Guardian Cowboy

by Carla Cassidy

  Dillon knocked on the front door and Abigail answered. She was a pretty woman with long, dark hair and a warm smile. “Chief...Sawyer, what can I do for you?” Her expression was one of surprise.

  “We’d like to speak with Gary,” Dillon said.

  Her look of surprise turned into a frown. Her oldest daughter, Kayla, joined her at the door. “But...I thought he was with you,” Abigail said.

  “He called me early this morning and told me he had the flu and was staying home in bed,” Dillon replied.

  “So where is he?” Sawyer asked.

  “I have no idea. He got up really early this morning and left. He told me he’d be at the bar all day. He was quite concerned about Janis.”

  “Do you own any other property? Someplace he might be hanging out?” Sawyer stepped closer to Abigail, close enough that he could smell the scent of rose perfume. “Abigail, this is really important.”

  She looked at him helplessly. “No. I can’t imagine where he’d be.”

  “Mom, what about that piece of property he bought a couple of years ago,” Kayla said.

  “Oh, that,” Abigail replied.

  “That what? What property?” Dillon asked.

  “He bought a parcel of land just outside the city limits about six or seven years ago. He hoped the town would grow up in that direction and he’d already have the land to open another bar. But, as far as I know, he hasn’t done anything on that property. I haven’t been out there to look at it for years.”

  “Where, specifically, is it?” Dillon asked.

  As Dillon got the directions from Abigail, a new rise of hope filled Sawyer. Gary had lied to his wife and then he had lied to the chief of police. He obviously had something—or in this case, someone—to hide.

  “What’s this all about?” Abigail asked worriedly. “Is Gary in some kind of trouble for something?” Her eyes widened. “Surely you don’t think he had anything to do with Janis’s disappearance.”

  “We can’t talk about anything right now,” Sawyer said. “We need to go, Dillon.” The urgency was back inside him. He felt as if he might jump straight out of his skin. They had the directions to the property and they needed to get there as soon as possible.

  “This is it,” Sawyer said to Dillon when they were back in his car and speeding down Main Street. “I feel it in my gut. Suddenly it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up too high,” Dillon cautioned. “Not until we get out there and have a look around.” He got on the radio and called in several men to meet them at the location.

  Sawyer stared out the window and then turned to look back at Dillon. “If he’s hurt her, then I’m going to kill him.”

  “Don’t make me have to arrest you, Sawyer. You’re a good man and I’d hate to see you spend the rest of your life in prison,” Dillon replied. “If Gary is guilty, then let him spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

  Sawyer returned his gaze out the window. The full glory of spring was right around the corner. He wanted to stretch out in the grass with Janis and listen to the earth’s heartbeat. He wanted to hear her laughter ride a warm breeze. More than anything, he wanted her to be back in his arms.

  “We don’t want to go in all hell-bent for leather,” Dillon said. “If Gary is with her, we don’t want a hostage situation. That wouldn’t be good for anyone. We don’t know exactly what he’s capable of where she’s concerned.”

  “The last thing I want to do is to do anything that might bring more harm to her.” His stomach muscles knotted with a combination of fear and anticipation, with dread and with hope. Each mile they drove only tightened the knots inside him.

  They left the city limits of Bitterroot. According to Abigail, the property was about twenty minutes outside of the town. Dillon was driving fast enough they would reach it within fifteen minutes at the most.

  It was the longest fifteen minutes of Sawyer’s life. They’d driven out of town far enough that there were no houses or buildings on either side of the road, only pastureland that stretched for miles.

  He sat straighter as they approached the location. Set back from the road was a huge building. It appeared to be a warehouse with no windows. Gary’s van was parked in front.

  Dillon flew past it. “Hey, where are you going?” Sawyer asked. He saw the answer in a windbreak of trees just up the road.

  Dillon pulled his car in behind the trees and then got on the radio once again. Within minutes another patrol car holding Ben Taylor and Juan Ramirez joined them.

  They all got out of their cars.

  Sawyer stared at the building, wanting nothing more than to run as fast as he could to the door. But he knew they had to have a plan.

  It was decided that each man would go to each side of the building and call Dillon to let him know if there was any way inside. It was impossible to tell from this vantage point if there were doors or windows on the two sides of the building they couldn’t see. Sawyer was assigned to the back of the building.

  They approached slowly...cautiously, moving across the pasture in crouched positions. Sawyer’s heart beat so fast, so frantically, it was all he could hear pounding in his head.

  What were they going to find inside? Was she still alive? Oh, God, he needed her to be alive. He reached the back of the building and was bitterly disappointed to see there were no windows or doors.

  Instead of calling Dillon, he went around the corner to see Juan. On that side of the building there were also no windows or doors.

  He motioned Juan to follow him around to the front of the building where Ben and Dillon stood about three feet from the door.

  “This is the only way in,” Dillon whispered.

  “Then we go in this way.” Sawyer couldn’t stand it any longer. The answer to all his questions was just a doorway away. He needed to get inside now.

  Dillon nodded. “We go in fast and hope the element of surprise is on our side.” They all moved closer to the door. Sawyer prayed the door was unlocked, that Gary was so secure, so confident, that he wasn’t a suspect, he hadn’t worried about locking the door behind him.

  Dillon curled his fingers around the doorknob. Every muscle in Sawyer’s body tensed. Within seconds he’d know if the woman of his dreams, the woman who held his heart, was still alive.

  Dillon twisted the knob and nodded, letting them know the door was unlocked. He threw open the door and Ben and Juan rushed in with Sawyer at their heels.

  The three halted, momentarily stunned by what they saw. What in the hell? Sawyer’s mind worked to make sense of the glass enclosure. There was no sign of Janis, but Gary was rising from a chair outside of the enclosure, his blunt features registering surprise.

  Sawyer released a bellow of rage and ran toward him. He tackled him midcenter and Gary fell to the floor on his back. Sawyer jumped on top of him and began to pummel his face with his fists.

  “Sawyer, that’s enough.” Dillon’s voice pierced through the fog of rage. “We’ve got him, Sawyer. Janis needs you now.”

  When he rose from Gary, he couldn’t help the sense of satisfaction he felt as he saw Gary’s bloody nose and lips. Janis! He whirled around and saw her behind the glass.

  She was wonderfully alive and now that the roar of anger left his head, he heard her crying his name. He rushed toward her and placed his hands on the glass. She moved her hands to his and, for just a moment, he believed he felt the warmth of her fingertips beneath his own.

  He turned back to where Dillon had handcuffed Gary. “We need to get her out of there,” he said.

  Ben pulled his gun and aimed it at the glass.

  “No!” Sawyer yelled. “The bullets might ricochet in here and kill one of us.”

  Gary laughed. “You’ll never get her out. She’s my pretty bird trapped in my cage. She’s mine forever.”

  “S
hut up,” Dillon snarled. “Otherwise, I’ll let Sawyer continue to beat the crap out of you.”

  “We’re going to get you out of there,” Sawyer said to Janis. “Can you hear me?”

  “I can hear you,” she cried. Her voice came through a speaker. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  Sawyer stepped back and looked at the elaborate structure.

  “Sorry about the gun thing.” Ben stepped up next to him. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

  “No problem,” Sawyer replied. “We need to find a way inside the glass... Stand back, Janis.”

  She stepped back from the glass and he pounded on it with his fist.

  “You can’t break it,” Janis said. “I already tried.” Her sob was audible. “I don’t know how you’re going to get me out of here.”

  “I told you, she’s mine and you can’t have her,” Gary cried out.

  “Ben, take him out to the patrol car,” Dillon said.

  With Gary out of the building, Dillon joined the other two. “I can’t believe he went to all this trouble to build such an elaborate space.”

  “If he really did intend to keep her here forever, then there has to be a place where he could bring in supplies for her.” Sawyer kept his gaze away from Janis. He couldn’t look at her and think clearly. He couldn’t stand to look at her stressed features and her tears without losing his mind.

  “The pantry,” she called out. “That’s the only place where there has to be an entrance.” She pointed to the wooden door opposite to where they all stood.

  They all took off running around the inner glass enclosure. Sawyer breathed a sigh of relief to see the wood on the outside. If it was just wood keeping her inside, then Sawyer would get through it one way or another.

  “It has to be a door,” Sawyer said and ran his hands around the wood in an effort to find a latch or something to make it open. “We don’t have time for this,” he said in frustration. “I want her out now.”

  “I’ve got a hatchet in my trunk,” Dillon said. He ran back around and outside.

  “We’re going to get you out, Janis. Stand back from the pantry. We’re coming through,” he said.

  “I’m so glad you found me,” she replied, tears still choking her voice. “I thought I was going to be here forever.”

  “This is definitely not where you’re spending your forever,” Sawyer said firmly.

  By that time Dillon was back with the hatchet. He raised it to hit the wood, but Sawyer stopped him. “Please,” he asked and held out his hand for the hatchet.

  Sawyer wanted to be the one to break down the door. He wanted to be the one to rescue his woman.

  Dillon seemed to understand his need and, with a nod, handed him the hatchet.

  Sawyer swung it with all the might he possessed and then pulled it out of the wood and swung again. He attacked the door again and again. When it had been splintered enough, he yanked on the broken wood.

  When he finally broke through, he still wasn’t inside. Shelves of canned goods impeded his entry. He shoved them, knocking them to the floor, his only thought to get to Janis as quickly as possible.

  And then he was through and she was in his arms.

  Chapter 14

  Sawyer’s arms had never felt so good as now, when he held her tight and she wept into the crook of his neck. “He...he came to the motel room... I...I trusted him. I opened the door and then he drugged me.” She spoke around her tears. “Oh, God, I’ve been so scared. I thought nobody would ever find me here.”

  “Shh, you’re safe now and Gary will never be able to bother you again,” Sawyer said, his voice deep and gruff with emotion.

  “I can’t believe he did this to me,” she said and then drew deep breaths in an effort to staunch her tears of relief.

  “Honey, he’s a sick man and he’s going to spend the rest of his life behind bars. In prison he’ll have no privacy. He’ll never get his life back.” He tightened his arms around her. “I thought I was never going to see you again.”

  She raised her head and his lips claimed hers in a gentle kiss that assured her she was really safe. When the kiss ended, she stepped out of his embrace.

  Dillon and Juan were walking around the enclosure, occasionally touching the glass as if still in disbelief of the world that Gary had built for himself and Janis.

  “He had to have planned this for months and months,” Dillon said. He pulled out his phone and began to talk pictures.

  “I sat in the pantry for most of the time,” she said. “It was the one place where he couldn’t see me.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered as she remembered the long hours she had sat in the dark closet.

  “I’m going to get a team of men out here to process what is now a crime scene,” Dillon said. “Janis, I’d like you to come back to the station with me so I can get a full statement from you.”

  She nodded. Now that she was safe, she just wanted all of this to be over. She wanted to go back to her motel room and figure out what to do with the rest of her life. She was also exhausted. She hadn’t slept except for short nod-offs in the closet.

  “I’ll come with you,” Sawyer said and placed his arm over her shoulder.

  She leaned into him, grateful for his strength and support.

  A half an hour later they were in Dillon’s backseat and heading to Bitterroot. Sawyer held her hand, his big, slightly callused hands so familiar and assuring.

  “This is going to kill Abigail and the children,” she said. She’d always loved Gary’s family and now they would all be destroyed because of her. “I don’t even have words to tell them how sorry I am.”

  “You don’t owe them an apology,” Sawyer said firmly. “You were a victim in all this.”

  Yes, she was a victim, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she had said or done something that had made Gary do what he’d done to her. Had she somehow unconsciously invited his madness into her life?

  It was after ten at night when they finally walked out of the police station. She was utterly drained. “Why don’t you wait here and I’ll walk down to the Watering Hole and get my truck. Then I can drive you to the motel,” Sawyer said.

  The night air was warm and even though logically she knew any danger to her or to Sawyer was over, she didn’t want to be alone for even a few minutes.

  “I’ll walk with you,” she said. “It’s only a couple of blocks.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.” She knew he would grab her hand as they walked, and he didn’t disappoint her. His hand enveloped hers with warmth as they headed down the sidewalk.

  “If you hadn’t checked out Gary, I would have been in that fishbowl forever,” she said softly.

  “I wouldn’t have stopped searching for you until you were found,” he replied. “I just can’t believe we didn’t look at Gary sooner.”

  “I certainly didn’t suspect him. He was one of the three people I trusted.” She released a deep sigh. “He hid his feelings for me very well.”

  “I guess sometimes it’s hard to tell the sane people from the insane. But look...” He pointed his finger toward the skies overhead. “The stars are all out, as if to celebrate your rescue.”

  She smiled but the gesture didn’t quite meet her heart. She was still overwhelmed by the trauma she’d been through. She couldn’t begin to explain to Sawyer or to Dillon the horror that had existed inside her from the moment she had gained consciousness until she’d heard their voices and knew she’d been rescued.

  There were simply no words to speak of her terror and the fear of some kind of escalation. Would watching her eventually grow old and when that happened would Gary want to touch her? Rape her? Or would he grow tired of her altogether and kill her and bury her in a shallow grave in the middle of nowhere? And then bring another woman into his glass house?

 
; The worst thing of all was that she couldn’t talk about her shame and the fact that she felt so dirty. A dozen showers wouldn’t take away the stain of Gary peeping in on her. She couldn’t scrub enough skin off to feel clean again.

  When they reached the motel, they discovered her room still held the yellow-and-black crime scene tape. Officer Aaron Kelly stood guard just outside the door.

  “Dillon called me,” he said and pulled a motel room key out of his pocket. “Unit two is waiting for you and we moved all your personal items there.”

  “Thank you,” she said as she took the key from him. All she wanted was to sleep and pray that her dreams weren’t haunted by her horrific experience.

  Once inside the room she turned to Sawyer. “Stay with me while I sleep?”

  “Of course,” he replied without hesitation. “You know I’m here for whatever you need.”

  Yes, she knew that. His copper eyes radiated a pure love that utterly humbled her. She knew if she told him that flying to France would heal her wounds, he’d have airplane tickets within ten minutes.

  “Right now what I need is a long, hot shower.” She opened her suitcase on the floor and pulled out her nightgown. “I’ll see you in a few minutes,” she said.

  “I’ll be waiting for you.” His words were a promise that he’d always wait for her. He’d always be there for whatever she needed.

  She had the water steamy hot when she stepped beneath the spray. As she lathered and rinsed and then lathered and rinsed again, she cried.

  She wept away the last of her fear and the loss of a part of her she could never get back. She cried because out of a whole town full of women, Gary had chosen her. Not that she wanted any other woman to suffer what she had, but why her?

  Finally she cried because she knew how much Sawyer loved her and how much she loved him. He was the man of her dreams, but she knew she could never really be the woman of his dreams.

  You’re nothing but a whore, a dirty little whore. A voice thundered the words inside her head, bringing with them a pain that would never be healed.