The Trouble With Love (16 page)

***

Sabrina woke in a room
face down
on a narrow cot with a mattress
that s
mell
ed so bad it
made her gag.  She
rolled over and
moaned when a sharp piercing pain radiated through her skull
. 
Closing her eyes again, she
took deep breaths of the putrid air
trying to make it go away
. 
She reached up where her head hurt, and
found a gash
and dried caked blood in her hair, then remembered how it got there.

The asshole who'd
knocked her gun out of her hand
,
and
dragged her to the door
,
had hit her in the head rig
ht after he'd hit Gabe.  Thank
g
od, they'd been out of bullets, because
if not,
Sabrina
knew they would have killed them
both
right there.
 

Sabrina swallowed down the bile that surged up inside of her at the thought of how close
she and Gabe had
come to dying.
  She'd actually felt the breeze from
a
bullet that
had
missed her head and lodged in the wall.

It was the first time she'd ever actually been involved in a firefight, and she couldn't say it was a pleasant experience.
..but she'd handled it well, she thought.  Because of her, two of their attackers had been taken out,
and
if only that last guy hadn't surprised her, she'd have tried for him too.  Gabe had shot the fourth
guy
in the thigh, and he'd been bleeding pretty heavily
.

Gabe had tried to stop them from taking her, when he figured out they were out of bullets.  He'd t
ackled the guy holding her
, and she'd joined in taking on the weaker guy that was injured.  The fight
had been intense
, and she'd managed to get in a few blows to at least distract him so they didn't double-team Gabe.  She and her brother had fought hard
,
until the asshole he was fighting hit him with the gun,
before he
hit her
too
.

Sabrina
opened her eyes and scanned the windowless room
,
groaning when she real
iz
ed
ther
e was only one way out of here.
  The
odds were
good that there was
someone was outside of that door with a gun
too
. 
S
abrina
didn't have the energy
right now
to tempt fate and
find out
, though
.
 

Moving her arms and legs, she sent up thanks that they hadn't tied her hands or cuffed her to the bed.  That meant she still had the resources to escape. 
The best thing she could do right now was rest and gather her strength
--bide
her time until a good opportunity
pr
esented itself.
  S
he'd probably only have one chance.

Closing her eyes again, she rested, until
her conversation with Gabe about cell phones and how they could be tracked replayed in her mind. 
Her hand went to her shorts pocket and
searching for the familiar outline of her phone in her back pocket.  When her fingers skimmed over the familiar bulge,
a small smile kicked up the corner of her lips
.  Thank goodness after
Cole had left, she'd gone upstairs and laid down, but she hadn't undressed. 

She
pulled it out of her pocket, praying she'd have reception here.  Turning it on, she quickly switched the incoming call settings to vibrate, then checked the charge.  She had almost full power, and one bar of reception.  Pushing the
speed dial number for Cole
, she held her breath
.

He answered on the first ring, and said in a
ragged
voice, "Bri, please tell me this is you, baby..."

She whispered, "It's me...use my cell phone to track me. I'll leave it on."

"Are you hurt, sweetheart?"

"I
've
got a kno
t
on
my head and a gash, but it stopped bleeding. I'm fine."

He huffed out a shuddering breath then asked, "Do you know where you are?"
 

"No, I was out cold the whole ride.  I'm in a room in a wooden building.  There aren't any windows."

"Okay, keep your phone on...we're going to find you." he told her then said, "Bri, I love you so much, baby
." Cole's voice cracked and she could have sworn she heard him sob.

She whispered back to him, "I love you too...
" then heard the door knob jiggle, and said, "
I have to go
." Quickly, she shoved it back in her pocket and laid back on the mattress and closed her eyes.

The door opened and she heard someone walk across the wooden floor and felt their eyes on her when they stood
by
the bed.  She wanted to open her eyes so badly to see who was there, but she resisted until someone said in broken English, "I know you
a
re awake...I heard you."

Sabrina opened her eyes and looked up into what could only be described as snake eyes.  They were flat and cold with pure evil in their depths. They were attached to a medium-sized man who was heavily tattooed and had a long scar running down his left cheek. 
She saw what she thought was a .45 tucked into his pants. 
He wasn't someone who'd been with the attackers at Cole's house. 

He didn't know her
,
or that she could defend herself
, which could work in her favor
.  Most men assumed because she was small, she was weak.  Playing that up now might help her.  She didn't want him to see her as a threat and tie her up, or search her. 

Forcing tears into her eyes,
Sabrina
scooted up against the headboard and cowered away from him, then said in a
fragile
whisper, "I was praying.
..
"

"You should be praying, amiga.  If your brother testifies, you're dead...even if he doesn't, you're dead," he said then threw his head back and laughed.
 

His eyes roved over her legs, her breasts, then up to her face,
before
he told her, "
But, maybe I'll keep you around a little longer a
nd get to know you, mi bonita...send your brother some pictures."
He winked at her and
S
abrina whimpered and he laughed again, then turned
around
and walked out of the door
, shutting it behind him. Sabrina heard him throw home a bolt, and groaned. 

That answered her earlier question
.  Not
only was the man outside the door armed, she was locked in her
e
.  Her only hope was that Cole and company would find her.
..unless that man tried to touch her, then she'd fight him to the death.

***

Cole sat next to the FBI computer geeks who were tappi
ng away on laptops trying to figure out
where Sabrina's call had come from.  They'd gotten a general area of somewhere near
Midland
,
Texas
so far.  That was too damned close to
Mexico
for Cole's liking.  They could just be holding her there, until they could move her across the border.  If that happened, they'd have real trouble getting her back.

Gabe had just about paced a hole in the floor behind him and he looked over his shoulder and said, "Sit down, man. You're making
me
nervous." 
Since
Cole had gotten the call from Sabrina, Gabe had been a wreck.  It had been the other way around for Cole, he
now
felt some hope
that they might find her.
  They just needed to make it quick.

The asshole in the hospital hadn't been much help yet, because he'd been unconscious from surgery, and the amount of blood he'd lost.
Sabrina
's bullet
had just missed killing him.
  Cole wished she had been a few millimeters higher on her shot.

Cole had sent Luke home to Cassie a couple of hours ago.  There wasn't anything else he could do here, and Cassie was pregnant and worried about him.  She needed him more than Cole did at this point.
  All Cole needed right now was Sabrina.

"Any luck," he asked the agent he was sitting next to. 

"I'm running a report right now, it'll take
another few hours probably
," the man told him
indifferently,
watching numbers roll across his screen.

"Can't you at least narrow down your general area a little?
  Right now you're zone is hundreds of miles.
" Cole pleaded then added some incentive.  "
I
'll
head that way and get out of your hair.
"
 
Cole
knew
that
he and Gabe were driving them crazy, but even though they weren't going to let Gabe leave, they had no reason to hold him here. 

It
was about a five hour drive to
Midland
, so he hoped by the time these guys nailed down a
n exact
location,
he
could already be there.
  He looked over at Gabe who raised an eyebrow, and folded his arms over his chest.
  The look on his face told Cole
he wasn't getting out of here without taking Gabe with him
, with or without the fed's consent
.  That was fine by him, he could use the backup.

The
geek in the black suit
looked
at
him intently for a minute
and smiled
,
before looking over at
his supervisor, who shrugged. 
Shoving back he slid his chair
over
in front of the spare laptop beside him then typed something.  After a second, he said, "T
he report I'm doing
on the other computer
will give us exact coordinates, but I think I can triangulate the satellites to get you within
ten
or t
wenty
miles for now.
 
Our
guys can probably head that way too
, so
they're
ready to go when I get
them an
address
.
"

Progress, Cole thought, and wanted to let
out
a whoop that could be heard in
Dallas
. E
xcitement filled him as he stood over the agen
t's shoulder watching him work.  Gabe stopped pacing and put his hand on Cole's shoulder to lean in and watch too. 

It amazed Cole how much could be done with a computer these days.  He might have to look into getting the Sheriff's Office wired up. 
Bowie
had never needed much technology to handle
its
calls
.  C
rime almost didn't exist here, so he couldn't justify the expense.  In the last few months though, things had sure changed.
..s
ince Cassie and now Sabrina had shown up in town.
  He wanted to be prepared the next time something like this happened.

After fift
een minutes or so, the guy hit the print button and a paper shot out of the printer
.
H
e leaned over and plucked it from the machine
, then studied it
for a second,
before he
held it over his shoulder for Cole.  "Looks like it's actually west of
Midland
a little," the guy said and crossed his arms over his chest.