Surviving the Wilderness, page 19
Using the radio attached to her shoulder, Nicole called dispatch and requested an ambulance for an officer down at the scene. Kathy frowned, but Nicole ignored her partner, intent on getting help ASAP. Kathy was losing blood at an alarming rate.
“I’m dispatching an ambulance now, Sergeant,” the voice on the other end of the radio assured her. She bit her lip so she wouldn’t tell her to make them hurry.
Nicole was never good at waiting.
The window above her head shattered. Another shot. She kept the door open so it could act as a shield. Daring to peek above the rim, she attempted to get a better look at the sniper but couldn’t see anyone this time. Given the angle of the shot, she wasn’t even positive he was shooting from the same place.
“Where’s my backup?” she demanded into her radio.
“They should be pulling in any second. Hang on.” She heard the dispatcher talking to another driver.
“Tell them to hang back out of range. The shooter is inside the house. No sign of another gunman.”
A third shot hit the ground next to the door. What if a shot slipped by and hit them from under the door? They needed to move behind the cruiser. It took some maneuvering to scoot to the back of the vehicle without standing, carrying her partner with her. Kathy’s breathing had gained a rasp Nicole didn’t like. Kathy couldn’t hold the coat to her own wound, which meant Nicole had to stay with her and couldn’t fire her weapon back at the sniper.
“Go. I’ll wait here.”
Nicole didn’t like the breathless quality of Kathy’s voice, so unlike her normal robust tones.
“Help should be here soon. I’ll wait.” She kept her voice calm, even though her level of anxiety was increasing by the second. Kathy’s skin was pale and waxy, and her eyes were growing hazy. Shock. Her partner needed emergency care.
“Hold on, Kathy. They’re on their way. Soon.” Even while she talked, Nicole wrapped her arms around her partner and lowered her carefully to the ground before checking her wound. It was still bleeding, so she continued to press firmly.
Less than a minute later, wheels hit the gravel behind them. Nicole glanced over her shoulder, her right-hand tightening on her Glock and her left remaining on Kathy’s shoulder. A blue-and-white ambulance parked behind them. The doors swung open, and two paramedics swooped out of the vehicle.
“Keep low!” Nicole watched them come closer, both crouched as they hurried.
A police cruiser pulled in behind the ambulance. The doors opened and two Sutter Springs police officers and one FBI agent spilled out. Her gaze glossed over the officers and settled on the special agent dressed in a sports jacket and tie stepping into view. His blue-green eyes locked on Nicole and her stomach bottomed out.
Jack.
* * *
Nicole was safe. He scanned her injuries. His pulse sped up when he saw the blood splattered on her neck, arms and hands. It wasn’t hers, he realized quickly. His concern shifted to the officer on the ground, a sergeant by the three yellow stripes on her uniform shirt, an exact replica of Nicole’s.
The moment he’d learned who was at the scene, he’d felt like an iron fist had reached into his chest and grabbed his heart. They’d been in love once, before he’d signed on with the FBI. And taken on the case that had forced him to hide the truth from her.
It had broken something inside him to allow her to believe he’d cheated on her, but his hands had been tied. He’d been on an undercover mission during the last few months at the police department, working with the FBI. He wasn’t allowed to discuss the details.
Then his personal life had imploded. First Nicole had broken up with him and shattered his heart. Then anger had taken over. She should have known him better, trusted him more when he’d told her it was classified information. But she hadn’t. At the first sign of gossip, she’d bailed, tossed his ring in his face and stopped talking to him.
Angry, he’d given up trying to explain. When he’d packed up his apartment and moved to Columbus, he didn’t bother to say goodbye, knowing they were done.
He was still grieving the loss of Nicole when his sister had been murdered and he’d become an instant father. His niece, Chloe, was his joy now. Making sure those involved with his sister’s demise paid had become his focus. One day, Chloe would ask him what happened to her mother’s killer, and he wanted to have an answer for her.
Jack took a deep breath, then focused on scanning the scene before him. The paramedics were already taking charge of the injured officer, who was showing signs of shock.
“We’ll cover you while you get her into the ambulance,” Nicole said. She and the other officers got their guns ready. Jack joined them. Nicole hadn’t looked at him since he arrived, but that didn’t matter. He was here to do a job, and somewhere in the house, someone with a gun had already taken out one officer. He forced his mind away from Nicole, standing just a few feet from him, and continued to get his bearings. The shattered window he’d already noted.
Behind them, the ambulance doors slammed. He relaxed slightly when the emergency vehicle made its exit without incident.
“Have any shots been fired in the past few minutes?” He made eye contact with Nicole. She stared back like he was a stranger instead of the man she’d once planned to marry.
“No. That doesn’t mean the threat is gone.”
“Obviously.” He frowned, thinking. Before he could continue, Nicole took over. She was the senior officer on-site. The FBI was working in conjunction with the police department, but at the moment, the police department had jurisdiction.
“Okay, listen up. They know we’re here. A pregnant woman and her child have been abducted. The woman, Lucy Hilty, has been spotted, her child has not. She may be injured. An eyewitness claimed that she thought that was the case. Either way, we need to breach the building. It’s unclear how many guns are at play.”
Efficiently, she laid out the plan. Cautiously, the group approached the former day care. It looked like it could have been a house at one time, long ago. The door was unlocked. When she opened it, Jack held his breath, his muscles tight, ready to spring in front of her at any moment.
Nothing.
They had taken two steps into the structure when a male voice shouted at the end of the hall. The officers paused. A woman screamed from a room near the back. Nicole sucked in a quiet breath but didn’t say anything. A second later, footsteps thumped out the back door.
One set of steps. There were at least two people in the house, probably more.
Nicole waved at the officers to follow the steps. They slipped past her and Jack.
Jack tilted his head. Scuffling noises reached his ears. Someone was wrestling. He pointed in the direction of the sounds, urgency pounding in his blood. She nodded and they flattened themselves against the wall and made their way toward the noises. He kept his weapon pointed to the floor. The last thing he wanted was to shoot Nicole in the back if something jumped out at them. She held hers aloft. It made his skin itch, knowing she was going in first. But he didn’t have the right or the authority to take the lead.
A car revved and tires spun outside. Someone was getting away. There was a shout near the back of the house. Footsteps pounded outside a minute later and then two car doors slammed. An engine rumbled to life. A few moments later, a police siren blasted. Jack could envision what happened. One perp had made his getaway, and the officers were giving chase. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be too late. It had taken too long to get back to their vehicle.
He and Nicole were on their own.
The woman they’d heard earlier had stopped screaming, but she was still whimpering, the high-pitched noises of someone in pain. Or terrified. Probably both.
Nicole whipped into an open door ahead of him. “Don’t do it! Put down your weapon!”
Jack’s pulse kicked up a notch and he dashed into the room behind her and found himself staring into the frightened brown eyes of a young Amish woman. Her lips were cracked and dry, possibly dehydrated, and her face appeared bloodless. Otherwise, she appeared unharmed.
A man stood behind her, his muscular arm across her throat. When he brushed her arm, she whimpered again and jerked the arm away. She might have an injury that wasn’t visible at the moment. Not a break. She’d moved the limb too quickly for it to be broken. Possibly deep muscle bruising, or a strain. Jack focused on the young man holding her tight with one arm. With his other hand, her captor held a knife to her neck.
“I won’t go to jail,” the man growled. “I’m just in it for the money.”
“Easy, kid.” Jack stepped closer, then stopped moving as the knife pushed deeper into Lucy’s neck. A small drop of blood swelled against the tip. “You don’t want to hurt her. Don’t make this harder on yourself.”
While he’d held the young man’s attention, Nicole had managed to creep closer. Sweat broke out on the back of Jack’s neck. He needed to keep the man’s focus away from her. “Look, why don’t you let her go? You don’t want to hurt her, man.”
The perp noticed Nicole when she was a foot from him. He twisted away from Lucy. That was the move Jack had been waiting for. Lunging forward, he grabbed Lucy and shoved her behind him, protecting her with his own body. Nicole kicked the knife away from the perp. He might have been strong, but he wasn’t prepared for her move.
Panicked, the perp dove out the open window, taking the screen with him. It crashed to the ground. Jack dashed after him and climbed out, stomping on the ruined screen window, intent on pursuit.
The criminal might not have been skilled in hand-to-hand combat, but running was another matter. He hurtled over a fallen tree like a pro. Though Jack was fast, he was no match for the perp’s speed. Within five minutes, he had lost him.
Turning back, he made his way into the abandoned day care, jogging, fully aware of the passage of time.
“I’ve called another ambulance.” Nicole met him in the hallway. “I’m guessing he got away.”
Jack rubbed his neck. “Yeah. The kid was fast, Nicole. And the way he hurtled over obstacles, I’m pretty confident he must have been some kind of track athlete in high school.”
She tilted her head, considering.
“Could be. We got a good look at him. He didn’t seem old, only sixteen or seventeen, I’d guess, so we can definitely look into that and check with the local school districts. Officer Hansen called. They’re on their way back. By the time they’d reached their cruiser, the perp had too much of a lead. I’m going to have them wait here for the investigation team.”
He nodded. Ohio had its own unit to process crime scenes. Then he peered closer into her pretty face.
Something else was wrong. He leaned closer. “What is it?”
She glanced over her shoulder. Lucy Hilty was sitting at a kitchen table, tears seeping down her cheeks, her expression lost. In her arms, she cradled a small cloth doll dressed like an Amish girl. Like a typical Plain doll, the toy had no face. He knew it belonged to Leah. He swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat. If his young niece had lost her favorite stuffed dog, which she carried with her everywhere, she’d be devastated.
“The guy who drove off had her toddler with him. Leah is eighteen months old.”
His gut clenched. They’d gotten the woman but had lost the child. And being Amish, she would have no pictures of Leah to send out. “We’ll need to get an updated Amber Alert out as soon as we can get a description of the perp and the vehicle he’s driving.”
“I called the chief about that.” Nicole looked at him. “Why are you here, Jack? The FBI doesn’t usually get involved with missing person cases.”
He hesitated, then motioned for her to follow him into the hall. What he had to tell her was ugly and would devastate the expectant mother, who had already dealt with more than anyone should ever have to handle. Nicole went with him, but halted a few feet from him, her arms crossed. She hadn’t forgiven him. Somehow, even after three years, her lack of faith in him still bothered him.
He knew it had something to do with her childhood. Nicole never talked about her father, except in terms of how he’d hurt her mother. Knowing he was in the same company as a man she apparently despised cut him deeply.
He pushed that aside and answered her question, speaking softly. As much as he could. His deep voice tended to carry.
“You’re right, we don’t usually get involved in cases like yours. However, we believe this may be linked to a group of black marketers who are involved in selling illegal arms. They are also responsible for stealing babies and children and selling them abroad.”
Nicole gasped. “That’s why they took Leah!”
He nodded. “Afraid so. We need to find her before she leaves the country. Once she leaves the country, it’ll be virtually impossible to trace her. It’s going to be hard enough because we have no pictures to send to other departments.”
“That’s what they said.” A soft voice behind them came from the room they’d exited.
Jack and Nicole spun around. Lucy swayed in the doorway. Nicole hurried over and hooked a supportive arm around her back, then gently led her to a chair. She looked ready to drop at any moment.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw the second ambulance pull in. He walked the few feet to the door and waved at the paramedics, letting them know it was safe to enter. He returned to Lucy and Nicole.
“You mean the kidnappers?” Nicole asked.
“Jah. The two men who took Leah and me.” Her voice choked. “They said Amish don’t take pictures, or go to the police, so they could grab us without worry. They also said—”
She broke down completely.
The door opened and the paramedics entered. At a gesture from Nicole, they went straight to Lucy.
“What else did they say, Lucy?” He moved closer, but tried to stay far enough away to respect her personal space. “It’s important.”
The distraught woman lifted her gaze and looked from him to Nicole and back again. “They said their boss had upped the stakes. They were now kidnapping pregnant women from different communities. They’d sell our babies, and the mothers were of no use.”
Nicole paled beside him. Jack pressed his lips together, horrified.
Pregnant women were being kidnapped and discarded so their newborns could be sold.
Copyright © 2022 by Dana Roae
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ISBN-13: 9780369716651
Surviving the Wilderness
Copyright © 2022 by Mags Storey
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Maggie K. Black, Surviving the Wilderness
