to trust or what the outcome was going to be. I cannot get enough…”

“An action packed story, filled with a great happily ever after!”

CHAPTER 1:
“Make it hurt,” Dace said. “Earn that tip, baby. The whole. Fucking. Tip.” He grunted.
“Did he just say tip?” Wylie questioned from the other room. “Wow, he’s into some kinky shit.”
“Suck it, Wy!” Dace hollered from behind a curtain.
Wylie chuckled with a couple of their brothers. “Hey, man, you said it.”
A loud groan could be heard from the semi-closed-off room. “Jesus! Is it all the way in?”
“Sure is, big guy.” A woman giggled. “How’s it feel?”
The bell above the entrance jingled as Rip, the owner of Rose City Ink, walked in and paused at the sight of the three oversized O’Reilly brothers filling the shop. “Ahh, shit.”
“Sup, Rip.” Wylie winked.
“Why do you fucking wink at me like that? It’s starting to get weird,” Rip replied with a middle finger.
“Mostly because it pisses you off.” Wylie winked again. “Not happy to see us?”
“Usually, I am. But the last time you were all here, it was like babysitting a bunch of giant toddlers. Tell me you’re all sober this time.”
“All but one of us.” Wylie nodded to the curtained-off workstation. “Dace is in there with Betsy.”
“With Betsy? What does he have left to pierce?” Rip questioned.
Declan, the oldest O’Reilly, shrugged. “Not sure, but he mentioned something about a…tip.”
Everyone cringed.
“He didn’t find her, did he?” Rip was referring to Ivy, Dace’s ex-fiancé, who had been missing for several years.
“Starting to see a pattern, huh?” Luke O’Reilly chimed in.
“Every time he’s chased down a lead over the past several years and turned up nothing, he’s ended up in my chair for new ink or in Betsy’s to get pierced. Definitely a pattern.”
Dace O’Reilly did have a pattern, and it was one of self-loathing and punishment. The bigger the disappointment, the bigger the physical pain to mask the ache in his heart that began the day Ivy disappeared. She was his first and only love. They’d planned a life together. And she was gone.
Before Dace became a full-time partner in Brother’s Keeper Security with his brothers, he worked as a mechanic…which was his cover as a covert operative for a special unit that was neither military nor government. It wasn’t anything. His contract had been nearly up, and he was determined to settle down with Ivy, start a family, and live the life they’d planned. Until he was offered a deal he couldn’t refuse, but Ivy could.
One year. One year of double pay and a bonus would have been enough to set them up comfortably and give them an even better start together than they were already off to. Dace didn’t believe Ivy’s ultimatum – her or the job – was real. But it was. Or so it seemed. Because when he returned home from parts unknown, she was gone. No note. No goodbye. Not even a fuck you.
He’d looked high and low, and followed every lead, yet turned up nothing. Despite operating a world-renowned personal and tech security firm that boasted a client list full of celebrities, political dignitaries from around the world, and more government contracts than was probably legal…he couldn’t find her. With all his resources, foreign and domestic, she’d simply vanished into thin air.
Sure, he’d get a lead here and there, and he followed every single one of them. But he’d turn up nothing, return home empty-handed with only a black eye, tattoo, or some other form of self-inflicted painful reminder she was…gone.
“Yeah,” Declan said. “He was sure he had her this time. Liam’s new software captured a grainy shot that could’ve been her…or half a million other brunette beauties out there.”
Betsy pulled back the curtain and out walked Dace, still buttoning his fly. “It was her. I know it was.”
“Why you walkin’ funny, bro?” Wylie laughed.
With a strained swagger, Dace walked toward his baby brother and began to undo his pants again. “Wanna see? Prepare yourself. This is what a real man looks like.”
Dace paused to pull a ringing phone from his pocket and clicked the red button to deny the call when he saw who it was.
“You pull that thing out in here,” Rip chided, pointing at Dace’s half-done pants, “and I’ll personally kick you in the balls and call your ma to tell her what you just did.”
Betsy cupped Dace’s groin with a bag of frozen peas. “Sit down, shut up, and keep this on it for a few. Or your ma finding out what you just did will be the least of your worries, honey.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dace said, taking a nearby seat. “Shit, the cold makes it hurt worse.”
“That’s because little Dace is running from the chill. Give it a minute,” she said, disappearing back into her workstation.
“Little? Pfft. I think I need another shot of something,” Dace said, letting his head fall back against the wall.
Rip reached behind the counter and grabbed a couple of bottles. “I have some Crown and Don Julio…pick your poison.”
Another phone call caught Dace’s attention but only for a moment. He saw the caller ID and hit that red button again. The guys each looked at each other, then let it rest.
“Crown? Canadian whiskey?” Wylie interrupted. “We’re Irish…”
“What? Irish don’t like Canadians?” Rip questioned.
“Well, no. We like them just fine, but we’re a little partial to our own brand of whiskey. It’s better for ya.”
Rip shrugged and pulled out another bottle. “Fine. I keep this shit back here too. Only you assholes drink it, though…tastes like burnt piss.”
Dace accepted the small glass of his favorite liquid gold. “You’re Canadian, aren’t you?”
“Just on my mom’s side,” Rip said, tossing back a shot of his own.
“Hey, we should get matching tattoos again,” Dace chimed in, referring to the last time he sat in Rip’s shop with his brothers. When Luke found out he was going to be a dad, the night ended at Rose City Ink and a new O’Reilly trademark branding each of the brothers.
“Hell no,” Declan said, pulling his now ringing phone from his back pocket. “Last time, we almost ended up with rainbows across our dicks.”
“I second that,” Luke said. “Rainbow dick is not on my bucket list and neither is playing matchy-match with you assholes like we’re a bunch of toddlers.”
“Man, is she calling your phone now, too?” Dace asked Declan as his expression hardened, gaze fixed on his phone screen.
“You can’t keep rejecting her calls, man. It’s a dick move,” Declan replied, lifting his phone to his ear. “And no. It’s not Cally. It’s Charlie Tango.”
Cally was a close friend of Luke’s wife, and Dace’s temporary hookup while he had been on a brief hiatus from searching for Ivy. Cally was beautiful, sweet, and spicy in bed, just the way Dace liked them. After a brief friends with benefits type relationship, Dace began to avoid her when he missed an unknown caller the night of his brother’s wedding. A weekend in bed with Cally and several missed calls from the mystery number left Dace full of remorse.
“Man, you don’t know if those missed calls were Ivy,” Wylie added.
“Really? Then who were they?” Dace fired back. “There were four. Four.”
“Wrong number…we’ve been over this,” Luke said.
“You don’t call a wrong number four times – some at odd hours – all from an untraceable number,” Dace defended. “It was her. Who else would have been looking for me that hard? You guys were all at the wedding with me. Everyone who would’ve needed me that bad was at the wedding.”
“Liam said he was still trying to crack whatever was preventing him from tracing it.” Wylie shrugged.
“How the hell do you trace an unknown number?” Rip asked. “I thought it was unknown for a reason.”
“It is,” Dace answered, “unless you’re Liam. That asshole can crack anything.” Liam, his tech genius brother, headed their cyber division. “It’s only regular assholes who can’t get past that unknown thing. Besides, isn’t it odd that she’s missing and there’s someone calling that we can’t nail down? It’s like they’re hiding something.”
“Ivy’s dad was a florist. Not likely she has the kind of resources to hide that well. It could’ve just been one of those prepaid burners…some hungry junky looking for his dealer or something.” Luke shot Dace a steely look. “Still no excuse to flake on Cally, man. She deserves better than a cold shoulder after you two were all fuck me all the way to Tuesday.”
Convinced it was Ivy, and that he’d missed his chance to finally find her, he’d been avoiding Cally. He didn’t blame Cally for the missed calls, but he did believe it was punishment from the universe. Like a strong dose of karma for giving up on Ivy, even if it was a short-term break. His number wasn’t public, and only his brothers and closest associates had it. And Ivy.
“I’m not being a dick. I just can’t talk right now.” Dace pointed at his groin as he lifted the bag of peas and cringed. “I just had my—”
“Yeah, yeah…” Luke broke in. “We get it. But you didn’t pierce your dick yesterday or the day before that.”
“I was on the road,” he defended. “I couldn’t take any calls.”
“You answered my calls,” Wylie corrected.
“That’s different. It was for work.”
Wylie snickered. “If asking if you’ll be back in time for the game is work, then…”
“Look, why haven’t I been able to find her? Sure, she doesn’t have the resources to hide, but we certainly have the means to find anyone, anywhere…and still nothing. Someone with similar resources could have her.” Dace waved his hand to brush off his audience. “Whatever. I’m done talking about this.”
“Bro, that’s exactly why you need to stop punishing yourself. She obviously doesn’t want to be found, and if she found someone to hide her, that’s even more reason to stop all this self-mutilation shit. Move on with your life. Maybe even with Cally even though she’s too good for your ass.”
“Someone needs to get in my chair and get some ink, or you guys need to take this little intervention down the street to the coffee shop to talk feelings.” Rip interjected, patting his chair.
Dace stood, grimacing as he remembered why he was there to begin with. “Seriously. Let’s all get a tat, boys.”
“Hell, no,” Luke said. “I already have one twin, not trying to match all you shits too,” he said, referring to his twin brother, Liam, the only brother who wasn’t there.
“Are you kidding me? You guys owe me!” Dace defended. “After the shamrock incident, when Luke had his meltdown?”
“It wasn’t a meltdown.” Luke grunted.
“Okay. It was a tantrum,” Dace fired back, referring to the night the brothers, sans Dace, got shit-faced at the bar. It was the same night Luke found out he was going to be a dad, and they all wound up at Rip’s shop for matching tattoos.
“We got something symbolic. It was a symbol of unity, celebrating our heritage,” Luke argued. “Solidarity and shit.”
Dace guffawed. “It was a fucking four-leaf clover. It may as well have been a damn leprechaun. It was a symbol of you being a pussy.”
Dace’s phone rang once more, and he again hit decline with a deep sigh that matched the tone of his heavy eye roll.
Luke shook his head, knowing exactly who his brother sent to voicemail, then nodded to the phone in Dace’s hand. “You’re a dick.”
“I’m with Dacey…the clover was lame. How about a company logo or something?” Wylie asked, trying to shift the conversation away from Dace’s problems. As the youngest but biggest O’Reilly, he tended to be the peacemaker.
“Right, and advertise exactly who we are. That should make our coverts pretty effective. Let’s just put targets on our foreheads and make it easy for the bad guys. We’ll start with you, baby brother,” Luke said.
Declan snapped his fingers to grab everyone’s attention and pointed at his phone as he listened. He’d said it was Charlie Tango – also known as C.T. – their friend and oftentimes associate on special cases. He was a lead detective for Portland Police – special crimes unit, specifically – and former military, which made him a local asset for Brother’s Keeper Security.
“Jane Doe,” Declan said, getting their attention again. “Jesus. The alley?”
The silence that handful of words commanded was deafening as they waited for instruction. C.T. didn’t call to talk shop unless he needed the brothers’ help or to send a warning their way.
“Got it. We’ll meet you there.” Dace hung up the phone and tapped vigorously at his screen before he slid it back into his pocket. He then reached for his jacket on a nearby chair. “Seems we have some business to tend to tonight, boys.”
“What’s Charlie Tango got going on? Need us to dig into things a little deeper than he’s allowed to over at PD again?” Wylie asked.
“Not exactly,” Declan said, turning to Dace. “He got called to a scene. A body. A woman’s body.”
Declan’s face went stone cold as he paused. It wasn’t like Declan to hesitate on anything, and this set a new tone that left the room thick with tension. “She’s alive but hurt pretty bad. No ID on her. Only lead is a name wr—”
Dace broke in before his brother could finish. The anxiety that encased his words came out sharp – the closest thing to fear any of the brothers would ever exude. It was like he knew whatever Declan was about to say was solely for him, and he wasn’t going to like it. The walls he often built around himself were fully erect. “What the fuck, Dec? Say it. Just fucking say whatever you’re going to say.”
“She had Dace O’Reilly written on her arm.”