Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 172

Will

I pretended to laugh at the famous comedian, even though I didn’t give a flying fuck about his jokes and was barely listening to him anyway. McKenzie was beside me, fake smiling and clapping, even though there was a mist of tears in her eyes.

That was going to break me. It wasn’t going to be the fuckery with her family or our friends. It wasn’t going to be forcing me into making decisions that would destroy countless lives. It was going to be seeing McKenzie slowly worn away into obedience.

Why the fuck did I ever think ‘being good’ was the solution?! Being good was going to shatter all of us, but especially McKenzie. And I couldn’t abide that.

My scrappy, sassy source of love and comfort was not going to become a baby factory for that money-grubbing, power hungry asshole I called my grandfather. And neither was Jacey.

I couldn’t even imagine what kind of lives those children would have or what would become of us once Grandfather had children to leverage us with.

No, no, no, no, no.

McKenzie tapped my thigh, and I realized the comedian had finished and everyone was clapping. I smiled and clapped as well.

“I suppose the next step is to cut the cake?” she asked softly, still pale.

“No,” I said, finally fucking fed up. “The next step is us leaving.”

“Leaving?” She sounded confused. “What do you mean? There’s a huge cake. I figured they’d expect us to cut it.”

“I am done with what people expect. Neither of us is in a fit state to stick around. We’re leaving.” I tugged on her hand, heading out of the yard and up toward the mansion.

She panicked. “Will, we can’t! Mom and Dad! Dolly and Shep! Moose!”

“They’re in danger no matter what we do. McKenzie, nothing is going to change unless we change it.” I took a deep breath. “We’re going to the Feds.”

“The FBI?!” She gaped at me. “They’ve almost gotten my parents killed like a hundred times!”

“I guess we’re going to be time a-hundred-and-one. We’re not playing this game anymore. It’s never going to end if we don’t end it,” I said.

McKenzie pulled me to a stop. “No. This is insanity. They’ll kill someone. Probably Dad. I won’t do this.”

With a sigh, I dragged her the rest of the way into the mansion. I pressed her back against a wall with my body and tipped her chin up, forcing her to look at me. “Honeybee, what kind of life are we consigning them to if we do nothing? Hm? Jacey perpetually pregnant with my dad’s genetic material? Your dad, Moose, and Shep lying on a concrete slab for the rest of their days, waiting to be taken out and dangled over us at a moment’s notice? Dolly locked in her room, unable to see any of them? Hell, us being unable to see any of them? Not to mention what’s going to be done to you. And you want me to stand still, wringing my hands, saying, ‘Oh well, it could be worse’ until it does get worse? It’s going to keep getting worse and worse, McKenzie, until there’s nothing left of any of us.”

Her tears flowed over. “I don’t want anyone to die.”

“I know, honeybee. I don’t, either. But this might be our one shot.” I thumbed her tears away and waited for her decision. If she decided to bow under Grandfather’s pressure… I knew it would kill me, but I would still have to go. I had to try to stop this before it was too late.

“You’ll go without me, won’t you?” she whispered, staring into my eyes.

I swallowed and nodded. “I can’t let them keep hurting people. Especially you.”

“What if you going to the FBI gets me killed?” she asked.

My eyes stung, my heart seizing at the very thought. “McKenzie, please….”

She kissed me. “I love you, Will.”

My heart sank. “Oh God….”

“And I’ll go with you.”

Relief washed over me like warm rain, and I wrapped her in my arms. “Okay. Okay, good. But we have to go now.”

McKenzie nodded and took my hand.

We walked to the front door and then out into the circle drive. A valet saw us and jumped. “Miss Kent? Mr. Masterson?”

“Yes. We’d like the keys to the convertible we were just gifted. We thought we’d take it for a spin,” I said, holding out my hand.

“What, now?” the valet asked, perplexed.

“Yes. We need a little alone time.” I winked at him.

He scratched the back of his neck. “I’m not really supposed to give you the keys.”

“To the convertible?” I asked.

“To… well… anything. I have orders,” he said.

I sighed. “What would it take to ignore those orders?” I went for my watch.

McKenzie unclipped her earrings.

The valet licked his lips. “Yeah, those’ll do.”

“Good.” I dropped my watch into his hand then waited expectantly. “No keys, no earrings.”

“Right.” The valet unlocked a box behind him and took out a key. “This is to that Jaguar over there. I know it’s not yours, but it’s parked in a spot you can actually get out of without running over six other cars.”

I snatched the key. “Thank you.”

McKenzie dropped her earrings into his hand.

Then I took her hand again, and we made a run for it.

Things went smoothly as I pulled out and headed for the gate. Then I saw Ike in the rearview mirror coming out the front door.

He slapped the valet across the face then grabbed a remote and pointed it at the gate.

The gate started to close.

I looked at McKenzie. Mckenzie looked at me.

Then I floored it.

We shot past the bars, flying through.

The gate brushed the back of the car, taking off a good layer or two of paint, I was sure, but we made it.

I narrowly missed a lamppost as we hit a sharp curve, and the Jaguar fishtailed. I managed to get the car back under control.

Then I rolled down my window. “Dump your phone.”

I dropped my phone out of the window, and McKenzie did so as well.

“They’re going to guess where we’re going, aren’t they?” she asked.

“Probably. But we’re going to try to get there anyway,” I said.

“You know where we’re going?” She sounded surprised.

I nodded. “I tried once before, but I think my grandfather had people posing as agents stationed there to intercept me. I don’t think he’ll have time to make arrangements now, and even if he does, this time, I’ll raise a ruckus.”

“That works.” She threaded her fingers through mine. I rested our joined hands on her thigh.

We drove in silence from then on. No police chased us on the highway. No unmarked vans were waiting for us at the federal building in Brooklyn Center.

I half expected to see a red dot on my chest or McKenzie’s when we got out of the car. But nothing that dramatic happened.

“No matter how this goes, honeybee,” I said quietly as I took her hand again and walked us into the building, “know that I love you.”

“I love you, too. Always and forever,” she replied with a swallow.

A security guard stopped us. “Can I help you?”

I squared my shoulders. “My name is William Masterson the Third, and this is McKenzie Killeen. We’d like to speak to someone about an illegal high society crime ring.”

The guard blinked then snorted. “You want to what now?” he chuckled.

“Just… wait for it,” I said, glancing up at a camera.

He shook his head. “Go on, you two. Go tell your story to someone who’s going to believe that bullsh—”

A man in a suit, flanked by two other guards, appeared and came stalking up to us. “That will do, Thurmes. Back to your station.”

“Sir, it’s just another conspiracy wingnut like they told us to be looking out for,” Thurmes replied.

“Who told you, Thurmes?” the man asked coldly.

Thurmes seemed to realize then that he might be in deep shit. “The police officers from before.”

“From before?” the man pressed.

“Yeah. They came and said—”

The man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m not going to begin to explain to you what an idiot you are. You have a supervisor for that. Mr. Masterson, Miss Killeen, please come with me.”

The other guards flanked us so there wasn’t really a choice in the matter.

“We’re all in now,” I murmured to McKenzie.

“We are,” she agreed.

As we walked down a hall, then took an elevator upstairs, the man in the suit didn’t say a word. It wasn’t until we were in an office I presumed to be his that he finally spoke.

“My name is Daniel Wilson. I’ll be taking charge of your case until the new attorney general arrives from Washington,” he droned. “I’ve been instructed to collect your statements. I realize that could take a very long time.”

“William Masterson Sr. has taken our family and friends hostage,” I said before he could continue. “They need help.”

“We don’t even know for sure where they are,” McKenzie added.

Wilson paused. “It will be hard for us to mount a raid if we don’t know where to look.”

“Can you… I don’t know… waterboard my grandfather or Ike Freeborn or something?” I asked desperately.

“Trust me. I would love to. We’ll question them, of course, but that hasn’t worked in the past.” He sighed.

“We’re worried about what will happen to them because we’ve come in,” McKenzie pleaded. “Please. Isn’t there anything you can do?”

“I can send teams to search all known properties of Mr. Masterson Sr. but his lawyer will fight any warrants, which will give them plenty of time to move them to a property we know nothing about. If they haven’t done that already. The legal elements of all of this move quite slowly, I’m afraid. I wouldn’t be surprised if your grandfather’s lawyers are already poised to fight the warrants.” Wilson looked as frustrated as I felt. “I’ll get a colleague to see what we can do, but realistically, it’s very unlikely we’ll be able to recover those people for a long, long time.”

Still, this didn’t sound right to me. “How long is a long, long time?”

“Years,” he said. “Likely several years.”

During which time my grandfather would probably force Jacey to give birth at least once. Or kill her. Or both.

“Maybe this was a mistake,” McKenzie whispered, tugging on my arm. “I think we should go back before Ike and your grandfather get really, really mad.”

He raised an eyebrow at us. “You really think you can un-pull that trigger?”

She bit her lip. “I didn’t think there would be nothing you could do for our family and friends.”

“I don’t think we can go back at this point, McKenzie,” I said, feeling awful. It was a damned if we do, damned if we don’t situation. I knew it would be, but I’d at least expected the FBI could do… something.

She raised her chin. “Then I’ve made a decision.”

This can’t be good. I looked at Wilson and knew we shared the same thought.

“I won’t testify until our family and friends are safe.” She added a firm nod to show how serious she was.

He grimaced. “That’s a tall order, Miss Killeen.”

Actually, it wasn’t a bad idea. I put my arm around her shoulders. “I won’t either. We’re taking a big risk. Considering how well you did with Caleb and Jacey, a very big risk. So, in return, you need to step up.”

“We don’t even know where they are,” he argued.

“Tough. Get some men on it. Until then, our lips are sealed,” I said.

McKenzie gave me a grateful smile, sliding her arm around my waist.

“Ugh. This case, I swear.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone. “I’ll make some calls. I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try. You’re going to be taken to separate interview rooms. I’ll be there when I can.”

“Separate?” I protested. “No. McKenzie and I don’t do separate.”

“Tough.” Wilson repeated my earlier word.

Then she and I were physically wrenched apart by the guards.