Signs of Love (18 page)

They were almost to the house when the text alert went on her phone. Alana pulled the phone from her pocket and stared down at the message on the screen.

This is Victoria. I hope it's okay I asked Justin for your number. Would like to get together for coffee sometime.

Alana smiled as she tapped out a response.
Would love to get together. Let me know when it might be convenient for you.

Terrific! It was great to meet you and your son. Look forward to visiting more with you. Have a good night!

Alana ended the conversation as Daniel pulled the van into the garage. She had thought Caden might fall asleep, but he was still awake and quickly crawled from the back seat. Beth had shown her to a guest room in the basement before they'd left earlier so after saying goodnight and thanking them once again, she headed down the stairs with Caden.

The room was decorated in sage green and chocolate brown and had a large queen size bed that looked so much more comfortable than her daybed. It had an ensuite bathroom with a deep tub that was a temptation she wasn't even going to bother trying to resist.

It took a few minutes to get Caden through his nighttime routine and then settled onto one side of the queen size bed. While she waited for him to fall asleep, Alana laid out their clothes for church the next day and set the alarm on her phone. Once Caden had drifted off, she went into the bathroom and began to run the water. There were some bath salts there that she added and then with a sigh of appreciation, she slid into the warm water. It had been so long since she'd enjoyed a good soak and after the day she'd just had, it was a welcome relief.

~*~*~

Justin knew he should be keeping his attention on the job at hand, but there was nothing pleasurable about lying face down in the mud while heavy rain pelted his back. It had been a day that had started out rough and gone downhill from there. While he normally enjoyed these types of exercises, his mood going into this one had already been awful and now the rain-soaked night just added to his misery.

He listened as his team reported in from various locations across the BlackThorpe land. The only thing that made this thing marginally better was knowing that Marcus was out there enduring the same misery as he was. Alex was part of the team as well. Every couple of months, the two of them would join the teams for an exercise like this. Justin assumed it was to make sure they didn't lose the edge from their military days.

Lifting his night vision goggles, he searched for any sign of the other team approaching his location. This was a hostage extrication exercise with the opposing team being the ones trying to make the rescue. They were a top special ops team with a couple new members they wanted to put through their paces, so Justin knew they were going to be difficult to take down. Which was all the more reason to keep his thoughts on the task at hand instead of playing the past twenty-four hours over and over in his head.

Though he’d hoped to see Alana and Caden at church, it hadn’t been too surprising when he hadn’t given the size of the church and the fact that it had more than one service. But it had all really started to go downhill when he'd shown up at Beth and Dan's for supper on Monday night and discovered that Alana and Caden weren't there. Beth hadn't given any reason, and he hadn't asked.

Then, after another boring staff meeting, he'd been looking forward to spending some time with Alana and Caden, but she'd shown up alone. Something about Caden being at a playdate. That was also the reason she gave for why she couldn't stay for the self-defence part of their agreement. After they were finished with the sign language lesson for the day, she'd told him she needed to go pick Caden up. He'd offered to drive her but, once again, she'd refused him.

Even during their lesson, any attempt at conversation not related to what she was teaching him had been met with vague responses and an immediate return to the lesson. She hadn't avoided his gaze, but there was a distance there that hadn't been present since their first couple of meetings. Basically, she'd confused the heck out of him.  And disappointed him as well. He'd been looking forward to talking to Caden. Those few minutes each week while Alana got changed and they chatted using his tablet had been fun for Justin. And he would try out a few signs on him as well. Given how enamored Caden was with him, Justin had a hard time believing the boy hadn't wanted to be there. Especially since he hadn't been around for supper the night before.

The sound of shots and a sudden burst of chatter in Justin's earpiece jerked his attention back to the muddy situation he was currently in. He heard a sudden burst of swearing as another shot rang out. Recognizing the voice as one of his regular team members, Justin swung his head in the direction of where the guy was supposed to have been hiding.

Those shots had sounded...real.

Another burst of swearing had Justin scowling. "Stow the language, Delane, and report."

"Live ammo! I'm hit." Pain laced Delane's words, and Justin felt a lightning bolt of shock race through his body.

Live ammo? They were on a training mission. Only laser-equipped weapons were being used.

The chatter in his ear increased dramatically as men reported in locations at Justin's demand. Once all of the team had reported in, he ordered them to pull back to the building where the hostage was being held. Justin barked out an order to Trent, who was monitoring the exercise from inside the compound, to call for an ambulance. They had a nurse standing by in case of injuries during the exercise, but a gunshot wound was beyond her abilities. Plus, who knew if Delane was the only one who was going to need attention before they took out whoever was firing with the live ammo.

"I've got Delane." Marcus's voice sounded strong and sure in his ear.

More shots rang out, freezing Justin in place.

"Marcus!" Delane's shout came through his earpiece. More swearing and then, "They got Marcus. We need some help here."

"Trent, I need positions on everyone. Who's closest to help Marc and Delane?"

Justin listened as Trent gave him the information he needed, his friend's voice steady amid the ever-increasing mayhem. When Justin realized he was closest to their location, he said, "I'm going to them."

"I'm coming from the opposite direction," Alex said. "Meet you there."

"Justin, I've been in contact with the leader of the other team, and they have no idea what's going on."

"Tell them to get out of the field," Justin ordered Trent.

It was hard to believe a rogue shooter had managed to make their way so deep into the compound and on a night when a training exercise was scheduled. This was not a random thing, and it seemed the shooter had just a bit too much information about what was going on.

Justin's mind raced as he grabbed for the gun on his ankle. He jerked the strap of the laser enabled weapon so it was on his back and moved toward where Trent had said Marcus and Delane were. He tried to contain his thoughts regarding Marcus being injured or possibly worse. Their family didn't need any more death. Marcus's sister wouldn't survive if something happened to him, Justin was almost sure of that.

Please, God, keep him alive.

As he neared the location Trent was guiding him and Alex to, more shots rang out. He was close enough to hear the sound of someone stumbling and then heavy breathing in his ear.

"Alex? Report."

"Hit."

What on earth was going on? Someone was picking them off like sitting ducks. 

"The Ops team has gone back into the field, Justin," Trent said. "They're circling around and will try to locate the shooter. Medical support is on its way."

"I can't move three of them, Trent. I'm just going to have to assess the situation and stay with them. We can't risk anyone else until we get a bead on the guy."

"Are you armed, Justin?"

"Yes."

Another shot rang out, and he jerked. The searing burn of a bullet hitting his left bicep knocked him to his knees. He dropped flat to his stomach and breathed through the initial agony then he began to crawl forward. Trying to keep the pain from fogging his thoughts, Justin managed to say, "How close?"

"You're almost there. Keep straight."

Justin knew Trent could see them all on his screen. Right now he would see his dot approaching where Marcus and Delane were. Keeping his voice low, he asked, "How far away is Alex?"

"Close. He's moving toward Marcus as well."

A tendril of relief wove its way through his pain. At least Alex wasn't dead and from what he was hearing, Delane was still alive. Marcus was the only silent one.

"I'm here." Alex's voice sounded strained. "Marcus is unconscious. It looks like he was hit in the thigh and must have knocked his head when he went down. Delane took a bullet to his shoulder."

Thigh? Shoulder? Arm? "Where were you hit, Alex?"

"He got me in the leg."

The shooter wasn't going for kill shots.

"The Ops team just spotted someone, but they're on the move at a pretty fast clip. Heading north."

North? Justin pictured a map in his head. He knew more about the layout of the BlackThorpe land than anyone else. There was a road on the northern border of the land. It was possible someone had breached their perimeter from that direction. Unfortunately, they didn't have cameras to monitor every inch of the land beyond the BlackThorpe compound. There was a fence around the outer perimeter, but it wouldn't keep out anyone who was determined to get past it.

"I'm sending the team in to help you guys out," Trent said. "And notified the emergency response to send additional ambulances."

Justin settled onto the ground beside Delane as Alex bent over Marcus. He touched a hand to his upper arm and felt the stickiness of blood. Well, there was no arguing that this day would go down as one of his worst in recent memory. As he sat there listening to his team make their way towards them, he wondered at yet another attack on BlackThorpe and its team. First what went down with Eric and then the hacking attempt and now this? It seemed too much to be simply coincidence.

He didn't have any more time to ponder the issue as they were suddenly surrounded by the other members of the BlackThorpe team. Marcus was the first one carried out. Delane followed and then Alex leaned on one of the other guys. Justin was able to walk under his own steam even though the shot in his arm hurt like the dickens.

"The Ops team lost the shooter. I'm thinking from the direction he was moving that he has wheels waiting for him on that northern road."

"Yeah. You're probably right. Call the Ops team back. It's not likely they'll catch him now."

The flashing lights of the ambulances were visible as soon as they walked through the entrance to the compound. Medical personnel immediately surrounded them, evaluating their condition. Marcus was whisked away on a stretcher first, still not having regained consciousness. Alex was the next to go followed by Delane. Justin waved off the ambulance workers and found the nurse. Missy Grant shoved him into a chair as soon as she spotted him.

"You should go to the hospital, Justin," she said as she bent over his shoulder. "Just to get this checked over."

"It barely grazed me, Missy. I think I'm fine with a cleaning and some bandages."

Missy shook her head as she tsked him. "You boys think you're so invulnerable."

"Don't think that at all, but the others were wounded more seriously than I was. I need to talk to Trent and the Ops team to figure out what went down out there."

Missy fell silent as she cleaned the wound from where the bullet had sliced across his upper arm. She put some medication on it and then covered it all with a bandage. Once done, she straightened and began to gather up her supplies. "This certainly wasn't what I thought I'd be dealing with tonight."

"You and me both." Justin stood and looked around. He spotted members of his team and the Ops team standing in groups. His gaze landed on the Ops team leader and he approached him. "Up for a debriefing on what went down?"

The man nodded. "Sorry we didn't get hands on the shooter." He had a few choice words for the person who had infiltrated their training exercise. "It was like he just vanished. Although I think he had knowledge of the area which gave him the ability to give us the slip. We're usually better than this."

"So are we," Justin said with a scowl. "Let's head to command and see what Trent saw on his screens."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Since he'd left his phone with Trent in the command center, Justin had to wait until he got there to use it. He called Eric first to ask him to meet Alex and Marcus at the hospital. After that he called Adrianne, knowing she'd take news of Alex's wound better than Melanie probably would.

The only person he wasn't sure what to do about was Meredith. It was likely she wasn't expecting Marcus home that night, but something told him Marcus would have called her at some point. Justin stared at the floor as conversation swirled around him. He didn't even have a number for her. Maybe Adrianne would have it and could give him some ideas on how to approach his cousin with the news of her brother's shooting.

He placed another call to Adrianne. After hearing what he had to say, she assured him she'd take care of contacting Meredith. Relieved he could focus on what was happening at the compound, Justin grasped his phone tightly and turned to Trent.

"Than's on his way to the hospital too," Trent said as Justin stepped to his side. "Figured he needed to know what was going on and he said he'd go there first and then come here if necessary."

Justin nodded, his gaze fixed on the cluster of dots on the monitor that represented all the men involved in the training...except Alex, Marcus, and Delane.

"Should you have gone to the hospital, man?" Trent asked, his gaze going to Justin's arm.

"No. I'm fine." It hurt like crazy, but this had happened on his watch, on his land. He needed to figure out who had managed to infiltrate their exercise. Justin was glad that whoever had decided to take aim at BlackThorpe had done it now and not in the middle of the friends and family event they'd had just a few days earlier. Could someone have come in that way to scope out the place?

"I sent Rodriguez and Tyler out in a Hummer once we realized the direction the guy was headed in," Trent said. "And as soon as it's daylight we'll get a team out to comb for anything this guy might have left behind."

Justin rubbed his forehead. "We're going to have local authorities all over this too. Three gunshot wounds isn't something they're just going to brush over."

"Hopefully Eric and Than can deal with them."

They passed the next few hours waiting for reports on Marcus and the guys at the hospital. The guys in the Hummer were still out...possibly chasing down nothing. Justin hated the feeling they weren't going to able to get the guy. They were supposed to be better than this. No one got the drop on BlackThorpe guys. But this person certainly had.

The gnawing in his gut told him that whoever had been responsible for it had taken lots of time to plan it out. And likely they had help on the inside. It would be the only way they would have known about the nighttime exercise with the Ops team.

After word had come that Marcus had regained consciousness, Justin felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders. But the return of the guys with the Hummer and their report of not finding anything in the direction they'd gone did nothing to rid him of the frustration that ate at him.

It was coming up on four o'clock when he and Trent left the now-empty command center. Trent had decided to stay at the compound for the night in order to be there in the morning when the teams went back out to look for more clues. Both men were quiet as they made their way to the apartments. Justin had no doubt that Trent was also thinking about a possible connection, but neither of them actually put that thought into words.

Though he normally would have taken a shower, Justin only took the time to get out of his muddy clothes, swallow a couple of pain killers and fall into bed. He hoped he could catch a few hours of sleep before he had to be back up again.

~*~*~

A sudden high pitch steady shrieking jerked Alana from sleep. When she opened her eyes, they burned as did her lungs when she tried to draw in a deep breath. Panic filling her, she scrambled to her feet and raced for Caden's bed. Without even trying to wake him up and explain what was going on, Alana snatched him from the mattress on the floor, holding him tight when he woke and started to squirm against her.

Oh, how she wished she could talk to him, but she didn't have the time to explain what was happening. She skidded to a halt just feet from the door to the hallway as she realized that was where the smoke was coming into her apartment. There was no way they'd be able to go out into the stairwell.

When flames flickered on the carpet under the door, Alana began to back away. Outside, she could hear shouts and the sound of sirens growing louder. Panic tightened around her lungs, and she struggled to draw in air even as it stung to breathe. Her only choice was to try a window and hope that someone would be there to help them get from their second story apartment to the ground.

Turning, she ran back to Caden's room and set him on the floor by the window and worked to lift it up.

"Mama?" Hearing the fear in the raspy voice of her son increased her efforts to raise the old window that seemed to be stuck in place. Caden rarely spoke though he knew a few words. Mama being one of them.

She paused in her efforts to quickly sign
everything will be okay
then turned her attention back to the window. Her nails ripped at the wood, but she didn't stop. She had to get Caden out safely. He was pressed against her legs now, and she could feel his body shaking badly.

Suddenly, there was a loud rush of noise in the main part of the apartment. Figuring it was nothing good making that kind of noise, Alana started to beat against the glass, hoping that maybe she could break the window and get them out that way.

"Please, God, help me." Tears blurred her vision, as much from the smoke as from her own emotions getting the better of her. "Help us."

The smoke started to gather in the room now, creeping toward them with ominous intent.
Please, God. Please, God. Please, God
. She just couldn't stop repeating it over and over in her head.

Suddenly, Caden's grip on her legs tightened. She looked down, barely able to see him in the thickening smoke. She managed to blink away tears and saw him pointing toward the door. Afraid of what she would see, Alana glanced over her shoulder as she pounded harder on the glass. But instead of a wall of flames, she saw a huge hulking figure in firefighter gear coming towards them.

Relief flooded her as she plucked Caden from the ground and shoved him into the firefighter's arms. "Please, save my son!"

“I'll get you both out, ma'am. Follow me." His voice was muffled as he turned to go back toward the main part of the apartment.

Alana froze. That was where the flames were.

She could hear the man talking as he disappeared into the smoky haze that filled the living room. Alana began to shake, fear rooting her to the floor. Unable to save herself, her only thought was that at least Caden would be safe.

~*~*~

Justin dragged himself out of bed after managing to get six hours of sleep. He took a shower, trying his best not to get the bandage on his arm wet and then made some phone calls. He heard a knock on his door and opened it to find Trent there.

"You got food in here? The fridge in that apartment is empty," he said as he walked into Justin's kitchen.

Justin nodded. "And there's coffee, too. Help yourself to whatever you want."

Though he usually ate supper in the cafeteria, he had food for breakfast and lunches in his apartment. He leaned against the counter as he placed the call he was dreading.

"Hey, Beth."

"Justin? What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't usually call at this time of day. What's up?"

Justin took a deep breath and let it out before he said, "We had a little incident during the training exercise last night."

There was a pause and then Beth said, "What kind of incident? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I got winged by a bullet, but it's just a scratch, basically."

Trent lifted an eyebrow at that description and clearly Beth didn't believe it either.

"You were shot? Are you at the hospital?"

"No. I'm at the compound. I told you it wasn't bad. The nurse bandaged me up. In a few days, I'll be good as new." He knew she probably wasn't going to be convinced until she could see him in person. "But there were others more seriously injured, Marcus being one of them."

"Oh no! Is he going to be okay?"

"I just spoke to him, and he's also going to be fine, although it might take a bit longer for him to recover. He took a bullet to the leg. Alex and one other team member were also shot, but we’re all going to be okay."

"What on earth happened? Aren't you supposed to use fake bullets or something for the training?"

Justin gave her a quick run-down of what had transpired and then once again tried to reassure her he was fine. He promised to stop by later that day to let her see that for herself. "I've got to go. Still have some phone calls to make, but I'll see you later."

"You better. If not, I'm going to come there."

"I promise I'll be there. How about I come for supper?" He would try his hardest to make it by then.

When Justin hung up, Trent picked up the remote for the flat screen in the living room and turned it on. In the small apartment, the television was visible from the kitchen as well as the living room.

“Checking to see if our little shooting made the news?" Justin asked as he went to the fridge to pull out stuff to make sandwiches since it was nearly noon.

"Yeah, but I'm hoping that it didn't. You just never know what got out once the guys arrived at the hospital. Three gunshot wound victims might stir some interest."

Justin hoped Trent was wrong, but in this day and age, it was better they prepared for the worst. With the volume up, they worked to make their sandwiches as they waited for the local noon news to start.

Justin had just gone to grab them a couple of drinks when the news started.

"An early morning fire has claimed the life of one person. Around four o'clock this morning, a fire broke out in an apartment complex in the 300 block of—"

Justin spun around, his gaze pinned to the television. "What?"

As footage showed the building the fire had ravaged, Justin felt his empty stomach heave. That was Alana's building. The one she and Caden lived in. One person was dead.

No, God, please
.

"Justin? What's wrong?" Trent moved to his side and put a hand on his shoulder.

Justin grabbed his phone and called Alana's number. It went immediately to voicemail. Dread built inside him as he called his sister again.

"Have you spoken to Alana this morning?" he asked without preamble.

"Justin? No. Why?"

"I just saw on the news that there was a fire in the building where she and Caden live."

"What? Wait...how do you know where she lives?"

"Caden told me. And I drove by there one day just to see. They said one person is dead."

There was silence on the other end. "They didn't say who?"

"No. They didn't. I tried her phone, but it goes right to voicemail."

"I'm going to call Daniel and see if he can find out any more information. I'll call you as soon as I hear something," Beth said and then hung up.

Justin stood there, his phone clutched in his hand. The debacle from the night before was pushed aside as all his thoughts focused on what had happened to Alana and Caden. He just couldn't even wrap his mind around what he'd do if one of them was the "one person" who hadn't survived the fire. He had to get to them. If the worst had happened, he needed to be there for whichever one was left.

He dragged in a ragged breath at the thought that something might have happened to either of them. Reaching out with a hand to grasp the counter, Justin pressed his other hand to his chest. In what seemed from a very distant place, he heard Trent speaking and tried to focus on what he was saying. The thump of blood as it pulsed through his body blocked out everything but the pain that rode along his veins, spreading to every inch of him.

"Let's go, man," Trent said as he grasped Justin's uninjured arm and tugged him toward the door. "Than's going to meet us at the apartment. Eric is going to come out here to deal with this end of things until I get back. Alex has been discharged, but he's staying at the hospital with Marcus."