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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

NOAH STOOD WHEN he saw Violet. One look at her face, and he knew something was wrong. “What happened?”

“Not here. We need to go.”

He fell into step beside her, with Grant and Rayne bringing up the rear. Noah rested his hand against Violet’s lower back and nudged her toward the SUV. When they reached the vehicle, he climbed into the backseat with her.

Once Grant drove toward Lauren’s home, Noah said, “What happened in there, Violet? Why are we in a hurry?”

“Dana Farraday lied about Bradley Melton raping her, Lauren, and Charity.”

He scowled. “Why did she file a false report?”

“She made a move on Bradley, and he turned her down.”

Grant glanced at Rayne before turning his gaze back to the road. “Dana accused Melton of rape because she was angry? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Pretty ugly, isn’t it?” She shook her head.

“What about Lauren and Charity? Was there any truth to the rape accusation?”

“Nope. They were afraid of what Dana would do to them if they told the truth.”

“Unbelievable,” he muttered.

“Why the rush to see Lauren?” Noah asked.

“According to Charity, she’s been acting out of character, paranoid and afraid to open the door to anyone she doesn’t know. When Charity tried to call her and warn her we were coming, she didn’t answer the phone.”

“Could be several reasons for that.”

“Could be trouble, too.”

“There’s that,” Grant said. “Lauren may not open the door if she sees four strangers at her door.”

“Especially if two of them are men. I hope Charity can reach her. Otherwise, we might not persuade Lauren to open the door.”

“You and Rayne are persuasive. I have confidence in you.” If anyone could overcome Lauren’s fears, it would be Violet and Rayne.

Minutes later, Grant parked in front of Lauren Gilmore’s ranch-style home. The operatives climbed from the SUV and walked to the front door.

Violet pressed the doorbell. From inside the home, they heard the bell ring. They waited for a minute, but received no response.

She pressed the doorbell a second time. When they still got no response, Violet covered her hand with the bottom of her shirt and twisted the knob. It turned easily under her hand.

Alarm raced through Noah. No way a woman who bordered on paranoid would leave her door unlocked. He nudged Violet behind him and drew his weapon. If he scared Lauren, he’d apologize and back off. But his gut said something was wrong.

He glanced at Grant, who gave a slight nod, palming his own weapon. Noah eased the door open and, weapon up and ready, entered Lauren’s home with Grant on his heels.

The living room was vacant. No threats. Also, no sign of the homeowner. A hallway lay to the left. An archway led to the back of the house. Noah motioned Grant to the archway while he turned toward the hall. After sending Rayne in the same direction as Grant, he signaled Violet to fall in behind him. That way, if either he or Grant came across Lauren, hopefully Violet or Rayne could reassure the woman they weren’t in the home to harm her.

Noah cleared the guest bath and bedroom. Further down the hall, he entered the main bedroom. Everything was in order. That left one more room to clear.

Was it possible Lauren had gone out and forgotten to lock her front door? Perhaps, but not likely.

Noah approached the last room. The door was closed. He glanced at Violet and motioned for her to take the left. He would sweep the right side.

He pressed his back to the wall beside the door, gripped the knob, and twisted. Noah pushed the door open and froze. The powerful scent of iron assaulted his nose. Noah’s gut knotted.

He entered the room, quartering the right side with his weapon up and ready, and spotted a woman sprawled on her back beside a desk. “Violet.”

She rushed past him. “Left side is clear. I need my mike bag.”

He raced from the room. “Grant, watch Violet. Last room on the left. Call an ambulance. Lauren is down.”

“Copy that.”

Noah rushed to the SUV, slung the mike bag over his shoulder, and sprinted for the house. Seconds later, he knelt beside Violet and set her bag on the carpet away from the blood pool. “How is she?” he murmured.

“Not good. Ambulance is on the way.” She yanked open her mike bag and grabbed multiple packages of gauze and compression bandages.

The injured woman moaned and tried to move.

Violet laid her hand on Lauren’s arm to still her movements. “Lauren, can you hear me?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“My name is Violet. I’m a paramedic. You need to stay still, all right?”

“Is he gone?”

“Who?”

“Attacker.”

Violet ripped open a pressure bandage and tugged the edges together of one of the stab wounds and applied the bandage.

Noah leaned into Lauren’s line of vision. “I’m Noah. Did you recognize your attacker?”

Tears leaked from Lauren’s eyes. “Ski mask.”

“Did he say anything to you?”

“That I deserved to die.”

“Why?”

“Mentioned Bradley.” She shook her head slightly as Violet closed another stab wound. “He knew details we didn’t tell anyone. How did he know?” Lauren moaned again. “Hurts.”

“I know,” Violet said. “You’re doing great. Stay with me, Lauren.”

“Ambulance is here,” Rayne called out from the living room.

“Hear that?” Violet smiled. “More help has arrived. You’ll be at the hospital soon. The medical staff will take great care of you.”

A paramedic and EMT hurried into the room with their bags. “What do we have?” the older one asked.

“Multiple stab wounds,” Violet said. She grabbed her mike bag and moved out of the way.

The medical personnel worked fast to assess Lauren’s condition and prepare her for transport to the hospital. While they worked, a policeman slipped into the room.

“What do we have, Lenny?” the cop asked.

“Stabbing victim. She’s critical. We need to transport her.”

“Who called it in?”

“We did,” Noah said.

“I’ll need to talk to you folks. Let’s go outside, out of the ambulance crew’s way.”

He inclined his head and led his team up the hall and out the front door. Three more policemen were in the yard, blocking access to the SUV.

Grant glanced at Noah, amusement glittering in his eyes.

Guess the police were ensuring Noah and his friends didn’t make a run for it. Didn’t blame them. Noah lost count of the number of times a guilty perp had called to report a crime they’d committed.

The policeman motioned for the operatives to stand near his cruiser, then pointed at Noah. “Name?”

“Noah Mann.”

“Do you have identification, Mr. Mann?”

“My ID is in my right cargo pocket.”

“Do you have any weapons on you?”

“Several.”

All four cops went on alert. The three officers who’d been waiting outside drew their weapons, keeping them by their thighs. “Go slow, buddy.”

Noah slowly reached down and pulled up the flap of his pocket, then grabbed his identification and extended his hand to the first cop on the scene.

After a cursory glance, Officer Hardin studied the identification more carefully. “You work for Brent Maddox.” A statement, not a question.

“All four of us work for Fortress.”

“You’re from Nashville. Are you on a job in this area?”

“No, sir. My girlfriend’s sister was murdered a few days ago in Morrison.”

Hardin’s attention shifted to Violet. “Identification, ma’am.”

Violet followed Noah’s lead and slowly reached for her identification.

“Same for you two,” Hardin said to Grant and Rayne. When he had all of their identifications in his hand, he said, “Standish, run them.” The officer focused on the operatives again. “We need to search you for weapons.”

Noah and Grant exchanged glances. Noah said, “We understand. Please, be careful with the women, especially Violet.”

“I’d planned to, but why did you mention her specifically?”

“A man attacked her today in the Morrison Funeral Home’s bathroom. She has stitches in her forehead and a concussion.”

“Noted.” Hardin glanced at the female officer. “Search the women, please, Macie.”

“Yes, sir.” Macie patted down Violet, removing weapons as she found them. Finally, she straightened and said, “Do you have any other weapons on you, ma’am?”

Violet smiled and moved her right booted foot forward. “I have a boot knife on the inside.”

“Rookie mistake,” a cop named Willis said.

Macie’s cheeks flushed as she pulled up Violet’s pant leg and removed the boot knife and added the weapon to the pile. The officer stepped back, shaking her head. “You’re a walking arsenal. What is your job at Fortress?”

“Paramedic. I’m on a black ops team with Rayne.”

“Definitely don’t want to get on your bad side,” muttered Officer Vance.

Noah chuckled. “She’s amazing.”

Hardin signaled Macie to repeat the search process with Rayne. By the time she finished the process, the rookie officer had amassed another pile of weapons.

Vance gave a soft whistle. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many weapons from one person before.”

Standish climbed from his cruiser and walked to Hardin. He spoke in a voice too soft for Noah to overhear.

Hardin stiffened and turned a speculative gaze toward Noah. “Search Mr. Mann for weapons.”

“Yes, sir.” Standish hurried to comply with the order. When he finished, an even larger stash of weapons was on the ground beside the women’s piles.

He moved on to Grant and shook his head at the weapons he discovered. “They’re clean now, sir.”

Hardin rested his hand on the butt of his weapon. “Mr. Mann, tell me why we found absolutely nothing on any of you when we ran your names.”

“First, Fortress doesn’t take chances with the lives of its people. All of our information is locked down tight. Second, three of us were in the military. Third, three of us were on the job.”

“Makes our job that much harder.”

Noah inclined his head.

“Why do I have the feeling that those of you in the military were not regular front-line grunts?”

He smiled. Hardin was intuitive, all right.

The cop shook his head slightly, his lips curving. He handed back the identification for each operative. “All right, Mr. Mann. We’ll question you and your friends separately. If we don’t like the answers we get, you can expect a trip down to the station for further questioning. The detectives assigned to Ms. Gilmore’s case will also want to talk to you.”

Hardin took Noah to his cruiser while the other officers separated the other operatives for questioning. Hardin opened the back door of his cruiser and motioned for Noah to get in.

“I’d prefer to stand out here so I can monitor Violet.”

The officer frowned. “You think Marcie will hurt her?”

“Violet is very special to me. I want to be close in case she needs me.”

“Based on her weapons stash, I think your lady can protect herself,” Hardin said wryly.

“You’re correct, but I protect what’s mine.”

The officer studied him a moment, then nodded. “I understand. I feel the same about my wife and kids.” He pulled a small notebook and pen from his pocket. “Tell me what happened here.”

Noah went through the steps he and his teammates took when they arrived at Lauren’s home and how they’d found her on the floor of her office. When he told Hardin about Violet helping Lauren until the ambulance arrived, the officer frowned. “Does she have medical training?”

“Violet is a paramedic with more medical training than most doctors. The Army did a great job training her to be a medic. Fortress took her training to a much higher level. If she wanted to go to medical school, Maddox would send her in a heartbeat. Violet is one of the best paramedics working in black ops. If Lauren makes it, she’ll have Violet to thank for saving her life.”

“How well did you know Lauren?”

This is where the conversation could turn in the wrong direction. “We’ve never met her.”

“Why did you show up on her doorstep, then?”

“Chasing a lead.”

“Explain.” After Noah finished, Hardin dragged a hand down his face. “A serial killer. You’re sure?”

“Lauren’s wounds are the same as Camilla’s and several other women in Morrison and the surrounding counties. The only difference is the killer didn’t deliver the killing blow to the heart.”

“Think you interrupted him?”

“It’s possible. We weren’t expecting trouble, so we didn’t cover the back and the front.”

“Why didn’t the Morrison police sounded the alarm about a serial killer on our turf? We haven’t seen an alert or been warned by the FBI.”

“The Morrison PD refuses to believe they have a hunter in their midst.”

“So they haven’t called the feds.”

“You got it.”

“Unbelievable.” Hardin sighed. “Can anyone verify the time you arrived at Ms. Gilmore’s home?”

“Violet and Rayne interviewed Charity Bradshaw, Lauren’s friend, until fifteen minutes before we arrived here.”

“Where were you and Grant?”

“In the lobby of Westbrook Marketing, waiting for the women.”

A frown. “Why didn’t you interview Gilmore with them?”

“We thought Charity would be more comfortable talking to Violet and Rayne without us present. We thought Charity was a rape victim. Turns out she wasn’t.”

“Buddy, all I can say is the detectives are going to have a time sorting out all these facts.”

“It’s complicated,” Noah admitted.

“How long were you on the job?”

“Ten years. Grant, too. We were on the same detective squad.”

Hardin shoved his notepad and pen into his pocket and glanced at the other officers. “Come with me.”

Noah joined Violet, wrapping his arms around her. She sighed and melted against his chest. “You okay?”

“We’re at another dead end, aren’t we?”

He wasn’t so sure about that. Before he could answer, an unmarked police car arrived and two men in suits exited the vehicle. The detectives had arrived.

The men talked to Hardin, then the rest of the officers, before turning to Noah.

He sighed. Let the fun begin.

Over the next two hours, Noah and his teammates repeated their story multiple times, including Camilla’s death and their investigation, which had done little to point a finger at the man who killed Violet’s sister and the rest of the stabbing victims.

Detective Reyes said, “You’re free to go for now. Don’t leave the area without checking with us first. We might have further questions for you.”

Noah handed Reyes his business card. “If you need us, call the main number for Fortress. They’ll get me a message. We’re not scheduled to be deployed for a few more days. We won’t leave until after Camilla Trevelyan is laid to rest.” And perhaps not even then, depending on where things stood in their investigation.

“Call me if you come across anything that might help in this investigation.”

Noah gave a curt nod. The operatives picked up their many weapons and slid them back into their sheaths, then Noah threaded his fingers through Violet’s and followed Grant and Rayne to their SUV.

Grant climbed behind the wheel and drove away from Lauren’s home. “What’s up, Noah?”

“Our perp may be a cop.”