Relentless Protector

by Colleen Thompson

  “You’re safe with me,” he murmured. “Safe to rest now.”

  He kept hold for a long while, until her breathing lengthened and her grip relaxed. Once he was certain she was truly sleeping, he carefully disentangled his hand from hers and prayed she’d found her way to a place untroubled by dark dreams or her even darker waking nightmare.

  As the interstate sliced its way through west Texas, the land opened up into rolling rangeland cracked with craggy ravines and dotted with thorny clumps of mesquite. Good hunting land, judging from the number of deer blinds he spotted, tiny house-shaped shells elevated on stilts just above the ground.

  But the quarry he was contemplating had no open season, and unlike the deer, Evie and her partner would be armed, a mismatch made even more lopsided since he had turned in his handgun to the sheriff’s office to aid in the joint task force investigation.

  Time to do something about that, he thought, reaching over and snagging the handle of Lisa’s purse. Dropping it into his lap, he felt around inside it, then came up with the gun that she had “borrowed” from her friend’s house.

  “Sorry,” he whispered to the sleeping woman. “But I’m way more likely to put this to good use than you are.”

  After tucking it out of her reach in the map pocket, he took out an unfamiliar cell phone. Knowing it must be the same one she had mentioned finding under the cake, he pulled onto the shoulder for a closer look.

  After glancing over to be sure she hadn’t awakened, he found nothing in either the phone’s address book or call log, nothing at all beyond one text message that had come from a blocked number. It contained only a pair of numbers that looked suspiciously like latitude and longitude coordinates.

  Clearly Lisa had surmised the same thing. She must have looked up the location using the laptop he’d spotted in her bedroom earlier. But a smartphone would work just as well, so after a guilty glance at Lisa, he pulled out his phone and replaced the battery she had taken. Bristling with impatience, he waited for the phone to acquire a signal. Fortunately it was a good one, thanks to the cell towers along the interstate.

  The first thing that popped up were alerts showing numerous missed calls, voice mails and text messages from Lisa’s dad. Ignoring them, he went to the GPS app and typed in the numbers Evie had given Lisa.

  Within seconds, he discovered their destination: an old cemetery in the mostly abandoned mining town of Terlingua, Texas. Another click revealed that the former ghost town currently had a couple hundred or so residents, many of whom apparently eked out their livings working in local tourist traps. But at 12:30 a.m., the only people he expected to encounter at their dark and lonely meeting place were the kidnappers, including the monster who clearly meant to leave Lisa lying there among the dead.

  One glance at the woman sleeping in the seat beside him convinced him that she would never back down from her plan to save her child, even if it meant sacrificing her own life. Though he still believed her decision to act without the authorities on her side was far too risky, she was correct about one thing. This was a call no one else had the right to make for her, because either way there would be dangers, so the consequences would be hers to live with.

  At least they would be if she lived. That was where he came in, seeing that she survived to bring Tyler home, whether or not the boy survived.

  Though Cole would have loved to believe Evie’s promise to send Tyler, safe and sound, to Lisa’s sister, he didn’t buy it for a second. Whoever the woman was, she’d proven herself to be the kind of psychopath who would never pass up a cash buyer, no matter what she’d claimed.

  And if he meant to stop her, he couldn’t go in blind, nor could he ignore the one possible lead Lisa had come up with. With time running short, he couldn’t afford to wait around on the side of the road.

  Before he left, however, he checked his text messages to see if Lisa’s father had responded to the questions he’d asked about Sabra Crowley when he’d first messaged to let the man know Lisa was all right.

  “Why ask me about old business?” Hartfield had responded. “What the hell is going on now?”

  Cole grimaced, seeing that the older man’s earlier texts consisted of demands, each more impatient than the last, that Cole immediately call him. Furious as Hartfield was, Cole conceded there was no way to get the information that he needed without risking a conversation.

  He glanced over at Lisa once more, making sure she was still sleeping. Praying she would stay that way, he climbed out of the SUV, then left the door barely open behind him as he stepped around the back of the vehicle to make the call.

  He didn’t even hear the phone ring before Hartfield was on the line and snarling, “Where the hell are you two? I’ve been pacing holes in the rugs waiting for you two to get back home.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. I made a promise to your daughter that I wouldn’t share any intel on where we are or where we’re heading.”

  “Well, break it.”

  “Sorry. I can’t do that.”

  “You won’t, you mean, right?”

  “I don’t give my word lightly. And I don’t break it at all.”

  “She’s had a message, hasn’t she?” her father guessed. “Those kidnappers contacted her somehow.”

  Cole let his silence answer for him.

  “Don’t be an idiot, Sawyer. She’ll get herself or my grandson—maybe both of them—killed if she goes to meet those people!” There was no disguising the fear that lurked behind Hartfield’s anger. “Ransom exchanges never work out.”

  “That’s why I thought it would be better if she had me with her. Otherwise, she would have gone by herself. And you need to know, they’re not demanding ransom.”

  “Then what?”

  Cole weighed how much to say. “They’re guaranteeing the boy’s safety in exchange for a meeting. No law enforcement, no one else. Just your daughter, alone.”

  “Then all this, it’s about setting Lisa up for— If anything happens to my girl, I can guarantee you, I’m going to see so much hellfire rained down on top of your head, you’ll be beggin’ to go back to the war zone.”

  “That’s certainly your prerogative, sir. But know this. Other than breaking faith with your daughter, I’ll do whatever I have to, to see that she and your grandson both come home safely. I give you my word on that.”

  “You better pray that that’s enough, boy.”

  “Believe me, I will,” Cole said honestly. “Now, before Lisa wakes up and gives me holy hell for making this call, tell me everything you know about Sabra Crowley.”

  “She’s dead. What else do you need to know?”

  “I don’t have time to make you understand. Just tell me everything.”

  Hartfield gave a long sigh. “That was one disturbed kid, and one hell of a bad family situation. I thought my partner did a fine thing taking her and Ava home while they still stood some chance. If you’d have seen ’em, half-starved and black-and-blue, you’d have understood. Even though it all went to hell, you’d have known that Jerry meant to do the right thing.”

  “So you knew he was beating her? You knew and you did nothing?” Cole demanded.

  “Hell no. I didn’t know a thing till Lisa told me after Jerry died, or I swear I would’ve stopped him, would’ve gotten him help or even locked up my best friend if I had to.”

  “What about Sabra’s body? Did you ever see it?”

  “Much as I wanted her punished for what she did to Jerry, it was bad.” Cole heard the ghost of sadness in Hartfield’s voice. “Real bad. The girl was hit by a truck doing about sixty. The mother was too upset to see her, so I was asked to do the ID. And I swear it was Sabra. Her hair, her clothes, and the backpack she had on her had her belongings in it.”

  “So it was just the backpack? They didn’t use dental records for the ID, or fingerprints or—”

  “Enough with all these questions!” Hartfield exploded. “You want to know any more, you’ll tell me what my partner’s murder and this g
irl’s death could possibly have to do with my grandson’s abduction.”

  “Lisa thinks the woman who carjacked her is Sabra. But if Sabra really was killed—” Suddenly he heard Lisa, sounding frantic as she called his name. “I have to go,” he told her father.

  “Wait a minute, boy,” Sid Hartfield said urgently. “I need to tell you—”

  But it was too late. Cole was already switching off the phone—and facing Lisa’s wrath.

  * * *

  “WHAT ARE YOU doing?” she demanded. Was he trying to get them traced, using his phone in an attempt to get around his promise? “Give me that. I told you—”

  “It’s fine,” he said, popping out the battery and handing it over. “They can’t trace things that fast.”

  “I trusted you to keep driving,” she said, fear clenching inside her as cars rushed past on the freeway. “How long have we been parked here?”

  “Five minutes, tops,” he told her. “As worried as your dad was, I knew if I didn’t touch base, he’d have the FBI or the sheriff on us for sure, and they’d catch us before we ever made it to Terlingua.”

  “How do you know...?” Her stomach lurched as she realized what he had done. “You checked out the other phone, didn’t you? And saw Evie’s text.” It wasn’t a question.

  “You bet I did. Did you really expect me to walk into the situation without all the information?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You took my gun, too, didn’t you?”

  “You think I wanted to end up looking down a barrel if you caught me using the phone?” he asked as headed back toward the driver’s seat.

  “Give it back, Cole,” she said, walking up behind him. “Give it back to me now.”

  He turned and slanted her a look. “If I didn’t think you’d be safe with it before, what makes you think I’d suddenly hand it back after pissing you off?”

  He sounded so darned cocky, she popped his shoulder with her palm in frustration. She might as well have smacked a brick wall for all the good it did her. Turning away, she walked around the vehicle and climbed back inside.

  Cole buckled his seat belt and started up the SUV.

  “So, that’s it, isn’t it?” she asked, tears burning. “You’ve taken away my gun, and now you’re taking me back home, too, aren’t you? You and my dad have decided you know best, and you’re going to force me...”

  She couldn’t squeeze another word past the dread building at the thought of how highly visible an official operation would be in a tiny little ghost town. Whether it was instinct or intuition, she knew in her heart that she needed to do this on her own. To do whatever she had to do to appease Sabra rather than escalate the situation.

  A phone chimed—the disposable cell that Sabra had sent. Breath ripping from her lungs, Lisa fumbled to answer, only to discover that it wasn’t a call coming but some kind of message. “How am I supposed to answer this?” she asked Cole.

  He leaned over to see the screen. “Click the icon. Right there.”

  Trembling, she did, her marrow freezing as the digital video began to play. Poorly lit and out of focus, it was a close-up of her son’s face. His hair was mussed, and he looked tired as he stared into the camera.

  “Hurry, Mommy. Hurry, please. She says you gotta come all by yourself, or something bad will—”

  The message stopped abruptly.

  “Why?” she sobbed. “Why do this to Tyler? I’m the one who didn’t help her when I should have. I’m the one who should be punished.”

  Leaning over the console, Cole pulled her into an embrace. An embrace that felt, just for a moment, like the only thing preventing her from flying to pieces.

  “Don’t try to make sense of it,” he whispered as he rocked her gently, his fingers stroking her hair. “It’s simply cruelty, Lisa, an attempt to scare you into playing into her hands.”

  Pushing herself free, she said, “You heard what she said. I have to go alone.”

  “She can’t possibly know I’m coming with you,” Cole said. “She’s like any other terrorist, using intimidation to keep you off balance.”

  He sounded so reasonable, so calm and rational, that she struggled to fight her way clear of hysteria. “Coming with me. Then you’re not taking me home?”

  “I was never planning on taking you home, Lisa.”

  “Really?”

  “I gave you my word, didn’t I? I’m just trying to find some way to do it so that promise won’t end up costing you your life. Now buckle up so we can get back on the road. We need to get going if you want to make Terlingua in time.”

  Relief flowed over her, a warm, tingling sensation cascading through her nervous system. She’d been right about his inability to break his vow, right about the man that he was, for all his headstrong gruffness. Buckling up, she thanked God that her instincts had been right.

  As he merged with traffic, she thought about what he had just said.

  “You mean to try to ambush the ambushers, don’t you?” she asked, speaking in hushed tones.

  “Well, I’d rather have something better to do it with than this girlie little .22,” he said with a maddeningly offhand shrug, “but, yeah, that’s the general plan. And given the right shot, this gun’s quite capable of killing someone. Those smaller rounds just love to bounce around inside a person’s brainpan and wreak havoc.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment, painfully reminded that her husband had died after a piece of shrapnel from the bombing did the same thing.

  “I won’t kill them unless I have to,” he said. “Especially not if they don’t have Tyler with them. But I don’t want to kid you. It’ll be tough, maybe impossible, to take down a well-armed opponent without a kill shot. The best we can hope for is the element of surprise.”

  At the mention of her son’s name, she’d been gripped with the desire to replay the video, to see his face again, even if it was for no more than a few wrenching moments. As if he sensed her struggle, Cole drew her into a conversation about their exit off the interstate and the route they would take south, into the remote Big Bend. She pulled a Texas road map she’d brought from the glove box and studied roads that would take them through deserts and among mountains before they reached Terlingua hours after dark.

  But the longer they discussed it, the more apprehension tightened her stomach. No matter when they arrived or how stealthily Cole moved into whatever position he judged would be most advantageous, it was all too easy to imagine someone spotting him. Or Sabra mowing them down before Lisa ever got the chance to beg forgiveness for the sin that had set this nightmare into motion.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jill had finally spotted the red Chevy, and as she drove, she allowed the hum of her tires on the highway to convince her that it wasn’t fear of rejection keeping her from turning around, it was the pursuit of justice.

  She realized now that she should have called this in hours ago, when she’d first spotted the couple heading out of town together, then bulled her way into Trace’s room in Austin before his family reminded him that she was now the enemy.

  But she’d screwed up, doing neither, and like a dog that had snatched its owner’s thawing T-bone from the counter, she was too committed to her transgression to give up her prize now.

  Several hours later she was doing about seventy when the car began to pull to the right. Listening carefully, she groaned, her stomach sinking with the realization that, of all the damned luck, she had a flat, out here on this dark road, miles and miles from help.

  Pulling over, she got out and confirmed that the right front tire was going down fast. She popped the trunk to pull out the spare, sighing as her quarry, already far ahead of her, disappeared once more.

  But she had changed flats before. Dirty and greasy as the job was, there was nothing to it, really.

  She would rather do it ten times over than admit she’d been wrong in following the couple.

  * * *

  IN SPITE OF LISA’S protests, Cole insisted that they stop fo
r a meal in Alpine before the last leg of their journey, the nearly two-hour drive to Terlingua. They needed to stretch their legs, to regroup and refocus their concentration before he could present his plan—and make certain she understood exactly how risky this face-to-face would be.

  But mostly he had to be sure that she understood everything, including exactly who had agreed to help her. Because she deserved the truth of his involvement in her husband’s death before she decided to put both her life and Tyler’s into his hands.

  Still, it was a tale he dreaded telling, almost as much as he hated explaining why he hadn’t come clean from the start. But he owed her too much to turn coward, even if she would hate him for what he had to say.

  Hours after the lavish west Texas sunset had painted the sky crimson, it had gone an inky black, studded with the myriad stars the area was known for. But as they entered the steak house recommended by the clerk at the convenience store where they bought fuel, he could see in Lisa’s eyes that she wasn’t thinking about the beauty of the desert sky, only the frightened little boy who was facing another night without her.

  If I have anything to say about it, he swore, he’ll be in your arms by morning.

  As their waitress, a blowsy, middle-aged blonde who wore cowboy boots with her denim skirt, filled their water glasses, she asked, “You hear the big news?”

  When Lisa tensed, the blonde spilled it, sounding almost gleeful. “That missing tourist over at Big Bend Park—they found her body in the Chisos Mountain Basin, along a closed trail where she was hiking on her own.”

  “Climbing accident?” Cole asked, eager to get rid of her so he and Lisa could talk.

  “Nope. They’re sayin’ it was a mountain lion. First lion attack around these parts in years.”

  To Cole’s surprise, Lisa had a question. “Is that anywhere near Terlingua?”

  “Maybe thirty miles as the crow flies. Why’s that?”

  She shrugged in answer before asking, “Will they kill it?”

  “Park rangers’re hunting it with dogs, I hear, but I hope that lion’s halfway to Mexico by now,” the waitress told her fiercely. “Cougar’s got a right to eat, same as you and me, and if some tourist’s dumb enough to hike those trails alone at dusk, well, I say that’s just nature, pickin’ off the weak.”