The Hookup by Kristen Ashley
“Shandra?” Cary continued.
Johnny gave his head a short shake.
“Guy’s always been trouble,” Cary noted.
“Ransom,” he pushed out and saw Cary perk up.
“Say again?”
“He knows I got money. More than once Shandra came to me to get his ass out of a sling. I didn’t see him but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t out there, watching me. Half the time, before you step on it, you don’t see the snake in the grass. It’s only when you get too close does the copperhead give you warning.”
“That’s your girl’s sister. Her son—”
“Her son’s gonna grow up my nephew,” Johnny cut him off to say. “So yeah, he means something to me. He’s family. That would be hard to miss. We all go out together. We were out at JerryJack’s Diner for burgers just this last Thursday, me, Tobe, Iz, Addie and Brooks.”
They were.
Toby had Brooks most the time so Addie could eat.
But Johnny and Izzy had had him too.
He wasn’t passed around, as such. He crawled around because he could get away with that because he was a baby with four adults who thought he turned the world.
Cary’s eyes had wandered and Johnny twisted at the waist to see Toby was there and had Addie tucked tight to his body, her face buried in his chest.
“I see,” Cary muttered, and Johnny twisted back.
“She needs to get home and we need to get out there looking for him,” Johnny stated, and Cary’s gaze cut back to him.
“Johnny, take her home and let us worry about this.”
“Your nephew was kidnapped would you stay home with his mother?”
“I’m a cop,” Cary pointed out.
“And as such you would have no business working a case that personally involves you but you’d do it anyway, wouldn’t you?”
Cary gave him a squinty-eyed look, it cleared and he muttered, “Fuck.”
Johnny turned on his boot and stalked to his brother and Addie.
“You take her home. I’ll call Iz and Deanna and tell them to reroute there. Then I’ll call Dave and Margot to come over.”
“You wanna give me the lowdown?” Toby formed a question that was a demand.
“At Izzy’s. Let’s get her somewhere safe and familiar.”
Toby gave him a glower before he nodded and started to move Addie.
She stood solid and grabbed on to Toby’s tee. “What if they bring him back here?”
“They’re not gonna bring him back here, honey,” Toby whispered. “When he comes home, he’ll come home so let’s get you home. Yeah?”
She stared at him, her face searching then it set, and Johnny knew she was going to dig in but then it went slack and she said, “Yeah, Toby.”
Toby gave Johnny a look and led her out.
Johnny yanked his phone out of his jeans and followed them.
He made his first two calls quick, on the road, tailing Toby and Addie.
The last call he made, they were out of town, close to Izzy’s, and he pulled off to the shoulder to do it.
She answered after two rings.
“Johnny?”
“Cops at the daycare center where Eliza’s nephew was kidnapped this afternoon say the kidnapper looks like Stu.”
“Mother of God,” she whispered.
“You get ’hold of your fucking brother, Shandra, and you make him bring that boy to me.”
“Stu wouldn’t—”
“He would.”
“Not a baby.”
“He would.”
“And not you. He wouldn’t hurt you.”
“I’m not to you what I was before.”
“He still loves you and he knows I do too so he would never—”
“He needs money and he’s desperate and he’ll do anything he has to do to make sure one person is all right. Stu. Now you fucking call him, Shandra, and get me back my boy.”
“I’ll call him, Johnny. Right now.”
He didn’t thank her and he didn’t say goodbye.
He disconnected, checked his mirrors, pulled back on the road and drove to Izzy’s.
“You’ll get him?”
“I’ll get him.”
“You’ll bring him back?”
“I’ll bring him back.”
“You’ll bring him home?”
“I’ll bring him home, spätzchen.”
Eliza had hold on him almost like her sister except her hands were gripping his head right behind his ears and her body was pressed tight to his.
Her face was pale. Her eyes were haunted. And her hold was so hard, if she had it in her, she’d crush his head.
He’d had to tell her. He’d had no choice. When this was over, that was something he couldn’t keep from her and still keep her. So while Margot and Deanna saw to Addie in the kitchen, he’d taken her aside and told her. It was up to her if she shared.
But Eliza, like Toby and Dave, both he’d shared it with before she got home, knew he suspected Shandra’s brother.
That did not rock her or make her look at him with revulsion.
It made her visibly fill with hope.
But even if she could get past it, when he found Stu and beat him bloody, he’d still get another few licks in just for Johnny having to tell his woman his ex’s brother kidnapped their boy.
She yanked his head down so his forehead collided with hers.
Staring him in the eye, hers burning, she forced out a guttural, “Go.”
Then she released him.
He bent in quick to touch her mouth with his and he turned.
His eyes slicing through Toby, Dave and Charlie, who had arrived five minutes earlier, all of them standing close to Johnny and Izzy in her front hall, he growled, “Let’s roll.”
They followed him out of Izzy’s front door, across the porch and down the steps.
“Charlie, you’re with me. Dave, you’re with Toby,” Johnny ordered.
“We can spread out, cover more area if we all take our own trucks,” Toby returned.
He stopped and looked at his brother. “You know him. Before he went bad, you were friends with him. You know his hangouts, his friends, the women he’s been with, they don’t. You cover the ones east and north. We’ll cover the ones south and west. You run out of options, you call me and I’ll give you more. Ben’s out with a bud, he’s heading to that hunting cabin Shandra’s dad had. But this way, we get in a situation, it’s better two men against one than one man alone against whatever he’s got going on in his head. Be smart. Let Dave drive. You navigate. Now roll out.”
What he didn’t say was that it was also better that they found him. God only knew what Stu Bray would do if cornered by cops, and Johnny didn’t want Brooks anywhere near that situation. He was already having severe difficulty dealing with the situation as it stood. Stu trapped and desperate and Brooks with him, Johnny couldn’t even allow himself to contemplate.
Toby took a beat before he nodded then sprinted toward Dave’s truck, a truck Dave was already in and had running.
Johnny turned to Charlie. “You drive.”
“Gotcha,” Charlie grunted, not hiding he was keeping his shit together by a thread and that thread was unravelling.
They jogged to Charlie’s truck and both of them angled in.
Charlie was kicking up dust and gravel when he asked, “South or west first?”
“South,” Johnny told him. “Toby fill you in on who we’re looking for?”
“Yep.”
“Right. There’s a dive bar down south Stu hung out at.”
“He’d take a kidnapped baby to a dive bar?”
“He banged the owner on and off. She lives over it and he’d take Brooks there.”
“Right.”
Charlie peeled down Izzy’s drive.
When they made it down the lane to the road, he turned south.
“Jesus Christ, seriously?”
Her name was Sharlane. She still owned the dive bar. And a
“Would I joke about that shit?” Johnny growled.
“The cops came by before you but they didn’t say why. Fucking hell.” She ended that on a mutter.
“Sharlane, his mom has known he’s been missing now for nearly two hours. If you got anything on Stu—” Johnny said.
She whipped out her phone. “Give me your number. I see him, I’ll call you, Johnny.”
“I walk out of here, I can trust that?” Johnny asked.
She pinned him with a look. “Left me high and dry with a bun in the oven, an abortion bill to pay and did it stealing seventy-three bucks from my wallet. He’s not gonna come back here. But if he’s stupid enough to do that, I’ll give him a place to hide out. Then my first call will be you. You’ll have five minutes, Johnny. Because my second call will be the cops.”
Right.
He could trust that.
And Johnny wondered briefly if Stu knocking up Sharlane was the reason he’d knocked over a bank three years ago.
If it was, he’d have taken her with him, not Shandra, or at least have left her some cash to cover the medical bills.
So Johnny figured he was doing what Stu did.
Fucked-up shit that was just about Stu.
He gave her his number and then said, “Obliged, Sharlane.”
“It goes down, it’ll be my pleasure, Johnny.”
Johnny gave Charlie a look and they headed out.
“He was seeing a single mother who worked at the bank in Bellevue,” Johnny told him when they were in the truck. He didn’t tell him the part about Stu seeing her to get intel on how to rob her bank. “Let’s head there.”
“Jesus, how many stupid bitches did this jackass bang?” Charlie asked, pulling out of the parking lot.
“We’ll just say it could be long night,” Johnny said as answer.
“We got a problem,” Charlie stated.
Johnny looked his way. “A bigger problem than Brooks missing?”
“No, but see, we actually find that jackass before the cops do, ain’t no way I’ll keep my hands off him and ain’t no way you’ll keep your hands off him. I think this same situation is happening in Dave’s truck. Dave’s an old guy but I figure he can haul out a can of some whoop ass, anyone harms anyone that you boys got in your hearts. Plus, he’s a dad. He cares about Brooks and Addie and he feels her pain. So we gotta make a pact and hope to Christ they’re making one in Dave’s truck too. But the way Toby is with that boy, I’m thinking there’s no prayer of that happening. But we can’t think on that. We gotta have a plan. So if I get there first, you gotta stop me from murdering him. If you do, I’ll stop you.”
“Don’t wade in too soon,” Johnny replied.
“Oh, I won’t,” Charlie promised.
They drove.
Johnny’s phone rang.
He pulled it out and his mouth got tight at the name on the screen.
He took the call and put the phone to his ear.
“Norma,” he began, “not sure what this is but—”
“I know,” she cut him off, “everyone knows, word about what’s happening spread through Home like a wildfire, ’spect it’s doing the same all through Matlock. So I’ll make this quick, son.”
“Obliged,” he muttered.
“I’m in my car. Sally’s in hers. We’re on the way to your woman’s place.”
Johnny did not like that at all.
“Norma—”
She spoke over him. “Folks are thinkin’ best way to help is get on the roads lookin’ for Stu. I can’t stop that. Others think best way to help is go see to your women. Sally and me disagree so just to say, we’re heading out to Eliza’s acres and we’re gonna park across her lane and send people on their way. Make sure they got privacy while you’re handlin’ this situation.”
Johnny hadn’t thought about word getting out or what that would mean.
But now confronted with it, he decided Sally was going to get much bigger tips from now until the last drink he drank at Home, and he didn’t know what he’d do for Norma, but it would be something.
“That’d be appreciated, Norma,” he replied. “But you hear anyone talking, they find Stu, they call me first. Don’t know what’s in his head, never did, but think he’ll react better he sees me or I can call Shandra in and he’ll listen to her.”
“Gotcha,” Norma replied. “I’ll spread that word. Find him, Johnny. Now letting you go.”
And then she did just that, disconnecting.
When Johnny took his phone from his ear, Charlie asked, “What was that?”
“Townsfolk of Matlock are getting in the hunt, which I can’t think about right now. But some are also thinking of heading out to make sure Adeline and Eliza are okay. Norma, woman who owns Home, is heading out with her bartender to barricade Izzy’s lane and shut that down.”
“Good,” Charlie murmured.
He drove.
Johnny sat next to him, trying to keep his shit together.
His phone rang.
Johnny lifted it and his heart squeezed at the name on the screen.
He took the call and put the phone to his ear.
“This better be what I want to hear.”
Mercifully, Shandra told him what he wanted to hear.
“Meet me at the shack. I have the baby. I’m so sorry, Jo—”
He cut her off. “My shack?”
“Yes,” she said softly.
“Stu took him to my shack?”
“I’m so, so sorry, Jo—”
“He there?”
“No.”
This was probably good.
“We’ll be there in twenty,” he told her.
“Okay.”
He hung up. “Swing a left at the first light in Bellevue. Shandra’s got Brooks. I’ll make the call to Dave and Toby but I’m not calling Izzy or the cops until we’ve got Brooks.”
“Jesus. Holy Christ. Lord, Lord, Lord,” Charlie whispered.
Johnny closed his eyes and focused on settling his heart.
This failed so he opened his eyes and said, “Can you go faster?”
Charlie was bigger than him and driving, so even though they both ran flat out, Johnny had his door open and was out of the truck before Charlie had come to a full stop, which meant he beat him to the porch.
He vaguely noticed the glass in the window of the door of the shack was busted.
He just ran in.
Shandra was standing five feet in, holding a fretting Brooks.
Johnny went right to her and pulled him out of her arms.
Brooks looked at him, hooked an arm around one side of his neck and buried his face in the other side.
He might be eight months old but he wasn’t dumb.
Johnny wrapped both arms around him and held him close.
“You’re home, son. It’s good,” he murmured.
Brooks nuzzled his face in Johnny’s neck like Izzy did to his chest.
And only then did Johnny’s heart settle.
Charlie was standing behind him and Johnny turned to him.
“Call them. Tell them he’s safe and we’re bringing him home.”
Charlie nodded, shot a dark look at Shandra and walked out.
“Johnny,” she said.
He turned to her.
“This isn’t on you,” he said.
“I still feel—”
“But swear to Christ, Shandra, if you don’t impress on him that me, Izzy, Addie, Toby, Margot, Dave, anyone who has dick to do with me as well as the entire town of Matlock is off limits to him, I will hunt him down myself and I’ll make sure that message is received and then I’ll deliver his ass to the goddamned police.”
“He’s in a spot.”
Was she fucking serious?
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“I’m not defending him,” she returned. “I told you we were don
“Your brother kidnapped a baby to hold him for ransom.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Get out of Matlock, Shandra. Not for me. Not so you won’t have to watch what’s gonna happen next with me and Eliza. For you. Scrape your brother off, your folks off and find something for you. You don’t, they’ll find ways to keep dragging you down while tearing pieces from you and you’ll be buried in shit with nothing left.”
“I should never have gone with him,” she whispered, tears wetting her cheeks.
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Johnny agreed.
And still holding Brooks close, he turned and walked out of the shack.
Norma saw them coming and she ran to her truck while Sally jogged to her car to jump in and then pull them back so they could drive right in.
Toby and Dave were already there.
Everyone was hanging on the front porch, but it was only Addie who came racing off it toward Charlie’s truck.
Charlie swung a sharp left and stopped a truck-length away from the other vehicles in order not to hit her.
Johnny opened his door and had barely stepped out before Brooks was pulled from his arms.
Brooks did exactly what he did with Johnny to his mother as she cupped the back of his head, held him tight, and swung him side to side, her lips to his baby fuzz, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Come on, darlin’, come on, child,” Margot whispered, arms around Addie, gently pulling her around. “Let’s get this precious bundle inside, give him a once-over and get some food in his belly. Come, come, come on, my beautiful girl.”
Addie moved with her and Margot’s gaze lifted to Johnny’s. Relief and pride were stamped in it.
They walked away and Izzy touched her sister’s hair as Addie passed her.
Johnny slammed his door, walked to his woman and stopped.
He looked down at her face.
Tears were streaming down her cheeks too.
“I love you,” he said.
Sunlight and moonshine and honey and song and love shone in her face.