Best Friend's Sister

by R. R. Banks

  I finally manage to get the last lock undone and throw open the door. I see the black SUV parked a little way down the street. As I start to run, I raise my hands, waving wildly. Before I can open my mouth to call out to them, though, I feel a strong hand clamp down on my shoulder, ripping me backward.

  I hit the pavement of the driveway so hard, it drives the breath from my lungs. I open my mouth to scream, but the only thing that comes out is a hoarse croak. I’m yanked back to my feet and find myself staring into the man’s furious eyes. I feel his hands. His grip is stronger than I thought it would be for a man of his stature.

  “She said you loved me,” he growls. “She said that you belong to me.”

  I feel his grip tighten even more and then my entire world goes black.

  Knox

  “You know she’s going to call the cops on you,” Cassie notes.

  “She’s not home. I had my guys text me when she left for work,” I chuckle.

  “Clever, clever,” she laughs. “Maybe there’s hope for you yet, Boy Scout.”

  We pull to a stop in front of Maura’s house and I know immediately that something’s wrong – the front door is standing wide open. I can feel it on the air – something’s not right. I jump out of the truck and run over to check with my guys.

  “Fuck. Oh fuck,” I growl and then turn to Cassie. “Call 9-1-1. Now.”

  She whips out her phone and makes the call as I open the door. Both of my guys are covered in blood, their eyes wide and staring at nothing. I check for a pulse anyway, and as expected, don’t find one on either man. Blake had obviously gotten the drop on them. Goddammit.

  I take off for the house, Cassie right on my heels. We step inside and I look around, my heart sinking into the pit of my stomach. Everything’s been overturned. Everywhere I look, there is nothing but destruction. Paintings torn off the walls and slashed, couch cushions torn open, the stuffing strewn about. Glass crunches underfoot as I make my way deeper into the house.

  “Felicity?” I call out.

  I hold my breath, listening closely but hear nothing. No reply, no gasps for breath, no nothing. I move through the house, searching everywhere, but don’t find her anywhere. I stand before the shattered ruin of the back door staring out into the backyard. I glance back and see Cassie carefully stepping into the room, carefully avoiding the jagged shards of glass on the ground.

  “Fucker could have been out there watching her all night,” I point to the high, thick bushes that fill the backyard.

  “The good news is what’s not here – blood,” Cassie points out. “Which means she was taken, not killed.”

  “A status that could change very quickly if she blows up his fantasy,” I note.

  She nods as she sits down at the table with a computer, her eyes fixed on the screen and her fingers flying over the keyboard.

  “What are you doing?” I ask.

  “I found this in the bedroom. It’s probably Kazmeyer’s.”

  “Given that it was in her house, I’m assuming that’s probably a safe bet,” I crack, barely holding back my irritation and anger. “Great job.”

  Cassie looks up and rolls her eyes at me but doesn’t fire back for a change – which tells me that she’s got something rolling around in that head of hers. She’s obviously gotten her teeth into something.

  “Something up?” I ask.

  Cassie shrugs. “I just don’t like that woman.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  “Something doesn’t seem right about her,” she continues. “But before I go flinging wild accusations around, I should probably have something to back it up.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  She shrugs. “Something about her going on the offensive last night and accusing you of setting this whole thing in motion just kind of stunk to me,” she explains. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re an asshole with a commitment-phobia, but there’s no way you’d do this. And Kazmeyer knows that.”

  “Thanks?”

  She grins at me and continues pecking out commands on the keyboard. I watch her work her magic for a moment before I see her eyes widen and her mouth fall open. She stares at the screen, stunned by whatever it is she’s seeing.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “You should see this for yourself.”

  I walk over and stand behind her, leaning down and reading what’s on the screen. As I take in the words, they don’t make sense at first. But as they resolve and everything comes into focus, the rage within me starts to boil again.

  “Son of a bitch,” I growl.

  We pull to a stop in front of a shabby, run-down apartment building. Cassie and I jump out quickly and rush into the building.

  “Elevator’s out,” she observes.

  “Third floor.”

  We pound up the steps and get to the third floor in record time. I lead the way, pulling my gun and holding it down at my side. Cassie follows suit and we stand on either side of the doorway, ready for anything.

  “You have training for that, right?” I ask. As fucked up as this situation is, the absolute last thing I need are stray bullets bouncing around, possibly hitting me – or worse, Felicity.

  She shrugs. “Sure.”

  “Great,” I reply as I reach out and pound on the door. “Blake Waters, open the door.”

  We wait for a moment but hear nothing inside. Cassie holsters her weapon and pulls a lockpicking kit out of her back pocket. As she’s removing the tools, I step in front of the door and raise my foot. With all of the rage inside powering me, I piston my foot out. The door bursts inward in a spray of splintered wood. The loud crack of impact mixes with the squeals of cheap metal shattering.

  “Or we could do it that way,” she mutters.

  Moving quick and low – just like I’m back in Afghanistan all over again – I’m through the doorway, weapon raised, and scan the room.

  “Clear,” I call.

  Cassie is through right behind me, her own weapon leading the way. It doesn’t take long to clear the rest of the apartment – they’re not there.

  “Knox,” Cassie calls. “Come check this out.”

  I step into the bedroom and she’s standing before the closet, looking at something inside. When I see what she’s looking at, I groan miserably. It’s a fucking shrine to Felicity. The walls of the closet are plastered with pictures of her – most of the candid shots no doubt taken as he watched her from a distance. In some of the pictures, I appear with her – though my face has been crossed out with a fat black marker.

  Most disturbing are the photos of Felicity that he’s photoshopped himself into. Like they’re a happy fucking couple or something.

  “Jesus Christ,” I whisper.

  “Kazmeyer picked a real winner here.”

  “She must have searched those online discussion groups for somebody who was all fucked in the head to do this,” I shake my head. “Somebody who was already obsessed, who wouldn’t mind a chance to get closer to her.”

  “But why? Why put her golden goose in jeopardy like that?”

  I look over at Cassie. “Why don’t we ask her ourselves?”

  I disconnect the call and we ride the elevator up in silence, the air thick with my barely controlled fury. The doors open and I practically sprint out, storming into the lobby of Lyon Literary Agency. The receptionist, a young blonde, looks startled as I step up to her desk. She looks at my scowling face with wide eyes.

  “C – can I help you?” she croaks.

  “Maura Kazmeyer,” I spit through gritted teeth.

  “I – I’m sorry, she’s on a conference call this morning,” the blonde says.

  “You should probably just point him in the right direction,” Cassie offers. “He’s in a bit of a mood this morning.”

  I stand there fuming. The blonde hesitates, obviously torn between calling security and telling me what I want to know. Correctly judging she’s not going to get the phone to her ear before I rip it out of the wal
l, she points to a hallway. Without another word, I turn and walk quickly away with Cassie on my heels, needing to get to Kazmeyer’s office before security gets here, since I’m pretty sure the blonde is on the phone right now.

  I check the nameplates on the doors as we pass, seeing a few startled faces on the people inside. At the end of the hallway, I find her door.

  “I suppose it’s not going to help to tell you that it might be a good idea to throttle it back a bit?” Cassie asks.

  Grabbing hold of the handle, I throw the door inward and step through. It hits the wall behind it with a sharp crack that startles the older woman. She looks up at me in shock for a moment, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.

  “Didn’t think so,” I hear Cassie mutter.

  She closes the door behind us, and I hear her lock it. Smart thinking. It doesn’t take Kazmeyer long to recover. She sits upright, affecting that air of haughty indignance that’s so natural to her.

  “Where the fuck is she?”

  “I’m going to have to call you back,” she says, clicking off the call.

  She stares daggers at me. “And just what in the hell do you think you’re doing in my office?”

  “Where is she?” I repeat.

  “I’m assuming you mean Felicity, and as I told you last night –”

  “She’s gone,” I roar. “The man you hired to stalk her finally took her.”

  The indignance on her face slips for a moment, but she quickly regains her bearings and clears her throat. When she speaks, though, it’s with less force than before.

  “I – I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snaps.

  Cassie steps forward and opens up her laptop, setting it down on Kazmeyer’s desk, and calls up the information she’d put together.

  “You hired Blake Waters, aka Elliott Graham, to stalk Felicity,” Cassie explains. “We have all of your email exchanges with him, I have your phone records that prove the two of you talked pretty regularly for a while, that you advised him to get a fake identity, and I even have bank records showing the withdrawals for the agreed-upon amounts from your accounts.”

  “Except your guy went off the reservation,” my voice booms. “Did you know he was as obsessed with her as he was? Did you know he was going to take her?”

  Maura clenches her jaw and stares at me. I step closer to her desk, planting my hands on it, and lean down. I loom over the older woman, absolute hatred coloring my face.

  “Did you know?” I snap, slamming my fist on the table.

  “This is absurd,” she says weakly.

  Cassie pulls a file out of her bag and hands it to me. I slap it down on her desk and open it, showing her the photoshopped pictures we pulled off his wall.

  “Look at them,” I shout. “This is what you unleashed on her.”

  Kazmeyer’s eyes drift down to the pictures. Her normally cold demeanor drops, and I see the tightness in her face as the full scope of what we’re saying sinks in. Tears roll down her cheeks as she opens and closes her mouth like a fish gasping for air, unable to get a sound out.

  There’s a knock on the door, and I’m fully expecting it to be building security, ready to throw us out. I don’t bother turning around. I haven’t gotten what we need yet.

  “Where did he take her, Maura?” I spit.

  She shakes her head, the tears falling freely, a look of utter horror and misery on her face.

  “Where the fuck did he take her?” I roar, my voice thundering off the walls.

  “Knox,” Cassie says.

  “Not yet. We haven’t gotten what we need.”

  “Knox, it’s –” she repeats.

  “I am going to beat it out of you if you don’t speak up,” I lean closer to Kazmeyer until our noses are almost touching. “I swear to God; I will beat you to death if you don’t open your mouth and tell me what I want to know.”

  I hear the door behind me open and a moment later, a hand on my shoulder. Eyes filled with fury, I spin around, ready to knock the rent-a-cop out cold. Instead, I find myself staring into the face of Detective Reid. He squeezes my shoulder reassuringly and nods.

  “Stand down, Knox,” he says gently. “We can take it from here.”

  I shake my head. “She hasn’t told me what I need to know yet.”

  “I don’t know,” she wails. “I swear I don’t know. I thought I could control him. I didn’t know. I swear to God I didn’t know.”

  I round on her again. She’s sitting at her desk, sobbing, her entire body shaking. Somehow, she looks like she’s aged ten years in the last five minutes and is drawn and pale. She looks – diminished. Smaller. Weaker.

  “Please find her,” she whispers. “Please save her, Knox.”

  “Maura Kazmeyer,” Reid starts. “You’re being arrested on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping for hire, and a bunch of other shit I’ll pile on later.”

  She sobs loudly as one of the officers with Reid hauls Maura to her feet and starts to read her Miranda rights while he cuffs her. I see all of the scared, curious faces in the hallway, everybody trying to figure out what’s going on.

  “Knox, I appreciate the assist, but you need to let us take it from here,” Reid says gently.

  “Yeah, like hell,” I growl. “I called you here, remember?”

  He sighs. “Seriously. I don’t want to hit you with an obstruction charge. You need to stay out of this and let us do our jobs.”

  I stare Reid in the eye. “Do whatever the fuck you have to do, man.”

  “Knox, I don’t want to take you into custody right now,” he replies. “But I’ll do it for your own good.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Cassie interrupts. “I’ll be sure he stays out of trouble, Detective.”

  She grabs my arm and tries to haul me away, but I stand fast, staring Reid down. If he really thinks he’s going to stop me from finding Felicity, he’s sadly fucking mistaken.

  “Knox,” Cassie all but shouts. “Let’s go. Now.”

  I look down at her and see something in her eyes. She’s trying to drag me out of there for a reason. As the officer leads Maura away, I summon every last ounce of rage inside of me and look her in the eye.

  “If anything happens to her, if Felicity dies,” I declare. “Her blood is on your hands, and I am going to fucking kill you.”

  Maura hangs her head as she’s led out of the building and past the shocked faces of the people in her office.

  “Knox, given the heightened emotion right now, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you threaten her,” Reid states, then turns to Cassie. “But you need to get him out of here and keep him under control.”

  “Absolutely, Detective.”

  I let Cassie guide me out of the office and into the elevator, where we’re alone. I let out a howl of frustration as I turn and punch the wall of the car, leaving a fist-sized dent in the cheap metal.

  “Chill, buddy,” she says.

  “How in the fuck can you tell me to chill when that son of a bitch has Felicity?”

  “Because you need to be keeping a real clear head right now,” she tells me. “I think I know where they are.”

  I turn to her, a sliver of hope piercing my heart. “What? How?”

  She arches her eyebrow at me. “How many times do I have to tell you I’m the best at what I do?”

  She pulls her laptop out of her bag and cradling it in her arms, opens it up. She points to the screen, to a pinned spot on a map.

  “I did some quick digging on our way over and found out the dude’s got a cabin in the woods,” she says. “Out near the Sound. It belongs to his dead father. If I had to bet, I’d say they’re there.”

  “Great. Let’s go.”

  She nods. “The cops are going to figure this out pretty quick,” she says. “Since your girlfriend is a celebrity and all, they’ll be pulling out all the stops. We’re going to get a head start but they’ll be on our ass quick.”

  “A head start is all we need.”

&nbs
p; She looks at me. “You know Reid is going to have your ass, right?”

  I shrug. “Like I give a shit,” I respond. “That’s my family out there. That son of a bitch has Felicity and my child. If Reid can’t understand why I’m not going to sit on the sidelines for this one, he’s a bigger fucking idiot than I gave him credit for.”

  Cassie looks at me for a long moment, a wolfish grin on her face. “Maybe you’re not such a Boy Scout after all,” she observes. “Just make me one promise before we roll.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That you’re not going to kill the guy,” she says. “Felicity and your child will probably do a hell of a lot better if they don’t have to come visit you in prison.”

  I give her a small smile, then look away. Saying that out loud – Felicity and my child – somehow makes it more real to me. More than that, I like the sound of it. It suddenly feels right somehow.

  Maybe it’s the threat of losing them that’s made something inside of me shift. Change. Maybe it’s the possibility of having them taken away from me that’s somehow given me a moment of clarity and has forced me to quickly rearrange my priorities. Whatever it is, all I know is that I cannot – I will not – lose them.

  That’s my family. I will fight like hell to save them. Or die trying.

  “If this pans out, I’m going to pay you double whatever you’re making right now,” I offer. “Triple. I don’t give a shit.”

  “I haven’t taken the job.”

  “You will.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “There’s that arrogance again. God, you’re such an annoying asshole,” she quips.

  I shake my head. “Takes one to know one.”

  It seems absurd, but that moment of laughter cutting through the tension and anger is exactly what I needed. My head is a little clearer and my focus is as sharp as it’s ever been. I look over at Cassie and nod.

  “Let’s go get my family back.”

  Felicity