Page 29 of Rescued Dreams (Last Chance Fire and Rescue #8)

TWENTY-EIGHT

R idge gripped the handle above the door while Della brought the rig to a stop outside the bank, where it seemed like an ocean of cops had gathered. There was no formal SWAT team in Last Chance County. Each of the officers on duty took on the role as needed.

“What’s happening here?” Della shut off the truck. “This is chaos.”

“We might need tools, but let’s find out the situation first.” Ridge jumped out of the truck and slammed the door, trudging over to the huddle of senior officers. “Chief?”

Macon stood with Conroy Barnes, the police chief. “Good, you guys are here.” Macon nodded.

Chief Barnes said, “We may need you to gain entry. Something is blocking the door, but we’re not sure what. The surveillance isn’t super clear on it.”

Ridge nodded. “Whatever you need.”

He started to turn away, but Macon snagged his arm. “One sec.”

“Chief?” He faced Macon, who had black slacks and his white uniform shirt on, over which he’d pulled a waist-length rain jacket.

“Surveillance has the hostages in the center of the room.”

“Anyone injured?” Ridge didn’t like the idea this might turn into a tragedy.

Macon shook his head. “So far it’s been peaceful. One of the tellers managed to hit the emergency button under the counter in time, so the call went out. We know there have been shots fired inside, but no one has been hurt as of yet.”

It sounded like he was giving a press conference.

Ridge frowned. “Why are you?—”

“Amelia is in there. With her brother. He’s the one holding all those people hostage.” Macon waved a hand at the building.

“Elam Hilden is the hostage taker?” Ridge looked at Chief Barnes.

He confirmed with a nod. “His sister is cooperating. From what we can see, she’s part of this. An accomplice, even.”

Heat built in Ridge’s abdomen. “She isn’t working with him. She doesn’t even like him.”

“Let us do our jobs.” Chief Barnes turned away.

Macon said, “Your team is here to be on hand in case you need to assist the police. Make sure that’s what you’re doing.

Prove to me right here and right now that having her in the middle of a call doesn’t stop you from doing your job because you’re more concerned about her than the entire situation. ”

“Yes, Chief.”

Ridge turned away and headed back to his crew, all coming to meet him with axes in hand. Their expressions curious about what was going on. Until they spotted the look on his face.

Izan said, “What’s going on?”

Kaminsky stopped between Izan and Della. “Yeah, Lieutenant. What’s going on?”

Della saw something in the scene behind Ridge that she recognized as not good.

“We’re on the sidelines for now. Until we either get sent back to the house or we breach the doors.” He took a breath. “Amelia is inside with her brother.”

“She’s a hostage?” Izan flinched.

Ridge kept his voice low so no one overheard the conversation. These guys needed to know though. With the exception of Kaminsky, they considered Amelia family. The floater would as well, but only in the FD brother-sisterhood.

He said, “The police aren’t sure, but she isn’t with the hostages. She’s with Elam. They think she might be an accomplice.”

“That’s loco.” Izan shook his head and turned to pace away a few steps. “Isn’t that Kane?”

Ridge looked where Izan pointed and saw the crowd that the police had blocked behind a barrier, a couple of uniform officers holding the spectators back. In the center, Kane was barely visible between people.

His cousin motioned him over.

“I’ll be back in a second.” Ridge jogged over to the cop, who turned out to be Anthony Thomas. “Hey, can you let him in?” He indicated Kane.

“He’s with you?”

“Yes.”

“Then he’s your responsibility. I’m not getting in trouble for it.” Anthony smoothed back his perfect brown hair.

Ridge’s was smashed under his helmet.

Kane’s—

“Focus, bro.” Kane was already over the barrier. “You with me?”

Ridge took a breath. Kane squeezed the back of his neck above the collar of his coat, and Ridge said, “She’s in there.”

“I know.”

Ridge stopped, not quite back at his crew. He bent and put his fists on his knees.

“Breathe.”

He sucked in a breath. The world closed in around him, and sound became a blur he couldn’t hear. Whomps instead of voices. Just a mass of sensation with nothing to pick out and anchor himself to.

Lord, You are with me. Be with her as well. I know she doesn’t quite believe, but she could. Draw her to You.

Kane’s hand was still on the back of his neck.

The way it had been that night when Grandpa had died.

Ridge focused on it, the steady presence of the man who was more like a brother to him than anything else, and his best friend.

The only family who’d been worth anything while he was growing up, and even now, with the twins in his life—and his home—he still needed Kane to stand beside him.

Ridge straightened. The world quit spinning for a second.

“She’ll be okay.”

“You can’t know that.”

Kane had a look in his eye.

“What is?—”

“Maria is in there too.” Kane’s brows rose.

“What?” He dragged Kane by the sleeve over to his crew. “What do you mean, Maria is in there?”

Kane just shrugged, like it was a completely normal coincidence.

“She was keeping an eye on Amelia today. It’s just that Amelia didn’t know she was there.

” He grinned, but it didn’t last long. “When she went into the bank, Maria was waiting for her to come back out. Instead, she saw Elam go inside, followed by his guys. She went around the back and broke into the employee exit. Hid in the back when they locked it down.”

“You need to tell the police chief that.”

Kane nodded. “You’re coming with me. You need to hear what Maria told me.”

They walked together toward the two chiefs.

“Sirs?” When Macon and Conroy turned, Kane said, “My fiancée is inside the bank, and she’s been communicating with me.”

Conroy said, “How is she doing that?”

“She sent me a text to come here, and when I got in range, our comms worked.” Kane tapped his ear.

Macon frowned. “You and Maria wear comms earbuds all the time?”

“No,” Kane said. “We keep them on our person. Just in case.”

“Just in case what?” Macon asked.

Kane just shrugged.

“So we have eyes in there,” Conroy said. “And now we have ears too.”

Kane nodded. “Maria is with the group of employees. They have been whispering when they can about the Hilden family. Speculating about an account at their bank with the old man’s treasure in it. They figure the brother and sister are there to withdraw their money.”

Ridge folded his arms. “Why would Elam need to create a hostage situation to do that?”

Conroy said, “And why would he secure the doors with military tech that will detonate and kill everyone inside?”

Ridge shook his head, trying to think it through. If the doors detonated, that would kill a lot of people, including Elam and his men. Amelia.

His stomach twisted, but he couldn’t get hung up on the risk. Macon was right about that. He had to prove he could do his job even while Amelia’s life was in danger.

“He has to have a plan to get out.” Kane shrugged. “He isn’t going into this with a plan to get killed, not when he just got out of prison.”

Conroy looked at Kane. “And you know this how? Have you spent time with Elam Hilden?”

“Maybe ten minutes.”

“This way, please.” Conroy led Kane with him, away from Macon and Ridge.

The huddle of cops nearby had Lieutenant Basuto—the one who’d brought Amelia to the station for questioning—and Sergeant Donaldson.

Good men. Family guys. He knew because he saw them dropping off their kids in the children’s ministry classrooms on Sunday morning at church rather than drinking coffee and leaving the task to their wives.

Macon cleared his throat. “I don’t believe Amelia is working with her brother.”

Ridge glanced over.

His boss continued, “If she’s in there with her brother, it’s likely coercion, even if she isn’t with the other hostages.”

“That isn’t going to convince the police of her innocence.

” That’s what she’d been worried about the night before.

That no one ever believed she told the truth.

He didn’t know what it felt like to be so distrusted, to not have his integrity.

“What if Elam is the one behind everything that’s happened?

The fires where the crew was hurt and the incident in the training house.

Someone tried to kill her, but who would have done it that way?

It’s just odd enough that it might make her sound crazy, believing that she was nearly murdered in the training house. ”

“It would make anyone who heard it wonder about her credibility if it wasn’t for the marks on her.

No way she could have fabricated those, or the smell in the air from the toxin he released.

” Macon folded his arms, stretching the sleeves of his open rain jacket.

“Easy enough to figure out what was wrong with the computer program and discover it was deliberately tampered with.”

Ridge gaped. “She was right?”

“You doubted her?”

“Of course not, but it’s nice to hear we can prove it.” Ridge squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Why would Elam do all that just to get her to come here? He didn’t tell her to or coerce her. Unless I missed something huge.”

Had her brother been harassing her all this time and she hadn’t said anything?

Ridge continued. “Just to get her to make a withdrawal? Why does he need her for that?”

Macon shrugged. “He’s been in prison long enough to make a plan, and it could hinge on her being there so he can get the payout. Which was apparently in this bank branch all along.” He frowned over at the red brick front of the building.

“There’s more to this that we’re not seeing.”

Macon nodded. “Like how to get through that setup he’s got on the doors so you can go in after the cops clear it and get those people out.”

Ridge studied the upper floor…Maybe the roof. “You think we can move the truck out of sight, get it around the back or something, and take the ladder to the roof? Come down from an upper floor?”

Conroy turned and pinned him with a stare. “Can you get my SWAT team in that way?”

Macon said, “Only if you ask nicely.”

Ridge folded his arms. “Amelia isn’t guilty of anything. She’s a victim, like the rest of the hostages.”

Conroy swallowed as though choosing his words carefully. “I’ll instruct my people to treat her as such.” He lifted his chin. “Get your truck into position, and I’ll inform my people to be ready to go.”

“Copy that.” Ridge nodded.

Conroy turned away. Macon slapped Ridge on the shoulder and said, “Get her back.”

Ridge ran to the others. “We’re clearing out!” When he got close, he said more quietly, “There’s a plan to get in.”

Della navigated the busy street and drove around the corner.

A lane behind the buildings offered access to employee entrances and had a few spaces for cars to park.

She stopped beside the neighboring building, which had been the library until they’d built the new one on Anderson Avenue, hopefully parking out of sight of anyone that might be a lookout.

Ridge shoved his door open. “Let’s go.”