Shelter from the Storm (Finley Creek Book 2) Read online

  “We’re having a baby,” Chance said, firmly. “Together.”

  “Well,” Elliot said, putting his hand on Chance’s shoulder. At least he had his brother if Kevin tried to kick his ass. “Congratulations.”

  Their family formed a small circle around them—Kevin was at Brynna’s shoulder, Jillian on his other side. Lacy had stepped up to them, and stood at Jillian’s side. Elliot and Gabby were at Chance’s left. A unit. A family. “Thank you. Now…”

  “Ok, wait a minute…Bryn’s pregnant. At least nine weeks? That asshole over there knocked her around?” Lacy asked. Chance nodded. “Then she needs to go to the hospital and have a full exam. Including ultrasound. After what’s happened to her recently, she needs to be looked at. Just as a precaution.”

  “Then that’s exactly where we are going.” He wrapped her hand in his.

  “Bryn…we’ll talk when you get home, ok?” Her father stepped aside as he looked at Chance.

  Chance wasn’t stupid; he knew what the other man was doing. Kevin was accepting Chance’s role in Brynna’s future, wasn’t he? “I’ll see she’s taken care of, Kevin.”

  “I know you will, son.” Kevin held out his hand. Chance shook it. “Bring her home when you’ve finished at the hospital, ok?”

  “Of course.”

  Home. Sounded pretty good to him.

  Chance looked over at Raymund, who was being wheeled out on a gurney. He stopped the paramedics. “Not Finley Creek General, you understand? Some of his victims will be there.”

  “Sir?”

  Elliot flashed his badge. “Take him to Finley County. The prison ward there.”

  “He’s going to live?” Lacy asked. “Pity. I’ll make a few phone calls, Bryn. I have a friend who’s a wonderful obstetrician, Dr. Kaur. I may be able to get her to meet you there. She’ll be able to answer any questions.”

  With that, he looked down at Brynna. “Ready?”

  She nodded at him and smiled. Her hand covered his. “Ready.”

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIVE.

  * * *

  THEY were ok. His family was going to be just fine. Chance drove her back to the Beck house. And that’s when he remembered.

  He had Brynna’s bag.

  She started up the sidewalk to her family’s home.

  “Bryn? Not there. Come with me.”

  “What?”

  He rounded the car, one hand already in the side of her laptop bag. He pulled the papers free. “Come with me. Here.”

  “Chance?”

  “Just walk with me.”

  He led her across the yard.

  Chance looked at the house again. It was a soft earth green color with natural stone accents. There were six bedrooms and three baths.

  It was big enough for his family, wasn’t it?

  Maybe his family wasn’t big enough to fill it—yet. He was more than willing to work on that.

  “Bryn…look at the papers.”

  * * *

  SHE took the papers from him. “Chance, why are we here?”

  “Look at the papers, babe.”

  Brynna did. “This is…”

  She looked at the realtor’s sign. “It’s sold.”

  “No. It’s bought. It’s mine, now. I was hoping you’d live here with me.”

  “You want me to live with you?” She totally didn’t understand. “Here. And you bought this house…” She looked at the date. “This morning?”

  “I spoke with the realtor from my hotel in from Mexico. Had that idiot Barratt act as proxy for the negotiating, then I signed this morning before driving to the TSP.”

  Before she’d told him of the baby. “Why?”

  “Because I was thinking of my own dreams. What I would have wanted if I hadn’t spent the last ten years hunting for the men who killed my family. And…my dreams looked just like yours—as long as you were in them with me. Although I know you’re not thirty or so, I was thinking maybe you’d want to speed up the timeline of those dreams. And…have them with me.”

  “I don’t understand. You need to be very specific, Chance.” She knew what he was saying. How could she not? “What do you want from me?”

  He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled something small free.

  “I want forever, Brynna. I want you to marry me and have my children—more than just the one we have already made—and I want you to build a life with me. Like my parents had together for thirty years. Like your parents had. Like Elliot and Gabby will have. Marry me, Brynna, please? Make those dreams with me.”

  Brynna threw herself at his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I think that sounds absolutely exactly like what I want.”

  He scooped her up and carried her up the steps. “I picked up the keys early. Want to take a look inside?”

  “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do more.”

  EPILOGUE

  * * *

  KEVIN stood at the window of his front living room, watching the house next door. He smiled, a weight lifting off his chest as Chance scooped Brynna up and carried her inside the house he knew his daughter had always dreamed of having.

  He hadn’t missed the Sold sign in the front yard—or the fact that Chance had the keys. The boy had planned this, hadn’t he? It took more than a few hours to buy a house of that magnitude.

  Kevin had known the man would figure out what he wanted sooner or later, and he was glad to see that Chance knew what it was Brynna wanted. What his daughter needed.

  Chance wasn’t exactly the kind of man Kevin had always pictured for Brynna, but he was the right one. It was obvious Chance was the kind of man who saw his daughter for the beautiful, strong, capable young woman that she was. Chance loved her. That was all he could ask for, right?

  “Dad? Are they back?” his Melody asked from behind him. Mel walked to the window and took a look for herself. “Finally. I thought he would never figure it out.”

  “But we both knew he would.”

  “Did we? I think you’re more of an optimist than I am.”

  Kevin smiled; Mel had always been his child with the best outlook on the world around them. Odd, considering the career she had chosen. He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her on the forehead. He had come so close to losing her over a year ago. Had come so close to losing Brynna, too. He had lost almost two decades with his Carrie. But he had them all now.

  Carrie was happy in St. Louis; he couldn’t have asked for more for her. Brynna was now happy with a man he liked and respected.

  Jillian was finishing up her nursing degree and finally going to achieve a goal she’d wanted since she was fourteen. It hadn’t been an easy road for his Jilly; of all of his children she had struggled the most in school, thanks to her reading difficulties. She had struggled, but she was also the one who had chosen years of higher education to fulfill her dream. He was so proud of her for what she had accomplished. Syd had finished all the requirements for her high school degree and had, like Mel had so many years before, chosen to graduate at mid-term, even though this was technically only her junior year. She had worked hard.

  All of his girls were hard-working, kind-hearted, beautiful young women. But his Melody wasn’t yet happy.

  “She’ll be happy, Mel.”

  “I know. It was in the way she looked at him, Daddy. She’s never looked at a man quite like him before.” Mel leaned her head on his shoulder as they continued to stare at the house across the street. “I can’t believe he knew about that house.”

  “She must have told him. He bought it for her. He loves her.” Kevin had deliberately not questioned Melody about Houghton Barratt. Not past that initial week when she’d returned from Mexico. Did she realize that she looked at Barratt in much the same way that Brynna looked at Chance?

  Mel cared for the man, he knew that. Why else would Houghton Barratt be in Melody’s bedroom sleeping off the drugs the hospital had given him, instead of at the mansion in Barrattville where Mel had spent the last several weeks? He didn
’t quite buy the excuse that reporters were blocking the entrance to Barratt’s house. The guy had armed guards—he could have gotten them inside his home somehow. Instead he’d let Melody bring him here. To where Jillian could help keep an eye on him.

  “Melody, sweetheart, are you happy? Do you want to come home? If you do, Barratt won’t be able to stop you. Not really.”

  His daughter was quiet for a long time. Then she shook her head “I…I need to be with him. But…Oh, Daddy, why can’t it be easier than this? I don’t trust him. I don’t know why he wants me.”

  “Honey, why wouldn’t he?”

  “Never mind, Dad. How do I know he’s not just after what he can get from me and the TSP and Elliot and…how do I know if any of this is real?”

  Oh, Melody. His little girl. “When it’s real, it feels it, sweetie. How do you feel about him?”

  “I don’t have a clue.”

  Kevin would have questioned her more. Mel wasn’t the type to share what she was upset about until she had already thought of solutions. She so rarely asked for help this way. He wanted to help her somehow. She was his girl, he wanted her happy. His phone shrilled, interrupting what he was about to say. “Hold that thought.”

  He looked at the screen. “Elliot.”

  He answered quickly, then cursed. Cursed loud enough to have everyone in the room looking at him. He questioned Elliot for a moment then disconnected.

  He looked at his daughters and Lacy and Foster.

  “Dad? What is it?” Mel asked.

  “Charles Raymund.” Kevin had tried to remember who the man was, and he may have arrested him before. He couldn’t be sure. But that didn’t matter now, did it? “A sniper just took him out as they were leading him into the Finley County jail.”

  Mel shivered and wrapped her free arm around her stomach. “It’s not finished yet, Daddy, is it?”

  Kevin thought of the literal hell his middle daughter had gone through lately because of Charles Raymund. Thought of Melody being shot at in a parking lot for the second time in her life, thought of Melody and Brynna almost being forced off the road in St. Louis.

  He looked at his family surrounding him, thought of the two people probably loving each other across the street, thought of his daughter and son-in-law in St Louis with his beautiful granddaughter. Thought of the babies growing in Carrie and Brynna now. Thought of Syd just on the brink of adulthood—what had this done to her?

  He even thought of that arrogant boy Houghton Barratt asleep on his daughter’s purple sheets.

  They were his family. He’d do anything to protect them.

  Had the person who killed Raymund been involved ten years ago?

  Raymund was dead. Benny was dead. Handley Barratt was somewhere in Mexico—but Barratt was not one of the men in the video from the Marshall murders. That meant there were still three more out there.

  Who were they going to come for next?

  Look for Finley Creek TSP Book Three coming soon!

  THE

  PRICE

  OF

  SILENCE

  Finley Creek TSP

  Book 3

  Coming

  December 2016

  She was the one who had always done the protecting…

  Melody Beck had spent her life taking care of others—especially her younger sisters. When one of her sisters is attacked and nearly killed, Mel is determined to find out why and who.

  All signs point to the richest man in Texas, billionaire Handley Barratt, as being the mastermind behind the attack. And on Barratt being involved with the infamous Marshall Murders, a ten-year-old cold case that Mel would never forget. She had been friends with the victims and their deaths had been what led her to join the Texas State Police.

  Going after Handley Barratt was going to be extremely difficult, though. In more ways than one. Going after Handley Barratt meant dealing with his son…The one man she was trying hard to forget…

  The world was claiming his father was a killer…

  His father was an honorable man and he’d raised Houghton to be the same. What had happened to his father had to be a set-up and only link Houghton had was the name of the woman who’d been attacked, who’d accused his father.

  It wasn’t Brynna Beck who drew his attention, it was her older sister—the woman he’d shared one heat-filled night with eighteen months earlier. The woman he had never forgotten, or stopped wanting.

  But as Houghton schemes and manipulates to get Mel back in his arms where she belongs, the real mastermind responsible for the Marshall Murders is getting closer. Only this time he’s focused on Mel and the sisters she’d do anything to protect…

  CHAPTER ONE.

  GET up, little one, get up. His whispered words echoed around the dim interior of the car as he sat watching the redhead fifty feet away.

  Houghton Barrett watched the woman struggle to navigate the simple sidewalk and his heart broke for her. When she fell he almost bolted from the dark sedan and lifted her back to her feet.

  He knew her story. He had her medical files in the briefcase on the passenger seat next to him. He knew everything about her, about her father, about her sisters, and her brother-in-law. Over the last several days there wasn’t a single scrap of information about her family that he hadn’t poured over, memorized. Every photo of all of them, every mention in the media.

  Everything.

  His world centered on information that family held. He’d been watching them every second that he could. The younger two, he’d discounted. The one was barely twenty-three and working on her nursing degree; the other was still in high school. That left one in St. Louis, who had discounted for simply being too far away.

  Brynna was the next one; the one who had just been found after nearly being killed. She was still in the hospital from what his sources had told him.

  And her sister was right in front of him.

  Melody Beck pulled herself back to her feet, but the groceries she’d been in the process of carrying inside were more of a struggle. She couldn’t balance both the food goods and the crutch that he’d watched her lean so heavily on.

  She should have someone to help her. It was obvious she was too weak to do anything significant, though this was the first time he’d witnessed her actually falling.

  Too weak to defend herself if trouble came. That made it easier for him, didn’t it?

  Houghton definitely meant her trouble.

  He zoomed in on her face, seeing her lips moving. She was cursing; but it wasn’t just anger he saw. It was pain. Fear. Fatigue.

  And stubbornness. He’d watched her for a few days; it wasn’t the first time determination had been all that kept her going. What had she been through these past eighteen months?

  She managed to get most of the groceries back into the bag, but a lone cantaloupe had escaped her. She stood on the sidewalk for a moment, obviously debating whether to attempt to bend down and get it or say to hell with it.

  Finally she gave up and started the slow process of inching her way toward the door. Every laborious step she took tore at him for what he was going to have to do to her.

  It must be a living hell for her, struggling to barely walk after a life, a career, of such a physical sort. And she had been a very physical sort. She looked nothing like the former cop he knew her to be. Instead she looked weak, vulnerable, an easy damned target.

  She fell again, this time catching her weight on the front of her palms. He sucked in a breath. When she turned her palms over to inspect them it was clear they were torn and scraped. He raised the lens to focus on her face—tears.

  It was the tears that did it.

  She didn’t deserve to cry over the groceries. He didn’t want her to cry over anything.

  If he went over there to her, she was likely to shoot him on sight.

  It’s what he would have done, facing the son of the man who’d—allegedly—kidnapped her sister and almost killed her.

  Rumor had it Houghton was as
dirty as his father. Damn them all.

  Her sister’s words had dealt Houghton’s company a serious blow. But it had found him her.

  What in the hell was he supposed to do now?

  * * *

  MELODY Beck assumed life would get better. It just sucked in that particular moment. She even knew she would one day get better. It was just going to take time.

  She wasn’t even supposed to be able to walk. The fact that she could was a miracle in itself. One she was extremely grateful for.

  But some days she was just more tired than others. And clumsier. Today had been a particularly rough one. She’d gone back to therapy after missing two appointments the week before when every moment of her waking time had been devoted to finding her sister.

  Not to mention her own twenty-four hour stay in the hospital after someone had nearly shot her, and her rescuer had thrown her to the ground and covered her with his own body. The bruised ribs had been a concern for the doctors and they’d kept her as a precaution.

  Her sister was safe. The man who’d saved her—and carried Mel back into the hospital—was safe. Their best friend Gabby was currently safe.

  It was going to have to be enough for now. Mel had used up her share of miracles for a while.

  She just hoped it was Brynna’s turn for a few miracles. Brynna and Chance.

  The look in Brynna’s eyes as Chance had left her hospital room had nearly broken Mel. Such devastation. She’d always known her sister could be hurt so easily, but what she had witnessed today was never going to be erased from her memory, from her heart.

  And it had been so much worse for Brynna.