Dangerous in Charge

by Sidney Bristol

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, let’s get out and take a short walk then.”

  “Is that a good idea?” She stared at him with so much trust. It was humbling.

  “As long as we’re careful and stick together, I think so. Megan was the target. Not you or Faith. If we’re going with the detective’s theory, then I think we can assume Megan was targeted out of some personal vendetta against her dad.”

  Bethany popped her seatbelt and opened her door.

  Kyle got out and they met up on the sidewalk. The theater lot was packed with whatever new movie crowd was trying to be the first to see to the point that the whole lot was full.

  He turned left then right, evaluating the street.

  “There’s too much light and traffic this close to the theater.” He squinted at the buildings. “Nowhere to get the drop on her. Megan, did she have any kind of self defense training?”

  “Yeah, we did a course, the three of us.”

  “Would she fight back? Scream?”

  “Yeah. She’d fight back, then scream. Megan isn’t a big ask for help kind of person.”

  “Okay. Hm.”

  Kyle began walking away from the theater, toward the girl’s house. The whole stretch of road was too public. A random driver could have seen the abduction. Unless the kidnapper was driving, stopped and somehow got an antisocial woman to approach him.

  No. Someone as prickly as Megan wouldn’t do that. Based on what he’d learned about Bethany’s roommate today, the attacker would have had to surprise her.

  “What are you thinking?” Bethany asked.

  “Megan wouldn’t go out of her way to help someone if she were walking and they, say, slowed down to ask for directions, would she?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Didn’t think so.”

  “She’s not a bad person—”

  “I didn’t mean she was. Sorry, I shouldn’t interrupt.” Kyle shook his head. “What I mean is Megan is conscious that she is a woman walking alone. She’s not going to do something inherently dangerous. Did she carry mace or anything with her?”

  “Yes.”

  “Which tells me she was caught off guard.” Kyle rounded the corner at the end of the street.

  This was more like it.

  “Megan would have left your house on foot, turned left at the corner on that little connecting lane, then left again to end up on this road, correct?”

  “Yeah.” Bethany stared at the glistening pavement.

  The light rain from earlier hadn’t dried, but the air felt ten times as heavy.

  Kyle pulled out his phone and switched on the flashlight app.

  They walked slowly, covering Megan’s path backward.

  At the first alley Kyle ventured down a little way, but there was nothing to indicate a struggle. If it were him, he wouldn’t want to target someone this close to the main street.

  “Anything?” Bethany asked.

  “No, just some broken glass.”

  He rejoined her on the sidewalk and they walked across to the next street and the last stretch of commercial buildings before they gave way to the homes.

  “Stay here.” Kyle didn’t know what he’d find, and he didn’t want to alarm Bethany.

  The second alley had more garbage lined up than the other. The dumpster was overflowing.

  If there’d been something left behind, like a purse, Kyle was willing to bet it was gone. Still, the garbage bags seemed undisturbed. A struggling woman could split the plastic and make a mess while her attacker subdued her.

  Had he missed something?

  “What’s wrong?” Bethany called out.

  “No signs of a struggle.” He strode toward her. “Let’s keep walking.”

  They crossed another street into the distinctly suburban area. The homes faced the streets with a back alley granting residents access to the rear facing garages.

  “Is it possible Megan took another path?” he asked.

  “Not really.”

  He had to consider that Megan could have been abducted from the theater, no matter what Bethany said the manager claimed.

  Kyle’s phone began to ring. He glanced at the screen and grimaced.

  He’d been expecting this.

  “What is it?” Bethany asked.

  “My boss.” He slowed to a stop and clicked the answer button. “Zain. I was going to call you.”

  “You’re supposed to be on bereavement. We talked about this.” Zain sighed.

  “This fell in my lap.” Kyle glanced at Bethany. She was too busy looking at the sidewalk and yards to worry about him.

  “The Hunts? Really?” Zain groaned. “I wish you’d have warned me. Andrea thinks getting involved with them is a bad idea.”

  “I’m aware. Tell your wife I’m sorry.”

  “Tell me your side of this circus, because I’m not accepting money from anyone until I know what the hell is going on.”

  Kyle started with Bethany showing up at his house and walked through the events of the day up until arriving at the theater. Zain didn’t ask questions or interrupt, probably because he was taking notes and turning his mind toward the problem at hand. Zain would bitch about Kyle not taking time off and things happening out of process, but when it came down to a missing, innocent woman they both knew they were on board. Who Megan was related to didn’t matter as much as what happened to her.

  “You realize she’s been gone a full twenty-four hours?” Zain asked when Kyle was done.

  “Yeah. I wasn’t going to mention that.” Kyle glanced at Bethany who’d strayed twenty feet away.

  “You need to take time off,” Zain said again.

  “I don’t want time off.”

  “It is within my right as your boss to tell you to take time off and stay away from this job.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Zain... Your father just died. You might have hated him. He could have been the shittiest father ever, but he’s still gone. That’s going to do something to you, and I don’t want you in the field if you aren’t—”

  “Kyle? Kyle.” Bethany’s alarmed tone cut Zain off.

  “What is it?” Kyle and Zain asked in unison.

  Kyle jogged to where Bethany stood at the entry to the alley between the two homes. She pointed at a brown bag shoved behind a trashcan.

  “That’s Megan’s purse.”

  JAY STOOD OUTSIDE THE house and frowned.

  Both cars were gone.

  The lights were out.

  This was wrong.

  Bethany was supposed to be home alone tonight. This was around the time she began her night time routine. She’d shower, put on yoga pants and watch some TV. So where was she? Why this deviation from the routine?

  Jay strolled across the lawn. No one was out and about to see him. Most of the people home were sitting down to dinner, which meant he had a window of opportunity to get inside.

  He let himself into the back yard and circled around to Megan’s room. The window slid open soundlessly. He paused, listening for movement, but it was just as silent as it had been.

  Odd.

  He lifted himself into the house, careful to not track mud in with him. Once he was inside, he closed his eyes and listened. No feet padding on carpet. No sound of pages being turned. Not even the sigh as one of the girls rolled over in their sleep.

  They were all familiar to him.

  Jay edged toward the door, but still no sound.

  Bethany wasn’t here.

  Why wasn’t she there?

  That fucked up his whole plan.

  He strode out into the living room, but it was empty.

  With Megan gone, he’d hoped that Bethany would stick closer to home, waiting for the errant roommate to return. He’d secure her, then come back and wait for Faith to arrive home, exhausted, from work.

  Jay checked both Faith and Bethany’s bedrooms. While Faith’s was every bit as disorganized as it always was, it was Bethany’s that alerted him to the
wrongness.

  Drawers left partially open.

  The bin under the bed sticking out a bit.

  Little things that weren’t right.

  Where was Bethany? Why wasn’t she here?

  Lights shone through Faith’s window into the hall.

  Someone was in the driveway.

  Jay hoofed it back into the living room and peered out at a gray sedan.

  Two men got out and stood in the yard, staring at the house. There was something predatory about the way they stared, as though they, too were hunting. Their gaze passed right over Jay. He stood there, silent and hardly breathing.

  “They here?” the younger man asked.

  “No. No, ones at work and the other’s staying with her boyfriend, or whatever he is.” The older one waved. “Come on, they said to check the back.”

  The back? As in the back yard?

  The window.

  Jay sprinted across the house into Megan’s room. He eased the window shut and smoothed the curtains over it.

  He was trapped in the house.

  The voices came closer.

  The clank of the side gate made him flinch.

  Jay had to hide.

  Megan’s closet was too big, too sparse.

  Both Faith and Bethany’s closets were too small.

  The hall.

  He padded down the hall even as the sound of his window sliding up sent chills down his spine.

  Jay opened the hall closet and slid inside, past the vacuum and Christmas tree to the very back. He hunched lower, bracing his arms on either side.

  “Can you fucking believe that?” the younger man’s voice was easily heard through the wall. He had to be in the living room.

  “As long as we’re in here I want to check the place out. If this is our guy, it’s the first time we’ve identified his vic before we find the body.”

  That voice...

  It was familiar.

  Jay tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes, listening to the two banter. Their language made him think law enforcement. Police? Already?

  Fucking hell.

  If the cops were onto him already that would add a whole new level of complication to his very tight plan.

  This wasn’t good.

  Why had Bethany done this to him? After all the planning, it could have been perfect.

  FRIDAY. KYLE’S HOME, Seattle, Washington.

  Bethany sat on the stool unable to tear her eyes away from Kyle’s mastery of the stove. The last time a man cooked for her was her dad. She’d claimed she was sick and stayed home from work because Anthony had squeezed her hands so hard they were bruised and sore. Dad had come over to make her a grilled cheese. She’d spent the whole visit both terrified and hopeful Dad would open his eyes and actually see she was in trouble.

  “Bacon for your thoughts?” Kyle slid a small plate with a single piece of crispy bacon on it across the bar to her

  “Thanks.” She shook her head.

  “Something bothering you? You’ve been quiet.” Kyle braced his hands on the counter while his deep skillet sizzled away.

  “Worried about Megan. Learning about her...it brings back memories I’d rather not think about.”

  “We’ll find her.” Kyle half turned and stirred the pan.

  “What happens next?” She peered at the skillet. “What are you making?”

  “Tuscan chicken. You don’t mind mushrooms, do you? I should have asked.” He winced.

  “I’m fine with whatever I’m not cooking.” Bethany chuckled.

  “Good to know.” He picked up a deep pot and set it on a back burner. “Zain texted a bit ago to say the contract with the Hunts is finalized. The next step of the process is for our intel team to dig into what we know about Megan, her family, you and Faith. They’ll also look into Roger’s theory. If there’s anything to find, we’ll know by tomorrow at the latest.”

  “What are we doing?” Bethany bit off the end of the bacon.

  “We’re more or less in a holding pattern until we know something we can act on. The best thing to do right now is eat and rest. Once we get marching orders, we won’t stop until we find Megan.”

  “But...she’s been gone for a day. Can we afford to wait?” It seemed like a very long time for Megan to be in trouble. Waiting around in a comfortable home with good food seemed unfair.

  Kyle didn’t respond immediately. He stirred the pan, the frown lines in profile deepening around his mouth and eyes. He finally scraped the contents of the pan onto a plate with the rest of the bacon. That done, he wiped his hands and turned back to her.

  “I don’t have a good answer for you,” he said.

  Bethany swallowed. She appreciated the honesty even if it sucked.

  “If Roger is right, we’re already too late. If he’s wrong and someone else has her, that news conference could have changed things. We could still get a ransom request. There are too many possibilities for us to run around blindly. If it was just me and you...I’d turn over every rock by hand. But, if we have the full power of the team working with us, might as well take it in shifts. Let the computer gurus and our PI team point us in the best, most informed direction. Otherwise, we might make it worse.”

  “I see.” Bethany swallowed.

  “That’s not what you wanted to hear, I know.”

  “This is how you operate though?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And it works?”

  “It does, but this situation is different. If it was my call, I’d have the FBI in on this already.”

  “Why aren’t they involved? I don’t understand.”

  “They haven’t been invited by the local police. With Megan specifically, there’s not a lot to go on. With the Triple Threat until the crimes cross state boundaries it’s not a federal matter. From the sound of it, the police and the Hunts have been covering up this guy pretty well. The FBI probably don’t even know it’s an active investigation.”

  Kyle turned toward the stove and pulled the pasta pot off. He dumped the boiling liquid into a colander in the sink while Bethany watched.

  There was nothing she could do for Megan. Nothing at all. That left her cold inside.

  Bethany hadn’t been this helpless since...

  She closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists.

  Phantom hands gripped her shoulders, and she shivered.

  Don’t go there.

  “Beth? Hey.” Kyle’s feet thumped on the hardwood floor.

  “Please don’t call me that right now.” Her hands trembled.

  “Okay. Sorry.”

  She opened her eyes and stared at his chest.

  Kyle placed his hand on her knee.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked softly.

  Bethany flinched at the question. This, here and now, it wasn’t about Megan. This was her screwed up past coming back to bite her.

  “Megan...” Her throat closed up and she couldn’t make herself answer the question.

  Kyle didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. She could tell without looking at him she wasn’t going to shake this question. She didn’t owe him answers, but he wasn’t demanding them either. This was why she hadn’t dated why she’d sworn herself to the single path. The truth was letting anyone in meant facing her past. Sharing it with them. And she didn’t know if she could do it.

  “I just... I feel helpless, you know?” She shook her hands out.

  “Yeah. I do.” Kyle squeezed her knee and leaned against the other stool.

  She peered up, meeting Kyle’s gaze.

  Bethany liked him. At first she’d thought she was falling into a pattern. Kyle had enough of that bad boy vibe that he’d made her skittish, but after a while she’d realized it was an act. Kyle wasn’t a bad boy at all. He was simply better than her at hiding his brokenness.

  “The last time I felt this helpless was right before I broke up with my ex and lost my family. He used to call me Beth when he was angry with me. Most people get the first, middl
e and last name when they’re in trouble. I just got—Beth.”

  “Shit. I—I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” She wiped her palms on her thighs.

  “It’s tough losing family. Sorry to hear they’re gone.”

  “Oh, they’re not gone.” She laughed, but it was bitter. “They’re alive, I mean. They just picked Anthony over me.”

  Kyle stared at her for a moment, his mouth open.

  “That’s also why I panicked about being on TV. If Anthony saw me...” She swallowed.

  “If he ever bothers you, tell me. That’s a problem I can make go away.”

  The icy tone of Kyle’s voice made her shiver. She didn’t doubt Kyle’s word, but it wasn’t what she wanted. Making Anthony hurt wouldn’t get the years back. It wouldn’t make things with her family better.

  “What do you want? Space? A hug? Stop talking? Dinner?” His tone gentled.

  “A hug and dinner would be nice.”

  “You got it. Come here.” Kyle took her hand, and she slid off the stool.

  Bethany didn’t want to admit how good it felt when he wrapped his arms around her, folding her into a hug. She leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. She slid her arms around his shoulders and sighed, the demons scattering in the light of a stronger, more imposing presence.

  She was going to have a tough time keeping her daydreams about Kyle in check after this. He’d dropped everything to help her. It made that promise about not dating awfully difficult to stick to.

  “After my mom died, I cut myself off from my family, too. Back then I had the SEALs, but nothing really takes the place of your parents. It’s hard.” Kyle’s voice was a deep rumble in one ear, soothing her further. After a moment he loosened his grip and leaned back. “Want to help me finish up dinner?”

  “Sure.”

  “Come on.” Kyle took her hand and led her around the island into the galley kitchen. “I need you to stir for me, okay?”

  “I think I can handle that.” Bethany chuckled. She did most of the cooking at the house, not that he knew.

  “You sure?” Kyle squinted at her.

  “Pretty sure.” She smiled.

  “Okay.”

  While she stirred, Kyle poured a cream based concoction into the pan. He added the mushrooms and tomatoes, then the bacon and chicken from earlier. By the time he poured the rinsed pasta into the pan its smell was divine. Her stomach rumbled, urging her arms onward.