by Becky McGraw
"I'll feel better once I get off this horse," he replied with a chuckle. Gabe was pretending light-heartedness, but he was far from feeling it.
He may have been sitting in one place most of the night, but he'd been far from idle. His eyes were busy scanning the road, the woods and everywhere else to make sure he didn't see Jake Johnson or his black truck again. It had been really dark out there, but after a while his eyes adjusted and he could see pretty well.
Now that the sun was coming up, Gabe could see even better and scanned their surroundings as he rode beside Karlie. When they got back to the barn, he was going to have a talk with Cole and with Karlie to make sure they were aware of what he'd seen, regardless of whether Cole believed him or not.
"I have a question for you..." Gabe told her, sobering. He'd been thinking while he was sitting for all that time too. A thought had occurred to him as to how he could get more information on Jake Johnson. "Do you think you could contact those lawyers for Jake's grandpa today and get any information you can on him? They had to send him tax forms and notices, so they must have his mailing address and social security number, and probably date of birth. If you could get that for me, it'll help me track him down."
She glanced over at him then back at the herd. "That's a great idea...I'll do it as soon as their office opens, and let you know. If that doesn't work, I'll call my bank, they might have that information, because he was on my account."
"You had them take him off, right?" Gabe asked her shortly, hoping she had enough presence of mind to get him off as soon as he bled her account dry, but she'd been so busy running from him, who knew.
"I didn't bother, because the account is empty. I wasn't using the card anymore."
Gabe smiled as another thought hit him. "That might work in our favor then," Gabe said with a chuckle then clarified, "We'll track him just like he tracked you to Bowie and Amarillo."
"But the account is essentially closed, and his card is useless," she said with a look of confusion.
"You got your first check from those lawyers, right?" Gabe asked her and she nodded then her face brightened. "We'll deposit it in the account, and maybe he'll make a withdrawal or use the card, then we'll know where he is. As soon as I have more information on him, I can probably check his accounts too."
"He always got his checks cashed at the administrative office, so I'm not sure he has one. He used my card and account, a lot."
"Well maybe he still is...hopefully, anyway," Gabe told her and then guided his horse up the slight incline to the road.
A calf bolted toward the woods on the left side of the herd, and Karlie kneed her horse, grabbed her rope and took off after him. In just seconds she was beside him and dropped a loop over the calf's neck then jerked him to a halt. The calf stumbled, then got back on his feet and she let him get his bearings, then turned her horse toward the herd and pulled the rope in some, so she could guide the calf. When she got back over by Gabe, she loosened the rope and she used her horse to nudge him back into the herd.
"That was impressive, darlin'. I don't feel so bad for letting you knot me up on the side of the road anymore," he said with a wink, then chuckled.
Karlie snorted then asked him, "You're never going to let me live that down are you?"
"Not in this lifetime, baby...and I might have to show you my skills with a rope sometimes," he told her in a low seductive voice.
Karlie's face reddened and she told him with a grin, "I'm sure there are a lot of things you could teach me, sugar," then stretched her arms above her head and yawned.
"We're almost done, so we can go back to my cabin and get some sleep," he told her seeing they almost had the first of the cattle at the gate. "I'm telling Cole I'm taking off today. It's Friday, so when we get up, I thought maybe we could go out to the lake and do some fishing, if you like to fish, that is..."
Excitement lit up her bright blue eyes and Karlie gave him that thousand watt smile that melted his knees. "I loved to fish as a kid, but haven't had the chance to do it in years...that would be fun!"
"Cole has a house on the lake, and said I could use it. I think it's free this weekend...and he has a boat out there," Gabe told her getting excited himself about spending some quality time alone with her.
Karlie let out a whoop and her horse shimmied, and the cattle ahead of them started moving faster through the gate, which was perfectly fine with him. When the last one went through, the tired cowhand guarding the gate latched it. Gabe looked down the fence row and saw that shiny new barbed war was strung between the poles, and the repairs were complete.
Luke and Cole rode up to them and Luke told them, "Thanks for the help, ya'll...I thought they were going to scatter again when someone fired those damned shots earlier," he said then huffed out a frustrated breath.
Gabe piped in and said, "Yeah, about that guys...." then he hesitated and looked at Cole, before he finished, "Right after the shots were fired, a truck pulled out of the woods on the other side of the road and headed straight at me, that's why my horse took off like she did."
"You get a description of it? License plate?" Cole asked him with concern.
"No, but before I went on my wild ride, I did see the chrome grill of the truck..."
Karlie groaned then said rawly, "Oh, god, no--tell me it wasn't Jake."
"I'm sorry honey, I saw the bull and his name on the grill, it was him all right. I don't know if he was shooting at me, or just shooting to scare the cows, but it was definitely him."
Gabe glanced over at Cole and saw that he wasn't convinced, but he was listening, so he added, "It's him, Cole...and I don't think he'd have been out there in the wee hours of the morning if he wasn't the one to cut the fence too."
Cole nodded then asked him, "You got anything on him from the database yet?"
"No, there are over six thousand Jake Johnsons in Central Texas, so Karlie is going to try and help me narrow it down. She's going to call the lawyers she's dealing with on Sarge, and see if they'll give her vitals on him...if that' doesn't work, she'd going to try the bank."
"Good idea...let me know if you find anything," Cole told them, then added, "I'll see about putting out an alert on the truck, even without the plate number, that grill should help."
Karlie yawned again, and Gabe said, "Let's go get some rest...we'll deal with this later."
"Wait a second..." Karlie said seriously, then told Luke, "I'm sorry about the fence, and the cattle, Luke...if it is Jake, this is my fault, I'll pay for the repairs."
"Bullshit, Karlie...that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. How do you figure it's your fault that asshole cut my fence?"
"He wouldn't be out here bothering ya'll, if not for me," she told him in a tired and resigned voice. "I think it would be better if I take some time off, until they catch him, get away from here so he'll leave you alone, but I know that'll would put you in a bind."
"Hell, no you're staying, and I'm too tired to talk about this garbage now. Let's go get some rest and we'll talk later," Luke said then kicked his horse into a trot, then a gallop, without looking back. Good, now Karlie had two people telling her how far off she was blaming herself for what Jake Johnson was doing. Maybe she'd believe it now.
Luke had already untacked and stalled his horse, and gone in the house, when the rest of them finally reached the barn. They did the same, then everyone scattered to go get some sleep. Gabe kept Karlie with him and Cole, helping her to the new SUV Cole had driven them to the ranch in. "My car's at the station, can you drop us off?" he asked Cole.
"Yeah, I need to stop there anyway and call Sabrina to make sure she's okay, and let her know I'm on my way."
"Hang on a sec and let me go get Sarge..." Gabe told him then ran inside the house and got the dog and his gear, then put him in the backseat with Karlie, and the rest of her things in the trunk. On the drive to the station, Karlie fell asleep on the back seat of the truck, with Sarge on her lap. When Cole pulled into his parking spot, Gabe got out and carr
ied Karlie to his cruiser then put her in the front seat and belted her in, before going back to get Sarge and put him in the back.
The drive to his cabin didn't take long, and he pulled up in front when he got there, then shut off the engine. He got out and walked around the car to Karlie's door, his hand was on the hadle when he noticed his front door was open a crack. Adrenaline poured through his body and woke him up. Opening the door, he reached under the seat for his backup weapon and checked it, then nudged Karlie's shoulder, and told her, "Wake up, baby...we might have company."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Karlie opened her eyes then when she got oriented, and evidently noticed the open door too, she gasped, and said in a whisper, "Oh, no Gabe--let's get the hell out of here."
"No fucking way--you get in the driver's seat and crank the car. If anything goes down or you hear me yell, you haul ass to the police station, got it?"
Karlie's eyes got wide and she nodded, then she slid over on the seat and got behind the wheel and cranked the cruiser. "Be careful," she told him with fear in her eyes and tone, as she gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles turned white.
"I will, sugar, you just be alert," Gabe told her then noticed the big knobby truck tire tracks on his driveway. There were two sets, one in and one out, so that made him feel a little better, but still he crept up on the porch, then put his back against the wall and yelled, "Police, come out with your hands up!" then waited a minute before he kicked the door the rest of the way open and crouched in the doorway with his gun sweeping the room.
He stood back up then walked through the living room and dining room to the kitchen flipping on lights as he went, then he went down the hall to the spare bedroom, and it was empty, and he breathed a sigh of relief. When he went back into the hall, his relief fled when he saw his bedroom door was open a crack. Putting his back against the wall, Gabe edged his way there, then pushed open the door and pounced in the doorway.
Glancing in the closet, then looking under the bed and seeing nothing, he stood up again then heard a deadly sound like leaves rustling, right before a huge coiled snake struck out at him from the pillow on the bed. Gabe dove then rolled and it missed him, but the rattlesnake was on the floor with him now and he scooted back against the wall, then fired at it. Thank god, he hit it and the shot tossed the snake back from him. He took aim and shot it again in the head and the thick snake went limp.
Gabe felt like he wanted to throw up, so many emotions were pounding through him, along with enough adrenaline to keep an elephant up a month. He pushed up against the wall and stood, then Karlie came barreling into the room with a lamp base in her hands, ready to swing it.
"What the hell?" Gabe yelled, then scolded her, "I told you to take off if you heard something!" then huffed out a breath, trying to calm himself down.
"Well, as you know I don't always do what I'm told," she spat, then looked down at the dead snake and let out a blood-curdling scream, he was sure they heard back in Bowie.
"It's dead, that's what the shots were...he was on the bed."
"Holy, shit, Gabe! He could have bitten you! Oh, god, I can't stay here if you have snakes," she told him with a shiver, then added, "Especially in the bed!"
"Someone put that snake there, darlin'," he told her grimly.
"You think it's Jake don't you?" she asked him in a choked voice.
"Yeah, there are big tire tracks out on the driveway, I don't drive a truck, and nobody has been here in one. This asshole is out of control," Gabe said then ran a hand through his hair.
"I told you he's crazy...that's why I need to leave, so ya'll aren't in danger."
"That's not happening, sugar...you are staying with me, so I can protect you. We're going to the lake house now, but we're gonna make damned sure he isn't following us. I don't have my land line hooked up yet, and my cell doesn't have service out here, so we'll have to ride to the station first to leave a message for Cole."
"I don't have any clothes with me...they're all at the Double B," Karlie said then walked closer to the snake to get a better look. "Wow, he's a big one."
"Damned big...I bet Jake was scared shitless handling him to get him here. I wish he'd have bit the sonofabitch, that would have served him right."
"I hate to say it, because I don't wish anybody ill, but it sure would make me feel better, if he was out of commission for a while...or dead," Karlie told him then flinched.
"He's going to wind up that way if he keeps trying to hurt us...or in jail. That's what I'd like to see happen. Some of the bullies in there could teach him a lesson," Gabe said then walked to the bed and pulled off a pillow case, before he walked over and picked the snake up by the tail and dropped it inside.
Holding it away from him, he said, "Let's go...I want to show this to Cole, but he'll probably just say it opened the door and crawled in here then up into the bed. I don't know what his deal is, but he seems to doubt that Jake is behind all this."
"Well he better believe it, because this is the kind of crazy shit he does...that's why I'm so scared of him, you never know what to expect."
"Do me a favor and lock the door behind us, I'm going to put this sucker in the trunk," he told Karlie and she nodded, then he got the keys and dropped the pillow case in the trunk, then got in the driver's seat, and shoved his gun back under the seat. "Oh crap, I need to pack some clothes too," he said as Karlie sat in the passenger seat. "I'll be right back," he told her then ran for the porch, through the door and to the bedroom.
Gabe grabbed a duffle bag from the top of the closet, then went to the dresser and threw in some t-shirts, shorts and jeans. He needed his running shoes too, so he went to the closet and reached down to get them, then something hit him in the arm and it felt like it was a hot iron poker.
He yelled and jerked back then saw another big rattler, this one with his fangs embedded in his forearm. Grabbing him by the tail, Gabe yanked hard and pulled him away, which caused excruciating pain to radiate up his arm. The snake hit the wall with a thwack after he threw it across the room, then ran for the door, and slammed it behind him.
Shock and fear shot through him, and his heart was racing, and Gabe knew knew he needed to calm down, so the poison didn't move into his system faster. Finding the lamp that Karlie had dropped in the hall earlier, he yanked the cord off then tied it around his arm above the bite, but not tourniquet tight. He took several deep breaths, then released them slowly, before he walked to the front door and outside.
The terror coursing through him must've been plain on his face, because Karlie flew out of the car and ran over to him. Gabe tried to regulate his breathing, and use a calm voice, when he told her, "We need to get to a hospital now," but he fell short of the mark as pain sliced through his rapidly swelling arm and he groaned.
Karlie followed him down the steps and over to the passenger door of the cruiser, and opened the door for him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys and handed them to her, then sat down quickly as he got lightheaded.
"What happened? You killed it!" She said in a high-pitched wail.
"There was another one in the closet that I didn't see...let's go, sugar before I throw up." His face was starting to tingle, and he was feeling nauseated, whether from the bite or anxiety he didn't know, and his arm hurt like hell.
Karlie nodded then ran around the car and got behind the wheel then asked, "How the hell do I turn on the sirens and flashers?"
Gabe pointed them out then flipped a switch making the sirens wail and red and blue lights reflect off of the hood of the cruiser. Karlie twisted the keys in the ignition, then told him, "Put your seatbelt on, Gabe, and hold on," then threw the car in gear and hit the accelerator and spun the car toward the road.
It was thirty minutes or so to the hospital, and he thought she might make it in ten minutes, as fast as Karlie was driving. The trees at the side of the road were a blur, as she leaned over the wheel giving her total focus to the road. Gabe's breathing felt funny, it felt lik
e his chest was tight, and he put his right hand up there and rubbed.
She glanced over at him, and asked in a high-pithced, fear choked voice, "You okay, baby?"
"I think so, just get us there, you're doing great," he told her then closed his eyes and rested his head on the back of the seat. They hit the main road, and she got in the fast lane and hauled butt toward Henrietta. Gabe swallowed a couple of times trying to settle his stomach.
"Hurry, sugar," he told her after a minute, although he knew she had the cruiser maxed out as it was. His arm was starting to tingle now above the cord, and his head felt strange.
Karlie whimpered then glanced at him, and the car swerved, before she looked back at the road and stabilized it. Okay, no matter what, he was not going to groan, even though the pain in his arm was getting pretty near cut me open with a hot knife territory, and his mouth tasted weird, like he was sucking on copper or something. She needed to focus, and he needed to suck it up. They'd be at he hospital soon. Gabe shut his eyes again and gritted his teeth.
