Justice for Corrie (Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Book 3) (15 page)

“I might know someone,” TJ said quietly.

Four sets of eyes swung to the Highway Patrolman. He spoke before anyone could ask. “You guys all know I used to be Delta Force. There were times we relied on an outside guy to get us some intel on our marks or to give us some extra recon before we went on missions. He’s totally legit…works for the government, but I’m fairly certain how he gets his information isn’t always completely legal.”

“Call him,” Quint said immediately. He didn’t care how the man got his information, as long as it led them to Corrie.

“If he comes through, we’ll need a cover story on how we found her,” TJ warned.

Quint looked around at the best friends he’d ever had. The only two missing were Conor and Calder. “If it was Mackenzie, would you do it?” he asked Daxton.

“In a heartbeat,” was his immediate response.

“Please, TJ, call your guy. I’ll take the rap for this if it comes to it. Corrie means more to me than anything, even my job.”

TJ didn’t say another word to try to dissuade his friend; he clicked on a contact in his phone and put the phone up to his ear. After only a moment, he began speaking to whomever it was who answered. “Ghost. It’s Rock. Yeah, I know, it’s been too long. I need Tex. Yeah, C-Red.” He held his hand over the speaker and interpreted for his friends, “Code-Red.” His attention was brought back to the phone as the mysterious Ghost continued to ask questions. “We need intel immediately. Kidnapped. Thanks, I appreciate it. We totally need to get together soon. I heard you snagged yourself a woman.” He chuckled at something the man on the other end of the phone said, then got serious again. “Thanks, I appreciate it. I’ll let you know how it goes. Later.” TJ clicked off the phone.

“Well?” Quint asked impatiently.

“Give him a moment. He’ll call. Ghost is going to get a hold of him.”

“Why don’t you have this guy’s direct number?” Hayden asked.

“Tex is…eccentric. He knows everyone, and those of us who have worked with him understand that while he can find us at a moment’s notice, he doesn’t want his contact information spread across all the groups and men he works with. Only the team leaders have his direct line, and even that changes almost monthly. Look, the man could disappear with his family and no one would ever find him, he’s that good. He makes himself and his computer abilities available to us in emergencies.”

“What does he want in return?”

“A marker. He’d never take money for anything he does. He claims the government pays him more than enough for him and his family to live on. But he lives and breathes information. If he needs us, he’ll let us know.”

“Whatever he wants, whenever he wants,” Quint vowed. “If he can get us to Corrie, I don’t give a rat’s ass what he requires of me.”

“And that right there is why Tex is the best,” TJ said in a solemn tone. “He’s collected markers from a country full of men who are just like you, Quint. But honestly, I know he’d do it just because it’s the right thing to do.”

TJ’s phone vibrated and he quickly tapped it and brought it up to his ear. “Tex…I know, it’s been a long time…Corrie Madison, she’s blind…Dimitri Prandini, P-r-a-n-d-i-n-i, and Isaac Sampson… Near as we can tell over three hours… Witness says whoever it was that forced her to go to Corrie’s house talked about a cabin…Yeah…We’ll be waiting.” TJ clicked the phone off and turned to his friends.

“Well?”

“He’s going to call me back.”

“This is ridiculous,” Quint barked out, turning to Cruz. “I can’t just stand here waiting for some mysterious fucking guy named Tex to find out where Corrie is after a thirty-second phone conversation. Cruz, call your guy at the bureau. Have him search for properties that trace back to Dimitri or Isaac. It’s a long shot, but they might be arrogant enough to have taken her to one of their own damn houses.”

“Give Tex five minutes, Cruz,” TJ ordered. Everyone looked at him in surprise. TJ was the happy-go-lucky one of their group. It was surprising enough that the man had been Delta, he just didn’t seem to have the disposition, but one look at his demeanor and countenance at the moment and no one doubted the man was a lethal killer.

“Tex will find her. He’s a fucking hacker. I didn’t give him much information, but he’ll do his magic computer shit and tell us where they are. It’ll take Cruz’s FBI guy three hours to do what it’ll take Tex five minutes to find.”

“I can’t lose her,” Quint said, heartbroken.

“You won’t,” Daxton assured him with conviction. “These guys are too cocky. They think they’re invincible. They’ve left a trail that this computer geek’ll find. Believe it.”

No one said anything for several minutes. Quint paced as the other SAPD officers and medical personnel gave the quintet a wide berth. They were obviously putting out some intense vibes because no one bothered them.

Finally, after seven minutes had passed, TJ’s phone vibrated with an incoming call. He immediately clicked it on and listened before saying, “All right, give us a second.”

TJ motioned for the others to follow him outside. Without asking why, everyone followed the Highway Patrolman until they arrived next to his car, out of the way of others who might overhear their conversation. He clicked the speaker icon on the phone and held it out in the middle of the tight circle of lawmen.

“Okay, go ahead, Tex. We’re all here.”

“First, I’m sorry as I could be that these assholes got ahold of your woman,” Tex said with a hint of a southern drawl. “But the good news is that they aren’t very smart. Prandini has several aliases. Prado, Prandino, Prandima…as I said…not very smart. Anyway, looks like the man held a marker for a down-home country boy named Chaz Willis. Chaz had a bit of a gambling problem, but also had some issues on the side with not one, but two ex-wives. He somehow conned his sister-in-law into purchasing a house for him in her name, so his current wife wouldn’t be able to find him when he was hooking up with his first ex or his current girlfriend.”

“Jesus, is there a point?” Quint asked, stressed beyond control.

“I have a point,” Tex said, not seeming to be ruffled at all by Quint’s outburst. “It’s that Chaz owed Prandini money. Money he didn’t have. All of a sudden our friend Chaz hasn’t made any trips out to his little hunting cabin at the lake in over a year. Cell phone and credit card records show he’s living a perfectly miserable life right there in the heart of San Antonio. There haven’t been any ‘hunting trips’ for the man in all of that time. Oh, and his third divorce is pending.”

“Prandini?” Cruz demanded.

“Yup. He’s the proud new owner of a small, out-of-the-way cabin on Medina Lake. He’s been switching up his credit cards, but there have been gas and food charges awfully close to that area. I have a feeling the man isn’t the outdoorsy type.”

“Fuck me. Medina Lake,” Quint breathed incredulously. “I should’ve thought of that.”

“What’s the connection?” Hayden asked.

“Shaun’s body was found there,” Quint informed the group matter-of-factly.

“Address?” Cruz asked, a pad of paper in his hand, ready to write it down.

“The cabin has a half-mile dirt road leading to it and is surrounded by trees and scrub. As you all know, this has been a warm year for Texas, but there are still lots of places to hide out there. You’ll need to go in quiet and sneak up on them.”

“Fuck, Tex. Who the hell do you think you’re talkin’ to here?” Quint groused. “Address?”

“South side. Take PR 2670 off of route 265. Go one-point-two miles north and there’s a dirt road on your left. It’s down that road. I’ll send the coordinates to Rock.”

“Let’s go, it’s at least thirty minutes to get out there,” Quint said, turning to head to his truck.

“Quint,” Tex called out.

He paused and waited for the man to continue. He was itching to get the hell out of there and get to Corrie, but he owed Tex another couple seconds of his time. If he was right and this is where Corrie was…Quint knew he owed him a lot more than mere time.

“From what I could tell in the five minutes I had to research her, your woman is intelligent. If there’s a way out of this, she’ll find it.”

“Thanks. I’m counting on it.” And with that, Quint strode toward Hayden’s vehicle. It was a four-wheel drive and they’d decided while they were waiting for Tex to call back, that if needed, they’d take hers since it was more maneuverable in the backcountry of Texas.

He blanked out the others getting into their cars and even his phone vibrating with a text with the coordinates from TJ. All Quint could think about was Corrie. Had too much time passed? Was she all right? What were those pricks doing to her?

Never in his life had he wanted to be a knight in shining armor as badly as he wanted to be one today. It had never been as vital to his well-being as now.

“Hang on, sweetheart. I’m coming for you,” he whispered as Hayden pulled away from the curb. “I’m on my way.”

C
orrie lay
on the floor where the man had thrown her. She’d awoken in his car. She was disoriented and dizzy, but knew she was in big trouble. She remembered Bethany being at her house, then nothing. Was she okay? Emily? Ethan? Dang it, she hated not knowing, but she’d be damned if she asked her captors.

She’d known the second she woke up that she was in the presence of the man who’d killed Cayley and all the others at the clinic. She recognized his voice, and his nasty smell. That stench was stuck in her nose. She felt a little vindicated, because no matter what the DA thought, even if the woman was thinking about allowing her testimony, she’d
known
she’d be able to pick him out. But vindication at this point wouldn’t help her.

The man, Isaac—he’d actually introduced himself to her as if they were at a fancy party—had talked the entire time they’d been in the car. He’d talked in great detail about what he’d done with Shaun, he’d even bragged about his and his boss’s plan to bring her out to the middle of nowhere to torture and kill her.

Corrie had wanted to ask about Bethany and Emily, but kept her mouth shut. It seemed to piss him off that he couldn’t get her to talk to him, but no matter what vile thing he said, she refused to open her mouth.

They’d driven for what seemed like forever until he’d pulled off on a gravel road. Corrie could tell the difference in the texture of the road under the car’s tires. He really was bringing her to the middle of nowhere. She smelled pine trees all around, and dust. It was dry, wherever they were.

Corrie felt a panic attack coming on, but held on to her sanity by the skin of her teeth. She couldn’t lose it now. Her parents had trained her to use her senses when she got turned around. This was the same thing. She just had to concentrate.

Isaac had pulled her roughly from the car and hauled her forward, laughing as she tripped over objects in her path. She had no idea where they were or where they were going, but Corrie played up her helplessness as much as she could. She wanted Isaac and his boss to think she was completely unable to help herself in any way.

Isaac had thrown her into a room and slammed the door. Corrie heard the lock being engaged from the other side. She got up and carefully made her way to the door, arms out in front of her to try to keep from running into anything, feeling good about only hitting one chair. She leaned her ear against the wooden door and listened.

“What now, Dimitri?”

“Now we figure out what she knows and what the cops know.”

“Then what?”

Corrie heard a smacking sound and Isaac cried out.

“Calm the fuck down. You’ll get to stick your dick in her as soon as I know what I want to know.”

Corrie didn’t like the sound of any of that.

She heard the two men coming back down the hall. Corrie hurried back to the middle of the floor where she’d been thrown and held back a sob.
Where are you, Quint? I need you.

Q
uint held
on to the safety bar and gritted his teeth. Hayden drove like a bat out of hell. She didn’t even slow down going around corners. The SUV she’d commandeered from her department groaned and made all sorts of god-awful noises as she pushed it to its limit.

All Quint could think about was how scared Corrie probably was. She hadn’t even wanted to move into his house because she wasn’t sure where all his furniture was. How scared would she have to be now? In the middle of a fucking forest with two psychotic assholes doing who knows what to her? She didn’t even have her cane…he’d seen it folded in her purse when he’d gotten her cell phone out.

He ground his teeth together. He’d kill the motherfuckers if they’d touched so much as a hair on her head.

“We’re gonna get to her, Quint. Not only us, but I think most of Station 7 is on their way too. You know those firefighters would do anything for you.” Hayden said calmly from next to him. He looked over at her. She seemed to be calm, cool, and collected, even as she drove like she was competing in the Indianapolis 500.

“Yeah,” was all Quint could squeeze out between his clenched teeth. He was happy the EMTs were on their way too, Corrie might need them, but he hated the thought of her even having a papercut. This was torture. They’d get to her all right. It was what they’d find when they got there that worried him.

C
orrie tried
to ignore the adrenaline coursing through her body and pretended as if she was a helpless female. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t see anything! I didn’t hear anything but gunshots. I don’t know why the cops think I can tell one person from another. I’m bliiiiind.” She whined the word, trying to sound even more pathetic. “I didn’t see
anyone
.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Dimitri bitched, pacing back and forth in front of the chair they’d plunked her in. “She doesn’t know shit. We’ve spent all this time and money for nothing.”

Corrie shook her head, trying to clear the ringing from her ears. Her face hurt from where Isaac had clocked her earlier at the house, and again from where both Dimitri and Isaac had taken turns slapping and hitting her to try to figure out what she knew. The idiots hadn’t even bothered to tie her to the chair, thinking she was a pitiful, helpless, blind female—thank God.

“Can I have her now then?”

Corrie heard Dimitri’s fist hitting Isaac’s face again. “You are such a fucking horn-dog. We have damage control to do first, asshole. Leave her alone. You’ll get your fuck later, then you can get rid of her. And this time, you’ll do it right. Not like that fucker Shaun.”

Isaac laughed and Corrie flinched and cried out involuntarily as a foot made contact with her knee. Darn, that hurt. She leaned over and wailed excessively, trying to show both men she was out of it, emotionally and physically.

“Come on, we have shit to do,” Dimitri said, walking to the door to her room.

Corrie held her breath.
Please don’t leave me alone with Isaac. Please don’t leave me alone with Isaac.

“I’ll be back, bitch. Hope you’re ready for me to shove my big cock up your asshole. I like to start there because it hurts the most. Then I’ll move on to your cunt and your face. I love watching as I shove my dick down a chick’s throat. Did you know the last woman I killed, I did it by strangling her with my dick? She looked up at me while my cock was down her throat, she couldn’t breathe and she died with my jizz coating her stomach. I can’t fucking wait.”

Isaac slammed the door behind him and Corrie heard him lock it.

Lord. Her hands trembled imaging every horrible thing he wanted to do to her. She held her hand over her mouth, trying not to throw up. She couldn’t lose it now. She took a couple of deep breaths. Thank God he’d left her alone and thank God they hadn’t tied her up. She had to get out of here. She couldn’t wait for Quint to find her; she didn’t think he was going to make it in time. Isaac was way too determined to rape and kill her. It was up to her to save herself.

She heard Isaac and Dimitri arguing in the next room, and it gave her even more incentive to try to escape while they were preoccupied.

Corrie got up, wincing as her knee almost gave out on her. Darn it. One of the men had kicked her harder than she’d thought. The tears that came to her eyes were real this time, not faked. Corrie refused to let them fall and hobbled around the room, hands out in front of her, trying not to run into anything and bring attention to herself.

Her shin hit a table, then a chair, then a bed, but she kept going. The small pains didn’t matter, it was better than being dead or brutally violated.

She felt along the wall, breathing a sigh of relief when she found what she was looking for. A window. It was about three feet by three feet, plenty big enough for her to squeeze through. It was around five feet off the floor, which would make it tricky to get up and out of, but she tried to open it.

It didn’t budge.

Panic set in and Corrie wasted a bit of time huffing and puffing and straining helplessly to push the window open. Finally she stopped to think and felt for a lock. There! She turned the knob at the top of the window and tried again, pushing slowly.

It moved. Oh my God, it freaking moved.

Corrie continued to push open the window slowly in case it made any noise. It didn’t. Thank goodness for owners who took care of their properties. Corrie could hear Isaac and Dimitri still arguing in the other room, so she continued making her escape. Finally the window wouldn’t go up any more. Corrie felt with her hands. It wasn’t open all the way, but it’d have to do. Remembering the chair, she bent over and shuffled back to where she thought it was.

Bingo. Her fingers made contact with the back and she almost knocked it over. She panted through her terror, knowing if Isaac heard anything suspicious, he’d be back in the room in a heartbeat and she’d lose her chance to get out of there. She carefully picked up the chair, thankful it was a flimsy wooden piece of crap.

Carrying it carefully back to the window, Corrie put it down and climbed up. Hopefully she’d have enough of a head start before Isaac came back to rape her.

Pausing, Corrie took a few precious seconds to draw seventeen dots on the wall next to the window before she escaped her prison. She’d found and pocketed a pen when she was searching the room earlier, and while she knew she was taking a chance—a big chance that she’d take too long—she had to do it.

Finished, she put the pen inside the window sill, and stuck her head out of the little window and waited. She tilted her head, listening. She could hear the wind blowing, smell pine and decaying leaves, but nothing else. It was now or never.

Corrie pulled herself through the window head first. She lay on her stomach on the sill and put her hands out. She couldn’t touch the ground. Darn. She’d hoped that maybe she’d get lucky and there’d be some sort of hill or the ground would be built up next to the house. She had no idea how far it was to the grass below, but since she hadn’t gone up any stairs when Isaac was dragging her into the house, she hoped she didn’t have too far to fall.

She put her hands on the sill again and wiggled until she was precariously balanced on her hipbones. Corrie put her hands out again and wiggled one more time. Gravity did the rest of the work for her. She fell out of the window and landed hard on her hands. Her elbows gave out and she hit her head as her body crashed to the ground.

Corrie didn’t wait to take stock. She picked herself up and started walking quickly toward the smell of the trees. She kept her hands in front of her, used exaggerated steps to walk, and stayed hunched over, trying not to trip over anything in her way. She knew she probably looked ridiculous, but without her cane, it was really hard to walk in unfamiliar places. She knew she was moving way too slowly, but it wasn’t like she could just run off. She had to be smart and careful. She only had one chance. If they caught her, she was as good as dead.

No matter what, she had to keep going. No matter how many times she fell, no matter how many times she ran into things…the key to staying alive was putting one foot in front of the other. All she had to do was picture what Isaac wanted to do to her, and it gave her the motivation she needed to keep going.

She was scared to death, this was not fun, and she’d once had nightmares about this exact situation…being lost in the woods.

But Corrie kept going. Step by painfully slow step. Once she got away from the house, she’d figure out what to do next. Corrie knew she just had to stay away from Isaac. Quint would find her eventually. She just had to find the perfect hiding spot. She knew what she was looking for, but it was a crapshoot as to whether she could actually find it.

She stumbled on, hoping just once that luck was on her side.

“
N
o matter what
, you can’t lose your shit,” Hayden warned as they closed in on the cabin. They’d turned off onto a gravel road. Hayden slowed down only enough so they wouldn’t lose a wheel on the deep ruts in the road.

“I’m not going to lose my shit.”

“I’ve read the file on this Isaac guy. We both know what we might find.”

Quint ground his teeth together and didn’t respond.

“If she’s been raped, you have to keep it together,” Hayden said stubbornly. “She might not want to be touched. Sometimes even the slightest touch can drive a woman deep into her mind. Just let me see where her head’s at before you grab her. If needed, Penelope can help her rather than one of the other male firefighters.”

“Shut up.”

“Quint, I’m not saying this to hurt you, but you might have to treat her with care.”

Quint turned to Hayden. His voice was low and even and only cracked once. “I know exactly what I might find. I might find her scared out of her mind and so far into herself I can’t get in. I could find her beaten unconscious, or crucified to a fucking wall. I’m hoping she’s still alive. I can deal with anything but that. There’s no telling what those assholes could’ve done to her by now. She’s fragile and I’m hanging on by a thread here. So you telling me that asshole might have stuck his cock inside what’s mine is
not
helping. I know you mean well, and I appreciate it. I do. But I’d appreciate it more if you could get us the fuck there so I can find my woman and take care of her. Okay?”

“Okay. But Quint?”

He grunted in response.

“I think you’re underestimating her. I don’t know Corrie, but from what you’ve told me, I don’t think she’s all that fragile. She’s lived her entire life blind. This isn’t new for her. She’s been in scary situations before.”

“Not like this.”

“You’re absolutely right, not like this. But you’re talking about her as if she sits at home scared to leave the house every day. She has a career. From what you tell me, one she fought like hell to have. She had the presence of mind to hide from Sampson when he shot up her clinic. Remember what Penelope went through over in Turkey. Women are a lot tougher than we seem. Don’t sell Corrie short.”

Quint could feel his throat closing up. He didn’t answer, merely nodded. He hoped Hayden was right. He hoped like hell she was right.