Shelter from the Storm (Finley Creek Book 2)

by Calle J. Brookes

  It would have made things so much easier for everyone.

  The only positive from anything that had happened was that they now had a definitive identification on one of the men in the video of what had happened to his family.

  They just had to find the other four. With that first name, they had a start. With Handley Barratt’s involvement they had that first connection to explore. But it pissed him off to no end that yet another innocent young woman had been dragged into this hell again.

  Why? Gabby. Brynna. Even Brynna’s sister Mel had almost been collateral damage. And now Bennett Russell’s own daughter.

  If he was investigating any other case, with no mention of the previous murders, he’d look at victimology for similarities and he’d be able to find them. White women, twenties, intelligent, low-risk life-styles, all pretty women. All around five-seven to five-nine in height, thinner builds and from middle class backgrounds. Low risk.

  They had a definite typology, didn’t they?

  Perhaps one of the sons-of-a-bitches had a thing for hurting young women? It was a line of inquiry he hadn’t considered before.

  Chance called Brynna’s brother-in-law in St. Louis. The guy had easy access to all sorts of databases that could run previous cases, and he was more than willing to help Chance out without going through the TSP.

  He got a list of names late the next afternoon, just after he’d stopped off at the Beck house for a shower and change of clothes. He’d spent most of the early hours at the hospital, in the waiting room of Brynna’s ward. He’d needed an update on how she was doing, how she had been during the night before he could even begin to think of hunting for Russell’s daughter.

  Kevin and his youngest daughter slept on the hard couches provided in the waiting room. Mel had sat by the sole window, staring out at the night sky. Jillian had once again been allowed to stay with Brynna, though it had taken some string-pulling to accomplish it.

  Occasionally Mel would slip out of the room and head down to the hall to where Gabby was. She’d sit with her long enough for Elliot to take a break or handle TSP updates.

  His brother wasn’t taking any more risks with Gabby, and Chance understood it. Supported it. If nothing else, his brother had figured out what he wanted from life and he was going for it.

  They’d told him they were getting married two hours after they’d learned Brynna’s condition. Chance couldn’t think of anything else that made more sense.

  His brother was going to be happy, finally.

  One good thing, at least.

  Finally Chance had had enough and he’d scooped Brynna’s sister up under her armpits and carried her to the waiting room. “Lay down, Mel. Rest. I’ll keep the eagle eye for a while. You won’t do your family a damned bit of good if you’re exhausted. Bryn’s going to be out for a while. And Gabby’s already under. Sleep.”

  “I’m not sure I can. I can’t get that stupid rubble out of my head.” Her words were muttered, but he caught them. “How did we miss it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Benny was right there the whole time. And none of us saw.”

  “Because we trusted him. He grieved at the funerals. I know he did.” And he’d hugged Chance over Sara’s coffin and held him while Chance had cried for the sister he’d never see grow up. “I read the letter Russell wrote his wife.”

  “Elliot had Officer Journey copy the letter. She gave my dad a copy, on Elliot’s orders. To see if it jogged his memory, but he’s...focused on Bryn right now. I know from experience that he’ll be that way until she’s back with us.”

  “She’s going to be ok.” He wouldn’t think of the video of her being thrown over the table Gabby had been working at. Wouldn’t think of how her body had hit the wall.

  “Yes. But what happens now, Chance? What do we do now?”

  “We find Russell’s daughter. Then we find every associate he’s spoken with in the last two months, we go over every file he’s touched in the past two decades. We hunt. Like we’re good at.”

  “The zip drives Brynna had in her pocket. She cloned the TSP evidence databases right before. We have copies of everything that was scanned in four years ago. Chief Blankenbaker had the Computer Forensics and IT departments scanning in paper files four years ago. Brynna and Gabby were involved in that.”

  “So we have a place to start.”

  “I’m getting in, Chance. I’m going to go over everything that Benny touched. I’m going to find these guys, before they hurt anyone else that I love.”

  “Don’t. Don’t let it drag you down with it. I’ve looked for ten years, and look what it’s gotten me? People I care about, the only people I care about in the line of fire. It’s not worth letting the hunt consume you.” And he couldn’t stand the thought of this woman, of anyone else he cared about, anyone Brynna cared about, being lost to these people again.

  “I know the lines not to cross. But...I am also a trained investigator. And I was a good one until I was shot. And I know most of the initial players and all of the players on our team now. And like you, I’m no longer bound by the constraints of the Texas State Police.”

  “Then you report to me everything you find. I won’t let Brynna lose you. She loves you too much.”

  “And I love her just as much. I won’t lose her.”

  Chance looked into eyes so like Brynna’s and saw just exactly who Melody Beck really was. He understood her, because the protector, the hunter, that was so strong in him lived equally as strongly in her.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  * * *

  CHANCE spent the long hours of the next day working at his brother’s side, both on finding Bennett Russell’s known connections and on ways to keep Brynna and Gabby from drawing those associates their way.

  Benny had not been one of the three men to attack them in Oklahoma but he had been one of the men on that video. The fifth man.

  Somewhere was a record of his connection to those three men; Chance was going to find them. No matter what he had to do.

  Brynna had had seven zip drives in her pockets that had survived Benny’s attacks. Mel had grabbed a laptop from Dr. Coulter and opened several of the drives.

  Brynna had copied the entire computer forensics department’s files onto those drives after she’d clocked in that day.

  As well as the files from the past forty-five years that had been scanned in to a database four years ago.

  Her forethought had saved the Finley Creek TSP’s bacon, and everyone knew it.

  She’d copied everything in the CF department. Everything. No cases would be put on hold because of lost computer forensic evidence.

  Some were celebrating her as a mini-hero for what she had done.

  Chance was proud of her. He’d watched and rewatched how she and Gabby had fought to protect themselves. How they hadn’t given up.

  She was the strongest woman he had ever met, wasn’t she?

  After several hours of heated meetings with his brother, with the superintendent of the TSP, the governor, the mayor, and several others who thought they had a right to bitch Elliot out for Russell’s actions, he headed back to the hospital.

  She’d been quiet since she woke the day before; everyone was giving her time to process what had happened. Gabby was the exact opposite—chattering away about what she and Elliot had planned, talking with Brynna about their coding program, anything to keep herself distracted. Brynna would hum an answer now and then which seemed to satisfy Gabby.

  Chance stood in the door and studied them for a moment. Mel passed him on her way out. “They’re yours for a while. I need to get home and start dinner before Syd and Jilly get home.”

  He nodded. “I’ll be there in a bit.”

  “Jilly gets off in an hour. She’ll need a ride.”

  “I’ll get her.”

  “Good. Gab, Bryn, I’ll be back before Gab is released. I’ll stay the night, ok?”

  Brynna nodded, her eyes on her sister. “I’m not exactly
going anywhere.”

  “Not for a few more days anyway.”

  “Bring me something good to eat. They keep giving me chicken and rice. I hate rice.”

  “It’s bland.”

  “It’s allergen-free. They don’t have much of a menu for me. Still, I’m alive, right?” Brynna winced as she shifted.

  “You are.” Thank God. Chance moved closer to the bed. “You can deal with rice for a few more days.”

  “Easy for you to say. You probably had a hamburger or something before coming in here.”

  He smiled. Brynna was feeling well enough to be cranky, wasn’t she? Just like before. He didn’t know why that reassured him, but it did. “Actually—I was in a meeting at lunch. It was catered. Elliot and I both got stuck with chicken and rice.”

  He wanted to touch her, confirm she was real and whole. But he didn’t.

  Like it or not, he didn’t have the right. Not like Elliot had with Gabby. The other man had stepped in right behind Chance, though they hadn’t driven over together.

  Elliot was already wrapped around Gabby, murmuring in her ear. Damn it. He envied the ease his brother had with his woman. But that way wasn’t for him. Brynna was better off finding a whole man who didn’t bring killers into her life.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE.

  * * *

  HE was set up exactly where Golden Boy had ordered him to be. Damn, he hated taking orders at his age. He should be free to do whatever in the hell he wished with his life and his time. Instead he was Golden Boy’s damned errand boy.

  Still, he was where he could watch every move those damned redheaded daughters of Kevin Beck did. He had his favorites, of course.

  If she wasn’t crippled, he’d bet the oldest was quite a fighter. He knew she’d once been a cop. He liked her hair—and her ass. She had an ass perfect for grabbing, and her tits were just the right size for a man’s hands.

  If she wasn’t so broken, he’d go for her. Just for a little bit of fun.

  But he’d always enjoyed more of a challenge. A woman that couldn’t run wasn’t much fun.

  The other girl was just a teenager, and he didn’t think she’d fully developed yet. A tad bit too young for his preference, though if the opportunity ever presented itself he’d have a bit of fun with her, too.

  No. He preferred women just a bit over twenty-one. Old enough to have been out there in the world a bit, but still young enough for him to watch the innocence drain from them as he robbed them of breath. As he used his knife to show them exactly how he wanted them to move beneath him.

  His body tightened as he thought of Beck’s daughters. The damned autistic one was just the right age, just the right build. Just the right combination of awareness and innocence in her big brown eyes.

  He’d have her beneath him. Soon.

  But it was her smaller sister that really caught his attention. Her hair wasn’t orange like her sister’s. The nurse had dark red hair that looked soft and silky. He loved to tangle his hands in hair like that.

  She wasn’t very tall. The other sisters were a few inches taller. He was a strong man; he could lift this one easily enough. She didn’t look like much of a fighter, either.

  But he bet she would squirm with a knife pressed to a naked breast, wouldn’t she?

  He cursed.

  There would be time enough for Kevin Beck’s other daughters. Time enough.

  For now, there was one he owed a little attention.

  A car pulled in at the Beck place and a woman got out. The crippled one. He watched her for a moment, imagining everything he’d do to her.

  His breathing picked up in anticipation.

  Soon.

  It would be soon.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX.

  * * *

  CHANCE knew something was wrong the minute Jillian turned the knob to the back door of the Beck house. He grabbed Jillian and moved her off the back porch with half a second’s pause. “Stay here. Better yet, get back in the car and stay there, engine running.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It wasn’t locked.” He pulled his weapon from the holster. Jillian gasped and covered her mouth. Wide eyes turned toward the door.

  “Mel’s inside; maybe she...”

  “Mel knows to lock the door.” He pointed toward the car. Jillian, unlike her sister would have been, was far more obedient. He pushed the door inward the moment he saw Jillian reach the car.

  The kitchen told him everything he needed to know. The knife Mel had been using to cut up peppers lay in the center of the floor, the peppers were on the cutting board.

  Syd’s science project on one end of the dining room table had been flattened—he had a good idea by what. Mel might not be strong physically but she wouldn’t have gone down without a fight. A few strands of long red-gold hair was stuck in the still drying papier Mache, confirming his theory.

  Mel’s backpack that she took with her every time she left the house still rested in its normal spot by the back door.

  He searched the house quickly, knowing what he was probably going to find. Knowing that the odds of finding her dead were pretty damned high.

  Why the hell hadn’t they put a guard on the rest of Brynna’s family? Just to be sure they’d all be safe?

  He searched the house quickly. She wasn’t there.

  Instead, he found a letter in the middle of the woman’s bed. He ripped it open quickly.

  Melody owes me some answers. You’ll get her back when this is finished.

  It wasn’t signed.

  He hurried back outside to the younger sister, going around the front of the house.

  Nothing else was disturbed.

  She met him in the drive. “Where’s my sister?”

  He held the letter up for her to see. “Someone took her. I’m calling it in to the TSP.”

  “I need to get back to Brynna.” Wild panic in the brown eyes that looked at him. All the Beck daughters had those soul-stealing eyes, didn’t they? The eyes that made a man want to save the world for them.

  He’d failed at every turn, hadn’t he?

  He tried not to think of Mel, of what she was going through at that moment. Whether she was dead or alive.

  Not yet.

  He had to deal with her family first. He pulled his phone free and dialed Erickson’s number. He explained the situation quickly, then dialed his brother. Erickson would get men on the hospital and every other Beck out there and quickly.

  Chance kept one hand on Jillian’s elbow, mostly to keep her from rushing into the house and seeing for herself that her sister wasn’t in there. And to keep her from collapsing, if it came to that.

  The woman was shaking in his grip, tears running down her pale cheeks. He pulled her close to his chest and held her while the sobs almost shook her in two. She was smaller than Brynna, skinnier, shorter, more delicate, if possible. So damned vulnerable, all of them.

  Damn these Becks, they’d somehow managed to get inside his skin when no one else had in ten years.

  He’d started to care for the lot of them—and he was doing a piss-poor job of protecting them, wasn’t he?

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN.

  * * *

  BRYNNA knew something was wrong the moment Elliot stepped into the hospital room she was sharing with Gabby for the next few minutes.

  Her friend was being released, with antibiotics to deal with the pneumonia Gabby had developed from breathing in insulation and dust while dragging Brynna through the Tunnel of Hell.

  Elliot was hovering and while it was probably driving Gabby crazy, Brynna thought it was sweet. He loved Gabby and she loved him. It was obvious for anyone looking at them to see.

  But when he came into her room while Lacy was checking the stitches holding Humpty Brynna—as her family had started calling her—together again he came to her bed. “Bryn...”

  Everyone went quiet. Brynna shifted in the bed with help from Lacy. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

  “Chance just
called. He gave Jilly a ride home after her shift ended.”

  “What’s happened?” Brynna bit back the panic. Thoughts of her dad and sisters rushed through her head over and over. “Who? What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”

  He held up a hand. Lacy wrapped her fingers around Brynna’s. Brynna yanked away. She couldn’t be touched, not yet. Not if she was going to hold herself together long enough to find out what had put that look in Elliot’s eyes. “What? What?”

  “They can’t find Mel, Brynna. Her backpack is still at the house, the meal she was prepping in the kitchen is still there. There is a sign of a scuffle. But they can’t find her. There was a note, though. Chance is pretty certain she’s been abducted.”

  Brynna wrapped her arms around her stomach, ignoring the pulling of the stitches. Mel was missing. Mel. Someone had taken Mel. No, no, no, no, no!

  She closed her eyes as the screams broke free. As she called her sister’s name over and over and over and over.

  There were hands on her. Nurses, doctors. Gabby and Lacy.

  She looked into Lacy’s eyes as she tried to focus. Then Gabby’s. Gabby had blue eyes, really blue. Lacy’s were green. Green like Chance’s. Chance’s. Chance. Where was Chance?

  “We’re going to have to sedate her. She’s not going to come out of this rationally,” a harsh voice said somewhere near her left ear.

  She didn’t recognize the voice. Didn’t recognize the face. That made it all the worse.

  Where was Chance? Was he looking for Mel? He’d find her, wouldn’t he? Chance wouldn’t give up. He wouldn’t. He’d find her. He’d find her.

  Gabby was next to her, saying her name over and over. Trying to help. Trying to calm her. Trying to get her to focus on Gabby.

  Brynna tried to calm herself down. She knew she wasn’t helping anyone like this. But...she just couldn’t stop the screaming. The yelling.