Shelter from the Storm (Finley Creek Book 2)

by Calle J. Brookes

  “Chance.” Did he hear how her voice wobbled? She fought the tears. He would not see her cry. He wouldn’t.

  “Ok,” Elliot said from behind his brother. “Gabby and I are going inside. I trust you can get Brynna to the conference room on the third floor? It’s the Turner room.”

  “Of course. I think we’ll manage.” Chance’s fingers wrapped around her elbow. Brynna jerked her arm away before she thought about how it would look. If she let him touch her, she’d never make it through the day.

  She knew that.

  Daniel went inside, after touching her on the elbow once. Brynna nodded, barely looking at him.

  “You’re angry.”

  She thought for a moment. Was she?

  Maybe. Maybe not. Enough time had passed that she wasn’t mad at him that much, any longer. More hurt. His fears had impacted everything, hadn’t they? She was more confused than anything. More afraid. What was he going to do when she told him? “I’m not angry. But there’s something I do need to talk to you about. Tell you. It’s really important.”

  Would she ever be able to figure this man out? Would she even get the opportunity?

  Brynna wouldn’t be shocked if he ran right into traffic after she told him. If he tried to escape as fast as he could. Escape what she wouldn’t change. Maybe he’d just go back to Mexico and no one would ever hear from him again.

  Wouldn’t it be best to just get it over with? Every minute he was there in front of her was one more minute in which she hurt for what she couldn’t have. And she had to focus on what came next, not what had come before. It was vital, now more than ever. Because someone else was counting on her now. She touched her stomach lightly. “Chance, I have something I need to say to you.”

  “In a minute. I need to say something first. Make you understand that I know I shouldn’t have left you. Especially for as long as I did.”

  “You did what you said you would. What we agreed to. I didn’t ask for more than what we agreed to. I didn’t.” She’d hurt, a gut-wrenching aching hurt, when she’d left him for St. Louis. But she’d done it. It was the only real choice she’d had then.

  Chance had his demons, and he was going to chase them. No matter what. And she may have fallen in love with him just that fast, even if she hadn’t believed it possible before—however, that didn’t mean he had fallen for her.

  Or that she ever would have expected him to. He’d said so. No matter what had happened between them since that cellar.

  “Maybe you didn’t ask for it. But you should have expected more from me, baby. Instead...you just accept. I never should have left you. If I hadn’t been such an idiot I damned well would have been in that annex with you and Gabby.”

  “And possibly killed by the explosion. Gabby and I got lucky that day. The two spots we were in were the only ones that were even reasonably protected by the explosion. That’s what the forensics teams told us. There’s nothing that says you would have survived. How do you think I would have felt then? I’m happy, thrilled, that no one else was down there with us. We got lucky. How lucky would we have been if someone we loved had been down there with us and died? You or your brother or Jarrod? That would have been devastating, Chance. Don’t you see that? Gabby and I protected each other and we survived. And we’re moving past it. I think today is proof of that. It’s the future. Not the past. I need that right now; especially right now…Chance…”

  One look at his green eyes and she understood. Chance would never move past that. He honestly thought he would have been able to protect her, didn’t he? No matter what she said, he’d always think he failed her. But why? They’d made no claims on each other, except for sex.

  Except for the baby.

  The baby. Her hand dropped to her stomach and stayed. “Chance...there’s something I need to tell you. I need to. And I need you to listen. Before you say anything. I need you to just listen. Listen. Listen.”

  CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR.

  * * *

  HE half thought she was going to tell him to take off. To leave her alone forever. It wouldn’t surprise him if she did. He deserved it.

  Still, she looked so pale, so worried. Her hand covered her stomach, and her eyes were damp. Worried. Hesitant. “Babe, do you need to sit down? Are you hurting?” It had been weeks since the explosion; Elliot had said she was healed.

  “No. I need to be standing for this.”

  His stomach clenched. “Bryn, is there something going on?”

  She closed her eyes and her free hand wrapped over the other.

  Chance couldn’t help himself. He stepped closer.

  Brynna held up her hand; to stop him? “Wait. Before you say anything. I think it’s probably going to be best to just say this fast. Before I lose my nerve and completely flip out. I’m pregnant. Pregnant. There’s going to be a baby. Our baby. And I need to know what you think you want to do now.”

  Every word he’d been about to say flew away, leaving him staring down at her, speechless. This was not what he expected; not at all. “Pregnant. As in...when we...”

  “Yes. But we used condoms. Used condoms. I know we did. So I looked up the failure rate. It can be between twelve to eighteen percent, depending on the material the condom was made out of. If they aren’t latex, it’s higher. They weren’t latex. And if they were old…they could have been degraded. We have no way of knowing how long—”

  Chance covered her lips with one finger. He didn’t need a Wikipedia entry on condoms. Only one thing really mattered.

  Pregnant.

  Brynna was pregnant and spouting off the failure rates of condoms. Logical. Always logical, his Brynna. His Brynna, his baby. His for the taking. All he had to do was step up to the plate and be a man about it and take what Fate was offering to him. Pretty woman and a pretty baby. All he needed was the pretty house, didn’t he? The papers in his pocket took care of that. “I need to think.”

  She paled even more. Her mouth trembled. “I’m sorry. I know this is a surprise to you.”

  And to her. She had plans, goals for her life. How would a baby factor in with all of that? This changed everything for her, too, didn’t it? Was she happy about it? “You are keeping the baby.”

  She looked at him like he was an idiot and her hands tightened on her stomach. Protectively. Where their child rested. Nothing else mattered to him but her and the baby they’d created. “Of course.”

  “How long have you known?”

  “Three weeks. A phone call didn’t seem right. I tried. But…I couldn’t find you.”

  The expression in her eyes tore at him. So confused, so scared, so vulnerable.

  So Brynna.

  “So you’ve spent that time not knowing what I’d do or where I was and afraid?” While he was off doing stupid shit. Another black mark on his soul.

  Her chin went up. “I’m not afraid. Well, not really. I know the baby will be taken care of. No matter what. He or she will have people who love him or her. He’s a Beck, after all. And I can afford to take care of a baby. I sold some of my software. I made enough to not have to go back to the TSP. Ever. I don’t want to, anyway.”

  “We need to sit down and talk. Really talk about this. About everything.”

  She nodded. “You’re right. But not today. Today has to be for finishing up with Benny. Finishing up the past.”

  Not what he wanted, at all. He wanted to focus on her, on their family. Brynna and pretty babies—Chance fought the urge to smile and shout to the rooftops. Corny of him, he knew. But…Brynna Beck was having his baby. That meant something, didn’t it? “We’d better get in there, then. But Bryn...this doesn’t change how I feel in the least. I’m here for you. I came back for you. Not to testify, or go after Benny’s friends, or Handley Barratt. I came back because…I need you. Not just because of this kid we made, but…I don’t want my life the way it is anymore. It’s missing something. It’s been missing you. Don’t forget that. I don’t want you to have time for other thoughts, other worries. I
’m here for you. I came back for you.” He took her hand in his and kissed her palm. He covered her other hand. “Remember that.”

  He pulled her against his chest and just held her. Just for a moment, right in the middle of one of the busiest sidewalks in Finley Creek.

  CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE.

  * * *

  BRYNNA didn’t know what to believe. He’d avoided her for so long and now that she told him about the baby he was ready for strings? “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “What doesn’t?”

  “You don’t want strings or commitment. You told me that. Now you’ve changed your mind?” Only one thing made sense. Logical. “Because of the baby.”

  “No! Not because of the baby.” He pulled back and looked down at her. Brynna tried to read his eyes, but…well, she’d never been good at figuring people out. “Because of us. I’m tired of being alone, and I…love you.”

  “You love me. After only eighty-three days. It doesn’t make sense.” But it worked for Gabby and Elliot, didn’t it? They had been together just as long as she had known Chance, plus one or two days. And she didn’t doubt that her friend loved Elliot. “Love doesn’t work that way.”

  “Who says love has to work the same way for everyone, babe? I know what I feel. Hell, it’s why I took off to Mexico.”

  “You went to another country to escape me?” Hurt twisted in her chest, but Brynna refused to let him see that.

  “To escape the fear. I thought…distance would change how I felt. But it just made me need you more. I don’t want to be away from you again. I’m not very good at this, babe. I need your help. I just…need you.” His hands tightened on her arms. “Just give me a chance. We’ll figure this out together.”

  Brynna found herself nodding. She wanted a chance, all right. She wanted him. For the first time since she’d realized how she felt about this man, she started to feel a bit of hope.

  Maybe he did feel the way she did?

  “Chance…” She couldn’t do this, not here on the street in front of the hotel that her new brother-in-law owned. “We need to deal with this hearing. Then we’ll talk.”

  “Let’s get inside, then. But first…” Chance leaned down and kissed her. Just the way she had wanted him to. Brynna clung to him, taking in the feel of his strength as he held her. He pulled something from his pocket. “I want you to keep this. Look at it after the hearing. Then you and I will talk about what it means.”

  She took the papers.

  “Put them in your bag, babe. Look at them later, ok?” She did. He bent down and kissed her right on the forehead, then held her against him for a long, long time.

  Why was it that one man could make her world feel right with just one touch? Would she ever be able to figure that out?

  He pulled away and Brynna let him lead her inside the hotel, completely rattled. What was she supposed to think now?

  She’d honestly thought he’d run the instant she told him of the baby.

  Chance didn’t want a family. He had made that very clear. So what had changed his mind? Just responsibility?

  What was on those papers? Her fingers itched to pull them out, but he had asked her not to. That mattered. Trust mattered. Now more than ever.

  He held her hand in his and she let him.

  No guy other than her father had ever held her hand. Only Chance.

  Brynna couldn’t help think about that first time he’d held her hand. In the middle of Oklahoma, when it had just been them, the storm, and the men who wanted to kill them.

  A lot had changed since then, hadn’t it?

  Brynna didn’t say anything as they stepped into the hotel.

  CHAPTER NINETY-SIX.

  * * *

  BRYNNA hated testifying. Hated it. They kept staring right at her, asking her those questions and barely giving her time to think. To remember. She finally held up her hand. “Stop! Stop, stop, stop!”

  Everyone went silent. Chance stood from where he sat next to her and put his hands on her shoulders. Brynna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Focused on him. Her hand dropped to her stomach. She could do this. This was the end of her TSP story, wasn’t it? She could get through this and then she and Chance were going to talk about what was important. Important.

  “What do you need, Bryn?” Elliot asked. Gabby was on the other side of her with Elliot on the outer edge. It honestly felt like it was the four of them against the rest of the room.

  “I need people to let me think. Let me think. Think.” She opened her eyes and looked across the table. The guy sitting there was one she recognized—Marcus Deane, governor of Texas. Chance’s cousin. They had the same green eyes, didn’t they?

  That helped her, a little. She took in a deep breath. “I have to start at the beginning. I can’t answer questions thrown at me like this. Like this.”

  “Start at the beginning, Bryn. Don’t let this upset you,” Chance said. “They’ll get their answers when they get them.”

  She nodded. “Gabby and I and my sister Carrie built this program. I started it three years ago, a year after I began working for Benny. When I was ready for the work with the audio portion, I asked Gabby and Carrie to help. To help. Gabby is better with audio. Audio. I don’t hear variations like Gabby does. We had just finished the main product when I signed out a copy of the video from the murder of the Marshall family. I told Gabby what I was doing. I knew the video was older, and I wanted to see what our software was capable of. Benny was listening. Benny.” She hesitated for a moment and looked toward her friend. “And I have been working on the Marshall case privately for two years. Since I learned that Gabby had received emails from the killers. When I was in St. Louis, I had access to my sister’s servers.”

  She paused and took a drink of the water Chance held out to her. “Carrie is with the FBI’s PAVAD directorate. She’s head of computer analysis with the Complex Crimes Unit. The CCU. I used my program and her server to run the video. I discovered that someone had erased a fifth man from the video. I wanted to get that information back to the TSP as quickly as possible, and I wanted to be able to show the new chief of Finley Creek. Elliot. So I found Chance, who was also in St. Louis. He agreed to drive me home.”

  He snorted. “Agreed, babe?”

  She smiled up at him. “Maybe not. Chance drove me home, but we didn’t make it. Didn’t make it. Two men—Handley Barratt and Charles Raymund—ran us off the road.” She shivered as she remembered those early morning hours. “They pulled me out of the car. Over the glass. They wanted me. They wanted my laptop. Me. Me. Me.”

  Chance’s hand wrapped around hers. Gabby touched her shoulder, lightly. She wasn’t alone. She could do this.

  She continued, until she reached the end of what had happened in the lab that day. Until she looked at the governor—it was easier to look at the man who resembled Chance and Elliot than any of the other people staring at her—and told them about losing consciousness inside a tunnel of rubble. Of knowing they were going to die.

  She couldn’t go on. She looked at Chance. “I need…I need to go outside for a minute. I need to breathe. Please. Please.”

  He jumped to his feet immediately. “Let’s go.”

  Her stomach rolled and her hand covered her baby. “I need…a few minutes alone. Stomach is…upset.”

  She’d seen one, just at the end of the hall. Less than fifteen feet away. She could hide out in there. Just for a few minutes. Before she went into what all had happened to her, to them, next.

  “I’ll wait right here,” Chance said.

  “Do you need me to go with you?” Gabby asked.

  She shook her head. “I just need to be alone for a minute. To think.”

  “Of course.”

  Brynna turned and left the conference room.

  She just needed to breathe.

  CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN

  * * *

  HE followed them from the TSP building down the block to the Barratt hotel, making sure to keep a good dista
nce between them. The Chief of the TSP kept a close watch on the two women, and he recognized the Major Crimes asshole, as well.

  He couldn’t get to them now.

  But he had some clear orders now. Take them out. Any means necessary. Chuck wasn’t going to stop until he had them.

  He just didn’t know how he was going to do that, yet.

  The Barratt wasn’t a secure location, and he had no trouble finding his way to the large conference room the TSP bigwigs were holed up in. There was a man on the door; a solitary man sitting in a chair just outside the door.

  Chuck studied him for a moment—guy was armed. It would have to be a quick attack, then.

  Before he could do anything, the conference room door opened. There she was. The orange-haired one.

  The cop stood up and hovered over her, turning his back to the hallway behind him.

  “Brynna? Are you ok?” the Major Crimes guy asked.

  “Restroom. I need the restroom. Need. Need to breathe.”

  Chuck heard the panic and he smiled. It was going to be far too easy, wasn’t it? Hardly a challenge at all.

  He pulled his gun from his pocket holster and cracked it on the guy’s skull as hard as he could. Cop went down almost without a sound.

  Big light brown eyes looked up at him. She screamed before he could cover her mouth. Screamed Marshall’s name.

  Chuck grabbed her by the arm and dragged her down the hall behind him.

  He’d have only seconds to get her out of the building and away from that damned Marshall forever.

  CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT.

  * * *