Justice for Corrie (Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Book 3) (14 page)

“Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty. The man had three daughters…ages three to twelve. Dimitri’s thugs started with the oldest daughter and worked their way down. Then they started on his wife, and finally killed the guy. After that, no one has dared to go against him.”

“And his posse of henchmen?”

“No one knows for sure, but rumor has it Dimitri’s paranoid and decided one day that they were all out to get him, and he disposed of them all.”

“Jesus fucking Christ. And this guy ordered the hit on Shaun at the chiropractor office?”

“Yeah.”

“And he’s now gunning for your woman.”

Quint hadn’t told any of his friends how serious he was about Corrie, but apparently he didn’t have to. It was obvious enough. “Yeah.”

“But how does your Corrie fit into all this?”

Quint couldn’t deny the words “your Corrie” settled right into his soul as if they belonged there. “They’re trying to tie up loose ends. Dimitri isn’t the smartest tool in the shed, and Isaac isn’t much better. He’s the last of his henchmen, and known to be the most sadistic. I’m assuming they think if they can get to Corrie and shut her up, they’ll get away with the murder of both Shaun and all those people from her clinic, scot-free.”

“Dumbasses.”

“Yeah.”

Before Quint could say anything else, the phone on his desk rang. He leaned over and picked it up.

“Axton here. What? Yeah, she knew. She was planning on getting there around nine. Are you sure? Okay, I’ll give her a call. She might have overslept. Thanks, Dr. Garza.”

Quint hung up the phone and swore.

“Everything all right?” Calder had picked up on the urgency in Quint’s tone.

“Not sure. That was Corrie’s partner. She was supposed to be at work at nine, but Dr. Garza just heard from Lori, their new admin, and she hasn’t shown up yet.” Quint looked at his watch. Nine forty-five.

He dialed Corrie’s number and waited. She didn’t pick up. He dialed it again, and once again it went to voice mail after four rings. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up and goose bumps sprung up all over his arms. “Fuck. Calder, I gotta go. Let me know if you find anything else out.”

“Want me to call Cruz and the others?”

Quint didn’t hesitate. “Yes. Something’s wrong. I feel it.”

“On it. Go.”

Quint didn’t wait, thankful he could rely on Calder to get him some backup. He strode from his desk straight to his deputy chief’s office. He had to get SAPD rolling. He didn’t have an extra second to spare. Corrie might not have that extra second. He had a bad fucking feeling about this, and it didn’t help that he’d just recounted what horrible human beings Isaac and Dimitri were. Calder’s description of what Shaun had gone through raced through his mind on repeat.

Fucking hell.

Quint raced through his neighborhood with his lights and sirens blaring. He didn’t know how he knew this was bad, he just did. Two other patrol cars followed behind him with their lights on, but no sirens. Cruz was meeting them at his house as soon as he could get there.

All looked quiet at the house as Quint screeched to a halt, skidding up onto his lawn as he fought to control his car. Without bothering to take the keys with him, although he did flip off the siren, Quint crouched and ran, gun drawn, toward his front door.

The door was closed—but Quint could hear the screaming of an infant clearly though the thick oak.

What the holy fuck?

He noticed with detachment that his hands were shaking as he pulled out his house keys and put them in the lock. It was stealthier to open the door with the keys than to kick it in. And if anyone was in the house, he didn’t want to give them a head’s up he was inside.

The door swung open and Quint looked at the alarm panel.

Off.
Fuck.

The wail of the baby crying was louder now that they were inside the house. The infant was clearly in distress. It wasn’t a “give me food, I’m hungry” cry, it was a “if I don’t get attention immediately, I might die,” kind of screaming.

As they’d been trained, the officers ignored the distressed cries coming from the back of the house as they concentrated on making sure the area was safe. In an active-shooter scenario, the scene had to be cleared before any wounded victims could be taken care of. It was one of the hardest things to have to do…ignoring the pleading and cries from any injured persons begging for help, and to step over them, if necessary, to make sure the scene was safe for the first responders and the rest of the potential victims.

Quint gestured one officer to the right and the other to the left, to take his back. They methodically went through the kitchen and the living room. Both were empty. The baby’s screams were coming from down the hall. They cleared both guestrooms and the bathroom.

The last room was the master bedroom.

The door was shut. Quint put his hand on the knob and looked to both the officers. They nodded at him, indicating they were ready, and he twisted the door handle and brought his hand back up to his pistol. Quint had no idea what they’d find, but he prayed harder than he ever had in his life that it wouldn’t be Corrie, bleeding and possibly dead.

They surged into the room—and Quint’s stomach dropped to his toes.

Jesus fucking Christ.

Bethany was on his bed.

He was surprised to see Corrie’s friend, and not Corrie, but it was how they found her that really shook him to his very soul. She’d been crucified to the wooden headboard with a knife through each of her palms.

She was conscious, which greatly relieved Quint, but she was obviously in a lot of pain and moving with agitation on the bed.

Ignoring the woman for the moment, the three officers continued to clear the room. It was empty, with no sign of Corrie, Emily, or any bad guys. Quint headed to the bathroom, not stopping to reassure Bethany as she pleaded with him to help her son.

Inside the bathroom, Quint immediately saw that Ethan’s life was in extreme danger. He was on his back in the bathtub. The stopper had been put in the bottom and the water had been turned on. It wasn’t dripping, but it wasn’t gushing either. It was a sluggish stream that was slowly filling up the tub, with Ethan in it, helpless on his back.

The baby was naked and screaming. His face was bright red and he was flailing his arms wildly. The water had filled the tub enough that most of Ethan’s body was under it. The water was halfway up his chest and quickly getting higher and higher. If they’d been even an hour later—hell, thirty minutes—the water would’ve covered his face completely and Ethan would’ve drowned.

Quint holstered his gun without thought and reached for the frightened baby. The water was ice cold. No wonder Ethan was screaming. He grabbed a towel off the rack and swaddled the infant up as best he could before cradling him against his chest and rubbing his back soothingly. Frigid water dripped from the wet towel onto Quint’s shirt and the vest underneath, but he didn’t even feel it.

Quint heard the second officer calling for an ambulance and the crime scene techs. He turned back into the bedroom. Ethan was still crying, but it had changed from a terrified wail, to more hiccupping sobs. He’d burrowed into Quint’s chest and lay against him, almost unmoving, except for his little chest heaving with his sobs.

Quint walked over to his bed where Bethany lay, tears streaming down her own face. He could tell she’d struggled, but she hadn’t been able to stomach the pain it would have taken to release herself from the knives through her palms.

“He’s okay, Bethany. He’s fine. Cold, but fine.” He watched as she tried to control her crying. “The ambulance is on the way, you’re both going to be just fine. I swear. Can you tell me what the fuck is going on? Where’s Corrie? Where’s Emily? What happened here?”

“A guy showed up at the house this morning.” Bethany’s voice was agonized. “He broke in and grabbed Emily. He told me he’d kill her if I didn’t do exactly what he told me to. He looked crazy. I believed him.”

Quint nodded and urged her to continue.

She spoke through her sobs, understanding how important it was to get as much information to Quint as possible. “He told me to hold Ethan, then he tied Em up and beat the ever-loving shit out of her. He told us we were dykes and not fit to walk around on the planet. He said if I tried to stop him, he’d kill Emily with a bullet in her brain right there in front of me. That if I got away, he’d rape and then kill her. She looked at me as he was beating her, with pleading eyes. I knew she was begging me to take care of Ethan and not worry about her.”

“Bethany, I know you’re in pain, and help is coming, but I need you to tell me your address so we can get help for Emily,” Quint ordered as gently as he could.

Quint turned to the officer standing behind him, looking on helplessly. They both knew if they tried to take the knives out of Bethany’s palms, it could kill her. She’d already lost too much blood. Her face was deathly pale. He really didn’t have to tell the officer, but immediately after Bethany whispered her address in a pained voice, he ordered, “Call it in.”

The officer nodded and turned away, already keying his mic. Quint heard him telling dispatch about the other woman. They’d get units to Emily’s house and make sure she was okay.

Quint turned back to Bethany. Corrie was his concern now. He kept rocking Ethan and rubbing his back, trying to calm him down. “We’ve got officers headed to your house to check on Emily. Please, what happened here? Where’s Corrie?”

“After he beat Em into unconsciousness, he forced me into his car. I wanted to leave Ethan at the house, but he grabbed him from me. He drove here with Ethan on his lap, ranting the entire time about how he was an evil child, that Ethan would be better off if he just killed him now instead of letting him grow up as the son of a lesbian couple. I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what. I thought about bailing out of the car, but that’d leave him with Ethan. I couldn’t leave my baby. He would’ve killed him on the spot.”

“Shhhh, I know you couldn’t. You did the right thing. Then what?” Quint tried not to lose his patience, just put a soothing hand on her leg.

“He held a knife to Ethan’s throat and forced me to knock on your door. Corrie answered and I told her it was me. She opened the door and he hit her hard enough to knock her out.”

Quint saw red and squeezed the baby a bit too hard. Ethan cried out, but settled again when Quint bounced him in his arms soothingly.

Bethany continued, her voice growing weaker. “He left her on the floor and forced me in here. He threw me on the bed and pulled the knives out. He told me I had a choice…either I lay still and let him do…this, or he could do it to Ethan.” Bethany gasped and Quint saw the tears fall from her eyes again.

“He swore he’d put him on the floor and leave him alone if I did it. So I lay still and let him stab me. I never knew anything could hurt so damn bad. As I lay there screaming, he took Ethan into the bathroom, telling me all the while what he was doing and how Ethan was going to die anyway. I yelled at him to leave him alone, that he promised, and he only laughed at me. Then he left. I tried to get up but I couldn’t. It hurts, Quint. It hurts so damn bad.”

Quint moved his hand from her leg to her forehead to try to console her. It was a safe place he felt he could touch and not hurt her further. “Did he tell you where he was going? Anything that will help us find Corrie?”

“No.”

“
Think
, Bethany. Anything you can remember, even if it seems as if it’s nothing, will help us at this point.”

Quint held his breath as Bethany closed her eyes and thought back through what had happened that morning.

Her eyes opened and Quint could see her mentally straighten her shoulders. He’d never been so relieved. She looked up at Quint. “He mumbled something while we were driving through rush-hour traffic about how he hated the city and couldn’t wait to get out to the cabin.”

Quint closed his eyes briefly in thanks. Bingo. It had to be enough. It was a long shot, but knowing they were in a cabin outside the city was more than they would’ve had to go on without Bethany. He leaned over her and kissed her forehead, much as he did with Corrie when he was trying to comfort her. “Thank you.” Quint could hear the ambulance arrive and the EMTs enter his house. “You’re going to be fine. Ethan’s okay, and they’ll get to Emily as well.”

Her eyes stared up at him, glassy with pain, but clear. She was one tough chick. Quint was glad Corrie had her as a friend. “You’ll find her? You’ll keep that asshole from hurting Corrie?”

“I’m going to do my damnedest.”

Bethany nodded and the medical personnel came into the room. Quint handed Ethan off to one of the men, leaving the explanations about what had happened to the other officers. They’d been standing behind him when Bethany told him what happened.

Quint stepped into his living room to find Cruz there, along with Dax, their friend TJ, and even Hayden Yates. TJ was a Highway Patrolman, but he’d never shied away from helping wherever he was needed. He’d been there when Dax had confronted the serial killer who had buried Mackenzie alive. Hayden was a sheriff’s deputy, and she was one of the toughest law enforcement officers Quint had ever met, male or female. He’d take all the help he could get right now.

He quickly explained what Bethany told him had gone down that morning.

“So she’s been gone about three and a half hours now,” Cruz calculated. “Do you think she has her cell on her?”

Quint looked over to see Corrie’s purse on a hook by the front hall table. He strode over to it and held his breath. He reached into the small pocket and pulled out her phone where she always kept it and showed it to the others. Damn.

“Okay, so we can’t use that to track her. What else we got?”

“Cruz, who do you know that can dig deep and find us information?” Quint asked, desperate.

He shrugged. “The guys at the bureau are good, but are somewhat limited because of…you know….laws.”

“Fuck.” Quint spat out the word. “This all needs to be on the up and up so it doesn’t get fucked up. I know this is Dimitri and Isaac. It’s the only thing that makes sense. But going through proper channels is going to take too long.”