Love Inspired Suspense July 2015 #1 (38 page)

SIXTEEN

A
crash of water swallowed Sherri's scream and ripped through Cole's heart. He barreled down the riverbank, plowing blindly through the vegetation. At a break in the bushes, he caught sight of a bald guy at the top of the falls, feet braced apart, a gun aimed at the river below. Joe? Skidding to a stop, Cole drew his off-duty pistol from his ankle holster and squeezed off a shot. The bullet pinged the rocks and sent the man racing for cover.

Sherri's cry rose from the water and was immediately swallowed again.

Cole dashed to the river's edge. “Hang on! I'm coming.” He glanced up the other side of the bank, and seeing no sign of Joe taking a bead on them, tucked his gun in the back of his jeans and dove in.

The icy temperature stole his breath as the wicked undercurrent grabbed at his legs.
Sherri, hang on
,
he willed, straining to see her through the inky blackness. His lungs burning, he clawed his way to the surface and whirled in circles, searching. The churning eddies made it impossible to see. “Sherri!”
Oh, God, show me where she is.

Gunfire cracked the air, pebbled the water.

Blood swirled to the surface.

“No!” Cole dove under, flailing wildly, his heart screaming. His fingers grazed something. Clothing. He dug in with an iron grip and roared upward. The instant they broke the surface, he hauled her against his chest, swept the hair from her face. “I got you.”

She sputtered, and his heart kicked back into rhythm.

Clutching her with one arm, he surged toward shore. The powerful undertow tugged back, refusing to release her. She started to slip from his grip and cried out, grasped his shirt.

He curled his arm more tightly around her, kicked harder. “I'm not letting go!”

A gunshot hissed past his ear. It came from shore, too near where he was headed. Another shot slapped the water beside him. He shifted his body to shield Sherri, as his foot hit rock, found purchase on the riverbed. “We're almost there!”

She got her feet under her and fire seemed to surge through her veins. “The baby. He's going for the baby.”

Baby? Was Joe the kidnapper?
They tried to run for shore. But it was like wading in waist-deep molasses.

Another shot rang out, and Sherri's body ricocheted against his chest. She went limp and slipped under the water in a swirl of red.

“No!” Cole heaved her out of the water and rocketed for shore.

Edging under the cover of bushes, he clasped the back of her neck and eased her to the ground. His stomach lurched at the red circle blooming over her chest. He whipped off his shirt and pressed it to the bullet wound. His heart scrunched up into his ribs. Her pallor was pasty white, her lips purple, the rise and fall of her chest barely perceptible. “Stay with me, Sherri. You're going to be okay.”

Sirens grew louder. Finally, the backup he'd called for.

The sound of Joe lashing through the bushes rose a few hundred feet to his left. And getting closer, despite the deputies closing in.

Cole dragged Sherri deeper under cover and with one hand continuing pressure on her wound, he reached for the gun he'd jammed in the back of his pants. His fist clenched. The gun was gone. Now what?

A pitiful cry filtered through the trees.

Sherri's eyes sprang open—wild and panicked. “The baby. You have to save the baby.” The order came out scarcely louder than a whisper.

“Shh,” Cole whispered. “It's okay. Help is on the way.” He stroked wet strands of hair from her face, willing into his gaze a reassurance that with her warm blood seeping through the drenched cloth and over his fingers, he didn't feel.

The baby wailed again, and Sherri wrestled against his hand holding her down, lashing her head from side to side.

Cole cupped his free hand around her head, straining to keep her still. “Easy,” he whispered, his lips grazing hers. “I'm here. And I'm not leaving you.”

* * *

Sherri's heart ached at the promise she'd been longing to hear for too many years. “I love you, Cole. I've always loved you.”

His hot tears splashed onto her cheeks. “Stay with me, Sherri.”

Her chest was on fire, but she felt cold. So cold. And it hurt to breathe. Scrounging up all her strength, she lifted her hand to cover his. “I'm fine. You need to save the baby.” Her heart lurched at the words—Luke's words, his plea to her. A bewildering peace cradled her as darkness edged her vision. With astounding clarity she realized that this was what Luke had felt, what he'd wanted her to know.

“The paramedics will take care of him,” Cole assured and then yelled up the bank, “Down here. We have a gunshot wound to the chest. Hurry!”

A gunshot sliced through the leaves, and Cole hunched over her, shielding her.

The baby's cry punctuated the sounds of splashing water.

Cole squinted through the trees toward the river. “The idiot's trying to cross the river with the baby. Down here! He's getting away,” he shouted, but the responding voices sounded far too far away.

“Cole.” She gasped, struggling to suck in enough air to push out the words. “I'm okay. I want you to save the baby.”

“You're not okay,” he shouted, his expression tortured. “I won't leave you.”

The sound of splashing water stopped, then a sickening plop swallowed the baby's cry.

Her heart rioted. Tears burned her eyes. “Please, Cole. Save him for me.”

He pressed a desperate kiss to her lips and then bolted to his feet. At the sound of Cole hitting the water, her eyes slipped closed.

* * *

Searing pain ignited in her chest as a baby's cry tugged her from sweet oblivion.

“Decreased lung sounds on the right,” a male voice grumbled. “Possible pneumo. She's having a hard time breathing.”

The ground beneath her rumbled and bounced. Her mind flailed from sensation to sound, struggling to make sense of them. Inhaling, she startled at the odd pressure. She strained to open her eyes, caught glimpses of faces, the inside of an ambulance, before her eyelids fluttered, closed of their own volition. “Cole?”

A warm hand curled around hers. “I'm right here. Along with the little guy whose life you saved.” He propped up the bundle cradled in his blanket-clad arms for her to see.

The baby!
“He's okay?”

“Yes, and Joe is in custody.”

“Sorry, I doubted you about Joe,” Dan said from her other side. He flicked his finger against a lethal-looking needle.

She tugged the oxygen mask from her mouth. “What are you doing with that?”

He fitted the mask back in place with a stern, don't-touch look. “Demerol for the pain.”

She relaxed back against the gurney. “Thank you.”

Dan gave her the needle, then relieved Cole of the baby.

Bending over her, Cole tenderly stroked her hair. “You are one incredible woman.”

“That's our superwoman,” Dan cooed to the baby. “This is the second time she's saved your life. Do you know that?”

Cole smoothed her furrowed brow and shook his head. “I don't think math was your partner's best subject.” He winked and turned to Dan. “How do you figure twice?”

Dan stepped up to the end of the gurney and showed her the baby. “This is Luke Gibson.”

Tears clogged Sherri's throat.

Cole's hand tightened around hers, his gaze searching her face. “What's wrong? Are you in pain?”

She pulled the mask from her mouth. “Mary Gibson is the woman whose husband assaulted her and then shot my partner.”

“Sherri saved her and the baby,” Dan filled in, pride beaming from his eyes. “And the mother had promised to name the child after Luke if it was a boy, or Sherri if it was a girl.” Dan squeezed her toe. “Luke would've been proud of you.”

The tears spilled to her cheeks.

Cole pressed a kiss to her damp cheek and whispered close to her ear, “You did good.”

She shook her head. “It's because of me Joe kidnapped the poor thing in the first place. He must've known the connection and known how it would torment me.”

The paramedic driving said, “More likely he took the kid to torment his ex-wife. He was livid when he first heard she was pregnant after she left him.”

Cole's attention swerved to the front of the ambulance. “Wait, you're saying this baby's mother is Joe's ex-wife?”

“Yeah, you didn't know?”

“No.” Cole looked at her.

“I didn't know. Joe and his wife had split before I was hired. I'd never met her.” Her mind whirled, her breaths coming fast and shallow.

Dan fit her oxygen mask back in place. “I didn't know, either. I knew his ex-wife's name was Mary, but of course her last name's different now. I never made the connection.”

Sherri tugged the mask away. “Joe told me he wanted to break his wife. I thought—”

This time Cole commandeered the mask from her grasp and held it in place. “It's okay. We've caught him red-handed on kidnapping and attempted murder. He won't be able to hurt her or you anymore.”

But...but...Joe's rant replayed through her mind. Something he'd said didn't line up. She could sense it, but couldn't sort out what it was.

The ambulance swerved into the hospital's driveway and within seconds her gurney was being yanked from the back of the truck. Cole strode beside her. “I'll be right here when you get out of surgery.” He smiled down at her. “We have a lot to talk about.”

The gurney surged through the doors, and he slid from her view. She grappled for his hand. “Wait!”

Cole leaned over her with a warmth in his eyes that stole her breath. He stroked her hair and then cradled her cheek in his palm. “You need to let the doctors do their job.”

“It's about Joe.” She pulled the mask from her face. “He said, ‘My wife, I wanted to break. You I wanted to kill.'”

Cole's expression turned all gooey tender, his face hovering closer. “You're safe now.”

She closed her eyes and scrunched her forehead, straining for a way to make him understand when she wasn't sure it made sense herself. “He said he
wanted
—past tense—to kill me, but after Luke's death, decided tormenting me was more fun.”

Cole nodded, but he didn't seem to understand at all.

“Don't you see? I was supposed to die. Not Luke.”

* * *

The nurses whisked Sherri away before Cole could respond to her anguished cry. His heart ached to see how much the man's death still tormented her. After today her nightmares were bound to get worse than ever.

Zeke must've come to the hospital to get her statement, because he stepped up beside Cole and squeezed his shoulder. “She might be onto something.”

“What are you talking about?” The air conditioning chilled the water dripping from his clothes. Shivering, he tugged closed the blanket Dan had given him to warm up after his plunge in the river. “You think Joe had something to do with Luke's death?”

“Could be we arrested the wrong guy for his murder.”

“How? The man assaulted his wife to the point of almost losing her baby then shot at the paramedics who came to save them. How do you get that wrong?” Cole didn't like the look of the twitch in Zeke's cheek.

“Mary's testimony was sketchy. She came home from her morning exercise class and the door was unlocked. She heard what she assumed was her new husband upstairs. When she went up, he shoved her downstairs and repeatedly kicked her in the gut. Her description of the man—shorts and running shirt, dark hair—fit her husband's, but later she claimed she never actually saw him and knew he'd never hurt her. He wanted this baby as much as she did, or so she said.” Zeke shrugged. “We figured she was a typical abused woman, defending her abuser.”

“You must have had other evidence.”

“Yeah, a 9-1-1 call from the house, claiming to be from her husband. Voice recognition software was inconclusive on a match.”

“But it doesn't make sense that a burglar caught by the homeowner would waste time calling 9-1-1 after beating her up.”

“Exactly. And the husband came in from his usual—” Zeke air-quoted the word “—morning run just after the ambulance pulled away with his wife inside. He played the part of the frantic husband real well. But the shot that took out Luke came from a rifle we recovered from the woods behind the house. His rifle. And the only witnesses that saw him running, saw him running from the direction of those woods.”

“Gunfire residue?”

“No, but he was wearing a sleeveless shirt and had already been to the washroom before we thought to check.”

“Where's this guy now?”

“In jail awaiting trial. Refused a plea bargain. Says he's innocent.”

Cole sighed, not knowing what to think. “If the assailant was her ex-husband, surely she would've recognized him.”

Dan joined them, his arms loaded with the supplies needed to restock his rig. “You talking about Joe?”

“Yeah.”

“His wife walked out on him three years ago. At the time, he was fifty pounds heavier, had a full beard and scraggly hair. None of us recognized him when he first got out of rehab.”

“You think his wife wouldn't have recognized him?”

Dan shrugged. “She'd just been shoved down the stairs. She wouldn't be noticing much of anything. It took me a few minutes to recognize him today in that disguise he had on, and I was staring at him. And he was always good at mimicking voices.”

“Why didn't you tell us this eight months ago when Luke was shot?” Zeke seethed.

“Whoa.” Dan backed up a step. “I had no reason to think you'd arrested the wrong man.”

“Okay, looks like we'll have a lot more questions for Joe Martello.” Zeke clapped Cole on the shoulder. “Don't worry. We'll nail this guy for everything we can get on him. You're a good man. I'm sorry I was tough on you.”