Reaching Rachel (15 page)

“What about the snipers?” Devin asked, making sure they had all of their bases covered.

“They are on the roof of each neighboring house,” Andrew said, pointing at the homes. You couldn’t see them, but they were there. “They say they have a visual on him, pacing back and forth in the living room, and sometimes into the kitchen.”

“What about the girl?”

“They can’t see her, but he keeps turning and talking to someone just off to the side, so they figure that’s where she is, probably bound to something.”

“Good,” Devin said, scratching his chin. “That means he’s not holding on to her, so we could get to her before he does something.”

“We ready to go in?”

“Let’s do it,” Devin announced to his team. “Come around, let’s get our game plan straight.”

The SWAT team signaled silently, giving Devin the go ahead to approach. On light feet, he jumped the steps to the doorway and waited, listening. They were moving just as quietly, circling to the back of the house, waiting for the signal. Getting the signal to proceed, Devin placed the shield in front of him. His teammate slammed into the door with the boom and it swung open, smashing against the wall. They went into action, infiltrating the house from both entrances. All Devin could hear was smashing glass and booming voices. A smoke bomb was thrown in to disorient Mark so they could find his hostage.

“Police! Hands in the air!” Devin shouted, seeing a shadowy figure not far from him. He went further into the living room, his team behind him. As his eyes scanned the room, he stopped, frozen. He no longer had no idea what the other men were saying or doing, which he knew could be the difference between life and death. All he saw was the ghost of a person he never thought he would see again. She was here. In this house. With this crazy ass psychopath. He’d know that face anywhere, because it haunted his dreams. His mouth dried out and his head spun. He thought he might pass out. Her terrified eyes, the eyes he hadn’t seen in over five years, swung to his as he registered the gun pointed at her head. Rachel.

“Devin!” he heard his men shouting from behind him. His palms were sweating and his head was swimming with what he was seeing. Was this for real? It was really Rachel?
His
Rachel? What was she doing here? In this town? She lived here? He quickly snapped back into action. He would have time to register all of this later. Right now, she needed him to save her.

As quickly as she had looked at him, her eyes had closed, her head bobbing down and touching her chest. Mark yanked her head back by her hair, the gun pressed against her temple. Devin knew there were other guys behind him that he didn’t know about—it was only a matter of time before he would be taken down.

“You are the stupidest fucking group of cops I’ve ever seen,” Mark growled. “I have nothing to lose here. I’ll kill her and then kill myself right in front of you.”

“NO!” Devin screamed, losing all composure. His men looked at him quizzically, questioning him with their eyes on what the hell he was doing. He wasn’t supposed to have any kind of emotional response to a psycho, but of course, no one knew that he knew her. Hell, he didn’t just
know
her, he
loved
her.

Mark’s eyes flashed at him. “Seems you have a certain liking for my friend here. Rachel, say hi to the lovely cop. Oh, I’m sorry, she’s indisposed at this time. She’s had a busy afternoon.” It was then that he noticed she was only wearing a shirt, nothing else. His stomach clenched at the thought of what this bastard had done to her. He had to get her out of here alive, and he would, if it was the last thing he did.

Devin silently signaled to the team that was approaching behind Mark. He needed them to take him down. Right before they reached him, he turned to them, and a shot went off. The team took him down to the ground, and the gun clattered to the floor.

“No, no, no, no,” Devin mumbled, pushing through the chaos to get to her. The guys had Mark restrained, and Rachel was on her side on the floor, still bound to the chair. Devin dropped on his knees, screaming into his headset. “Get medic in here! She’s been shot!”

Taking the pocket knife from his pocket, he cut her arms and legs from the restraints, and her body flopped forward. He caught her, pulling her gently towards him. There was blood, so much blood, and he couldn’t even tell in the haze of the room where it was coming from. “Rachel,” he murmured. Even though it had been a long time since the last time he saw her, the familiarity of holding her made tears sting his eyes. Blinking rapidly, he smoothed her hair back from her battered and bruised face. No matter how damaged she was right now, she was still the most stunning woman he had ever seen.

Putting his fingers at her pulse, he noticed that it was thin. “Hurry!” he yelled into his headset again. “We’re losing her quickly!”

“Devin,” Andrew’s voice was behind him. “We’ve got the suspect and medic is coming in for the girl. We found out her name.”

“Rachel,” Devin said, his voice thick with tears. “Rachel Dawson.”

“How did you know that?”

“She—she … we know each other.”

Devin sat next to her bedside, where he hadn’t left in three days. She was in a medically induced coma, as she had been the whole time. When they had brought her in, they had rushed her right into surgery to get the bullet from her shoulder. It thankfully had missed a major artery, but that wasn’t the reason for the coma. Rachel’s body had taken a horrible beating, both that day and at some point before then. She had four cracked ribs, a broken arm, a broken nose, and severe bruising of not only her body but some major organs, too. She had also had sex multiple times before she was rescued, probably without her consent as she was pretty bruised up down there as well. Her mouth had signs of semen and hair follicles in it as well. Mark/Justin had really done a number on her.

“Any change?” Elise Dawson, Rachel’s mom, entered the room. They had planned on being here for Thanksgiving anyway, but instead had eaten cold cafeteria food and thanked God that their only child was alive. They had been just as shocked to see Devin there as he had been to see Rachel. She had never told them what had happened with them, and it wasn’t the time or place now. He had filled them in on how he got here and what had happened, but they had left it at that.

“No,” Devin said, his voice strained. “They said they lowered the medicine hours ago, so we just wait now for her to wake up.” What he didn’t say was,
if she wakes up
, but they all knew that was a possibility. The doctors had said, it’s all in her will to survive. After what she had been through, it was understandable for her mind to shut down and want to protect her from waking up. Even when she did wake up, there was no telling what state of mind she would be in. But Devin wasn’t leaving. When Andrew had figured out that Rachel was Devin’s ex, he of course took him off the case and also gave him vacation days to be with her. It wouldn’t have mattered if he did or didn’t, Devin wouldn’t have been anywhere else. It had been too long, too many years, and he wasn’t leaving her again. The ghost of her had haunted him, tormented him for so many years. He had gotten a second chance, and he wasn’t leaving without figuring out the past.

Devin picked up her hand and kissed her fingers. “Did you even know it was me before that bastard shot you? You looked at me, but there was so much going on, and you looked so scared.”

Elise sniffled across from him, reminding that her mom was listening to what he was saying. He knew it was hard for her to hear what her daughter had been through. Devin had spent three days talking to Rachel, begging for her to hang on, to come back and see him again. It was like the time that had passed vanished and she was his whole reason for breathing once again.

“You’re going to be just fine, Rachel. We’re here. Your mom and dad, Kayley, Emily, and Jessica are here …” Devin broke off, his voice cracking. He had had the pleasure of meeting Rachel’s best friends the night she was brought in. He had found out since meeting them that they had only known that she had been in love before and had been destroyed over it a short time before. Rachel had never told any of them. Kayley had just learned his name mere days before she ended up here, but she had welcomed him with open arms. Her husband Ben had been here as well, and he liked the guy immediately. Rachel had a great support system here.

“I’ll be right back,” Elise announced, touching his shoulder as she walked past. When the door clicked closed behind her, Devin laid his head on Rachel’s stomach, feeling the rise and fall of her steady breathing. Even though her face was bruised and battered, she was still breathtaking to him. She was five years older than the last time he saw her, but he couldn’t tell. She was still his love, his Rachel.

“I know we have a lot to work through,” Devin whispered. “But I’m here, baby. I’m here. I don’t understand what exactly happened all those years ago, and I’m sure we have both grown a lot since then. I’ve never stopped loving you, Rachel. Never. Every woman has been compared to you, and they all failed. My heart has never belonged to anyone else. So no matter what happened, we will move on. Us finding each other again, that’s a sign.”

He wished she would just wake up, look at him with those beautiful green eyes. He knew that she was probably going to have a hard road ahead of her. What if she didn’t want him there?

Justin a.k.a. Mark Stevenson had been safely apprehended after the raid. He was currently sitting in the county jail and had been denied bond, of course. He was facing charges not only in Alabama, but also in Florida, and they were currently looking at some open cases in other states that fit his M.O. He wasn’t coming back for a long, long time. Whenever Devin had taken breaks from Rachel, which hadn’t been often, he had checked in for updates on the sleaze ball.

The beeping machine connected to Rachel was the only sound in the room. He ran his fingers gently up the palm of her hand. Her one arm was casted and the other was in a sling, recovering from the surgery to her shoulder from the gunshot.

“I will never forget the day I met you,” Devin started. “My buddies and I decided to stop in for bike night, just to grab a couple drinks after shift. I remember looking across the room and seeing you immediately. You and your friends seemed so out of place there. Young, pretty college girls in a place packed with bikers. But that didn’t bother you at all. You were dancing your heart out with your friends. I knew you were young, but I couldn’t stop myself. I had to go over and meet you. You’ve always been the most captivating, beautiful person. When I reached you and you turned to me, I swear that my heart must’ve stopped. It was like you looked right into me, Rachel. It sounds ridiculous that you affected me the way you did. I never believed in the ‘love at first sight’ thing until I saw you. That night, I knew I would never be the same. And I was right. The two years we were together were the best years of my life. Wake up, baby. Wake up. I want you to look me in the eyes and know I’m here.”

The door opened, and Kayley walked in. No matter how many times over the last few days she had seen Rachel, it still shocked her. Walking to the bedside, she reached her hand out and gently touched Rachel’s bruised face. A sob escaped her throat at the thought of what her friend had been through.

“Devin,” she choked out. She still couldn’t believe that the love of Rachel’s life was here. The man that she had just learned about a short time ago was the one responsible for saving Rachel’s life. When she had first walked into this hospital room three days ago, she had had no idea who the man was that was sitting by her friend’s bed. Then when he had stood up and said his name, her knees had almost buckled. After the story he told her, she had needed to sit down.

Now, they had been together so often over the last few days that she felt like she knew him pretty well. They hadn’t really talked much about the past, as she could tell whatever it was had hurt him pretty badly as well. He had asked her a lot of questions about Justin, and she had been thoroughly interviewed. She still felt terrible that she had encouraged Rachel to continue a relationship with a psychopath, but Devin reassured her that he was good at what he did and had manipulated everyone around him. She had listened the stories that he told Rachel, trying to get her to respond.