Shelter for Adeline (Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Book 7)

by Susan Stoker

  Adeline fought for her life now, no longer willing to lie passively underneath Douglas as he killed her. And she had no doubt that he was going to kill her.

  She kicked her legs, her head tilted back, trying to keep the knife from sinking into her flesh, but couldn’t get his weight off her. But as soon as she made the attempt, she stilled. Thrashing under him wasn’t going to do anything but make the knife cut her.

  Fighting the urge to try to peel his hand away from her throat, knowing it wouldn’t work, she tried to thrust her fingers into his eyes, but he merely laughed as he moved his head up and away from her, and squeezed harder.

  Gasping for air, feeling the nicks from the blade he was holding, Adeline looked up into Douglas’s cold, dead eyes in despair.

  “When you pass out from lack of air, I’m gonna cut off the rest of your clothes to see what should’ve been mine. To see the tits you’ve let them suck on. I’ll open the legs you so easily spread for them when it should’ve been me you welcomed between them. I’m gonna wait until you regain consciousness, then I’ll show you the pain you’ve dealt me. I’m gonna fuck you, Adeline. I would’ve made it so good for you, but I realize now you’re nothing but a whore.” His lip curled as he continued.

  “You’re a slut who spreads her legs for a fucking fireman and his filthy friends. Once I’m done with you, I’m gonna stick my knife so far up inside you, you’ll feel it in your throat. No one will ever fuck you again, Adeline. You should’ve been mine, and I’ll make sure I’m the last man you’ll ever feel between your legs. And after I’m done, I’m gonna kill your dog, then I’m going to find those boyfriends of yours and cut them up too.”

  Adeline’s eyes bulged out as she stared at Douglas in horror.

  This was it. Maybe he’d stop before she actually died, maybe he wouldn’t. But weirdly, the only thing she could think about was Dean. How she’d stupidly yelled at him the night before merely for being concerned about her. She’d lamented not having someone around who cared about her, and when she did have that person in her life, she’d treated him like crap. She regretted everything she’d said to him last night, even more so now. Every word.

  She loved Dean. Loved him—and she’d never get a chance to tell him again.

  Black began to creep around the edges of her vision again as Douglas continued to squeeze her throat.

  “Please,” she whispered. The word barely a breath of sound. “Don’t.”

  Douglas brought his face close to hers, even as he continued cutting off her air. “I like hearing you beg, Adeline. I can’t wait to hear you plead for your life. You’ll beg me to fuck you before I’m done. Just like you should’ve been doing for the last few months.”

  The last thing Adeline remembered was the evil look in Douglas’s eyes as she lost consciousness.

  Crash met with Chief outside the front doors of the hotel and shook his hand.

  “Thanks for staying, man, I appreciate it.”

  “There’s no way I was gonna leave her alone after that shit went down last night, brother,” Chief told his friend.

  “She still sleeping?” Crash asked.

  Chief nodded. “Was when I left, but I saw her out with Coco a few minutes ago.”

  “She didn’t have a seizure last night?”

  Chief shook his head. “No, I checked on her a few times and she was sleeping soundly. Didn’t even stir when I opened the door.”

  “Good. She hasn’t had a grand mal in months. I’m worried about the escalation of frequency of her seizures and the fact that she had a big one yesterday.”

  “Don’t take what she said to heart, Crash. She wasn’t herself. Not even close,” Chief warned.

  “I know. I should’ve taken more care when I spoke to her last night but I was pissed at her asshole of a boss. Not her. There was no way I was going to leave things the way they were, and no way I wasn’t getting my ass up here to take care of her.”

  “The fire chief didn’t have a problem in letting you bug out early?” Chief asked.

  “Nope. It was a slow night, and one of the other guys agreed to come in early for his shift. I got a few hours of shut-eye then headed out.”

  Chief handed over a key card. “She’s in seven-nineteen. I ordered room service. Should be delivered in half an hour or so.”

  Crash took the plastic card from his friend. “Thanks. I owe you one. Any time, any place. Name it and I’m there.”

  Chief shook his head. “You’d do the same for me. I didn’t do this for a marker.”

  “I know. But you got one anyway.”

  Chief stared hard at Crash, but didn’t say anything else about it. “Go on. I’ll see you guys when you get home.”

  Crash shook the other man’s hand. “Thanks again. I’ll let you know when we’re on the way home.”

  Chief nodded, then turned and headed for the valet stand.

  Without wasting another moment, wanting to see Adeline, clear the air, and make sure she was all right after the day before, Crash strode toward the bank of elevators with his duffle bag thrown over his shoulder.

  Within moments, he was on the seventh floor—and seconds after that he was running down the hall as fast as he could.

  He could hear Coco growling from all the way down by the elevator. Something was terribly wrong.

  It took Crash two tries to get the key to work but the lock mechanism finally clicked and he shoved the door open. His blood chilled at the desperate sounds coming out of the dog locked in the bathroom.

  Crash dropped his bag and raced to the door of the bedroom, wrenched it open, and saw red.

  A man was on the bed, hovering over Adeline, who wasn’t moving under him. Her shirt had been cut open and she was bare from the waist up. The man had a knife and was in the middle of slicing her sweatpants open from her foot to her waist.

  They both paused for a fraction of a second.

  Crash growled, “You son of a bitch!” and stepped toward the bed.

  Moving quickly, the man slid the knife from Adeline’s knee to her throat in the blink of an eye. “Take one more step and I’ll slit her throat.”

  Crash stopped immediately, putting his hands up in the air in capitulation. This was a man on the edge, the stubble, wrinkled clothes, and crazed look in his eyes making it obvious he’d do just as he threatened. Crash couldn’t do anything that would make the situation worse. Not when it came to Adeline’s life.

  He had a pretty good idea who the man was. There really was only one person it could be. All the things Adeline had told him about her boss over the last couple of months took on a whole new meaning now.

  “Douglas Hill, I presume,” Crash said in a low, controlled voice, trying not to escalate the situation.

  “Oh no, you had your chance with her. It’s my turn now!” the crazed man spat.

  “Did something happen this morning?” Crash asked.

  “Yeah. Something happened this morning. This bitch has been leading me on for months. Teasing me. Getting me all worked up, then playing coy and backing off. She’s been playing hard to get, and this morning she decided she wanted me after all.”

  It was ridiculous, because there was no way the unconscious woman lying on the bed, with blood dripping from nicks on her throat and her clothes cut from her body, was there willingly.

  “Okay, I didn’t realize that’s what this was,” Crash commented, his mind racing as to what his next move should be. He should’ve sent Chief a message before entering the room, but there was no way he would’ve stopped for the several seconds it would’ve taken, not when Adeline needed him.

  The choice of what his next step should be was taken from him when Coco finally clawed his way out of the bathroom and sprang out of the small room, barking frantically.

  “Dammit!” Douglas spat, flinching at the loud sounds coming from the dog, his movement cutting another small line in Adeline’s vulnerable throat.

  Crash thought the dog would come barreling into the bedroom where he a
nd Adeline were, but instead, Coco made a beeline for the door to the suite, held open by Crash’s dropped duffle bag, and out into the hall.

  Crash realized Coco had done the one thing that would help end this standoff sooner rather than later—making enough noise to wake the dead as he ran up and down the hallway. Someone would call the front desk and complain, sending security up to investigate.

  “It looks like you’re going to have to wait,” Crash noted dryly. “Put down the knife and we’ll figure this out.”

  The second Douglas turned his attention back down to Adeline, and away from him, Crash moved.

  He threw himself forward, aiming his hands for the wrist holding the knife to Adeline’s throat first. He hit Douglas and both men rolled, the knife lost somewhere in the sheets on the bed. Crash had thirty or so pounds on the other man, but Douglas had rage and insanity on his side.

  The two men rolled over a few times and Douglas locked his hands around Crash’s throat, but by doing so, left his own body vulnerable.

  Choking might have worked on the smaller and weaker Adeline, leaving her unable to defend herself, but it had little to no effect on Crash, except to give him the opportunity to defeat Douglas once and for all.

  Crash jabbed his fingers into Douglas’s eyes, and when the man roared in pain and sat up, Crash punched him as hard as he could between the legs. It might’ve been a low blow, literally, but Crash didn’t give a shit.

  After the punch, Douglas rolled off Crash, clutching his balls in his hand, and it was only a matter of a few more well-placed hits to make the other man fall unconscious on the floor, with blood pouring out of his broken nose and cracked lips.

  Crash scrambled off the floor and onto the bed next to Adeline. Ignoring the fact that she was bare from the waist up, he put his fingers on her throat, feeling for a pulse. It was there, and fairly strong. He breathed out a relieved sigh then continued his assessment of her body.

  There were clear red marks in the shape of Douglas’s fingers on her throat, which made Crash want to beat the man lying on the floor all over again. He brushed a lock of her jet-black hair away from her face, bent down and kissed the tip of her nose. “Come on, beautiful. Open your eyes for me. You’re safe. He won’t hurt you again.”

  He pulled back and brought the edges of her shirt over her chest, covering her.

  “What in the hell is going on in here?” a hard voice said from the doorway.

  Crash had been so focused on Adeline, he hadn’t realized security had finally shown up. Coco had done exactly what he’d set out to do: get help for his mistress.

  Crash turned slowly, making sure his hands were visible at all times, and spoke to the two men standing in the doorway, their hands on the Tasers attached to their belts. “My name is Dean Christopherson. This is my girlfriend, Adeline Reynolds. This is our room; you’ll find both our names on the registration.” Thank God she’d insisted on adding his name. “I entered our room this morning to find this man,” —he used his head to indicate the unconscious Douglas—“on top of her with a knife to her throat. It looks like he choked her, and was in the process of cutting off her clothes. We fought, I disabled him.”

  “Holy fuck,” the second man stated unprofessionally, reaching for his walkie-talkie to call for backup.

  “She needs to go to the hospital,” Crash stated unnecessarily.

  “That her dog raising bloody hell out in the hallway?” the first security guard asked.

  “Yes. His name is Coco. He’s her service dog. He was locked in the bathroom and when he got out, he ran out of the room to raise the alarm.”

  “He did a good job,” the man answered dryly. “Will he respond to you? We couldn’t get near him. Now that we’ve got the situation under control, maybe you’ll see if you can’t get him to calm down.”

  “I’m not leaving her,” Crash stated adamantly.

  Just then, Coco stopped barking. The cessation of sound was almost alarming.

  Torn between wanting to make sure the dog was all right and not leaving Adeline, Crash looked apprehensively at the door.

  After a few tense moments, Chief appeared, holding Coco’s leash. Crash let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God,” he stated.

  “What the fuck?” Chief barked, not intimidated in the least by the two hotel security officers. “I had a bad feeling and thought I’d come up to make sure you both were all right before I headed back to San Antonio.” Taking another step into the room, and finally seeing Douglas’s bleeding body, Chief’s face turned to stone and he took a few steps inside the room, his eyes not leaving the unconscious man on the floor.

  “Sir?” one of the security officers said hesitantly. “If you would please stay back until the situation is under control.”

  Chief’s gaze went from Douglas to Adeline, and his face hardened further. “Motherfucker. I’m an idiot. He was watching her. It’s no coincidence that he got to her in the twenty minutes I left her side.”

  Crash agreed, but didn’t comment. He slowly lowered his hands.

  “Sir?” the officer said again. “You need to step back and wait in the hall.”

  Then, if possible, the situation got worse.

  Coco sat at Chief’s feet and started pawing his leg—alerting him to the fact that Adeline was going to have a seizure.

  Chapter 19

  Adeline woke up slowly. She hurt. Her neck. Her arms. Her shoulders. And she had no idea where she was or what had happened. She smelled antiseptic and there was an incessant beeping that was annoying because it wasn’t stopping.

  Feeling as tired as if she’d stayed up all night, Adeline kept her eyes shut, trying to work through where she was and why she felt so off. After only a moment, she remembered.

  The conference.

  Douglas.

  Not being able to breathe.

  And his threats on what he’d do to her when she woke up.

  Her eyes popped open and she flinched at the bright light. Without thinking about anything other than getting away, Adeline rolled as hard as she could to her left—and ran into some sort of metal bars.

  “No!” she croaked, not recognizing her own voice. Sitting up, she scrambled to get her legs free from the confining blanket covering them and tried to scoot downward to exit the bed that way.

  “Jesus, Adeline! Stop! You’re safe! I’m here.”

  She paused and whipped her head to the right. Dean.

  “Dean?”

  “Yeah, beautiful. It’s me. I’m here, you’re okay. You’re in the hospital.”

  “D-Douglas…” Her voice trailed off. She was so confused, and had no idea how Dean was there, or even where “there” was.

  “He’s been arrested.” He took her head in his hands and forced her to look at him. “You’re safe. Hear me?”

  Adeline nodded, not taking her eyes from his. “He-he…forced me into the room. He was insane. Saying that I led him on, that he wanted to date me, that he’d been courting me.” She paused, trying to remember what else he’d said.

  “Go on, get it all out.”

  “He thought I was having sex with both you and Chief. He had his hand on my throat and I couldn’t get him to let go. He was going to hurt me with his knife.”

  At that, Dean enfolded her awkwardly into his arms. He lowered the safety rail on his side of the bed and sat down, bringing her into his embrace fully.

  “D-D-Did he hurt me?” Adeline choked out.

  Knowing what she meant, Dean hurried to reassure her. “No, beautiful. I got there in time. Then Coco broke out of the bathroom and barked his head off, running up and down the halls until more help came. He didn’t get that far. I swear. You’re okay.”

  Adeline pulled back and whispered, “Why were you there? I told you not to come.”

  He smiled at her tenderly. “I know you did. But I never was a very good listener. I left work around one-thirty in the morning. I decided that we’d argue in person. There’s no way, knowing you’d had a crap day and ni
ght, I was not going to come up to be with you. Adeline, I love you. There’s no doubt in my mind that you’re the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Things won’t always be smooth between us, we’re both too passionate and hardheaded for that, but I’ll do whatever I can to make sure too much time doesn’t pass before we talk it out and make up. That’s what I was doing.”

  “Thank God,” Adeline breathed. “I was so scared.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”

  Adeline laid her head on Dean’s chest and snuggled into him as best she could. “You got there. That’s what counts.”

  After a moment, she lifted her head again. “Where’s Douglas?”

  “Jail,” Dean told her without pause. “Things got a little crazy at the hotel, but with your condition and Chief’s account of what happened the night before, he was taken in. Unfortunately, you’ll need to talk to the detective sooner rather than later, to give your account of what happened, to make sure he stays behind bars. But for now, all you need to know is that you’re safe.”

  “Things got a little crazy?” Adeline asked nervously.

  Dean sighed and brought a hand up to smooth her hair back from her face. “Yeah. Coco alerted and you had a seizure.”

  “Oh shit.”

  “Yeah.”

  “It was bad, wasn’t it?” Adeline asked.

  He nodded. “Grand mal. Lasted quite a while. If I’m being honest…you scared me to death, beautiful.”

  “I knew I felt weird,” Adeline commented. “But I’m okay?”

  “For now.”

  She knew what that meant. “I’ll make an appointment when we get home to talk to my doctor about scheduling the surgery as soon as possible,” she whispered.

  Dean kissed the side of her head. “Will you marry me?”

  Adeline’s head whipped up at his words. She stared at him with wide eyes. “What?”