by Becky McGraw
Before she could shut it, a heavy hand fell on her shoulder and she was shoved against the trunk and knocked her head on the lid. Seeing stars, she shoved back against the heavy body pinning her to the car, but it didn't move, instead a smug voice she would never be able to purge from her mind grated near her ear, "Can't seem to kill you or that boyfriend of yours, huh? Maybe next time that fucker won't be so lucky...and neither will you."
Fear shot through Karlie and her brain froze, then her body started trembling. Trying to get her foggy brain to kick into gear, Karlie took a deep breath getting ready to scream, and Jake put one of his big hands over her mouth, and squeezed her shoulder so painfully, tears filled her eyes.
God, if he took her, nobody would know it. She was out here in this virtually empty parking lot, and nobody would see. They wouldn't know what happened, or where to look...and Jake would kill her. Karlie's eyes searched the too clean trunk for a weapon, and didn't see any. She wished Gabe had gotten her that taser she'd asked him for. If she got out of this, she was going to buy one herself.
The jack handle, she knew was under the spare, so she wasn't going to be able to grab that. A blanket and an emergency road kit wouldn't be any help either, she thought. Then her eyes fell on the rattlesnake in the blue pillow case. She closed her fist around the top, so when he jerked her away from the car, she dragged it out and dropped it on the ground. Maybe that would give them the message that it was Jake that had her. She hoped so anyway, it was her only hope.
Jake dragged her across the lot toward where she saw his big black truck parked at the back of the lot. When they got there, he slung open the passenger door and stuffed her inside roughly, then grabbed up Sarge and threw him in just as roughly. He slammed the door, and ran around to the driver's side. Her foot hit something on the floor, and she looked down to see a pole with a hook on the end, the kind snake handlers used, and her heart did a somersault in her chest, then anger surged through her. She grabbed it and swung it at Jake's neck when he went to get up in the truck. It caught him on the side of the face and left a long gash.
With a yelp, he grabbed the end of the pole and pulled it out of her hands, then threw it out the door. He got inside and slapped her on the side of the face hard, causing her head to slam back against the window and her teeth to rattle.
"Bitch! You're going to pay for that one, and all the other trouble you've put me through lately. The best thing you can do, if you want to stay alive for a while, is to cooperate."
Karlie stared in horror at the blood gushing out of the gash on his face and down his neck. With a whimper, she slid as close to the door as she could, then grabbed the door handle to try to open it, but he pushed the lock button, then slapped her again, causing her neck to snap back and her brain to jiggle around in her head.
She looked up and saw someone in a car a few rows away staring at them, and sent up a silent prayer of thanks. Maybe he'd go inside and tell someone there was a crazy man beating a woman in a truck in the parking lot. Karlie felt her cheek swelling and there was the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. Either she'd bitten her tongue or cheek on the last slap, or he might have knocked a tooth out. Running her tongue around in her mouth, she was relieved to find her teeth in tact, but her lower lip was busted at the corner.
Sarge, who was on the floor board did something she'd never heard him do before, he growled, then sunk his teeth into Jake's ankle, and tugged. Jake howled, then reached down and tried to pull him off of his leg and couldn't, so he kicked him in the head with his other foot hard. Sarge yelped then tried to bite him again, but Jake kicked him again, then he whimpered and laid down on the floor by her feet. "Keep that damned mutt under control, or I'm going to put a bullet in him and you."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Although he was glad to see his sister and Cole, an hour after Karlie had left him to let them visit, he wanted her back at his side. Wondering where she was, he asked Cole, who was seated beside the bed in a chair, "You seen Karlie?"
"Saw her earlier in the waiting room, but not since. She said something about going to check on Sarge...she'd left him in the car. I'll check on her, when I head out." Cole told him distractedly, then added, "I'm meeting that snake guy at your place, so he can find that other snake, and I want to look at those tire tracks and take pictures. Maybe I'll dust for prints too. I called the Rangers ealier, but until I can give them some hard evidence, they can't help."
"Thanks, man..." Gabe had a bad feeling in his stomach, and it wasn't from the snake bite, or the Jello he'd forced down. "Could you go find Karlie now? I'm worried about her."
"Sure, I'll be right back...I'm sure she's either with Sabrina in the waiting room, or down in the parking lot."
"With Johnson still on the loose, I'd just feel better if she stayed close...he's a lunatic," Gabe told him seriously.
Being in this bed and hooked up to all this crap was driving Gabe crazy. He wanted to get up and move around. The swelling in his arm had gone down some, and they'd cleaned up the wounds and put on a dressing. Off and on, it still hurt like hell, but he was sure the worst of the venom had been counteracted by the anti-venom they'd given him, so Gabe was ready to get the hell out of here.
Gabe laid there and stared at the ceiling, counting the white tiles to pass time, while he waited for Cole to find Karlie and send her in. Laying here was as exciting as watching paint dry, and he'd about had enough of it after twenty minutes had passed and Karlie still hadn't come back. Instead, a nurse came in and checked his IV, then reset the pump and took his vitals. While she worked, he asked her, "Have you seen my tall blond friend or his pregnant wife outside?
"I saw him walk to the elevator about twenty minutes ago, but not again since," she said.
"What about the tall woman with the red hair?" Gabe asked, knowing she couldn't have missed Karlie's hair.
The woman smiled, then said, "Oh, you mean your fiancé? She hasn't been back up here in an hour or so...she'll probably be back soon, I'd guess...she was pretty worried about you."
Gabe didn't think snake bites affected your hearing, but maybe they did! His fiancé? Gabe didn't correct the nurse, figuring Karlie must have an explanation for telling them that, but he couldn't imagine what it could be.
Confusion, then fear surged up to his throat and he broke out in a cold sweat. He sure hoped that wasn't what Karlie expected out of him, because it wasn't going to happen. Hell, he'd had the struggle of a lifetime with himself, before he decided to ask her to move in with him!
Gabe had decided a long time ago that he was never getting married. And he was going to have to explain that to her. His mother leaving his father high and dry when Gabe was six, had about devastated the hardworking farmer. There was no way in hell he was going to put himself in the same position, even if he knew in his heart Karlie wasn't like his mother.
Cole walked back into the room and his pale face was a mask of dread, and Gabe's stomach pitched. "What's wrong?"
"She's gone..." Cole said then shoved a hand through his hair. "There were Henrietta cops downstairs and a lot of confusion, but from what I could gather someone saw a man fitting Jake's description drag Karlie and Sarge across the parking lot. A witness said he shoved her into a big black truck with a bull on the grill, then slapped her around."
Gabe vaulted up out of the bed and threw his legs over the side, forgetting he had tubes and cords attached to him. Monitors started beeping wildly and he fought the tangle of cords to get them off of him. Cole ran over and shoved him back to the bed, holding him there, as a nurse ran in and started shutting off machines. "Be still! You're going to hurt yourself!" Cole shouted at him.
Looking at the frightened nurse, Gabe said through gritted teeth, "Get these off of me now, I'm leaving."
"You can't leave, the doctor is keeping you overnight...maybe a couple of days," she told him, then tried to reaffix the oxygen tube under his nose.
"I'm fucking leaving...now...so you can get them off of me, or I can do
it for you!" Gabe shouted then struggled against Cole's hold. "Where are my fucking pants?" he asked looking around the room.
"You'll be leaving against medical advice, which means we're not responsible if your condition worsens."
"I get that and I don't care! Just get this shit off of me now!" he shouted and shoved against Cole again. When Cole finally let him go, Gabe started pulling the wires and pads off of his chest, then stood up too quick and got dizzy. He wobbled on his feet, then sat back down, as the nurse pulled off the tape securing the IV and extracted the needle then held pressure there. She got a Band-Aid out of her pocket and put it over a cotton ball there.
"Gabe you need to stay here and let them take care of you, I'll find Karlie..." Cole told him, but Gabe wasn't listening. There was nobody on this Earth who would look farther or longer to find her. He wasn't putting her safety...her life in anyone else's hands.
"Now, you have your evidence that he kidnapped and assaulted her, get the fucking warrant for him and put out the BOLO...and an Endangered Missing Persons Alert if you can get them to do it."
"I'll call the Rangers back, but we don't have his plate or driver's license number to issue either of them, and it's in Henriett's jurisdication...you know how fast things work here."
Standing up, Gabe held onto the bed rail for a second, until he was steady then walked over to the small closet and opened it to pull out his jeans and boots. He sat down in the chair and pulled them on, then stood up again. He didn't have a shirt, since they'd cut his off, but he didn't care. 'I'm going to fix the information problem right now. Can you give me a ride to the station? I can't drive as hopped up as they have me."
"Sure, that's not a problem, but you need to get some clothes on, man. You look like you have the mange with all that missing hair on your chest and the welts where you pulled off those wires," Cole told him with a grin.
"I'll get you a scrub top, give me a second," the disgruntled nurse told him.
Gabe felt a vibration in his pocket and stuck his hand inside and pulled out Karlie's cell phone. Dammit, she didn't even have her phone! He'd forgotten to give it back to her, after he used it when they wrecked. He answered it, "Yeah?"
"May I speak to Karlie Upton?" a cultured, but definitely southern voice asked.
"Who's calling?" Gabe asked curiously.
"This is the attorney handling the Joseph Johnson estate, I forgot to tell Ms. Upton something when she called a few minutes ago about Sarge."
"She called you? Just now?" Gabe asked with hope filling him.
"Yes, isn't this her phone number?" the man asked in confusion.
"She's been abducted by Jake Johnson...what did she want when she called you?"
"Oh, no..." the man said, then cleared his throat, "um...that's privileged information, Mr.?"
"Gabe Kelley, Chief Deputy with the Bowie Sheriff's Office. This is a matter of life and death here--can you please tell me what she said when she called?"
After a brief hesitation, the man told him, "She wanted to tell me she'd made a mistake about Jake abusing Sarge and wanted me to reinstate him as guardian..." The man cleared his throat again then said, "I thought she sounded funny...like she'd been crying or something."
"He took her from the parking lot of this hospital and beat her in the truck, before he took off," Gabe told him in a choked voice, then asked, "His grandfather was your client right?"
"Yes...I'm the administrator of Joe Johnson's estate," the lawyer verified.
"Then you have no client privilege where Jake Johnson is concerned, correct?" Gabe asked hoping this would work.
"That's correct. He's just the guardian appointed by the estate to care for Mr. Johnson's pet."
"Good--I need to get all the information on Jake Johnson that you have. Social Security number, Driver's License number, address, cell phone number...anything you have. We need to issue a warrant for his arrest."
"Certainly, that's not a problem, one second..." Gabe heard him flipping through papers then he gave Gabe all the information he requested and then some.
"Thank you so much, Mr.?" Gabe asked.
"Barney Carroll...and please let me know what happens with Ms. Upton. She sounds like a really lovely young lady. I hope you find her...Jake is a little, um...odd."
"That's putting it mildly...I'll let you know when we find her," Gabe said then turned off the phone and finished writing on the small pad on the table beside the bed.
He looked at Cole and smiled then said, "Bingo, we have everything we need," then put on the shirt the nurse had left for him on the bed. She walked back in with a clipboard and made him sign himself out, then gave him two prescriptions, one for pain and the other an antibiotic. Gabe shoved the paper into his pocket then looked up as Sabrina walked into the room.
"What're you doing out of bed, Gabe?" she asked him sternly, her face not happy.
"I'm getting the hell out of here and going to find Karlie," he told his sister decisively. She wasn't going to change his mind, that was for sure.
She looked up at Cole and he shrugged and said, "He signed himself out..."
"Ugh, you're going to kill yourself, Gabe..." Sabrina told him shaking her head. "I guess I need to help so you don't," she said with a grim smile.
"I don't want you involved, Sis...and I know Cole doesn't either. We've got this," he told her then grabbed his arm as a pain shot up it to his shoulder. "Let's get going..." he gritted through his teeth and walked to the door.
Forty minutes later, Gabe was at the computer entering the information he'd gotten from the lawyer. Cole had dropped him off and gone to the cabin to meet the snake guy and dust for prints. If he found some that weren't any of theirs, they'd run it through the system and see if they got hits.
Gabe had called the administrative office at the rodeo and was told that they hadn't seen Jake Johnson in over a month, that he'd missed too many events, and they'd basically removed him from the competitions. That meant he couldn't use working as an alibi for any of the things they suspected he'd done.
Leaning back in the chair, he watched impatiently as the little circle on the computer screen spun, as it processed his request for information on Jake Johnson. A few minutes later, he got several results, including a rap sheet on the guy. He clicked on that line item and it opened for him to view it. Gabe sucked in a sharp breath at the three pages before him.
It was amazing to him that he wasn't already in prison, because it included convictions for numerous assaults, one aggravated assault, and a lot of drunk and disorderlies, and a stalking complaint. There were several restraining orders against him.
When Gabe's eyes landed on the note section of the sheet, he let out a whoop and did a fist pump in victory. Jake Johnson was on probation for one of the assaults, and had an outstanding warrant in Dallas, becaise his probation had been revoked, after he missed several probation contacts with his probation officer. He'd also missed a court date last week.
That's who Gabe needed to call right now...Jake Johnson's probation officer. That man wanted to find him as much as Gabe did, he was sure. Once Gabe told him what Johnson had been up to, Gabe was sure he'd get the state involved quickly.
Gabe huffed out a frustrated sigh when the man didn't answer his phone, but he left a message and hoped he'd call him back soon. He needed to let Cole know what was going on, but he knew his cell wasn't going to work at the cabin, and he didn't have a land line installed yet. Gabe had ridden with Sabrina and Cole to the station, so he was stranded. Maybe he could get him on the radio, it was worth a shot anyway.
He'd just gotten up from his desk when his phone rang, and he snatched it up and said shortly, "Kelley," then sat back down in his chair.
"This is Officer Finley, I'm the probation officer for Jake Johnson...you have information on him?"
"Yes, a lot...and I need your help."
***
Jake hadn't hit her again, but Karlie had felt her cheek and it was really swollen, her eye felt swollen t
oo. So he didn't have a reason to hit her again, Karlie had tried to stay as quiet as possible, and watch their surroundings, as Jake sped along the highway, but the roaring of the big tires on the road and the hum of the air conditioner, along with her extreme exhaustion lulled her to sleep. Her head was resting on the window, and she had Sarge in her lap.
She was suddenly jolted awake when Jake grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her across the seat and out the driver's door of the truck. Sarge squealed as he fell off her lap and hit the floor, and she hit her knee on the steering wheel when she was falling out of the big truck. Pain sliced through her head and her leg as she scrambled trying to get her feet under her, while he dragged her toward the trailer, the same one they'd shared when they traveled with the rodeo.
