He swore. “That’s the bastard who cut Brynna, both times.”
“How is she this morning?” McKellen asked softly. Asked Chance.
There was significance in that, and all three men knew it. McKellen was stepping aside, giving Chance a clear path to the woman they both wanted.
All he had to do was step up and take it.
“She’s upset over Dr. McGareth. And worried. About every friend she has, especially Gabby. And worried about her sisters.” Chance thought of how quiet and subdued she had been that morning before he’d left. “I don’t know how much longer she can handle this.”
“She’s stronger than people realize,” McKellen said. There was a look in his eyes that Chance recognized. McKellen wasn’t just attracted to Brynna, was he?
It went deeper than that.
He understood the hurt the guy had to be feeling right then. No one involved in this ordeal had missed that Chance and Brynna had been intimate. That there were feelings between them. McKellen, included.
Too many people were getting hurt because of this.
“She is.” Chance looked at his brother. “I want to focus on finding this guy. I promised Brynna I would. But I also promised her I would find Russell’s missing daughter, somehow. I can’t do both.”
“I’ll do it. I’ll find Russell’s daughter. We need to be honest here; we’re probably looking for her remains. I doubt they’ve kept her alive this long,” McKellen said.
“We estimate she’s been missing seven to eight days. She may be alive, but the odds aren’t high,” Elliot said.
“She didn’t deserve this. No matter what her father did.”
“No, she didn’t,” McKellen said. “I’ll get Foster on it. He’s the best I have. I’ll work with him myself. If I have permission from this office.”
“You have it. Don’t even have to ask,” Elliot said. “Just find that girl.”
* * *
CHANCE left Elliot’s office and drove back to the Beck house. He had to go through two secure checkpoints to get back on their street.
His brother’s doing, he knew. Elliot and Gabby had agreed that it was too difficult—and cost too many resources—for the TSP to secure two separate locations. They’d agreed to stay at the Becks for the duration.
He found Gabby and Brynna in the midst of their family. They were watching the action between Mel and the billionaire who’d followed her home.
“What’s going on?” Chance asked Gabby as he took the barstool next to her.
“He is angry that Lacy was attacked and by the message sent. He wants Mel—all of us—to move in with him. He says we can’t trust the TSP at all.” Brynna was the one who answered. She sat on the stool next to Gabby’s. Chance leaned forward to take a look at her. “He says he has armed guards and will hire more if necessary.”
“Hell, how do we know we can trust him?” Chance looked at the other man. Barratt looked more screwed up than he had last time. Guy’s hair was a mess and his cheeks flushed. His shirt sleeves were unbuttoned and rolled half way up. His tie hung loose.
“Damn it, Melody! Why do you have to be so damned stubborn?” Barratt yelled. “Can’t you see that I want you safe?”
“Can’t you see that I make my own decisions?” she yelled right back at him.
Chance studied the two of them—they were yelling at each other, all right. But they were also both touching each other. He had his hands on her waist. Hers were pushed against his chest.
They looked like they belonged together, didn’t they?
He could have told Barratt to save his breath. Mel Beck was just as stubborn as her sister. He hadn’t been able to stop Brynna from doing what she wanted yet, why should Barratt and Mel be any different?
Kevin was carefully watching the discussion, his distrust for his new son-in-law plain on his face. But Chance knew the older man would only interfere if he thought it was necessary. Kevin apparently believed in letting his daughters live their own lives. Chance respected that.
Still. He couldn’t blame the guy for trying. Barratt cared for Mel, and he wanted her safe. What could be so wrong in that?
Except that one of the men she needed protected from was Barratt’s own father.
How much of what Junior was saying was real, and how much of it was just an act to throw them all off his father’s trail?
They continued to yell at each other for a long while. Finally, Kevin stepped between them. “Enough, Barratt. Mel, go call your sister. See if you girls can stay in St. Louis for a while.”
“All of us,” Mel said, pointedly.
“Luc said we can all stay with him.” A voice came from the living room.
Chance hadn’t even realized Ari and Lacy were there yet.
“My wife stay with Davis Lucas? No way,” Barratt said. “She stays with me.”
“She makes her own decisions.” Mel shoved him lightly. Barratt still had a hold of her waist. All she managed to do was unbalance herself.
Her father reached for her, but Barratt’s hands stopped him.
He lifted his wife straight off her feet until they were eye-to-eye. “I just want you safe, Melody. You know that.”
Chance heard Gabby’s ahh next to him. He snorted. Barratt was playing all of them, wasn’t he?
“Houghton…I’ll go to St. Louis with the rest of my family. But…I’m not coming to your house. Not now.”
“Not ever, you mean? You can’t hide from me forever, little one. You know that.” Barratt leaned closer and said something Chance didn’t catch. But she nodded, then dropped her head to the tall man’s chest.
Everyone looked away to give them a moment of privacy; except Brynna, who Chance couldn’t help but watch.
She stared at her sister, puzzled. When she looked up, her eyes met Chance’s.
That’s when it sank in. The Becks were going to St. Louis.
Brynna was leaving.
And Chance was staying behind. Without her.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO.
* * *
CHANCE and Elliot went back to the home they’d grown up in after they’d watched Gabby and Brynna and the rest of the Becks, plus Ari and Lacy, board the private jet that belonged to Lucas Industries.
Lucas had sent it to fetch his younger sister and whomever else wanted to spend some time in St. Louis.
He’d wanted to hold Brynna one more time before she left, but he’d forced himself to be content with just telling her good-bye and to stay safe up there.
She’d adjusted her sunglasses and nodded at him. “You, too. I know you’re going to hunt for that man. Don’t do anything reckless. And…keep Elliot safe for Gabby. And can you check on Houghton for Mel sometimes? I think she really does love him.”
“He loves her.” And Barratt was prowling around the tarmac behind them all. He’d carried Mel up the steps into the belly of the plane over her objections. After kissing the hell out of her.
The guy was seriously unhappy about his wife leaving Texas.
Chance never thought he’d empathize with Houghton Barratt, but he did.
He didn’t want Brynna to leave, either.
That was why he forced himself to step away from her before he grabbed her and kissed the hell out of her.
Gabby was going, too. And Elliot looked just as sick about it as Barratt did Mel.
They were pitiful. Pathetic. Weren’t they? All three of them.
As he watched Brynna climb into the plane after Gabby and before her father, an image flashed into his mind.
His father’s eyes when Chance’s mother had been killed right before him.
The devastation and loss, the torture the man had felt. It was enough to have Chance’s resolve strengthening. Better now, than later, right?
He turned to his brother and Barratt. “They’ll be safer in St. Louis. Lucas has the guards and resources to see to it. Here, they were just in more danger.”
“Yes,” Elliot said. “But watching her walk away…I didn’t
think it would hurt quite this much.”
“I know.” Barratt said it at the exact same time as Chance.
Chance felt his heart lurch out of his chest when the plane disappeared into the clouds a few minutes later.
He felt like he’d lost Brynna forever.
It was just a glimpse of what his future looked like, wasn’t it?
He’d better get used to it.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE.
* * *
SHE watched him from the window. Brynna knew it was pitiful, wasn’t it?
Or at least she thought it was, until she looked at her older sister, who sat across from her, her forehead pressed against her own window. Until Gabby leaned around Brynna to take a peek herself.
“We. Are. Pathetic,” Mel said, almost under her breath. “Look at us? A month ago we were doing just fine, and now…”
“Well, we’ve all been through a lot in the last month.” Gabby waved once. “A lot has changed. We’ve changed. Haven’t we?”
“You know they probably can’t see you, right?” Brynna asked, adjusting her earbuds. Mel had bought her a new player while she’d been in the hospital—the second time.
“I know. But I can still see Elliot.” Gabby’s sigh was long. “I didn’t want to leave him.”
“I know.” And Brynna did. She hadn’t wanted to leave Chance, either.
But then again, she had. She needed the space of several states between them, in order to figure out what her future held. And what she wanted from her life.
Her father sank down in the seat next to Mel. “I know this seems like the end of the world, girls. But it isn’t. And leaving Finley Creek is the best thing, right now. Being safe has to trump everything.”
Brynna nodded. She knew the logic. She always knew the logical answer, didn’t she? But it didn’t erase the hurt. Or the belief that when it was finally safe for her to return to Finley Creek, Chance Marshall would be long gone. Out of her life forever.
Off chasing his next set of bad guys, leaving her behind with nothing but her computers…
Nothing but her computers and her family.
Her family—her one true constant. She looked at the people on the plane with her. Her family. At least she had them.
St. Louis would keep them safe. So that was exactly where she needed, wanted, to be.
She’d just have to forget that she’d left a part of herself behind in Finley Creek.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR.
* * *
CHANCE missed her from the moment he opened his eyes in the morning until the time he closed them at night. He wasn’t too proud to admit it—at least to himself.
His brother didn’t help matters. Every time they spoke Elliot made a point of telling him how Brynna was holding up. That it wasn’t going well for her up in St. Louis brought a physical ache to his gut.
He felt like he’d cut out his lungs and tossed them aside like they had never mattered.
Strings? Hell yeah, there were strings. And they tied him up all neat and tidy and tighter than he ever would have imagined.
The DNA samples from Lacy’s fingernails had come back to two people, Dr. Logan Lanning…and a convicted offender named Charles Raymund.
Elliot had ordered Major Crimes to head up the search. Chance had wanted in on that, but his brother had told him that if he screwed it up somehow, Raymund could walk.
He hadn’t liked it, but…there were still other men out there responsible. And he’d find them. In the meantime, Elliot had Erickson and Journey searching out whatever they could find in Raymund’s past to connect him to Chance’s father—or anyone involved that they had identified. Somehow. It was just a matter of time.
Daniel McKellen and some of his people in Major Crimes found Alyssia Russell. Chance had been with Elliot when his brother got that call.
Against all odds the girl had been found alive, fifty miles west of little Garrity, Texas. Elliot was familiar with the area and he’d told Chance Alyssia was lucky she hadn’t fallen in a damned ravine and been lost forever.
As it was, she had been in a coma when she’d been found by one of the men who had previously worked for Elliot when he’d been head of the Garrity post.
She hadn’t woken in that time, and it was going on almost a month since she’d been found.
There would be no help from her in identifying the men responsible. Chance was just grateful the girl had been found alive.
The doctors were cautiously optimistic that she would wake as soon as her body healed. Her family had hope, at least.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE.
* * *
GOLDEN Boy sent him to St.-fucking-Louis after Beck’s damned daughters. It was damned cold in Missouri this time of year.
It took him weeks to find where the girls were staying and it had been Golden Boy who told him how to do it.
That still rankled. No one had ever gotten away from him like that before.
He had never had a girl escape him; not in the thirty-six years he’d been hunting them. Never.
That Beck’s daughter had managed it still pissed him off. The girl was racking up marks against her daily. Marks he would be taking back from her damned flesh.
And he wanted to watch her pay. He’d even thought of videotaping what he would do to her, so that he could rewatch. But he’d never taped a woman during the act before. Maybe he would tape her and then tape one of her sisters when he had her beneath him.
Kevin Beck owed him his daughters for the trouble they had put him through recently.
Beck’s oldest daughter was right there in front of him, carrying groceries into an artsy looking apartment building that was far out of his price range. Golden Boy had given him the address.
He’d been watching it for days. Waiting.
Finally, though, there they were.
The crippled one, the autistic one, and that damned blonde who’d caused them so much trouble. Too bad the orange-haired one and that blonde hadn’t died in the explosion like they were supposed to.
They had their bags with them. Like they were going to stay a while.
He knew exactly where they were now. All he had to do was wait for Golden Boy’s signal.
Then he’d have that orange-haired little bitch all to himself. After that, he’d plan which one of Beck’s daughters to go after next.
It was almost time.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX.
* * *
THERE was nothing Brynna despised more than being sick to her stomach. Twice in four hours she’d found herself bent over the toilet in Carrie’s spare bathroom, losing what little food she’d managed to hold down.
Not exactly an auspicious beginning to her day, was it?
“Are you ok?” Carrie stepped into the bathroom the second time, and handed Brynna a wet washcloth. “You look green. I never really understood that expression until I was pregnant.”
“I’m not pregnant.”
“No.” Carrie stared at her for a moment. “I didn’t think you were. Unless you are. You’re not? You’re sure? But...you are sick to your stomach, aren’t you? Do you have a fever?”
“No.” She felt perfectly fine, other than the inability to keep her stomach in control. “I think...I think it’s stress. Jilly gets cramps when she’s stressed. Guess I am now, too.”
“Probably. You’ll get through this, Bryn. I promise. I’ve seen lots of this kind of stuff. People get through, and then they’re ok in the end. Look what happened to me. To Dan.”
Brynna nodded. Minton Rush, her father’s old partner, had tried to kill Carrie before they had met. Carrie’s friend, Dan Reynolds, had stepped in front of Brynna’s dad when Minton tried to shoot him.
Dan had recovered fully and remarried. He now had seven kids. The middle one, his daughter Gracie, was a good friend of Syd’s. They hung out together whenever Syd was in St. Louis and spoke online all the time. Syd was with the Reynolds’ family now.
“Yes. Thank you. For letting us stay
here.” Well, for letting her and Mel and Gabby stay there. Jilly was still out at Luc’s with Ari and Lacy. He had a mansion built out of shipping containers that Brynna found fascinating. “Me and Mel and Gabby.”
“You’re my little sisters. Well, you and Mel are. And I like Gabby. You can stay with me forever. I...I never thought I’d ever have anyone other than Paige. Now I have Sebastian and Maddie, and Paige’s family—and you, Mel, Syd, Jilly and a real father. I want you all with me as much as possible.” Carrie’s eyes suddenly filled and she grabbed some toilet tissue and wiped at them. “I’m sorry. I’m feeling a little extra weepy again. I was the same way when I was pregnant with Maddie.”
Pregnant. There was that word again. “Pregnant.”
“Yep. We were going to wait a while, but...” Carrie smiled again. “I’m going to have another baby in April, Bryn. I told Dad last night. Now I’m telling you.”
Brynna felt her own eyes fill. “Wow. That’s...that’s wonderful, Carrie. Just wonderful.”
That was the moment Brynna started to feel like maybe Carrie was right. Maybe they would find normal again.
* * *
THEY went over to the Lucas’ compound—as Sebastian called it—for dinner with the rest of the Finley Creek Refugees, as Luc had taken to calling them. Paige’s husband was there, and he had his sister Al and her husband with him. Al’s husband was Sebastian’s brother. Their other brother was there with his wife and children, too.
It was very complicated. But Brynna enjoyed it. Mostly. It reminded her of a crowded Beck family dinner when all of her cousins and her two uncles would show up. She had two female cousins a little younger than Mel, and eight male cousins who were all older.
Whenever they would all get together it would be chaos. Although Carrie was the only Beck to have a child, yet.
Shelter from the Storm (Finley Creek Book 2) Page 21
