Page 66 of Gabe

I didn’t get much time to appreciate the sight of Sebastian walking before Tansie ran up to him. It was that moment when I remembered the gun still clutched in her hand. The armed goons were dead, but technically Tansie was still a threat.

For a moment, the way she held the gun in front of her, it looked like she was going to shoot Sebastian. I couldn’t even blame her if she believed killing Sebastian was the only way to save her child.

I was quick on my feet, but I wasn’t faster than a bullet, and Sebastian had no hope of running away.

But then, however, instead of pulling the trigger, she broke down crying and fell to her knees.

“Why did you kill them? My son… They have my son. Oh, god. He’s probably dead, now.”

In his current physical state, Sebastian couldn’t kneel down to be on the same level with the woman, so he awkwardly bent at the waist as best he could while still holding onto his crutch in order to place a hand on her shoulder.

“Maybe not. It’s likely that Newt and Frankie were taken to the same place that your son was. If we find them, then we may find your son as well.”

I grabbed Sebastian’s arm before he could fall over.

“Does that mean you know where they are?”

With a smile that was too sharp around the edges to be called a happy expression, Sebastian held up his phone to display a map. “One of their GPS pins came back on line. We can track where they’re being taken.”

On the screen, a small red dot was moving along the map, following the line of a road. As I’d noticed earlier, Frankie and Newt were in a vehicle. There was no telling where their kidnappers were taking them, but so long as the GPS pin remained active, we could follow them.

The sight of that little red dot filled me with a small sense of relief.

“Let’s get going. The RV isn’t the fastest vehicle, and I don’t want them getting any farther ahead of us than they already are. We can track them so long as they are driving, but if they are put on a plane or something, then we’ll have a much harder time.”

I knelt beside Tansie and slipped the gun from her hand before she accidentally shot someone or herself. “Miss Bell. We’re going now. Just wait for us and we’ll get your son back.”

As I stood to leave, a pair of delicate hands grabbed my pant leg and held tight to the fabric. “Please,” Tansie begged as she looked up at me from the ground. “Take me with you.”

I tried to remove her hands as gently as possible, but she had an iron grip on my clothes. “We can’t do that. It’ll be dangerous.”

She pointed an angry finger at Sebastian. “You’ll take a cripple, but not me. What? Just because I’m a woman?”

Breathing deep through my nose to calm my irritation, I shot Sebastian a look and tried to silently plead with him to be patient. I could tell the “cripple” comment hurt him, but I also understood Tansie’s anger.

I would also hate being told I couldn’t help look for the person I cared about while others were allowed to come.

“It’s got nothing to do with your gender. You’re not trained for this kind of situation.”

“Well, too bad. I’m coming.” She climbed to her feet and looked around for her gun, only to scowl when she realized I’d already taken in. Instead, she crossed her arms and tried to look as defiant as possible. “You can’t stop me from coming. If you try to leave without me, I’ll just follow you. Unless you plan to tie me up.”

She was obviously talking out of anger, but I could tell the moment she realized that her hypothetical suggestion might actually happen. We could easily restrain her and leave her somewhere if we were determined not to be followed.

As much as I hated bringing another civilian into this mess, I also hated the idea of becoming a kidnapper when I was trying to stop a bunch of kidnappers.

“Fine.” I relented. “You can come, but you are staying out of any combat that might happen. And if I tell you to hide, then you hide. Got it?”

“Yes.” Her voice sounded confident, but she nervously twisted her hands around her braid.

I already hated this plan, but we forged ahead anyway.

As we made our way back to the RV as quickly as Sebastian’s crutch would allow him to move, I copied the GPS tracker onto my own phone so I could keep track of Frankie and Newt.

The red dot kept moving, and the feeling of hope in my chest burned a little brighter.

CHAPTER 24

Gabe

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