by Susan Stoker
“Okay, I’ll let you get back to sleep. Text me when you get up. I’ll miss you.”
“Miss you too.”
Beth was asleep as soon as the words left her mouth and didn’t feel the gentle kiss Cade left on her lips and forehead before he stood and left the room and headed off to the station for his shift.
She woke up a few hours later, feeling wide awake, which was typical. When she crashed, she crashed hard, but once she woke up, that was it. She was awake.
Beth stretched and thought about what she was going to do with her day. She needed to finish her research for Tex, then see if she couldn’t track down the ISP address for the sicko pervert she’d found the other night who was trying to find kids to buy on the Internet. Who the hell bought children on the Dark Web? A perverted asshole, that’s who. Beth had no doubt what he wanted to do with the little girls and boys once he had them.
She’d eat a big lunch, and then see if Cade was hungry when he got home. When he worked twelve-hour shifts, sometimes the squad got to eat at the station and other times they wouldn’t, depending on when—and how many—calls for assistance came in.
As Beth lay in bed, remembering the feel of Cade’s body against hers as they’d drifted off to sleep the night before, she heard an odd noise.
Because inside was where she felt the most comfortable, she’d memorized the “normal” sounds the house made. The air conditioner kicking on and off, the icemaker dropping ice, even the far-off sound of the garbage truck as it rumbled by every Thursday. But this wasn’t a sound she’d heard before—and that alone made her immediately tense.
Hopping out of bed before she’d really even thought about it, Beth grabbed the Station 7 T-shirt she’d been wearing before she’d come to bed the night before. She had it over her head and her sweats on before the sound came again.
Beth tilted her head and her brow wrinkled as she tried to determine what it was and where it might be coming from. Before she’d figured it out, male voices interrupted the serenity of the morning.
“Shut up, you asshole, do you want the entire neighborhood to hear you?”
“Jesus, Frank. There’s no one here. Guy’s truck is gone and the nearest house isn’t close enough to see us or care about what we’re doing.”
“Well, shut up anyway. You might as well make a billboard that says ‘burglars here, call the police’ with the way you’re stomping around.”
Beth froze in her tracks. The voices were downstairs…but she figured at some point the intruders would make their way up the stairs to try to find more valuables.
A thousand thoughts swirled through her head and she had a hard time deciding what she should do. She fought against the panic attack desperately trying to force its way out of her body. Cade’s home was her sanctuary, where she was safe. But bad guys had infiltrated her cocoon. If she wasn’t safe here, was there anywhere she could feel safe?
Yanking her thoughts away from the dark feelings that threatened to overwhelm her and send her into a monster panic attack, Beth tried to figure out where she could hide, but looking around frantically, she realized there weren’t any good spots to hunker down undetected in the bedroom.
Their bed had drawers underneath it, so she couldn’t duck under there to try to avoid the thugs finding her. She tiptoed quickly to the closet and looked in. Cade had brought her clothes over, but she didn’t have a lot of nice clothes that had to be hung up, mostly comfortable, hang-around-the-house clothes that were safely put away in drawers. The closet was a bust. Cade’s shirts and pants hanging neatly in there wouldn’t conceal her in any way.
Beth thought about the bathroom and immediately dismissed it. The clear shower door wouldn’t conceal her like a plastic shower curtain might.
Feeling her breathing pick up at what she knew she had to do, Beth still didn’t hesitate. She reluctantly turned to the window in the room.
The bedroom was on the second floor, but the first thing Cade had shown her when she’d moved in was that in case of a fire—he was a firefighter, after all—they could climb out the dormer window and make their way to the side of the house, where a large tree stood. He’d demonstrated how easy it was to grab hold of one of the branches that extended a bit too close to the house and shimmy down to safety.
She’d asked him why he didn’t have a safety ladder, and he’d looked at her in confusion. She’d laughed at his explanation at the time, that he could get out of the house faster by shimming down the tree than bothering with a ladder. But right now she could’ve totally used one.
The thought of leaving the house where she’d thought she was safe was daunting at best. Maybe she could just surrender to the men downstairs and they’d take what they wanted and leave her alone.
“Fuckin’ A, Frank. Check out the girlfriend. I’d tap that in a heartbeat.”
Beth figured they’d found the picture Cade had framed and put on the table in the hallway. She was snuggled up next to him on the couch, smiling at something he’d said. Penelope had snapped the picture just as he was looking down at her, and the look of love on his face was clear.
“No way in hell, Jimmy, would you ever get a chance to tap a chick like that.”
“Well, duh, but who said anything about giving her a choice?”
As the evil laughter rolled up the stairs, Beth’s decision was made. No way was she going to give anyone the chance to rape and torture her again. No fucking way. Not when she had a chance to prevent it.
She tiptoed to the window, knowing that sometimes when Cade walked around in their room she could hear his footsteps downstairs. Beth held her breath as she unlocked the window and prayed it wouldn’t stick. It didn’t. Like everything else, Cade kept the windows in perfect working order, just to be safe.
She hated what she was about to do—and had no idea if she’d even be able to do it—but she didn’t have a choice. She thought about grabbing a couple of Xanax pills, but knew she didn’t have the extra fifteen seconds it would take. She was on her own. It was put up or shut up time.
Peeking outside, making sure no one was around—as if someone would be waiting on the roof to grab her—Beth eased one leg out, then the other. When she was standing with both feet firmly on the shingles, she closed the window quickly but quietly. The last thing she wanted was to be caught on the roof with no escape. It took her a moment to drop her hand from the side of the house. It seemed as though as long as she was touching the bricks, she had a connection to it and would be safe…but hearing something break from inside made a lie out of that tenuous thought.
As if in a trance, Beth hurried over to the tree, which seemed to be twice as big as it was when Cade showed her what to do in an emergency. Knowing she was breathing too hard and too quickly, but not able to do a damn thing about it, she reached out for the limb and carefully began the climb downward.
Before she knew it, Beth was on the ground—and she froze.
On the ground. Oh God…she hadn’t taken her meds that morning and she could totally tell the difference. She probably should’ve taken the time to grab the Xanax. Instead of feeling mellow and able to roll with the punches, she felt panic crawl up her throat and stick there.
The world spun around her as she tried to slow her breathing. She wasn’t safe inside but she certainly wasn’t safe outside either. Where should she go? In her panic, she hadn’t even thought to grab her cell phone, or to pick up Cade’s landline and call nine-one-one before she’d fled.
Stupid stupid stupid! Now no one knew she was in trouble—just like California.
Before she had a full-blown panic attack, Beth tried to remember what Dr. Neal had told her. She concentrated on her safe place and tried to think.
The men inside had no idea she was there, otherwise they would’ve come upstairs immediately. If she could find a place to hide, she’d be fine. They’d take what they wanted and leave. Then she could go back inside and call Cade, or maybe his friend Quint instead. He worked for the San Antonio Police Depart
ment; he’d come and help her.
Beth took a few hesitant steps forward, frantically trying to decide where the best place to hide was, when one of the men suddenly opened the front door of the house and looked right at her. She’d obviously walked far enough forward that he could see her.
The burglar had Cade’s laptop and some other odds and ends in his hands, and was making a trip to the beaten-up, black, nondescript car parked in the driveway. The tree she’d climbed down was to the side of the house, but Beth was standing in plain view of the front.
“Hey!”
It was all Beth gave the man time to say before she spun and sprinted for the trees at the back of Cade’s house.
He’d told her it was over a mile to the nearest neighbor’s house, but it was mid-morning on a weekday; most people were probably at work. No one would be home to let her in or help.
Beth wasn’t in the best shape. She knew losing herself in the trees was her best bet at escaping—if she could only get there before the men caught up to her. She remembered the story of Corrie climbing a tree to hide from the men who were after her. If Corrie could do it blind, surely Beth could too.
“Frank! There was someone in the house, she saw me! Come on, we have to get her!”
Beth barely heard the words as she ran toward the relative safety of the woods. Reeling at a pain in her foot, she looked down as she ran. Dammit. She hadn’t even put on a pair of shoes, and just realized it after stepping on one of the frickin’ burrs Texas was known for. The damn weeds were everywhere and hurt like hell.
She didn’t even slow down, and blocked out the pain from the insidious burrs that seemed to pop up out of nowhere and imbed themselves into the sensitive soles of her feet. Finally reaching the trees, Beth kept her straightforward course until she looked back and couldn’t see the house anymore. Then she made an abrupt right turn, trying to get as far away from the men as she could before they broke through the trees and saw her.
The robbers weren’t trying to be quiet as they gave chase, yelling threats and warning about what they were going to do to her when they caught her. Knowing she’d lose in any kind of physical altercation, Beth tried to find a place to hunker down and hide until the men gave up. With any luck, they’d think she’d made it to one of the nearby houses and flee.
There were no trees appropriate for climbing and hiding in, so that plan was out. But finally Beth saw something that she thought might work. Knowing she was about to hyperventilate and needed to stop anyway, she threw herself into the ditch and grabbed the nearby logs and dead leaves, frantically trying to cover herself from head to toe with the forest litter. It wasn’t ideal, but she didn’t have any other choice at the moment.
Not letting herself think about how vulnerable she was, and how scared, Beth tried to concentrate on slowing her breathing. She’d never stay hidden long if she kept huffing and puffing the way she was. It was extremely hard to imagine her safe place when all that kept flitting over her eyelids was the memory of Hurst holding her down and hurting her. The images were vivid, the current situation bringing them to the forefront of her mind.
Beth heard the men as they came closer and closer to her hiding place and almost whimpered out loud before biting her lip hard enough to draw blood.
“Bitch has to be here somewhere, she couldn’t just disappear into thin air.”
“Well, where the hell is she then? Do you see her anywhere? And where the fuck did she come from anyway?”
“She must’ve been in the house.”
“I thought you staked it out, Frank! You said the fire guy lived alone.”
“He did…at least he did the last time I followed him home.”
She heard a loud smack and one of the men grunted. “Well, he obviously moved in the girlfriend at some point, didn’t he?”
Beth breathed as shallowly as possible so as not to make the leaves concealing her rustle and give away her location.
“Come on, the bitch is probably well on her way to the neighbor’s by now. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
The two men’s voices faded, but Beth didn’t dare move. She hardly dared to breathe. She had no way of knowing if they’d really left, or if they were just pretending to so she’d come out and they could get their hands on her.
Beth closed her eyes and pictured her safe place, just as Dr. Neal had taught her. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost picture herself there.
Refusing to let any thoughts of another day and another place seep into her safe place, Beth did her best not to lose it.
CHAPTER 24
“Sledge, how’s Beth doing?” Crash asked between calls while they relaxed in the TV room at Station 7.
“Better. The other day we actually ate dinner out on the patio. That’s a huge step for her.”
“That’s great,” Crash enthused, genuinely pleased. “And I can tell you’re much happier, you son of a bitch.”
The others laughed and Driftwood joined in. “Yeah, she must be taking verrrrry good care of you.”
Cade threw a pillow at his friend’s head. “We take good care of each other,” he returned easily, not embarrassed in the least that his friends knew he was getting some on a regular basis.
Later, Cade texted Beth for the second time that day. He hadn’t heard a response to his first text and wanted to touch base with her.
I miss you. How has your day been?
After twenty minutes with no response, Cade was concerned. She usually responded immediately to his texts. He thumbed in another message.
Beth? All okay there?
He waited another ten minutes, but as the emergency tones once again pealed throughout the station, he didn’t have a chance to worry about it further as he jumped into his bunker gear and into the truck.
Returning an hour and a half later, after getting a fire under control that had started in the laundry room of an elderly lady’s home, Cade checked his phone and saw that Beth still hadn’t responded.
Extremely worried now, knowing instinctively something had to be wrong—there was no way Beth would ignore his communications for that long—Cade headed for the fire chief’s office. He needed to get home. Now.
After getting permission to end his shift early, Cade drove as fast as he dared, Penelope hanging on for dear life as he took the turns that led to his neighborhood. She’d seen him heading for his truck and had jumped in without asking. She’d called both Hayden at the sheriff’s office and Quint at the SAPD, to ask that they meet them at Cade’s house as they headed down the road. Just in case.
Quint had made her hang on for a moment, then came back on the line and said that there had been no nine-one-one call from his house or neighborhood.
That didn’t reassure Cade in the least. He couldn’t get the picture of Beth hurt and bleeding out of his head. She could’ve slipped in the shower and hit her head and was lying unconscious in the bathroom. Maybe she cut herself while making something to eat. God forbid she’d had a setback with the fire thing and she was trapped in his burning house.
The horrifying situations Beth could’ve found herself in that would make her unable to get to the phone raced through his head.
He pulled into his driveway and saw that Quint had beat them there. Cade cut the engine, jumped out of his truck and ran toward his front door, which was standing open. Quint caught him before he could enter.
“The door was open when I got here, Cade. I need to check the house. Stay here.”
“The hell I will. What if it was Corrie in there?” Cade knew it was a low blow, but he couldn’t just stand around if Beth was inside hurting.
“Then I’d want to make sure I didn’t put her in more danger by rushing in without thinking or figuring out what was going on first,” Quint retorted without missing a beat.
Cade sighed, and wanting to hurry the entire situation, impatiently gestured to the door. “Fine, check it out. Hurry. Please.”
Quint nodded and gritted his teeth in determ
ination as he unholstered his weapon and held it at the ready as he eased inside the house.
Cade waited with ill-concealed impatience for Quint to reappear. He paced outside the door, imagining the worst.
“Cade…look,” Pen said, pointing at the ground.
He looked to where his sister was gesturing and saw footprints in the dry, dusty ground near the side of the house. His brow wrinkled and he took a step toward them just as Hayden arrived. “Quint inside?” Her words were no-nonsense and to the point.
“Yes. Look at this,” Cade said, pointing at the set of footprints. There were small ones, but also larger ones. All of them were spaced widely apart, as if the three people had been running. “Those have to be Beth’s.”
“No offense, but would she be outside?” Hayden asked.
“Maybe,” Penelope answered for her brother. “The meds she’s on have done a lot of good and she’s been working on spending time outside of the house.”
At Hayden’s look of disbelief, Cade picked up the conversation. “She wouldn’t be out here for an afternoon stroll.” He looked up at the large tree. “I showed her once how she could climb out of our bedroom window and get down this tree if the house was ever on fire and the other exits were blocked.”
Quint appeared back at the front door. “Inside is clear, although there’s no sign of Beth. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but it looks like you’ve been robbed, Cade. You’ll have to come inside and see what’s missing.”
“That’s it. Jesus. Someone broke in while she was inside, she escaped out the window and ran into the trees. Remember how fascinated she was with Corrie’s story? I’m sure she remembered how she was able to get away from her kidnappers by running into the woods and climbing a tree. That has to be what she did.” Cade refused to believe someone had kidnapped her again, and no other scenario made sense. If someone had broken into his house while she’d been inside, it would’ve brought back memories of being kidnapped. She’d probably bolted, using the tree as a ladder to get out of the house. Cade had started walking before he’d finished speaking, Hayden, Penelope, and Quint hurrying to keep up.