by Reina Torres
Hildie was visible almost immediately. She walked gingerly across the wooden floor as if she was afraid it might break and swallow her whole, or-
“I know that walk.” Anne hissed out a breath. “She’s in pain.”
Jake heard the words and watched Hildie as she stepped into the high slant of sunlight that touched the edge of the porch and the stairs. It was true. Hildie favored her side and winced when Joe tugged her down to the second step.
Still, Hildie held her head up high, focused forward toward them. Jake gestured for Anne to move forward. They only made it a few steps when Joe called out, “That’s far enough, Jake. Let her come closer on her own.”
Jake didn’t miss the look that crossed Anne’s features. She was scared. He understood. She was safe and now she was walking back into danger. She was allowed to be anything she wanted. “Remember what I told you.”
Anne blew out a breath. “You’ve got my back.”
“You’re a hell of a woman, Anne. You’re going to get through this just fine.”
“Hildie,” she corrected him, “is a hell of a woman. I’m just trying to make sure she’ll get to help more people like me.”
“I’m waiting!” Joe’s voice cut between them like a freight train. “Send her over.”
Anne took one step and then another, moving slowly down the street toward Joe and Hildie. Closer and closer and yet Joe hadn’t made a move.
Jake couldn’t let things continue like that. Couldn’t let Joe control everything. He needed Joe a little off kilter.
“Let Hildie go. Start her walking too.”
Hearing Jake’s voice did wonders for her nerves. The sight of him had been fantastic, lifting her spirits, but his voice gave her strength. She didn’t wait for Joe’s say so, she started walking, matching Anne step for step as they closed the distance between them.
She almost made it to the walkway of the second house when she realized that Anne had stopped moving. Instinctually, Hildie stopped too, looking around for anything to be wary of.
Everything was quiet, unnaturally so.
Hildie continued to walk, but Joe grabbed her shoulder, yanked her back, and nearly sent her to the ground.
“Get your hands off of her Merrel!”
“It’s supposed to be an exchange! Anne! Get your lazy ass over here.”
Startled, Anne started to walk again. Joe let Hildie go, but she felt as if he was walking right behind her.
Hildie was sure that her heart was beating so loud in her ears that they could set off a bomb a few feet beside her and she’d never know.
A few more steps closer and she saw Anne falter again, almost tripping over her own feet.
A gasp burst from Anne’s lips, and Hildie saw the sudden flare of fear and desperation in the other woman’s eyes.
“It’s okay, Anne.” She struggled to put a calming tone in her voice. “It’s going to be okay.”
Anne stared back and her head shook, almost imperceptibly. “No… no…”
Oh heavens, Hildie felt for the other woman. She’d always wanted to protect her since the moment they’d met, but having suffered Joe’s tender mercies for herself, Hildie wanted to make sure this was the last time that Anne had to be anywhere near the man.
Hildie tried to keep her voice as steady as she could. “Just keep walking to me, Anne.”
She could hear Joe through the rush of blood through her ears.
“So much for saving her, eh? You’re so eager to save yourself, you’re going to bring her right to me, aren’t you? Fucking perfect.”
He let go of her arm and Hildie moved forward, thanking her lucky star for the reprieve.
“Please, Anne. Just walk to me.”
Hildie paced her steps as easily as she could, but she felt like the hairs on the back of her neck were standing up and a spot between her shoulder blades felt hot as if a laser was burning through her clothes and into her skin.
Her mind was working at a million times its normal pace. Going from one horrible plan to another. What were the other men doing? What was the plan?
As Anne started to walk toward her she heard Joe’s soft chuckle under his breath.
“That’s right, baby… just a little closer.”
Closer? Why did it have to be just a little closer?
Jake didn’t need to talk. He could hear the short and succinct comments from the other LEOs on the comm. Law Enforcement Officers were trained to keep things as quiet as possible and communicate in short bursts to keep distractions to a minimum.
He would only need to say something if he needed action or help. Otherwise, he was an active observer trying to make sure that everything went as planned.
Anne’s hesitation was something that he couldn’t miss. He didn’t need to see her face to know how afraid she was. It was written in the way she stood, the tight line of her shoulders.
He heard Hildie’s words and gentle encouragement in her voice.
He saw her gesture for Anne to move forward and saw the look on Joe’s face even though he was a good distance away.
Joe’s smile sent shivers through his body.
“TJ?”
“Here.” The pause felt endless. “Hold tight.”
Jake heard the message loud and clear in TJ’s voice. Something was about to happen.
What, he had no idea, but the air felt like it was charged with electricity and the yards of ground stretched out between them.
There was nothing he could do but be ready and wait. Once Hildie was safely at his side the others would move in and secure Anne. He just had to wait.
Maybe it was just in her imagination. Some wild phenomenon. Or an auditory hallucination.
Whatever it was, it sounded like a hammer pulling back to lock in place. The moment right before a trigger pull.
And in her head, she saw it unfolding like a movie scene streaming on a slow Wi-Fi connection. The man in the crawlspace, the window covered with slats built into the front wall.
She turned her head and looked for that window, tipping her chin up to see above the porch roof.
Hildie reached out blindly, pushed herself toward Anne.
When she came into contact with the other woman, Hildie wrapped her arms around her and drove them both toward the ground, sideways, hoping beyond hope that she could save them both while her ears rang with the report of a rifle.
Chapter 17
No!
Jake saw Hildie knock Anne to the ground less than a heartbeat before the dirt less than a foot away kicked up. The report of the rifle sounded like a splatter in his ear, reported from half a dozen other earwigs in the surrounding area.
Fear flooded through his veins like a stampede of wild animals sensing danger on their tails. It chewed through his system putting every one of his survival instincts on autopilot.
He raised his gun, a second ahead of Joe Merrel and drilled a shot through his throat.
Another shot slammed into the house only to be answered by a guttural moan. TJ was heard over the comm system. “Shooter down.”
Merrel’s gun wavered about in the air for a moment until the man teetered like Jack’s beanstalk in the old fairy tale and pitched backward to lie down across the untended lawn in a heap.
“There’s two more!”
Jake turned to look at Hildie and found her crouched over Anne, her whole body like a shield.
“There were two more men here when they moved me. There could be more, but two that I know of.”
He nodded and spoke to signal the others. “Move in. Find the others.”
Jake didn’t say another word as he crouched down beside Hildie and Anne. He didn’t argue with Hildie when she continued to cover Anne, her eyes scanning the area around them as familiar forms moved through the area, in and around the homes.
“Anne?” He couldn’t trust his voice to say Hildie’s name, not yet. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah… sure. Once I catch my breath-”
“I’m sorry,” H
ildie looked down and set her hand on Anne’s arm. “I didn’t mean to hit you so hard.”
Anne reached up and grasped Hildie’s arm. “Don’t apologize. I’m glad you did it. I just think you discovered a new talent.”
A little line creased the smooth skin between Hildie’s eyebrows. “What’s that?”
Groaning slightly, Anne managed a smile. “Football player. I bet the Cowboys could use a new tackle, or whatever it is they call the players who knock the opposing team on their asses.”
Hildie swept the back of her hand across her face. “I’m just so glad you’re okay. I didn’t understand what Joe was saying when we were moving toward each other, and by the time I put two and two together with the guy up in the crawl space, I didn’t know if I would be fast enough to get you out of danger.”
“Me?” Anne laughed and ended up coughing. She turned her gaze to Jake. “You better take care of her. She spends too much time thinking about others.”
Hildie was afraid to turn and meet Jake’s gaze. She wasn’t afraid that he’d be mad at her, but she worried that if she looked him square in the eyes she was going to burst into tears.
“I’m going to try,” his voice was even and almost calm, “but I think she does a pretty great job herself. I’m going to hope she lets me help out from time to time.”
“Jake, I-”
A door burst open on the north side of the street, and Wes stepped out to hold the door. One of the gunmen stepped out with his hands bound behind him. Hildie watched him walk with his eyes directed down at his feet. Maybe he didn’t want to look at her, but she knew she didn’t want to look at him either.
A single shot rang out behind her, closer to the main house, followed by shouting. Leaning closer to Jake, she heard the quick exchange play out over the earwig that he held between them.
The last man had tried to fight his way out. Ridiculous given the numbers, but it gave her a small measure of peace to know that he wouldn’t come after her for revenge or anyone else that she loved.
“Jake,” she looked up into his face and saw the worry in his eyes, “we need to talk.”
He nodded, his eyes softening as he answered her. “Sure. I’m all for it after we get you to the hospital.”
That shook her. “Hospital? I don’t need to go.”
Dax came out of the last house on the south side of the street and called over the comm. “We’re all clear. Jake, you better go.”
Hildie was already on her feet when Jake reached down to help Anne from the ground. The two managed it without any fuss, but he could tell Hildie was worrying, like she always did.
“Jake?”
Anne waved off his look of concern. “I’m good,” she kept her gaze as far away from Joe as she could. “Go.”
As they walked toward the end of the street and his SUV, Jake handed his gun off to Wes and continued with a hand on Hildie’s lower back. “We’re going to the hospital because Sloane’s in labor.”
“What?” Hildie ran to the car and climbed into the passenger seat a second before he got his door open. “How long? What does the doctor say? Is she okay?”
Reaching into the compartment between the seats he pulled out his phone and handed it to her. Jake rattled off the answers to her questions and ended with, “Call Vicente. She’ll want to know that we have you back safe and sound.”
“You told her?”
Narrowing a look at him, Hildie hit the redial button for Vicente Bravo’s phone number.
“It’s not my fault,” he sighed, “it was on the news. I’ll explain later.” Smiling at her, Jake put the emergency lights on his vehicle and continued toward the hospital.
When the phone call was answered, Hildie gently clutched the phone in her hands. “It’s Hildie, how is she?”
Jake listened as Hildie spoke to Sloane over the speaker and he reached over to set his hand on her leg, just above her knee. The knees of her pants had been torn and she had scratched up her skin at some point, but he just needed to touch her, giving her leg a gentle squeeze to offer her as much love and comfort as he could.
She’d already been through one ordeal. He could only hope that Sloane’s baby would come soon so Hildie could get some rest.
It was half past midnight when Jake got Hildie into the SUV. She was still clutching his phone looking at the picture he’d added as his home screen. A picture with Sloane and Hildie sitting together on Sloane’s hospital bed with the baby held gently in Hildie’s arms. Both women looked exhausted, but utterly radiant with their heads pressed together.
“You both look beautiful.”
“Ha!” Her laugh was almost a snort. “You’re a damn good liar, Jake McGowan.”
He shook his head and managed to keep his eyes on the road ahead. “I’m a man in love, Hildie Faraday, and I think you look beautiful every minute of the day. You can’t blame me for that.”
“No.” The sigh that passed her lips wavered a bit. “No, I can’t blame you, but I have to tell you that when you got out of the SUV today and I saw you standing there with Anne, there was only one thing on my mind.”
He hissed and his shoulders tensed. “Which shin you were going to kick first?”
She laughed, and it was finally a sound as close to her natural laugh as he’d heard. “I should say yes, but really, the only thing I could think of was how close I was to making it through in one piece. As long as you were there, I was going to be okay.”
The trust in her voice, the absolute surety of her tone as she covered his hand with hers, hit him square in the chest.
“Hill?”
He heard a little sniffle as she turned to look at him. “Yes?”
“I’m so sorry all of this happened.”
“You don’t need to apologize again. It’s okay.”
“It’s not. You should have been safe at the office.” He pulled his hand away from her and slapped it up onto the wheel, griping it tight enough to blanch his knuckles until they were pale circles against his skin. “I feel like we failed you. He walked right out of the office with you and no one noticed a thing.”
Hildie moved her hand to his thigh, gently touching his leg with a reassuring sweep of her fingers. “You didn’t know that he wasn’t someone you could trust.”
“That’s the problem.” He kept his gaze focused on the road ahead of them. “We check backgrounds for everyone who works in the building. You should have been perfectly safe.”
“Don’t, Jake,” he heard a soft hiccup in her voice. “Don’t do this. There’s nothing you can do about what happened. I need to put it behind me and get back to work. I need to get back to what is important for me. Time with you and spoiling Sloane’s baby is going to keep me super busy. I don’t want to think about what could have happened.”
“We need to find that man and see what part he has in this ring.”
“And you will.”
He heard the positive lift in her tone and was so grateful that she wasn’t shying away from him. “We will. We’re going to find him. I’m going to find him and he’s going to pay for what he did.”
“And I’m sure someone’s already working on it. I identified him in the photos that Wes brought over and he said you have footage of him on video. They’ll have his face on wanted posters and someone will see him and he’ll be behind bars. Then you’ll interrogate him and get all kinds of information and then there’s going to be a ton of arrests and it’ll be awesome! San Antonio will know that the Texas Rangers are doing everything they can to keep all of us safe.”
Jake picked her hand up off of his thigh and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “How can you feel like that? Just a few hours ago you were-”
“I was. That’s what I’m holding onto, Jake. I was in danger. I was scared and so damn afraid, but I just kept telling myself that you would find me and if I held it together it would all be okay. And there you were with a whole badass bunch of folks that put their own lives on the line to save me.” A soft cough of laughter rea
ched his ears. “And there you were, taking my hand… and nothing else mattered, Jake. Just you and me.”
He pressed another kiss to her fingers and then lowered their hands to the console between them. “I’m taking you to my place.”
“Good.” She settled back against her seat, his phone still in her hand, and a gentle smile on her lips. “I don’t care where we go as long as you’re with me.”
They hadn’t said another word for the rest of the drive, and even when they were inside his apartment, they made it all the way into Jake’s bathroom before either one of them said a word.
“Let’s put the phone here.” He took it gently from her hand and set it on the countertop. “I know you washed up before you went into the birthing room-”
She smiled at him as he tugged at the ties of her scrub pants. “I was planning on a shower before getting in bed.”
He tugged it again and the bow pulled free. “I know you’re tired.”
“I’m exhausted, but having you this close is recharging my batteries a little.”
He looked up at her face, and she saw the emotion in his eyes, not hunger but a gentle, quiet need. “I’m just so glad you’re okay.”
“I was scared,” she blinked back the sudden wash of tears, “but I did everything I could to keep focus. To remember all of the things we tell the women and children that come to our classes.”
“It took Dax and the others to hold me together. Thinking about what could be happening to you. Wondering who had you?”
She set her hand on his shoulder when he bent over and slid the scrubs off one leg and then the other. “I’m sure we’ll talk about it in the morning when we go in to give our interviews and sign the reports.” She lifted her arms up and he pulled off her top. “But I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
When he dropped her top on the ground at their feet, he looked her over from her head down to her feet and back again.
Hildie didn’t feel uncomfortable or self-conscious as he looked his fill. She felt his gaze like a physical touch. It made her feel warm and cherished. She lifted her hand and undid the bra clasp between her breasts. She shrugged her shoulders and the satin cups loosened, drawing the gathered edges across her nipples before they fell away to bare her to his gaze.
