Finding Home (26 page)

“But you have no clue to what he’s
alleging you “took” from the Valley?” Gib pressed.

“Honestly, no.  Back when
Christine, sorry, when Sarah was taken, the ranch was still growing.  I
was successful but I spent all my time on the ranch, working.  I wasn’t in
the public eye then as I’ve come to be since the abduction.  I honestly
don’t know.”

Colt’s computers began beeping. 
He was surprised to see the cell pings being scrambled even as he was in the
process of sorting through all the threads.

“Whoever this is, they know their way
around a computer,” he muttered.

“But you’re better,” Mike said in
that quiet way he had.

“Damn straight,” Colt said. 

The next time Sarah woke, she was
more aware of her surroundings and what was happening.  She could hear
men’s voices in the next room.  The room she was in was dark; heavy
curtains on the windows blocked out light so she didn’t know if it was day or
night.  All she knew was that she was on a bed and that her wrists were
bound together and tied to the post to her left, and that a gag had been placed
on her mouth.

Oddly enough, she wasn’t
scared.  Well, not completely scared at any rate.  She knew that Colt
would be looking for her and she had no doubt that he would find her.  She
just had to survive until he did. 

The door opened and the room was
flooded with light so bright that she was squinting.  She saw the
silhouette of a man in the doorway but couldn’t make out anything about
him.  He crossed the room to her and grabbed the rope holding her wrists,
helping her sit up.  He didn’t speak but held a bottle of water to her
lips and helped her to drink.

“Thank you,” she said when he pulled
the water back.  He held the bottle to her again but she shook her
head.  Then he untied the rope from the post and helped her to stand and
led her to the hall and into the restroom.  He untied her wrists then tied
one of hers to his.  The length of the rope allowed him to step just
outside and shut the door, giving her the privacy she needed to use the bathroom. 

She took as much time as she dared,
jumping when he opened the door with no word of warning.  Her eyes had
adjusted somewhat and she could see that he was an older man, salt and pepper
hair on the longish side, darkly tanned face with deep worry lines around his
eyes and mouth. 

“How long will you keep me?” she
asked as he untied his wrist and bound hers together again.

“Long as it takes,” he answered, his
voice surprisingly smooth.  It didn’t match his face at all.

“For what?  The Bainbridges to
pay a ransom?  Why would they?  They barely know me.”

“Doesn’t matter.  You’re
blood.  It matters.”

“Maybe.  Maybe not.  I
wouldn’t hold my breath.”

“They’ll pay,” he assured her,
leading her back to her small room.

“And if they don’t?” she asked while
he tied her wrists back to the post.

“You better hope they do,” he said,
leaving.

Okay.  She’d admit, that scared
her.  Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her heart. She wondered if
Colt was back from L.A. yet.  Tag would have called him as soon as she was
discovered missing.  She just had no clue how long it had been since they
took her.  It could have been hours; it could have been days.  She
had no idea how long she’d slept, how long they were in the vehicle she’d first
woken up in.

Her mind drifted to thoughts of her
parents, both her birth parents and the parents she thought had adopted
her.  Jesse and Linda Sauter had been loving toward her.  Yes, as
she’d told others, she’d always known that they’d loved each other more. 
Looking back now, knowing what she did, she wondered if what she was picking up
on was part of the whole knowing she’d been kidnapped and perhaps they were
somehow involved thing.  Those stupid “birthday pictures” with the
newspapers that Colt called Proof of Life pictures were bothering her. 
What had those been about?  Who had they sent them to, if anyone?  She
pictured the man who had just been there with her.  Had she ever seen him
before?  She didn’t think so, but she wasn’t quite sure. 

She thought of Buck and Charlotte
Bainbridge, her real parents, and of the hell they’d been through these last
twenty-six years.  They were good people.  She’d enjoyed the time she’d
spent with them doing the press tour in New York.  They hadn’t deserved to
have their baby snatched away from them and they certainly didn’t deserve to be
tortured all over again now.  Her heart hurt for Tag.  He’d been the
one to find her missing as a baby and he’d been the one Colt had charged with watching
out for her this time.    She didn’t think Colt would blame him,
but she felt sure that Tag would blame himself. 

Finally, her thoughts centered on
Colt.  How had he reacted when he’d gotten the news?  Was he plotting
and planning how to get her back now?   She rolled on her side and
pulled her knees up to her chest curling in on herself.  She missed him so
much.  She’d gotten used to sleeping next to him, being in his arms. 
Her favorite thing to do, when he was asleep, was to sit up and look down at
him, brush her fingers through his thick curly hair.  She’d trace his face
with her fingertips, memorizing every angle and plane of his face so that if
she were to ever lose her sight, or if she were to ever lose him, she’d never
forget his face. 

Why he ever took interest in her that
day was still a mystery to her.  She was just a plain and simple going
nowhere data entry clerk.  He was so worldly and handsome.  He’d been
so many places, seen so many things.  She still didn’t understand what he
was doing with her.  He could have anyone he wanted, but for whatever reason,
he wanted her.  He loved her and she knew she loved him with all her
heart; she was just terrified that now she’d never have a chance to tell him.

Closing her eyes, she fought against
tears that were building.  How long would she be kept from those who she
meant something to this time?

Wayne went back into the kitchen
where Sammy, Carl and Lewis were sitting after having dealt with their
prisoner.  He took a beer from the fridge and leaned back against the
counter, deep in thought.  All talk stopped and he saw everyone turn to
look at him.

“What?”

“That’s what I was going to ask you,”
Lewis said.  “Is she awake?”

“Yes.  Gave her some water, let
her use the restroom.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

Wayne shook his head.  “She’s
not scared.  Remember that Australian girl we nabbed a couple of years
ago?  Bawling and sniveling all the time?  This one is cautious but
she’s not cowed.”

“So?” Carl said.

Wayne shrugged.  “Impressed me,
is all.”

“Don’t start bonding with her,” Lewis
chided. 

“I just admire that she’s not a
sniveling little rabbit, that’s all.”

“Think they’re going to pay up this
time?” Carl asked Lewis.

“They’ve already started pumping
their accounts,” he told them.

“Good.  I want to be in Mexico
by the end of the month,” Sammy said.

“Don’t discount the boyfriend,” Wayne
said. 

“Leave him to me,” Lewis said. 
“I’ve been bouncing our signal off multiple satellites.  They won’t find
us.”

Wayne shook his head.  “The guy
is a former Ranger.  I’m telling you, do not underestimate him.”

The “boyfriend” as Wayne referred to
Colt as, was running out of patience.  Aggravation set in as he ran into
one firewall and satellite bounce after another.  He needed another call
or video to come through.  The more contact they made, the better the
chance for mistakes.

It was well after midnight going into
the fourth day since she’d been taken.  His house was full to bursting
with people.  The Bainbridges were all staying with him. Tessa and Shane
had gone home, but Gib, Mike, Riley and Whit were staying with him.  He
could hear them talking in the living room, all of them too keyed up to
sleep.  He liked knowing they were there for him, just as they’d been in
the desert.

He sat staring at his monitor,
watching the system run down all the different satellite pings.  His gut
told him that Tag had been right; they had taken her back to Wyoming.  He
wanted to pack up and head there right now but Mike cautioned him on waiting,
just to make sure. 

He pounded his fist onto the desk
when the signal began scrambling again just when he thought it was about to
narrow down.  The only thing that kept him from completely losing his mind
was the belief that they wouldn’t harm her.  If he thought, like in Shane
and Tessa’s case, that she was being hurt there was no way he could take
sitting here waiting for the computer to do its thing.  He’d be going insane
to find her. 

A knock sounded on his door and he
looked up to see Charlotte Bainbridge standing there.  He stood and
motioned for her to come in.  She did, closing the door behind her.

“Nothing new?” she asked, sitting in
one of the chairs facing his desk.

“Not yet,” he said, sitting back
down.  “Couldn’t sleep?”

She gave a small half smile.  “Too
much testosterone floating around in this house.  The energy is through
the roof. I was wondering if you have access to Sarah’s house, the Sauter’s
house.  I just…it bugs me, the fact that they were taking those pictures
of her every year with the newspaper on the anniversary of her abduction. 
Were they doing it just to do it, or were they delivering those to someone?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. 
“Yeah, that’s been bugging me too.  And yes, I have the keys to that
house.”

“Could you take me there?  It
just feels like searching that house might turn up something you could use.”

Colt nodded, but glanced at the
time.  “Why don’t we try to get some sleep and then head over there in the
morning?  That neighborhood isn’t the greatest.  I wouldn’t want to go
there now and have some whacko decide we’re easy pickings.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened.  “Her
neighborhood is that bad?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. 
“It is now.  It wasn’t always like that.  Just in the last eight
years, really.  Since her…since the Sauters died.”

“I don’t think I’m going to be able
to sleep.  Would you take me there now, Colt?  Please?”

He glanced to the monitor, at yet
another bounce and cycle of numbers, then sighed.

“Yeah, OK.  Let me brief my guys
on what to watch for on here and then we’ll go.”

All the Bainbridges and Mike ended up
going with them.  Mike for security purposes; the Bainbridges because they
all wanted to see where Sarah had lived.  When Colt pulled into the
driveway, Charlotte gasped.  He knew what she was seeing.  The house
was small and a bit run-down on the outside. 

“This is where she lives?” Charlotte
asked.

“Where she lived until she met me,”
Colt clarified.

Charlotte nodded, reaching for Buck’s
hand when they got out and stood staring at the small frame house.  Colt
led them up the steps to the small front porch and opened the door.  He
held them back while he and Mike stepped in and made an initial sweep of the
house, making sure it was safe before allowing the others to enter. 

Colt knew the outside of the house
didn’t look like much, but he felt a wave of pride sweep through him as he
scanned the interior of the house, seeing it as the Bainbridges were. 
Sarah had put her money into the interior.  It was freshly painted and
nicely decorated.  She’d told him that she’d stripped and refinished the
wood floors herself and they shone with her pride of ownership.  Her
kitchen was small and the cabinets and counters were outdated but she’d added
new appliances as she could get them and all of it was clean and neat.

“This is nice,” Vivian said, looking
around.  “Small and cozy.”

Charlotte had crossed to the shelves
in the living room and was holding the picture of Sarah and the Sauters on her
sixteenth birthday that a waitress had taken at a restaurant.  Buck stood
beside her, his arm around her waist.

“Where would she have put their
things?” Tag asked.

“We can start in the master
bedroom.  Sarah had a few boxes in her closet.  I’m sure there are
some in the other bedroom closets as well.  Let’s pull them all out and
then we can start sorting through them,” Colt answered.

“I’ll be outside keeping watch,” Mike
told him.

After he and Tag and Buck pulled all
the boxes from all of Sarah’s closets, they carried them into the living
room.  Charlotte and Vivian sorted them into boxes labeled Sarah’s and
boxes labeled Mom and Dad.  For the next few hours, they began sorting
through the detritus that was Sarah’s and the Sauters’ lives.  Colt felt
guilty about it at first; he was invading Sarah’s privacy and he wasn’t sure
how she would feel about that, but after the first couple of boxes, he let go
of his guilt and just concentrated on looking for something that would help
find her.

It was nearly five am when Charlotte
abruptly stood and left the room, drawing his attention.  He’d been
sifting through Sarah’s school records, feeling his blood boil every time he
saw notes on her report cards from teachers commenting on what an outstanding
student she was and could she be allowed to participate in various academic
competitions.  Charlotte’s departure had called attention to the fact that
they’d all been silent as they poured through the boxes of three people’s
lives. 

He stood and stretched, going into
the kitchen. 

“Anyone want a drink?  She has
some soft drinks in the fridge,” he called out to them. 

Vivian came into the kitchen carrying
a sketchbook.  She turned it to him so he could see the page she was
looking at.