Damn it, how had they missed this? An organization like Capital X, operating right under their noses. He was well aware organized crime was a consistent bane of police squads the world over, but the fact that Capital X had managed to stay under the radar for so long was a concern.
And Sadie Colton had somehow landed right in the middle of it all.
His mobile phone buzzed at his hip and Tripp picked it up, hoping for news that backup was on the way. Iglesias hadn’t disappointed.
Team in place. Lake surrounded. Waiting for your Go.
Tripp tapped a message quickly in return to update the detective on his status.
Confirmed location. Sadie inside house on southwest corner of lake. I’ve got eyes, 50 yards out.
He typed a few more commands, until they ultimately agreed to surround the house from all angles. In under ninety seconds, Tripp felt the sensation of movement from behind him.
“Right where you said you’d be, McKellar.”
“Took you long enough,” Tripp muttered as Iglesias’s tall form came into view.
The detective held up his hands. “You just put together a major op in less than an hour. Not all of us are superhuman, McKellar.”
Tripp took grim satisfaction in the compliment. “The only goal is to get her out.”
“I know, man.” Iglesias patted Tripp’s back. “I know. Pippa is beside herself. And since I already promised my fiancée I’d bring her sister home, you know I’ve got your back.”
It would be little comfort until they had Sadie back, but it was a solid reminder that the entire department was invested in getting her home safe and sound. Iglesias had an added personal connection in his engagement to Sadie’s sister, but he was as committed as the rest of the GRPD.
Sadie was one of their own.
Tripp pointed to the house. “Two guys went in a few minutes ago, armed to the teeth. Semiautomatics strapped to their sides and firmly in hand. Assumption is that Sadie is in the house, along with Greer. Gunshots echoed from inside, but I’ve heard her fighting with Greer, which suggests he targeted a different victim.”
Iglesias shook his head. “He is one nasty bastard. Pippa said she and her sisters all got a bad vibe on him from the jump, but this goes way beyond not liking your sister’s boyfriend.”
Tripp wasn’t sure why the word boyfriend chafed so badly—especially since he already knew the bastard in question had been Sadie’s fiancé—so he ignored it. He needed his full focus on the mission. “We all get played from time to time.”
“Yeah, I suppose we do,” Iglesias said.
Tripp quickly outlined his observations from the past half hour.
“How many gunshots did you hear?”
Tripp fought to keep his voice clinical, with minimal inflection despite the personal nature of the op. “Just the one, and then I heard Sadie’s scream. Then I heard the fighting.”
“What does he want with her?”
“What he wanted before—access.”
Tripp knew it for the truth. Sadie Colton was in a prime position to help Greer. Between her CSI role in the GRPD as well as being a member of the Colton family, and therefore connected to Colton Investigations, she had a lot of information a criminal could glean.
And Tate Greer knew it, too.
“Greer saw her as the way in.” Tripp continued his assessment.
“Damn it.” Iglesias shook his head. “Pippa was afraid this might be the reason he got close to her so fast.”
“She thought Greer was trying to infiltrate?”
“No, nothing like that. But she was concerned with how quickly Sadie had fallen for the guy. As Pippa told me, it was like one day he just sort of showed up and within a matter of weeks her sister was smitten and talking of love and marriage.”
While Tripp had never personally bought into it, he knew that people did fall in love quickly. In an instant, some said. If he was honest with himself, he had felt a spark of attraction for Sadie from the very first day they’d met.
He could still see her, the eager recruit joining the GRPD, determined to make her mark. She had done well enough and he had been impressed by her hard work, her dedication, and her unwillingness to rest on the laurels of the Colton name. But in the end, she’d really found her calling with crime scene investigation. She had showed an early knack, identifying some key evidence in a case she had worked her rookie season. She’d finished out that first year, giving her all to the force, but after her full commitment, it hadn’t taken her long to ask for a transfer into CSI.
And she’d thrived there.
Although he no longer saw her every day, as a lieutenant in the department, he got regular updates from her division. Sadie was well respected and that work ethic they’d all recognized from the start proved itself over and over. She had uncovered a major piece of evidence that had put a large drug ring away within a matter of months after her joining CSI. She’d followed that up with some careful tech work that had put away a child predator. And just this past spring she’d worked round-the-clock to help uncover evidence to catch a serial killer.
Sadie Colton had found her calling in CSI. Their department, and more broadly, the entire city of Grand Rapids, was better for it.
“Rest of the team is in position.” Iglesias interrupted Tripp’s wandering thoughts.
“Tell everyone to hold the perimeter. You and I are moving in.”
Iglesias relayed the information and Tripp heard a series of affirmatives through the detective’s comm device.
The low level of persistent adrenaline that had haunted Tripp’s system since the discovery Sadie had been taken spiked sharply as they moved from their hiding place. With determined steps toward the house, his sole focus was on getting her out safely.
“You ready for what’s on the other side of the door?” he said softly to Iglesias.
“Damn straight.”
Tripp figured there weren’t many more on the team who would be as committed and he was glad Iglesias had his back.
Tripp pointed to the entrance to the cabin still about twenty yards away. “They both went through that door, but the gunshot came from the back of the house. Assume we’re entering the kitchen and need to push through into a living room or great room of some sort.”
“Got it.”
They had closed the distance, the door nearly in sight, when loud barking echoed from inside the house. It wasn’t the excitement of a chase or a game of fetch, but the harsh, violent bark of a dog on the scent of its quarry.
Tripp braced for that new dimension as he anticipated a large, aggressive attacker prepared to take them down at all costs.
And that’s when he saw her.
Hair that he knew was just a shade darker than strawberry blond streamed behind her as she ran hell-for-leather out the door that had held their full focus. She was headed straight for the dock at the edge of the lake. Two hulking men were just behind her, oblivious to Tripp and Emmanuel’s presence, struggling to catch up. Moonlight illuminated the deadly glint of waving weapons in each of their hands.
Tripp went into motion, racing toward her pursuers as he ignored the very real threat of that barking dog or the additional risk there might be more goons exiting the house. He ignored it all; his only focus on getting her back. All with the element of surprise in his favor.
But even he couldn’t hold back a shout when Sadie jumped into the ice-edged water that surrounded the end of the dock.
* * *
Shocking cold pierced her skin with all the finesse of a thousand ice picks. She knew it would be cold. Had braced for the loss of breath as she’d plunged into the water.
But hell, damn, and all the really good curse words she and her sisters practiced behind her brothers’ backs, was it cold.
The ice picks quickly gave way to sledgehammers and Sadie wondered how it
was possible to even think let alone find a way to survive in this.
Only she did. She would.
Somewhere between the leap into the lake and the impossible cold, her mind went on autopilot. She’d gotten the jump on Tate and his henchmen and taken it as a small stroke of luck that they’d been so absorbed with their infighting it gave her a head start. It wasn’t much, but the few precious seconds was all she’d needed to get a move on the footrace. But it had been a split-second decision to head for the lake.
If her memory served—and the trauma of going to summer camp had haunted her far longer than she wanted to own—there was a large dock at the edge of the lake. She’d also remembered the way the water eddied around the base, creating a small pocket of air between the wooden planks and the water.
That air pocket was her goal. If she could get in there, she could continue to breathe and hide until Tate, his henchman and the dog moved on. If…
Damn, it was cold, those icy sledgehammers doing their job. She could see the wooden dock. Could feel the water lapping around her, only instead of it feeling gentle as it did in summer, it felt like thick, heavy sludge as she fought her way across the lake.
Focus, Colton.
The order snapped through her mind, her own voice threading with that of her father. And her brothers.
Focus.
Battling the cold, she pushed herself on. She had no choice.
In a battle between hypothermia or her psycho ex-fiancé, she’d take the cold all day and twice on Sunday.
Assuming, of course, her body would cooperate.
She ignored the heavy pull in her limbs and forced herself forward.
The dock is your goal. The dock is your goal. Over and over, she kept that thought in place as she pushed on. The icy water dragged at her limbs, making her lethargic, while the drag of her wet clothes added to the thick pressure against her skin.
She would make it.
She had to make it.
Snake’s frantic barking seemed to waver, growing dimmer as her full focus remained on propelling herself forward.
Her arms were so heavy. And she was going so slow.
The water was black around her, the bright moonlight that had illuminated her run toward the lake falling behind the clouds.
Was she even going in the right direction? Confusion had her stopping for a moment, her arms thrashing as she fought to catch her breath. Why was it so hard to draw air?
For the first time since jumping on impulse, something hit her chest with a swift fist.
What if she didn’t make it?
What if…
“Sadie.” The deep voice drifted toward her, bouncing off the water with a weird echo. “Sadie!”
Why did it sound like Tripp?
Sadie flailed her arms once more, shocked when she felt the hard edge of a dock pylon.
Did I make it?
She willed herself to focus, her gaze sharpening as her hand fought for purchase against the base of the dock.
And that’s when she heard her name again.
“Sadie!”
As she looked up, large hands came around her upper arms, dragging her from the water. “Are you okay?”
I wasn’t wrong. That thought dimly registered in the back of her mind as Sadie took in the broad, reassuring form of Tripp McKellar. His chiseled features and firm jaw were the last things she saw before her body convulsed in a hard shiver.
And then she felt nothing except the strong arms that came around her and the tight press of his body against hers.
CHAPTER 3
She’s safe.
Tripp held tight to Sadie’s small, shivering form and ignored the oppressive wetness that soaked his jacket. He’d survive. And, damn it, so would she. They hadn’t come this far to accept any other outcome.
But she was so cold. And the shivers racking her body were nearly convulsive, she was shaking so hard. He had to get her out of her clothes and into something warmer.
The rest of Tripp’s team had moved in on the cabin and grounds, the shouts of Greer’s men still littering the air. All fought loudly against the bonds GRPD officers had already put on them. The two goons Tripp had seen going in had been captured as well as two lookouts discovered on the back side of the property.
But nowhere in the melee near the cabin could he see Tate Greer.
There was no way Tripp could have come this far and missed his quarry. Yet to go after him meant he would have to leave Sadie, and that was unacceptable.
When another hard shudder had her shaking against his chest, he knew the decision was made. With determined steps toward the cabin, his only goal was to get her somewhere warm. It was only the hard clutch of her hands against his forearms that had him stopping. “No.”
He glanced down, the blue tingeing that heartbreaking face more than evident in the unclouded light of the moon. “We have to get you warm, Sadie.”
“I… I-I’m n-not going b-back in there.” Although it was a struggle to get the words out, her desperate desire to stay out of that cabin was clear in the stiffness of her body.
“We need to get you out of those clothes.”
“No c-cabin.” Her grip tightened on his forearm. “Car. Y-your car is f-fine.”
The battle to take her someplace warm might be his goal, but there was no way he could ignore her distress. Knowing an ambulance would be there soon weighed even more in her favor. With quick movements, he swept her up in his arms. He thought there might have been a slight protest on her lips but it died as he carried her toward his vehicle.
“Where?” she finally asked, the lone word seemingly stuck in her throat.
“We’ll go to my SUV until the ambulance gets here.”
“Th…thank y-you.” She whispered the words before laying her head against his shoulder.
All the adrenaline that had carried him for the past two days shifted somewhere deep inside him. That insistent, driving need to save morphed into something new: the desperate, fervent desire to protect.
He knew that feeling. He’d had it once—so long ago he’d forgotten the sensation until Sadie’s head had come to rest against his shoulder. The desire to keep those he cared for safe and secure.
Until he’d failed at both.
Those long hours of therapy his chief had suggested had ultimately helped Tripp find closure and acceptance in one part of the truth: he and Lila had only gotten engaged because of the baby. He’d still loved her, in his way, and he’d been wildly happy about their child. But in the long run, they’d likely not have made the most stable environment for a kid.
A truth he could accept now but couldn’t go back and change no matter how often he beat himself up over it. He’d been committed to seeing things through, determined to make a life with Lila once they welcomed their baby. What he still had never fully worked through was the reality that Lila and their unborn child had died because of his life’s work.
Yet he still chose to do it day after day.
And he’d never fully reconciled what that said about him.
The department-issued SUV he drove was just where he’d left it, and Tripp set Sadie gently on her feet as he opened the driver’s-side door. He quickly turned on the engine, blasting the heat before he swung around to the rear door to retrieve his first-aid kit. He also had spare clothes in the back, but the first step was to get her out of the wet ones she wore.
“I’m going to help you with these,” Tripp said, moving to her side where she leaned against the open driver’s-side door, tossing the first-aid kit onto the seat behind her. He kept his tone careful—neutral, even—but knew that to help her he had to strip her of every article of wet clothing.
Her soft grunt was all he heard in return as she fumbled with the hem of her sweater. The thick wool clung to her and flopped against her fingers where she str
uggled to grab hold.
Tripp took her hands in his. They were ice against his palms and he fought to keep his voice steady against the rising panic he still might have been too late, even with Dispatch’s call into 911. “Let me.”
With careful movements, he lifted the sweater up and over her head. Her skin had that same bluish tinge as her face, visible in the dome light, but he kept going.
Next he reached for the waistband of her jeans. The denim was thick and heavy, and he ignored the brush of soft skin beneath his fingers as he undid the button and released the zipper. He worked the material down her hips and held each calf as he removed the denim from her legs. It was only then he realized she wasn’t wearing shoes, just a thin layer of socks.
Everywhere he touched, her skin was that horrible, clammy cold. He removed the socks then shifted to her underwear. His job was to help people no matter the circumstance. He could, and more importantly he would, do that.
But he was also acutely aware that he was going to see Sadie naked, which set off something strange deep and low in his gut. Something that reminded him when this was all over, and she was warm and well, he wanted to see her again.
Ignoring the flash of need that welled at the thought, Tripp put his arm around her and focused instead on reassuring her. “Hang on. I have a blanket in the kit.”
He reached around her to the first-aid kit he’d tossed onto the seat. The thin solar blanket in his extensive supplies was right where it should be and he ripped the packaging off to unfold the thin yet effective material. Moving to stand in front of her, he wrapped the material around her shoulders. “I’m going to remove your underwear now. Okay?”
She stared up at him, her grip tight on the edges of the blanket, and nodded. “Okay.”
With deft fingers, he reached behind her and unclasped her bra, making sure to keep his gaze on hers. Once the material sprang free, he reached down and removed her water-soaked panties. Leaving all her clothes in a pile beside the SUV, he opened the back door and set her against the seat. “I’m going to go around the other side, then pull you onto my lap. We need to get you warm.”
Harlequin Romantic Suspense December 2020 Box Set Page 4