Shelter from the Storm (Finley Creek Book 2)
Page 20
“No, Bryn. I’ll deal with him. You and Gabby go. Finish eating, or get dessert or something.” Mel stared at the man. “Go on. He’s not going to hurt me. If he even tries I’ll yell and Dad can shoot him, ok?”
“You sure, Mel?” Elliot asked. The two of them were getting closer, too. Brynna had noticed that before. Almost like Mel and Jarrod, sometimes. Easy, friendly. Chance and Mel were more likely to snip and snap at each other, though.
It really felt like Chance and Elliot belonged around there. She ignored the pain that thought brought. As soon as this was finished, Chance was heading for the hills.
It wouldn’t do for her to forget that. In spite of how he’d comforted her before.
Chance was not permanent.
Any more than her newest brother-in-law was.
“Gabby, you guys leaving?” Mel asked.
“We’re going to stay another night, I think,” Gabby said. “Elliot and your father are going to dig around in some of his old case files tonight. Brynna and I have some coding to do.”
“Ok. We’ll talk again later.” Mel stood. Houghton Barratt didn’t move.
Gabby wrapped her fingers around Brynna’s and pulled her past the tall man and out into the hall.
Chance surprised her when he pulled the door shut behind them, leaving Mel and Houghton Barratt in her bedroom... alone.
“Why did you leave him in there?” she demanded.
“They have some things to figure out,” Chance said. “We should give them the privacy to do it.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT.
* * *
WHATEVER was going on in the room right next to the study, Barratt was probably enjoying it. Chance wasn’t stupid—he knew exactly what was happening between Barratt and Mel right at that moment. He also knew they probably thought the rest of the house was sound asleep.
He should be. But the pullout couch in Kevin’s study was damned uncomfortable.
Gabby and Elliot were on the other side of him in the guest room that he’d been informed had once been Syd’s room. She’d moved upstairs to allow Mel to move downstairs after she’d been injured. Before that, the back room had been Jillian’s. Syd had implied the four Beck daughters had traded rooms off and on for years. Just another way they had a history, a life together.
He hadn’t missed the tell-tale giggles from Gabby a few hours earlier, either. Chance sighed as his body tightened. Even if he had been lucky enough to share a room with Brynna tonight, she was in no condition to do what his body was demanding. But he could have touched her, kissed her. Held her.
A door somewhere nearby creaked open. Soft footsteps sounded on the hardwood. Chance stood.
He even recognized her footsteps, didn’t he? She was moving slower, but he knew. Chance followed her into the kitchen.
She was pulling open the cabinet when he stepped in. “Hungry? There’s some type of ice cream plus pie. I think Jillian made it all.”
“We do homemade ice cream. Dairy-free. For me. Everybody says they like it better, but I know the truth. I’ve seen Mel with Dairy Queen.”
“They love you.”
“I know. Can’t you sleep?”
“No. Too many sounds.”
She frowned. “What kind?”
“Let’s just say, whatever is going on between your sister and Barratt, they are definitely still in the newly-wed stage.”
“Huh?”
He smiled. Sometimes the woman just did not get euphemisms, did she? “Bryn, Barratt and your sister got a little loud while they were fooling around. Having sex.”
“Sex? Seriously?” Her lips quirked. “And you had to listen?”
“I didn’t have to. I’m out here, aren’t I? And it’s not like it’s the first time tonight I heard someone getting lucky.” He looked at the ceiling. “Gabby likes to giggle, apparently. Your dad needs to better insulate the interior walls of this place.”
Brynna lost the battle with a full-blown laugh. She wiped at her eyes. “Gabby Giggles. I am so calling her that tomorrow. It’ll flip her out.”
“No. Then she’ll look at me and we’ll both know what she was doing with my brother. I don’t think I can handle that.” He stepped closer to what dessert he truly wanted. Tonight’s pajamas were little short and tank-top wisps of nothingness. Satin nothingness, actually. With tiny frogs printed on them. Where did she find them? Why did he find her night clothes so damned alluring all the time?
“Bryn...”
“What?” She held the ice cream in her left hand.
“This.” Chance took the container from her hand and tossed it into the sink. Then he had his hands around her waist and he was lifting her, oh so gently. He hadn’t forgotten how close he’d come to losing her. He put her right back on the kitchen island where he’d kissed her before. “You tempt me. I wish...I wish I was in your bed tonight. Just holding you.”
“You can’t be.”
“I know. We both know why it wouldn’t work.”
“No. Not that. Jillian’s in my room. In the spare bed. In case I needed her.” She leaned her head down until her forehead touched his. For someone who supposedly didn’t like to touch people, she didn’t seem to mind when he touched her, did she?
“Kiss me, babe.”
“Why? We can’t do anything right now. And it wouldn’t mean anything. I don’t think I can do the no-strings thing anymore, Chance. I...changed in that rubble. I think I’ve grown up some. The next man I’m with, I’m going to hope it’s forever. I’m not going to do no-strings, anymore. I hope you understand...”
He did.
The next man wouldn’t be him. He lifted her off the counter carefully. “Eat your ice cream, babe. I’m going outside to take a look around.”
“Ok. Be careful. Chance?”
“Yes?” He looked at her and knew in that instant. If his family hadn’t been killed, if his world hadn’t changed so horribly ten years ago, this was the kind of woman he would have wanted for his own. Sweet, open, loving, so damned complicated.
“I’m sorry. If I hurt you. I don’t mean to. But...I think this is for the best, don’t you?”
Brynna, his Brynna. He’d give anything to be able to keep her. “Yeah. You’re probably right. You’re better off with someone else. I think we both know that.”
He forced himself to step away.
That man she was with forever, it would not be him. He just hoped the guy knew what a lucky bastard he would be to get her.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE.
* * *
LACY hated dark parking lots, hated stupid men who thought that because they were in charge of something it gave them a right to push others around—especially younger, more vulnerable women like Annie Gaines, who had never spoken a harsh word to anyone in their lives. Why did bullies always somehow find those who couldn’t fight back?
She’s spent most of her childhood—from the age of eight—defending herself with her fists, and anyone else she’d been close to at the time. She’d never been fortunate enough to find a foster home where she stuck for more than a year or two, but there almost always seemed to be younger kids around.
Lacy had been orphaned when her mother—a single mother of three—had been killed in a car wreck, along with Lacy’s twin sisters, who had been too young to be in school at the time. She’d gone from being one of the Barrattville McGareths to being a foster kid in the middle of Finley Creek.
It had taken her nineteen years to get back to Barrattville, and the home that had once been her mother’s parents’. It had nearly bankrupted her to buy the old two hundred acre ranch. But it was hers.
The house was barely livable—she probably shouldn’t be living there, not with the holes in the living room floor and the toilet that leaned oddly to the left—but it was hers. The first place that had ever been hers.
Once she was finished, she hoped it would be as warm and inviting as the Becks’.
Jillian’s dad had brought Jillian out a few times. He’d even take
n it on himself to grab a piece of plywood from the old barn and patch the worst of the holes in her living room floor. He’d accepted a hug and a peck on the cheek as payment.
Kevin and the rest of the Becks were the closest thing to a real family she had had in almost ten years. She didn’t take them lightly.
Jillian and Ari had helped her redo the one room in the house that was functional—her bedroom. They’d sanded and painted and tiled until they were so sore they could barely sit up long enough to eat pizza.
She and Jillian had been friends since before Jilly was old enough to drink—Ari had joined them when she’d transferred to Finley Creek University almost eight months earlier. She and Jilly had met in St. Louis—their older sisters were close friends—and had reconnected when Ari ended up in the same class as Jillian.
They just all seemed to fit each other well. She hated to see what was happening to Jillian’s family now. The Jerk she’d just finished arguing with had only added to the Beck family’s problems recently.
Lanning was an asshole, and she was happy she’d told him that again. If it meant a suspension when she returned to the ER the next day for her shift…well, then so be it. Lacy would manage. She’d managed a heck of a lot worse before.
Someone called her name and she turned around, expecting it to be Lanning again. He’d been a real pain in her ass—and most of the nursing staff and a third of the female physicians—from the very beginning. Ever since she’d told him she didn’t date co-workers. At all. Never.
Dr. Logan Lanning did not take rejection well.
But it wasn’t Lanning. It was some guy at least in his fifties, and in need of a good workout regimen.
“Yes?” She said, her hand going straight into her pocket where her cell phone waited. She wasn’t stupid. Strange men in a dark parking lot could mean big trouble for a woman. She knew that. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, you can.” He grinned at her and Lacy started backing away. This guy meant no good, and every instinct she had was telling her to run. Fast.
She ran.
A dark sedan pulled out in front of her, blocking her exit. She screamed.
He wasn’t alone.
The man’s hands tangled in her hair and he yanked, pulling her off of her feet.
And then the true hell began.
She screamed as he drove his knees into her kidneys, as he backhanded her so hard she thought her cheek had fractured.
He kept hitting and punching and doing whatever he could to hurt her. She couldn’t fight him off, no matter how hard she tried. And she tried.
When she knew there was no hope she did her damnedest to make sure that whoever found her would find him. She dug her nails in to the flesh on his arm and clung. She’d get his DNA, even while she died trying.
He leaned close to her and said something. He said it again and made her repeat it. His words were ones she would never forget.
If she lived.
The sedan’s window rolled down, and the man inside spoke to the one looming over her. “Get in, now! The message has been delivered.”
Someone shouted. He jerked away. “Don’t forget. We know everything about you…and about them, bitch.”
Someone shouted again. Lacy pried open her least injured eye. Lanning. It was Lanning.
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
She tried to curl up in a ball; it took every bit of strength she had. Her attacker dove toward the car just as the window rolled down again. He climbed into the back as a hand extended.
Lacy watched in horror as a gun fired, right over her head.
Lanning screamed and went down. Lacy closed her eyes, knowing she was going to be next.
Instead the car drove away.
She forced herself to her knees, forced herself to crawl to Lanning’s side.
She covered the hole in his stomach with her hands and prayed someone would find them soon.
CHAPTER SEVENTY.
* * *
THE bruises didn’t detract from how pretty Dr. McGareth actually was. Had he fully looked at the green-eyed blonde before? He honestly didn’t think he had.
He’d been so consumed with his girl-woman that he hadn’t noticed any other woman but her. That should tell him something, shouldn’t it?
The doc’s eyes opened and she looked around. He leaned over her. “Lacy? It’s ok. You’re at the hospital.”
She smiled ruefully. “I just can’t seem to escape this place, can I? I’m starting to wish for a career change about now.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Foster asked. He leaned over the bed, opposite Chance.
“There was a man…” A bitterness slipped into her eyes. One that spoke of old hurts. “Isn’t there always? Slaps. Fists. A knee to the kidneys. Just when you think you’re safe again…”
Chance looked at Foster as a suspicion slipped into his head. Someone else had hurt this woman in the past, hadn’t they?
She seemed to realize what she was revealing. “Anyway. I was walking to my car. I’d just finished arguing with Dr. Lanning about what had happened before. I decided to take the high-road and walked away.”
She shifted in the bed and grabbed her stomach. Foster had shared the medical report with him on the sly. She’d taken a few knees to the gut. A tap to the kidneys.
Her attacker had wanted her to hurt.
“What happened next, Lace?” Foster asked softly.
“Lanning followed me. But he was too late. This big guy. Probably in his late fifties. Rough. He attacked me. And he said…”
She looked at Chance. “He said… ‘We know everything about the Becks. Those bitches will never be safe. We know where they are, and who their friends are. See that their daddy gets the message.’”
“Can you describe this guy to a forensic artist?”
“I can do better. I…scratched him. Several times. I wanted his damned DNA. I made Dr. Jacobson swab my nails, boys. I dug in until I drew blood. After that…Lanning was there. The man shot him. I crawled to Lanning, tried to stop the bleeding. Samples are probably contaminated, though. With Lanning’s blood.”
“He’s going to live, Lacy. Lanning will recover,” Foster said. “I’ll talk to Jacobson, track down the samples. You just rest. When you get out of here, do you have someplace you can go for a while?”
She shook her head. “No. Just the Becks. They’re all I’ve got. Them and Ari. Keep them safe. Promise me.”
“We will.”
“She’ll come with me,” a female voice said from behind them. “I’m going to St. Louis. Luc and Paige are insisting.”
Chance looked at Ari, who stood in the doorway. She was pale and frightened as she stepped up to her friend’s bedside.
Hell, he understood it. He never would have expected those sons-of-bitches to go after Jillian’s friend. But…Dr. McGareth had been on the fringes of the Beck family from the very beginning, hadn’t she? She’d even sewn up Elliot after he’d been nicked when they’d been shot at in the hospital parking lot. And they had the Beck family on total lock-down right now.
Bastard couldn’t get to one of the Becks, so he’d gone after who he could.
“When are you getting out of here?” Chance asked Lacy. “How soon?”
“This afternoon, I think. Nothing he did caused major damage. Just hurts like hell. Help me sit up. I can’t lay around here like this all day. I’ll go mad.” She reached for Chance’s hand.
He helped her sit up. Hell, she was in the same damned room Brynna had been in—both times. Might as well rename it the Beck room.
She wasn’t a Beck, but she was damned close. “I’ll get the son-of-a-bitch, Lacy. When I do, you can have a turn knocking his balls into his throat.”
“I’ll take you up on that.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE.
* * *
DANIEL McKellen was a couple of years or so older than Chance, and a couple of inches shorter. He was hard, tough, and damned good at his job.
This was the first time Chance had ever had to talk to the guy professionally. What he wanted to do was demand the guy leave Brynna alone. Stay far away from her.
He knew he was being completely unreasonable. If she wanted McKellen, he had no doubt the other guy would be able to take care of her. Protect her. Hell, probably better than Chance could. Guy had an entire department of fiercely loyal detectives he could command to keep one redheaded girl-woman and her family safe if needed.
He was almost as good as Elliot.
“I’ve put a rush on the DNA sample,” Elliot said from behind his desk. McKellen and Chance were in the chairs opposite the desk that Chance’s father had once occupied. The office was starting to feel like Elliot, wasn’t it?
His brother hadn’t been chief long, but he saw touches that reminded him of his brother. There were framed commendations on the wall. A few photos. He wasn’t surprised to see one of Gabby on the edge of his brother’s desk.
Once his brother made a life-altering decision, the guy went all in. There was an even smaller photo of the entire Beck family on a shelf behind Elliot’s chair. Gabby was at the center of it. It was a fairly recent photo—and had a few of the fringe members like Lacy and Ari and Foster included. Elliot was embracing his new position with the Becks fully, wasn’t he? He’d envied his brother before, but never more than now. Elliot was far braver than Chance ever would be.
“She’s also given a sketch artist enough details.” Elliot passed a photocopied sketch to Chance.