“Craig, you need to calm down and listen to me.” Alan tried again.
Dave, Evan, and Kyle had joined the group, and they were all crowding into the suite. Rachel wisely kept her mouth shut and looked at Tina, shaking her head in warning to the woman to stay out of the fray.
The two woman sat on the couch and leaned back to watch. After several minutes of the men all arguing, Craig squatted down in front of Rachel. “Lamb, are you sure you want to do this?” He asked with concern and tenderness in his voice.
Rachel leaned forward, and cupping his face with both hands, she looked into his eyes and said, “Craig, I want this over. I don’t want this hanging over our heads when we get married. I’m tired of looking around the corner and hiding. Unless we smoke them out, they won’t leave me alone until they get what they want. We’ll find someplace safe, and you will all be with me.” She finished, looking up at all the men.
“I’ll have the entire crew there. We’ll buy out the floor she’s on and have a man in every room and several in the lobby. We’ll make it as safe as we can,” Evan put in.
“Kurt and I will be there, and we know some guys from the rangers and the police force that would be willing to help. She’ll be as safe as we can possibly make it.” Kevin tried to reassure Craig.
Still focusing on Rachel, Craig looked at her and slipped his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her to him so that their foreheads were touching, he looked into her eyes and asked one more time. “If you’re really sure you want to do this.”
“I want it over with.” She smiled at him and gave him a gentle kiss.
Standing up, Craig said, “Gentlemen, I believe we have some planning to do. I say we all plan to get together tomorrow afternoon and see what we can come up with.”
Everyone parted ways, agreeing to meet the next afternoon. Kevin and Kurt walked Tina to her car.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Plans were made, and it was decided that they would implement everything the next weekend. Rachel was nervous but relieved. She was sure that she would be as safe as the men could possibly make her, but it seemed that even in the best laid plans, there were holes and something could go wrong.
She and Craig went over and over all the possible contingencies, trying to think of every possible thing that could happen and could go wrong. When the day came, they were as ready as they possibly could be.
Rachel still hadn’t replaced her car, so she took Craig’s truck. Sneaking out the back, she drove to the designated hotel and checked herself in, hoping she had been followed. Everything was in place. Her room had been reserved in advance, and the men had installed listening devices and cameras in the room, hallway, and elevators. They had also booked all the rooms on her floor and had several men in the lobby. Rachel had been fitted with an earpiece so that Evan could keep her informed on what was going on. Now all she had to do was wait.
It was a few hours before she heard Evan on the earpiece. “Rachel, I want you to be calm. Hawkins and two others are on their way up the back stairs. Lock your door, and lock yourself in the bathroom and turn the shower on. He couldn’t talk the clerk into telling him what room you are in, and I’m not sure he knows for sure where you are, but stay in the bathroom until I contact you again.”
Rachel sat nervously in the bathroom waiting. She had never been good at waiting. She couldn’t hear very well with the shower running, but it sounded like the door was opening. She clasped her hands together and prayed. The next thing she heard was a man shouting, “The bitch is in the shower! Here we go, boys.”
She knew that Evan and his crew would wait
until the last possible minute to come in. They wanted to make sure they had enough evidence to convict the jerks.
The room she was in had a separate room for the toilet, so she went in there and locked that door. One more door to hide behind. She heard them outside the main door to the bathroom and crouched down, back against the door, hoping that would help keep them out.
“Mike, the shower’s on, but no sign of the bitch,” she heard a voice say.
“She has to be here somewhere, keep looking,” she heard.
She heard more voices and lots of noise, but couldn’t make out for sure what was going on. All she could do was wait until Craig or someone came for her.
She sat there in the dark, listening and trying to figure out what was going on for what seemed like hours. Finally, there was a knock at the door, and she heard, “Lamb, you can come out now, it’s all clear.”
Opening the door, she jumped into Craig’s arms and said, “It’s really over? You got them?”
Craig carried her out to the main bedroom, and it looked like a tornado had hit it. “Yes, we got them. Kevin is going to listen to the tapes and look over the footage, but he thinks we have enough to convict them.”
Planting little kisses all over his face, she collapsed into him with relief.
Craig took her home. The next day, all the girls came to the club, and Craig and Kevin explained all that had happened to them.
“I want to know how they got into the room. The door didn’t look broken,” Rachel wondered.
“One of the men had been dating one of the maids and stole her pass key. The woman hadn’t even realized it was gone. They checked several rooms before they found you,” Kevin answered. He had spent all of the last night and this morning looking over the tapes and listening to the audio to make sure they had what they needed. “The cops called me, and one of the men that they found in Rachel’s hotel room was also part of the crowd that tried to crash the club. He wasn’t the one that tried to attack Rachel, but they are still checking on connections. I’m sure they will find something, but we may not hear for a while. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble. The cowards have already confessed, hoping for a lighter sentence. Since this is their second offense, the DA is making sure they have longer sentences, and you will be getting a lifetime protective order against all of them including the ones still in jail.” He directed this last to Jenna and Rachel.
Jenna and Rachel hugged each other in relief. Maybe this was finally over, but they knew that their men would always be a little overprotective. Secretly, they loved it.