Dangerous in Charge

by Sidney Bristol

  “Do you remember what he looked like? Was he big? Small? Fat? Thin?”

  “I-I don’t know.” Faith’s voice broke and her shoulders rose.

  Bethany caught Kyle’s gaze and willed him to ease up. Faith was shaken. Bethany had never seen Faith this frightened before.

  “Taller than me?” Kyle asked, his intensity dialed back. He stood and held his hand up to his head, then went lower.

  “No. Shorter. Thinner, too.” Faith responded to the change in his tone, relaxing a bit against Bethany.

  “Good. Those are good details, Faith. What happened then?” Kyle sat back down.

  “I punched him. With the keys.” She held out her hand. Her knuckles were all scraped up.

  “Do you have the keys on you still?”

  “Yeah...”

  Kyle got up and sprinted for the kitchen. He yanked a clear, plastic bag out of a cabinet and came back.

  “I’m going to have to take your keys,” he said.

  Faith stared at Kyle.

  “Because you might have scratched him. There could be DNA on your keys,” Bethany said.

  “Oh my God. They’re in my purse.” Faith pointed at the bag lying on the floor along with the rest of her things.

  Bethany bit her lip and watched Kyle cross the floor and crouch. He used the bag to pick the keys out of the gray leather purse.

  “You don’t think it’s connected to Megan, do you?” Faith glanced at Bethany.

  She stared at the floor. If she looked at Faith or Kyle, she’d be an open book. How did Bethany begin to tell Faith what they’d concluded last night. Bethany had briefly suggested telling Faith, but they’d ultimately decided it was pointless. She couldn’t do anything while at work and she didn’t need the distraction.

  They were going to have to tell her now and Bethany didn’t know how.

  “It is connected.” Faith’s stare bored holes into the side of Bethany’s head.

  “We don’t know anything,” Kyle said.

  “Megan isn’t the only target, is she?” Faith aimed that question at Bethany because Faith knew Bethany was weak.

  Kyle didn’t want her to say anything for whatever reason. Bethany, Faith and Megan had bonded over how badly others had burned them. They’d always been truthful with each other, even when it hurt. Bethany couldn’t begin keeping secrets now.

  “No. No, she isn’t,” Bethany said.

  “Beth...” Kyle said.

  “What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me, Bethany?” Faith leaned away from Bethany.

  “One of the theories—”

  “Don’t, Bethany.”

  “—is that all three of us are targets.”

  Faith gaped at Bethany. She blinked and turned her head toward Kyle.

  “We don’t know anything for sure.” He sat on the coffee table, closer to them than the chair. “I don’t want you to be unnecessarily frightened, okay? You’re here. You’re safe. I’m going to keep it that way.”

  “You could have told me some fucker might attack me.” Faith vibrated with rage. She always hated being left out of plans and now was no different.

  “I’m going to call my people and see if we can get the hospital footage. I’ll be right back, okay?” Kyle pushed to his feet.

  Faith kept glaring at him while Bethany avoided everyone’s gaze.

  No one spoke as he dialed the phone again and strode into his office.

  “What the hell, Bethany?” Faith whirled on her.

  “One of the cops mentioned it as a possibility yesterday afternoon, but there wasn’t proof. Honestly? When I found out who Megan’s parents were, I wanted it to be something to do with them. I’m so sorry, Faith.”

  “What did you find out between then and now? Tell me everything.”

  “We found Megan’s purse. It was behind that eggshell blue house down the street and around the corner?” Bethany slumped over and buried her face in her hands.

  “Oh, man. Anything else?”

  “Not really. I mean, Kyle’s team were supposed to be looking for cameras that might have caught something, but I don’t think we’ve been awake long enough for anyone to tell us anything.”

  “Your shirt is on inside out and backward.” Faith frowned at her.

  “Oh...”

  “Did you sleep at all?”

  “A little. Kyle’s a great host.”

  “Does our great host have some coffee? Bonus points if there’s Irish Cream.”

  “I can look.” Bethany got to her feet with Faith following close behind.

  They poked around in the kitchen long enough to find the coffee and get a pot going. Whatever came next they were going to need the liquid fuel. The liquor was another matter.

  She opened the fridge and knelt to get a better look inside. There was enough beer for a while, but nothing harder.

  “Bethany?”

  “I don’t see any Irish Cream.” She closed the fridge and stood. Faith’s brows were about to climb off her face and her mouth hung open. “What?”

  “Is that a hickey or a bruise on your leg?”

  Bethany pressed her thighs together. Heat clutched her cheeks so powerful her eyes began to water. She knew exactly what spot Faith was talking about because she’d spotted it herself in the shower.

  The office door at the front of the house creaked open.

  “Okay, ladies.” Kyle’s footsteps thumped closer. “Is something wrong?”

  “No. Nothing’s wrong,” Bethany said, her voice way too high.

  “She’s embarrassed you gave her a hickey. What did you find out?” Faith leaned on the counter and turned toward Kyle.

  He glanced from Faith to Bethany and back. The statement only gave him a moment of pause before he launched into their plan for the next few hours.

  SATURDAY. GRAMERCY House, Seattle, Washington.

  Kyle pulled his Jeep into the driveway at the girl’s gray brick rental. He figured they had a half hour to retrieve the laptop and get whatever else the girls wanted before going straight to the Aegis Group office. He’d be briefing the guys in the next hour. Depending on what Zain found out about the hospital surveillance they’d be crafting an offensive or defensive strategy for the next few hours. It all hinged on what they found out.

  “Got your keys?” He peered in the rearview mirror at Bethany.

  “Yup.”

  “Are we all going inside?” Faith asked.

  “It’s best if we stick together.” He opened his center console and pulled out the holstered gun he’d brought with him.

  “Is that necessary?” Faith eyed the firearm.

  “I believe it is.” He clipped the holster to his belt then pulled his shirt down to cover it. “Keys? I’ll go in first.”

  Bethany handed her keys over to him.

  They all got out of the Jeep and walked toward the door. He paid close attention to the windows and doors, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Anything out of place. It was easy to slide into the mentality that this was America. The kind of shit that happened on the job couldn’t happen here. But the truth was it did.

  Kyle unlocked the house and went inside first.

  The stillness was absolute. Nothing moved. No sound. No disturbance.

  “Let’s stick together. In and out quick, okay?” he said.

  They proceeded through the living room into the master bedroom. The first thing that caught Kyle’s eye was the mud smeared on the carpet. That hadn’t been there yesterday.

  He knelt and touched the clump. It was dry and crumbled between his fingers. Whoever had trespassed was long gone.

  Faith and Bethany hovered in the doorway while he crossed to the crowded dresser. It had taken some clearing to be able to set the laptop up with the camera pointed at the window, but he’d managed. A couple well placed items, and the screen was mostly hidden.

  “I’m going to look at this while you two pack, okay?” He was anxious to see who’d been here.

  The two girls rema
ined rooted to the spot, staring at the mud.

  Kyle took a few steps toward them until he blocked their view.

  “You’re both processing a lot right now. Someone broke into your home and your friend is missing. Right now I need you to work with me, okay?”

  Bethany nodded while Faith kept staring. Bethany pulled on Faith’s arm, steering her away from the room.

  Kyle followed them, but stopped at the kitchen bar. He pulled the laptop out and set it on the bar.

  If the person who tried to grab Faith was the same person who’d come into the house, then they could be on their way to figuring out where Megan was.

  He brought up the playback option for the hours of recorded video. There was no way he could go through it all, but judging by the condition of the mud he shouldn’t have to watch much.

  Kyle started the playback in fast forward.

  The shadows lengthened across the room.

  Nothing happened.

  Hours after they’d left the curtains stirred.

  A slight man eased through the window. The hood of his green coat was up, obscuring his face. With the camera pointed straight at him, it was easy to estimate the man’s height and build.

  Five six to eight. At least two fifty. White, judging by the quick glimpse of skin.

  “Oh my God.” Bethany gasped right behind him.

  Kyle jabbed at the pause button.

  “What?” Faith rushed over, eyes wide.

  “Is this the man? Does this look like who tried to grab you?” Kyle asked.

  “Y-yes. That green jacket. I remember that.”

  Kyle played the video in normal time.

  The man glanced left then right. There wasn’t enough light to make out much beyond his hands and nose.

  White male.

  Five six to eight.

  Two hundred pounds easy.

  The man walked out of the room leaving them with the picture of curtains blowing in the breeze.

  “Where’d he go? Where is he?” Faith demanded.

  “Kyle?” Bethany’s voice was weird, different, wrong.

  “What?” He glanced at her.

  Her wide, fearful eyes snagged his.

  “What if he is still here?” she whispered.

  The man darted back into the frame and shut the window.

  “Why is he doing that?” Faith asked.

  “There’s no mud,” Bethany said.

  Kyle placed his hand on his gun.

  The man rushed off screen.

  A moment later two meaty hands shoved the curtains out of the way.

  Detective Roger Blew leaned through the window. He huffed and puffed, pulling himself through the narrow opening. He managed to get inside and in the process smeared mud on the carpet. His partner followed, clearly unhappy about this little venture.

  “We called Roger, told him about the window and told him to come check it out. He must have taken that as an invitation to look around.” Kyle would have to remember this. If he gave the detective an inch, he’d take a mile.

  “They’re all in the house together,” Bethany whispered.

  Roger and his partner ambled around the room, then into the rest of the house.

  The minutes ticked on.

  Kyle fast forwarded the video until there was something to see.

  The detectives were in the house for almost half an hour before they left the same way they came.

  It was another ten minutes before the unknown man made his exit.

  “Where was he hiding?” Bethany turned to look at him. “My closet doors were open. Stuff had been moved in Faith’s room. They clearly had a look around. How did they not find that guy?”

  “I don’t know,” Kyle said.

  He turned and surveyed the living room.

  The guy would have had to have a hiding spot. He’d moved with purpose. This wasn’t his first time in the home, which meant he had a place.

  The living room was rather bare bones. The sofa, love seat and large arm chair formed a wide half circle around the TV. Besides the coffee table there wasn’t any other furniture to hide behind or in.

  He’d been on the fence about the idea that all three girls were targets. It made no sense to pick them off one at a time, but if their suspect was a smaller man, he might only be able to handle them that way.

  A smaller man would have more options for where to hide compared to someone with Kyle’s bulk and height.

  Kyle stood in the middle of the living room.

  “Is this where you’d say you spend all your time together?” he asked.

  “Well, yeah.” Faith blinked at him.

  “We’re big Netflix and binge people,” Bethany said.

  “Do... Do you think he was in the house with me?” Faith’s voice wavered.

  If he were keeping an eye on his targets, he’d want to stay close. This guy knew Megan’s routine. When she’d be alone. He’d done his homework.

  “Don’t think about that,” Bethany said.

  The girl’s had very little in the way of furniture and nothing that would provide a hiding place.

  Kyle strode down the hall.

  There were two coat closets.

  He opened the one closest to the door, but it was crammed with boxes and coats.

  “What are you doing?” Bethany followed him.

  “Stay in the living room, please.” He didn’t want to alarm them, but he also had to know.

  Faith came to join Bethany in the hall.

  Kyle turned toward the other closet.

  He opened it and stared at a stack of boxes labeled Christmas Decorations. A tall tree box leaned up against the wall behind it. At a glance the closet appeared full, but the clutter was positioned directly in front of the door. He turned on the light over head.

  A dolly was pushed up against the left side of the boxes.

  Kyle reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of rubber gloves. It wasn’t typical for him to have to care about evidence. Usually work was much more of the smash and grab variety, but this time it was different.

  He was glad Zain had insisted on those classes for handling evidence. Given how the business was expanding, it was something they needed to know more about.

  Kyle grasped the handle and with minimal effort slid the entire stack sideways, revealing a few pillows on the floor and enough space for a smaller person than him to sit comfortably. A small box sat in the corner.

  “Oh my God,” Bethany said right behind him.

  “In the living room. Now,” he snapped.

  “What is that? Is that where he was? Was he in our house?” Faith’s voice wound tighter and tighter.

  “Go.” He turned toward the two girls. What he wouldn’t give for one of the guys right now to herd them away. “This is for your safety.”

  Bethany snapped to. She hooked her arm in Faith’s and dragged her around the corner.

  He reached for the box. It was light, barely a few ounces. He pulled the lid open and stared at a set of ear buds and some sort of device with a jack in it.

  Whatever it was, this was how their suspect kept tabs on the girls.

  Kyle put the box back where he found it and stepped back. He snapped several pictures he sent off to Zain. Detective Blew had already shown Kyle what cooperating looked like. Besides the cops had been in the house with the suspect and they hadn’t even known.

  No wonder the Triple Threat Killer had escaped the cops for years.

  9.

  SATURDAY. AEGIS GROUP, Seattle, Washington.

  Kyle took the roundabout way into the office from the girl’s house. Hardly anyone said a word. Both Bethany and Faith were too shocked to speak, which worked in Kyle’s favor.

  He had to think.

  This whole time he’d been resistant to the theory that they were looking at a serial killer. It was too crazy to take seriously. There were plenty of other reasons for the disappearance of a prominent political figure’s daughter. Focusing on one, unlikely answer didn�
�t help. But given what they’d found, he couldn’t deny that the girls were a target.

  He was used to dealing with people kidnapping for money, a cause or revenge. Those were the staples of his industry. But this? A killer? That was out of his wheelhouse. He didn’t know what to do or how to call the shots to protect Bethany and Faith.

  Kyle glanced in the rearview mirror at Bethany. Her face was pale to the point that she might even be sick. Faith stared out of the window. They were creating horror stories in their head.

  He was failing them.

  Fuck.

  Part of being Team Leader was offering guidance to not just his team but everyone around him. That included them.

  “A lot of things are going to happen very fast once we get to the office, okay?” He glanced at both women in turn.

  Bethany and Faith perked up at the sound of his voice. They looked at him, wanting answers. Comfort. A reason to hope. It all came to rest on him.

  This was why he did this job. Because at the end of the day what he did made a difference in people’s lives. He made things better. He’d been out of control for so much of his own life that this job helped heal him. That was why he didn’t want to be away from it. He needed this job more now than ever.

  “I’ll introduce you to the rest of my team. Merida, our Office Manager, will probably be who you hang out with for now. Detective Blew and my boss will be joining us. We’re going to go over the video and what we found. Zain, my boss, should also have the security video ready for us to review. How’s that sound?”

  “Good. That sounds good,” Bethany said.

  “Do you think we’ll find her?” Faith asked.

  “We will.” Kyle didn’t know if Megan would be alive, but he intended to bring her home.

  He pulled into the lot in front of the building Aegis Group operated out of for now. It was a four story structure on a quiet stretch of road next to a walking path and a reflection pond that occasionally housed ducks. Before much longer they were going to outgrow this location, but it’d served them well for the two years they’d operated out of it.

  Three familiar men stood at the curb.

  Shane Yates was the guy Kyle wanted watching his back at all time.