Finding Home (32 page)

Sarah hadn’t paid much attention to
the view from her window when she got up, but when she got out of the bathroom,
dressed and ready for the day, she crossed over to the window, pulled the
curtains open and then gasped at what she saw.  Her room faced the back of
the house and looked out over the northern edge of the Rocky Mountains. 
It was absolutely stunning.  The morning sun shone brightly against the
majestic beauty of the mountains.  Not too far in the distance, she could
see a stream.  How fortunate for them, to wake up to such beauty every
day.  She wondered if they truly appreciated it or if they were so used to
seeing it that it blended into the background.

“Baby, are you –“ Colt began as
he walked into the room but stopped when he saw her standing at the window.

She looked over her shoulder at him
and he thought for as long as he lived, he would always remember this look on
her face.  Her eyes were shining bright as the sun, a huge smile on her
face, cheeks a little flushed.  She looked absolutely radiant.

“I hadn’t looked outside until
now.  Colt, it’s so beautiful!  It gives me chills just to look out
at it.”

He came up behind her and wrapped his
arms around her waist, leaning down to place his chin on her shoulder as they
both looked out at the view. 

“It’s breathtaking,” he agreed, only
he really wasn’t referring to the mountain view.  “Charlotte’s eager to
introduce you to the house staff.  Most all of them were here when you
were taken.  Your nanny is particularly eager to meet you.”

Sarah looked at him over her
shoulder.  “I had a nanny?”

“Looks like.”

“Wasn’t Charlotte a stay-home-mom?”

“Apparently even before the
kidnapping, she did a lot of charity work.”

“All righty, then.  I suppose in
a house this size they do need staff to clean and things like that.”

He kissed her cheek.  “Ready to
head down?”

“Sure, why not?” she laughed, putting
her arm around his waist as he pulled her into his side with an arm around her
shoulders. 

When they went downstairs and into
the kitchen, she was struck speechless by the number of people there, waiting
to greet her.  Charlotte introduced them all but Sarah would have been
hard-pressed to remember their names.  The only one who stood out was her
one-time-nanny, a grandmotherly looking woman named Patty who hugged her tight
and doted on her as a grandmother would, which made her wonder if any of her
grandparents were still living.  She made a note to ask about that when
she had a chance.

“So,” Charlotte said as they were
finishing up breakfast, “I thought we could take you up to the Foundation
today, if you’re up to it.  They have all been anxious to meet you.”

“Um, sure, that would be great,”
Sarah answered, smiling to try to hide her apprehension at meeting yet another
group of people.

“Wonderful.  I know that Tag
wanted to show Colt, Mike and Riley some of the things he was working on up
there.  We can all go now if you’re ready.”

They loaded up in SUVs and headed
into downtown Cheyenne.  Sarah stayed pressed to Colt’s side on the drive,
listening to her new found family tell her about all the various places they
were seeing as they drove.  She was grateful for Colt’s strong arm around
her shoulders, and very aware of the gun strapped to his hip.  He and Mike
and Riley were taking no chances, they said, after being caught unprepared once
already.  It alarmed her a bit but she was grateful he was there and that
they were prepared just in case.  He wore a black v-neck shirt with his
khaki combat pants and boots, looking very much a soldier of fortune…and
extremely hot in her opinion.

“This is it,” Buck announced when
they turned into the parking lot of a very sleek and modern looking glass
building. 

“Our offices are on the ninth floor,”
Charlotte told her as they all emerged from the SUV.  Colt and Mike
flanked her side while Riley was behind her.  She felt a little silly
walking in with an armed escort as if she were some sort of celebrity but she
supposed she shouldn’t let it bother her.  If it kept her safe, that was
all that mattered.

They filed into an elevator and Colt
pressed a sweet, tender kiss to the side of her head as it began its ascent to
the ninth floor.  She tipped her head up to smile at him and was rewarded
with a quick peck on her lips.  When he pulled back, she caught Charlotte
watching them with a smile on her face and Sarah knew, even though she was
about to go face meeting yet another group of people, she’d never been happier
than she was right then in that moment.

As soon as the elevator doors opened,
all activity in the offices stopped and everyone crowded around in the lobby of
the offices, waiting for them all to file in from the elevator.

Charlotte stepped to the front of
their group and smiled brightly at the room at large.

“I want to thank everyone for coming
in today, I know some of you had to rearrange field visits but I wanted everyone
to be together for just a short while today.  As you know, we don’t often
get an outcome like this in cold cases, but we were blessed with a miracle and
our Christine has come home, so everyone, I’d like you to meet our youngest
daughter, Sarah Sauter.”

The room broke out in applause as
Sarah placed her hand in Charlotte’s outstretched one and stepped forward with
her, Buck at her other side.  She accepted hugs and handshakes from
everyone, answering questions as she could, deferring to her parents on
others.  Always, she was aware of Colt just behind her, his eyes scanning
the room constantly, along with Mike and Riley.  As Charlotte and Vivian
began walking her around the offices and showing her the various things they
did, a police detective approached Colt and Buck and began discussing the
search for the fourth man.  Mike and Riley stayed with her, Mike to her
left, Riley slightly behind her to her right. 

“And this is our nerve center, so to
speak,” Vivian said as they approached an area with multiple TV and computer
monitors mounted on the wall.  “We can monitor various news reports around
the nation and follow the progress of…”

Vivian kept talking but Sarah’s
attention was caught by the man who was sitting behind a desk that held several
large monitors.  There was nothing particularly notable about the
man.  He was a little mousy, average build, thinning hair and glasses, but
it was his voice that had her pulse leaping and her mouth running dry. 
She knew that voice!  She glanced over her shoulder toward Colt, but he
and Buck were still at the front of the room, talking to the detective. 
The man was on the phone and had only glanced her way a couple of times, but
Sarah knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was him; the fourth kidnapper. 

“That’s Lewis,” Charlotte explained,
“he is our resident computer genius!  He has been with us since the
beginning.  He is an absolute miracle worker with computers and anything
technological.”

Sarah did her best to mask her
emotions and smiled at the man as he nodded to her in greeting, still speaking
on the phone.  She let the tour continue for a bit, then decided she
needed to go into the restroom a moment to try to calm herself so she wouldn’t
give anything away until she had a chance to tell Colt. 

“Vivian, where’s the restroom?” she
asked, hating that her voice came across a little shaky.  “I’ve got a bit
of a headache, I just need to splash some cool water on my face, I think.”

“Just down that hall,” Vivian said,
indicating a long hallway past where they’d just left.  “I have some
Ibuprofen if you need it.”

“No, I’ll be fine.  Just give me
a minute.”

She started walking away from the
group, surprised when Mike joined her.  When they rounded the corner and
were out of sight of the others, he stopped her.

“Something upset you back there,” he
said quietly, “what was it?”

She took a deep breath.  “That
man, Lewis.  Mike, he’s the fourth man from the cabin.  I know
it.  I will never forget that voice, it was…” She screamed when a shot was
fired and Mike collapsed at her feet.  Before she had a chance to react,
she was grabbed from behind and felt the nozzle of a gun against her temple.

She heard Colt calling for her
amongst the other screams in the offices but Lewis’ arm tightened on her middle,
squeezing her lungs.

“Not. One. Word,” he told her.

After what seemed like hours, Colt
and the detective rounded the corner of the hall, guns aimed at them, Buck
close behind them.  Sarah was trembling uncontrollably but she forced
herself to remain calm and not cry in case Colt needed her to do
something.  She didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize the
situation and let him down.

“Lewis?” Buck asked, confused, “What
are you doing?”

“All those years ago, when the
recession hit the Valley, so many of us lost our homes; our family
ranches.  We were forced to sell for next to nothing and then you came in
with your deep pockets and bought up all the land, leaving all of us high and
dry.”

“I made an investment,” Buck said,
incredulous.  “I inherited my grandparents’ ranch and when I moved to
town, there was all that adjoining land for sale.  I didn’t know the story
behind why the land was available at the time, I just knew it was and so I
expanded.  Did I not sell the Warrens back their land when they came to
me?  And the Hendersons?”

“Oh, yeah, at a profit, I’m sure.”

“I sold it to them for what they sold
it to the broker for.  I lost money on those sales.  This is why
Christine was taken from us?”

“We wanted to make you suffer. 
And we wanted to make you pay.”

“You took our baby from us!”

“We were going to give her back once
you paid.  That stupid girl we brought to take care of the baby while we
had her overreacted.  If she had just stuck with the plan, you would have
paid, gotten your baby back and we’d have all disappeared into Mexico.”

“Lewis, please,” Charlotte cried,
rushing past Buck, coming to stand next to Colt.  “Please let her
go.  That girl has been through so much, don’t do this to her again. 
If you have to take someone, take me.”

“You’d take her place?”

“In a heartbeat.  She’s my
daughter, I’d do anything to keep her safe.  Please, Lewis, let her go.”

He tightened his hold on Sarah
causing her to cry out in pain.  Charlotte rushed forward in effort to
reach her.  Lewis, startled by Charlotte’s movement, shifted the gun from
Sarah’s head to aim at Charlotte.  Sarah, seeing an opportunity, let her
legs give out from under her and collapsed, pulling Lewis off balance and
causing his gun to fire.  Sarah wasn’t sure what happened next.  She
heard several screams.  She saw Charlotte go down and she heard a barrage
of gunfire.  The next thing she knew, she was in Colt’s arms and he was
running with her toward the front of the building. 

“Colt!  Stop!” she cried,
pushing against him, trying to twist out of his arms.  “Colt,
please!  Charlotte!!”

“You’re hurt, baby, I’ve got to get
help.”

“I’m not hurt, Colt, please! 
Charlotte is hurt.  Please, I need to see her.  COLT!!!!!!”

He stopped and really looked at
her.  “You aren’t hurt?  There’s a lot of blood.”

She shook her head.  “It’s not
mine.  Please, put me down.  Charlotte was hurt, and Mike.  I
need to see them.”

He slowly lowered her to her feet and
then crushed her to him, nearly bruising her in his effort to show his relief.

“Thank God,” he managed, his lips
against her neck.  “I thought I’d lost you.  I thought…”

“I’m all right, Colt.  I
promise.”

He took a deep breath and then let
her go.  She quickly kissed him and then ran back to the hallway. 
Riley was with Mike, a wad of jackets pressed against Mike’s abdomen.  He
didn’t look good at all but Riley told them he had a pulse.  Sarah dashed
farther down the hall where Buck, Tag and Vivian were surrounding
Charlotte.  She was sitting up and leaning against Buck, Tag’s shirt
pressed to her shoulder but she otherwise seemed fine.  A little farther
down the hall, she saw the detective Colt had been speaking with standing over
the obviously dead body of Lewis Dalton.  It was now well and truly over.

“Sarah,” Charlotte called, reaching
for her with her free hand.  “Are you all right, honey?”

“Yes, I’m fine.  You kept him
from hurting me.”

Sirens could be heard outside the
building.  It would only be a matter of moments before help arrived. 
She heard Riley’s voice growing more intense, telling Mike to hang on.  Glancing
over her shoulder she saw Colt rushing toward his former team leader, kneeling
down and getting in his face, yelling at him to stay with them.  Tears
filled her eyes and she left her mother to go to the man who had sought to
protect her.

She placed her hand on Colt’s
shoulder and knelt down beside him, stroking her hand over Mike’s face.

“Mike, listen to me.  You have
to hang on, OK?  Colt and Riley need you.  You have to help them get
back home.  You’re their leader.  They need you, so you have to fight. 
You have to fight to stay awake.  They need you.”