Former Detective Terry Johnson donned the SWAT gear as his old skills began coming back and he trailed the primary assault team to rescue Alessandra Carlos. According to their briefing, he wouldn’t engage in combat operations but would stay close to lend any bit of information to help the team.
Tidbits of information they’d gathered indicated she’d been taken for information, but they had no actual proof of that. Instead, they’d caught a lucky break when she was moved from the house where she was being held, to another location. A recording camera had caught an exchange between two men, saying an address in Spanish, and that was now their new destination.
Sadly, her husband was dead. He recalled Diego had stopped his cohorts from killing Terry right away at the scene along with his family that night his family was murdered. Diego possessed some softness in his heart, unlike the others. Terry had wished and hoped that with time, for Alessandra’s and Nicolas’ sakes, Diego would leave the life of crime.
But he didn’t. And apparently, it took his life.
Sprinting across a manicured lawn, Terry shifted his mind to Summer. He missed her smile. And even her stubbornness when she didn’t like something. Everything about her was everything he’d asked God for in prayer. And, if things went according to plan and he succeeded in rescuing Alessandra, then he’d make their relationship official, if she agreed. He prayed that she would and prayed for God to touch her heart to know why he’d lied to her and that he wasn’t given to falsehood.
When they reached the neighborhood, he joined the rest of the backup team in the monitoring van while those tasked with direct combat moved in through the back of the bungalow. Focusing his attention on the monitor, he trained his mind to forget his feelings and focus on helping to bring a kidnapped mother home to her son.
“We’re moving in,” came over the radio. Terry added another prayer for Alessandra to be found safe. Being held against her will, she must’ve endured a lot already. He prayed her grace to hold on until help arrived.
And to come out alive. During his time on the force, he’d seen enough rescues go sideways.
Viewing the body camera of one of the men, they entered the house through the back door, and all seemed quiet. “Moving to the basement,” the officer murmured.
“Copy that,” someone equally murmured from their end.
With the house being at the end of the street and their arrival in unmarked vans, there was little chance of their entrance being spotted outside. They moved into a hallway and caught someone by surprise. The man shrieked, pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket, but took a silenced bullet to the chest before he could shoot. “One down,” sailed over the radio.
Terry’s heart pounded. He felt like he was right there with them. Please, God, help them. Please, God…
They reached a stairwell to the basement. The lead man jangled the doorknob. “It’s locked.” They pried it open. “Going in.”
The place was dark. Their boots clicked on the concrete steps. Light from a headlamp shone to the path as the officers entered one by one. “I see six rooms. No way of knowing which one she might be in.”
Terry’s earpiece caught the scream of a woman upstairs. Then a shot was fired.
Their presence had been announced.
Soon male voices sailed through, and rustling followed.
His heart pounded in his chest even more.
“Shoot!” A man shot at an officer, and they returned fire.
“Watch your six!” Another officer shot sideways, and two raced forward and began sweeping through the rooms. “Checking the last room.”
They kicked at the door, but it didn’t budge.
Terry saw something like the red blink of an overhead camera and pointed it out.
“You’ve got eyes over your heads, guys. Someone’s watching. Hurry up and get out,” an officer with him said over the radio.
“Copy that.”
Another officer shot the lock of the last room open and went in. “We found her. She’s alive. Getting her and coming out.”
“Thank You, God!” Terry pumped his fist in the air. They’d found her. He saw her curved form carried by an officer as they beat a retreat out of the house. Terry exited the observation truck and raced toward them.
The moment he saw Alessandra, she stumbled to him and collapsed into his arms. “Thank you.” She sobbed. Gripping both of his arms and trembling, she sunk to her knees. “I prayed to God for you to help me.”
“God got you out, not me.” He lifted her off the ground and, with the help of another officer, due to his one injured arm, got her into the truck. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here and home to Nicolas.”
Both teams climbed back into the waiting trucks and raced toward the police station they were coordinating from.
Upon arrival, an officer took Alessandra to a waiting medical team, as well as a debriefing team for details of any information they needed.
But one of them approached him with a phone. “Dave Tisk wants to talk to you. In private.”
Terry accepted the phone and stepped into an office, then shut the door. “Dave?”
“Terry, congratulations on the safe retrieval.” Static came through the line.
“Same to you. It’s a group success. I didn’t go in, so the guys did all the work.”
“Don’t underestimate the emotional support seeing you gave to Alessandra. Of the group of faces there, yours was the only familiar one to her.”
“I heard you had something on your mind.” Something that, apparently, couldn’t wait. Terry sank into an office chair and crossed an ankle over his knee.
“Soon after your flight took off, Terry, we learned your new identity had been compromised.”
“What? That’s impossible. How could that happen?”
“I said so too, but here’s what happened.” Dave filled him on the details. “Within the past hour, we also learned the hotel I’d booked for you to stay overnight had been broken into and ransacked. I’ve since booked return flights for you today. That information is coming to your secure phone. Choose the least possible flight, with any of the three new identities we generated this afternoon to fly with. The guys there will provide you with matching IDs. The bad guys would have to work harder if whoever keeps leaking information thinks I would simply allow them to get you. Not on my watch.”
Stunned, Terry let his bobbing foot drop to the floor. Leaning forward and rubbing his temples, he raced through all those involved. “Dave, honestly, I cannot think of one person who would sabotage this operation. I really cannot.”
“Hold on one moment.” Dave paused the call and returned minutes later as Terry now paced. “Terry, I just got some new information, and I need you to sit down for this.”
“What is it? I can take it standing.”
“No, you can’t,” Dave insisted. “Sit down.”
“Fine.” Terry sank back into the desk chair. “What is it this time?”
“New information just came in about Summer Heart. I’d hate to point in her direction in a suspicious way, as she’s been nothing but cooperative and has even been worried about you.” Dave passed on Summer’s message. “But, man, I don’t like how this looks.”
“What about her? She’s innocent. They almost killed her beside me. Remember? And you got us out. She can’t have something to do with anything to hurt me.” As his voice rang with confidence, he wondered how he trusted her so well when they hadn’t known each other for too long. But something about a person made you know if they were shady or not, and as a former officer, he should know. Right?
“She’s not who she says she is.” Dave’s voice had gone flat. “Some information from the police across the river suggests her background is a lot more criminal than we imagined.”
“Tell me what you found and let me decide,” Terry cut in, but his head was spinning.
“Her ex-fiancé was a drug trafficker and just got out of prison,” Dave informed.
“She told me. That’s why she ditched him.” Terry fought back.
“She’s from a drug trafficking family, Terry. Basically an extension of the same drug gangs that took out your family.”
“What?” The phone nearly slipping from his limp fingers, Terry felt like his world just came apart at the seams. Yes, he did need to sit down for this.
This wasn’t happening.
No.
He wouldn’t believe any such complicity about Summer without proof. He trusted his gut, but caution nagged at him. How had someone in such a tight-knit circle kept leaking information about him to dangerous people? “I’ll ask her for myself.”
“Sorry, man. They’re about to take her in, so you can’t ask her any questions until after they do.”
Terry was lost for words. His heart—which had struggled to heal after the death of his wife and daughter—began cracking, and this time, it was cracking from the bottom up. Drug traffickers had killed his first family. Now, could he trust Summer Heart if she was from that lineage?
Summer woke up that afternoon after she’d fallen asleep while praying, feeling more thankful to God to be alive and safe than she’d ever felt before. She stretched on the bed and wondered how long she’d slept, then stiffened as a loud pounding on the door woke her even faster. Wait, was the pounding what woke her or did she rise on her own? She had no time to figure it out as the pounding rocked the door again.
“I’m coming!” She rose and wrapped a robe around herself and hobbled over to the door with an unsteady gait while still groggy. As she opened the door, nothing prepared her for the people she saw. She blinked. “Hello?” Her eyes moved from the new police officers to the lady in a white coat behind them as they stepped forward.
“Miss Summer Heart?” The officer with a brown jacket approached.
She hesitated. “Yes?” Summer wrapped her robe tighter, wishing for Terry’s protective presence, or that of her family, and lacking both. She leaned into God instead.
“Could you come with us, please? We need to talk to you at the station. It’s urgent.”
Summer felt her brows draw together. “About what?”
“We’d rather give you more details at the station, please. And it’s better if you cooperate.”
She curled her arms around herself, feeling a sudden chill. “I’m cooperating, but I’d like to understand what this is about before leaving. If you don’t mind.”
“We cannot discuss that here.” Another officer stepped forward. “Please come with us right now or we’d have to charge you with resisting arrest.”
“Arrest? You’re arresting me?” She pointed to herself. “For what?”
When the officer began withdrawing cuffs from his belt, things were deteriorating quickly, so she held up a hand. “I promise I’m not resisting you, officers. I’m happy to cooperate because, whatever it is, I’m sure I’m innocent. But, please, I just woke up, quite literally. I haven’t taken a shower or even brushed my teeth. I just got discharged from the hospital yesterday after surviving a break-in at my bridal shop days ago. Which was followed by Terry and me getting shot at on our way home from the hospital and landing here. I am quite confused about why you would be arresting me. Being safe for the past day has been such a relief. This cannot be happening.”
She ran a rough hand through what she was sure looked like unkempt hair. “Could you give me a half hour to at least shower and get dressed? You can come in if you would like.” She held her door wider open while her heart beat rapidly. She was trying not to panic, but anyone who observed her closely could see her hands starting to tremble as she held the door open.
“Okay.” One of them stepped in. “But if you try to run, you won’t find it funny.”
“I have no reason to run, so I promise I won’t, on my honor as a Christian.”
As they entered and the lady in a white coat followed, her face seemed familiar. She looked like a nurse.
Where had she seen her before?
Only after they’d entered and she’d shut the door, while an officer observed her, did she realize who the lady was—a nurse from the hospital! But why would a nurse follow officers to arrest her? Confused, Summer chose to cooperate to avoid any confrontation.
“We’ll wait outside the room.” They filed out. Normally, she would request a lawyer and seek professional representation, but being under police protection and having Terry still out there exposed, she knew the shooter must know her identity and any action she took would link back to him and endanger Terry.
Terry, oh, where are you? As she grabbed the new toothbrush, underwear, and clothing she was provided with, she tucked her phone into the pocket of her night robe and muttered a prayer under her breath. “Lord Jesus, please plead my cause with them that strive with me. Fight for me against those who fight against me. I don’t know what the accusation against me is, but please defend me in Jesus’ name, amen.”
She walked toward the shower, then paused and shouted toward the door. “I’ll be out in a matter of minutes, thank you.” She shut the sliding door and locked it from inside. Taking out her phone, she wondered what she could do. Her family was too far to help. Moreover, she and Terry had been warned not to use their personal devices since they’d been returned disabled.
A rap came on the bathroom door. “Ma’am, are you still in there? If you do anything funny, you will be pulled out and taken into arrest,” a female officer warned.
“Yes, I’m here, and I was just praying. Sorry, I’ll be out soon.” She turned on the water after setting her phone facedown on the soap holder, wondering how she could go from a peaceful morning to crisis in a matter of minutes. “I’m not calling anyone as my phone is disabled. I will appreciate it if you can enable it by the time we get to the station. I need to call my family as they have no idea what is going on or that I’m in a safe house. I’m showering now.” As the water ran over her body, her heart cried out to God for vindication.
Had the same people who’d tried to kill her framed her for a crime?
Or was it those after Terry?
Were they now after her reputation?
Or trying to get her locked up for something she knew nothing about? Since they didn’t succeed in preventing April from taking up her job, she’d thought she’d be left alone. And now that they knew Terry wasn’t here, she would be left to be. Thankfully, God could handle whatever loomed ahead that she couldn’t.
So, she washed up, dried her hair with a towel, creamed her body and her hair, and dressed up, all inside the shower. When she stepped out, three of the five officers were waiting.
“I need to grab my purse, and I’ll be ready.” She picked out flat shoes, grabbed a coat, and slid her phone inside her pocket.
As she trailed them out of the room, Summer prayed this wouldn’t be her last time free. How horrible to think her freedom could be taken away by a single knock on the door and she wasn’t immune to the justice system. And whatever the case was, it would take divine intervention to clear her of any wrongdoing. She left the house and followed them into a waiting police cruiser.
***