Rick’s nightstick. Stephanie moved to stand up as Rick raked out the remaining glass, but she fell back down flat again when a large dog flew through the broken window. Stephanie screamed and covered her head.
Rick climbed in the window. “The dog won’t hurt you,” he reassured her. “Axle, sitz!” he commanded, and the dog froze and sat at attention.
“Did you see which way Hale ran?” Rick asked her.
“I don’t know. Right, I think?”
Rick spoke into his radio. “Suspect is running toward the front of the school. I won’t be able to intercept. Have incoming units set up a perimeter.”
Rick squatted beside her. “Are you okay, Stephanie?”
She wanted to yell, Scared to death, how do you think I’m feeling? But the concern in his eyes stopped her. “Fine,” she told him.
Rick offered Stephanie a hand up, steadying her as she wobbled to her feet. She had been around Rick many times at Val and Terrell’s house, but she had never been this close to him. She blushed. The skip in her heartbeat could not be blamed on fear.
“Hale may be hiding in the building. We need to get you to a safer location.” Rick let go of her arms and walked to the window. “Can you crawl out with me?”
Stephanie followed him through the window and accepted his outstretched hand on the other side. He guided her to the ground, and the dog leaped through behind them.
“Keep low and stay close behind me. We’re going to move along the building to minimize visibility. Understand?”
“Visibility?” she asked him. “Does Julian have a gun?”
Was Julian really that dangerous? She shuddered, thinking of all of the times she had been alone with him in her classroom. What was he capable of doing?
“He’s more worried about avoiding capture than he is with hurting you now, but I don’t gamble. Stay low.”
Rick’s long legs covered ground much faster than Stephanie’s shorter legs could manage. She jogged behind him trying to keep up. When they rounded the building, Rick called to her over his shoulder, “The cavalry has arrived.”
Patrol car after patrol car surrounded them, filling the parking lot. The flashing lights and number of arriving vehicles mesmerized her. People in a variety of uniforms and suits piled out of their cars, sprinting in different directions.
All of this for Julian? A typical criminal would not invite this intense of a response, would he? She spotted uniforms from Seattle Police Department and King County Sheriff’s Office and read “SWAT” on the back of several officers advancing on the building. She swallowed as her eyes landed on the FBI label on the side of a parked SUV.
Rick placed a warm hand on the small of Stephanie’s back and guided her to the passenger door of a blue patrol car with “K-9” painted on the side.
“Watch your head,” he said.
She backed down onto the passenger seat facing out. Rick kept his hand on the door and knelt in front of her. His nearness and direct gaze made her squirm. “Did Hale hurt you at all?”
She blushed and shook her head. “No. Julian had just arrived. He hadn’t even stepped out of the doorway before you came.”
“Did he say anything to you?” Rick eyes roved across her face, looking as if he thought he would be able to read what he wanted to know written there. But she didn’t have any answers. She didn’t know what he needed her to tell him.
“I don’t know. He said that you knew what he was planning to do next, or that you knew what he had already done, or something like that.” She closed her eyes trying to remember more, anything that would be useful.
“Did he say where he was going? What his plans were specifically?”
“No. I told you, Rick. I don’t know anything. He wasn’t making any sense. When I asked him what he was talking about, all he said was that I would know soon enough, and then he ran down the hall.”
“That’s it? You’re sure you can’t remember anything else? This is important, Stephanie.”
It felt as though he was interrogating her. “I told you everything I can remember. There wasn’t time for anything else.” She looked down into Rick’s upturned face. His expression was hard, his mouth a straight line. She knew he wanted her to give him some clue, but she wanted some answers of her own. “Rick, you need to tell me what is going on.”
He stood up and leaned in close so she could hear his words above the racket. “I need to talk to these guys and then we’ll get out of here, okay?”
“Okay,” she said, turning forward so her feet were in the car. Then the door slammed shut, leaving her alone in the silence to try to sort through all of the activity happening around her. He hadn’t answered her question.
She scanned the bustling crowd outside the car and found Rick’s tall form. He stood side by side with two other Seattle PD officers, each with their arms crossed over their chest, deep in serious conversation. Set in this scene, Rick’s natural presence and rugged good looks made it easy to pretend he was the star of some crime show on prime time. But this was real life, and somehow she was involved in it. How had her quiet afternoon of lesson planning morphed into a TV drama?
Rick’s dog waited at his side. His alert ears and long black snout reminded Stephanie of a German shepherd, but his coloring was a light brown and he seemed too small for a shepherd. Whatever breed he was, Stephanie could read the mutual devotion dog and handler had for each other. This dog didn’t fit the image she had of intimidating and snarling K-9 dogs. This one looked more like an overgrown puppy with his tail in constant wag mode.
For the briefest moment, Rick’s gaze held hers through the windshield. Her stomach tightened, and she held her breath. Time stretched, feeling longer than four heartbeats. What was he thinking? Had they caught Julian?
Rick’s eyes remained fixed on where she sat watching him inside the car. He finished his conversation and walked away from the other officers, his dog jogging along beside him. Finally, he’ll be able to tell me what is going on.
Rick opened the rear door, allowing the dog to jump into the kennel in the back of the car. “Stephanie, meet Axle. Axle, meet Stephanie.”
Stephanie smiled over her shoulder. “Hey, Axle. Nice to meet you.”
Rick climbed into the front seat next to her. Stephanie turned her smile to him. “I’m not sure what all of this is about, but somehow I think I need to thank you for coming to my rescue.”
“My pleasure, Miss O’Brien,” he said in a bad impression of John Wayne. Rick’s smile was wide and genuine, revealing a dimple in his left cheek she hadn’t noticed before.
“Did you catch Julian?” Are you going to tell me who he really is? What you want him for?
Rick’s smile faded. “No, he got away from us for the second time today.” He maneuvered the car out of the parking lot. “Our job’s not done yet. He’s still loose, and he’s still a threat.”
A
