“Don’t make a sound, bitch,” he whispered then twisted her around.
Movement over his shoulder drew her attention. There were now two more men, all dressed similarly and wearing clown masks. The man who held her in his clutches slammed her against the door. Tears welled in her eyes, but the rational side to her reared its head. Stay calm. Fight.
“You look much prettier in person,” the man said next to her ear, licking her cheek. She felt his fingers on the elastic band that held her tidy chignon in place and he tugged it free, entwining his fingers in her long hair and pulling. Her scalp tingled. Her back ached where she was pressed so hard against the car.
Each minute that passes I’m less likely to survive. I must react.
Her keys were still in her hand. She gripped her hand around the canister of Mace. The men were arguing about what they were going to do with her, something along the line of showing her what a real man was like, but she zoned them out as she planned her next move. She jerked the can up and sprayed the man in the eyes. His grip loosened as he squalled in pain.
Without thinking how she could manage getting away from the two other men, she dropped her keys and took off running. Using the broken overhead light to her advantage, she jumped behind a car, trying to gain control of her panting breath and ragged heartbeat.
Heavy footsteps sounded behind her and she covered her mouth, staying very still. They would find her soon.
Her phone!
Call the police!
She still had her purse hooked across her body.
Grabbing the cell, she tapped in 9-1-1, but she didn’t have service in the garage.
Her shoulders slumped. What did the men want? Did they know she had the flash drive? How was that possible?
Grabbing the disk, she slipped it into the small pocket in her jacket and pulled off her purse, pushing it underneath the car behind the tire, then slipped off her heels. She ran everyday so she knew the shoes would only slow her down.
The booted footsteps grew closer.
Carefully, she bent down, looking to see where the men were.
Were they playing cat and mouse with her?
The pants of her breaths mingled with the fast beating of her heart. It was only a matter of time before they found her. She was a sitting duck in the garage with nowhere to run to get away from three men.
Where was Caleb? Where was Selma? If she came down off the elevator, would they hurt her? These men couldn’t be random muggers. The attack was planned.
Lauren couldn’t just sit there. She had to act.
With a breath of courage, she stood and waved at the camera by the elevator, praying that the security guard would see her. One of the men spotted her and he started walking in her direction—no rush just an ominous stroll. She raced toward the elevators. If she could make it, she could get upstairs to a phone. Or better yet, she could pull the alarm.
Not even running every day could have prepared her for the race she took across the garage. Her bare feet were sweating and slipping. Her head ached and her chest hurt. The man was running now. She couldn’t see him, but she could hear him, and she didn’t lose her focus.
Holding her hand out, she touched the alarm, but a strong arm came around her shoulders and jerked her back against a wide chest. Then she felt the knife against her throat.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“You ain’t some bad ass bitch now, are you? All talk, no action. I know cunts like you. I was married to one until I took care of her. Just like I’m going to take care of you.” She didn’t recognize the voice, but it was distorted because he whispered. “This is for your Mace stunt.”
She barely registered the stinging sensation in her cheek.
There was a thud on her head, everything turned fuzzy and then black.
Lauren jerked away, blinking wildly into a bright light. She tried to scream, but her voice was lost.
“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you,” a deep, masculine voice said.
“Stop! Leave me alone!” She pushed with her hands. Her throat hurt and she had an odd sensation on her face.
“Don’t move. You’ve been hurt.”
“Am—am I alive?” Maybe she was dead, but surely she wouldn’t still feel so much pain.
“Yes. You are. My name is Ranger and I found you. I’ve called an ambulance. They’ll be here soon.”
There was something about his voice that soothed her. Her temples ached and she felt tired. So tired. A cloud drifted over her and she couldn’t refuse its comforting arms.
I need to sleep…
*
His phone beeped and Steam dragged it out of his pocket. He frowned at the screen. Lauren had messaged him. Was he imagining things? They hadn’t talked or seen each other since the incident at the chapel and he was pretty sure she wanted him dead. Agitation still flowed through his veins at how he’d acted—how he’d shanghaied her wedding. He’d debated at least a dozen times whether to call her and apologize, but he always decided it was best to forget. Best to allow bygones to be bygones.
Unfortunately, she was a hard woman to forget and seeing her name threatened to break open a wound or two.
“Are you listening to me?” His partner, Coby, said as they stepped off the elevator.
“Sure.” Steam shoved his cell back into his pocket to check the text later. He needed to read it in private and when he had more time to absorb things.
Listening to his partner describe how and where the victim was found, Steam gritted his teeth. He was a lawman, but he was human too, and he never liked hearing bad news. He knew the victim’s story well. She’d been in and out of the system more times than he could count for domestic violence with her husband, a rich attorney that handled cases for the dirtiest scumbags in Wyoming, especially the Blue Diamond cartel that Steam had been trying to destroy for years.
“You warned her, Steam. We all warned her.” Coby said, calling Daniel by the nickname he’d been given when he was a star quarterback in school. They were friends even back then. The name had stuck.
“Yeah, she was afraid that bastard husband of hers would be the death of her, and then when she finally left him…this. I promised I would protect her. The system promised. We failed her.” Steam hated cases like these—hated that a precious life was lost and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. “If we’d put him behind bars like he deserved, she’d be alive now.”
“We can only do our job, man. King paid off cops and judges to get out of every arrest. Our hands were tied. If she’d listened and gone into protective custody…”
Stifling a growl, Steam scraped a palm down his jaw, sick of feeling like his hands were tied against scum like the Max Kings of the world. “She didn’t want to leave her mom.” He could understand how she felt. He understood all too well the responsibility for a parent. Since his father had left, Steam had taken care of his mom.
They headed down the corridor of the crowded hospital and into the emergency department where a uniformed cop pulled back the curtain to one of the rooms, motioning for them to enter. Steam stepped in first and his breath came out in a painful hiss. Lying on the bed was Carol King. He pulled back the blanket and anger sliced through his gut. The large gaping wound at her temple was covered in dried, cracked blood, and a breathing tube was still taped to her mouth. Her blue skin told him she’d been gone for a while.
With a silent curse, he dragged the blanket back up and gestured for Coby. “Who called it in?”
“Her kid. She’s nine. Found Carol in the bathroom unresponsive and called 9-1-1. She had a faint pulse and paramedics worked on her for hours, but she was DOA when she arrived here. Her prints are all over the gun they found at the scene. No signs of foul play.”
“Have they tested her fingers for gun powder residue?”
Coby scratched his chin. “Obviously she shot herself.”
“There’s nothing obvious about any case. I want her tested,” he growled.
“
Sure thing.”
“Where’s the daughter now?” Steam stepped outside of the room and swiped a swift glance in both directions of the brightly lit hallway.
“Child protective services are on their way.”
“I want to speak to her immediately. Where is she? Here?”
“In a private room down the hall. Came with her mom in the ambulance. She was pretty upset, understandably, and one of the nurses is staying with her until a caseworker arrives.”
Coby pointed to a closed door and Steam marched that direction, taking a long calming breath before he opened it and stepped in. Sitting inside was a girl with straight brown hair. Her shoulders were slumped and she was holding a teddy bear with a missing eye close to her chest. The female nurse greeted him with a feeble smile and he said, “Thanks for sitting with her. I’d like to speak to her alone.”
The nurse hesitated, touched the girl’s hand, then left, closing the door behind her.
Silently counting to ten, he reminded himself that this little girl was as much of a victim as her mother. Although he needed to gather information and evidence as quickly as possible, he also needed to ensure that she wasn’t afraid of him. He took the seat the nurse had been occupying and reached into his pocket, taking out two pieces of wrapped candy. “Do you like cherry or grape?”
She looked from him to the candy and hesitantly accepted the cherry, unwrapped it and pushed it into her mouth. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying and her bottom lip was puckered. Her chin bobbled from a leftover sob that she tried very hard to subdue. She was brave like her mother. Many times, he remembered Carol sitting in a chair at the precinct, bravely holding back sobs as she described the fear for her husband.
Bracing his elbows on his knees, Steam carefully planned where he was headed before he started. The girl had been through something unimaginable, but if they had any way of finding out what happened to her mother, she was the one who would know the answers. “Your name’s Jane, right?”
Her eyes widened slightly as if she couldn’t believe he knew. She offered him a gentle nod.
“Okay, Jane. I’m sorry about your mom. I’d met her before. She cared a great deal for you and if she was here, she’d tell you that I can help and to trust me. Your mom was hurt. I want to help her and the only way I can do that is if you tell me what happened.”
She lowered her gaze to her shaking hands, pressing her cheek against the teddy bear. Minutes ticked by. Steam didn’t believe she was going to tell him anything until in a whispered voice so low he could have imagined it, she said, “I called for help.”
“I know you did. You were a brave girl. Now I need you to be brave a little while longer. Was there someone else in the house when this happened to your mother?”
Another long stretch of silence passed and her thin shoulders slumped again, she stared at her lap, her hands noticeably shaking.
“It’s okay, Jane. Your mom would want you to tell me what happened. You can trust me.”
“I-I saw—”
A booming voice echoed from outside the room. A second later the door crashed open and Jane’s father, Max King, stood in the threshold, red-faced and fuming. His hands clenched into fists at his sides. Coby was right behind the other man, shaking his head.
“I’m not done here,” Steam stood, blocking Max’s view of the child.
“You don’t have the right to speak to her. Come on, Jane. Come with me,” he demanded, holding out his hand for her.
Steam gave King a push through the opening and closed the door behind them. “Behave yourself, King. I do have the right to speak to her. Your wife’s death is under investigation. Jane is our only witness. That means we can ask her questions.”
“I’m her father,” he growled.
“Yeah, unfortunately.” The two men stood head to head, but Steam’s large, muscular frame dwarfed the other man.
“Jane needs to be with me. Don’t make me press charges against the state for allowing you to deny me the right to take my child so I can comfort her.” King pressed his finger in the middle of Steam’s chest.
“You’re a pro at this by now, aren’t you? You think coming here in your expensive suit bought by the cartel, throwing your threats around, will change the facts? We have reason to believe this is a homicide which gives me the right to speak to whomever I need to. Now another outburst from you and I’ll have my partner take you downtown for obstruction. As an attorney I’m sure you know what obstruction is. Got it?”
King angrily jerked his arm out of Coby’s grip and arrogantly fixed the lapel of his suit. Although he stared at Steam with penetrating threatening eyes, he didn’t flinch. “Have it your way for now,” he gritted through pinched lips. “Mark my word. This isn’t over. Not by a long shot.”
“Are you threatening me?” Steam leaned forward, nose to nose with King.
Chuckling, he took a step back, but didn’t say a word.
Steam went back into the room and thirty minutes later came back out with nothing to show for it. Jane had clammed up after her father had made a scene.
In the lobby, Steam watched Jane being united with her father. The way she recoiled when he touched her shoulder made Steam want to punch a wall. He wanted to nail King so bad that he could taste it, but unfortunately the man had strings that reached far into the judicial system. This story would probably end up with the same tragic ending that had repeated itself with anyone involved with King and the Blue Diamonds.
Dropping coins into the vending machine, Steam took out the filled cup, sipping what should have been coffee but guessed it was far closer to engine oil. He downed half, needing the caffeine. He’d been up for twenty-four hours and his brain cells were calling it a night.
Shit! He remembered Lauren had texted him.
“Steam—?”
He turned from his cell to shake his head, shoving the phone back into his pocket. “That bastard. I know he had something to do with his wife’s death. He beat the hell out of her again, she pressed charges, and two weeks later she’s dead? There’s nothing coincidental about that.” Steam watched Jane and King head for the exit doors. He stopped and gave Steam a smug wave. He blew out a long breath, crushing the cup under his fist. “Don’t worry, prick. Your time is coming,” he said under his breath. He caught his partner’s expression. “What the hell, man? You okay?”
Coby scratched his temple, shifting from one loafer to the other.
Steam’s stomach twisted. “Oh shit. What now?” He knew his partner well enough to realize when he had bad news to share.
“It’s Lauren.”
“Lauren?” Even now, the mere mention of her and his head spun. “I have a text from her—”
“Man, listen to me before you react.” Coby motioned for him to step into a more private area of the waiting room. “While you were in with the little girl, Lauren was brought in by an ambulance. The doctors have been working on her.”
A long moment passed before he could get his tongue to work. “What happened?”
“She was found dumped off in some country road graveyard. Apparently, she had been attacked in the garage of her office building. She’s alive, but—”
“What room?” His heart dropped into his stomach, but his instincts kicked in, helping him keep his composure. He tossed the crushed cup away as he headed back toward the row of rooms.
“She’s been given a strong sedative so they can run some tests, take some x-rays.”
“What room?” he pushed out.
“303.”
He stomped toward the closed doors and a nurse stepped out to stop him. “Sir, you can’t go in there.”
Flashing his badge, he continued through the swinging metal doors and stopped dead in his tracks. Lauren was lying on a narrow hospital bed, a white sheet spread over her body, but her bruised arms were exposed. Tubes were hooked up and an oxygen mask covered a portion of her face. The steady beeping of a machine told him she was alive, but she looked eerily still. He’d seen a
lot of things over the years and he always tried to keep himself detached, but seeing her connected to wires, tubes and machines weakened him in one fell swoop.
Her swollen face was distorted with contusions, leaving her almost unrecognizable. A large bandage covered one cheek and another over her bottom lip. He dragged over a swivel chair and sat down, listening to the steady beeps of the machine. “Lauren, I’m here.” He touched her hand. It wasn’t warm.
“Sir? Are you a member of her family?”
“Her husband,” he practically barked. Although technically he was her ex-husband, in his heart she’d always be his wife.
“Fine. I’m Dr. Levian. Your wife has suffered multiple injuries, but the most severe right now is swelling in the brain. We’ll keep her sedated and watch her closely. If she can make it through the next twenty-four hours we’ll know more.”
Steam kept his gaze on her face. Long after he heard the doctor’s footsteps retreat into the corridor and darkness settled outside of the hospital, he stayed with her, holding her hand.
“I’ve read every story you’ve written,” he whispered. “. You always were a damn good investigative journalist. Remember that old dog we found outside the cabin? We named him Jake and took him inside. he was so damn skinny that we could see his backbone and ribs, but we fed him and he overcame the odds, just as you will. You’ll get through this, sweetheart. And we’ll catch the bastard who did this to you. I’ll catch the sum’bitch. That I swear. I’m sorry that I messed things up between you and Harry. Stay strong. You can get past this.”
Swallowing the cotton ball sized lump in his throat, he closed his eyes and bent his head. God, I know you’ve probably forgotten who I am because it’s been so long, but help Lauren. Help her and I swear I’ll leave her alone so she can be happy.
“Steam?” it was Coby.
Bringing his head up, he looked at his partner. “What?”
“We didn’t find any gun residue on Carol. King filed a complaint against you and the Chief wants to see ASAP.”
Steam turned his attention back to Lauren. “You can tell Chief Hanes if he wants to see me he can find me here. If he doesn’t like that, he can fire me.”
Secured by the Lawman (Mountain Force Book 2) Page 3