Shelter from the Storm (Finley Creek Book 2)

by Calle J. Brookes

  The fear.

  Hard hands, male hands, were forcing her back on the bed. She looked up into the harsh face, an older man, younger than her father, though. A doctor?

  He was hurting her, holding her too tight. Why was he hurting her? She kept screaming, and kept screaming, clawing at his hands.

  Until her eyes got heavy and her muscles limp. She collapsed on the bed as darkness stole her soul.

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT.

  * * *

  ELLIOT had a hundred things running through his head as he watched Lacy tear into the hospital Chief of Staff—her boss. The man had been far too rough subduing Brynna and everyone in the room knew it.

  He’d pulled the man off himself when he realized that Lanning wasn’t helping calm her down in the least, that he was hurting her.

  Finally, Lacy had ordered one of the nurses to get a sedative, explaining Brynna’s condition quickly.

  Gabby was still on the bed; Brynna had collapsed on top of Gabby when the drug had hit her. Gabby didn’t seem to mind, just kept patting Brynna’s head and holding her. While Gabby cried. She looked up at him. “She’s not had a fit this bad in years. This is the worst one I’ve ever seen.”

  “What in hell happened in here?” Dr. Lanning demanded after Lacy was finished with her tirade. Lacy and the nurse carefully shifted Brynna and freed Gabby. Lacy straightened the blanket over the unconscious woman quickly. “What set the girl off?”

  Lacy and Gabby looked at Elliot. He nodded. “This goes no further than this room right here, do you understand?”

  “Of course.” Lanning was belligerent. Elliot studied the man quietly. Something about him was off, wasn’t it? Blood shot eyes, shaking hands.

  “Her sister has been abducted. We just learned,” Elliot explained. “We’ll need to increase security on this floor. Especially this room. Jillian and Sydney will also require security details. Dr. McGareth, if you could arrange for me to speak with Jillian’s supervisor—she’s going to not be able to work for a while. Until we ensure the entire Beck family is safe.”

  “I’ll get her supervisor shortly. I’ll need to speak with Dr. Jacobson about Brynna first. When she wakes...she’s going to have to hear it all again. It might...might be best to keep her resting for a while. Until...until we know more about what’s going on with Mel.”

  “Thank you.”

  Lacy was still glaring at Lanning. “I’ll come sit with her after my shift is over. I’m sure Jilly will want to be here, too. Has anyone contacted Kevin?”

  “Chance was tracking him down. Kevin was supposed to be with Syd at her school.”

  “What are we doing to find Mel?” Gabby asked.

  “McKellen’s on his way over to the house now. There was a note.”

  “What did it say?”

  Elliot waited until the nurses and Lanning were out of room at his order. He allowed Lacy to stay. She’d been in and out of Gabby and Brynna’s hospital room for the past three days, and in and out of the Beck house since Brynna had been released from the hospital the first time. She knew almost as much as the rest of the Beck clan. In fact, they’d seemed to consider her and Jillian’s other friend Ari as honorary members of the family, same as they welcomed Gabby. And Syd’s friends. As they’d welcomed Elliot and Chance.

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

  “What is that supposed to mean? He calls her by name? If it’s someone Benny was working with, why would he take her now? And why would he say we’d get her back?”

  “I don’t have a clue,” Elliot said just as Gabby’s new cell phone rang. Her old one hadn’t survived the explosion.

  She grabbed it quickly. “Hello? Mel! Mel, where are you?”

  Elliot grabbed the phone from her quickly. “Mel, it’s Elliot, where are you?”

  “Elliot, this asshole—” Mel yelped and he heard someone else in the background. But it had definitely been Mel’s voice.

  A male voice came on the line. “Marshall, as you can hear, she’s alive. She’s not hurt and she won’t be. I’ll see to that. In the meantime, find my father before those bastards hurt him. You’ll get Melody back then.”

  Elliot’s mind seized on the only guy whose father was still involved. “Barratt?”

  “Like I said, my father safe, you get her back. We have a deal?”

  “Give us something to go on. We don’t even know where to start searching for him.”

  “Neither do I. That’s the problem. I can’t find him.”

  “One hair on her head out of place, Barratt, and you’ll regret it. Am I clear?”

  “Find my father. I’ll worry about Melody. I’ll keep her safe.”

  Barratt ended the call.

  Elliot could barely process what he’d just heard. Was the guy seriously trying to extort the TSP? How did this figure into any of what had happened? “Gabby, do not leave this room. Do you understand?”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To find my brother and Kevin. We now have a place to start looking for her.”

  “She’s alive,” Gabby said around a sob. “She’s alive.”

  “She is. Now we just have to get her back.” He looked at the second blonde in the room. “When does your shift end?”

  “An hour.” The doctor was pale and wide-eyed, as well. They were all in shock, weren’t they?

  Elliot looked over at the bed, at the unconscious woman there. She looked so damned small and vulnerable, didn’t she?

  And his brother loved her, Elliot had no doubt of that.

  But how were they supposed to keep them all safe? Elliot understood Chance’s reluctance to get involved, especially with such a family as the Becks. They had already lost so many close to them.

  If Mel didn’t make it through this, what would it do to the people who loved her? What would it do to Brynna and Gabby and the rest?

  What could Elliot do to help?

  He didn’t have a clue at the moment. Except…

  Look for Mel. Find her. Take that next step, while keeping the two women here safe. Somehow.

  “Can you stay with them? Until family arrives?”

  “Of course.” Lacy followed him out of the room. She patted him on the arm once they were in the hall. “You’ll find her. I have no doubt about that.”

  “I’m not going to stop until I do.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE.

  * * *

  KEVIN Beck was one of the strongest people Chance had ever known. That was made abundantly clear as he watched the older man process the fact that yet another of his daughters was missing. The younger girl was shaking and pale. She went right into Jillian’s arms. Jillian accepted her father’s quick hug while rocking the youngest Beck, then the Beck family turned to business.

  The business of finding their missing sister.

  Elliot pulled in moments later, and called Kevin’s name. Chance stepped away from Erickson and McKellen—that damned McKellen was everywhere—to meet his brother. There was urgency in his brother’s steps. “Elliot, what do you know?”

  “Mel. She called Gabby’s phone. She’s alive.”

  “Where is she?” Kevin asked.

  “Houghton Barratt. He has her. Says he wants to make a deal. We find his father for him, then he’ll return Mel to us. He’s making no bones about having her.”

  “You spoke with her?”

  “Just long enough for her to say my name and call someone an asshole. And she spoke with Gabby for a brief moment, too. She’s alive. She’s alive, Kevin.”

  “Thank God.”

  Erickson said what they were all thinking. “Then let’s get her back.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY.

  * * *

  CHANCE made calls to every contact he had while Elliot sent McKellen and two of McKellen’s detectives to Houghton Barratt’s estate on the edge of Barrattville. Barrattville was a small town that was part of the Finley Creek incorporation, though it had been settled a decade
before Finley Creek. It mostly boasted a health clinic that was the oldest in the state, a post office, a school, and a collection of ranches that were at least one hundred and fifty years old.

  Houghton Barratt’s property was one of the oldest and definitely the most prosperous. It had two homes on it—the original Barratt homestead, which was impressive in itself, and the newer mansion built by Houghton Barratt fifteen years earlier.

  When he’d been twenty.

  Chance had googled everything he could find about the Barratt family during the endless hours he’d been waiting for Brynna to wake in the hospital.

  “How’s Brynna?” he asked his brother after Elliot was finished with McKellen’s people.

  Elliot hesitated. Kevin turned at the question.

  “Elliot? How’s Brynna?” Chance asked.

  “She didn’t take the news well. They had to sedate her before Mel called. She doesn’t know Mel is alive. Yet.”

  “What aren’t you telling us?” Kevin asked.

  “Brynna was hysterical, Kevin. It took four people to hold her down long enough for her to be sedated. They were afraid she was going to hurt herself more.” Elliot’s mouth thinned. Chance recognized it as a sign his brother was more than just irritated—Elliot was pissed.

  He’d be questioning his brother the first private moment they got. “She’s ok now?”

  “Sedated. Lacy and Gabby are staying with her now.”

  Chance looked over at Kevin. “I’m going over there. See her for myself.”

  “I...I...” The older man was torn. He glanced at his two daughters standing beside him. “I’m not sure where I am supposed to focus right now. I need to call Carrie, let her know what’s happened. I need to be with Brynna to help keep her calm. I need to find Mel. And they need me, too.” He waved a hand toward Jillian and Syd. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  Jillian wiped her eyes and squared her shoulders. “I’ll call Carrie, Dad. And I’ll stay with Syd.”

  “I’ll go to the hospital with Brynna,” Chance said. It was where he wanted to be.

  Now that they knew her sister was alive—at least for now—he needed to check on Brynna himself. Then he’d see about getting her sister back.

  * * *

  BRYNNA was still out when Chance walked past Det. Evers and into her hospital room. Dr. McGareth was out in the hall, arguing with two people, including Dr. Coulter, the hospital administrator. Gabby was by Brynna’s bedside, playing a game on her cell phone. She looked up when he walked in. “Chance. Where’s Elliot?”

  “He’s still at the Beck house with Kevin. He’s waiting on word from McKellen. He sent him and some of Major Crimes’ people to Barratt’s place in Barrattville. See what they can find there.”

  “You think she’s there? Wouldn’t that be too risky? I mean, you can get a warrant and walk right in, right?”

  Chance shook his head. “A single phone call from a burner phone—even to the Chief of the TSP—isn’t enough to get a warrant that quick. We’ll get one, but it’ll take a while. But we can ask questions, if the people there are willing. But we’ll get her back, don’t doubt it.”

  “Doesn’t he have a place in Mexico? Brynna and I googled his dad and found that they had properties in Mexico.”

  “I’ll make a few phone calls. I have friends over the border.” It made sense, didn’t it? If he was kidnapping a woman to extort a police force into doing what he wanted he for damned sure wouldn’t keep her somewhere she could be found so easily.

  But across the Mexican border was a whole different ball game, wasn’t it? Getting through the red tape to get in there would take a few days at the least. If they were certain beyond a doubt that that was where she was. And that she didn’t go willingly.

  The small sign of a scuffle and the note and phone call weren’t much. And Chance knew it. Maybe stateside, but enough to cut through international red tape, not likely.

  First, though, he wanted to take a good look at Brynna for himself.

  “How is she?”

  Gabby’s eyes filled again. “It was awful, Chance. She was screaming Mel’s name, and then yours. It took me, Lacy, a nurse, and that stupid jerk Dr. Lanning to keep her from hurting herself.”

  “Stupid jerk?” He stepped over to the bed.

  “He was threatening to tie her down, Chance. Right in her face. He was two inches from her face.”

  “Like hell he would.” Hot anger rushed him and he took a close look at her. “They drugged her?”

  “Lacy did. It was her only choice. She was trying to calm Brynna and keep Lanning in control.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He bruised her. He held her down and yelled in her face. Elliot pulled him away and Lacy ordered a sedative for Brynna. When Kevin gets here, or Jilly, someone who can make medical decisions for her, they are going to discuss keeping her on a mild drug to keep her calm. She’ll be awake, Lacy said, but...won’t freak out again. Or won’t be able to hurt herself if she does.”

  “And Lanning?”

  “Lacy’s speaking with the hospital administrator now. She’s lodging a formal complaint. The nurse who was in here is collaborating. I already did. This was the last thing Brynna needed right now. She already hates hospitals as it is.”

  Chance shifted the nightgown Brynna wore. Livid red marks were on her pale shoulders. Thumb prints? He lifted her a bit, just enough to see her back. The guy had gripped her, hard.

  When she was already terrified and hysterical? Chance forced his fists to unclench.

  “We can’t deal with him now. We need to focus on finding Mel. What did she say when you spoke with her? How did she sound?”

  “She sounded angry. She just said, ‘Gab, it’s Mel.’ That was it. I wish she’d said more but Elliot took the phone. That’s all I know.”

  “It’s not much. It’s proof she’s still alive. But it’s a direction, at least. If we take the son on his word that he’ll keep her alive while we search for his father...”

  “He will, won’t he? Why else would he let us know that he is the one who has her? If he hurts her, we’ll know it. We’ll arrest him and send him to jail.”

  “That’s what we’re counting on.”

  “Then why would he do this? He has to know.”

  “I don’t know. Desperation, maybe. If he’s not involved with his father and Russell, maybe. We’ll get those answers, Gab. I promise.”

  Because like she said, Houghton Barratt had to know what would happen the minute he stepped back on U.S. soil.

  Nothing Barratt had done made any sense.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE.

  * * *

  CHANCE stayed by Brynna’s bed while she slept. He wasn’t leaving her alone for even a moment, not after what had happened. They didn’t have definitive proof yet that Houghton Barratt was the one who had Mel. It could have all been a set-up of some sort. Something to distract them from their true purpose. He didn’t think so. They had had no way of knowing Elliot would take Gabby’s phone. And Mel had recognized his brother’s voice and called him by name. That alone told them she was alive at the time of the phone call.

  It was reassuring, at least.

  Dr. Coulter had stepped in the room a few moments ago, with Dr. McGareth on her heels. Both were friends of the Becks and he knew they would protect Brynna’s best interests while she was in their hospital.

  Dr. Coulter checked the chart at the end of Brynna’s bed. “We can gradually bring her out of it in a few hours. I want to do it slowly, so we can tell her about her sister while she’s still calm enough to get through the initial hurdle.”

  “I’ll stay as long as necessary. Thanks to Lanning, I have a three day vacation, after all,” McGareth said bitterly.

  “Circumstances aside, you broke protocol, Lace.”

  “And you’d have done the same if you had seen how afraid she was of him. How tightly he was holding her. Do no harm, remember?”

  “You got suspended?” Gabby asked,
her eyes wide. “Because of what he did?”

  “Well, you can’t tell the Chief-of-Staff he’s a damned drunken ogre and not get some sort of reprimand,” Dr. McGareth said, shrugging. “It’s not the first suspension I’ve had. Nor do I think it’ll be my last.”

  “Lanning’s lucky I wasn’t here.” His respect for the blonde doctor went up about ten notches. She had a fiery personality that he liked. That it was directed toward taking care of Brynna was all the better. Chance fought the urge to hunt the man down and ram his fist into his face. Show him what it was like to be helpless and defenseless. He tamped down on the urge. It would have to wait—keeping Brynna’s entire family safe had to come first, didn’t it?

  He, Gabby, and Dr. McGareth spoke for a while longer about what the next steps would be in finding Mel. Elliot had to play by the constraints of the TSP, but Chance didn’t.

  Chance could hop a plane into Mexico and get her himself—if they knew where she was being kept. And how many guards Barratt had in place.

  If that’s what it took, then he’d do it. In a heartbeat.

  It was becoming less and less about finding answers about the past and more about finding ways to keep Brynna and her family safe, to keeping Gabby safe, wasn’t it?

  He looked at Brynna sleeping in the bed and made her yet another promise.

  He was getting her sister back for her, no matter what he had to do to do it.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO.

  * * *

  GABBY spent the time Brynna was sleeping googling Houghton Barratt. Their earlier searches had focused on his father and whatever property the older Barratt might own.

  Now she focused on his son.

  She had to admit his son was one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen. He was tall—taller than Elliot and Chance by a good two or three inches, she thought—and built along the same lean lines Chance was. Elliot was bulkier, more muscled than Chance.