Hot On Her Trail - Hell Yeah 2 Page 22

  “That’s not all, Roscoe and Vance have put two and two together and we think McCay has been here for days. We think he’s the one that’s been killing the animals. He’s trying to distract us. We think he came for Jessie.”

  Jerking Noah off the couch, Jacob came very near to hitting his brother. “How could you do this to me, Noah? I would never, ever do anything to hurt you!” Releasing him, abruptly, Jacob left the room before he did something he might later regret.

  Ropes cut into her wrists, and Jessie needed to pee so bad that she thought she might faint. Where was she? Her mind was a whirling muddle of disconnected thoughts. For the most part, she was in darkness. Faint light filtered through cracks in a rough plank wall. Straggly vines creeped through the openings and Jessie’s skin began to crawl as she worried about what else might be crawling around on the dirt floor with her. Trying to move, she realized her feet were tied together as tightly as her hands. She was lying on her side, her head supported only by a burlap toe sack that smelled of rotten potatoes.

  Jacob. Where was Jacob? She needed Jacob.

  With pinpricks of despair, reality came rushing back. Jacob wasn’t coming.

  Keith McCay had drugged her and taken her to a place where she and her baby were totally at his mercy. What could he want from her? And when she found out what that was, would she have the strength to give it to him?

  Kane was called in and updated with all of the information that they had. “Look, we’ve got to cover this on two fronts. First, we’ve got to be sure that she hasn’t just walked somewhere and got a hotel room.”

  “She doesn’t have any money,” Jacob whispered. And he hadn’t had enough sense to give her any.

  “We still need to check. Someone might have given her some. Next, we need to check hospitals, shelters – hell, everywhere you can think of.”

  Roscoe and Vance and their crew were there, ready to go. “We’ll check the cab companies, bus and train depots. Does anyone know which may she might have gone if she decided to leave town?” Roscoe asked. He felt so sorry for Jacob. The misery that he was in was written all over his face.

  Jacob shook his head. “I don’t know. We never talked about it. I don’t think she had any family.”

  With heavy hearts, the McCoys split up and canvassed the whole area. Aron had taken Joseph with him. He might not be able to drive; but Aron needed Joseph to give him a grounding point. All he could think was how he would feel if Libby were in Jessie’s shoes. Joseph had a calming effect on Aron. They had taken the north quadrant of Kerrville and were methodically working through hospitals, motels, hotels, parks and even under bridges. Isaac had taken the south side of town and Jacob was frantically searching the west side of town which was closest to the ranch. Even Noah was looking, searching the far-east side, closer to Austin. Keeping in touch by phone, the brothers literally were taking Kerrville apart hunting Jessie. But, she was nowhere to be found.

  Jacob prayed as he drove. “God, please be with Jessie. She’s little, God. If someone tries to harm her, she doesn’t have the strength to fight for herself. Bring her back to me. Please.” Tears flowed down his cheeks.

  He and his brothers, had looked everywhere that they could think of. Jessie had just disappeared. Jacob tried to process the information that he knew. Was it possible that she had hitched a ride out of the county? Was she hiding somewhere that they had not thought to look? Or was Roscoe right, had Keith McCay been closer than he had ever dreamed? The uncertainty was driving him insane.

  A certain amount of time had to pass before a person could officially be categorized as ‘missing’. But, Kane had already started the ball to rolling. He had garnered all of the local manpower, and teams were combing and recombing the places that the McCoy’s had searched, hoping to find some kind of a clue.

  Jacob couldn’t just sit and wait for word on Jessie. Hour after hour, he walked the Tebow property. Driving to different sections of the ranch, he would get out and meticulously search the land for any sign of – anything. He was afraid not to look, and at the same time – he was afraid to look, always dreading finding a broken little body that would never hold him tight again.

  What broke Jacob’s heart, however, was the knowledge that wherever Jessie was, she was under the mistaken impression that he neither wanted her nor cared anything about her. That nearly killed him. He would give every dime that he had to be given the chance to tell her that he loved her and wanted her more than anything. The baby was a miracle, a blessing; – but Jessie was irreplaceable, essential and precious beyond measure. Jessie was his heart.

  “Here take this,” Keith McCay held the water up to Jessie’s lips so that she could take a drink. “You won’t be any use to me if you die from dehydration.”

  Jessie drank thirstily. He had let her sit up, and she was leaning back against the bare, wood wall. She watched her abductor with hooded eyes. He had lost all vestiges of civility and normalcy. “What are you going to do with me?” she asked with dread.

  With a cruel hand, he ripped the pink lace camisole down the front. It had been ruined already; torn and stained from the ordeal that she had been through. But it hurt Jessie’s heart when she heard the fabric tear, because Jacob had bought it for her and she cherished it. Jerking one cup of her bra down, Keith McCay groped at her breast, twisting the nipple until she cried out with pain. “I don’t know, Jessie. I can’t decide.” He looked at her coldly, calculation in his eyes. “Why don’t you help me decide? Should we leave together? We could go to Mexico. I could get a job at one of those alternative medicine clinics and you could get an abortion – rid your body of that McCoy brat.”

  He watched Jessie’s face crumble. “Please don’t hurt my baby. It wasn’t his mistake. He’s innocent in all of this. Please, Keith. I’ll do anything, just don’t hurt my baby.”

  “Shut up!” Keith slapped her as hard as he could. “Stop your sniveling! That just turns me off; it doesn’t help your case one bit.” He paused, seemingly, to consider other options. “You know what I could do? I could try and cash you and that bastard child of yours in to the McCoy’s for as much money as I can get out of them. That bitch, Rachel, she’s dead now. I took what was in our joint accounts, but she had money hidden in places that I can’t touch. Bitch!”

  “Mrs. McCay is dead?” Jessie had a terrible feeling. Did Keith kill Rachel?

  Roughly squeezing her breast, he continued his rant. “Who would have thought that it would come to this? And it’s all your fault. If you’d have consented to an abortion, we’d all still be living in our luxury apartment, eating filet mignon and caviar. But no! You had to get sentimental and motherly.” With that insult, he drew back his fist and slammed it to the side of her face.

  The blow jarred Jessie’s head so hard that she saw bright flashes of light and she couldn’t hear well for a few seconds. When she finally caught her breath, she laughed. Maybe she was as crazy as Keith was.

  “What are you laughing at, bitch?”

  “You’re not going to get any ransom out of the McCoy’s for me, Keith.”

  “I don’t believe you. They’re worth millions. They’ll pay good money to get you back, if only for the child’s sake.” Keith was sure he was right.

  Leaning over, she directed him. “Get that piece of paper that’s sticking out of my back pocket and read it, asshole,” she was almost triumphant.

  He did so. “Damn!” He screamed, wadding it up and tossing it across the shed’s bleak interior.

  “They’ve washed their hands of me, Keith. As far as hostage material goes, I’m worthless.” Jessie was relieved. Now he would let her go. There was no use to keep her captive if there was no hope for recompense.

  With a crazed grimace on his face, Keith McCay loomed over her. “I don’t suppose I have to be careful with you, now. You’re disposable.”

  With a sinking heart, Jessie realized that her nightmare was far from over. “What do you want from me, Keith?” She would do anything to protect he
r child. Anything.

  “How badly do you want to live, Jessie?”

  One day passed, then two. When the phone rang the next day, Jacob answered it with a hope that refused to die. But, it wasn’t news about Jessie, it was the lab. “Mr. McCoy, we have news on your paternity test.”

  Jacob’s heart hurt. His child. “The test proves that I’m the father, doesn’t it?” There was no doubt in his mind.

  “Actually, no, Mr. McCoy.” Jacob had to sit down. “The test proves that you are not the father. We ran the test three times. I hope this is the news that you’ve been hoping for.”

  Jacob couldn’t breathe. He wasn’t the father. What did that mean? Picking up the letter from the Cryobank, he called them directly. He was livid. “I’d like to speak to Mr. Horace Brown, please.”

  In a few seconds, a man spoke. “This is Horace Brown, how may I be of service?”

  “Mr. Brown, this is Jacob McCoy.”

  That’s all it took. Jacob never heard the lack of hem-hawin and apologizing in his life. By the time the conversation was over, Jacob had a little better idea what was going on. There was a scandal at the sperm bank. It seems that Jacob’s problem was not the only problem. The Cryobank had been sued for negligence. It seems their records were lacking in clarity, quality and quantity. They had declared bankruptcy just that morning. Accusations had come from several avenues. They kept no record of any diseases, genetic disorders, or any problems that could be handed down from their donors. And worst of all, as in Jessie’s case, they did not even make sure that the woman was impregnated with the sperm of her choice. He did promise to call Jacob the moment that the real father of Jessie’s baby was identified. Jacob didn’t really want to know, but there might come a day when they would need to know for the baby’s health. After a few choice words, Jacob hung up. He’d let Zane deal with the rest of it.

  So who was the father of Jessie’s baby? Jacob sat for a minute, waiting for waves of sadness and disappointment to wash over him. When it didn’t, he realized something. He didn’t know who the father of the baby was, and he didn’t care. The important point was that he loved Jessie and he loved her baby. When the baby was born, Jacob McCoy would be his father – a father born of love and devotion. And that was all that mattered.

  Now all he needed was to get Jessie back where she belonged.

  That night Aron got a phone call from Kane that changed everything. “Buddy, I’ve got some good news. We’ve got a tip that McCay was spotted in Austin. We’ve got video footage of him leaving a convenience store. Attempts were made to track him by cameras at red lights, and we were able to determine that he is traveling back toward Kerrville.”

  “What can we do?” Aron was ready to do whatever it took.

  “We need to get some planes in the air. That’s the only way we’re going to cover the territory as fast as we need to.”

  “Done.”

  Aron didn’t say anything about it to anyone else, yet. He wanted to get some good news before he got Jacob’s hopes up. His home had turned into a place where nobody laughed. Libby was sad. Joseph had refused to start his therapy, which put Ms. Renaud into the position of feeling like she was useless and in the way. Nathan was inconsolable and Isaac rarely left Jacob’s side. He had surprised them all with his intense devotion to be there for his brother.

  Jacob walked around like he was in a dream. He didn’t eat, he didn’t sleep; he sat by the phone or he walked the land. At night, he sat by the bed and looked at the place where she had slept. The whole family was worried to death about him. But as bad as Jacob was – Noah was worse. Noah was sick at heart. At any moment, if he could have changed places with Jessie, he would have done it. If he could have turned back time, he would have done it. But he couldn’t, so he did what he could.

  He fixed up the nursery for Jacob and Jessie‘s baby.

  Jacob knew that Noah was preparing the nursery for Bowie Travis, but he couldn’t go in it – not yet. Instead, he went to the jeweler’s and picked up Jessie’s ring. That night, he sat on the porch for hours, just holding it in his hand.

  The next day, he and Isaac planted a field of rose bushes for Jessie. In his mind, he had relived every moment they had spent together. And when he had recalled the day that he had taken her to his mother’s sunflower field, he remembered that he had asked her what her favorite flower was and she had said old fashioned roses. So he and Isaac had tilled up a field next to his grandparent’s old house place and they had planted three hundred Belle Amour roses by hand. My Beautiful Love.

  Jacob only lost it one time. It was the day when he overheard one of the cowhands say they were going to start dragging in the Guadalupe for Jessie’s body. If Isaac hadn’t pulled him off the man, Jacob would have killed him. Afterwards, he clutched Isaac to him like a drowning man held on to a life preserver. “Jessie’s alive, somewhere, Isaac. I want her back! I want her back!” And he had cried.

  Jessie was dirty; both inside and out. Without a doubt, she would never be clean again. How much longer would he keep her? Wouldn’t he tire of tormenting her soon? She was worried about the baby.

  Keith didn’t talk to her very much. He hit her, and pinched her, and slapped her – but he did not talk to her. And, he wasn’t giving her much to eat. For most of each day, he left her bound and gagged on the floor. When he did show up, he didn’t stay long. Only long enough to attempt another rape.

  He was really pathetic. If he weren’t a monster, Jessie would have felt sorry for him. Because Keith McCay definitely had a problem. Now, she knew why it had been necessary for a doctor to extract the sperm for the insemination. He hadn’t even been able to get it up for a cup.

  When he mauled Jessie, sometimes he would get an erection, of sorts. His little penis was so short that as far as weapons goes, his was a penknife in a world of swords and sabers. Once, she had made the mistake of laughing and he had kicked her in the stomach. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Her baby was still okay, it was still moving. So she didn’t laugh. Every day they went through the same ritual. Thank God for small favors and small dicks.

  Sometimes, fate has a way of mending the fabric of life. When the phone call came, no one was home but Noah.

  “McCoy Residence.” Noah held his breath, the caller ID said that it was the sheriff’s office.

  “Jacob?”

  “No, it’s Noah.”

  “Listen, get word to Jacob. We’ve got him. I know that he’ll want to be in on the take down.”

  “Where?”

  “You wouldn’t believe it. Right in your own backyard. He’s got her in an old ramshackle barn on the Perry place. It‘s just off Blanco Road.”

  “I know the place. We’ll meet you there.“

  Jacob and Isaac had been doing a flyover with one of the pilots. Noah left a message with the radio operator, who promised to get them down ASAP. As he drove like a bat out of hell, he called Aron, who was with Libby at a doctor’s appointment and Joseph who had gone to pick up his new truck with Cady Renaud. This was his chance; he was going to redeem himself if it was the last thing he ever did.

  Keith was going to kill her. She knew that now. Today, he had brought a gun. Chained to the wall, she didn’t have a prayer of getting away. There was no hope. No one was looking for her. No one even knew she was missing. Cradling her baby, she apologized for not taking better care of him. And she thought of Jacob.

  Noah got there first. That was no surprise. Kane was coming from eight miles away and he was coming from one. He parked a good three blocks back and went in on foot. Halfway to the old barn he realized he had brought no weapon, he had been too hyped to think. It didn’t matter; he would kill the son of a bitch with his bare hands if he had to.

  About thirty feet away, he stopped to listen. He could hear Jessie crying. Noah breathed a sigh of relief. She was alive.

  “Get up, bitch.” He heard the crack of a fist against flesh. That was when Noah quit thinking and just reacted.

  Keith
McCay had the gun pointed at her head. Jessie bowed, not willing that the last thing she would see be her killer’s face. Instead, she conjured up Jacob’s image. For several days she had tried to forget him, tried to push his face from her mind. It had been too painful to remember. Now, facing the end; she brought him to life. Closing her eyes, she left the site of her captivity and went to the place of her greatest happiness. She let her hand mold the muscles of his arms. He was so strong and capable, and he made her feel so safe and special. Rising up, she couldn’t resist giving him a soft kiss on his cheek. When she did, he smiled at her. It was a genuine smile. He had little sun crinkles at the edges of his big blue eyes and she ran her finger over them in wonder. The dimple on his cheek required a bit of attention, and if she had a bit more courage, she would have teased the cleft in his chin with her tongue. “I can’t believe you’re mine to touch whenever I want to,” Jessie was moved to say.

  “Don’t ever doubt it, baby.” Jacob moved his hand higher up her thigh. “I can’t wait to get you home. I’ve been almost out of my mind with worry about you.” Moving his arm up, he put it around her shoulders and held her as close as he could. She slid both arms around his waist and hugged him tight. Whispering in her ear, he said the most welcome words of all. “I can’t wait until your home with me, where you belong.”

  She heard Keith take the safety off. She heard him pull the slide back. She waited to hear the trigger. . . . Instead, she heard the slam of one body hitting the other and a gun went off. Jessie jerked, almost pulling her arm out of the socket. She expected to feel the burn of a bullet, but there was none. Rolling to where she could see, she was stunned to see Noah struggling with Keith McCay. Noah? Noah?!? She tried to wrap her mind around the identity of her savior.

  Noah was bigger, but Keith had a gun. Horrified, she realized that in a few moments, Noah could die. “No! No!” she screamed. “Keith, no! Don’t you dare shoot him! He has a family! He has people who love him! Turn him loose, you don’t want to shoot him! It’s me you hate! Keith!” Determined that Noah live, Jessie lunged to the end of her chain. Grabbing Keith’s hand, she pulled it as hard as she could, which moved the muzzle of the barrel enough that the bullet struck Noah in the leg and not the heart. Noah went down. Jessie screamed and Keith turned to her. In retaliation for her interference, Keith swung the whole gun at her head. Jessie cowered, but the blow never came. Instead, Keith was hit by a force that pushed him across the cabin like he had been hit by an eighteen wheeler.