The Trouble With Love (6 page)

Glancing up at Cole, she saw that his jaw was clenched and the passion had left his eyes, replaced now by wariness and something else she couldn't identify.
  He had his hands on his hips, just staring at her.

"Are you in
Phoenix
?" her brother asked.

"No, I'm in
Bowie
,
Texas
helping a friend out," she told him then demanded again, "Gabe, tell me what the hell is going on."

She heard him huff out a breath, then he said in a lowered voice, "A
Mexican
gang into weapons and drugs,
kidnapped a little girl, and her parents hired me to find her.
..they were insiders who tried to leave.
  My cover got blown, and
now
they're after me..."

"Di
d you find the girl?" she asked.

He hesitated for a long time, then told her, "Yeah, I found her...too late.
  They got the parents too.
  These guys are
not a big
group, but they're
brutal."

Sabrina felt the sting of tears behind her eyes and stifled a sob, "Oh, my god, Gabe...that must've been horrible."
  She knew her brother had seen some really bad things, had survived a lot that should have killed him.  Like the
undercover assignment
that had gone bad and killed Kenny.
 
"Come to
Bowie
," she told him quickly, before she could change her mind. 

Seeing him was going to drag up all those bad memories of the night Kenny had died, but she couldn't refuse
to help
him.

"In
Texas
?" He asked with a snort.

"Yeah, they won't think of looking for you here.
  I
t's a small town...off the beaten path."

She heard a scuffl
e on the other end of the phone, heard Gabe yell "No!" and a gunshot,
then
the phone
disconnected suddenly.  Sabrina let loose of the sob she'd been holding back and felt tears pouring down her face.

"Oh, Lord, please don't let him die..." she whimpered, then said in a low choked whisper, "He's all I have left
."

Cole was beside her in an instant.  He grabbed her shoulders and shook her a little, then grated, "What's wrong, Bri?!"

Bile surged up in her throat and she swallowed hard trying to talk around it.  Sabrina
looked up at him and her lip trembled, "I think my brother might have just been
shot
."

"What the hell!" he said and jerked her against him in a fierce hug. "What happened?"

"He said he'd been working a case and it went bad...his cover was blown and some really bad guys were after him."

"What does he do?" Cole asked, his lips in her hair.

"P.I. now, but he's ex-military, ex-cop," she told him and sucked in a few short breaths trying to get control of the wild emotion surging through her.

"Did he say he was coming here?"
  Cole needed to know if he was coming here, so he could get prepared in case whoever was chasing him wound up in
Bowie
.  He didn't need that kind of trouble in town, but he wasn't going to refuse to help her.
  Her brother needed a place to lay low, Cole would give it to him.

"He didn't have time before someone shot at him, and the line went dead," she told him on a high-pitched wail then buried her face in his chest.

"S
hh
h, sugar...you don't know anything happened to him.  Just because you heard a shot, doesn't mean they hit him.  With his background, I'll bet he got away."  Cole hoped so anyway, because if he didn't
,
in the state Sabrina was in, he was afraid it might break her.

"I n-need to go to M-mesa and see if I can find him..." she stuttered her voice near hysterical.

"No, darlin'. You need to stay here...in case this is where he's headed.  If he's not here in a week, I'll help you find him," he told her not knowing how he would be able to pull that off after his recent trip to Phoenix to help Cassie and Luke...he'd figure it out if he had to.

"You want to help me?" she said in a broken whisper and looked up into his eyes.

"Yeah, I do.  We'll do this together. Make sure he's okay."

She hugged his waist and mumbled thanks into his chest.  Luke grimaced
and sucked in a breath then grabbed her arms,
as his cracked ribs tweaked
.
"Easy, baby..."

"Oh, god," she threw a hand to her lips and said.  "I'm so sorry Cole, I forgot about your ribs..."

"It's okay, sugar..." he told her then took her hand.  "Let's go lay down.  I won't do anything but hold you, I promise...Scout's Honor," he told her seriously then put up two fingers to his temple in a salute.
 
Cole
knew it would be absolute hell holding her and not taking things f
a
rther, but she needed holding tonight.

Miraculously, she gave him a watery giggle and asked, "You were a boy scout?"

"No, but I thought it would make you feel safer."

She slugged his arm and
then her smile faded and she
said, "Okay...
thanks.
"

CHAPTER FOUR

Sabrina hadn't heard anything from Gabe, since his initial call, and
now two days later, she
was trying to find anything to do to distract her
self
from thinking about it...worrying about him.  Right now, she was on her hands and knees in the Double B kitchen scrubbing at the spot on the floor where Cole had bled the other night.  She'd used peroxide on the table cloth, then bleach in the wash since it was white, and the stain had come out.  She almost had the floor cleaned up, and had no idea what she'd do next.

This morning, she'd gone out to the barn and fed and watered the horses.  The stalls were c
lean from her efforts yesterday, and she'd stored up meals for today and tomorrow that she'd only have to reheat.  Cassie's daddy wasn't even here right now.  Carl had told her he was going to visit a friend in Henrietta and would probably be gone a
t least a
couple of days
,
maybe more,
but
told her
to make herself at home
.  So, it was just her and Bud at the Double B right now
, and he was pretty self-contained in the bunkhouse
.
 
With everyone else gone, she
was a little lonely in the
big
house all by herself.
  And she had too much time to think.

She knew Cole was working, even with his cracked ribs
,
much to her dismay, so he probably wouldn't drop by.  Maybe she'd call and invite him to lunch.  She was sure if he wasn't busy, he'd take her up on it. The way he'd eaten the meal she fixed him the other night, told her he was pretty fond of her cooking.

Thinking of that brought emotion surging up to her chest.  He'd been so good to her that night.  True to his word, they'd slept in that big king-sized bed together, and he'd held her while she cried out all the tears she had in her
. O
ver Kenny,
o
ver Gabe, and
o
ver her
d
ad
, she'd poured it all out
.  She hadn't really cried like that in forever
, and felt pretty empty afterwards, but somehow renewed too
. 

Cole
hadn't asked questions, he'd just held her and kissed the top of her head.
  Sabrina knew he probably thought she was a weak, blubbering woman, but right then she hadn't cared how her crying jag came off to him.  He'd offered her a shoulder, and she'd taken it.

Sabrina heard the front door open and shut
softly
and got up to go see who it was.
  She walked through the living room, across the hall and to the foyer before her eyes rounded and she ran to catch Gabe in her arms.  He was leaning against a wall with his hand to his thigh
.

"Oh, god, Gabe
..
.I'm so glad you're here
,
"
she told him in a relieved whisper. 
Her hands were shaking as she put her arm around her brother and led him to the kitchen, then helped him sit down.  "Did you get shot the other night?"

"Yeah, graze
d
my thigh, but
it's just a scratch.
"

She looked down and pulled his hand from his thigh.  There was a sizable hole in his pants leg and a
good
amount of dr
ied blood.  Putting her fingers in the hole, she ripped it wide and gasped at the angry red wound on the left side of his thigh.
"You need a doctor, Gabe...this
looks like it
needs stitches and you need antibiotics."

His lips quirked up into a grin. "
Always thought you should've gone into medicine instead of law enforcement
," he teased, then his face sobered and his eyes filled. "I've missed you so much, Bri..."
 

Sabrina felt her lower lip tremble and her own eyes stung. 
She admitted in an emotion choked voice,
"I've missed you too
...I'm sorry I didn't return your calls."

"I understand why you didn't..." H
is eyes darkened with pain then he
shoved a hand through his dark curls and then said, "I was worried about you."

"I'm doing ok, Gabe...
it was tough times, but I'm
moving on."

"I'm so sorry, Bri..." He
said
in a tortured voice then
closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair.  "If I could go back and take that bullet for him, I would.  It wasn't supposed to happen
that way
."

"Let's not talk about
that
now, Gabe," she told him trying to get her emotions under control, so she could help him.  Sabrina reached up and felt his forehead, it was
a little warm, so she went to get a cool rag and some ibuprofen. "Let's get you fixed up
.
  If that fever gets any higher, I'll ask Cole if he knows a discreet doctor.
"

"
I don't need a doctor, Bri...I'm fine,
"
he
told her
then asked warily with apprehension in his blue eyes, "
Cole?  Who the hell is that?"

"Cole is the Sheriff of
Bowie
...and he's solid.  I told him what's goi
ng on and he wants to help you," Sabrina told him walking around the breakfast bar to get a cold wet rag to put on his forehead.

"Why would he want to help me?" Gabe asked suspiciously.
  "I need to be careful who I let know I'm here, sis."

"You can trust him Gabe...I do
,
"
she assured him,
as she placed the cool rag on his forehead,
surprised to find that she really did trust Cole...without reservation.

"
I
don't trust anyone, except you," he told her then huffed out a frustrated breath.

"
T
his group of thugs might be small, but they are connected...very connected.  They'll find me if
too many people know I'm here."

"We're not going to let them find you...but we need to come up with a plan to get them off your back.  You can't hide forever..."

"
No
--I don't want you involved any more than you already are
!
"
he
shouted and
shot out of the chair
.  The rag she'd just put on his forehead fell to the ground and
he groaned
then
wobbled on his feet.
 

Sabrina shoved him back in the chair and replaced the rag then got right in his face and said, "I'll do what I damned well please, Gabe...I am
not
going to sit back and let you get  yourself killed.
  I've been a cop for
a long time now, give me some credit.
"

"
I know you're a good cop
, Sabrina...b
ut y
ou've neve
r dealt with people like these
...you have no idea."

Her phone rang on the breakfast bar, and she ran over and grabbed it.  "Oh, Cole, thank god, Gabe is here."

"I'm on my way," Cole said shortly, then disconnected without even a goodbye.

"He's on his way..." she told Gabe, and his lips pinched.  Ignoring his obvious hesitation on trusting Cole, she asked him, "Are you hungry?"

"Starving..." he said and the corner of his lips kicked up.

Cole would probably be hungry too, she thought, it was about lunchtime.  Pulling out a pan of Shepherd's Pie she'd made last night, she turned on the oven to heat and set it on the counter to wait.

"How long were you working on this case?" she asked then folded her arms over her waist and leaned back against the counter.

"Six months or so..."

"
When did you find out the girl and her family was dead?"

"A few weeks ago...a friendly inside
called to warn me
they
knew who I was, and they were after me because I knew too much about them and the killings
.
  That was right before they bro
ke into my house and were waiting for me when I got home one night.
"

"Oh, god, Gabe...did you call the police?"

"Hell no, I got out of there.  I've been staying at one-star
m
otels and friend's houses, moving around as much as I could...then the day I called you, I heard they'd put a hit out on me, and knew I had to get out of Mesa."

"What was the number you called me from?"

"A throwaway cell I picked up.  I wanted to make sure they weren't tracking me through my cell, so I threw it away."

Sabrina picked up the casserole dish and opened the oven to slide it inside, considering his situation.  "I think we should probably call the feds."

"I called someone with the FBI that I know, but he wasn't in and I left a message with my cell number...and like I said I threw it away, so..."

"He couldn't call you back," she finished for him then went to the cabinet and took down three glasses and filled them with ice and tea.

"Yeah, and I've been running, so I haven't had a chance to call him back."

"What about your car?  They can track that pretty easily...have you used any of your credit cards?"

" I borrowed
one
from a friend, and no, I made a large cash withdrawal in
Mesa
and have been using that."

"So the odds are they can't track you here..."

"
I'm worried they'll try to get to me through you like they did that little girl, sis. It scares the shit out of me.  You're listed in
Phoenix
, so it wouldn't be hard
to find you,
if they
know
you're my sister.  Can they track us here? I don't know.  Your cell number was on that disposable I dropped when he shot at me
...
but I don't know if he saw me drop it.
"

"All that has on it is my cell phone
number
. 
My address on the account is
Pho
e
nix
...not
Bowie
."

"Yeah, but with the way they can be tracked these days, don't be too sure they can't find you.
..I'm not sure about the disposables though.
"

"I was at Cole's house when you called me...I hope they don't go there," she gnawed her lip nervously.  "I don't want him
getting
hurt over this
, Gabe
."

Gabe looked at her oddly, then asked, "How do you know this guy, Bri?"

"It's a long story, but I met him through Cassie Bellamy, the woman who owns this ranch...well her daddy owns it, but..."

A forceful knock at the front door
interrupted her, and she shoved
away from the counter and r
an
to the front door.  She opened it and Cole stood on the front porch in his uniform, his face looking like someone had run over it with a tractor, but still good enough to eat. 

He took off his Stetson and walked inside. "Hey, darlin'," he
drawled
then leaned down to kiss her cheek, his woodsy cologne teasing her senses, weaving a spell over her.  She inhaled deeply.  "Mmmm....you always smell so damned good
,
"
she told him without thinking.