by Janie Crouch
She turned to the women. “Let’s go, ladies. Back into my apartment until we know what’s going on.”
Rachel was crying as Keira led Heather, Annabel and the other two women who had recently joined them at the shelter into her apartment.
A few minutes later the alarm shut off. It wasn’t long before Roman came and knocked at the apartment door.
“It’s okay for you all to come out,” he said. “It looks like a rock got thrown through the window. That’s what set off the alarm.”
Keira hadn’t given the other women all the details about Damien Freihof, but they knew there was someone out there who wanted to harm her.
Of course, all these women had someone out there who wanted to harm them. So none of them had been surprised to find Keira did also. Brenda, who had just moved to the shelter two days ago, glared at all of them.
“I’m leaving. This place isn’t any safer than the homeless shelter downtown. Maybe even more dangerous.”
Keira felt heartbroken, but didn’t try to argue with the woman. She needed to go where she felt safe. Maybe all the women needed to go somewhere else until this was over. Maybe Keira needed to close the salon.
But no one else made any similar statements. The other women gave Keira a hug and headed back to their rooms. Annabel smiled and told her not to worry, it was only a rock. But Keira could see the tension in her face.
She turned to Roman when they were alone. He pulled her into his arms. At first she resisted, but then allowed herself to sink into his strength.
“How bad is it?” she asked after a long minute.
“Damage-wise, not so bad. The rock was thrown through the side panel window, not the main one. So you should be able to get it easily replaced tomorrow.”
Keira let out a sigh. “I need to go down there and check it out.”
Roman didn’t let her. “The forensic team is coming by to search for any trace evidence. Don’t go down there yet.”
“Could it have been an accident? I don’t know a lot about Damien Freihof, but I don’t think his style seems to be throwing rocks through windows. Maybe it was that vandal I stopped last week.”
“It definitely wasn’t an accident or a vandal.”
“How do you know?” She pulled out of his arms. “There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”
Roman nodded. “The rock had a message written on it.”
“What?” she asked. “What did it say?”
Roman grimaced. “‘I’m coming for you, bitch.’”
“Oh my gosh, Roman. Do you think it was Freihof?”
Roman’s face was tense. “Rocks through a window aren’t his normal MO, but it definitely could be. Or it could’ve been—”
The screaming coming from down the hall startled them both.
“That’s Heather,” Keira whispered, aghast.
“Stay here.”
“There’s no way in hell, Weber.”
Roman took off running down the hall, but Keira was right behind him. When they got to Heather’s room, the door was cracked open.
Peeking from behind Roman, Keira could see that a strange man was holding Heather in front of him with a gun at her head.
Roman had his weapon raised and pointed at the man instantly. “You need to drop that gun right now.”
The intruder’s eyes grew wilder. “No way, man. Do you know what this bitch has cost me? She was one of my best tricks.”
Keira looked at Heather again. The woman was crying, her face totally white, but at least she didn’t have the baby in her arms. Little Rachel must be over in her crib.
“Keira—” Heather called out, raising her arm toward the crib, before the man jerked her closer.
“You shut up, bitch. You’ve caused enough trouble. I didn’t think I would ever find you, but you didn’t run far enough, did you?”
This man was obviously dangerous. But Keira knew what Heather wanted her to do, and she was going to do it.
She started to move from behind Roman into the room.
“Keira, stop.” Roman’s voice was tense and so low only she could hear it.
“I’m getting what matters most to Heather out of the room. Then I’ll leave you to do your job.”
Keira kept her hands raised as she eased along the wall toward the crib.
“What the hell are you doing?” the man asked wildly.
“I hired Heather as the nanny for my baby.” Keira knew she couldn’t let this maniac know that Heather had a child in the room. “So I want to get my baby out of here because I don’t like guns.”
Keira didn’t look at him again as she marched over to the crib and picked up baby Rachel. She prayed the man would buy her story and she could get the child out of the room.
“Mama’s here,” Keira said in a singsong voice as she lifted the baby from the crib. “Let’s get you out of here.”
As Keira crossed back to the door, she got a glimpse of the man’s face. He obviously had believed her and was just looking at her with distaste.
Heather’s face was so full of relief it brought tears to Keira’s eyes. The woman didn’t care what happened to herself, only what happened to her daughter. She was desperate that this man not know about the child.
Once Keira and Rachel were behind him, Roman took a step forward. “Drop the gun. Right now,” he said.
Keira forced herself to keep quiet as the man tightened his choke hold around Heather’s neck with his arm.
“I traveled over fifty miles to find this bitch. I’m taking her back with me. This ain’t got nothing to do with you, mister. Your baby is safe, so why don’t you just let me leave with my...employee.”
More tears streamed out of Heather’s eyes. She obviously thought Roman was just going to let the man take her.
“Can’t do that. I’m a federal officer. You picked the wrong house to break into.”
The man considered how this changed the gravity of the situation. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he was going to kill Heather.
But Heather realized it, too. And, based on what Keira knew about her past, about how ashamed she felt that she had never physically fought back against the man who had taken her and forced her to become a prostitute, Heather did something she’d been wanting to do for a long time.
She swung her arm out and with all her might elbowed her captor in the gut.
He obviously wasn’t expecting that. When he doubled over and Heather stumbled to the side, Roman took a shot. He fired into the man’s shoulder, which caused him at once to drop the gun.
Heather scrambled away as Roman leaped for the man, dragging him down and away from the woman and the weapon.
The man began screaming as Roman pinned his arms behind him, keeping his head forced to the ground with his knee.
“Heather, go get my handcuffs in Keira’s apartment. I can promise you you’re never going to have to worry about this guy ever again.”
Chapter Sixteen
That night Roman slept in Keira’s bed.
He hadn’t minded sleeping on the couch all the nights before. In fact, in a lot of ways he thought it was healthy. He and Keira needed to establish a normal baseline.
Moreover, she needed to learn that she could trust him. That he wasn’t going to rush her or force her into anything she wasn’t ready for. The greatest way to do that was to give it time.
As part of the SWAT team, a lot of times he had to make split-second decisions that meant life or death. But more often than not he had to wait, use an uncanny patience, in order to achieve the results the team needed.
He didn’t necessarily enjoy it, but he knew how to be patient. And Keira was worth being patient for.
Wrapping up the attack at Fresh Starts took hours. It was long after midnight by the time they finished the police and para
medic business, and Roman had filed his report for discharging his weapon.
Roman hadn’t resisted one bit when Keira had pulled him into the bed with her. He just held her as they both fell into an exhausted sleep.
He was still holding her against him when a call from headquarters pulled him out of his sleep. Evidently, Heather’s attacker was out of surgery, awake, and wanted to see if he could cut some sort of deal.
Brandon Han would be questioning him and needed Roman there, too. Roman didn’t ask why, just got ready.
Keira’s small body clung to him as he left the bed. He whispered to her that he had to leave, but when she made no real move to wake up he just smiled and left her sleeping. He wrote a note and left it on the pillow beside her so she would know where he was when she awoke.
When Roman arrived at the hospital, Brandon handed him the guy’s rap sheet. “Ronald Dunham, aka Spike.”
Roman glanced through the file. It was a virtual laundry list of crimes. Battery, willful destruction of property, assault. He was also wanted for suspicion of human trafficking in three different states.
“This guy’s a real prince,” Roman muttered. “I have no doubt he would’ve killed Heather if I hadn’t taken him out.”
Brandon nodded. “Me, either. He’s done some stints for lesser crimes. But I think he realizes now he’s about to face some real charges. This is Sean Smallman with the DEA.” Brandon gestured to a man walking up with a cup of coffee. “Sean and I have a plan.”
Sean shook Roman’s hand as Roman raised an eyebrow. “I hope this works, Han. There’s no way we’re letting Dunham walk out of here free.”
“It’ll work. And trust me, we don’t want Spike free, either.”
Roman looked back and forth between the two men. “What’s the plan?”
“Spike mostly works out of Salt Lake City and Vegas,” Sean said. “Although we are pretty sure he has a trafficking ring in Denver also. We have the evidence, just have never been able to catch him.”
“Okay. Are we going to make a deal to get info about other traffickers? Try to turn this guy into an informant? I’m not sure that will work.” Roman thought of the gun pressed to Heather’s head. “And I’m not sure it’s worth it.”
“Don’t worry.” Brandon’s smile held nothing close to amusement. “Spike is making a deal with Omega Sector for us to drop charges for what happened at Fresh Starts. That you specifically won’t be pressing charges for him breaking in with a weapon. I’ll need you here to reassure him of that.”
“I’m willing to do that.” Roman nodded. “But not if it allows him back out on the streets.”
“It won’t.” Sean grinned so hard it had to hurt his teeth. “As soon as you’re finished with your deal, I’ll be arresting him on trafficking charges. We have enough to put him away for almost the rest of his life.”
“Good. Because if Spike gets out of here, he’ll be back at Fresh Starts the first chance he gets.”
Branded nodded. “That’s what got me thinking about this possibility in the first place. Fresh Starts is not a known shelter. It’s not big enough or established enough to be a place someone like Spike would know about.”
“So how did he find out about it?” Roman asked. “Because he knew just what to do to get inside.”
“It seems like someone called Spike and offered him the information.”
Roman grimaced. “Freihof.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
It fit perfectly with Freihof’s MO. Bringing someone else in to do his dirty work.
“All right.” Knowing Freihof was involved upped Roman’s sense of urgency. “Let’s see what our friend Spike has to say.”
Brandon and Roman walked into the hospital room, where Spike’s good arm was handcuffed to the bed. The DEA agent stayed out of sight. Important if this plan was going to work.
“That’s the guy!” Spike yelled. “That’s the guy who used unnecessary force and shot me.”
Brandon very calmly closed the door behind him and walked closer. “We both know that’s not going to work, Spike. There are two other witnesses that said you had a gun to a woman’s head.”
Spike immediately dropped the victim act. “Bitches. You can’t trust anything they say,” he muttered. But he didn’t continue to argue about unnecessary force.
“Agent Weber is here to sign an agreement that he won’t press charges against you for pulling a weapon on a federal officer,” Brandon told the man. “There will be no charge of assault with a deadly weapon. But in return, we want more information about how you found the woman you were looking for.”
Spike’s eyebrows shot up. He hadn’t been expecting this. The man had obviously thought he was going to have to roll over on some of his friends and colleagues in the trafficking trade.
That might still happen, but it would happen with the DEA, not with Omega.
Giving up information about someone like Freihof, to whom he had no real ties? That obviously wasn’t going to be a problem for Spike.
“Okay, sure. You sign the papers and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
“Spike,” Brandon said. “I know you were read your rights when you were first arrested. But you should know you have the right to have an attorney with you now.”
This was the moment of truth. If Spike was smart enough to call a lawyer, this plan wouldn’t work.
“All you want is info about the guy who called me?” Spike asked, the hair his nickname came from sticking straight up in clumps against the hospital pillow.
“That’s it.” Brandon nodded. “Omega Sector’s sole interest and questioning of you will have to do with the man who called you. Only him.”
A lawyer would’ve pointed out to Spike the gaps in the agreement. That Brandon had made the agreement just for Omega Sector, not for all law enforcement agencies.
But Spike was too cocky to bring anyone else in. Thought he had it all under control. He relaxed against the pillow.
“Yeah, sure. You’ve got a deal.”
Brandon got out the paperwork he’d already drawn up and explained it to Spike. As a measure of “goodwill,” Brandon even took off the handcuffs.
The younger man looked like the cat who ate the canary. He obviously thought he was going to get away with the scam of the century. Couldn’t wait to get back and tell his buddies about his close call.
Roman just wanted to know about Damien Freihof. But he knew he had to let Brandon do his job.
Brandon was almost always mentally two steps ahead of everyone else in the room. He was a dozen steps ahead of Spike.
“So tell us about the phone call you got which led you to Heather’s location,” Brandon began.
Spike shifted his eyes over to Roman and smiled, since he thought there was nothing Roman could do to him now. “I was in Denver a couple of days ago and I got a text. Someone said they knew where Heather was.”
Spike looked back at Brandon. “Heather and I had a falling-out seven or eight months ago. I just wanted a chance to tell her how sorry I was that things went so bad.”
Roman barely refrained from rolling his eyes. He remained where he was, near the door.
“I texted the person back and said I wanted to know where Heather was. Guy said he couldn’t tell me over the phone, but wanted to meet.”
“So you just met a complete stranger who was doing you a good deed?” Brandon asked. “No offense, but you seem too smart to fall for something like that.”
Spike smiled, not realizing Brandon was playing him like a fiddle.
“That’s right. I am too smart. I met with the guy, but made sure I had lots of...friends with me. Just to make sure this wasn’t some sort of trick.”
“And the guy gave you the information? Didn’t want anything from you in return?” Brandon asked.
“He just said he wanted
to make sure some damage was done to the haircut place. A rock through the window. Made me promise not to hurt anybody else, just wanted to shake things up.”
“And this man you talked to? What did he look like?”
“I don’t know, man. I guess he was about six feet tall. In his thirties or forties. Brown hair. I think he was pretty strong, but he didn’t want to show it off, you know?”
Brandon pulled out a picture of Damien Freihof from the file. “Is this the man you spoke with?”
Spike took the picture and studied it for a minute. “Yeah, I think so. I mean, he didn’t look exactly like this, but the eyes... The guy I talked to had the same sort of eyes. Kind of dead, you know? Like he didn’t have anything left to be afraid of.”
Roman wasn’t surprised to hear that it was Freihof who had given Spike the information. But that didn’t actually help them catch him. All it did was provide them with information they already had: that Freihof was targeting Keira.
“Is there anything else you can tell us about this guy?” Brandon asked. “Anything you remember about him? More information you might’ve received from him?”
Spike looked back and forth between Brandon and Roman for a long time, obviously trying to consider how much information he should share. “Why you want this dude?” he finally asked.
Brandon took a step toward Spike. “This guy has killed seven different people that we know of. Including one man who was his partner. He also tried to blow up a bank full of people a few years ago. Arresting him is of primary importance to us.”
Roman could appreciate what Brandon was doing. He was making Spike think Omega Sector had much bigger fish to fry than him. Which was nothing but the truth.
Plus, they would just let the DEA fry Spike.
“All right, look, I’ve got this kid who works for me. He’s, like, twenty years old, but he looks like he’s twelve. Small kid. Rico. He’s awesome at following people.”
Spike ran his good hand through his hair and continued. “Like you said, I’m too smart to just get drawn in by someone giving me something for nothing. I met with this guy, he gave me the information and said he didn’t want anything. But I had Rico follow him.”