Rescued (A McKenzie Ridge Novel Book 1) (17 page)

Before he could finish his declaration of love and fix the mess he created, he was interrupted by a scream on the other end of the phone. He quickly turned to his friends, all attention on him as he continued to question her, trying to get her to answer him. All he could hear was Sam’s scream and now an obvious blare that was all too familiar, a smoke detector.

Feeling that the door was hot, Sam did exactly what she shouldn’t do, she opened the door. Her house was engulfed in furious flames, there was no way out of that room, was this really happening? Again? She closed the door against the fire, fully aware it wouldn’t provide safety, and it was only a temporary barrier. She panicked, she couldn’t get out, the windows were too high and with her leg, there was no way she would be able to get up there. Shit, this time she might not make it out alive!

***

Dawson put her on speaker, so everyone could hear, “Oh my God, I’m trapped!” Was all she said, over and over. Fear pierced him like a knife to the chest. The room so silent, you could almost hear their thoughts, time stood still as they listened to their friend in crisis.

He continued to yell into the phone, trying to get her attention, when she finally spoke to him directly, “Smoke! Smoke is everywhere, Dawson, I can’t get out, please help me, I can’t get out! I can’t get out!”

Without a word, the gang called in an alarm and rushed to their various posts, losing no time getting to the scene. Dawson was the first one out and on his way as well, when he calmly talked to her, to get through the panic. “Sam, honey, I need you to listen. Are you with me? Are you listening? Sam?”

Terror filled words came through the line, and it nearly crumbled him as her voice shrunk to a whisper, “Dawson, help me. There’s too much smoke, what do I do, I can’t get to the windows, I’m trapped, Dawson. Oh my God, it can’t end like this, please help me, this can’t be the end.”

Motivated by her fear and clear depiction of what was going on at her house, his own fear was pushed down as his adrenaline took over and his determination to get to his girl was more powerful than one could imagine. He would not let her die, he would not let her leave him. “Honey, I need you to listen to me. I need you to go to the bathroom, close the door, and put a wet towel in front of it. I’m coming!”

“Dawson, I need you, please help me, I need you to help me!”

Her words pained him, she was desperate, death just a door away and he wasn’t there and couldn’t get there fast enough. “I’m almost there, baby, I’m almost there, nothing is going to hurt you, stay with me, okay?”

Breathing became harder and harder. The thick smoke was making its way under the door and even with a wet cloth over her face, it was suffocating her. She continued to sob, despite the coughing and choking, while he spoke to her, attempting to keep her calm. An all too familiar darkness started to settle in, not this, not again. She began to pray.

Dawson broke every traffic law there was, and wasn’t sorry. Sirens blaring behind him, he was almost there, the cavalry quickly catching up. Finally reaching her street, he could see the blaze ahead, he was reeling, although in sight, he just couldn’t seem to get to her. He had to rescue her, he couldn’t lose her, he couldn’t live with that. Dear God, let them get there in time.

He parked his truck in front of Lou’s house, leaving room for the emergency vehicles in front of Sam’s, or what was left of it. Houses in this rural mountain neighborhood had nearly a full city block between them. Lou walked outside, hearing the ruckus, just as Dawson sprinted toward Sam’s.

“What on earth, boy? What are you…“ and then she saw it for herself, as she followed the direction he was running. The entire house next door, Sam’s house, completely engulfed in flames, a dark smoke plume billowing above. “Dear God! Sam!”

He charged through the side gate, running to the back of her house. Behind him, he could hear Colton yelling for him to stop, to wait for them, like hell he was waiting another second. He heard both he and Jessie cursing, their steps quickly approaching as they chased him in.

Still on the phone, he could hear her breathing. “Sam, honey? I’m here, I’m right outside, step away from the window, baby, get away from the window!” She didn’t respond, not a word, he said it again, hoping she could hear him. He dropped his phone and yelled it again, hoping she could hear him through the frosted glass picture window that rested the length of her bathtub, before grabbing a garden brick and throwing it through the window, shattering it. Without a clear opening, he leapt through, cutting his arms and sides, finding his way to her limp, semi-conscious body.

Dawson balanced her wilted body on his leg, and swung a towel around his right arm and began breaking out the glass so he could get her out unharmed. Sparks approached yelling, “Cover her head! Turn away!” and used his axe to help clear an opening for the two to safely fit through.

Dawson made his way through, pushing his way past Jessie and Colton, refusing to let them take her, he carried her around the front, far away from the fire, and right to Carigan and Jack, who was filling in for him while he was on leave. They gave her oxygen and tried to tend to him too, but he refused their help demanding they help Sam first.

Blake, combat trained and having served many tours of duty, wasn’t new to treating the wounded on a whim, he applied pressure to a bloodied Dawson’s side, where he was quickly bleeding out, while instructing Morgan to tie off a tourniquet on his arm, to stop the flow of blood there. He was hurt, maybe worse than Sam, covered in blood from the glass shards, some that were still hanging from him and in his wounds, he encountered in her rescue.

Satisfied with the attention Sam was getting, he allowed Sparks and Clarke to dress his wounds better and prep him for transport, while they updated what they had observed so far. The fire, as bad as it looked from the outside, appeared to be contained to only that portion of the house, the front and other areas were clear, only suffering smoke damage, as far as they could see.

“The team breached the front door to hit it from both sides, but the flames hadn’t reached that area yet.” Jessie was all matter of fact, no bullshit, a first for her. She didn’t want to share the next part, but she suspected foul play. The location of the fire and how aggressive it was in what seemed to be an isolated area, made absolutely no sense.

Lou rushed over, unable to reach Everly, she took Ellie to breakfast before heading to Sugar Pine’s for camp, and they didn’t want them to come home to this. Blake dispatched orders, giving everyone direction while they got to the bottom of this. Dawson needed stitches. His arms, torso, and face were badly cut, but he refused to ride in the second ambulance, insisting on riding with Sam, on Carigan's bus. Morgan took off to find Everly and get her up to speed, while Sparks and Clarke stayed behind to finish clearing the scene and gather whatever information they could. Blake followed the ambulance in Dawson’s truck. Everyone had a job to do and were to meet at the hospital as soon as they could manage, McKenzie Ridge’s finest had a crime to solve.

Morgan Jameson’s instincts told her this was going to end badly, if there were any questions about something foul going on, it was just confirmed. Even with few details and nearly no facts yet, it was obvious the fire was no accident, and she’d bet her badge none of the events leading up to this point were accidents either. No, someone had it in for Sam; they wanted her dead, but who?

***

Blake rolled through the details of the morning as he sat in the security office that was just within the entrance of the emergency room, waiting for word on his friends. He outlined the chain of events and didn’t like what he saw. It was blatantly clear, someone was trying to hurt Sam, which also meant Ellie, Lou, and Everly were possibly at risk too. The shitty part was, they didn’t have a single fucking clue. The most likely suspect in a case like this, where there aren’t any known conflicts, would be Ellie’s father, who had already been ruled out.

Sam insisted he wasn’t a threat, but they did their due diligence and checked him out anyway. Despite what he did to Sam and Ellie, he was a respected doctor back east, from a well-to-do, prominent family, with a new trophy wife, and expecting their first child—a real scumbag, but not after Sam. Until they had a report from the chief and a chance to talk to Sam, he would go back over the timeline until something caught his eye. He knew there was a clue there, and this ended…today.

***

Morgan passed through town, but didn’t see Evie’s car at any of the likely morning breakfast spots, which meant she and Ellie were already at Sugar Pine Stables. When she pulled in, she quickly found them, saddling up what would be Ellie’s horse for the day.

“Hey squirt, how’s it going? You taking Blue out today?” She needed to talk to Evie, but clearly not in front of the little one, so small talk it was, as not to alarm her.

“Yes, Morgie! Blue’s my very favorite, and Butterscotch, but Jenna gets Butterscotch today, cause we have’ta take turns, but I get Blue and he’s a good boy! He loves apples, but I’m not allowed to feed him them anymore cause last time I gave him so many, he got the bad gases!” Ellie earned herself a chuckle from each of them, as usual, with her colorful stories, including Rene, who had just walked up. This girl was a riot, Morgan didn’t want to ruin her spirit, she needed to protect Ellie from all of this.

“Hey Morgan, you riding with us today? Not really dressed for it.” Morgan paid close attention to Rene’s friendly demeanor—was there anything to worry about? She was here, at the stables, which meant something, didn’t it?

“Nope, actually, I’m here working, looking for these two,” she replied, referring to Everly and Ellie, as she nodded to each of them.

Not wanting to have this discussion in front of the child, Morgan called for Cal. “Hey, Cal. Can you help Ellie and Blue here out to the ring with the others?” He quickly obliged as he always did, and got Ellie out of there.

“High five, squirt, have fun, I’ll see you later, okay?” Putting her hand out for a high five, Ellie complied.

“Can you come with us and ride Morgie? Aunt Evie, you too? We can have a girls’ only club, except for the horses, and it’ll be fun! You can ride Mittens and Bulldog!” Her enthusiasm was contagious, and had there not been a problem in town, Morgan would have happily joined the club!

Everly sensed something was wrong the minute she saw Morgan in uniform, there wasn’t anything scheduled for Search and Rescue and she wouldn’t show up to ride in her uniform. Taking her queue from Morgan, Evie tried to keep calm and help get Ellie out of ear shot, that must’ve meant something happened to Sam. “Not today honey, Morgie and I have some work to do, but we will real soon, promise!”

“Yep, I’m in too! Aunt Evie is riding Bulldog though, deal?”

“Yippee!” Ellie cheered, and pocketed that victory, a promised girls only riding club day! With a leap and skip in her step, with her horse in tow, and Cal at her side, she continued to plan her future outing. “We will go on a very longest ride, all the way to the cabin on the tallest mountain just like Miss Rene talked about! We’ll make s’mores, and paint, it’ll be the bestest day ever!”

***

There was a change in the air as Ellie wandered closer to the other kids and was out of hearing range, and the three women found themselves standing there, alone. Smiles faded, tensions heightened, as the two women waited for Morgan to start talking, this wasn’t going to be a good meeting, Everly could feel it. Fun loving Morgan was absent, there was a seriousness about her, a hardness that Evie rarely saw. Morgan the cop stood before her, that left an anxious feeling all around, even in Rene who had wide eyes and a panicked look as well. Everly was nervous; where was Sam?

“What happened, Morgan?” Evie didn’t ask
if
something happened, she asked
what
had happened because trouble was written all over Morgan’s face.

Fists clenched, posture tense, anger was overwhelming her initial fear, this was her friend, her dear friend, and she was pissed. “There was a fire. Sam’s at the ER right now, looks like she will be okay, but, Everly, this looks intentional.”

“So she’s alive? She’s fine? How did she get out?” Rene’s quick reaction was full of surprise and what sounded like irritation. “Oh my gosh, poor Sam, this is awful!” A quick recovery or so she hoped, she didn't intend to sound so crass.

Morgan paused, odd struck by Rene’s response, what the hell was that? She seemed shocked that Sam was alive, not that there was a fire. Given recent conversations and the fact that they are looking into her past, Morgan was just shy of taking her in for questioning, but she was already here, at Sugar Pine, so she couldn’t have been involved. Jessie must have been right, she is just strange, maybe jealous. How did she miss this about Rene before?

“Dawson got to her in time, broke through her bathroom window, she was trapped in there.” Keeping her eyes on Rene, she continued to deliver the story. “He is cut up pretty bad, he’s up at the ER too; he needed stitches, a lot of them.”

“Morgan, this shit is out of control, who the hell would do this? She doesn’t have any enemies, she helps people, doesn’t hurt them, what the hell?” Everly questioned with tear filled, angry eyes. “How can I help? How do we catch this asshole?”

“I’d like you to come to the hospital with me, we are using it as an HQ of sorts, give a statement, let us know if you saw anything out of place this morning. We’re putting it all together there, this is over, today!” Morgan said, full of heat and determination.

She kept her eye on Rene, wanting to rule her
friend
in or out, as it may be. She started to settle on relief as Rene’s demeanor seemed to change, and genuine worry and concern came over her, apparent in her expressions and body language. On high alert maybe, Morgan thought Rene’s initial response was more lack of tact and social etiquette than menace. Rene was at Sugar Pine anyway; she was still odd, but out of the equation, for now.

Everly pulled Morgan from thought with her response. “Of course, anything, I should grab Ellie…“

“NO!” Rene shouted, catching both Evie and Morgan off guard. “I mean, she’s been through enough, the hospital is the last place she should be right now. I can watch her until you are done. We are running an extra hour today anyway, a long trail ride up the foothills for working so hard.” She paused and plastered on a bright confident smile before finishing. “I am helping with the ride today. I’ll just keep her with me until I hear from one of you. Please let me help, it’s the least I can do for Sam. I won’t let her out of my sight.”

“I don’t know…” Morgan’s hesitation was interrupted by more pleas to help, maybe she was just an awkward introvert and this was her way of helping a friend.

“Please, let me help. It will keep her busy and give you all a chance to be together and sort things out, Morgie.” Rene used Morgan’s nickname, used only by her friends, was this her way of assuring her sincerity? “I really don’t mind, anything to keep her safe and protected from everything going on—it’s sure to start affecting her.”

“Shit, Morgan, she has a point. She already spent most of her summer in the hospital, watching her mom.” As much as Evie wanted to keep Ellie close, she had to think of the child and how this could affect her long term; Rene was right. Ellie was tough as nails, like her mama, but she was still just a kid and this could take its toll on her, if they weren’t careful. “So camp is running later? I don’t remember that on the schedule?”

“It wasn’t, Cal and Angel told everyone at pick-up last meeting. The kids are progressing faster than anticipated, so they promised a longer trail ride as a reward.” She laughed and looked over to the crowd of kids, full of pride. “None of us expected them to achieve their goals only weeks after we set them, a bunch of hard working hustlers over there.” Her enthusiasm and genuine delight for those kids put both Morgan and Evie at ease.

Morgan, fighting the damned if you do, damned if you don’t tug of war, relented. Ellie was safer away from the situation, at least for now. “Okay, I’m okay with it if you are Ev, as long as nobody picks her up but us, or of course Dawson and Lou, got it? We have no idea what this asshole is capable of or what his intentions are.”

“Agreed, this psycho is out to hurt Sam, kill her even, with this many failed attempts, he is sure to figure out the only way to truly hurt her, and that’s Ellie.” Evie was sure of this, Sam’s heart was right there in front of them, riding her horse. The equestrian center was safe, armed even, as Search and Rescue headquarters.

“Then it’s settled, Ellie stays with me. I’ll protect her with my life if I have to. No mother should have to go through the pain of losing their child; I imagine it’s as close to death without actually dying. No
decent
person deserves that. I’ll do for Sam what she would do for me,” Rene said, pain laced in her words. With a nod and empty smile, Rene turned and walked away.

“Sounds like she knows that sense of loss, Morgan.”

“Might explain the mystery around her that has had us all distracted. No wonder she wanted to help, she gets it,” Morgan said with a bit of guilt for questioning Rene in the first place. She has not given any one of them a reason to doubt her.

“I think you are right, she’s good people, Ellie adores her, she’ll be fine.”

“One less thing to worry about. Something still feels off and I can’t put my finger on it. Let’s go see what the gang has uncovered, maybe it will settle this chill I can’t shake. My instincts say this case is about to bust wide open, but it’s far from over.”

***

Dawson sat at the all too familiar hospital bedside watching Sam sleep, it felt like déjà vu. She was going to be fine this time, sleeping only as a result of a few pills that helped her relax. He scanned her body, not a scratch on her, thank God.

He took the pain for her this time with several stitches, he lost count at around 100 or so, to close the deep gash to his side and forearm, as well as a few on his forehead. The rest of the cuts, and there were plenty, would heal on their own, no stitches needed. He would bear those wounds again and again to protect her, without hesitation.

He replayed their phone conversation over and over in his mind—first, how angry she was, then the fear in her words as she asked for help. In one minute she was pushing him away, faulting him for his actions, the next, screaming for his help. Neither did he ever wish to hear again.

Sure, going behind her back, settling her debts the way he did, wasn’t his brightest move, but he knew she wouldn’t accept his help any other way. He’d do it again in a heartbeat; he’d do anything for his girls…anything.

“Hi.” Sam’s raspy voice startled him, bringing him back to present and away from his less than desirable memories.

“Hi, how do you feel? Should I call the nurse?” He said, not sure what else to do for her.

“I am a nurse, and I’d say I feel about as rough as you look, handsome,” she delivered, raising her hand to his wounded face, as she began to cry. “I’m sorry Dawson, I’m so sorry…“

“Hey, there’s nothing to be sorry for, none of this is your fault, you hear me?” His words were full of truth and honor, she didn’t have a thing to be sorry for, not a single thing.

“I’ve dragged you into something I don’t even understand, and you’re hurt! I was awful to you, I didn’t mean what I said, oh my God, I couldn’t stand it if that was the last thing I ever said to you,” she replied, realizing just how close she came to not being able to right her terrible wrong.

“I’m fine, honey, just a few stitches, looks worse than it is, I promise. I deserved some hard truths, I probably should have done things differently.” His head hanging, his admission was heartfelt, and his regret evident in his words.

“I know it came from a good place, I shouldn’t have said all that, Dawson, I let my past get in the way, and I…“ She tried to finish, but he cut her off, not wanting an ounce of guilt resting on her shoulders. What was done, was done.

“Sam, baby, please, it’s okay. Everything, it’s going to be okay. I promise you, I would do anything for you and Ellie. Somehow, at some point, you two became my whole world and nothing can change that, not now.”

“Ellie! Where is she? I can’t have her see me here, not like this, not again!” She frantically said, as she began to get up, wanting to be anywhere but there, when she began to cough, a deep, painful, cough.