Chapter 8

Ranger's POV

I arrived at the back of the Stark Street address at the same time as the police and EMS. Joe Morrelli pulled up and nodded.

Morrelli was a TPD homicide detective who had a long history with Stephanie. They had grown up together and were even engaged for a while. He cheated on her, they broke up for good and I finally got the girl.

Morrelli was a cop and he knew that Steph had been with me. I think he even knew that she loved me. He just never had the guts to come out and ask her and he cheated because he couldn't control her. I just waited until it blew up because I don't share, at all.

They were still just friends and there would always be a definite amount of tension between Morrelli and me and a small amount of professional respect.

"Ranger, what are you doing here?"…I said, "I think it's one of our own." Joe's eyes widened, "Steph?"…"No." He looked relieved and then started for the dumpster where the body had been found. My gut told me it was Amanda as sure as I knew that that bastard who did this had meant every word that he'd said to her.

I took a breath and began slowly walking toward the scene when suddenly there was movement and yelling and cops on the radio and the EMTs were shuffling.

I ran the rest of the way to the dumpster and Morrelli looked up and said, "It's a woman and she's still alive, just barely. But, I don't know how." I looked at the body they were raising to the stretcher and barely recognized her. She was naked and curled in a ball and everywhere there was blood and it was still dripping off her.

It looked like maybe half of the bones in her body might be broken. She had cuts and a visible bullet hole. More than the sadness that I felt for her, I felt pride. She was blindfolded and hands bound and she must have fought with every ounce of courage she owned to stay alive. I had seen bigger men die from just the shock of injuries as bad as this.

Morrelli said, "this woman works for you?..For how long?"...I said,…"Not even two weeks." He said, "Jesus,…What do you know about this?"

We did a distraction take down two nights ago using Amanda for a FTP named Bruno Cullen".. Morrelli made a face, "Oh man I know that guy and he's a fucking animal."

"He threatened to do that to her…all of it, including leaving her like trash. Somebody with some big bucks bailed him out again yesterday. His bond was reset at half a mil. We didn't get her locked down quick enough. We only had an hour window when we found out. We weren't prepared, I said."

Morrelli had a grim look on his face. I knew what he was thinking looking over at the ambulance, same thing that had occurred to me …Steph.

He said, "Steph's okay?"..."Fine"…

I said, "this woman's strong, a black belt in two forms of martial arts. I know the only reason she's alive is because she fought with everything she had.

There's the possibility that she injured him. That could give us an advantage in finding him." He said, "I'm on it, I'm going to walk the building." I said , "I'm going with you", and Morrelli nodded.

Just then, an EMT ran over and stopped at Morrelli and me and said, "we're going be taking her to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. They're more prepared for this kind of trauma", I nodded. "She's my employee and I'll follow you there. I need to walk this building first. Do whatever's necessary to save her life." The EMT nodded and jumped in the ambulance and it sped away.

I followed Morrelli into the abandoned apartment building and we walked the first and second floor. We knew Cullen probably had not taken her up further. Morelli said, "Basement", and I nodded. We stepped off the last stair and looked at a doorway that may have at one time been a laundry room. Morelli stepped one foot through the door and stopped dead still with a look of shock and horror.

He put his hands through his hair and gasped,…"Christ on a Crucifix!"…"I have seen a lot of shit but this is a fucking.., Oh man." I nodded and I agreed. I wasn't going to get much sleep for a while.

There was blood spattered and smeared on every surface, there was blonde hair on the floor with skin attached. I saw what looked like torn fingernails mingled with blood. There was a cot turned over against one wall that was torn to bloody shreds of fabric and stuffing. Amanda's clothing was scattered all over the room.

Morrelli walked over to one wall and spotted a bullet hole with a piece of metal shining through. He choked out,…"I'll get this dug out and analyzed right away." Jesus, bound and blind…"Ranger, I'm sorry, if this woman lives, I have to meet her one day. I just don't have any more words right now." and he turned and walked away.

I stood in the doorway shaking with anger and sadness. If I had questioned my actions in locking Santos up before, I knew now that I had done the right thing. I walked out of the room, up the stairs and back to the lot.

I climbed in the SUV and called Stephanie…"Ranger,…tell me?"

"She's alive, babe, but barely." I heard her gasp and then sob.

"Babe, that's good news but I don't know for how long."

"Where is Santos?"..

"Ranger, three of the guys have black eyes from trying to put him out…But he's sleeping, Ella's with him and she is so taking this hard. Everybody has a soft spot for our resident puppy dog Lester and they all love Mandy already. This entire building is weeping right now."

"Stephanie, she and Lester made love the night of the distraction and yesterday morning they were a couple.", I said.

"I know, news travels fast here. "Oh God,..Carlos…What are we going to do?"

…"Pray"...

"Where is she now?"..."On her way to Robert Wood Johnson…Better trauma center."

"I'm on my way there"…"I'll meet you, Carlos..Tank is holding the fort here."

"Have the guys put Lester in a cell. I don't want him to see her yet until I find out more"…

"What?"…"Babe, please?"…"Okay..I love you."..

"I love you too, Steph, even more today than yesterday."

"Steph, she fought like you for her life. I felt pride for her just like I always did every time I found you battered, scared and pissed off."

Stephanie gave a nervous little laugh and began to cry.

"I didn't mean to make you cry, Babe, I just really wanted to hear your voice."

"Slam that shutter down, Ranger", she said with love.."We all need you right now".

"Yes, Babe..See you at the hospital."

Dr. Casper Visser's POV

I was on my way to my office when I received an urgent page to come to the ER. An ambulance was on its way with a patient in severe trauma with police escort. I ran down to the ER just as the ambulance was arriving. The EMTs were frantically trying to keep the body of this poor person alive long enough to get here. The body was unrecognizable until you got close and then you could see that it was a woman.

This looked to be one of the worst cases of trauma that I had ever seen and the person still alive. As soon as the gurney stopped in the exam room I started giving orders to alert the appropriate teams to stand by. The first thing we needed to do was treat the shock, stabilize and get blood into her. I called for blood type, blood and had told one of the nurses to begin cleaning the blood off of her so that we could better see where she was injured. When the nurse finished washing her face, I looked at her and was momentarily stunned, until one of the nurses said "Dr. Visser, do you know this woman? …and I just nodded and began working again.

It took almost two precious hours to examine her body and we kept on pumping blood into her as fast as we could. She had two gunshot wounds, about eight knife wounds, she had evidence of being both raped and sodomized and we were now waiting on the x-rays and MRI to show us how many broken bones and internal injuries she had.

We were just trying to keep her alive to get to surgery and the TPD violent crimes investigators had asked us to please get evidence smears from her before she went in.

Amanda was no doubt tough, she was holding on. What had happened to her? Who did this to her?

This was so violent an attack. I felt a rush of anger to my face as I remembered how lovely and sweet that she had been. A general surgeon was on standby to fix the internal injuries, a plastic surgeon was on standby to fix the cuts, rips and tears to her body and I would try to help mend her broken bones. I just wondered who could ever help mend her broken spirit after this if she lived.

Ranger's POV

I arrived at the hospital not long after the ambulance. When we found out Amanda's blood type, I called Rangeman and asked just those with the same type to come give blood and asked the rest to keep beating the streets for Cullen.

Blood is important to my men. Giving it to a brother or sister in battle is the thing, the glue to us. We've laid it on the line and bled to save each other's lives many a day…

Stephanie had just arrived and I pulled her to me and kissed her breathless. Today I didn't want to let her go.

My babe read my mind, she took my face and kissed my eyelids and cheeks.

"Breathe, Carlos, we're all depending on you to get us through and you will like you always do."

"I made a stupid mistakes here that may have gotten her killed, Steph...I promised her that we would have her back."

"Carlos, we all made the mistakes. How were we to know that she would meet the "devil incarnate" the first job out or that that sicko could be released on that high a bond?"

"We barely had her orientated and trained and we didn't have her battle ready", I said.

Steph said, "We thought she could do it though because of who she is. That girl is one tough chick. She don't stumble around, making messes and getting lucky like me."

I grinned, "Nope, you gotta' point there, babe."

Steph said, "She may not want to do this line of work anymore and I have had those same thoughts myself at times but, I don't think she'll blame you for this animal attack on her."

A man's voice behind me said, "Is there family here for Amanda Smith?"

TBC