Double the Trouble (Texas Trouble 3) (36 page)

Sarge drank thirstily then licked his lips, before he gave her a lick on her leg.  She smiled then splashed him to cool him off too, then cupped her hands and drank some water herself.  Bacteria and whatever was in the stream wasn't important right now, cooling herself down and quenching her thirst was.
  She used some dry leaves to dry her feet off then
p
ut
her boots
back
on
leaned against a tree to catch her breath
for a few minutes
.
 

The thought that Jake might be back at the trailer and looking for her now, had her pushing up and grabbing Sarge's leash, then they crossed the small stream and walked into the woods on the other side.
  What Karlie hoped, is
that
she'd find a house around here somewhere
soon
, so she could use a phone to call Cole...and maybe find out where she was.

Karlie heard four-wheelers moving through the woods a good ways away and got scared. What if Jake had parked the trailer on a friend's property or something, she wondered.  Maybe they had ATVs and they were helping him look for her.  She had to find a place to hide, until they gave up looking for her.
  Picking up Sarge, Karlie took off running through the woods
,
along the bank of the stream, her eyes scanning for a hiding place as she ran. 

There was nothing, but trees and undergrowth, vines and leaves.  She skidded to a stop when she reached the edge of a cliff and looked way down at the river flowing there.  She saw the little stream pouring over the edge of the cliff
in
to the river.  It was too far for her to jump, especially with Sarge in her arms, so she'd reached a dead end.  It be a dead end for her life
too,
if those guys on the ATVs caught up with her,
she thought, then
ran along the cliff edge looking for places she could get lower on the ledge, close
r
to the river, to make the jump shorter.

She found one that was a couple of steps down, that led to another
couple of drop downs,
so she sat down, then
slid down them
, one by one
. 
The last drop down
put her about fifteen feet lower to the river, but it was still quite a jump...maybe thirty feet.
  She could swim, but
she had no idea how deep the river was, or if Sarge could swim
, but she'd made the committment to jump now, and she would.  Hearing the whine of the 4-wheelers getting closer, she realized she didn't have a choice anyway.

Sending
up a prayer,
Karlie
held on tight to Sarge and jumped.
 
When they hit the water,
Sarge squealed, and then started wiggling
in her arms
.  S
he had no choice but to let him
go
, so she could fight for her own life
, as t
he water closed over her head quickly, and she felt herself going deeper and deeper, then felt grass tickle her legs as her boots hit the bottom and stuck in the mud there.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Gabe was relieved that Jake Johnson's probation officer had been so eager to help him.  Officer Finley was going to call the
Texas Rangers
, and get an all points bulletin put out on him, as an armed and dangerous felon, because
Gabe told him about the gun.
 
If he tried something when they stopped him, they'd shoot first and ask questions later.

Finley
was also going to see about putting out a state-wide
endangered
missing persons alert for Karlie
, and was
getting a court order so he could track
Johnson
by his cell phone calls
. 
Things were moving quickly now, and Gabe was relieved, but still damned worried about Karlie. 

Gabe
was at the station pacing up and down the hall, while he waited for Cole to get back.  He'd called
him
a few minutes ago, and informed him about what was going on
.  Cole had been
surprised that he'd gotten so much done,
but seemed
pretty happy about it.

Cole told him the snake
was gone, his place was clear, and that he'd gathered a lot of evidence he was bringing back to the station to process.

Hearing his phone ring in his office, Gabe raced down the hallway and caught it on the second ring. 
"Kelley," he said with adrenaline coursing through him, hoping maybe they'd caught the asshole...or found Karlie.

"This is Finley...
the
Rangers
caught him, and he finally told us where he was holding her
,
" the man actually chuckled and Gabe wished he could jump throug
h the phone and strangle him.

"
And?!?
" Gabe shouted into the phone he was holding in a death grip.

"When
they
got there, she'd already escaped.  He
had
tied her up
in the bedroom
and padlocked
her in there
," Finley said then cleared his throat, sounding like he was suppressing more laughter
.

Gabe growled into the phone, and spat, "What else
?
"

"Miss Upton kicked in the wall, k
nocked
out the tail light
lens
then used the raw metal to cut the ropes,
and a
pair of spurs to open up the hole like a can opener
, then she squeezed through it
.
  She sounds like a pretty resourceful woman.
"

Gabe let out a whoop and fist-pumped the air, before sucking in a shuddering breath.
Karlie was more than resourceful, she was smart, sassy, beautiful and he loved her so damned much his
heart wanted to burst with it.

"Where is she? I want to come get her," he said in an emotion choked voice
, and walked behind his desk
to sit down,
because his knees were weak
.
  The silence on the line caused Gabe's heart to drop to the floor, and he fought down a wave of sickness in his gut.  "What happened?" he asked the man.

"We're looking for her...we had to get someone out there with four-wheelers, to go into the woods.  She might be hiding or something...she's probably scared."

"Where? I want to go out there and help," Gabe said forcefully.

"Near
Denton
...evidently he had a friend that let him park the trailer on his property," Finley told him then gave him directions.  "Make sure you identify yourself so they don't shoot you.  If you have access to an ATV you might want to bring it.  Those woods are pretty thick."

"Call me if they find her, please...and thank you again for your help,"
Gabe
said sincerely.

"You're welcome, but we have a vested interest here.  I just want that moron behind bars where he belongs
,
"
Finley told him.

"That's definitely a common interest we have then.  We need to set up a meeting and go over all that's happened and
the
evidence we have to help you."

"As soon as we have Miss Upton back, I'll give you a call to set it up," Officer Finley said then told him, "You let me know if you find her too."

"Will do...bye." Gabe hung up the phone and looked up when Cole walked through the door.  "They found her and picked him up...I'll fill you in on the way.  Do you have a 4-wheeler?"

"Yeah a couple of them in my barn, why?" Cole asked then sat in the chair in front of Gabe's desk.

"No time to sit, we need to go get them then get to
Denton
.  She's running in the woods, and they think she's hiding because she's scared.  They're out looking for her, but haven't found her."

Cole stood up and told him, "The Double B is closer than my place, I know Luke has a couple there too, we'll stop there instead."

When they pulled up to the trailer, Gabe swallowed down the emotions that surged up inside of him.  Karlie could have died here, if the
Texas Rangers
hadn't caught Jake Johnson.  He got out and waded through the police there and found the person in charge and identified himself, then told him he and Cole
wanted to help search for her.
  The man went over the search map and showed him where they had searched, and what was left, then handed him two radios.

Gabe
thanked him then
walked behind the trailer and an involuntary grin spread across his face when he saw the hole that looked like someone had blasted it out with a shotgun from the inside.  An old flowered comforter covered the raw edges, and he didn't see any blood, so that gave him a measure of comfort. 

What wasn't comforting was the thought of her out in the woods, scared to death and running from the people trying to save her.
  They had a few hours left before sunset, and he wanted to find her before it got dark.  The thought of her out there alone in the woods at night caused his gut to churn and his heart to twist in his chest.

Gabe jogged back over to the truck, and motioned Cole to help him unload the
three-wheelers
they'd picked up at the Double B.  They were older, but they'd get the job done.  He and Cole had stopped to fill them up at a gas station, before they got here, and they'd also strapped rifles across the handle bars, and put a saddle bag with a first aid kit
on one, just in case.

Once they offloaded them down the ramp,
Gabe
straddled his and cranked it up and waited for Cole to do the same, then they
took off into the woods in the direction of the river. 
It was probably three miles from the trailer, and according to the commander was where the search stopped.  Maybe she'd gotten to the other side somehow and that's why they hadn't found her yet
, he thought
. 
The commander said they had six men out searching, and it looked like they'd
been
pretty thorough from what
Gabe
saw, so that could be the only explanation that he could think of as to why they hadn't found her yet...unless she was hiding.
 

Every once in a while, Gabe would stop and yell her name, hoping that would draw her out if she was hiding.  It slowed them down getting to the river, but he thought it was worth the time lost to make sure.
  When they finally reached the river, it wasn't what Gabe expected, it was a freaking cliff that was forty feet in the air, and the little stream that they'd been riding along emptied down into it like a waterfall.  His heart fell and he groaned. 

There was no way she would have jumped in there, even if she was scared.  He scanned the cliff with his eyes looking for any place she might be hiding there, and he didn't see anything.  He turned and drove along the cliff scanning the opposite bank, and Cole was right behind him. 
Although he was almost hoarse now,
Gabe
yelled her name over and over again, hoping she would be able to hear it over the engines.
 

Gabe's
eyes snagged on something
that
move
d
in the undergrowth on the
opposite
bank and he stopped, then let out a whoop when he recognized Sarge
.  His
excitement
quickly
faded
though
, because he knew Karlie wouldn't have let him loose, unless she wasn't able to keep him with her. 

"They're on the other side, Cole...I'm jumping in and going find her."
  An unwelcome thought occurred to him, and he swallowed the terror that came along with it.  He hoped she hadn't jumped
in
and drowned.
 

A painful groan escaped Gabe and Cole looked at him with concern.  "Your arm hurting?" he asked.

"No, it's fine...but I hope she didn't..."  He couldn't even finish the sentence he was so choked with fear.

"Don't even think it...she made it," Cole told him fervently.  "You shouldn't be going in that water with your arm like it is...I'll go."

"No!  I'm going!  You look along the bank on the other side and see if you see anything...I'll let you know if I find anything...hopefully these radios are waterproof."

"
You're a stubborn ass, you know that?" Cole said with a chuckle, then added, "T
hey aren't
waterproof
, but I have a baggie in the saddle bag," Cole told him then reached inside and handed him one.

Gabe put the radio in
to
the baggie then
sealed it
and
put it in his pocket,
before he
took off his boots.  Walking along the ledge he looked for any place that would let him get closer to the water than up here, and he finally found a section that had a couple of outcroppings that would let him get down a little closer to the water. 

He slid down on his butt then stepped down and did it again, until he was fifteen feet or so closer.  Taking a deep breath he jumped out from the rocks and waited for the impact, hoping the water was deep enough here and he didn't wind
up breaking his legs or neck.  He hit the water then went down to the bottom and pushed
up,
after he
unsuctioned his feet from the muddy bottom, then swam to the surface, and
then toward
the shore, where he saw Sarge jumping
up and down
,
barking excitedly. 

With every stroke he made through the water, the bandage on his arm got heavier and heavier, until finally he stopped and treaded water until he could rip it off and let it float away. 
The water made his arm hurt, but he didn't give a damn. 
He was going to find Karlie...and if Sarge was over here, she was too.

When he dragged himself out of the water, tiredness sapped him and he knelt there a moment catching his breath, and Sarge came up to him and licked him, then barked and danced.  He looked into the dog's eyes and he could swear he was saying 'follow me'. 

Gabe figured he must be hallucinating from the snake bite and the pain medication, but he shoved up to his feet anyway
,
and then followed behind Sarge who darted into the woods.
  Gabe started yelling her name as he followed behind Sarge who would run a little bit then come back to make sure he was behind him, before heading farther.

Finally, Sarge stopped and was licking on something under some brush and leaves, digging with his paws, and Gabe's heart stopped, when he saw blue jean material appear against the brown scrub.  Oh, God, please don't let her be dead, he prayed, then ran over there and dropped to his knees
, and
with a sob started moving brush aside.
  He moved upward and uncovered her hair then her face and he howled when he saw her beautiful face
was black and blue
.
  Her jaw was swollen and bruised and one of her eyes was black.