Her Best Friend's Keeper (Finley Creek Book 1)

by Calle J. Brookes

  “Brynna’s terrified of storms,” Gabby whispered, hurting for what her friend must be feeling.

  “They may be holed up somewhere,” Elliot said. “Waiting it out.” He grabbed his cell phone and hit a button. “My brother carries burn phones. He gives me a new number every so many months.”

  They waited while he dialed. Gabby’s eyes welled when he shook his head. “It’s going straight to voice mail. But if they’re outwaiting a storm that’s not surprising.”

  “I can’t stand this.” Mel pulled herself off the couch. Gabby watched her friend pace as much as she was able to. “Brynna…Brynna is practically defenseless. And what if she’s hurt out there? She wouldn’t be able to find herself help. I know she wouldn’t. We’ve always been there to do it for her—I’ve always done it for her. Why didn’t she call Dad, or just wait until Seb could drive her? What was so important she had to risk this? We both know she watches the weather just like any other of her obsessions. Twenty percent chance of rain and she won’t step outside half the time. It’s Brynna we’re talking about.”

  Gabby’s eyes watered and this time she lost the battle with the tears. “I don’t know.”

  Jarrod pulled Mel close. “Stop it, you two. Right now. It’s no one’s fault, not even yours, Super Mel. It was a car accident. And I’d say most likely Marshall figured the weather was about to go to hell and back and he dragged your sister off somewhere to wait it out. He wouldn’t have thought to grab her computer. We know how attached she is to it, but he wouldn’t have. He’s resourceful, I think. We’ll find her.”

  “As soon as the storm breaks, we’ll get some TSP helicopters in the air. We’ll be sending some to assist with the storms, anyway. We’ll find them. I promise.” Elliot’s hand was warm on Gabby’s back. She leaned in to him.

  Could he keep that promise, no matter what? Gabby just hoped he could.

  She looked at him again and that’s when she saw it. When it sank in. His brother, the only family he had left. It had to be just as terrifying for Elliot as it was for Mel, wasn’t it?

  Yet he was holding himself together, being strong. Taking charge in his quiet Elliot-can-handle-the-world way. Her heart hurt for him and she just wanted to hold him. To make him see that he didn’t have to be alone anymore. That he had her.

  Not that she wasn’t a quivering mess of freaked-outedness most of the time. She still wanted to be there for him.

  Not just because of what they’d just done in his bedroom. Several times. Every time she’d turn to him or him to her it had somehow ended up with kissing, holding. Touching. Loving.

  She wasn’t stupid—you couldn’t fall in love in a matter of days. The connection was there. The room in her heart. She couldn’t tell him that—he’d said no strings, no commitments and she’d agreed to it. That didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling it.

  “So what do we do now?”

  “I need to get back to the house for Syd. I had a friend stay with her while I came over here to see what you may have heard. Syd was still sleeping when we found out what was going on. I’m going to have to tell her that Brynna is missing.”

  “We’ll find her, Mel. I know we will. And Brynna won’t do anything stupid. She’s too smart for that. She’s probably in a closet or basement somewhere telling Chance all about tornado statistics and the Wichita Falls outbreak in 1963 or 64, whenever it was. Or that Easter outbreak she freaks out over every year. Or any other in the past one hundred years.” Gabby’s breath hiccupped on the last. She could imagine her best friend doing exactly that. There had been a time or two when Gabby had crowded into the Beck family basement during severe weather. Brynna had filled everyone’s heads with horrors during those times.

  Mel and Brynna had argued horribly the last time that had happened. Snipping and snapping at each other. Like the sisters they were. Jilly had finally gotten between them and told them enough was enough out of them.

  The next-to-youngest Beck sister was very quiet, but when she snapped she snapped.

  They were a real family. They loved one another. And this had to be tearing all of them apart, too. Mel was going to be alone with a frightened seventeen-year-old girl to deal with. Gabby winced, remembering her own traumas at that age. She stood. She wasn’t going to let her friend deal with that alone. Not if she could help. And it was better if they were all in one place while they decided what to do. It was either the Beck house—or the TSP, wasn’t it? “I’m going to grab my things and put on some other clothes. We’ll go back with you, Mel. Be there when we all find out what is going on, together.”

  ***

  ELLIOT refused to let worry fill him, make him useless. Chance had been in tough situations before. His brother had nine lives; Elliot had been convinced of that before.

  The most logical explanation was that Chance and Brynna were waiting out the storm after a minor traffic accident. He refused to think about the blood, or the left laptop—which he didn’t see as too much of a problem. People left all sorts of things behind when disoriented after an accident.

  The fact that Chance could have pulled an unconscious woman from the passenger side was a really big possibility. But he didn’t mention it. The women were already terrified. His eyes met Foster’s. The other man knew what the real odds were, though. Elliot had no doubt about that. Mel and Gabby knew, too, but they were clinging to hope. He couldn’t blame them for that.

  Odds were his brother and Brynna had run into some criminal element in a stolen vehicle. And to hide their crimes, they’d hurt his brother and Mel’s younger sister.

  Or Chance and Brynna were running from those criminals.

  Gabby hurried down the hall and Elliot followed. He’d grab his own clothes and his weapon.

  He wasn’t going to stop until he had his brother back and safe.

  As well as Brynna Beck.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.

  ***

  THE Beck house was grim when Gabby and Elliot arrived there. Elliot tried his damnedest not to imagine what had happened to his brother. Tried to reassure himself that Chance was a survivor, was well-trained, and wasn’t stupid.

  His brother could take care of himself.

  He wasn’t so certain Chance could take care of the woman with him, though. Gabby had told him quite a bit about her best friend. How would she handle being out there? Was she already hurt?

  Kevin Beck was pale and the fear on the man’s face would stay with Elliot forever. He’d pulled in a moment or two after Gabby and Elliot. “Any word?”

  Elliot hesitated. As the head of the TSP post, it was logical he’d have the information they needed, wasn’t it? “Nothing yet. We’ve contacted the FBI to have their forensics team process, since it’s over the state lines and originated possibly in Missouri. But it’s going to take them some time. This storm hit everywhere from Finley Creek up to the middle of Indiana. It’s going to be bad. Resources are already spread thin.”

  “And my baby’s out there in the middle of it all. Damn it all. Let me make a call. I have some contacts at the FBI. Brynna’s sister and her friends. They’re the best. I...trust them. Maybe they can help.” There was a wild desperation in the man’s eyes. Gabby hugged him and Beck let her for a moment.

  “We’ll find them. Brynna’s resourceful, you know? She always surprises me. Usually when people least expect it. And Chance is pretty fierce. They’ll be ok.”

  Elliot hoped she believed her own words. He took a moment to look around the home. He’d been there before—when he was a child and teenager. His father and Beck had been partners and friends long before his family was killed.

  Beck may have been Slade’s godfather—Elliot couldn’t remember. He did remember that the Beck children had all been significantly younger than him and Chance—so they hadn’t known them well. At least his brother wasn’t a total stranger to Brynna Beck, was he?

  Framed photos dominated the walls—filled with images of beautiful redheaded women who had started off as beautiful redheaded
children. There was a recent portrait that had Beck’s five daughters surrounding a happy dark-haired baby girl held tightly in her grandfather’s arms.

  One of Mel, Brynna and Gabby on the beach, arms around each other and smiling. Mel and another redhead holding guitars. That other redhead, a brunette, and a blonde dancing on the stage. A teenager wearing a prom dress and grinning. Kevin Beck’s family. Photo after photo after photo. Beautiful. Every last one of them.

  Family. They loved each other deeply. Like he had loved his own.

  What was that girl going through out there?

  Or were they going to be too late? Was Brynna, was Chance...were they both dead? Elliot pushed that fear aside.

  The most likely explanation was that the storms had pushed them into finding shelter and they couldn’t contact anyone yet. He’d seen worse happen in severe Texas weather.

  He refused to let himself think of the bodies of the dead he’d seen after such weather. His brother was smarter than that.

  He’d keep himself and Brynna safe.

  “I think the FBI would be a good idea.” Hell, what would it hurt to try?

  “That’s good, right?” Gabby asked. “Maybe…the FBI could start on their end and we can start down here and we can find them somehow between us?” He heard the panic next. She’d lost her best friend—and was about to possibly lose another. What would that do to her?

  He refused to think about what would happen if he lost his only remaining brother, as well. “If the FBI can even take the case—if there is a case, which I am hoping there isn’t. Chance will call as soon as they can. I have no doubts of that. We may be grasping at straws here. They may just be waiting out the storm.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR.

  ***

  SHE couldn’t freak. She couldn’t. Freaking would not get Brynna back any quicker. Gabby told herself this over and over again as the hours progressed with no word. The storm lessened, but the rain didn’t go away. And wasn’t going to for a while. They faced the real threat of floods next; it was supposed to storm again, too. It was like Mother Nature herself didn’t want them getting anywhere near Chance and Brynna right then.

  It didn’t help Gabby’s nerves at all. Every time the thunder boomed overhead she’d jump out of her skin and wonder if Brynna was alive to hear it.

  Gabby was losing it, wasn’t she? Especially when the fear swarmed in and surrounded her like rabid pissed off bees. She was allergic to bees—they’d always terrified her. Probably as much as storms frightened Brynna.

  She couldn’t get her friend out of her head. The fear. Nothing was as bad as the fear…the idea that Brynna was out there alone somewhere. Yes, Chance was with her. But…what if he wasn’t? What if something had happened to him and Brynna was out there with no one? Elliot’s brother could take care of himself; she had no doubt about that.

  But Brynna?

  If she was out there by herself…

  She told herself Brynna was a highly competent adult. Probably more so than Gabby, right? Logic guided Brynna in absolutely everything. If there was a problem, she’d look for the logical solution. She could take care of herself, no matter what other people seemed to think.

  But lost in a raging thunderstorm in a place she wasn’t all that familiar with after a car accident? That sounded like hell for Brynna.

  For Gabby, too.

  ***

  GABBY felt like a bystander in everything as the day just kept going with nothing definitive. Every search party that went out was diverted by assisting storm victims. Jilly’s best friends Ariella and Lacy had taken her to every hospital in a three hour radius of the car crash. They’d found nothing. There’d been one woman who resembled Brynna—but she’d been cut by glass when a branch had flown through her living room window.

  That was the closest they’d found anyone matching Brynna’s description. The let-down had been terrible for all of them.

  Kevin’s contacts at the FBI were going to be there as soon as they could, but it was taking longer than expected to get them mobilized. But he was trying.

  He was on his own phone, calling every person he knew who owed him a favor between St. Louis and the Mexican border. They were bringing in their own version of the troops—slowly.

  It was going to take hours to search the Texas side of the border where Brynna and Chance might be.

  Elliot was talking to the governor of Oklahoma and the Texas governor, trying to get the two to allow Finley Creek helicopters to assist in an aerial search for storm victims. The two governors were willing, but like the Oklahoma governor had said—what they wanted versus what Mother Nature was going to allow weren’t necessarily the same things.

  But both governors had promised to get Elliot whatever he needed as soon as the weather cleared enough to help.

  Elliot handled TSP business—even though it was Saturday—from the kitchen at the Beck house. Gabby kept herself busy with making sure everyone had food and drinks and pens and papers and cell phones and anything else they needed.

  She’d helped herself to Mel’s laptop and got into the system to the TSP computers remotely. It was entirely possible that one of Brynna’s old cases had come back to haunt her.

  But she didn’t think that was it.

  She thought it was most likely something Chance had brought with him. He was up there on a kidnapping case, after all.

  What if he’d collared the wrong guy and the real kidnapper had come after him and grabbed Brynna as revenge?

  It was as likely as anything else they’d considered, wasn’t it?

  Gabby closed her eyes and pulled in a breath. Think, Gab. Breathe, Gab. Don’t be stupid, Gab. It was most likely the storm. Most likely they were in the car accident and both drivers had to abandon their cars and outrun the storm. Maybe Chance or the other drivers had pulled Brynna out of the car in a hurry and gotten her to safety because her door wouldn’t open with a large truck jammed into it and a tornado was coming? Maybe the drivers of both vehicles were just trying to outrun the storm? Why were they panicking over that? Were they just hearing horses and automatically thinking zebras or something?

  That was possible. But where did they go after? And why hadn’t they been found by now?

  Warm hands wrapped around her from behind. She knew who it was. Elliot hadn’t let her out of his sight for more than a few minutes at a time since they’d gotten to the Becks’. His face was pale and the strain was tight around his eyes. “Anything?”

  “No. Governor Deane has issued a state of emergency for the area. We’ve already had three confirmed deaths—and no tornado came through Texas. Just straight line winds. Oklahoma was hit far worse. And they say more is coming.”

  “We’re not going to be able to get anyone out there, are we?”

  “I’ve tried. But I can’t justify sending people out to look for my brother, when there are so many others who need TSP help right now in this state. In this area.”

  “But—“

  “I’m not any happier about it. But I understand it.” He pulled her closer. Gabby turned in his arms and wrapped hers around his waist. She forgot everyone in the room with them, forgot the fears.

  Did anyone else see how tightly he was holding himself together? Or was it just her? Were they seeing him as the leader of the Finley Creek TSP and depending on him to have the answers? Did anyone see how terrified he had to be for his own brother? Gabby’s arms tightened around him.

  “We’ll find them, Elliot. I know we will.” She rested her head against his chest for a long moment, taking reassurance from the steady thump-thump of his heart beneath her ear.

  “I hope so.”

  “In the meantime, you do what you have to do. I’m here when you need me.” As long as he needed her.

  Just exactly how she was starting to feel for him hit her like a dump truck full of bricks.

  Gabby busied herself by googling every article she could find on the areas near the car crash that had been hit by the storms. She wante
d to find something that might give searchers an idea of where to look. She checked geographical charts, weather patterns, flood patterns, social media posts, bloggers, user comments on weather station updates—anything to point to a possible direction. Or any mention of a redheaded woman and a man looking like Elliot’s brother. Even the hospitals yielded her nothing more than what they already had.

  Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

  She didn’t find much of anything.

  The biggest questions everyone had were whether the crash was accidental, whether something from Chance’s work had caused them to be attacked, and whether Brynna’s software designs had led to the results.

  They were still waiting for forensics on the vehicles involved. The weather had washed a lot of it away, but there were skid marks. Marks that said someone accelerated toward Chance’s SUV. Deliberately striking it, striking Brynna’s side. Had it been? Had someone aimed right at her friend? It had been late; was Brynna sleeping in the car while Chance drove? Had she watched the vehicle come for them? Had she known in that moment she was going to get hit? Like Sara had known she was going to die that day?

  Gabby didn’t want to go there; but how could she not?

  She googled Chance’s name, just to see what would come up, whether his name was listed anywhere in conjunction with crimes.

  The first result shocked the heck out of her. It was about Chance…and Brynna. She clicked on the link and read it out loud.

  She was alone in Brynna’s room, where all the good computer equipment was located. She had spent many hours with Brynna’s computers while just hanging out with her best friends. Mel would join them and read or write or even knit while they did whatever they did on Brynna’s system. “Autistic Girl and Former Texas Ranger lost in the Wilderness. Sources say Foul-Play Suspected. Seriously? Marshall Murders Have New Developments: Son Missing.”