“Lewis,” came Garrett’s strong voice.
“Garrett, it’s Matt.”
“Where have you been, man?”
“Preston Ware ambushed me. He locked me up in the basement of what looks like an abandoned drug house.” Matt shook his head as he scanned the landscape and saw nothing but derelict buildings. He could have screamed for help until his tongue fell out and no one would have heard him. If God hadn’t worked on Ryan and given him a change of heart, Matt would surely have died from heat stroke in that basement before someone found him.
Thank You, Lord, for Your mercies.
“I’m heading over there now to confront him. I think Preston is the one behind the Trixie ring and Luke’s murder. I have to warn Claire that she can’t trust him.”
He heard a pause in Garrett’s response. “That won’t be a problem. She’s already fully aware of what he is involved in.”
His heart wrenched. “Did he hurt her?”
“No, but he tried to convince her that you’d left her.”
Matt’s heart caught in his throat at the idea that Claire might believe he’d walked out on her again. She had believed it once before. “How do you know that?”
“She called my number when she couldn’t get you to answer.”
“Did you tell her it wasn’t true? That I wouldn’t leave her?”
“I didn’t have to tell her, Matt. She knew. She didn’t believe him. It seems as if that little ploy was the thing that convinced her he wasn’t telling the truth. She was convinced Preston had done something to you, so she started searching the house for clues where he might be hiding you.”
His emotions were all over the place. Proud that Claire hadn’t believed Preston’s lies and that she truly believed in him. But his relief was also flooded with anxiety that she was searching his house.
“You should have pulled her out of there,” Matt told Garrett.
“She insisted on staying. She said she wasn’t leaving until she knew what had happened to you.”
“If he realizes she knows he’s lying, there’s no telling what he might do.”
“Josh and I are staked out in front of the house. So far nothing is—”
He dropped off and Matt overheard Josh commenting on something. “What is it?” Matt asked, wishing this car would go faster. “What’s happening?”
“They just walked outside and Preston is carrying a suitcase. He put it in the trunk of his car. Claire looks frightened. He’s pushing her into the car. I think he’s onto her. He’s making his getaway.”
Matt pushed the accelerator to the floor and willed the car to go faster, but he knew in his heart he might not make it in time. Once again, he had to give up control.
“Lord, please don’t let him hurt her.”
* * *
Claire huddled against the door, sliding as far away from Preston as she could without climbing out through the window. He must have thought she would try that because he grabbed her arm and yanked her back across the seat.
“Don’t try it, Claire,” he growled. He pulled the seat belt even tighter around her. His gun was on his lap, close and easily in reach should he need it.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Away.”
She shuddered at the sting of his betrayal. “You killed Luke.”
“Claire, don’t be ridiculous. I haven’t killed anyone. Bill Spencer is the killer, not me.”
“You made him do it and then you killed him, too.”
“I protected you from him. He was going to kill you. I did my job.”
“And is it your job to sell drugs to kids? It was my job to protect them from you.”
“Stop it, Claire! I said stop it!”
“What did you do to Matt?”
Preston’s nostrils flared. “I am sick of hearing about Matt Ross! He’s all you care about anymore.”
“Where is he, Preston?”
“You want to know if I killed him? Don’t worry, Claire. Your precious Matt Ross is alive. I wanted to kill him, but I thought it would be more fun to frame him for Luke’s murder instead.”
She shook her head. “No one will believe that.”
“Everyone will believe it. Trust me, I have it all planned out. I won’t have to kill him to ruin his life.”
“You wanted to frame him just like you did me.”
“I never wanted to frame you, Claire. I thought you would turn to me to protect you. I thought it would bring us closer together. But you didn’t. You turned to Matt instead.” He spat out Matt’s name, his contempt clear.
How had she never noticed the darkness inside Preston? She couldn’t, she wouldn’t let him get away with this. If he managed to get her out of town, both her and Matt’s lives would be ruined.
She reached over and grabbed the wheel. Preston jerked, trying to bat her off. The car swerved several times before he backhanded her, forcing her to let go. But she wouldn’t give up without a fight. She jumped on him, causing him to lose control and swerve. He hit her again, knocking her into the passenger’s-side window.
The rev of an engine and the sound of a car approaching from behind them caught her attention. Preston gripped the steering wheel even tighter as he watched the car in the rearview mirror. When it caught up with them, Claire saw Matt driving. She screamed his name, causing Preston to shove her back onto the seat and reach for the gun on his lap.
“No!” Claire screamed as he let down the window and raised the gun. She lunged across the seat, grabbing him to keep him from hitting Matt. He jerked the wheel and the car swerved. Her seat belt locked, throwing her backward against the seat. The gun slipped through Preston’s fingers as he jerked the wheel. Tires screeched and the car spun out of control. They crossed the lane, clipped the guardrail and careened down the embankment before slamming into a tree.
A blaze of pain shot through her as her head connected with the seat. As she lost consciousness, her last thought was of Matt and thanking God that he was safe.
* * *
Matt watched in horror as the car took out the guardrail and rolled down the ravine. He slammed on the brakes, screeched to a halt and was out of the car in a flash. Claire’s screams reverberated in his ears along with the cry of metal giving way. Fear gripped him. He had to get to her. He started down the embankment.
“What are you doing?” Ryan yelled. “It’s too steep.”
“Call 9-1-1,” Matt hollered to him and started down the incline, his only thought being that he had to reach Claire.
Another car screeched to a stop and Josh and Garret jumped out.
“Are you crazy?” Josh cried to him. “You’re going to fall and break your neck.” He pushed Matt back, blocking his way.
Garrett rushed to the trunk and pulled out a length of rope. “We’ll lower you down,” he said, handing one end to Matt.
He tied it around him while Garrett and Josh positioned themselves to hold his weight as they helped him descend.
His head was spinning and his heart hammering against his chest. This couldn’t be happening again. He couldn’t lose Claire this way after all they’d been through. His feet hit the dirt the car had loosened and Matt realized his brothers had been right. He wouldn’t have gotten down the steep ravine without falling.
He reached the bottom and called up that he’d made it before untying the rope and rushing to the car. It had landed upside down against a large tree that had stopped its descent. The driver’s-side door was open and Matt peered inside. Preston was gone, but blood was on the seat, indicating he hadn’t escaped unscathed. But it was Claire who captured his attention as she sat slumped still in her seat by the locked seat belt. Blood dripped from a gash on her head, but otherwise she seemed to be uninjured, at least outwardly. She wasn’t moving and he suddenly fl
ashed back to the wreck ten years ago and the terror in her eyes as she pleaded with him.
I can’t move.
She began to squirm and Matt breathed a sigh of relief. “Claire, are you okay?”
She opened her eyes, looked at him and flashed him a weary smile. “Haven’t we been here before?”
His heart swelled with gratitude that she could still joke around with him. That was a good sign.
“Let’s get you out of here.” He tried to unbuckle her seat belt but it wouldn’t give way. How he wished he had his knife, but Preston had taken that, too, when he’d knocked him out. He searched around the inside of the car for something sharp. He grabbed a piece of metal that had been twisted and dislodged from the window frame and quickly cut through the seat belt. Claire literally fell into his arms and he pressed her to him, thankful for her safety.
“Are you hurt?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “I think I’m okay.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
He crawled out of the car, then helped Claire out, as well. He held her as she limped back toward the rope where Josh and Garrett were waiting to lift them back up. He reached for the rope, intending to tie it around her, when she cried out. He spun around and saw Preston a few feet away, his gun raised and pointed right at Claire. Matt quickly stepped between her and the gun.
“Nothing good can come of this, Preston. Just put down the gun and let’s talk this out.” Preston’s hand shook with anger and Matt was worried the gun might fire without his intending it to. Matt tried to keep his voice calm and steady as he spoke. “Think about this, Preston. Think about your life and your career. You don’t want to do this.”
“You’re wrong. I’ve wanted to put a bullet through your eyes from the moment I first saw you. And if Claire doesn’t want me, then I have no more use for her, either.”
He took a step closer and Matt knew this was no empty threat. “How are you going to explain that you killed two people?”
“Simple. I’ll just say Claire died in the wreck and you, overcome with grief over losing her again, shot yourself. I can be very convincing.”
“No one will believe that,” Matt told him. “My friends are up there. They know I don’t have a gun.”
“Too bad for them, then. I suppose they’ll have to disappear, as well.”
“Please don’t do this,” Claire cried. “You don’t have to do this.”
Matt knew that wasn’t true. He had no doubt Preston meant to make good on his threat. He’d gone too far to go back now. They had to disappear some way so that his secret business could disappear, as well. Even if he had to leave town, he needed time to get away.
But no matter what, Matt knew he had to give Claire a fighting chance. He might not survive lunging at Preston and wrestling him for the gun, but it might be Claire’s only hope of escaping.
However, before he could act, Claire lunged toward Preston and the gun. He fired and she toppled to the ground.
He and Preston both stood stunned for a moment at what had just happened. Fear rippled through Matt as Claire pressed at her stomach and her hand came back bloody. Matt tackled Preston before he had a chance to react, knocking him to the ground. The gun fell from his hand and Matt grabbed it. As Preston lunged for him, Matt raised the gun and shot him. He crumpled to the ground and didn’t get back up.
Matt rushed to Claire, who was lying still. Blood was pooling around her and her eyes had grown glassy. He recalled that awful night in the car when he’d been sure she was dead. He looked at her now and wondered the same thing. But a soft moan and a slow blink assured him she was still alive.
He picked her up and carried her back to where the rope was lying. He quickly tied it around her and tugged on the line for the boys to pull her up. Once she was safely to the top, they threw the rope back down and Matt scaled the embankment.
When he reached the top, Garrett took his hand and helped him over.
“Where is she?” he demanded, his focus solely on Claire.
“Josh is with her.” He motioned behind him and Matt saw Claire on the ground. Josh was beside her trying to keep pressure on her wound. His hands and shirt were already covered in her blood.
“The ambulance is already on the way,” Garrett assured him.
Matt stumbled toward her in a daze. This couldn’t be happening. Not again. For the second time in his life, he was watching Claire suffer. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right.
His knees buckled and he fell to the ground beside her, lifting up a prayer to God to save her life. “Please, God, help us.”
All color had drained from her face. Matt reached out and took her hand. It was cold to the touch and he recognized the look in Josh’s face as he tried to hold back the blood loss. Claire was fading fast.
Her eyes opened and slowly moved to Matt. Her breathing was light and shallow.
He pushed her hair back from her face and locked eyes with her. “You hold on, Claire,” he commanded her. “Don’t you give up on me now.”
Her eyes gradually, methodically closed and her head moved to the side.
Panic ripped through him at the thought of losing her. “Don’t you leave me,” he told her. “You hang on, Claire!”
The whirl of the sirens approaching them filled him with relief, but when the paramedics arrived and tried to push between them, he refused to release her hand.
“Sir, we need to work on her,” a female EMT insisted. “Please let us work.”
Josh and Garrett finally had to drag him away and his heart broke as her hand slipped from his. He couldn’t lose her now. He couldn’t.
The paramedics were busily working on her and they quickly loaded her onto a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance. Matt couldn’t tell if she was breathing and no one would give him a straight answer.
The boys stayed beside him as the local police chief questioned him about the events. He was obviously suspicious to have one of his detectives down and he wasn’t going to allow Matt to leave until he got answers.
But Matt was determined not to leave Claire’s side even for a little while. He answered the chief’s questions curtly. He had nothing to hide but he’d already let Preston get in his way. He wasn’t going to allow this police agency to get between him and Claire, as well.
The chief finally had to let them go.
Josh slid behind the wheel before Matt could insist on driving. When they arrived at the hospital, Matt rushed through the halls like a wild man searching for Claire. Thankfully, Josh was with him and calmly asked for directions.
“We’re looking for Claire Kendall. She was brought in with a gunshot.”
After several excruciating minutes, a man in hospital scrubs approached them and introduced himself as the ER doctor. He explained that Claire was being prepped for surgery to remove the bullet once she was stable enough.
As Matt waited for word, his mind was spinning at all the time they’d lost together. He should have been with her, right from the start, never leaving her. But that was the past and he couldn’t change it. As when he was trapped in the basement by Preston, this situation was out of his control. He’d done all he could to save her. Her survival now was in God’s hands...as it had truly been all along.
His friends always accused him of being emotionless, and even after the ambush, he hadn’t let his grief over his lost friends overwhelm him. He’d kept it tamped down, pushed away so he didn’t have to feel it, didn’t have to swim in it. Only now he was drowning. All his grief about the ambush and the years he’d lost with Claire came bursting through him, a wave of sorrow such as he’d never experienced. If he hadn’t been sitting, he was sure it would have knocked him to the ground. He leaned into his elbows and put his hands over his face and cried out to God in pure anguish.
Josh and Garrett
left him alone in his grief, but they didn’t leave. When he glanced up, they were both sitting across from him, heads bowed in prayer or on the phone updating the rangers. His family and friends began to arrive, filling the waiting room and joining them in prayer. Friends of Claire’s from church and school began to arrive and so did many of her students whose lives she’d touched.
When the elevator doors slid open and the Kendalls entered, Matt knew he had to face them. “What happened?” Mr. Kendall demanded. “We just got back into town. We heard on the news that Claire was shot.”
“It was Preston. He shot her.”
Mrs. Kendall looked astonished. “Preston’s been Claire’s friend for years. He would never harm her.”
“Well, he did. And he’s also the drug dealer who ordered the student killed that she was accused of murdering.”
“I don’t understand why he would do that. He seemed like such a nice man.”
“It’s because he thought he owned Claire. He thought he loved her, but the truth is he never knew what true love was. He could never have what Claire and I have.”
Mr. Kendall snorted and Matt knew he was about to remark about past mistakes. “I’m not a kid anymore, Mr. Kendall. I love Claire, and I’m planning to stick around this time.”
He wondered how Mr. Kendall would respond, but he didn’t have to wait for long. The nurse arrived before he could speak to let them know Claire was out of surgery and they could see her now.
“Just family,” the nurse said when Matt started for the door.
To his surprise, Mr. Kendall answered before he could. “He is family,” he told the nurse, and that was all he said before leading his wife through the doors to see their daughter.
* * *
Claire heard murmuring as she awoke. The voice seemed far away but grew closer. Soon, it became clearer and she realized it was prayers. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was clearly in a hospital room, but why? She turned her head toward the sound of praying and saw Matt in the chair beside her hospital bed. His head was lowered and his hands folded in front of him. She heard him whisper her name and realized he was praying for her. Her heart warmed at the sight.
Reunion Mission (Rangers Under Fire) Page 17