Wanting Spencer (B&S Series #2.5) Read online

  “No, we’re at the Westin.”

  “Who is she with?” I asked, raising my voice.

  “I don’t know. She went to get ice—here, at the Westin in San Francisco! Everyone is here, except Spencer.”

  “Let me call her,” I said, hanging up before Becca could reply.

  I called Spencer, over and over, but there was no answer.

  I ran back into the club.

  When Jason saw the panic on my face, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Spencer’s headed towards San Jose.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. The girls are freaking out. They’re at the Westin. Said she went to get ice and never came back, and now I see she’s headed down south. I tried calling her, but she didn’t answer,” I shouted, running my hands through my hair.

  “What’s going on?” Max asked.

  “Spencer’s headed towards San Jose, and no one knows why,” I snapped.

  We all tried calling her. My heart pounded in my chest. I didn’t know why she wasn’t with the girls like she was supposed to be and not answering any of our calls. If she were cheating on me, fine, but she would at least answer Ryan’s call or tell Ryan… right?

  “She’s not answering my call, either,” Max said.

  “Does that app you have tell you where exactly she is?” Jason asked.

  “Yeah, she’s on the 101,” I said, staring at the screen and the little orange dot.

  “Let’s go get her. Maybe we can catch up to her, and she can tell you what the fuck is going on,” Max said.

  “Or she’s cheating on me,” I said.

  “She’s not cheating on you. You think she would leave Ryan’s bachelorette party to go fuck around on you? Especially not telling Ryan where she was going?” Jason asked.

  “True… okay, let’s go,” I said.

  Jason, Max and I jumped in my car, Jason driving so I could keep calling Spencer. We headed down highway 101 in search of the little orange dot that was pulsing on my screen.

  “This was one crazy ass bachelor party,” I said to Max, trying not to think of what I was about to come across with Spencer.

  “We should have just stayed at my place. I have glitter on my jeans. Ryan is going to see it before I can change my clothes,” Max said.

  “Yeah, we’re all fucked,” Jason said, causing us all to laugh.

  I was trying not to think of the worst case scenario as to why Spencer was headed down south. I didn’t understand. She was only about an hour ahead of us. Why would she go somewhere and not tell anyone?

  The boys helped, chatting about anything and everything other than Spencer being missing. The girls were on their way, too, but about thirty minutes behind us. I felt like a gang going to kill someone. I hoped that wasn’t the case. If Spencer were cheating on me, I would probably throttle the guy, taking out all my anger on him.

  I watched the orange dot as it stopped in San Jose near the airport. Who the fuck did she know in San Jose?

  As we turned off the 101 and onto the 87 towards downtown, my phone buzzed with an incoming text.

  “I just got a text from a random number,” I said, swiping my finger to make my phone come to life.

  “What does it say?” Max asked.

  “It’s a video,” I said.

  “A video?” Max and Jason asked in unison.

  I pushed play, the video starting. My eyebrows furrowed as I saw Spencer holding up a newspaper with someone holding a gun to her head.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  What the fuck? Was this some kind of joke?

  “She’s holding a newspaper while a gun is being held to her head,” I said, my heart beating uncontrollably.

  This wasn’t a joke.

  “I can’t hear,” I said.

  I pushed play again, and Jason turned down the radio.

  “Babe, Michael from your college wants you to bring one million dollars to Great America by noon tomorrow. You need to put the money in a backpack and bring it with you to the Top Gun roller coaster. Get on the ride, but leave the backpack in one of the storage cubbies people use for their stuff while they are riding. Once you do that and they have the money, they will let me go. Don’t bring anyone to help you or contact the cops. If you do, his friend, Colin, will kill me.”

  “What the fuck?” Max asked, looking over my shoulder from the backseat.

  I didn’t speak. Instead, I replayed the video. Michael Smith from Texas A&M, the guy that got a group of guys to break my back, had kidnapped Spencer because he was still hung up on the coach naming me starting quarterback, twelve years prior. I was only able to start two games before that fucker broke my back. How do I owe him? If anything, he owes me! And more importantly, how did he know about Spencer?

  “What do we do?” Jason asked.

  “We call the cops,” Max said.

  “They said not to,” I said.

  “That’s for the movies. This asshole has your girl. We call the cops, and they barge in. We know exactly where she is,” Max said. “Obviously this asshole doesn’t know about Find Friends.”

  “Or he doesn’t realize Spencer has her phone,” Jason said.

  I wasn’t waiting any longer. We were getting closer to Spencer’s orange dot, and I needed the cops there, stat.

  “911, what’s your emergency?”

  “My girlfriend has been kidnapped.”

  “Your girlfriend has been kidnapped?”

  “Yes!” I shouted.

  “Sir, calm down.”

  “How can I calm down? The motherfucker just sent me a video with a gun to her head!”

  “You have a video?”

  “Yes, and I know where they are.”

  “How do you know where they are?”

  “Technology. I used the Find Friends app. She’s being held on North Third and Jackson, and we’re almost there.”

  “You’re almost there?”

  Jesus Christ, what the fuck?

  “Yes!”

  “I have a patrol car on the way. Please don’t make yourself known. The patrol car should arrive in about three minutes.”

  “Thank you.”

  I hung up the phone, and we drove a few more blocks until we were sitting in front of a Chinese restaurant just down the street. I wanted to barge into where Spencer’s orange dot flashed, but I didn’t want Michael to shoot Spencer.

  I saw a cop car approaching, and I bolted out of the car to flag him down. Once he saw me, he drove over, rolling down the window.

  “Here,” I said, shoving my phone in his face so he could see the video.

  He watched it and then said, “You know where she is?”

  “Yes,” I said, bringing up the app. “This orange dot is her phone.”

  “And you’re sure she’s in there with her phone?”

  “Well… no, but we live in San Francisco, and there is no reason for her or her phone to be here in San Jose.”

  “The phone could have been stolen, sir.”

  “I know, but she was at a bachelorette party with friends and had gone down the hall at a hotel to get ice. She never returned to the room. They’ve looked for her everywhere and can’t find her, and she won’t answer her phone.”

  The officer nodded and said, “Alright, let me call for back-up. Stay put and let us do our jobs. Don’t try to be a hero.”

  “I won’t,” I said, and returned to Jason’s car.

  “The girls and Acyn will be here in about twenty minutes,” he said.

  “Acyn?” My head snapped, looking over at Jason.

  “Spencer’s co-worker,” he said.

  “I know who he is. Why is he coming?”

  “So apparently,” Jason said as he started to laugh. This was no laughing matter. I couldn’t handle seeing another guy I wanted to throat punch for wanting my girl. “Becca and Spencer hired a stripper for Ryan’s bachelorette party. No one knew that Acyn was a stripper, too.”

  I rested my fingers at the bridge of my nose, tryi
ng to relieve the throbbing in my head, and looked down as I thought for a moment. I had no idea what was going on. My head was spinning, and I wanted to start the day over. Of all people, Acyn was the stripper they hired?

  “Tell them to wait until it’s safe,” I finally said.

  “I already did. They’ll park down the street and wait for my call. By the way, Acyn’s the one that noticed that Spencer was gone.”

  I looked over at him. “Of course he was.”

  Now that Acyn potentially saved Spencer’s life, I couldn’t hate the guy. We needed to have a man to man, because Spencer was going to be my wife, and he needed to know.

  We sat in silence, watching as two more cop cars pulled up. They talked for what felt like forever and then drew their guns, walking towards the house where Spencer’s orange dot was.

  It was dark, but I could still see as they broke down the door after knocking a few times, and disappeared into the house. My legs were shaking, my chest was hurting, and my palms were sweaty. This wasn’t something you could prepare yourself for.

  I thought that Michael was long gone. Who holds a grudge twelve years later?

  After a few minutes, I saw one of the officers bringing Michael out in handcuffs, and then another officer bring out another guy.

  “Hey is that…?” I started to say.

  “What the fuck? That’s the guy that tried to pick-up Becca at Lavo in Vegas,” Jason said.

  “That first guy is that Trevor guy,” Max said. “I remember him from MoMo’s when I was with the girls and you were in Seattle.”

  “Do you think that Trevor is really Michael?” I asked, remembering how Spencer had told me that she and Ryan had met “Trevor” in Vegas.

  This was all too much. Was Michael really Spencer’s stalker, watching her ever since Vegas? I couldn’t breathe. I felt my chest compressing at the thought of Michael stalking Spencer, and again it was me who put her in danger. Why was my past coming back to haunt me? Why couldn’t they leave me alone?

  I thought everything was behind us with Christy being in jail. My life was turning into a crime drama, and I hated it. I wanted to escape. Wanted to take Spencer and never return.

  A minute or so later, Spencer walked out of the house with an officer. I ran to her, the red and blue lights lighting my path. At some point, more police cars and an ambulance had arrived, but I’d been so focused on the front door that I hadn’t realized it.

  “Oh my God, Babe, I was so worried about you!” I said, not stopping until I had her in my arms, holding her as tight as I could.

  “I’m okay,” she said. I interrupted her by taking her lips and kissing her. What if she didn’t make it? What if that fucker killed her? I kissed her lips like it would be my last time. “What happened?”

  “Spencer, my name is Jaime Brooks, and I’m the Victim Advocate assigned to your case. I’ll be with you during the interview at the station. Once you get checked out by the paramedics, we’ll go to the station.”

  “Okay, can Brandon come with me?”

  “Yes, but he won’t be able to speak. He can only be there for emotional support.”

  “That’s fine. Who’s here with you?” she asked, looking up at me.

  “Ryan, Becca, Jason, Max and Acyn.”

  “Acyn?” she asked.

  “He’s the one who realized you were missing.”

  “Oh—so you know?”

  “Yes,” I said, smiling.

  “Are you mad?”

  “How can I be mad at you after everything you just went through?”

  “It wasn’t that bad.”

  “Babe…” I stopped walking and turned her to face me. “You were fucking kidnapped and held hostage. I was so scared. There was a gun pointed at your head.”

  “I know, but I’m okay.”

  I just looked at her. She was going to brush this off just like she did with Christy’s attack. There was no way that was going to happen. I was going to make sure she was really okay.

  Jaime and I led Spencer over to the ambulance to get cleared by a medic. Once the medic cleared her, she asked, “Can I go see my other friends?”

  “Yes, but only for a minute. We need to get you to the station now that the paramedics have cleared you.”

  “Okay,” she said, taking my hand and walked over to our friends.

  When Ryan and Becca saw us walking towards them, they dashed around the police officer who was standing in front of them.

  “It’s okay, Officer Hunter-Cogan,” Officer Martino said, letting our friends pass.

  “I swear to God, Spencer, I’m buying handcuffs, and you’re to never be alone ever again!” Ryan said, hugging her.

  I sighed, finally feeling relieved that Spencer was okay. Jason and Max joined us, and I nodded to them that Spencer fine.

  “I’m fine, Ry.”

  “If Acyn wouldn’t have noticed you were gone for a while after his little performance, I’m not sure what we would have done,” Becca said, hugging her, too.

  At the mention of Acyn’s name, I looked at him. His hands were in his pockets, and he nodded at Spencer as she mouthed “thank you” to him. He then looked over at me, and I nodded, but gave him a look that said I wasn’t fully okay with him wanting my girl.

  After everyone had made sure that she was okay, Jaime walked Spencer and me over to a police car and rode with us to the station.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  “We’re in San Jose, Babe.”

  “They took me all the way to San Jose?”

  “Yes, that’s why I didn’t get to you sooner.”

  “Brandon, I’m sorry. I know you want to tell her everything, but you can’t. Not yet,” Jaime said, turning around in the front seat to us.

  Spencer laid her head on my shoulder as we rode to the police station. After Spencer was interviewed and they took my statement how I knew Michael, I drove us home. She confirmed that Michael was her stalker, and I was once again relieved that that chapter had ended. I just wish I was able to rewrite it so Spencer wasn’t the one in danger.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The next few weeks were tough. I insisted on Spencer seeing a therapist, because each night she had nightmares. We took the week off from work, and Spencer’s parents came up from Encino for a few days. I was really getting tired of the reason they came to visit. I wished that it were under better circumstances.

  The trial for Christy, Michael and Colin was scheduled for July, and they were all denied bail. Michael had told Spencer that Christy was also part of their plan; therefore all of them were being charged together. It appeared that Michael had wanted to take me down as soon as I showed interest in the Seattle gym. I didn’t know that the gym was his and he was going into bankruptcy. That wasn’t my fault, but he didn’t want me to take what was his “again”.

  Once he knew we wanted his gym, he started stalking me and everyone around me. He learned about Christy, and when we broke up, he put his plan in motion. I found the bugs that he had admitted to hiding in my office, and we changed the locks just in case he had other people working for him. I didn’t know if the plan stopped with him going to jail. If anything, it might stop with me dying.

  I really hoped that everything was over. If anything more were to happen, I knew Spencer would leave me. I would leave me. Obviously, I was bad news.

  “Come on, get dressed,” I said, walking into the living room.

  “Where are we going?” Spencer asked, lying on the couch.

  “Remember I promised you could get a dog?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, let's go get a dog.”

  “Now?”

  “Yep, now,” I said, taking her hand and leading her up the stairs to change out of her pajamas.

  If anything would cheer her up, it was a cute puppy, plus I would feel more comfortable having some sort of guard dog around. Our house was forty-five minutes from the city, and if I were out of town again or working late, I would feel more comfortable if
Spencer didn’t come home to an empty house.

  “What kind of dog should we get?”

  “Not sure, let’s see what they have.”

  “Okay,” she said, finally smiling.

  We drove to the SPCA and walked around, looking at all the dogs. After Spencer fell in love with almost every dog, we finally settled on a six-month-old Golden Retriever.

  “What do you want to name him?” I asked as she held him in her lap in the front seat.

  “How about…” she started to say, and then stopped and thought for a moment before finally saying, “Niner?”

  “Niner?”

  “Yeah, he’s gold, and their colors are red and gold.”

  “But I like the Cowboys,” I said, laughing.

  “Well I like the Forty Niners, and you’re in San Francisco now.”

  “Niner, huh?”

  “Yeah, Niner.”

  “Jason is going to kill me,” I said, laughing again.

  It was good to finally see a smile on her face.

  *~*~*

  “How’s Spencer doing?” Jason asked when I walked into his office Monday morning.

  “Better. We got a dog.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah…”

  “What kind?”

  “A Golden Retriever.”

  I was trying to keep a straight face. The next question was the one I feared.

  “What did you name it?”

  “Niner,” I said with a cough.

  “What?”

  “Niner,” I said again, still covering it up with a cough.

  “Did you say, ‘Niner’?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head and dragging out the word.

  “Yeah, you did. You named your dog, Niner?”

  “Spencer named him, and you know after everything she’s been through, I couldn’t deny her.”

  “Wow…”

  “Whatever,” I said. “How was your weekend?”

  “Friday, Becca went to the doctor.”

  “Is she okay?” I asked, concern in my voice.

  “Yeah…she’s pregnant,” he said with a huge smile.

  “For real?”

  “Yeah. For real!”

  “Dude, that’s awesome!

  *~*~*

  It was finally Max and Ryan’s wedding day. As we drove over to the garden in the limo, the guys and I did shots of Fireball. Max was keeping it cool.