Dangerous in Charge

by Sidney Bristol

  “I have an ex. We didn’t end well.” Or begin well, for that matter. He’d been bad for her at all points of their relationship, she just hadn’t let herself see it. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I—just—if he saw me on TV...”

  “You don’t have to explain anything. Understand?” Kyle took a small step toward her.

  “Most people don’t panic at the idea of being on TV.” She’d done a great job of pretending like her past didn’t exist, but the truth was the idea of facing her ex in any way terrified her. She’d fought against herself, her family and him to get out of there. She wasn’t going back.

  “Most people aren’t a saint.” One side of his mouth hitched up. The warmth shining back at her caught her off guard.

  “I am not.”

  “You did what I couldn’t do.” The other side of his mouth rose, and he smiled at her.

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  When he wasn’t being brooding and intimidating he was pretty damn handsome. When he looked at her, it was as though she were the only other person on the planet. How was it possible a man could make her feel special with nothing more than his eyes?

  “Excuse me?” Loribelle strode through the foyer to them. “Mr. Hunt is ready for you.”

  “She’s not serving as his backdrop,” Kyle said in a hard tone.

  “But, it’s for Megan.” Loribelle gaped at Kyle then Bethany.

  “It’s for Ms. Rossi’s safety.” Kyle crossed his arms over his chest, the warmth gone. In its place was stern command.

  Bethany didn’t want to be the one who had to take Kyle on right now.

  Loribelle straightened and took a step back. She blinked at Kyle, her lips working soundlessly. It wasn’t his words garnering this nervous reaction; it was the stern stare, the silent command aimed at one woman. Yet there was something different, intentional even, about the way he looked at Loribelle that didn’t match up to how he’d been earlier. He was sending a message.

  “I’ll...let Mr. Hunt know,” she said and turned.

  They watched Loribelle stride through the hall toward the back of the house. She glanced over her shoulder a few times as though she were afraid Kyle would follow.

  “Was that necessary?” Bethany wasn’t sure if she was offended or fascinated.

  “That woman worships Elijah Hunt. Friend of the family my ass,” he muttered.

  “You think...? She’s...?”

  “His side piece? Yeah. And judging by the distant look on Mrs. Hunt’s face, she knows it.” Kyle shook his head. “This is probably a waste of our time if Megan has cut them out of her life. I’d like to hear what he’s going to say, if you don’t mind? We could still be looking at a situation where Megan is a target because of her father.”

  “If it’ll help us find Megan, yes.” She stared after Loribelle. “Ten minutes here and I understand Megan better than I have since we met.”

  “Can’t say I blame her for cutting ties. You want to wait here or come with?”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “Come on then.” Kyle held his hand out to her.

  Bethany stared at his hand a moment.

  Before today they each had clearly defined roles. They remained in their lane, acknowledging each other when they crossed paths, but nothing more. Now he was calling her Beth and holding her hand. If she wasn’t careful, she’d forget her promise about dating. Kyle might be worth it.

  Then again, who said they had to date?

  She took his hand, his warmth seeping into her frozen fingertips, up her arms and into her chest.

  Kyle was not what she’d expected, and she didn’t know how to process that.

  He led her through the hall in the middle of the house into what looked like another foyer. It was hard to imagine Megan growing up here. She didn’t wear make-up and most of her clothes were thread bare. It was like she tried to be everything her parents weren’t.

  Bethany could see how parents like the Hunt’s had shaped Megan. She’d probably never outgrown her teenage rebellion stage. Of course Megan didn’t make friends easily. With a father like hers, Bethany would have the same issues. It was obvious he used everyone around him. Megan’s birth was likely a staged act, and she was smart enough to see these things.

  Kyle and Bethany edged out onto the terrace with the other people clustered around a raised dais with Mr. and Mrs. Hunt standing behind a podium. Everyone except them had some sort of recording device aimed at Megan’s parents. Unlike before in the dining room, Mrs. Hunt’s face was no longer a frozen mask. Tears ran down her cheeks and color splotched her face whereas before she’d barely seemed moved by her daughter’s disappearance.

  “Thank you all for coming here today.” Elijah Hunt bent over a set of microphones with just about every news channel represented on their handles. He wiped his hand over his face. “Our daughter, Megan Hunt, is missing.”

  The emotion behind his words, how he spoke, were mesmerizing. Elijah alternated between begging the people there for help and telling odd stories about Megan as a child. While part of Bethany knew this was an act, the other half was moved to want to help. By the end of whatever this was Bethany’s eyes were leaking again. Kyle wrapped his arm around her shoulders and nodded at the doors.

  “Come on. Let’s go,” he whispered.

  She let him guide her back inside.

  It was a rule between her, Faith and Megan that they didn’t talk about their past. They each had history that was better left forgotten. Getting this inside look at Megan’s family, Bethany could see why Megan would want to get out of here. Despite the wealth and opportunity, all this was a stage. There was no life here.

  “What’d you think?” Elijah’s voice boomed off the marble floors.

  Kyle stopped, giving her no choice but to turn with him or flee the house by herself. She wasn’t ready to be without him.

  “We’ll have Meg home by dinner, don’t you think?” Elijah ambled toward them, a wide smile on his face.

  “Or you just told whoever might have her that the clock is ticking.” Kyle let go of her hand and took a step toward Elijah. “They could panic and kill her instead of letting her go. The truth is, we know nothing about where she is, who has her, any of that.”

  “They wouldn’t kill her. Not after that.” Elijah gestured at the doors leading to the terrace.

  “Assuming she’s been kidnapped—which we have not yet provided evidence of—she’s no longer a nameless, faceless woman no one will miss. She’s now the daughter of an elected official with the whole police force looking for her. Without knowing who has her or what their motives are, there’s no way to anticipate how they’d take that. For all you know, they’re panicking right now and are going to kill her. So no, I don’t think what you did was a good idea.”

  Elijah glared at Kyle, his face stony and his eyes flashing with anger. Bethany knew men like this. There were a lot of doctors she’d worked with who couldn’t handle hearing they were wrong.

  “Who did you say you worked for again? Why are you here?” Elijah asked.

  “I work for Aegis Group and I’m here with a concerned friend.” Kyle nodded at her.

  Elijah’s gaze flicked toward her. Bethany swallowed and held her ground.

  “Are you the one who reported Ms. Hunt missing?” A man stood in the doorway leading into a room on Bethany’s right. He was an older, lean man in a suit with thinning gray hair.

  “Yes.” She swallowed.

  “When is the last time you saw her?” he asked.

  “A little after nine. It’s all in the report.” She’d written it all down despite the scoffing of the cops.

  “Why is that important?” Kyle directed his attention at the new man.

  The man turned his gaze to Mr. Hunt.

  “You know why,” the man said.

  Mr. Hunt grimaced and glanced around, as though checking to ensure no one else would overhear.

  “He thinks the Triple Threat Killer is back,” Mr.
Hunt said.

  Bethany grasped Kyle’s hand.

  That wasn’t possible...

  FRIDAY. CANDLELIGHT Theater, Seattle, Washington.

  Jay perched on the bed, his phone cradled in his hands. The newscast was everywhere.

  The Hunts filled his screen, the wife doing her best impression of a fountain while the father tried to weave his spell over the audience.

  “Thank you all for coming here today.” Elijah wiped his hand over his face. “Our daughter, Megan Hunt, is missing. She was seen last night at nine headed to the movie theater near her house. She always loved going to the movies—”

  “This windbag.” Jay shook his head and glanced at the woman reclining on the bed.

  Wait.

  This was wrong.

  He couldn’t talk to Megan when she wore Mom’s mask.

  Jay reached over and grasped the wispy hair attached to the mask, pulling it off.

  Megan stared back at him, her eyes wide, skin splotchy and the cloth tied around her mouth damp. He hated the mess gags made, but they were necessary.

  “Can you believe him?” Jay shoved his phone in her face.

  He hadn’t known Megan was the daughter of the Council President when she’d caught his attention, but once he dug up that fact she’d lured him in until she was all he could think about. He’d kept tabs on her, made visits to Seattle to watch her and her roommates, make his plans.

  “Such a blowhard.” Jay leaned back against her legs so they could both watch the video.

  Megan had inspired this change. Her and this theater. They were going to help him achieve a new high. Over the years the rush just wasn’t the same, so he’d changed it up a little at a time. This year he was going to do it big. Right. Amazing.

  He had a plan. He knew the women. The stage was set. It was all about the right moment. This would make the almost three-year interval worth it. The high would be better than before. On a level with those first three when he hadn’t known what he was doing.

  Nothing could beat a first time, but he was going to try his damn best this time around.

  “Time for me to be off.” Jay patted Megan’s leg. “Bethany will be joining you shortly. I’m sure that will improve your mood.”

  He pushed to his feet and shoved his phone in his pocket.

  Of the three, Bethany would be easiest. Her perky smile hid a timid personality. No backbone. No ability to stand up for herself. If there was one lesson Mom and Bethany could learn, it was that they had to take responsibility for what happened to them. Mom let herself get locked in a career that used her. Bethany had let her ex down by not trying hard enough to be the woman she should have been.

  Jay was going to enjoy this.

  4.

  FRIDAY. HUNT FAMILY Home, Seattle, Washington.

  Kyle stared at the detective. He didn’t need to see a badge to identify the man as what he was. The stare gave him away. There was a look men got when they walked with death for too long. Some of the guys Kyle worked with had that look.

  “Triple Threat Killer?” Bethany whispered.

  “Why would you suggest that?” Kyle would never utter such a horrific possibility around family members of an asset. Making them aware of the risks they were taking was one thing, creating undue fear another.

  “Never mind him.” A younger man in a shabby suit stopped next to the detective. “Roger thinks every missing girl or body is the beginning of a Triple Threat streak.”

  “But that was a killer from the nineties. Why would you think this is connected?” Kyle had the sinking suspicion they were about to learn something he could have lived without.

  Roger glanced at Elijah who no longer seemed as cool and composed. The man glanced over his shoulder yet again at the now closed doors behind him.

  “In the dining room. This is not a conversation that should be overheard.” Elijah waved his hand.

  “Kyle?” Bethany stared up at him.

  “We’re going to find her.” Kyle placed his hand on her back and guided her forward. He hoped Megan was alive when they located her. “Do you want to wait in the car?”

  “No.” Bethany straightened her spine and speared him with a glare. God, she was something amazing.

  “Are you sure?” They stepped aside while the others filed into the dining room. “I get the feeling we’re about to learn some unsettling stuff.”

  “Megan had a good reason to separate herself from her family.” Bethany stared up at him. The fear was still there, but the determination won out. “I can’t trust them to do what’s best for her. You said as much yourself. We have to look out for her.”

  We.

  Good. She was thinking of them as a team.

  “I can handle this if you don’t want to know the details.”

  “I need to know.”

  Kyle wanted to protect her from whatever the detectives were about to share. Chances were it wasn’t going to be good news for Megan or them. He wanted to spare Bethany that knowledge for as long as possible. But that wasn’t his right or his place to make that call on her behalf.

  “Okay. Come on.” He nodded at the dining room where the others were finding seats around the gigantic table.

  He guided Bethany into the room. They took seats at the opposite end of the table from Elijah, with the two detectives and a few other people seated on either side. This gave Kyle a view of everyone in the room without having to turn his head.

  “What makes you think this could be the Triple Threat?” Elijah stared at Roger. He wasn’t even fazed by the mention of a serial killer from almost twenty years ago.

  “It’s pastime.” Roger spread his hands. “We both know it.”

  “What do you mean, pastime?” Kyle leaned forward. “I seem to remember the last time that was a thing, I was in high school. That was the nineties.”

  Roger and Elijah shared a look.

  The killer wasn’t gone.

  He’d killed again.

  And the people in this room had covered it up.

  “Fuck.” Kyle sat back and scrubbed his hand across his jaw. This wasn’t entirely in his wheelhouse, but he could manage. “How long since he was active?”

  “Three years. He’s never waited more than two and a half,” Roger replied.

  “Are there signatures? Calling cards? Something you haven’t shared with the press that makes you think Megan is his next victim?” Kyle knew the ropes. A few of his jobs for Aegis had brushed up against the FBI’s investigations.

  “Megan fits his type. She’s in her late twenties, pretty. She disappeared alone, at night, near a theater.” Roger sat back in his chair. He seemed smug about putting those pieces together.

  “But if it was the Triple Threat, we’d have found her by now,” the other detective said.

  “We’ve never had a cooling-off period this long. The whole routine might have changed,” Roger argued.

  Kyle glanced at Elijah Hunt. He wasn’t the typical father of a missing girl. Usually this was a conversation Kyle would leave a client out of. They didn’t need to know what horrors their loved one might be going through. But Elijah’s response wasn’t the least bit emotional. He stared at the gleaming table, his mind elsewhere.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” Kyle stared at Elijah.

  He glanced up, meeting Kyle’s gaze.

  Unlike the feigned grief earlier, there was real fear in Elijah’s gaze now.

  “Mr. Hunt, if you want anyone at this table to find your daughter, you have to start telling the truth.” Kyle was willing to bet Elijah hardly ever told the whole truth. It was a tall order.

  “It was my first term on the City Council.” He sat back in his chair. “The police chief brought us three sets of homicide cases, three victims in each, and said they hadn’t connected them at first, but they thought it was the same guy. Only his methods changed.”

  “Methods?” That had Kyle breaking out in a sweat.

  “Who are you? Why are we even having this conversati
on?” Roger glared at Kyle. He’d been so smug he hadn’t realized that Kyle was horning in on his job.

  “He’s the man who said he’s going to find my daughter.” Elijah leaned back in the stately chair.

  “We’ve got cops out looking,” Roger said.

  “You want to come in here, say you think my daughter was taken by a serial killer you haven’t been able to catch in thirty years and you expect me to have faith in your beat cops?” Elijah shook his head. “No. I’m hiring someone who will find my daughter and give us the picture perfect end we need.”

  “Mr. Hunt—”

  “You tell him everything right now, or I swear to God I’ll have your badge.” Elijah slammed his fist on the table. “You think I won’t? That I don’t have enough reason to? You’re a detective with a hard-on for a serial killer. We all know it, just like we all know the only reason my daughter would be on this guy’s radar is because of you.”

  Bethany jumped and sank down further in her chair. Kyle reached over and laid a hand over her clenched hands.

  Roger glanced from Kyle back to Elijah. Roger was older, probably close to retirement. The first murders would have happened in the beginning of Roger’s career. If Kyle were to read between the lines, he’d say that Roger was after his white whale. The way he studied Kyle wasn’t friendly. If Roger had to work with Kyle, it wasn’t going to be a cooperative relationship.

  “This doesn’t leave this room, understand?” Roger jabbed his finger against the table top.

  “I will only share the necessary details with my team to help find Megan.” Kyle was supposed to be on bereavement, but he couldn’t sit back and do nothing. He’d fight his boss on this if he had to.

  Roger continued to glare at Kyle. He had a hard time finding any empathy for the guy. If what they were saying was true and there’d been a killer out there for thirty years, there were a lot of people who deserved answers.

  “By the time the media got wind of the murders in ’91 we’d been on him for years.” Roger folded his hands together, but there was nothing resigned about him. “Our boy changed his system. Before then, the bodies were in alleys, cars. We knew it was him because the women were similar age, height, looks, and because of how they were restrained wrists to ankles, bent backward. In ’91 that changed. He laid his vics out for people to find. We were already looking for murders in a series of three around bars, theaters, concert venues. The first were in ’86. The second set was in ’89, but we didn’t immediately connect the two sets of crimes.”