Love Inspired Suspense April 2015 #1 (27 page)

Rick closed his eyes, but kept talking. “I was finally able to fire my gun, but not before his knife had done a lot of damage to both me and Axle.”

“Wow.” Stephanie was quiet for a while. Then she said, “Those women owe you their freedom, Rick. It sounds like a story from a third-world country, but not here, not in America.”

“It's more common here than anyone wants to admit.”

“You're a hero,” she said.

Rick shook his head, making him dizzy. “I'm no hero. I just stumbled onto that situation and barely made it back out alive.”

She didn't say anything more, and Rick didn't feel the need to talk more, either. He had avoided talking about that night for so long, it surprised him how easily it had spilled out of him and how good it felt to tell her.

Rick wasn't sure how much time passed before he remembered that he was holding Stephanie's hand again. He did not want to let go of her, but the very room they were sitting in reminded him of the way he had failed Allie. He couldn't want this. Yes, Stephanie was a very different woman from Allie, but she was still a woman who deserved better than what he would be able to offer her. What she needed from him was to help her stay safe, not to be confused by his developing feelings for her. He let go, hating how empty his hand felt after he did.

She cleared her throat and stood up. “You better go back to sleep while you can,” she said, a teasing tone returning to her voice. “It won't be long before you get another visit from your friend Yvonne.”

“Okay,” he said, fatigue pulling him under fast. “But be ready to go early. If you aren't firing me as your bodyguard, I've got a new plan.”

TEN

Monday

D
etective Shelton leaned against the doorjamb of Rick's hospital room. He sighed and made an announcement: “No sign of Hale, in or out of the water.”

Stephanie's head dropped. She had heard the news from another officer in the ER waiting room, but she hadn't had the courage to tell Rick last night. She had been holding out hope for Julian's being caught overnight. Her eyes flew to Rick to see his reaction. He struggled to sit up in his bed, worrying her that he would reopen his stitches. She ran to his side to help him, but he waved her off. His anger was palpable.

“How could that happen?” Rick demanded. “We had him in the water.”

The detective's shoulders slumped. “We searched all day and through the night. They brought the dogs. Divers looked for his body in the water. We had helicopters in the air. All manpower not tied up in the bombing investigation at the hotel scoured the area. Somehow he pulled another disappearing act on us. I'm thinking he must have slipped out of the water and into the downtown crowd while we were still on the dock. With all that construction happening, I'm guessing he was gone before we even got the search truly off the ground.”

Rick punched the bed with his good hand. Even though it was Stephanie's life being threatened, Julian's capture was just as important to these two men as it was to her. Having these driven men on her side made her feel somehow safer, even if Julian Hale was still out there somewhere. These two would not stop until she was safe again. Actually they wouldn't stop until all of Seattle was safe from him again.

“There was some good news from yesterday, though,” Detective Shelton said.

“Really? I'm definitely ready for some good news,” Stephanie told him.

“Hale is taking risks he hasn't taken in the past. He is so desperate to prove that he is in control and holding the power, his pride is going to be his downfall. At some point he is going to trip up, and we are going to be there to get him when he does.”

“I hope you're right,” Rick said. “But if Hale is still loose, then Stephanie and I need to get out of here, the sooner the better.” He swung his legs over the edge of the bed. All the color drained from his face and he dropped his head into his hand.

“Dizzy?” Stephanie asked, but this time she held herself back, not wanting to annoy him again by being too helpful.

“I'm fine,” Rick said, but he kept his head on his hand. “Or at least I will be,” he conceded.

The doctor had ordered a twenty-four-hour watch on his concussion. It was 7:00 a.m., six hours short of the twenty-four-hour mark. Stephanie tried to reason with Rick. “But why the hurry? We're safe here, aren't we?”

Rick lifted his head off his hand and squinted at her as if she had a third eye. “Safe? Like we were in the hotel?” He put his head back in his hand. “Do you want to wait around for Hale to deliver another present for you? Maybe I'll call down and order breakfast and see what he has next on the menu.”

“All right, I get it.” He didn't have to be such a jerk about it. Where had the softness she had seen in him the night before gone? He was being so cold to her this morning. “I'm just worried about you. You don't seem ready to go anywhere.”

“If you want to worry about something, worry about the kind of damage Julian Hale could do here if we stay,” Rick told her.

Imagining another bomb going off, this time in the hospital full of fragile people, was enough to make Stephanie swallow her other retorts. They might be safer in here, but the other patients wouldn't be safe if they stayed. She and Rick were like Jonah on the ship during the storm when he fled from Nineveh—throw them out and the hospital would be a safe haven again. If Rick was physically capable of leaving, they really did need to get far away.

“Where do we go from here?” she asked. “Last night you said you had a new plan.”

“As soon as I can break out of here,” Rick said, looking anxious to make that happen soon, “I am taking you camping.”

“Camping?” she asked, but he wouldn't elaborate.

* * *

Stephanie signaled and then double-checked over her shoulder before changing lanes. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans one at a time. It had been a long time since she had driven any vehicle in the city traffic, let alone one as big as Rick's pickup. Even with a dog in the backseat, it smelled masculine and clean and
new
.

Rick's head rested against the passenger seat with his eyes closed. She was glad he couldn't critique her driving, but she still worried she would mess up and do something to damage his truck.
Watch me crash a police officer's $30,000 truck.

She looked over at Rick, hating how pale he looked. During the hospital discharge process, they had handed him painkillers and a prescription for more as needed, but so far he had refused to take any of them, claiming he wanted to stay sharp. From her perspective, he didn't look alert; he only looked miserable. She wished she knew how to help, but he'd probably be too stubborn to accept her help, anyway, even if she did know what to do.

He still hadn't explained the new plan to her, but she didn't want to bother him to ask about it. Before they left the hospital, Detective Shelton had brought Rick a change of clothes, given him his gun and cell phone, and dropped off Axle along with Rick's truck. Nobody had told Stephanie anything except to drive the truck around to the entrance. She had pulled through the circular driveway and found Rick with a police escort and a volunteer who had wheeled him out in a wheelchair. He hadn't opened his eyes since he had climbed into the cab of the truck. All he had said to her was, “Start driving north.”

She had fought the urge to salute him with a “Yes, sir.” Why wouldn't he just tell her where they were going?

She glanced sideways again. She didn't think he was actually sleeping.
He's probably awake and just doesn't want to see it happen when I total his truck.

A red Mazda Miata chose that moment to zip in front of her without signaling, forcing her to stomp on the brake. “Nice blinker, dude,” she hollered after him. The driver waved his apology as he whipped ahead of her and off the next exit.

“Relax,” Rick said without opening his eyes, his face pinched with pain. That sudden stop couldn't have felt good.

“That's easy for you to say. I don't even know where I'm going.”

Rick slowly sat up and moved the car seat back into an upright position. “We are going to my grandparents' cabin on the Skagit River. It's in the mountains off the North Cascades Highway about two hundred miles from here. It's the most remote place I know to go. I'm hoping it's remote enough to finally shake Hale off our trail.”

“You never know with Julian, though, do you?” she said. “But why didn't you tell me where we were going? Why all this secrecy?”

“Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but I'm sick of Hale popping up like a Whac-a-Mole everywhere we go. I figured the fewer people who knew our plans, the better.”

“Including me?” She probably sounded snarky, but the lack of sleep was making her feel grumpy, and she didn't like being kept in the dark.

“Of course not. When could I have explained things to you without being overheard?”

“You should have found a way. I deserve to know what's going on.” She blew a curl out of her eyes and stared ahead.

“Fair enough,” he mumbled.

She signaled and changed lanes again, looking for the nearest exit for I-5 North. “Do you think he has someone telling him where we are?” she asked Rick.

“I don't know. I can't imagine anyone in the department feeding Hale information, but I still can't figure out how he's tracking us. Until I know how he's doing it, we have to be careful who we trust. That's why Shelton and I decided to decrease our security detail and to keep our plans quiet. I have two buddies from the department—Russ Miller and Jason King—who will meet us up at the cabin, but other than that there are only a select few in the loop.”

Stephanie searched the traffic behind her in the rearview mirror. All the cars and drivers looked like innocent, bored commuters to her. “How will I know if he's following us?”

“You won't be able to tell in the city. We'll stop in Marysville for food and supplies. The traffic will thin out after that and we'll be able to tell more.” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes again. “Hopefully we'll catch a break for once.”

Stephanie agreed.
And hopefully the nice Rick from last night will come back.

* * *

After the stop for supplies and a run through the McDonald's drive-through window, Rick noticed that Stephanie's death grip on the wheel began to loosen. The farther north they drove, the more they both seemed to relax. He kept an eye on the traffic around and behind them, but he didn't see anything suspicious. It didn't mean Hale hadn't followed them again, but if he had, Rick couldn't see him.

He wasn't used to being a passenger, but the dizziness was still too strong for him to drive safely. The over-the-counter painkiller he had swallowed with his soda at lunch had taken the edge off his pain, though, and eventually he began enjoying the drive. As they started the slow climb up into the Cascade Mountains, the scenery became less urban and more rustic and nostalgic by the minute. It was the background of so many of his childhood memories.

“The highway reopened only a few weeks ago, so the road might be a little rough,” he told Stephanie. “They always close it for the winter.”

Stately evergreens lined the highway, and giant mountains still wearing their winter white loomed all around them. “Ever been across this pass before?” he asked Stephanie.

“No,” Stephanie answered. “It's gorgeous.”

Rick agreed. “They call these the American Alps.”

She leaned forward and peered through the windshield. “I grew up in Eastern Washington, but we always took Stevens or Snoqualmie Pass to get to Seattle. Those passes have pretty views, but this...this is...wow.”

Rick smiled. It was fun seeing it all anew through Stephanie's eyes. She was having a hard time keeping her eye on the road as she gawked at the passing vistas.

“Wow,” she said again.

“I spent a lot of time up here as a kid fishing with my grandpa Powell,” Rick said, gazing at the Skagit River running along the highway. The river surged strong and high, bloated with spring melt. It would be another month before they opened the season for chinook. Rick longed to have a fly rod in his hands.

“I wish it was good fishing right now,” he told her. “Actually, fall is my favorite time of year to fish up here, though. You should see how beautiful it is when the trees are on fire with color.”

Rick almost added,
I'll have to bring you up here again then and teach you how to fish,
but he remembered that his protection duty would be over long before the leaves turned. Stephanie wouldn't be a part of his life by then. Besides, who knew if she would even be interested in fishing?

“I grew up in a house full of girls. I've never even touched a fishing pole,” she admitted. “It sounds fun.”

“It is fun,” Rick said. “But it's more than that for me. More like an art, or an obsession. Some people paint, I guess I fish.”

“I thought fishing was a summer sport,” she said.

“No.” Rick chuckled. “If I try hard enough, I can find somewhere to fish year round. Coho run in the fall, and on odd years, we get a good humpy run then, too.”

Rick sighed, soaking up the scenery. It had been too long since he'd gotten away from the city. He used to fish every chance he got, but he had been too preoccupied with recovery and rehab to make the drive up here. Prior to his injury, he had wanted to come, but Allie hated leaving civilization behind. How long
had
it been since he'd had a fishing pole in his hands?

Axle whimpered from the backseat. The dog stared longingly out the back windows, probably imagining a romp through the woods. “Not much longer now, buddy, and you can get out and run,” Rick assured him.

About an hour later, Rick directed Stephanie to turn off the main highway, and they began weaving along the opposite banks of the meandering Skagit River until they arrived at the old wooden Powell Family sign. His nana had hand-painted it herself to mark the top of their private lane.

Stephanie giggled as the truck bumped along the rutted path. “Just try to find us all the way out here, Julian Hale.”

Rick sat up straight and leaned forward, eager to spot the cabin site. As the trees thinned and the A-frame cabin with its wraparound porch and sloped green metal roof greeted his hungry eyes, he felt all of the weariness and heartache he had been carrying around with him throughout the past year begin to evaporate. He flopped back against the car seat, his lips curling up at the corners.

He was home.