Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Simon was standing next to the On The Rocks booth, talking to Zeke Calhoun and his wife, Elsie, when his phone rang. Looking down, he saw it was Atlee calling.
“Excuse me,” he told Zeke. “Gonna take this call.”
Without waiting for a response, Simon stepped away from the booth, noting that it was almost three. Almost time for everyone to start packing up, and time for him to head home. He loved going home to Atlee. He’d never had that, and would never take her presence in his life for granted.
“Hey, sweetheart. What’s up?”
But there was no answer on the other end of the line. Instead, Simon could hear someone talking, but not into the phone. In the background.
He frowned. “Atlee?”
No response.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up—and Simon was on the move toward his car before he thought about what he was doing. It was silly, Atlee could’ve accidentally butt-dialed him, but the voice he heard in the background was male. And whoever it was sounded hostile and angry.
He knew instinctively Atlee was in trouble, and he had to get to her. Fast.
“I’m coming,” he said into the line, having no idea if she could hear him or not but wanting to reassure her just in case. “Hang on, sweetheart, I’m on my way to you.”
“Bo! I need you!” he called out, as he headed for his cruiser parked near the police station.
The deputy immediately lifted his head and looked his way from a few booths down. He jogged toward Simon.
As soon as he got close, Simon said, “Something’s wrong with Atlee. I sent her to my house. She just called but isn’t saying anything. I can hear a man in the background. He sounds pissed. I need backup.”
“Shit. Right, I’m driving, you keep trying to figure out what’s going on,” the deputy said, falling in step next to his boss.
Simon nodded and concentrated on listening to what was happening on the other end of the open phone connection as they rushed to his deputy’s vehicle.
He heard the male voice talking again, but not what he was saying. The words were muffled, and now they sounded farther away than they had when he’d first heard them.
He got into the passenger side of Bo’s cruiser and vaguely heard him calling for more backup to meet them at the house, but all his concentration was on his phone.
“Siren or no siren?” Bo asked.
Simon shook his head, staring straight ahead.
If they used the siren it would be harder to hear whatever was going on with Atlee and it might make the perp more violent knowing that she’d somehow managed to call for help.
But it could also scare whoever was in the house away. He was torn about what to do.
“Use the siren to get the traffic out of our way, but cut it when we get close.”
Bo nodded and the even with the sound of the siren filling the cab, Simon didn’t need to strain to hear what happened next. The sound was loud and clear, through the cell connection.
Atlee’s scream had his blood running cold. She sounded both terrified and pissed at the same time.
Simon felt sick. Atlee needed him—and he was too damn far away.
“Is it him? The guy who’s been breaking into houses?”
Simon heard his deputy’s question, but his teeth were clenched too hard to answer.
All he could think was that the perp had picked the wrong house.
The wrong woman. His days were numbered.
And if one hair on Atlee’s beautiful head was harmed, the man would pay.
His oath to protect and serve be damned.
He’d waited his entire life to find Atlee, he wasn’t going to lose her now. No fucking way.
The intruder reached down and grabbed Atlee by the throat before hauling her upward.
She dropped her phone when she had to grab his arm to try keep him from strangling her, as he dragged her out of the kitchen.
He either hadn’t seen or didn’t care about the cell left lying on the tiles, where she’d been passed out a moment before.
“What’s the combination to the safe in the closet?” he growled.
Atlee struggled to get her feet under, her so the pressure would be taken off her neck, but she didn’t have much luck. “I d-don’t know!” she gasped.
The guy let go of her neck, using his strength to shove her to the floor.
Atlee gasped when her head bounced off the carpet as she landed. Her head spun and her ears rang, but she didn’t take her gaze off the man hovering over her menacingly.
“Bullshit! Tell me what it is now and I won’t hurt you.”
He was lying. Atlee knew that without a doubt.
He seemed to like seeing her in pain. There was zero chance he wouldn’t hurt her after she told him what he wanted to know.
Not that it mattered, because she really didn’t know any combinations.
She’d spent the night here many times, but Simon had never mentioned any safe, never mind what the combo might be.
“I don’t know it! I don’t live here. I’m just dating Simon!”
“Liar!” the boy-man shouted, then kicked her.
Grunting with the pain of the blow against her arm, Atlee tried to scoot backward. She needed to get to her feet, she was at a distinct disadvantage on the floor while this asshole hovered over her.
But she didn’t get a chance. The kid grabbed her—by the arm this time, thank goodness—and literally dragged her down the hall. Yet again, Atlee tried to get up, but it was impossible with the way she was being manhandled.
They entered the main bedroom and he hauled her over to the closet.
It was a walk-in, and while she’d been inside it before, she hadn’t noticed the large safe tucked into a corner.
It was obvious it was normally hidden behind clothes hanging on the rod in front of it, but they were now strewn all over the floor, exposing the safe.
The boy dropped her arm. Before she had any idea what he was planning, he fisted the hair at the back of her head and slammed her against the heavy metal.
Atlee’s teeth rattled in her head, and she immediately felt blood drip down her forehead from where it had made contact with the safe.
“Open it!” he screamed.
“I can’t!” she yelled back, scared to death but also pissed. “Look around! There are none of my clothes in this closet! I don’t live here! I don’t know the combo! Simon and I are dating, not living together! I didn’t even know he had a safe in here!”
She kept her gaze glued on the kid as he looked around at the clothes he’d ripped off the hangers and flung everywhere.
“Fuck!” he exclaimed.
Atlee felt a smidgen of relief. Maybe now he’d just go. Leave her here and get out with whatever valuables he’d managed to find before she’d interrupted him.
But to her dismay, his gaze came back to her.
“You shouldn’t have come here when you did. Five more minutes and I would’ve been gone. You brought this on yourself.”
Fuck you, was Atlee’s first thought. Victim blaming was the worst. But she kept her mouth shut, because the last thing she wanted to do was antagonize this already unstable asshole.
He moved with lightning speed, shoving her to her back and jumping on top of her before clawing at her shirt, trying to get it up and off her.
Atlee was startled for a beat—then she began to fight.
She screamed. Furious and terrified at the same time.
No. Just no. She wasn’t going to let him take her by force.
Blood from her forehead continued to drip down her face, getting into her eyes.
Every muscle in her body hurt from his earlier kicks, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.
She didn’t have to hold him off forever, just long enough for Simon to arrive.
He was coming. She had no doubt. She’d do whatever it took, for as long as it took, to stay alive for him. To keep this punk from raping her.
Simon was coming.
He was.
And when he arrived, everything would be all right.
She just had to hold on until then.
Simon had never been so scared in all his life. He’d been an officer for a long time, but no situation had ever had him literally shaking in fear like he was right now. He heard nothing from the open phone line, and that made his blood pressure spike more than anything else.
Had whoever had been talking to Atlee taken her somewhere? Had he killed her and left the house, and that’s why he couldn’t hear anything anymore? The unknows were tearing him apart.
For the first time in his life, he wouldn’t be able to maintain his professional demeanor at a scene.
He was too close. Too worried. Too terrified to act like the career police officer he was.
His woman was in trouble, and he couldn’t think about protocol when all he was concerned about was getting to Atlee.
Seeing for himself that she was all right.
Bo was on the same wavelength, which didn’t surprise Simon. His deputies were well trained and they’d worked together for several years now. They knew each other inside and out. Their strengths and weaknesses.
“I’m taking point when we get there, Boss,” Bo told him firmly. “Miguel and Chad will back me up. You take the rear.”
Simon nodded, still unable to talk.
“She’s strong,” Bo said quietly.
Taking a deep breath, Simon nodded again. She was. His Atlee was also smart. She’d do whatever she had to in order to hold on. She’d managed to call him. She had to know he was coming. That nothing would keep him from getting to her side.
It seemed to take hours to get to his house, but in reality it was less than five minutes. He heard sirens in the distance…Miguel and Chad were coming in hot, just as they had.
It took everything within Simon not to run to the door and rush inside.
Atlee’s car was parked in the driveway. She was inside and in trouble.
He needed to get to her. What if hesitating even the two minutes it took for his other deputies to arrive gave whoever was in there a chance to hurt her more… or worse?