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Zane plowed his fist into the man’s face, finding satisfaction in the sickening crack of the doctor’s nose. He landed a second punch to the man’s gut and then a third to his jaw which sent the doctor hitting the floor again. Seth’s head bounced off the hardwood floor, and after uttering a groan, the son of a bitch passed out.

Zane pulled his cell from his pocket and made two calls — the first to the Sheriff’s Department dispatch.

“This is Zane Wilder with Knight Security and Investigations. Who am I talking to?”

“Wilder! It’s Miller. What’s going on?” The dispatcher was someone Zane had contacted on other cases, and one of the goals of the KSI teams and investigators was to maintain strong relationships with local authorities and dispatchers.

“I need to report an attempted rape. I need a shop and a bus dispatched to my location. I’m on scene. The perpetrator is subdued. The victim and her children are secured. It occurred in her home.”

Zane had slipped out of his rage into his military persona, where he assessed the situation and took charge to take care of business. He used cop lingo to order a patrol car to take the doctor into custody and an ambulance to care for Bridget.

“On it. Smith and Rhodes are in your area. They should be there in five. Bus is ten minutes out.”

“Thanks.” He cut the call without waiting for a response and selected a name from his contacts for his second call.

“Dammit to hell, Zane! Do you know what time it is?”

“Panther, wake Sydney and get over here to Bridget’s. She was attacked.”

“Shit! Is she all right?”

“I don’t know. The guy is here. I had Mat take her and Marlowe back to one of the bedrooms and lock the door until the cops get here to arrest the asshole. He’s a doctor at the hospital where she works. Man, he’s messed up. I want to kill the bastard. Her kids were in the next room. If I hadn’t stopped when I was driving by…”

Zane started pacing, his free hand running through his hair over and over as his mind played the “what if” game. He could hear voices in the background, and he guessed Cole filled Sydney in on what was happening.

“What did you do?” Cole asked him, and Zane could hear shuffling in the background which Zane assumed was his teammate dressing to leave the house.

“I hit the guy and broke his nose. He fell to the floor and knocked himself out. Then I called dispatch and then you.”

“You got a zip tie? Secure his hands while he can’t resist. Syd and I are on our way. She’s calling Chloe too, so she may beat us there.”

“Thanks, man.”

Pocketing his cell phone, he searched the living room for something to bind the doctor’s hands. He always carried zip ties when he worked a case, but he hadn’t expected to stop at Bridget’s house, much less subdue a rapist. He finally pulled the ties holding back the curtain panels and used those to bind the man’s hands and feet for good measure.

He heard heavy footsteps on the porch a minute before he heard someone call out, “Police!”

“In here, guys,” Zane said, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender so the officers would know he wasn’t a threat.

“Wilder, is he the perp?” Adam Smith was the only one of the two cops he recognized, and he was glad to have a familiar face responding.

“Yeah, he hit his head on the floor and passed out, but I secured his hands and feet in case he roused.”

“What the hell happened?” The other officer — Zane remembered the dispatcher referring to him as Rhodes — moved to replace the tie at the doctor’s hands with a set of handcuffs.

“The victim is Bridget Kincaid. She’s a nurse at the same hospital where he’s a doctor. He brought her home. She has her own car, but he said something about her having car trouble. I was driving by to stop in and talk to Bridget. I saw him push her inside, and as I came to the door, I heard Bridget whimper then scream. I busted the door and found him attempting to remove her clothes while she struggled. I pulled him off, we fought, and he hit his head on the floor. She lives here with her niece and nephew, and her scream must have woken them. They came into the room. I had them take Bridget back to one of the bedrooms and secure the door while I took care of him and called you guys.”

“You just happened to be driving by this early on a Saturday?” Rhodes asked him.

“He’s a friend. I’m thankful he was driving by, no matter what his reason.”

Zane wasn’t expecting the feminine voice speaking up behind him. He turned around to see Bridget standing inside the door frame connecting the hallway to the living room. Still dressed in her scrubs, she had her arms wrapped around her middle. Her face appeared freshly washed, but her eyes were bloodshot from her tears and her lip was swollen with an ugly scar where the blood had scabbed over.

He expected her to be hesitant to step into a room full of men after what happened. Instead, she walked into the room with angry strides and glared at the doctor’s still form on the floor.

“I work with him. His name is Seth Masters. I went to breakfast with him after our shift at the hospital. I was having care trouble when we were leaving, so he gave me a ride. He kept saying he heard I liked it rough.”

“Do you know why he would say that?” Rhodes asked.