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

by Calle J. Brookes

  “You’re a bastard, Benny!” She yelled it at him, then grabbed a hunk of wood and heaved at him.

  But it didn’t matter. Benny had Brynna cornered, and was doing his damnedest to shut her up.

  He struck Brynna and she fell. She keened from pain. The sound was so horrific Gabby knew she would never forget it.

  Brynna didn’t get up again.

  Gabby screamed. She grabbed a remnant of a two-by-four or a two-by-six—she never could remember the difference between the two—and swung it at his head.

  He held up a hand to protect himself. The board cracked against his exposed palm instead of his head like she wanted. She tried to swing again.

  Benny yanked the board from her grasp.

  It wasn’t any use. He was bigger, stronger, and had spent the last twenty-plus years as a police officer. He’d been fighting since before she and Brynna had taken their first breaths.

  The only way they had to get out of this was if they could attack him together.

  But Brynna was down—and not getting up. Gabby yelled again, hoping someone would hear, hoping it would distract Benny, hoping it would goad Brynna into getting back on her feet.

  She yelled again as he turned toward her.

  Why wasn’t he running? Or did he know they were trapped and his only hope to survive was to kill them and make it look like the explosion had done it?

  Brynna rolled on her back, proving she was still alive for the moment. She screamed.

  Gabby yelled.

  This time someone yelled in return. Yelled her name, yelled Brynna’s.

  Gabby knew who it most likely was. Help was on its way.

  She just had to keep herself and Brynna alive until their rescuers got there.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY.

  ***

  GABBY grabbed the gun, somehow. She wasn’t sure how it had happened but it had. Brynna yelled and then it was there.

  Her stepfather had made sure she knew what to do with a weapon if she ever touched one.

  Benny stopped. “Give it to me, Gabby. Right now. Give it!”

  “Don’t be stupid, Benny.” Gabby’s hand trembled, but she kept the gun aimed right at his chest. Center mass, center mass, center mass. “I will shoot you. I will.”

  “Sure you will. Tell me, Gabrielle—have you ever even stepped on a butterfly? I know you. Every little thing about you. I’ve watched you for ten years, after all.” Benny walked closer. Brynna was directly behind her, the wall trapping them. She was crying, hurting. “You’ll hesitate and I’ll walk right up to you.”

  “You really think that’s who I am? That I’ll let you kill me. Kill my best friend, without stopping you? There is nothing I won’t do to protect the people I love. You took Sara from us; I’m not letting you take Brynna! Maybe you think I’m a wimp because I value life more than you, but...too bad. You’ll get over it—in hell. Where you belong.”

  He lunged toward her arm.

  Gabby pulled the trigger, and pulled and pulled some more until the gun was empty.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE.

  ***

  WHEN the gun was empty and Benny was lying in a growing pool of blood, Gabby dropped the weapon and fell to the ground next to Brynna. “Brynna...”

  “I’m bleeding. I’m hurting. But I’m alive, Gab. We’re alive. And he’s...he’s dead, isn’t he?” Brynna’s voice was getting higher in pitch and now Gabby saw the signs of panic hitting her.

  “Where’s the blood?” Gabby turned Brynna away from Benny’s body. “Where are you hurt?”

  “Here. I...think...it’s deep. And it’s really bleeding. Bleeding. Metal went through my side. I’m bleeding really badly, Gabby. And I’m scared. Scared. Scared. I want to get out of here.”

  “Stop, Bryn. You can’t panic right now. You can’t. I can hear help. I can hear Elliot. He’s coming for us. He’s coming.” Gabby pressed her hands over Brynna’s side. “You can’t twig out, Bryn. I...need you to stay right here with me until Elliot gets here. With me, ok.”

  “I love you, Gabby. Have I ever said that? When I thought he was killing you...it was just as scary as when Mel almost died.”

  “I know. I felt the same. You’re my best friend, Bryn. And I love you. We need to get out of here so we can tell Mel that, too. Mel is probably on her way here to get us out of this, but I think—” Gabby’s breath stuttered out. “I think we should save ourselves this time. Just to prove we can, you know?”

  “Why did he do it? He was our friend for years, wasn’t he?”

  “I don’t think he was ever anyone here’s friend. I think he was just out for what he could get. And you and I—we had skills he wanted. And he used us. Watched us.”

  “But not anymore.”

  “No. Not anymore. We stopped him. Together.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO.

  ***

  ELLIOT pulled the sheetrock from the pile and tossed it to the side. He had a fist-sized hole in the rubble when he heard the sounds of a gun, just on the other side of the debris. For a moment his heart stopped.

  Just stopped in his chest. A gun made it damned clear it wasn’t an accident, didn’t it?

  Was that what his father had felt in the moment his mother had been murdered?

  Was that why the elder Elliot had just stopped fighting for that moment, long enough to follow Elliot’s mother to the grave?

  For the first time in ten years Elliot actually understood his father a little better.

  “Gabby! Answer me, damn it!”

  Elliot kept digging, aware of Foster and Erickson, and he didn’t know who all else, right beside him. Digging. Evers, McKellen, Callum. Even the new mayor of Finley Creek was pulling rubble out of the way.

  His people, going toward the gunshots rather than away. Because some of their own needed them.

  Elliot yanked on another piece of drywall as first responders surrounded them. Someone pulled on his arm, trying to force him to stop digging.

  Elliot jerked away. “Gabby’s in there! Gabby and Brynna!”

  The guy in the fire helmet tried to reason with him. “I understand, sir. But we’re trained in this type of rescue. You have to let us do our jobs.”

  “We heard gunshots. Last I heard, fire and rescue weren’t in to gunmen,” Foster said. “That’s our deal.”

  “Keep digging,” Elliot ordered his people, though he knew the words weren’t necessary. The people with him were the ones he could trust.

  The only ones at this point.

  He and Erickson grabbed a large piece of pipe. It was hot to the touch, but Elliot didn’t care. “On three!”

  They moved it aside as much as they could.

  And then there was a hole big enough for a smaller person to get through.

  “Keep digging,” Erickson said, putting action to his words.

  “Thank you.” Elliot had his own hands around more drywall.

  “Not everyone in the TSP is bad, Marshall. Not everyone. Keep that in mind.”

  Elliot dropped to the floor and shined the flashlight someone had handed him toward what used to be the main conference room. Debris had shifted, making a small tunnel next to what had once been the outer wall. If someone could get to the door, they’d have an escape route. He measured with his hands. He would never fit. He was too damned big to be able to even try.

  ***

  GABBY finally let the tears flow when she saw the beam of light suddenly appear near the bottom of the rubble separating them from the people digging them out. She saw the path and knew what she had to do.

  “Brynna’s bleeding!” she yelled as loud as she could.

  Gabby was terrified of moving her hand in case her friend bled to death right in front of her.

  Gabby pulled her own shirt off, revealing a white tank top. She ripped the already torn sleeve free. “I’m going to tie this around you as tightly as I can. Can you crawl, Bryn?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “We’ll need to get you out of here; most lik
ely on a stretcher. I don’t think we can wait for them to make a larger opening.” How much blood had Brynna lost already? Her friend was already fading in and out of consciousness. How much longer could she last?

  Gabby looked around. There had to be a way to get Brynna out of there. There had to be.

  There was the storage cart—or the bottom of it. The thing had been sheared off near the bottom. Leaving the wheels intact. Would it be strong enough to hold Brynna’s weight?

  Gabby looked back at the tunnel. How long was it? How wide? Did they really have a choice? She tried to guess from what she remembered of the room before Benny had blown it to hell and back. She had counted steps during thousands of her danged panic attacks. She knew how many feet were between them and freedom. She knew she could do this. “I’m going to get us out of here, Bryn. I promise. See this board there? I’m going to get you on it. Do you think you can help me?” Gabby grabbed what remained of one of their computers and pulled the mostly intact Ethernet cable free. She pulled the board over the bottom of the cart and tied the board in place as fast as she could, using the cord. She looked for another cord and found one beneath a piece of ceiling tile. “We’ll slide you right out. Think how proud Mel’s going to be when we get ourselves out. No waiting around to get rescued. I’m tired of being a weenie; fear robs of us of the world, Brynna. That’s what Mel says. No more being big chickens, Bryn. We’re going to get out of here.”

  “Then let’s get out of here,” Brynna said, then cried out as she rolled to her side. She crawled toward the makeshift stretcher, slipping once in her own blood. Benny’s, where the two puddles had started to pool together.

  Gabby would never forget that sight as long as she lived.

  “Bryn, I’m going to see how big the tunnel is. See what we have to do to get out, ok?”

  Gabby laid down on her stomach near the source of the light. It was wide enough, she thought, for her and Brynna. No one bigger. Definitely not Elliot.

  It was up to her to get them out, wasn’t it? But how?

  Thankfully, Brynna wasn’t very big. She laid on her back and Gabby wrapped the Ethernet cord around her own hand. She’d crawl, then pull. No matter what she had to do to get them to the outside. She yelled to whomever waited on the other edge. “We’re coming out right now!”

  The front entrance of the annex was at least thirty feet from where she thought she and Brynna were. Thirty feet, under a pile of debris—wood, plaster, ceiling tiles, wires, glass. Could they do this?

  She looked at Brynna. Brynna was barely moving. Was she even still breathing?

  Gabby had no choice.

  The sprinklers still rained overhead, but the remaining smoke burned Gabby’s eyes. Gabby pulled on the cord, ignoring how the rubber coating burned the skin of her palms.

  Brynna dragged in a broken breath and cried out as they got nearer the entrance of the tunnel. But her left foot came off the board. She used it to help push herself closer. Some of the strain in Gabby’s arms lessened. “We’ll do this, Gab. Make Mel proud.”

  Even if Gabby had to pull her the entire way, she was getting Brynna through this.

  Crawling through rubble was something Gabby never thought she would ever have to do in her life. Brynna was able to help some. It was slower than Gabby wanted, and real hell on her knees and on her hands. She’d crawl a yard then pause long enough to pull Brynna the same distance. She’d wrapped the cord around her left wrist so she didn’t lose her hold on it and the rubber burned and abraded her skin as she pulled.

  The opening was only a little over two feet wide, and maybe eighteen inches tall at its absolute widest point. At its worst point, Gabby had to crawl at a weird angle. She scraped her arms on broken drywall and insulation a thousand times. She just prayed there were no exposed electrical wires to catch them up. Then they’d both be dead, no question, right?

  Brynna’s body was almost scraping the debris and she had to turn her face to the left, but they kept going. What other choice did they have?

  Gabby kept talking, telling Brynna they were ok, over and over and over. She’d pause and push debris out of the way, praying it wouldn’t bring everything down on them. But it didn’t.

  Near the halfway point, the opening got tighter. Gabby had to almost lay down. There wasn’t a lot of moving room. The only solution she had was to scoot herself around and inch her way backwards, her head millimeters from Brynna’s. She couldn’t see Brynna anymore. It was far too dark. The light was at her feet, behind her. “Well do this, Bryn.”

  Brynna didn’t answer.

  She coughed. Was there enough air in there for them both? She didn’t know. She dragged in one last breath, then held it. Brynna needed what oxygen was left a bit more than she did right then.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE.

  ***

  ELLIOT saw the feet first. “Everyone stop moving!”

  The responders around them froze. A small foot came out of the tunnel. He recognized the blue pants as the same ones Gabby had worn that morning. “Gabby!”

  He wrapped his hand around that ankle, and then the other one. He pulled gently. The threat of her being crushed by the debris at any moment was very real. They needed her out of there and as fast as possible. Her, Brynna, Benny. Anyone else who was left inside.

  But thank God she was moving under her own steam.

  She weighed far more than she should have. Gabby was on her stomach, and covered in blood. Elliot’s heart froze in his chest. She looked worse with every inch of her he pulled free.

  There was a two inch gash near her temple. Her hair was filthy and blood-soaked. So much damned blood.

  She was covered in it.

  “Brynna! Elliot, get Brynna!” She was crying, sobbing, yelling. “Get Brynna out.”

  She was clutching a cord. And pulling. The cord was wrapped around her left arm so tightly the skin was turning purple. Elliot cursed and tried to get it off.

  And then he saw what the cord was attached to. Saw carrot hair and a thin body. Saw why she was so frantic. He dropped to his knees beside Gabby and wrapped his hands around the other’ woman’s shoulders, and pulled. Took his first real good look at Brynna. “She’s not breathing! Get the damned paramedics in here now!”

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR.

  ***

  PARAMEDICS were everywhere, but she and Brynna were the only ones with major injuries from the blast. After her friend was loaded into the first ambulance, Elliot ushered her to the second, after asking if anyone else was in there with him. All she’d been able to say was that Benny was dead.

  They cut the computer cord from around her wrist and pulled it gently away. Gabby yelped at the burn. Elliot was there next to her, holding her other hand. It was ragged and the nails were torn. But she wasn’t letting go of him. The second paramedic wiped the blood from her forehead and applied pressure to the gash.

  She was injured, but Gabby knew she would live. But Brynna?

  Her last sight of her friend had been paramedics performing CPR until they got a pulse back, then whisking her away.

  Gabby looked at Elliot, seeing the fear in his green eyes. She loved his eyes. Loved him. “I love you. I was afraid I wouldn’t get the chance to say it. I love you.”

  She broke into a coughing fit before she could say anything else, but it was enough. She’d told him. Nothing could ever take those words away from them.

  Gabby finally gave in to the pain in her head. She collapsed on the gurney and let the darkness carry her off.

  ***

  ELLOIT couldn’t take his eyes off of her. The paramedics worked quickly, stopping the blood from the gash on her forehead, and cleaning the wounds on her hands.

  Around her neck the skin was red and inflamed. Welts were visible already.

  They arrived at the hospital within minutes, and the first ambulance was still unloading Brynna. Elliot had almost forgotten about her.

  He would have to call his brother and let him know what had happened. Bef
ore Chance learned some other way. And someone would have to contact the Becks. Let them know that Brynna was hurt. Again.

  He’d failed to keep her safe, failed to keep Gabby safe. The shame of that would never go away.

  They rushed both women into the ER. Straight to Dr. McGareth…and Brynna’s little sister.

  Jillian took one look at Brynna and screamed her sister’s name. McGareth grabbed her arm and shoved her gently toward the intake desk, where the hospital administrator was standing. “Fin! Take care of Jilly now.”

  McGareth flew to Brynna’s side, and the nurses and doctors jumped into action.

  They pulled Brynna down the hall and away.

  Gabby was taken into the second exam room, and a crowd of people separated her from Elliot.

  It went against every instinct he had to let her go.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE.

  ***

  GABBY came out of it in the exam room, with the doctor over her.

  Gabby didn’t get a chance to speak with anyone until after she’d been treated, admitted, and cleaned up of all signs of the explosion.

  No one would tell her how Brynna was. Or if Brynna’s family was there.

  They’d even separated her from Elliot.

  Gabby waited until she was finally alone in her hospital room, then slipped from the bed. It was her hands and head that were injured, not her feet.

  She was going to find Elliot and going to find out how Brynna was doing.

  She made her way right back down to the emergency room, dressed only in her underwear and a hospital gown. She held the back together with her least injured hand—her left hand and arm were wrapped in bandages because of the abrasions from the cord.