Justice for Corrie (Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Book 3) (16 page)

The cab of the SUV was silent the rest of the way to the cabin.

C
orrie’s hands hurt
. She knew they were scraped up, and she’d hit her head, hard, on a low branch, but she kept going. Her knee was still throbbing from where she’d been kicked, but she kept hobbling on. She was probably covered in dirt and blood. From the injuries Isaac and Dimitri had given her before she’d gotten out of the cabin, to now, she knew she had to look like an escaped inmate from Laurel Ridge, the psychiatric hospital in San Antonio.

She stopped every now and then and cocked her head to listen, to see if Isaac or Dimitri had realized she was gone yet. So far it was quiet behind her. She had no idea how far she’d gotten, only that it wasn’t far enough. It’d probably never be far enough. She had to find what she was looking for soon, otherwise it’d be too late.

She started forward again and before she’d gone a dozen steps, she stopped abruptly. She heard yelling from back the way she’d come. Crap. They’d figured out she was gone.

Corrie walked faster, her heart beating hard. She had to hide. She needed to find the perfect place to hide…
now
.

Corrie bounced off what felt like the fiftieth tree since she’d left the cabin and hit the ground hard. She panted for a moment. Why in the world did she think she’d be able to pull this off? Fuck, she wasn’t comfortable negotiating herself in a strange room, nevertheless in the middle of a fucking forest.

She sobbed once. Great. Just great. Now she was swearing
and
crying. She got to her feet and put her hands out in front of her again. She just had to keep going. One step at a time. She wasn’t going to make it easy for those assholes. If they wanted her, they’d have to fight for her.

She stepped forward another dozen steps and ran into something. Darn it. Another freaking tree.

Wait… She felt this one.

Oh my God, it seemed perfect.

There was a limb close enough to the ground that she could grab it. That had been her plan from the second she’d decided to crawl out the window, and this was the first tree that it seemed might work. She grabbed the first branch, which was around shoulder height, and put her knee on the trunk to help her climb. She pulled herself up, trying not to grunt with the effort it took. Her arms shook, but she didn’t give up. Finally she managed to haul herself up on top of that first limb. Corrie put one hand above her head, thanking God there was another branch there, and slowly pulled herself up. She only got to a crouch before she hit another limb. Bingo.

She felt around her and stepped up to the next branch. She continued climbing. Slowly but surely. She could feel the tree she was in swaying gently in the breeze, but she didn’t stop. She had no idea how high she’d climbed, but she knew she had to keep going. She had to get high enough that Isaac and Dimitri couldn’t see her. She prayed there were leaves on this tree to hide her; she thought there were because she could hear the rustling in the air that blew around her. Even if they saw her, they’d have to climb up to get her. Dying from falling out of this tree would be better than whatever Isaac had in store for her.

Finally, when the limbs seemed too skinny and frail to be able to hold her weight if she stepped on them, she halted her frantic upward climb. She hugged the trunk of the tree tightly and tried to calm her breathing. It wouldn’t be much of a hiding place if she gave herself away by panting too loud.

Corrie knew she was high. The sound of leaves rustling made her feel hopeful that she was sufficiently covered. The trunk she was gripping wasn’t that wide this high up, her arms fit all the way around it with room to spare. Even though it made no difference, she squeezed her eyes shut, praying she couldn’t be seen from the ground.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been clinging to the tree like a frightened monkey, but all of a sudden the silence around her was broken by Isaac and Dimitri’s voices as they made their way toward her. They were moving much quicker than she had.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Isaac taunted in a singsong voice that would surely give children nightmares rather than soothe them. “You might as well come out now. We know you came this way because we saw your fucking footprints leading right into the woods. If you give yourself up now, I promise to go easy on you.”

Corrie stayed silent.

“Come on, sweet cheeks. You’re not going to get away from us. You’re fucking blind. You’re gonna lose. If you yell out now, I’ll kill you quickly.”

Dimitri’s voice cut through Isaac’s fake pleasant tone. “Get out here, bitch! You’re gonna fucking pay for this. No one makes a fool out of Dimitri Prandini.”

Corrie shivered at the hate and insanity in his voice. She trembled as she adjusted her grip. She held her breath as the men seemed to stop right below the tree she was hiding in. She felt exactly like she had that day so many weeks ago when she knew if she made one wrong move, or one wrong sound, she’d die.

Exactly
like that.

“We don’t have time for this shit, Dimitri.”

“We aren’t leaving her. She could ruin everything.”

“They’re not going to take a blind bitch’s word that I was the one who shot those fucking people.”

“I don’t give a fuck about you taking the rap for that! I care about her getting away and being charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and you being a pussy in interrogation and fingering me for Shaun’s death as well.”

“I wouldn’t turn against you, Dimitri.”

“The fuck you wouldn’t.”

“Look, you know I want that bitch more than anyone. Not only did she manage to hide from me, but I’ll be dammed if I go to jail because of some handicapped blonde whore. I agree that we need to find her, but we can’t stay out here all night. She can’t have gone far. She’s blind, for Christ’s sake. Where else would she go out here? Let’s keep looking for a bit longer. She’s bound to trip over something and hurt herself badly enough so she can’t get up. We’ll bring her back to the house, I’ll fuck her, you’ll torture her, then we’ll kill her. I’ll be sure to dispose of her body so that no one will ever find any trace of her.”

“You fucked this up, Isaac! Leaving her in a room with a damn window. I think she’s more resourceful than you gave her credit for! Her ass needs to die. Maybe she could’ve identified you, maybe she couldn’t, but she most certainly can
now
. She’s heard us talk; she knows what we were planning. We can’t let her escape now. No fucking way.”

“Dammit. Fucking bitch. It’s getting dark. We’ve got those high-powered flashlights in the car…let’s go back and get them. There’s no way she’ll be able to spend the night out here alone. She’ll most likely try to make her way toward the road. If she gets there and is able to flag down a car, we’re screwed.”

Corrie heard the two men walking back toward the way they came, but she didn’t dare move. She let out her breath slowly as the men’s voices got softer as they headed back to get their lights so they could continue to search for her. She had no idea what she’d do if they found her, or how they would get her out of the tree. Corrie wasn’t planning on coming down anytime soon, they’d have to climb up and get her, or chop the tree down. She wasn’t moving. No way, no how.

As the adrenaline in her body receded, she began to shake. Soon, she couldn’t tell what was the wind, and what was her trembling muscles. It didn’t matter. She wasn’t budging. She’d stay right where she was until Quint found her, even if she had to spend the night out there. She had no doubt Quint would come for her. No doubt at all.

Q
uint
, Dax, Hayden, TJ, Cruz, and six other officers from both the SAPD and the FBI crept through the trees toward the cabin. They’d left their vehicles about half a mile down the gravel road so as not to alert Isaac and Dimitri they were coming. There were two trucks from Station 7 firestation on stand-by as well as an ambulance.

There was a black SUV parked in front of the cabin, so hopefully that meant the men were still there. The group of law enforcement officers split up and surrounded the house. Isaac and Dimitri weren’t going to get away. No fucking way.

Quint wanted to rush the cabin and get to Corrie, but knew they had to move slowly and carefully. One wrong move could force either of the men to kill her outright before they could get to her. He wouldn’t put it past them.

“Window open on the west side,” Quint heard Cruz say in a deep voice through his earpiece.

“Front door standing open,” Hayden replied in a steady voice from the other side of the cabin.

Quint and TJ turned together when they heard voices coming from behind them. They rushed to the other side of the SUV to conceal themselves and watched incredulously as Isaac and Dimitri came walking out of the woods—as if they’d been on a nice leisurely stroll through the trees and hadn’t just kidnapped a woman and almost killed two others.

“Hurry up and get them. We need to take care of this once and for all. We’re one step ahead of the pig cops right now, and need to keep them off our asses as much as possible. After she’s disposed of, we’ll hit up some of our other clients and get the fuck out of here. We can lay low and re-group. A blind woman isn’t going to be the end of my business. No fucking way!” Dimitri bitched as he sauntered next to Isaac.

The men were almost to the SUV when TJ popped up from around the front of their car, his pistol pointed at Dimitri. “Sorry, guys, the pig cops are all
over
your asses.”

Quint would’ve rolled his eyes at the corny joke, but he couldn’t muster the wherewithal to do it. Where were these assholes coming from and where was Corrie?

Isaac and Dimitri turned to run back into the woods, and came face-to-face with four more officers with guns. They were completely surrounded.

Isaac, obviously the more impulsive of the two, decided to make a grand gesture and pulled a pistol out of the holster at his side.

Several shots rang out through the clearing despite Quint’s demand to hold fire. Within seconds, neither Isaac nor Dimitri would ever collect another dime from anyone again.

Quint didn’t give a fuck whose bullets actually ended the slimeballs’ lives, except for the fact that they might have been the only two people on the earth who knew where Corrie was. They’d been talking about disposing her body, and that alone almost destroyed him. He tried to stay positive and hope that they hadn’t gotten around to killing her yet.

Hayden put her pistol back into her holster. She shrugged her shoulders at Quint before they turned to run toward the house to look for Corrie. “Two less cockroaches to worry about.” She really was hard-core, right down to her bones.

Quint holstered his own smoking service pistol as he sprinted toward the open door to the cabin.

He walked briskly through the small cabin. Every room was empty. Standing in one of the small bedrooms, he turned to TJ, who’d followed him inside.

“Quint…” TJ shook his head sadly.

Quint held up his palm to his friend. “No. Fucking no. I won’t believe she’s dead until I see it with my own eyes.”

“Buddy, they were coming back from the woods.”

Suddenly Dax was there. He put his hand on TJ’s shoulder. “No. Quint’s right. Until we see her, she’s not dead. Remember Mack? I watched her die, but she’s still with me today. We continue on until there’s absolutely no hope, then we continue on some more.”

TJ nodded solemnly. “Fuck. Yeah, you’re right. Let’s re-search. There has to be something here.”

The men split up. Dax and TJ went back to the main part of the house and Quint looked around the rooms in the back. He searched the first room with no luck, but as he headed toward the second room, he took another glance at the door.

Yes! There was a brand-new knob on the door, but it was installed backwards. The lock was on the outside, not the inside of the room. He went in and looked around. How the fuck had he missed it the first time?

He’d been looking for Corrie, not clues, that’s how.

This was the room with the open window. There was a chair sitting under it. Quint scanned the room. It seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. A twin bed, a dresser, a small closet, and that chair. He looked more carefully.

A pen. There was a pen in the windowsill.

Adrenaline coursed through Quint’s body. “Dax!” he yelled, even as he walked to the window to take a closer look. Just as Dax was striding into the room, Quint saw it.

Small dots on the wall.

She’d left him a fucking message.

“What is it?” Dax asked, coming up beside Quint.

“Braille.”

“What’s it say?”

Quint ran his fingers over the dots. They weren’t raised like Braille was, but he couldn’t stop himself from touching them. His Corrie had been there and left them for him. He tried to concentrate on the message she’d left for him.

“Well?” Dax asked impatiently.

“Give me a second. I’m new at this. O, V, T…no, wait…U. O, U, T. Out.”

“Out? Okay, with the chair sitting right there it’s obvious she went out the window. Is that it?”

“No, there’s more.” Quint tilted his head to look at the last two letters. She’d used Grade 1 Braille to spell out the letters. She probably knew he was still trying to get the hang of Grade 2 and didn’t want to risk him not understanding what she wanted to tell him.

U and…P. Up.

“Out and Up. She went out and we need to look up.”

“Did your blind girlfriend really jump out a window in the middle of a forest after being kidnapped and head off to try to find a fucking tree to climb?”

Quint smiled at Dax’s words. Hayden had been right. Women
were
tough as shit. It was the first time he’d allowed himself to relax since he’d heard Corrie was missing. “Yeah. I think she did.”

“Damn, I like her, Quint. Anyone who can rescue herself is totally worthy of you.”

“Yeah, I like her too. Now, can we go and find my woman and get the fuck out of here?” Quint was already on the move as he said the words. Dax was right behind him. They collected TJ, Cruz, and Hayden on their way out.

The five officers gathered next to the cabin under the open window. Quint looked around. He closed his eyes, put his arms out and started walking.