Page 11 of Code Trauma (Extreme Measures #1.5)

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A knock on the door woke her. A quick glance at the clock said an hour and a half had passed since Andy had dropped her at the motel. Was he back already?

She glanced through the peephole and opened the door. “Hi. What are you doing here?”

The figure raised her right arm, and Holly found herself staring down the barrel of a wicked-looking gun. “Come with me.”

Holly stumbled back, and the woman shoved her way in. “What are you doing?”

“Now. Or I shoot you and go back and find that man who seems to care so much for you.”

Heart thudding, Holly straightened with her hands held so the woman could see them. “I thought we were friends, Rachel.”

“Not in this lifetime.”

“It was you? You set me up?”

“With pleasure. Although, if you remember, at first, I did try to simply get you to leave. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“But you hurt Liza Hollister.”

“No, you did.”

“What?”

A cruel smile curved Rachel’s lips. “Just because there’s a label on the bottle, doesn’t mean that’s what’s inside it.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she meant. “You switched the drugs? Then reported my mistake anonymously.” It made sense now.

“It was the only thing I could think of to get you to leave!”

“But I’ve been suspended. Your plan worked. Why all this?”

“But for how long? Eventually, it’ll be proven that it wasn’t your fault. Even I know that. It’s only a matter of time. But right now, it all looks hopeless, doesn’t it?”

“Hopeless? What are you—” It hit her. Suicide. Rachel planned to make Holly’s death look like a suicide. Cold fear curled in her midsection.

“Yes,” the woman spat. “Hopeless. Poor little Holly caved when the pressure hit. Now come on, or I’m going to take my chances and just shoot you right here.”

Holly decided she’d have a better chance of escape outside the motel room than in it. She stepped out and let the door shut behind her, then, with the gun pressed in her lower back, she walked toward the car her kidnapper indicated. “Get in.”

“Why are you doing this? I don’t understand. What did I do to make you hate me so much?”

“You made him fall in love with you! And he’ll never see me again until you and that stupid wife of his are gone. Victoria saw the pictures I uploaded and is talking divorce, so that’s one problem taken care of. Now you. Garrett Mann is mine—or he will be soon.”

“But I don’t want him,” Holly cried. “I told him I wasn’t interested and refused to go out with him. You know all this. You were there for a lot of it. And then today? With that awful confrontation in the ER? You really still want him?”

Rachel didn’t move the gun. All Holly could do was just pray the woman didn’t accidentally pull the trigger.

“I’m done talking. Just get in the car. Climb in the passenger side and slide over.”

“Where are you taking me?” Holly’s hand shook when she opened the car door. Fear pounded through her, and she was afraid she’d stop thinking clearly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Rachel said. “I just need you gone.”

“So I’ll leave.”

“I already tried to warn you away, but you just wouldn’t go!”

“I will!” Where was everyone? Holly looked around for help, but the place was empty, deserted. Most of the people who stayed at the extended-stay motel worked at the hospital. Those who weren’t at work were probably sleeping.

But she didn’t dare call for someone to help her in fear that Rachel would shoot them.

Sirens in the distance caused the woman to jerk. “You’re driving. If you stall a minute longer, I’ll shoot you and deal with the consequences.”

Holly lowered herself into the car and slid across to the driver’s side. Rachel didn’t take her eyes from Holly as she slipped into the passenger seat. She shut the door. As Holly had hoped, Rachel reached for the seatbelt, and for just a moment, her attention fell away from Holly when she automatically looked down to clip her seatbelt into place. Holly struck out with her right hand against the inside of Rachel’s wrist and the gun tumbled to the floorboard.

With Rachel’s scream of fury echoing in her ears while the woman scrambled for the gun, Holly threw open the driver’s door and shot out of the vehicle. She fell to the ground and rolled. A gunshot sounded, and the bullet whizzed over her head.

Police vehicles pulled into the parking lot, lights flashing, sirens wailing. Holly rolled to her feet and heard someone call her name. Thinking it was Rachel, she raced away from the vehicle.

A hard hand clamped onto her upper left bicep, and she spun with a cry, ready to fight once more.

And saw that it was Andy.

She fell into his arms, and he pulled her to the ground as another crack split the air.

“Police! Put the weapon down! Drop the gun! Hands in the air!”

The officers’ commands came one after the other. Holly turned to see Rachel freeze. She held the gun as though unsure what to do with it.

“Drop it,” Holly whispered. “Drop it.” Even with all the grief Rachel had caused her, she didn’t want the woman to die.

With a sob, Rachel let the gun drop from her fingers. It clattered to the ground. Officers rushed in, and then it was over.

Andy pulled her into a lung-crushing hug. “I love you, Holly. I love you.”

Holly dissolved into sobs as his precious words washed over her. She pulled back and then kissed him. “I love you, too, Andy. I have for a long time.” She looked back at Rachel as the officers led her away and shuddered. “How did you know I was in trouble?”

“Dr. Mann finally confessed that Rachel had been acting strange. She’d been harassing him about getting back together.”

“I knew she had a crush on him and was hurt when he called things off, but from what I understand, that’s usually the way things worked with him.”

“The sheriff told him about the message on your wall, and he said Rachel had come to work late with red paint on her hands. But the clincher was the footage of the café where she uploaded all those pictures to his cloud account. She’d gotten his password from when they’d been together, and he never changed it. When we finally put it all together ...”

“... you rushed over here.”

“Absolutely.” Andy pulled her away to his vehicle. “And I don’t want to wait another minute. Will you marry me?”

Tears leaked again. This time happy tears. She sniffed and nodded. “I’ll marry you.”

“I didn’t plan on asking you this way.”

“I don’t care how you ask, just that you asked.”

He kissed her again then leaned back and cupped her face. “I didn’t realize.”

“What?”

“How hard it must have been for you to let me pull away and wallow in my misery.”

“I didn’t want to. You gave me no choice.”

“And I regret that with every fiber of my being. I won’t do it again, I promise. If you had pushed me away—more so than you did—while all this was going on with you, I would have been a crazy person.”

“I know. I’m glad you were here.”

“And I will be from now on.”

She nodded. “From now on, we’re a team.”

“A winning team.” He pulled her back into his arms, and she knew there was no other place she’d rather be.