Free Softly at Sunrise by Maya Banks Page B

had the damn phone glued to his ear, but what he heard chilled him to the bone.
Gunman holding Rachel’s class hostage. Extremely volatile. Threatening to start shooting if his demands weren’t met. A fifteen-minute timeline. Holy fuck. It would take at least twenty for them to get to the school, and that was hauling ass and breaking land speed records.
Ethan whirled on Donovan. “Van, can you get the chopper in the air that quickly? We could make it in ten minutes if we haul ass.”
Sam hung up the phone, but he was already running toward the newly constructed helipad.
“Get the others. I want every man we’ve got on this,” Sam yelled.
Nathan and Joe and the rest of their team scrambled up without hesitation and fell in behind the others as they ran for the helicopter.
Donovan hopped into the cockpit and began flipping switches to get the engines started.
“What the fuck is going on?” Garrett demanded.
The others were crammed into the chopper and were leaning forward to hear what Sam had to say.
“Some crazy mother fucker, a parent of one of Rachel’s students, is having domestic issues. His wife issued a restraining order and is pursuing sole custody in the divorce proceedings. Husband went batshit crazy and went to his kid’s classroom waving a gun around, and now he’s threatening to start shooting if his demands aren’t met.”
“And what are his demands?” Ethan bit out.
“He wants the restraining order rescinded.” Sam snorted. “Fat chance of that happening. He wants custody of his daughter. Yeah, like that’s going to go over well. And he wants his wife up at the school in fifteen minutes, which can’t be good. Even if he doesn’t go off his rocker and start shooting kids, you know he’ll end up killing her.”
“Did Sean say if Rachel was okay?” Ethan asked, fear nearly choking him.
“She’s scared out of her mind, but Sean says she’s doing a very good job of keeping the guy calm. She’s cooperating fully, trying to keep him appeased. She called him instead of 911.”
“That’s our girl,” Garrett said, pride in his voice. “She’s smart and she’s a fighter. My money is on her.”
Ethan rubbed his forehead tiredly. He’d never been so damn scared in his life. “You guys don’t understand.”
Nathan eyed him sharply. “What don’t we understand?”
Ethan sucked in a deep breath. “She’s…pregnant. We’re having twins . We just found out. This kind of stress can’t be good even if she doesn’t get herself shot.”
The others looked dumbstruck.
“I’d congratulate you,” Sam said grimly, “but right now I’d prefer to get her out in one piece so we can celebrate like hell later.”
Ethan nodded his agreement. “I can’t lose her. I can’t lose them ,” he said with quiet desperation.
Oh God, he’d already gotten luckier than any one person could ever hope for by having her miraculously restored to him after he’d thought she was dead for an entire year. Was he doomed to lose her to fate after all?
Garrett put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “You aren’t going to lose her. We’ll go in and kick some ass. Fuck what the local police say. We’ll take out this asshole, and then everyone can go home to their parents, and Rachel can come home with us.”
Ethan bumped knuckles with Garrett and muttered a hooyah. Garrett rolled his eyes. “Only because this involves Rachel will I let you get away with that Navy bullshit.”
The helicopter touched down just off the school premises, and Sam was already on the phone with Sean, who was on scene.
“We’re coming in,” Sam said in a hard voice. “You make damn sure no one gives us any grief.”
Ethan’s heart was in his throat. Flashbacks of his time with Rachel since her return played over and over in his head.
The memory of those two fuzzy blobs on the monitor that pulsated, signaling life, and the look of incredible joy on Rachel’s face as they realized what those two blobs meant was rich in his mind.
He