Faith, Honor & Freedom (28 page)

Lana!

I can’t keep doing this. I swear, after today, I am never letting her out of my sight again. With my siren blaring, my lights flashing, and my completely illegal driving maneuvers I make it to the hotel parking lot in a flash. I take the stairs, unwilling to wait for the damn elevator to arrive. As soon as I reach the fourth floor, I push my way through the door and out into the hallway. It’s filled with officers and medics, and my thoughts flood back to poor Gina Douglas. She woke up from her coma and is starting the long process of recovery. She doesn’t remember the attack, which is probably a blessing, but it didn’t give us much else to go on.

“Where is she?” I holler out, pushing my way into Lana’s hotel room. I scan the room, and see nothing out of the ordinary, but no Lana.

I rush into Jade’s room, and that’s where my stomach churns. The smell of vomit permeates the air, giving the room a foul odor.

“Where are they?” I bark out.

“They’re not here, but we have someone reviewing the footage.”

“Parker saw him at a gas station earlier, get an APB out on that vehicle,” I shout, frantic. “Send someone to the mountain where I found her last time! Where’s Stepp?”

“The ambulance took him just before you got here. He doesn’t look too good, barely had a pulse.”

The air stops entering my lungs, and I find it increasingly hard to breathe.

“You okay?” Henry asks from beside me.

“I’m fine,” I manage to breathe out. The room is cramped, so I walk out into the hallway and back into Lana’s room.
Our
room.

I spot her cell phone on the sink. “Shit.”

I check her phone, and the message I sent back to her is still unread. Whatever went down happened after she messaged me, and before she got my text. I can still smell her honey and vanilla shower gel, and the pain almost brings me to my knees.

I can’t let it consume me. I need to find her. I can’t live without her. I also can’t waste time sitting here on my ass and feeling sorry for myself either.

“What do we have?” I ask no one in particular.

“We just got a call up from the control room. He left with both girls about fifteen minutes ago in a white Honda Accord. We ran the plates, and it was reported stolen in Washougal last night. I have every officer available searching for the car,” Hanson says, and I can tell he’s holding something back.

“Tell me,” I clip. His brown eyes look down toward the floor before meeting mine tensely.

“The young girl was carried out, and we can’t tell from the footage if she’s alive or not.”

“Shit.” I push my way past him and rush down the stairs to the truck. The first place my mind goes to is the mountain, but I’ve already sent a few officers up there, and I can’t imagine he is stupid enough to take her to the same place twice.

Christ Lana, where are you?

I start the engine and pull out of the parking lot. I have no idea where I’m going or what I’m doing, but I need to at least search.

“I put the phone on speaker and dial her dad’s number.

“Carter,” he answers. I feel my heart hammering in my chest. I’ve let him down, yet again.

“I …” I stumble. “I lost her, sir. Alec has her.”

I hear his breath hitch. “Where?”

“Not sure, white Honda Accord. He has her and the mom of that baby she’s been visiting in the hospital.”

“Baby?’ he asks. Shit, she hasn’t told them about Button. “Never mind,” he says quickly. “You keep looking, I’ll call the station.” His voice is full of fear, and I know mine doesn’t sound much different.

“Okay,” I croak out.

“Son? Please, don’t let her die. She’s all we have left.”

Jesus Christ. I fucking failed them with Rhett, and here I am failing them again.

“Yes, sir,” I say, my voice cracking. I hang up the phone and continue scanning the roads. As much as I don’t want it to, my mind wanders back to the night that Rhett died.

“Are you nervous?” Rhett asks.

“Nah, there’s two of them and five of us. Plus, we have the element of surprise in our favor.”

I nod, knowing he’s right. We have been tracking this dealer for months now, and it’s going to feel incredible when we finally bring him down.

“Say we don’t make it out, though,” Rhett says, and I know he’s getting into one of his theoretical, never-going-to-happen situations.

“Rhett, don’t start with this bullshit,” I plead. Last thing I need is to go into this house and be thinking about anything other than the task at hand.

“Come on man, I mean it. If I die, take care of my parents and Lana for me, yeah?” he asks.

“No problem. I’ll take care of her real good,” I drawl.

“I’ll come back from the dead and haunt you, you sick bastard.”

“Well, don’t talk about stupid shit then. Now can we please go in there and get these douchebags?”

He smiles, “Yeah, let’s get these pricks.”

We slide out of our cruiser, parked just up the street from Cameron Walker’s house. We meet up with the other officers and go over our game plan one last time. Rhett and I are to kick in the rear door, while the other three officers go through the front. We’ve seen the layout of the house from the town records, and I know we’ll be entering in the kitchen, and the other three officers will be going into the living room, where they’re more likely to be.

I hear my radio beep quietly, letting us know the other officers are in position. I try the door handle quietly, but it’s locked just like we figured it would be.

I look over at Rhett and smile. We both live for the dangerous side of being a cop—the action, the arrests, catching that bad guy—it’s what we’ve dreamed about since we were little kids. “One, two, three,” he mouths. We both turn into the door and kick hard at the same time. It bursts open. “Police, hands in the air,” Rhett shouts, as we make out way into the old house, guns drawn.

We’re assaulted by a horrid smell, and I can see the meth lab set up on the kitchen table. I scan the room as Rhett moves forward toward the hallway where I can hear the other officers shouting.

And then it is all over, before I can even blink. I look up when I hear the first shot as Rhett’s body is thrown backward, and in rapid succession before I could even reach him, another five are unloaded into his body, the final one to his temple. He is wearing a vest; there was hope before the bullet left the chamber.

There are no words to describe what I feel at the moment. Rage is too weak of a word; devastation doesn’t come near it either. The second Cameron Walker enters the kitchen I shoot him dead, three bullets to the head before he even knows I’m standing there.

I rush over to Rhett’s side, praying this is a sick, fucking joke. This can’t be real. I hear some sort of ear piercing scream and realize it’s coming from my own mouth. I still have no idea where the other suspect is, but at this moment, I don’t even care. Rhett’s dead. There’s no way he’s coming back from this. His blood pools all around me, and all I can think about is how I failed him.

I should have been the one checking that hallway; I should have taken the lead. I knew his head was somewhere else coming into this house, and I failed him.

I hear my phone buzzing and quickly hit answer. “Hoss.”

“We found them, bringing them into the hospital now. We’ll meet you there,” Parker says, and I hear the line go dead. What the hell was that?

I make a U-turn and blare my sirens as I speed toward the hospital. Please dear God, let them be alive.

Chapter 20

“Please, please let us go,” I beg, as Alec throws Jade into the backseat, her body so still, I’d swear she was dead. She really needs medical attention. I contemplate running, while he has his back to me, but that would leave him alone with her, and I don’t know how long it would take to find help. He can do a lot of harm in just seconds, as I now know from personal experience. I look around one last time, to see if there’s anyone around to hear my scream, but it’s just a sea of empty cars in an underground parking lot.

He grabs some sort of twist tie device from his back pocket and ties my hands together behind my back, before throwing me into the backseat. My robe flies open, revealing the nightie intended for Weston’s eyes only. Alec licks his lips like the perverted fuck he is.

“Lay down on the ground, or I’ll skin you both alive,” he says maliciously. I slink down to the floor, keeping my eyes on Jade. I can see her body making small breathing movements.

She’s okay. He just hit her head really hard on the side of the desk, and it knocked her out. She’s going to wake up, and everything is going to be all right, I promise myself.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask. It was meant to be a rhetorical question, with no real answer, but he replies anyway.

“At first, it was because you are beautiful, and beautiful women are my favorite to kill and play with, but then it became a lot more. Once your cop friend found out about us, it almost became a game to me. It was far too easy to be around you, and the big ugly fuck had no idea who I was, or what I planned to do to you. He wanted inside of you—somewhere you willingly let me. Do you remember, Lana? What a sweet night that was, wasn’t it?” he asks, goading me. The thought of it all causes my whole body to tense as revulsion sweeps through it. If I had anything left in my stomach, I’m sure I would be vomiting again. I look back up at Jade, praying she didn’t have to hear any of that.

“Why, though?” I ask. “Why do you kill? Jenny didn’t do anything wrong. Do you know how many people miss her?” I ask, holding back the tears.

“She was a fucking woman, who gives a shit?” he asks bitterly.

“I do,” I say quietly. I look out the window and notice some familiar buildings. We’re downtown. I look back at Jade and see that she’s still breathing. I need to find a way to get out of here, or he’s going to kill us both. “She had a family.”

“So did I and look at all the good that did me,” he scoffs. “My father beat my mother into oblivion every fucking day until I was sixteen. He killed her with his bare hands in front of me. I didn’t do anything—just sat there. At first I was angry with myself for being such a pussy, but then I realized that I didn’t stop him because I wanted to see what it looked like when the life was drained from her eyes. I wanted to see what it was like to finally end her suffering. I killed him after that. Beat the old drunk just like he would do to her. It wasn’t exhilarating killing him, though. Men aren’t nearly as fun to kill as women. Plus, I get to fuck the girls, too,” he says, like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

We continue driving through town, and I know the second we get to wherever we’re going he’s going to kill us both. I know what he does to his victims after they’re dead. Weston has kept me in the loop as a way of scaring me to keep my doors locked, long before I even met Alec.

It still hurts that I was stupid enough to date a serial killer and not even realize it. What kind of a person does that make me? I look back up at Jade and notice that she’s starting to come to. Her eyes are fluttering, and she’s beginning to stir. When she catches sight of me, her mouth opens as if to say something but I make a quiet “shh” sound and keep my eyes wide. She looks around, taking in her surroundings, before getting the fearful look back in her eyes. She realizes what’s happening, and I keep closing my eyes, trying to get her to do the same thing. One look in the rear-view mirror, and he’d tie her hands up too, and at this point, it might be our only chance of survival.

We continue through town, and eventually I see treetops form in the windows. We have to be getting close to wherever he’s taking us. If we don’t want to go barreling out of the car at a hundred miles per hour then we have no chance of an escape at this point. I refuse to let the tears fall. I don’t want to show him how much this hurts me.

I look back up at Jade and watch as the tears stream down through her closed eyelids. She’s not okay with this; she hasn’t lived at all. She’s only known the cruel side of life. She’s never known what true love is, she’s never had a loving family or a good friend. She needs to live before she can die.

“Please let Jade go,” I say aloud.

He scoffs at me. “Why would I do that? I have big plans for the both of you.” His eyes are still glued to the road.

“Please, I’ll do whatever you ask, and I won’t complain. She’s just a young girl. She has nothing to do with this. You may be a murderer, but you’re not a child molester,” I say, praying he has some sort of morals.

“Child molester? You fucking bitch! I’m no such thing!” he says with venom on his tongue.

“She’s fourteen. Please let’s just drop her off. She’s still unconscious. Nobody will find her. She doesn’t know where we’re going. I don’t even know where we’re going!”

“Fuck’s sake, no!” he screams, and I know that’s the end of the conversation. “Now shut your fucking mouth before I …” he trails off as a loud noise ricochets through the car, and we begin to jerk. We swerve back and forth, and Jade rolls off her seat and on top of me. She starts screaming at the top of her lungs, until we come to a full stop.

“Run, Jade,” I whisper into her hear.

Before she’s able to move, the doors to the car are thrown open from all sides. “Hands in the air asshole,” I hear in an authoritative voice. I recognize Henry and Parker, and I breathe a huge sigh of relief. She’s going to be okay.
We’re
going to be okay.

We arrive at the hospital, and I refuse to let Jade out of my sight. She’s just been through hell and back, and it’s all my fault. I know when times get tough, she feels like fleeing is the best option, but I want to make sure we find her the help she needs here first. I can protect her here.

Two doctors come into our room to look us over; they’re both female. I feel like that is a smart move on the hospital’s part. Were they requested before we even got here? I squeeze Jade’s hand securely before we’re separated on to two beds for an exam. A few nurses come into the room as well, and it starts to feel crowded.