Love Inspired Suspense April 2015 #1 (20 page)

“Who's there?” she called.

The door swung open, and a pallid face peeked around it. His washed-out blue eyes widened. “It's just me.”

She released all the air she'd been holding as she realized it was the IT guy who had been helping her install all of the new technology she had received from a grant she had won for her classroom. He dropped in unannounced all the time, but this was the first time he had come on a weekend.

Stephanie lowered the stapler in her hand. She must have grabbed it without realizing it before the door opened. Her cheeks burned. She hoped he hadn't noticed the threatening way she had held it. What good would a stapler have done her if it truly had been an emergency?

Her laugh sounded forced and flat in her own ears. “You scared me.”

The blond man stood on the classroom door's threshold, his tool bag in hand. He stood perfectly erect, unblinking.

“I didn't mean to startle you,” he said. “I didn't expect anyone to be here.”

“Did you need anything?”

He pointed at a stack of shipping boxes she hadn't noticed sitting near the front whiteboard. “I thought I would get a head start setting those up for you so you can use them on Monday,” he said.

After she won the grant, boxes like these had slowly trickled into her classroom. It felt like Christmas every time a new one arrived. She eyed a large flat box and hoped that the smart board she was looking forward to using was inside it.

Stephanie nibbled on her lower lip, not liking being alone with a man she didn't know well, but she was unsure of what to say or do that wouldn't come across as rude. “Um, sure, I'll just get out of your way, then.”

“Thank you, Stephanie.”

It was probably nothing more than the overactive imagination she had been combating all day, but something about the way he pronounced her name sent a shiver scampering up her spine. She gathered up her lesson plan book and the stack of essays and moved to the opposite corner from where he stood in the doorway.

“You're welcome, Julian. Let me know if you need anything.”

She walked to the round worktable, but before she sat, movement outside startled her.

“Rick?” She cocked her head, confused.

Why was Terrell's friend Rick Powell out there? She gasped. Rick wasn't just standing at the window; his gun was pointing directly at her through the glass.

TWO

R
ick's spirits had lifted when he rounded the corner of the school building and saw the glow of artificial light coming from the fourth classroom down the wall. He had hoped he would simply have to knock on Stephanie's classroom window and all of this would be behind them. But once he peeked into her classroom, he knew it wouldn't be that simple.

Even through the window's dirty glass, Rick had recognized Stephanie immediately, but it was the man standing in the doorway behind her, fitting the exact description of Julian Hale, that had caused him to pop back and draw his weapon.

“Freeze!” Rick shouted through the window. He doubted they could hear him clearly, if at all, but he hoped the raised gun made enough of a statement. The glass wouldn't stop him if he had to shoot.

Rick's gaze locked on Hale, trying to anticipate his next move. What was Hale going to do? Run? Try to take out Stephanie? Hale was caught, and Rick expected to read surprise or even fear displayed in the other man's body language. Instead, Hale appeared unfazed by the gun and strangely poised.

Rick needed to get Stephanie out of here and deliver her safely to Terrell Watkins. When they had split up to look for her, Rick had promised Terrell that he would get to her before Hale did. Rick's gut twisted. He had failed to keep that promise.

Terrell and his wife, Val, viewed Stephanie O'Brien as a member of their family. The three of them had known one another for years, and Rick had run into Stephanie so often at their house, he had finally asked Terrell if she was living with them. To which Terrell had laughed and answered, “Practically.”

But Terrell wasn't laughing now. Back in the attic, Terrell's broad shoulders had slumped and deep lines of worry had furrowed his forehead as he tried to reach Stephanie on her cell phone.

“My calls are going straight to voice mail,” Terrell had said, skimming his tightly cropped black hair with his large hand. “That girl never keeps her cell phone charged, and Val hasn't seen her at all today.”

Rick had hated seeing Terrell so upset. The team counted on their sergeant's lighthearted personality to ease the tense situations. His jokes had gotten Rick through a lot of heavy spots, but with the roles reversed, Rick hadn't known what to say. Finding the photograph of one of your closest friends in the attic of a wanted killer wasn't a light thing.

And now here she was right in front of him. How was he going to get her away from Hale?

Without lowering his gun, Rick reached up and grabbed his mic. “Code 3 assist. I've got a visual on the suspect.”

* * *

Stephanie wasn't sure which of the two men to look to for answers. She turned back and forth between Rick at the window and Julian in the doorway until it dawned on her. Rick's gun wasn't aimed at her; his target was Julian, and Stephanie was in the way.

She dropped to her stomach, scattering the papers she held in her arms, and scooted toward the window on her belly. Was that the right thing to do? She wished she could read Rick's mind. Right or wrong, she had to put distance between her and the doorway where Julian still stood.

“Stop moving, Stephanie,” Julian's icy voice instructed her.

She froze midcrawl. “Why are the police here, Julian? What have you done?”

Although he spoke to her, his eyes stayed on the window and Rick's gun. “I suspect the officer is here not only because of what I've already done, but because he knows what I'm planning to do next.”

From her vantage point on the ground, Stephanie looked up and studied Julian's face. A slow, small smile spread, then flickered out, leaving the flat, emotionless affect he always wore. She had noticed his oddities before—his formal speech, erect posture and unwavering calm. She had written them off as nothing more than a social awkwardness from a man who spent all of his time working with computers instead of people. Now she found the same mannerisms cold and calculating.

What are you planning to do?

Fear amplified the flow of blood behind her ears as it raced adrenaline through her body. Her heartbeat paralleled the ticking of the old clock in the front of the classroom. The minute hand kept bouncing into place, marking how long Stephanie lay on the ground waiting for something to happen.

Julian didn't say any more; his eyes remained locked on Rick. She waited for Rick's gun to shatter the glass, but that didn't happen, either. She remained motionless on her stomach, stuck in the middle of a standoff with no idea what she should do next.

The distant sound of approaching sirens hit her ears. From the sound of it, a lot of law enforcement was about to descend on this place, yet Julian seemed unperturbed by it all. Maybe she could stall him until they arrived.

“What are you planning to do, Julian?” she asked him.

His soulless eyes turned her direction, making her shiver from the coldness she saw in them. “You will have to wait and see, Stephanie. I promise you will know soon enough.” Then he bolted from the doorway and disappeared down the dark hallway.

Hammering hit the window above her. Stephanie peered through her lifted arm and watched the old window splinter from the force of Rick's nightstick. Stephanie moved to stand up as Rick raked out the remaining glass, but she fell back down flat again when a large dog flew through the broken window. Stephanie screamed and covered her head.

Rick climbed in the window. “The dog won't hurt you,” he reassured her. “Axle,
sitz
!” he commanded, and the dog froze and sat at attention.

“Did you see which way Hale ran?” Rick asked her.

“I don't know. Right, I think?”

Rick spoke into his radio. “Suspect is running toward the front of the school. I won't be able to intercept. Have incoming units set up a perimeter.”

Rick squatted beside her. “Are you okay, Stephanie?”

She wanted to yell,
Scared to death, how do you think I'm feeling?
But the concern in his eyes stopped her. “Fine,” she told him.

Rick offered Stephanie a hand up, steadying her as she wobbled to her feet. She had been around Rick many times at Val and Terrell's house, but she had never been this close to him. She blushed. The skip in her heartbeat could not be blamed on fear.

“Hale may be hiding in the building. We need to get you to a safer location.” Rick let go of her arms and walked to the window. “Can you crawl out with me?”

Stephanie followed him through the window and accepted his outstretched hand on the other side. He guided her to the ground, and the dog leaped through behind them.

“Keep low and stay close behind me. We're going to move along the building to minimize visibility. Understand?”

“Visibility?” she asked him. “Does Julian have a gun?”

Was Julian really that dangerous? She shuddered, thinking of all of the times she had been alone with him in her classroom. What was he capable of doing?

“He's more worried about avoiding capture than he is with hurting you now, but I don't gamble. Stay low.”

Rick's long legs covered ground much faster than Stephanie's shorter legs could manage. She jogged behind him trying to keep up. When they rounded the building, Rick called to her over his shoulder, “The cavalry has arrived.”

Patrol car after patrol car surrounded them, filling the parking lot. The flashing lights and number of arriving vehicles mesmerized her. People in a variety of uniforms and suits piled out of their cars, sprinting in different directions.

All of this for Julian?
A typical criminal would not invite this intense of a response, would he? She spotted uniforms from Seattle Police Department and King County Sheriff's Office and read “SWAT” on the back of several officers advancing on the building. She swallowed as her eyes landed on the FBI label on the side of a parked SUV.

Rick placed a warm hand on the small of Stephanie's back and guided her to the passenger door of a blue patrol car with “K-9” painted on the side.

“Watch your head,” he said.

She backed down onto the passenger seat facing out. Rick kept his hand on the door and knelt in front of her. His nearness and direct gaze made her squirm. “Did Hale hurt you at all?”

She blushed and shook her head. “No. Julian had just arrived. He hadn't even stepped out of the doorway before you came.”

“Did he say anything to you?” Rick eyes roved across her face, looking as if he thought he would be able to read what he wanted to know written there. But she didn't have any answers. She didn't know what he needed her to tell him.

“I don't know. He said that you knew what he was planning to do next, or that you knew what he had already done, or something like that.” She closed her eyes trying to remember more, anything that would be useful.

“Did he say where he was going? What his plans were specifically?”

“No. I told you, Rick. I don't know anything. He wasn't making any sense. When I asked him what he was talking about, all he said was that I would know soon enough, and then he ran down the hall.”

“That's it? You're sure you can't remember anything else? This is important, Stephanie.”

It felt as though he was interrogating her. “I told you everything I can remember. There wasn't time for anything else.” She looked down into Rick's upturned face. His expression was hard, his mouth a straight line. She knew he wanted her to give him some clue, but she wanted some answers of her own. “Rick, you need to tell me what is going on.”

He stood up and leaned in close so she could hear his words above the racket. “I need to talk to these guys and then we'll get out of here, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, turning forward so her feet were in the car. Then the door slammed shut, leaving her alone in the silence to try to sort through all of the activity happening around her. He hadn't answered her question.

She scanned the bustling crowd outside the car and found Rick's tall form. He stood side by side with two other Seattle PD officers, each with their arms crossed over their chest, deep in serious conversation. Set in this scene, Rick's natural presence and rugged good looks made it easy to pretend he was the star of some crime show on prime time. But this was real life, and somehow she was involved in it. How had her quiet afternoon of lesson planning morphed into a TV drama?

Rick's dog waited at his side. His alert ears and long black snout reminded Stephanie of a German shepherd, but his coloring was a light brown and he seemed too small for a shepherd. Whatever breed he was, Stephanie could read the mutual devotion dog and handler had for each other. This dog didn't fit the image she had of intimidating and snarling K-9 dogs. This one looked more like an overgrown puppy with his tail in constant wag mode.

For the briefest moment, Rick's gaze held hers through the windshield. Her stomach tightened, and she held her breath. Time stretched, feeling longer than four heartbeats. What was he thinking? Had they caught Julian?

Rick's eyes remained fixed on where she sat watching him inside the car. He finished his conversation and walked away from the other officers, his dog jogging along beside him.
Finally, he'll be able to tell me what is going on.

Rick opened the rear door, allowing the dog to jump into the kennel in the back of the car. “Stephanie, meet Axle. Axle, meet Stephanie.”

Stephanie smiled over her shoulder. “Hey, Axle. Nice to meet you.”

Rick climbed into the front seat next to her. Stephanie turned her smile to him. “I'm not sure what all of this is about, but somehow I think I need to thank you for coming to my rescue.”

“My pleasure, Miss O'Brien,” he said in a bad impression of John Wayne. Rick's smile was wide and genuine, revealing a dimple in his left cheek she hadn't noticed before.

“Did you catch Julian?”
Are you going to tell me who he really is? What you want him for?

Rick's smile faded. “No, he got away from us for the second time today.” He maneuvered the car out of the parking lot. “Our job's not done yet. He's still loose, and he's still a threat.”

A stab of guilt hit Stephanie. Maybe Rick could have caught Julian if he hadn't stopped to take care of her first. “I'm sorry I kept you from going after him.”

“No. Don't be sorry.” He averted his eyes and quietly added, “You have no idea how happy I was to find you safe, and not...”

Stephanie waited for him to fill in that blank, but he let it drop. “Not what?” she probed.

Instead of a direct answer, he started the car's ignition and said, “I'm under strict orders to deliver you to Terrell. He'll fill you in on everything when we get to his house.”

Then he winked at her, and his dimple made its second appearance. “Right after he finishes yelling at you for not charging your cell phone.”