Her Best Friend's Keeper (Finley Creek Book 1)

by Calle J. Brookes

  Had someone found a way to infect her laptop? To spy on her? How long had they been watching? Were they watching Brynna, as well? That made a sort of sense. Maybe everyone in the Computer Forensics department was under surveillance?

  She discounted that thought. To do that on a large scale would be a massive undertaking.

  She hadn’t accessed the files from Sara’s murder even once since she’d started working with the TSP. Brynna obviously had, though.

  What did it all mean?

  Gabby waited for her friend to wake up, keeping herself occupied with the phone Officer Journey had passed her when she’d spoken with Elliot outside his home. She’d met them outside with a security detail—complete with car, which was a nice and unexpected little perk—and a list of Elliot’s pressing itinerary. He was able to do a lot of it virtually, with his laptop and cell.

  But she wasn’t fooling herself. He’d have to return to the TSP sometime today. He had an entire post to run. He had been away from it for too long. Elliot couldn’t afford to jeopardize his career by neglecting his duties any longer.

  Brynna finally woke with a little cry. Gabby leaned over her. “Bryn? It’s ok, I’m here.”

  Brynna frowned up at her, and tried to sit up. She cried out, then settled back against the pillows. “Gabby, this really happened, didn’t it?”

  Her eyes filled. Gabby grabbed the tissues and handed them to Brynna. “It did. We were totally scared, by the way. I tried to tell Mel—who kept blubbering like crazy—that you were superwoman and would be just fine, but she didn’t really believe me. Ok, so I was the blubbery one—no surprise, right? How do you feel? Do you need anything?”

  “Where’s Chance?” Brynna asked. “Is he ok? Did they hurt him, too? Where is he?”

  “Bruises. I saw them on his chest. He has a nice one, but his chest isn’t as good as Elliot’s, though.”

  “No, it’s better.”

  “So you saw it naked? What did you two do in that shelter all that time?”

  Definitely the wrong question to ask. Brynna’s crying tripled. “Oh, Gab…I’ve done something completely and utterly stupid here.”

  “Dear Gravy, Bryn. Did you and Chance….?” It explained a few things, didn’t it? Why he was so…so…intense when he talked about Brynna. “Oh, Bryn…”

  “I know.” She wiped her eyes, then took a breath. Pulled herself together right before Gabby’s eyes. “We both agreed it didn’t mean anything. And no strings. I don’t want strings with a man like him, either. Nothing could come of it, and I’m too young. Too young.”

  But the pain in her words was hard for Gabby to miss.

  And she got it—those Marshall men made a woman do things she probably shouldn’t even think about. With no promises of what tomorrow would bring.

  Brynna seemed to understand that. “I shouldn’t feel like this for him, Gab. I shouldn’t. It doesn’t make sense.”

  But she did. Gabby knew exactly how she felt. “Oh, Bryn. I understand. Believe me, I do.”

  In that moment, if that frog Chance Marshall had been right there in front of her she would have slugged him.

  What had he been thinking?

  She would forever be grateful that he kept her friend safe out there, but he hadn’t needed to break Brynna’s heart in the process, had he?

  Someone stepped through the door and Gabby looked up.

  Everything Mel felt was right there on her face as she looked at her sister for the first time. “Brynna. Thank God. You really scared us, kid.”

  Brynna looked up at Gabby and then over at her sister. “I’m ok, Mel. I’m ok, ok. I promise. You don’t have to worry about me now. I’m ok.”

  Mel limped closer to the bed and then placed her crutch on the air conditioning unit beneath the window. Then she was on the bed right next to Gabby and the three women were clinging to each other—as carefully as they could with Brynna’s injuries between them. Gabby just held on.

  These two were her normal. As close to her as Sara had been all those years ago. Thank God Brynna was alive.

  Brynna pulled away after a while. She didn’t like to be touched all that much; it surprised Gabby she’d touched her and Mel as long as she had. “I found something in the video.”

  “Chance told us,” Mel said. “What was it?”

  “I need to talk to Benny about it.”

  Gabby shook her head. “Elliot doesn’t want you to. He wants to keep it off the TSP radar. Until we know…He thinks there might be someone at the TSP involved. He doesn’t want any of this discussed with anyone outside of your family, him and Chance, and his friend Erickson. He wants to keep you out of it now, too.”

  Brynna sniffed. “It’s my job. And you’re my friend. Sara was my friend, too. And her brothers...her parents...Chance needs…I can show you. I can help. I will. I need to. It’s not finished. It’s not finished.”

  “It is for you,” Mel’s tone was harsh. “I want you to go back to St. Louis with Carrie when you get out of here. Stay with her. At least until we find out what’s going on.”

  “I don’t think I can do that.” Brynna lifted her chin. Her eyes were still wet, but she didn’t look as desolate as she had when Mel had first walked in. “I’m a part of this now. And I’m going to see it through to the end. I know the name of one of the men who did this. And I can find him. If Chance hasn’t gotten there first.”

  Gabby and Mel stared at her. Brynna’s eyes filled again.

  “I think you need to start at the beginning,” Brynna’s sister said. “Who was it that took you?”

  “Handley Barratt.”

  Gabby’s eyes widened and she knew she stared at her friend like a stupid fish. “The guy with all the money?”

  “I recognized him from that benefit we went to with Ariella and Luc last July. You remember the one?” Mel and Jarrod had dared her and Brynna to go to support their friend Ariella, who was active for the charity that was based on preventing violence against women. Ariella’s brother, the richest guy in St. Louis, was a big supporter of Ariella’s project.

  She and Brynna had attended together, wearing beautiful dresses and sitting with Ariella and her brother. Handley Barratt had been there with his son, but they hadn’t sat anywhere near them.

  “You’re sure? Absolutely sure?” Mel asked, slowly. She’d paled and her hand gripped the blanket between them. “Handley Barratt from Barratt-Handley Enterprises? The older man…not Hough—the son?”

  Gabby got it. To accuse someone like Barratt was going to be world changing.

  “He took me away from the other man, the one who was going to—Handley Barratt took me away and he told me to run, to hide from the other men. But I went back for Chance. I couldn’t leave him. I got close enough to see the California shaped mole on Handley Barratt’s neck. It was him, and Ch-Chance knows it, too. Just...find him and ask him. Don’t let Chance go after him alone, Mel. Promise me. Don’t let him go alone.”

  Brynna’s face crumbled and Gabby wrapped her arms around her friend again. Mel looked at her with a question in her light brown eyes.

  “Brynna has deep feelings—seriously deep—for Chance Marshall.”

  Mel closed her eyes and winced. “I see.” She opened her eyes and then laid a comforting hand over her sister’s. “It’ll be ok, Bryn. I promise. It gets easier with time. You’ll get past this. Just trust me, I know. And one day you’ll wake up and be able to breathe without him again.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX.

  ***

  ELLIOT could hear Brynna crying quietly. He peered in the door and looked at the women on the hospital bed.

  Gabby was holding Brynna’s hand and repeating reassurances. “It’ll be ok, Brynna. You’re safe.”

  “He’s leaving, Mel. I know he is. We agreed no strings, but…” Brynna clung to Gabby and Mel. Elliot stepped away, not wanting to intrude on her pain. “He doesn’t want to be with me.”

  Her words sunk in. He. Chance?

  His brother and Bryn
na together—maybe it wasn’t surprising after all, considering what they’d gone through together. Emotions would have been high, they had been trapped for hours together. Did it surprise him at all, considering how he and Gabby had grown close over the past few days? And they hadn’t been trapped in a damned cellar.

  Chance cared about the woman in that hospital bed. Elliot knew it to his bones. Probably just as much as Elliot cared about Gabby.

  So where the hell was his brother? Why wasn’t his brother in there with his woman, holding her? Reassuring her that he’d keep the bad guys far away from her forever?

  Elliot nodded at Foster then told him quietly that he was going to find his brother.

  He found Chance in the cafeteria, sitting next to the ice machine, nursing a cup of coffee and glaring at everyone. “Here you are. I wondered.”

  “I waited with her until she wasn’t alone. Until Foster called Erickson to let him know he was on his way in. I didn’t want to be caught in her room. Her sister had to go back to work at six this morning.”

  “Were you in there with Jillian?”

  “No. I stayed in the empty room next door, in case Brynna needed me. Or Erickson needed a bathroom break. About that. He must have a bladder the size of Texas, that guy. Never left his post even once. Don’t think Brynna’s sister knew I was in there, though. I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “How did you know Gabby and I were here?”

  “Called the nurse’s station. Asked if a guy that looked like me with a blonde woman had come in yet.”

  “I see.”

  “They think it’s romantic.” Chance’s derision wasn’t hard to miss. “Nothing romantic about running from a bunch of killers during tornados. She could have died out there.”

  “It was a good story, I guess. Why are you down here instead of up there with her? I think she needs you to be.”

  “Stay out of it, El. It’s between us.” His brother’s face was closed off completely. But this was the one person in the world Elliot knew best of all. Chance was all tied in knots. Over a woman he thought he couldn’t have. Shouldn’t have. Elliot knew just how his brother felt. “I nearly got her killed.”

  “From what I’ve heard, you kept her alive long enough to survive.”

  “Barely.”

  “Tell me—who was it that was attacked? You or her? Our theory is that Gabby’s laptop was bugged—it was hers that Brynna had with her, did you know that? Gabby’s. And Brynna ended up finding something the killer didn’t like.”

  “He held a knife to her, El. Did you see the blood where he cut her? Do you know how scared she looked when he had his hands on her?” Fury was tightly held in his brother’s voice. Had it been Gabby, Elliot knew he would have felt the same. Elliot finally understood it, the look that had been in his father’s eyes when Elliot’s mother had died right in front of him. That look was in Chance’s eyes right now. “She was looking at me with those eyes of hers, silently begging for me to help her. For a minute there she turned into Sara. And I couldn’t do a damned thing. I didn’t even realize she was bleeding until we’d been walking for hours that first morning. She could have bled to death right there behind me.”

  Elliot understood what his brother wasn’t saying.

  A woman like Brynna, like Gabby too, made men like them feel guilty for not being able to make their world a perfect place. “She’s alive. And with Gabby and Mel now. The brother-in-law is from the FBI. He’s going to look into a few things on his end for me. Off the books. He’s good at what he does. I’ve worked with him before.”

  “She mentioned him. Talked about her niece. She really loves that kid. Her family. She has a family who love her. They don’t deserve to be brought into this. I’m going to find the bastards responsible before that can happen. Before they can hurt her again.”

  Chance stood. He tossed his coffee cup into the trashcan. He turned back to Elliot. “You keep her safe for me, Elliot. Promise me that. No matter what. You keep Brynna safe.”

  “You’re going.”

  “Hell yes. I’m not what she needs. I’m the last thing that woman needs in her life.”

  “She’s up there crying over you.” And Elliot had no doubt that his brother was hurting just as much, but the anger was masking it. For right now.

  “She’ll get over it. It was the situation; it filled her with ideas she didn’t have any business thinking. I’m not like you! I’m not like Dad. I’m not the staying kind. And I never will be.”

  Elliot didn’t doubt that his brother wasn’t the kind to stay—but that didn’t mean his brother wasn’t the kind to love, did it?

  “How do you feel about her? Honestly.”

  “Don’t ask me that.” A wild panic he would never have expected entered the eyes so much like their father’s. “I love you, Elliot. Don’t forget that. No matter what happens. But I won’t talk about her again.”

  “I won’t. And it’s returned. Chance, don’t go after these guys by yourself. Promise me that.”

  “I can’t do that. You go after Handley Barratt. Brynna can tell you more about him and what he said to her. The rest of those bastards are mine.”

  And then his brother turned and just walked away.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN.

  ***

  ELLIOT headed back to the TSP. Life stopped for nothing, it seemed. He did what he had to do to get a search warrant to serve to one of the wealthiest, most influential men in Texas. It was going to be a royal cluster—all the evidence they had was Brynna’s witness statement—collaborated by his brother’s, Brynna’s lover. It was weak and everyone knew it.

  The state attorney general was dead set against any steps to arrest Barratt. He’d summed up every possible result of even trying without some seriously strong evidence. They didn’t have that, even forensics. The storm had destroyed every hope for that. No, they would have to get Handley Barratt some other way.

  Elliot forced himself to calm down after disconnecting his conference call with the state attorney general. He’d always respected Carson Nolan—he still did, even though the other man couldn’t help him now.

  He had gotten a promise that once he had something solid, he could go after Barratt with both barrels.

  He just had to get that something solid first.

  His assistant buzzed to let him know his brother and Sebastian Lorcan waited outside his office, around eleven.

  Elliot was relieved to see his brother hadn’t taken off, after all.

  “Figured you’d want to speak with people at Barratt-Handley today,” Chance said. “I’m going with you.”

  “Who is with Brynna right now?” Elliot had put an officer on her at all times, but he suspected the family had pulled together to see she had a little extra protection in the room with her. And Gabby. He doubted she was leaving her friend’s side.

  “Mel and Kevin, as well as Carrie are in the room with her,” Lorcan said, settling into the chair across from the desk. He was a tall man with a calm manner—and a razor sharp mind. They’d worked together before, and he’d found the man to be damned good at what he did. “They’re all three armed.”

  “Plus there’s a man of mine walking the halls.” Chance prowled around the room, stopping at the photo of their father in full service uniform. “She’s safe. They are safe.”

  “I’m sending the head of Major Crimes to Barratt-Handley Enterprises. Attorney General pointed out that I can’t go myself.” Elliot understood, of course. But the fact that he was being sidelined in his own life pissed him off.

  “You sure he’s trustworthy?” Chance asked.

  “He’s only been in Finley Creek a year—and he’s got a thing for Brynna.” Elliot watched his brother’s eyes narrow at that. “I trust him about as much as I do anyone else in this damned building. But I can’t go myself. I’m sending Foster with him.”

  “Jarrod’s clean,” Lorcan said. “I’ve known him for a while now. There’s nothing he won’t do for Brynna or Mel. Or the rest
of the Becks, either, for that matter.”

  Chance was still prowling. “So this is it. We can just ask questions to find the assholes that hurt her?”

  “We can’t pound the answers out of anyone who knows Barratt.” No matter how much Elliot wanted that, they had to play by the rules. “We need something solid.”

  Chance’s two word response was harsh, but not unexpected. “I know. But it’s what we have to do.”

  “I’ll ride along with Foster. Maybe I can work up a profile,” Lorcan said. “Look, I know exactly what you are both feeling right now. I watched Carrie dive off a four story building to escape a serial killer who held a grudge against the father Carrie hadn’t even met. The ache, the fear—I still have nightmares about her face as she looked at me. I knew she was going over. You just have to fall back on your training and experience. Your instinct. You’ll figure this out.”

  Elliot appreciated the guy’s attempt—and he wondered how Lorcan had handled watching his woman go over the edge of a building like that. Thankfully she’d survived.

  Until they had the threat against them all stopped, he wouldn’t breathe easily. No doubt Chance felt the same—his woman was lying in a hospital bed with stitches holding her together, after all.

  “Barratt-Handley Enterprises and Handley Barratt—that’s where we go from here.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT.

  ***

  HOUGHTON Barratt was in his office when his secretary buzzed to let him know that the head of the Finley Creek TSP Major Crimes unit was in their building, looking for Houghton’s father.

  Houghton had been looking for the man himself for three days. His father flew all over the world for their business dealings, but this was the first time he hadn’t had so much as an email from his dad since they’d met for dinner between meetings three days ago.

  Dread filled him. Had they found his father somewhere? Was he hurt?