Stolen Redemption (Texas SWAT, #2)

by Bristol, Sidney

  “I do.” Casey was their less lethal specialist. He had a small arsenal of gas and alternative munitions to bullets. Considering they had three potential hostages, they wanted to treat this situation with as much care as they could.

  “You think we bust in a window, toss gas and enter through the door?” Trevor asked.

  “We’ve done it dozens of times.” Alex peered up at him.

  “Yeah. We can do that approach.” Trevor nodded.

  Casey spoke slowly, “I think, to cover our ass, we should radio this in right before we breech.”

  “That’s smart,” Val chimed in.

  “In case something goes sideways I’d like to know help is on the way,” Sean said.

  “Well, let’s do this,” Liam drawled.

  “Okay.” Trevor swallowed. There wasn’t time to second guess things. Dina’s brother wanted her dead. He had to realize things were bad and that his best chance was to do the deed and leave fast. “Let me get the rest of my gear, then we can go.”

  “Liam and I will scope out what’s going on inside,” Alex said.

  Thos two moved off silently.

  Casey popped his trunk open and Trevor reached in, grabbing the rest of his gear.

  “You want to breech, or should I?” Val asked. They rarely were on the same teams since they served the same function.

  “I don’t have a door ram. Do you?” Trevor’s had been stowed in the team gear at their team leader’s directive since.

  “I do.” Val nodded.

  “You breech, I’ll go in first.” Trevor strapped on his helmet, the gear sitting a little odd over jeans and his T-shirt.

  “Got it.” Val turned, presumably to retrieve the twenty pound door ram.

  “You going to be okay on point?” Casey asked quietly.

  “I’m the best one for it. I know which girl is Dina, I’ve seen Dominick and I know who our players are,” he said.

  “Yeah, but—”

  “I need to go in first,” he said.

  Trevor hadn’t understood Alex’s need to vault the damn fence and be ahead of the rest of the team when they’d rescued Jenna. Boy, Trevor did now.

  “I really wish you guys would reconsider waiting on everyone else. What if things go sideways?” Casey asked.

  “Then they’ll be on their way.” Trevor gave his straps one last pat then hooked the strap for his rifle over his shoulder.

  “Okay. Whatever you say, man.” Casey looped a bandolier across his chest. The pockets held canisters of gas, color coded with bits of tape and arranged in a way that made sense to him.

  Trevor and Casey crossed to join Val, Sean, Alex and Liam behind a SUV parked down the street from their vehicles.

  “Everyone ready?” Trevor asked.

  He received a round of nods.

  “I’ll go up first with the shield.” Alex tapped the bullet proof shield with its clear window.

  “I think, given the damage to the door, I should knock out the window with Casey first,” Val said.

  “Good idea. Let’s have you two move in first, then the three of us will hit the door,” Trevor said.

  “I can adjust the fuse for a three second timer,” Casey said.

  “Do it.”

  “Want me to hold the light?” Alex positioned himself to shield the light from the house across the street while Casey fiddled with the gas canister.

  “There.”

  “Everyone ready?” Trevor asked again.

  “Let’s mask up.” Alex met his gaze.

  Trevor was grateful for the man’s presence. Trevor owed Alex a debt of gratitude and a good measure of forgiveness. Trevor had been rough on Alex over Jenna, but he hadn’t understood until now just what it had been like for them. Now he did.

  The all slipped their masks on.

  “We still calling this in?” Casey asked.

  “I am...right...now,” Sean muttered.

  They moved into formation, Alex in the lead with the shield. Then came Val and Casey. Trevor followed with Sean and Liam taking up the rear. They’d be the first through the doors. With any luck Dominick would be a clear shot.

  “Dispatch?” Sean whispered. “Hey, Delores? Will you please inform Chief Taylor we have located the suspect and all three hostages... That would be Alex, Trevor, Casey, Val and myself. I think I just heard a shout for help. Got to go. Send the cavalry.”

  “Let’s roll,” Trevor said. He tightened his grip on his gun and focused on the bright squares of light.

  Dina was in there, and he was going to rescue her. Then, well, he didn’t know what he’d do but at least they’d have time to figure out the next steps together.

  20.

  THE MOMENTS CREEPING up the driveway in the dark were surreal. Almost an out-of-body experience. Trevor had thought that if he kept Dina close, if he could convince her to do it all his way, that he could keep her safe. Instead, she’d been kidnapped right out from under his nose after she’d finally put her full trust in him. They’d shared something deeper, special last night.

  Now he understood her fear and the years of running.

  Dominick wouldn’t give up until Dina was dead.

  Trevor wasn’t going to let that happen. He loved Dina. He couldn’t allow her to be ripped from him.

  Alex slowed his step at the edge of the garage, his hand up. Another ten or so inches and they’d be in full view of the front door.

  The hair on the back of Trevor’s neck rose. The world seemed to sharpen and his mind locked into his body, more present now than he’d been since...last night when he’d looked into Dina’s eyes and seen his future.

  Adrenaline surge.

  They all had it.

  One thing that made the guys on SWAT the same was that this? This moment where they could taste sound, they craved it. But not tonight. Tonight was different. If Trevor lost Dina he—

  Alex dropped his hand.

  The six of them moved forward.

  Their numbers were off for a typical op and there was no tactical medic. If someone was hurt, they could die. But if they didn’t move now Dina would die. Her brother wasn’t going to wait.

  They were as silent as they could be.

  Val and Casey broke ahead of them. Val hauled back with the twenty pound door ram and shattered the bay window. No sooner had Val made the hole than Casey shouldered in and tossed a hissing canister into the house.

  A woman yelled something, but that wasn’t Dina’s throaty voice.

  One.

  Trevor turned his head.

  The other girls, perhaps?

  Two.

  The flash came first, a bright flare of light meant to momentarily blind people. Then the bang, deafening their targets, confusing them.

  Trevor and Liam moved in unison. Liam acted first, hauling back and kicking the damaged door. The crumbling doorframe gave way and the decades old door crashed into the entry. Trevor shouldered his way in, gun up, searching the acrid smoke for signs of Dina.

  “Ransom SWAT,” he yelled over the screaming of two girls, moving into the living room.

  Two teenage girls lay on the floor between the coffee table and the sofa.

  They weren’t his concern.

  “Dina?” he called out.

  Behind him Sean and Liam moved to secure the girls and ensure they weren’t a threat. Just because they were young and stupid didn’t mean they were harmless, especially given who their family was.

  The door to the garage stood open, the lights on.

  A man leaned into view.

  “Gun!” Trevor bellowed and went to a knee, the bar between kitchen and living room offering some cover.

  Dominick squeezed off one shot that went into the far wall.

  “Trevor?” Dina called out, her voice echoing in the garage.

  “Clear,” Alex called out.

  Trevor nodded and rose into a crouch and moved around the bar. He stared at the open door through the sights.

  The four expected players were he
re.

  Dominick.

  Dina.

  The two girls.

  “Get them out of here,” Alex said behind Trevor. “Casey, clear the back of the house.”

  He swallowed and edged through the door. Under normal circumstances he wouldn’t be part of an op that involved anyone he knew. It was why he’d been back in the control room with Alex earlier tonight. But Trevor wasn’t about to sit around and know he could have been there for her.

  The two-car garage felt almost empty with just her hatchback and a few boxes inside of it, yet the space brimmed with tension.

  “Easy. Easy,” Trevor said coming to a stop just inside the garage.

  “Get out of here,” Dominick snarled. He stood on the other side of the car, his arm around Dina’s chest and a gun pressed to the underside of her jaw.

  “I can’t do that,” Trevor replied.

  His heart beat in his throat and everything inside of him said to react, to do something, to save Dina. But one wrong move and she’d be dead. Dominick, too, at that angle. Did he know that? A bullet would rip up through her head and straight into him.

  “Let’s talk?” Trevor had to diffuse the situation, no matter that he wanted to put a bullet in the guy.

  Alex and Casey crouched just out of sight in the kitchen. Trevor saw the silver gleam of another canister in Casey’s hand and shook his head. Dominick was a dangerous, cornered man. If he jumped, flinched too hard, he could kill them both.

  Hell, losing Dina might kill Trevor.

  Which was why he had to take the tension down a few notches.

  “Here. I’m going to put my weapon down. Let’s talk, okay?” Trevor lowered the rifle and pushed his shoulders back.

  He couldn’t look at Dina. That was a line he couldn’t cross. He hadn’t spied any red on her, no visible injuries, and that was what he had to hold on to. If he stared into her eyes, he’d fall to pieces and she needed him to be strong.

  “Can you point your gun somewhere else?” Trevor asked.

  “Back up,” Dominick snarled.

  “I’m not doing that.” Trevor kept his tone easy.

  “I don’t care if those two won’t leave, make them,” Alex said in a low voice to Liam.

  “Talk to me, Dominick. It’s Dominick, right? Not D or Nick or anything?” Trevor took a step closer.

  Dominick straightened his arm, pointing the gun at Trevor.

  Some of the tension in Trevor’s gut eased.

  Dina was still at risk, but not from a twitchy finger.

  “Hey, easy man. We’re just talking.” Trevor managed a smile.

  “Fuck you!” Dominick spat.

  “Now—”

  Gunfire tore through the night. Glass broke in the next room. The girls screamed.

  Trevor ducked, going into a crouch.

  “One armed suspect outside,” Liam yelled.

  What a time to not have comms.

  Dina screamed, the pain filled sound echoing off the concrete and metal.

  “Dina? Dina!” Trevor felt the puff of air from a passing bullet before it hit the back wall.

  “T-Trevor?” Her voice wavered. He could hear the pain in it.

  “Shut up,” Dominick snapped.

  Trevor swallowed down the threats he wanted to make, the ultimatums he wanted to give. It was up to him to save her now.

  He threw himself forward, flattening himself on the ground.

  How many shots was that? How many guns did the shooter have?

  Was it Little Tony? Had Phillip gotten out of the car? Or was there another player?

  Trevor crawled forward. He could only address one threat at a time, and right now that was Dina.

  CASEY HEARD THE SHOTS echo through the night.

  They were clear, unmuffled and outside.

  He couldn’t communicate with those inside and backtracking would waste time when what his team inside the house needed was to stop the threat. They couldn’t count on dispatch getting anyone to them what with their resources spread thin on a manhunt, so it was up to Casey.

  He jogged around to the north side of the house. The neighbor’s trees offered additional cover as he neared the front of the house.

  The rain of bullets stopped.

  Everyone had to reload sometime.

  Casey leaned out, but the street was clear.

  No one stood in the lawn.

  He lifted his rifle and edged out from the shadows.

  A hulking beast of a man stood in front of the garage in the thick of the shadows. Reloading two handguns.

  “Put your guns down and get on the ground,” Casey ordered.

  The man’s head and arm snapped up.

  They both fired at the same moment. Two bullets ripping through the night.

  DINA GASPED FOR AIR. Dominick’s arm around her chest made it harder to suck down oxygen. Her stomach felt as though it were on fire. Her insides screamed in pain.

  She tried to shift her feet, maybe change positions, but she couldn’t feel her toes. Her legs wouldn’t obey her.

  Her head lolled to the side, and she stared at the red pool of liquid on the ground.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit,” Dominick muttered.

  Shit indeed.

  This was how it would end?

  A stray bullet and not some grand execution?

  She gripped the handle of the gardening tool tighter. Dominick hadn’t paid her any mind. That was all on Trevor and the garage door.

  “Dina?” Trevor called out.

  Her eyes prickled and tears clouded her vision.

  She couldn’t die. Not like this. The last thing she wanted was to become another weight on his soul, another person taking up space in his heart. He deserved better than this.

  “Stay back,” Dominick ordered.

  Dina rolled her head, leaning back on her brother’s shoulder. They’d landed on the floor, her between Dominick’s legs.

  It was getting cold. Texas wasn’t cold this time of year.

  She was dying.

  Dina locked eyes with Trevor crouching at the hood of her car. His gun was up, but she was in the way. Dominick would make sure she died before he was captured. He wasn’t about to give up this one thing. She could fight back. She had to. But he had the upper hand.

  There was no way she was going to go down without a fight even if it was pointless.

  If she was going to die in a dirty garage in her homicidal brother’s arms, she could at least say what she needed to.

  “Trevor?” Her voice wavered, and she tasted blood.

  “Don’t talk, Dina,” he said.

  “Get the fuck back.” Dominick tightened his arm around her chest.

  “Trevor, this isn’t—” She coughed and turned her head, spitting blood. That couldn’t be good. Her head weighed too much and her arms were beginning to tingle. “This isn’t your fault.”

  “Dominick, she needs help. She needs a doctor—”

  “What she needs is for you to back the fuck up.”

  Dina needed to see Trevor. She needed to look at him one last time. She lifted her chin and looked into his eyes, so focused on her. He was doing his best to be the cop, but she could see him bleeding around the edges.

  “I’m sorry.” She sucked down a breath. It was getting harder. “I love you.”

  Dominick choked out a laugh.

  “You don’t know how to love anyone,” he said.

  “Shut up,” Trevor snapped.

  “I love you, Trevor.”

  Dina jabbed the pointed gardening tool back over her shoulder. She felt it hit soft skin. Dominick’s body jolted, and he cried out. She shoved as hard as she could. Dominick struck her in the side of the head and she went sprawling to the ground.

  Two gunshots echoed so loud in the small space, chasing her into darkness so complete she couldn’t see a light.

  TREVOR STARED AT THE gleaming tiles of the waiting room floor. He’d been in this chair for hours with no word about Dina’s progress. The nurse woul
dn’t say anything and no amount of coaxing or begging had worked. He was effectively cut off from her.

  What if she didn’t make it?

  Best he could tell she’d been struck by one of Little Tony’s shots that had gone through the garage door. When Jenna and the ambulance had arrived, she’d told Trevor they had to take Dina to a Fort Worth hospital. They could only do so much for her in Ransom considering the extent of her injuries.

  That had been around eleven, maybe midnight. Time had blurred for him after she went missing. He wasn’t sure what time it was now.

  He glanced up at the clock on the waiting room wall.

  Half-past nine.

  A lot could happen in twelve hours.

  “Drink this.” Pearl pressed a paper cup into his hand. Judging by the creamy color she’d doctored it up already.

  Trevor wasn’t sure when Pearl and Bunny had appeared. They’d bullied him into eating some kind of sandwich, drinking a bottle of water, then sat quietly by. How they’d known where to find him or what happened was a mystery to him. Then again, the L.O.L. Gang was everywhere.

  He sipped the sweet coffee, if it could be called that, and turned to study the new people on shift at the Emergency Department desk.

  This was getting ridiculous. Someone was going to tell him something.

  “Trevor!”

  He whipped his head toward the door and stared at his mother rushing toward him.

  “Mom, hey.” He stood, and she wrapped her arms around him. “We just heard. I’m so sorry. How is she?”

  He opened and closed his mouth.

  There wasn’t anything to say.

  Dina had been in bad shape when Jenna pried his hands off her wound. There’d been so much blood in that garage.

  Bunny stood and laid a hand on his mother’s shoulder. “The nurses haven’t been released to tell us anything.”

  “What?” Mom gaped at him.

  Trevor nodded. He didn’t know who had ruled on the security surrounding Dina’s care, but that was all they knew. Hell, for all he knew she’d been transferred somewhere else.

  He glanced over his mother’s shoulder at his father hanging back.