“We’ll get them. Do you know why they were on your tail? Were they? Or did you stumble into something? Possibly the grand jury issue? Were you followed?”
“They weren’t after me, El. They went for her first thing. Her laptop. They wanted what she had. What she knew. And they wanted her.” Had wanted her from the beginning. Why? What connection other than that damned video could Brynna have to whomever had killed his family?
“Which was?”
“She ran the video taken ten years ago through some video software program she’s designed. And found something. Something new. This is about her. And it’s about Gabby. And it’s about us.” He’d been hunting the men responsible for his family’s deaths for ten years and had never gotten close, but now…now it had gotten a hell of a lot closer. To him. To Brynna and Gabby. The two women in the world that Elliot and Chance would do anything to protect—it had to mean something that Gabby and Brynna were still a part of this, didn’t it? That Brynna had been their main target. Why?
Who had known what she’d found on that video? Known it quickly enough to orchestrate all of this?
Three men did not wait around the Oklahoma country side for three days waiting for a woman if she didn’t have something they desperately did not want found. Not men like Handley Barratt.
What was it?”
“She didn’t know.” Or she wouldn’t tell him. Wouldn’t violate TSP protocol enough to share. “She was coming back to have Gabby—and Russell—take a look.”
“No. Not Russell. And this goes no further than you and I. No one outside of the inner circle. You, me, Gabby, the Becks, Erickson. That’s it. We can tap Journey and Foster if needed. No one else.”
Elliot was closing ranks. His brother, who had always pushed that the TSP was the way they’d find their answers. What had changed his mind now? “Why?”
“Because Brynna is isolated, practically sheltered as much as Gabby. More than Gabby in a lot of ways. If someone was after that girl—they were Texas State Police, Chance. It was the only way they learned of her. Most of her work has Russell’s name on it. She never even testifies before the grand jury.”
Chance grabbed Elliot’s shirt front as what that meant hit him fully. Someone who knew Brynna, knew her and was in her contained world, had done this to her. Someone had betrayed her. Her. Brynna, who had probably never done anything to hurt anyone in her life. His anger threatened to boil over. “Then you find the rat on your ship, big brother. Before I do. Because I plan to kill him when I do. They touched her, El. And that one guy—he wasn’t just going to kill her. He was going to force her first, rape her. She’ll always have the memory of that threat. Of his hands on her body. He’s going to pay for that. You get my drift? Him—I’m going to find and rip apart with my bare hands. One cell at a time. Just for her.” No one had the right to make her feel that afraid. No one.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.
* * *
HE saw the sisters on the news first. That’s when he realized where the damned bitch had ended up. Safe and secure and back with her family. With that damned Kevin Beck. Bet the guy had his daughter surrounded with two dozen cops, ready to fry any guy’s ass who got too close.
One of Beck’s daughters, the crippled one, was giving a speech about how grateful they were to the TSP for protecting her sister. Beck had four of his five daughters right there on the news next to him. Only one missing was the damned one he wanted.
He snorted. It hadn’t been the TSP, it had been luck that got that little bitch away from him. That and her damned knee. He never would have thought she’d be one to fight back.
And he had more experience than most men on making a woman cower before him in fear. Some fought, which he enjoyed the hell out of.
There was nothing like holding a woman down while he sliced her to ribbons, knowing she’d fought as hard as she could and he was still strong enough to subdue her.
Would the little redheaded bitch fight him again when he had her? She’d escaped him twice now. He’d get her again. One way or another.
And he would have her again. It was just a matter of time.
After that, who knew? He may go after those sisters of hers. Starting with the little one right there. He watched her, dressed in her pale blue scrubs, until the news cast ended. Yes, he’d enjoy having her under his knife sometime, too.
It was just a matter of time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.
* * *
SHE knew where she was the moment she opened her eyes. How could she not? Hospitals had a nasty chemical smell all of their own.
Brynna shifted on the bed and cried out when a fiery rush of pain went through her side.
Someone moved closer. Brynna shifted her gaze slightly to the left. Blue eyes behind purple glasses looked at her like she was a bug under a microscope.
Gabby. Brynna fought the urge to cry when she looked up at her best friend—one of her only friends, actually. Seeing Gabby, wonderful, goofy, neurotic Gabby, made it clear once and for all that she was safe. That whatever had happened to them out there was over. “Bryn? It’s ok, I’m here.”
“Gabby, this really happened, didn’t it?”
Brynna lost her battle with the tears. With everything she felt, and everything that had happened to her, with Chance. Chance.
Mel came in and then they were all acting like blubbering morons.
Usually it was Gabby acting like the blubbering moron but this time, this time it was her, and Brynna didn’t know how to stop it.
Didn’t know what she was supposed to do at all.
After a while she leaned back against the pillows and tried to get some sort of rest. She hurt. No doubt about that. But it was more than that.
She’d thought she was ok with what had happened between her and Chance, but she shouldn’t hurt like this. Shouldn’t worry about him, shouldn’t want him right there beside her.
Maybe it was because they’d been together for hours on end. Maybe it was the pain medication they’d obviously given her. It was only supposed to be no-strings.
She had to remember that.
The hours in the hospital blurred together, and turned into at least a day. Mel stayed with her most of the time; Jilly and their father had been in and out.
The next afternoon, she was feeling good enough to sit up partially. And to pester the woman sitting in the chair next to her bed. Mel was writing in a notebook—Mel had always liked writing—and practically ignoring Brynna’s snipping and snapping.
She was just doing it to annoy her sister—and entertain herself. When Mel had been in the hospital for the first time, she’d snipped and snapped at anyone around. And they’d let her—to keep her focus off of what she was going through.
Mel knew exactly why Brynna was pestering her, didn’t she?
A rush of love for the woman who had been there for her every day of her life hit her. A bit of strength she hadn’t known she had stiffened her resolve to get through all of this. To forget that she had been the one to forget for a little while that what was between her and Chance was only sex. That it had ended the moment they had left that cellar behind.
She would get through this.
And almost as soon as she made that resolve people walked through her door.
Gabby and Elliot...and Elliot’s brother.
She forced herself to greet him just as blandly as she did Elliot. It wasn’t easy. She hid her instinctive reach for him by grabbing the stuffed bear that had been sharing her bed.
She made it through the chit-chat somehow, not really certain what she said or what anyone else did.
Until he stepped up right next to her and glared.
What had she done to him to make him look at her that way?
* * *
CHANCE felt like a rank bastard when her pretty, laughing face fell. She looked away from him and wouldn’t look back.
“So what are you three doing here?” Mel asked, bluntly. “What’s happening?”
&
nbsp; He hadn’t meant to hurt her. He leaned a little closer to Brynna—her hair smelled clean, fruity, and had been brushed and braided neatly.
“We need to know what Brynna found on that video that sent her heading back to Texas so quickly.”
The women talked for a moment, but Chance didn’t hear exactly what was said. Until Brynna shifted on the bed, and Gabby moved closer, almost blocking Chance against the back wall.
“I’m ok, Gabs. I promise. I promise. I am ok. So are you. So is Mel. We are all ok now.” Brynna reached for Gabby.
“Then we can do this,” Mel said. The three were connected, weren’t they? They loved each other. Belonged to each other.
It had been a decade since he’d felt that type of belonging.
Brynna shifted in the bed, then winced. He was close enough to see how she flinched. He wrapped his hands around her shoulders without thinking that maybe she wouldn’t want him touching her and guided her down on the bed. “Damn it, Brynna, don’t hurt yourself.”
She looked up at him quickly, then looked away. Chance didn’t want to let her go. She explained what she had found on the video and he listened quietly.
He didn’t understand half of what she’d said, but the rest of the room did. He’d catch up later.
Brynna grabbed for her blanket to pull it around her shoulders. Chance did it for her, needing to touch her once more.
Damn it, he’d spent days touching her however and whenever he wanted to. Why did he expect it would be easy to just forget that?
For those days, those hours, this woman had been his.
He’d done a piss poor job of keeping her safe, hadn’t he?
She was wilting; how much longer would she be able to push herself? She needed to rest, not worry about killers. He shifted until he was behind her. She leaned back against him, almost instinctively.
Hell, the least he could do was hold her up for a little while, right?
He knew he was lying to himself from the get-go. He just...wanted to hold her for a little bit. “Maybe it wasn’t just what was found on her laptop,” Chance said. “Maybe they were just not wanting someone looking at the files at all.”
“But by harming her, that was bound to draw attention to what she was working on,” his brother said. “And it was Gabby’s laptop. How do we know they didn’t somehow track the laptop to find you?”
“Is that even possible?” Mel asked. “I mean, that quickly?”
“I don’t think it would have been necessary.” Brynna shifted again, her pain obvious. Chance fought the urge to touch her hair, to pull her tighter against him. Holding her like this was one thing—he wouldn’t let himself do anything more. “They probably traced my phone.”
“But why did they focus on you? Instead of Gabby?” Elliot asked.
“Because I had Gabby’s laptop and had signed out a zip drive that had the videos from that night on it. My name was right there in the evidence log. Anyone at the TSP could have seen it. Could have known I was in St. Louis, and could have found me with my phone. Gabby and I use cell phones to track suspects all the time.”
Gabby nodded. “So you think it wasn’t because it was my laptop.”
“It was the zip drive. With copies of the exact originals turned in from your old laptop ten years ago. It was still in the original envelope, sealed, with the original date. I made a copy of it at the evidence desk using one of the TSP issued drives. I signed for it, like we do everything, and told people where I was going. It was blocked off of the CF schedule three weeks ago. I even told Daniel McKellen that I was going to be up there. And when I expected to get there. I texted him when I got there, too,” Brynna said. She looked up at him for quick moment.
“Why the hell for?” Chance asked. He’d met McKellen. The guy was about his own age, and seemed decent. But why would the guy have cared where Brynna was?
Chance looked down at the woman in his arms and he knew why McKellen was interested. How could the man not be?
McKellen wasn’t the kind of guy a woman like Brynna needed, though. Did she realize that?
“Because he’s a friend and he was worried.” She finally looked up at him fully. “He wants to be a whole lot more.”
Chance stared at her. “If he’s not the son of a bitch who hurt you.”
Temper flashed in light brown eyes and she glared at him. “He isn’t. He’s just a nice man who wants to get to know me better. He gave me flowers the day I left, you know. Those pink balloons right there are from him, too. He knows I like pink.”
Flowers, balloons. Damned bastard was trying to get her attention, wasn’t he?
What pissed him off the most was that he didn’t have a right to tell her what had sprung to his lips. That no other guy was ever going to get to know her more. That no other man would ever have that right.
Because they hadn’t agreed to those kinds of strings, had they? He’d would just have to deal.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
* * *
BRYNNA hadn’t been alone with her father five minutes before the intercom started buzzing and a calm voice came over the loud speaker advising everyone to stay in their current locations unless absolutely necessary, that the hospital had entered a lock-down procedure, and that new information would be forthcoming.
Brynna looked at her dad. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to call your sister. See if she and the rest got out of here ok.”
His worry was hard to miss. Brynna thought he looked like he’d aged overnight or something.
She stayed quiet while he tried Mel’s phone. His face tightened, then he tried again. And again. “She’s not picking up.”
“Go find her.”
“I’m not leaving you here alone, baby. Mel’s probably in an elevator or something.”
Or something. So why did Brynna feel so tense all of a sudden? The intercom kept up with its monotonous edict, but Brynna tuned it out.
Her father paced for the next ten minutes and she tried to tune that out as well. It wasn’t as easy. Her father closed the door and stood by it, watching out the thin glass window, as the hospital staff congregated in the central nurse’s station.
“Dad, is Jilly still on the clock?”
“For a few more hours.” His tone was grim. “I’m going to step out into the hall. See if I can find out anything.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be right here when you get back.” Helpless and stuck while the world went on around her.
Where were her sisters, and why did she get the feeling something bad had just happened to one of them?
* * *
HER dad came back in and this time he wasn’t alone. Chance was behind him, and he looked like he’d rolled around in the parking lot or something. There were two nurses behind him.
“Chance? What’s going on?” Was that a scrape on his cheek? “Where’s my sister?”
He stepped up to the side of the bed. “Don’t freak out, first. She’s safe.”
“Where is she and where is Gabby?”
He wrapped his hand around her shoulder lightly and he turned her to look at him, as the nurses started unhooking the monitors next to her bed. “Your sister is downstairs in the ER getting looked at. Just to make sure she’s ok. Gabby is with Elliot; he’s getting his shoulder sewn back up.”
“Why? What is going on with my sister and Gabby?” She started to fight against his hold. She figured out why he was touching her real quick when he held her in place while the nurses pulled the tubes jammed into her hand out of the stints of her IV. “What is happening?”
“Look at me, babe.” He leaned down until all she could see was the green of his eyes. “Someone took a few potshots at us as we were leaving the hospital. Elliot got nicked, but he’s going to be just fine. Dr. McGareth is sewing him back together. I landed on Mel’s ribs pretty hard when I knocked her out of the way. They are just keeping her as a precaution, to make sure there isn’t any extra damage to be worried about. Bu
t she was talking and complaining, so I know she’s alright, got me? As for you...they are moving you to a room without windows. And putting Mel in here with you.”
Brynna reached up for him, then dropped her hands back to her lap. She wasn’t going to touch him. Seek comfort from him. It wasn’t his job to comfort her anymore. She pulled back against the pillows as one nurse did something to the wheels and scooted the bed closer to the door. Brynna looked at her father. “Daddy?”
“I’m heading down there now. Jilly’s going to bring Mel up and get her settled herself.”
“Don’t forget me up here. I need to know Mel’s ok. Need to. Need to. Need to.”
“Don’t flip, Bryn. She’s going to be ok.” Chance stepped back as two orderlies walked into the room. They pulled the bed the rest of the way to the door.
Brynna did the only thing she could. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the pillows.
She didn’t open them again until she was pushed into the new room and the bed put into place.
She opened her eyes and took a look around.
The walls were yellow.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.
* * *
JILLY’S best friend Lacy was a doctor at the hospital and had been working in the ER when Mel had been brought in. She was with Jilly and Mel when they wheeled Mel in an hour after Chance had come back to tell them what had happened.
After he and her father had insisted the hospital move her to an interior room.
Shelter from the Storm (Finley Creek Book 2) Page 9