Finding Home (17 page)

“Colt!” she cried, coming undone,
wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. 

They made love with tenderness and no
shortage of tears on her part.  With his every touch, he showed her
exactly what she meant to him, that he did love her and that he cherished
her.  She felt special and more loved than she could ever have imagined. 
And she knew she loved him.  She knew this all-consuming feeling rushing
through her was without a doubt the most powerful thing she’d ever
experienced.  She moved so that she could fully see his face as she rode
him, eyes locked on his.  They stayed that way for what felt like hours,
moving slowly, sensuously, eyes locked together.  His hands were on her
hips, hers in his hair.  She could tell from the muscle ticking in his jaw
that he was getting close and that he was holding back.  Smiling, she
reached down, under the water and slid two fingers in between them to lightly
rake her nails over his sac.  That was all it took.

“Shiiiit,” he shouted, shifting his
hold and slamming into her, water sloshing, until she was screaming her
release.  “You did that on purpose,” he accused, nipping her lower lip as
they were catching their breath.

“Did what, baby?” she purred,
snuggled into his chest.

“Touching me the way you did.”

She leaned up and smiled at
him.  “Liked that, did you?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Then my work here is done,” she said
smugly, lying back down against his chest, her ear over his heart.

“Baby?”

“Hm?”

“Didn’t use protection,” he said,
lips against her ear.

She sat up and kissed him. 
“Safe time of the month,” she said, snuggling back down against him.

Lewis and Wayne were at odds on how
to proceed.  After Sammy had botched his chance to snatch the Bainbridge
girl, Lewis wanted to back off and re-evaluate.  Wayne, however, wasn’t as
cautious.  He wanted to press forward with plans to grab her as soon as an
opportunity presented itself.  Lewis was alarmed by the fact that she now
had a boyfriend who was a former Army Ranger, according to his research. 
He advised Wayne that perhaps they should walk away from her altogether and
move on to other less risky prospects. 

Wayne wasn’t listening,
however.  He wanted to grab the girl and contact her family within the
next few weeks.  Lewis didn’t agree and was tempted to withdraw should
they move forward with it. The potential for the big money payout made him
hesitant, but he was afraid it would be entirely too risky and he didn’t relish
spending the next ten to twenty years in jail because Wayne and his cohorts got
too greedy.

Everything changed last night,
however, and now Lewis felt he had the upper hand.  The alerts he’d set up
on case files pertaining to Christine Bainbridge began going off.  The FBI
was now aware of Sarah Sauter.

Tag couldn’t remember ever being this
nervous and excited.  He’d seen the DNA results in black and white. 
He knew this girl, Sarah, was his baby sister.  But knowing and seeing it
on paper wasn’t the same as seeing her in real life.  Seeing her picture
wasn’t the same as it was going to be to look into her eyes and see her for who
she really was, and he needed to know, in his own heart, that she was a good
person before he took her to his parents. 

He glanced across the limo at Tessa
McCanton and her step-father, Glen Gibson.  They were good people; former
Army and former FBI.  They both personally vouched for the man his sister
was seeing.  They’d known him for years, had been through life and death
situations with him.  Tessa assured him that if Colt Harris had fallen for
Sarah, then she must be a rare jewel.  He was just so thankful that she
hadn’t been abused.  In the world of child abductions, what happened to
his sister was, unfortunately, extremely rare.  So often, the abducted
child was subjected to horrific abuse.  That his sister had not endured
that was nothing short of a miracle.  He wasn’t going to find a haunted
shell of a person as he so often did in long-term recovery cases.  From
what Tessa told him, Sarah was perfectly fine in every way.

“Hey, Colt,” Tessa’s voice broke through
his thoughts as she spoke on the phone,  “We’re five minutes from you
now.”

Tag took a deep breath.  Five
minutes.  Baby Christine would no longer be a picture on the wall. 

Sarah thought she might just throw
up.  Colt just said they were less than five minutes away.  She’d
told him yesterday that she was OK with all of this, and for the most part, she
was.  She just wanted these initial meets to be over with already.

“Hey,” Colt said, coming to smooth
his hands up and down her arms.  “take a deep breath.  Relax. 
Everything is going to be fine.”

She nodded, nervously, seeing the
long black limo pull up into the circular drive in front of the cabin. 

“You’ll stay right here with me the
whole time?”

“Every second, I promise,” he said,
kissing her forehead.  The doorbell rang and hand-in-hand they walked to
answer it.  “Ready?” he asked, looking down into her huge eyes. 
Unable to speak, she just nodded.  Colt leaned down and gave her a quick
tender kiss, then reached for the doorknob.

“Colt,” she said quickly, before he
opened it.

“Yeah, baby?”

“Thank you.  For doing this for
me,” she whispered.

He kissed her one more time, then
opened the door.

Sarah took a deep breath, and looked
up and into the eyes of a man she knew was related to her.  He was
handsome, almost as tall as Colt, muscled but lean, and his eyes, the same color
as hers, were bright with unshed tears.

“Oh, my God,” he said, his hand going
up to quickly wipe at his eyes.

The woman Sarah recognized as Colt’s
friend, Tessa, stepped forward.  “Tag, this is Colt Harris.  Colt,
Tag Bainbridge.”

Colt extended his free hand to shake
Tag’s.  “Good to meet you, Tag,” he said, then turned to look down at Sarah. 
“This is Sarah.”

Tag nodded and stood just staring at
her a minute, then finally cleared his throat. 

“Sarah,” he said, voice
shaking.  “God…you’re so beautiful, you look…just like our mom.”

“I’ve seen her picture,” she replied.

She had a death grip on Colt’s
hand.  He gave her hand a squeeze, wanting to reassure her.  The
meeting was a bit awkward. Bainbridge was on the verge of losing it. 
Sarah was trembling; he knew she wasn’t sure how to feel.

“I just…I’ve been involved in
recovery of missing children for a long time and I never…I never…” he couldn’t
go on.

Sarah released Colt’s hand and went
to her brother, wrapping her arms around him as he broke down.  Colt felt
pride swell in his chest as he watched her comfort Bainbridge.  She had so
much love to give; Colt was thrilled that she now had family of her own to show
it to.

Tessa stepped to his side and placed
her hand on his shoulder.  He glanced briefly down at her then back over
at Sarah and her brother.  Bainbridge was still silently crying, his shoulders
shaking with his relief.  Sarah was stroking his back and the hair at the
nape of his neck, softly whispering to him.

After a moment, Sarah stepped back
and cupped his face in her hands.

“I’ve read about all that you and
your family have done over the years for all the families who have gone through
what you did.  You’ve done so much.  For so many, and I’m so very
proud of you, of all of you.”

He smiled and then pressed a kiss to
her brow.  “Some big brother I am, huh?  Crying all on you like a big
baby.”

Sarah laughed.  “I think it’s
OK, considering.”

He shook his head.  “You sound
like Vivian.”

“Why don’t we all move into the
living room?” Colt suggested. 

Sarah looked back over her shoulder
at him, then reached out a hand to him.  He took her hand in his and raised
it to his lips as they walked from the foyer to the living room.  Colt led
her to the sectional and helped her sit.

“Tag, what can I get you to
drink?  Beer?  Whiskey?  Water?  All of the above?” 
Colt asked him.

Tag let out a shaky laugh and took a
deep breath, sitting down beside Sarah. 

“A beer would be really good right
about now, man, thanks.”

“Absolutely.  Tess?  Gib?”

“Water for me,” Tessa said.

“I’ll take a beer,” Gib told him.

“You got it.  Babe?” he asked
Sarah.

“Just water for me, too.”

“OK,” he said, leaning down to kiss
her.  “I love you,” he whispered to her before standing.

She smiled up at him and watched him
go into the kitchen, then turned her attention back to Tag.

“So, tell me about you, Tag.  I
know about your work, but what about you?  You aren’t wearing a ring so I
assume you aren’t married.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. 
“No, not married.”

“Seeing anyone?”

“No.  Been too focused on work
for relationships.”

“That sounds familiar,” Sarah said,
glancing toward Colt in the kitchen.

“I heard that!” he called to her.

She laughed, looking back at Tag to
see him smiling at her.  “You have no idea how much of a relief it is to
see you happy.  The people who had you, who raised you…they were good to you?”

“They were,” she confirmed.  “we
didn’t have a lot of money, but we were close, we did a lot of things together,
just the three of us.  Mom…Linda and I cooked together and made things,
sewing, crochet, crafts.  Jesse and I went fishing a lot, and he taught me
to hunt and shoot a gun.  He taught me about cars and how to fix
them.  Things he would have done with a son if he’d had one.”

Colt was fascinated by what she was
telling her brother, things she hadn’t even shared with him.  He hadn’t
known that she could shoot a gun or work on a car.  She was telling Tag
all of that to reassure and comfort him, to let him know that she really had
been all right.  And he could tell the more she spoke, the more she was
relaxing.

He carried drinks in to everyone then
sat behind Sarah, pulling her back against his front and massaging her
shoulders.

“How long have you two been
together?” Tag asked after watching them together a moment.

“Almost six weeks now, right, babe?”
Colt replied.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Really?  That’s all?” Tessa
asked, surprised.

“That’s all,” Sarah confirmed.

Tag smiled, rubbing the back of his
neck, his eyes on Colt.  “So, do I need to give the standard big brother
speech here, about how if you hurt her, I’ll kill you?”

Colt laughed.  “Duly noted…and I
won’t hurt her.  I swear that to you now.”

“When do you want to tell the rest of
your family?” Gib spoke up, looking at Tag.  “We can’t sit on the story
too much longer.  Someone will leak it.  You don’t want your parents
to hear about this on the news.”

Tag took a deep breath and then a
long drink from his beer. 

“They’re home now.  I should
call them.”

Sarah leaned forward and took his
hand, giving it a squeeze.  “I’ll be right here with you.”

He returned her squeeze then sat his
beer down and pulled his phone from his pocket, hand still in hers.

“Hey, Mom…is Dad around?  No,
no, well, actually, can you go in there with him and put me on speaker? 
No, everything is fine, I just want to talk to you both at the same
time.”  There was a pause while he waited for his mother to join his dad,
and then he drew another deep breath.  “Hey, Dad…no, I’m not home, I’m
actually in Breckenridge, Colorado.  Listen, I need to tell you
something.  While you and Viv were in D.C., I got a call from the
FBI…about Christine…Mom, Dad…they found her…yes…she’s alive…and she’s
beautiful.”

Sarah began to cry, leaning back
against Colt for strength.  She couldn’t hear his parents’ side of the
conversation, but from Tag’s face she knew they were very emotional. 

“No, she lives in Waco, Texas. 
Her boyfriend has a cabin in Breck…I don’t know…let me ask,” he said, meeting
Colt’s gaze, then Sarah’s.  “They want to come see you, would that be all
right?”

Sarah nodded, tightening her grip on
Colt’s forearm. 

“We have plenty of beds available
here,” Colt told him.

“Thank you…yeah, Dad, they said to
come on down.   Tell Viv to take the kids to Heath’s parents if she
wants Heath to be here.”

Sarah disentangled from Colt’s arms
and got up, going upstairs to the bathroom.  For a moment, she stood
staring at her reflection.  Her eyes were huge, her face pale and tear
streaked.  She was shaking all over and felt suddenly weak.  Reality
was setting in.  She had an older brother.  A man who had spent his
life in the search and recovery of abducted children because he had to do something
so that others wouldn’t have to deal with the pain he’d had to deal with most
of his life.  It was suddenly too much.  She backed away from the
sink until her back hit the wall and she slid down it to sit on the floor, hand
clamped to her mouth to silence her cries.  And that was how, moments
later, Colt found her. 

He gathered her into his arms and
carried her into the bedroom, sitting in one of the lounge chairs and cradling
her in his lap.  She burrowed into him, her face pressed into the hollow
of his throat while she cried.  He pressed kisses to her hair and just
held her tight until she finally fell asleep.  Emotionally drained
himself, he wanted nothing more than to crawl in bed with her when he laid her
down, but knew he needed to get back to everyone downstairs. 

Tessa and Gib stood when he hit the
foot of the stairs, coming to him.

“She all right?” Gib asked.

“She’s sleeping.  She’ll be
fine, though.”

“This is all overwhelming to her, I’m
sure,” Tessa said, “I just can’t even imagine.  Tag stepped outside. 
He’s on the veranda.  Gib and I are going to head back to the airport,”
she told him, “unless you think we need to be here when the parents arrive.”

“No, y’all go ahead and go,” he told
her.  “I appreciate all you’ve done for her.”

“Anytime you need us, son, you just
let us know,” Gib told him.

“Thank you, sir,” he said, shaking
Gib’s hand.

Tessa hugged him and kissed his
cheek.  “Come see us in Indian Springs someday, OK?”

“I will.  Thanks again.”

He saw them out and then went out on
the veranda to check on Tag, who was standing with his hands on the rail,
gazing out into the darkness.

“Is she all right?” Tag asked, his
voice hoarse.

“She’s just resting.  She’ll be
fine.”

Tag nodded, eyes still gazing out
into the night.  “That’s probably for the best.  My mother is,
understandably, shaken.  We never thought this day would come.”

“I bet not…not after all these
years.  I’m still amazed myself, and I didn’t live through it like you
did,” Colt told him.

“She seems…normal.  I know that
sounds odd, but, I’m still amazed to find that she was taken care of, that she
wasn’t held against her will or abused in any way.  I read the letter that
her so-called mother wrote her, and while they were wrong to not turn her over
to the authorities, at least they loved her.”

“That they did.  What they
couldn’t provide materially, they made up for emotionally…somewhat.  She
told me once that she never had any doubt that they loved her, but that she
always knew she was adopted, and she always knew they loved each other more
than they loved her.  I think that’s why her mother died so quickly after
her father…and I know it pains you to hear her refer to them as mother and
father, but that’s who they were to her.  As difficult as it may be,
you’ve got to learn to accept that.”