by Susan Stoker
He was surprised to see Corrie’s friend, and not Corrie, but it was how they found her that really shook him to his very soul. She’d been crucified to the wooden headboard with a knife through each of her palms.
She was conscious, which greatly relieved Quint, but she was obviously in a lot of pain and moving with agitation on the bed.
Ignoring the woman for the moment, the three officers continued to clear the room. It was empty, with no sign of Corrie, Emily, or any bad guys. Quint headed to the bathroom, not stopping to reassure Bethany as she pleaded with him to help her son.
Inside the bathroom, Quint immediately saw that Ethan’s life was in extreme danger. He was on his back in the bathtub. The stopper had been put in the bottom and the water had been turned on. It wasn’t dripping, but it wasn’t gushing either. It was a sluggish stream that was slowly filling up the tub, with Ethan in it, helpless on his back.
The baby was naked and screaming. His face was bright red and he was flailing his arms wildly. The water had filled the tub enough that most of Ethan’s body was under it. The water was halfway up his chest and quickly getting higher and higher. If they’d been even an hour later—hell, thirty minutes—the water would’ve covered his face completely and Ethan would’ve drowned.
Quint holstered his gun without thought and reached for the frightened baby. The water was ice cold. No wonder Ethan was screaming. He grabbed a towel off the rack and swaddled the infant up as best he could before cradling him against his chest and rubbing his back soothingly. Frigid water dripped from the wet towel onto Quint’s shirt and the vest underneath, but he didn’t even feel it.
Quint heard the second officer calling for an ambulance and the crime scene techs. He turned back into the bedroom. Ethan was still crying, but it had changed from a terrified wail, to more hiccupping sobs. He’d burrowed into Quint’s chest and lay against him, almost unmoving, except for his little chest heaving with his sobs.
Quint walked over to his bed where Bethany lay, tears streaming down her own face. He could tell she’d struggled, but she hadn’t been able to stomach the pain it would have taken to release herself from the knives through her palms.
“He’s okay, Bethany. He’s fine. Cold, but fine.” He watched as she tried to control her crying. “The ambulance is on the way, you’re both going to be just fine. I swear. Can you tell me what the fuck is going on? Where’s Corrie? Where’s Emily? What happened here?”
“A guy showed up at the house this morning.” Bethany’s voice was agonized. “He broke in and grabbed Emily. He told me he’d kill her if I didn’t do exactly what he told me to. He looked crazy. I believed him.”
Quint nodded and urged her to continue.
She spoke through her sobs, understanding how important it was to get as much information to Quint as possible. “He told me to hold Ethan, then he tied Em up and beat the ever-loving shit out of her. He told us we were dykes and not fit to walk around on the planet. He said if I tried to stop him, he’d kill Emily with a bullet in her brain right there in front of me. That if I got away, he’d rape and then kill her. She looked at me as he was beating her, with pleading eyes. I knew she was begging me to take care of Ethan and not worry about her.”
“Bethany, I know you’re in pain, and help is coming, but I need you to tell me your address so we can get help for Emily,” Quint ordered as gently as he could.
Quint turned to the officer standing behind him, looking on helplessly. They both knew if they tried to take the knives out of Bethany’s palms, it could kill her. She’d already lost too much blood. Her face was deathly pale. He really didn’t have to tell the officer, but immediately after Bethany whispered her address in a pained voice, he ordered, “Call it in.”
The officer nodded and turned away, already keying his mic. Quint heard him telling dispatch about the other woman. They’d get units to Emily’s house and make sure she was okay.
Quint turned back to Bethany. Corrie was his concern now. He kept rocking Ethan and rubbing his back, trying to calm him down. “We’ve got officers headed to your house to check on Emily. Please, what happened here? Where’s Corrie?”
“After he beat Em into unconsciousness, he forced me into his car. I wanted to leave Ethan at the house, but he grabbed him from me. He drove here with Ethan on his lap, ranting the entire time about how he was an evil child, that Ethan would be better off if he just killed him now instead of letting him grow up as the son of a lesbian couple. I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what. I thought about bailing out of the car, but that’d leave him with Ethan. I couldn’t leave my baby. He would’ve killed him on the spot.”
“Shhhh, I know you couldn’t. You did the right thing. Then what?” Quint tried not to lose his patience, just put a soothing hand on her leg.
“He held a knife to Ethan’s throat and forced me to knock on your door. Corrie answered and I told her it was me. She opened the door and he hit her hard enough to knock her out.”
Quint saw red and squeezed the baby a bit too hard. Ethan cried out, but settled again when Quint bounced him in his arms soothingly.
Bethany continued, her voice growing weaker. “He left her on the floor and forced me in here. He threw me on the bed and pulled the knives out. He told me I had a choice…either I lay still and let him do…this, or he could do it to Ethan.” Bethany gasped and Quint saw the tears fall from her eyes again.
“He swore he’d put him on the floor and leave him alone if I did it. So I lay still and let him stab me. I never knew anything could hurt so damn bad. As I lay there screaming, he took Ethan into the bathroom, telling me all the while what he was doing and how Ethan was going to die anyway. I yelled at him to leave him alone, that he promised, and he only laughed at me. Then he left. I tried to get up but I couldn’t. It hurts, Quint. It hurts so damn bad.”
Quint moved his hand from her leg to her forehead to try to console her. It was a safe place he felt he could touch and not hurt her further. “Did he tell you where he was going? Anything that will help us find Corrie?”
“No.”
“Think, Bethany. Anything you can remember, even if it seems as if it’s nothing, will help us at this point.”
Quint held his breath as Bethany closed her eyes and thought back through what had happened that morning.
Her eyes opened and Quint could see her mentally straighten her shoulders. He’d never been so relieved. She looked up at Quint. “He mumbled something while we were driving through rush-hour traffic about how he hated the city and couldn’t wait to get out to the cabin.”
Quint closed his eyes briefly in thanks. Bingo. It had to be enough. It was a long shot, but knowing they were in a cabin outside the city was more than they would’ve had to go on without Bethany. He leaned over her and kissed her forehead, much as he did with Corrie when he was trying to comfort her. “Thank you.” Quint could hear the ambulance arrive and the EMTs enter his house. “You’re going to be fine. Ethan’s okay, and they’ll get to Emily as well.”
Her eyes stared up at him, glassy with pain, but clear. She was one tough chick. Quint was glad Corrie had her as a friend. “You’ll find her? You’ll keep that asshole from hurting Corrie?”
“I’m going to do my damnedest.”
Bethany nodded and the medical personnel came into the room. Quint handed Ethan off to one of the men, leaving the explanations about what had happened to the other officers. They’d been standing behind him when Bethany told him what happened.
Quint stepped into his living room to find Cruz there, along with Dax, their friend TJ, and even Hayden Yates. TJ was a Highway Patrolman, but he’d never shied away from helping wherever he was needed. He’d been there when Dax had confronted the serial killer who had buried Mackenzie alive. Hayden was a sheriff’s deputy, and she was one of the toughest law enforcement officers Quint had ever met, male or female. He’d take all the help he could get right now.
He quickly explained what Bethany told him had gone down
that morning.
“So she’s been gone about three and a half hours now,” Cruz calculated. “Do you think she has her cell on her?”
Quint looked over to see Corrie’s purse on a hook by the front hall table. He strode over to it and held his breath. He reached into the small pocket and pulled out her phone where she always kept it and showed it to the others. Damn.
“Okay, so we can’t use that to track her. What else we got?”
“Cruz, who do you know that can dig deep and find us information?” Quint asked, desperate.
He shrugged. “The guys at the bureau are good, but are somewhat limited because of…you know….laws.”
“Fuck.” Quint spat out the word. “This all needs to be on the up and up so it doesn’t get fucked up. I know this is Dimitri and Isaac. It’s the only thing that makes sense. But going through proper channels is going to take too long.”
“I might know someone,” TJ said quietly.
Four sets of eyes swung to the Highway Patrolman. He spoke before anyone could ask. “You guys all know I used to be Delta Force. There were times we relied on an outside guy to get us some intel on our marks or to give us some extra recon before we went on missions. He’s totally legit…works for the government, but I’m fairly certain how he gets his information isn’t always completely legal.”
“Call him,” Quint said immediately. He didn’t care how the man got his information, as long as it led them to Corrie.
“If he comes through, we’ll need a cover story on how we found her,” TJ warned.
Quint looked around at the best friends he’d ever had. The only two missing were Conor and Calder. “If it was Mackenzie, would you do it?” he asked Daxton.
“In a heartbeat,” was his immediate response.
“Please, TJ, call your guy. I’ll take the rap for this if it comes to it. Corrie means more to me than anything, even my job.”
TJ didn’t say another word to try to dissuade his friend; he clicked on a contact in his phone and put the phone up to his ear. After only a moment, he began speaking to whomever it was who answered. “Ghost. It’s Rock. Yeah, I know, it’s been too long. I need Tex. Yeah, C-Red.” He held his hand over the speaker and interpreted for his friends, “Code-Red.” His attention was brought back to the phone as the mysterious Ghost continued to ask questions. “We need intel immediately. Kidnapped. Thanks, I appreciate it. We totally need to get together soon. I heard you snagged yourself a woman.” He chuckled at something the man on the other end of the phone said, then got serious again. “Thanks, I appreciate it. I’ll let you know how it goes. Later.” TJ clicked off the phone.
“Well?” Quint asked impatiently.
“Give him a moment. He’ll call. Ghost is going to get a hold of him.”
“Why don’t you have this guy’s direct number?” Hayden asked.
“Tex is…eccentric. He knows everyone, and those of us who have worked with him understand that while he can find us at a moment’s notice, he doesn’t want his contact information spread across all the groups and men he works with. Only the team leaders have his direct line, and even that changes almost monthly. Look, the man could disappear with his family and no one would ever find him, he’s that good. He makes himself and his computer abilities available to us in emergencies.”
“What does he want in return?”
“A marker. He’d never take money for anything he does. He claims the government pays him more than enough for him and his family to live on. But he lives and breathes information. If he needs us, he’ll let us know.”
“Whatever he wants, whenever he wants,” Quint vowed. “If he can get us to Corrie, I don’t give a rat’s ass what he requires of me.”
“And that right there is why Tex is the best,” TJ said in a solemn tone. “He’s collected markers from a country full of men who are just like you, Quint. But honestly, I know he’d do it just because it’s the right thing to do.”
TJ’s phone vibrated and he quickly tapped it and brought it up to his ear. “Tex…I know, it’s been a long time…Corrie Madison, she’s blind…Dimitri Prandini, P-r-a-n-d-i-n-i, and Isaac Sampson… Near as we can tell over three hours… Witness says whoever it was that forced her to go to Corrie’s house talked about a cabin…Yeah…We’ll be waiting.” TJ clicked the phone off and turned to his friends.
“Well?”
“He’s going to call me back.”
“This is ridiculous,” Quint barked out, turning to Cruz. “I can’t just stand here waiting for some mysterious fucking guy named Tex to find out where Corrie is after a thirty-second phone conversation. Cruz, call your guy at the bureau. Have him search for properties that trace back to Dimitri or Isaac. It’s a long shot, but they might be arrogant enough to have taken her to one of their own damn houses.”
“Give Tex five minutes, Cruz,” TJ ordered. Everyone looked at him in surprise. TJ was the happy-go-lucky one of their group. It was surprising enough that the man had been Delta, he just didn’t seem to have the disposition, but one look at his demeanor and countenance at the moment and no one doubted the man was a lethal killer.
“Tex will find her. He’s a fucking hacker. I didn’t give him much information, but he’ll do his magic computer shit and tell us where they are. It’ll take Cruz’s FBI guy three hours to do what it’ll take Tex five minutes to find.”
“I can’t lose her,” Quint said, heartbroken.
“You won’t,” Daxton assured him with conviction. “These guys are too cocky. They think they’re invincible. They’ve left a trail that this computer geek’ll find. Believe it.”
No one said anything for several minutes. Quint paced as the other SAPD officers and medical personnel gave the quintet a wide berth. They were obviously putting out some intense vibes because no one bothered them.
Finally, after seven minutes had passed, TJ’s phone vibrated with an incoming call. He immediately clicked it on and listened before saying, “All right, give us a second.”
TJ motioned for the others to follow him outside. Without asking why, everyone followed the Highway Patrolman until they arrived next to his car, out of the way of others who might overhear their conversation. He clicked the speaker icon on the phone and held it out in the middle of the tight circle of lawmen.
“Okay, go ahead, Tex. We’re all here.”
“First, I’m sorry as I could be that these assholes got ahold of your woman,” Tex said with a hint of a southern drawl. “But the good news is that they aren’t very smart. Prandini has several aliases. Prado, Prandino, Prandima…as I said…not very smart. Anyway, looks like the man held a marker for a down-home country boy named Chaz Willis. Chaz had a bit of a gambling problem, but also had some issues on the side with not one, but two ex-wives. He somehow conned his sister-in-law into purchasing a house for him in her name, so his current wife wouldn’t be able to find him when he was hooking up with his first ex or his current girlfriend.”
“Jesus, is there a point?” Quint asked, stressed beyond control.
“I have a point,” Tex said, not seeming to be ruffled at all by Quint’s outburst. “It’s that Chaz owed Prandini money. Money he didn’t have. All of a sudden our friend Chaz hasn’t made any trips out to his little hunting cabin at the lake in over a year. Cell phone and credit card records show he’s living a perfectly miserable life right there in the heart of San Antonio. There haven’t been any ‘hunting trips’ for the man in all of that time. Oh, and his third divorce is pending.”
“Prandini?” Cruz demanded.
“Yup. He’s the proud new owner of a small, out-of-the-way cabin on Medina Lake. He’s been switching up his credit cards, but there have been gas and food charges awfully close to that area. I have a feeling the man isn’t the outdoorsy type.”
“Fuck me. Medina Lake,” Quint breathed incredulously. “I should’ve thought of that.”
“What’s the connection?” Hayden asked.
“Shaun’s body was found there,” Quint in
formed the group matter-of-factly.
“Address?” Cruz asked, a pad of paper in his hand, ready to write it down.
“The cabin has a half-mile dirt road leading to it and is surrounded by trees and scrub. As you all know, this has been a warm year for Texas, but there are still lots of places to hide out there. You’ll need to go in quiet and sneak up on them.”
“Fuck, Tex. Who the hell do you think you’re talkin’ to here?” Quint groused. “Address?”
“South side. Take PR 2670 off of route 265. Go one-point-two miles north and there’s a dirt road on your left. It’s down that road. I’ll send the coordinates to Rock.”
“Let’s go, it’s at least thirty minutes to get out there,” Quint said, turning to head to his truck.
“Quint,” Tex called out.
He paused and waited for the man to continue. He was itching to get the hell out of there and get to Corrie, but he owed Tex another couple seconds of his time. If he was right and this is where Corrie was…Quint knew he owed him a lot more than mere time.
“From what I could tell in the five minutes I had to research her, your woman is intelligent. If there’s a way out of this, she’ll find it.”
“Thanks. I’m counting on it.” And with that, Quint strode toward Hayden’s vehicle. It was a four-wheel drive and they’d decided while they were waiting for Tex to call back, that if needed, they’d take hers since it was more maneuverable in the backcountry of Texas.
He blanked out the others getting into their cars and even his phone vibrating with a text with the coordinates from TJ. All Quint could think about was Corrie. Had too much time passed? Was she all right? What were those pricks doing to her?
Never in his life had he wanted to be a knight in shining armor as badly as he wanted to be one today. It had never been as vital to his well-being as now.
“Hang on, sweetheart. I’m coming for you,” he whispered as Hayden pulled away from the curb. “I’m on my way.”
Chapter 14
Corrie lay on the floor where the man had thrown her. She’d awoken in his car. She was disoriented and dizzy, but knew she was in big trouble. She remembered Bethany being at her house, then nothing. Was she okay? Emily? Ethan? Dang it, she hated not knowing, but she’d be damned if she asked her captors.
