Disclaimer: The characters of, "Sons of Thunder" and "Walker Texas Ranger", are owned by Chuck Norris, Aaron Norris, CBS and whoever else was involved with the creation and production of these two shows. Any new characters and story lines that come into play are of my own creation. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a fanfiction intended for entertainment purposes only and no money is being made off of it.

Chapter 14: Royce's Connection

Will sat at the computer, his fingers drumming on the table to help keep him awake. Of course, Kendra had gone out a couple of hours ago, gotten them both cups of coffee and some type of pastry that had Will wondering where to get more of them. Will was surprised when Kendra had fallen right to sleep as soon as she had stopped pacing and had sat down.

Will felt that he couldn't be the only one with this incriminating evidence so he decided to pass the information along to someone he could trust. He sent his program and the coded information to Ranger Trivette, knowing that if something should happen to him and Kendra, at least the Rangers would be able to stop whomever Hunter had been investigating.

Will sighed softly and looked over at the sofa where Kendra had fallen asleep. It didn't look as though the sofa was very comfortable, but he bet it was better than a hard, wooden chair. He began to feel his head dropping down onto his chest and had shaken his head to keep himself awake. Even though the chair was uncomfortable, he fell asleep as the program continued to crack the code.

Kendra had been concerned that she would have another night filled with nightmares, but for some reason, her mind decided to give her a break. It was the first time she got some rest since Tyler had been hurt and when she had been angry with Hunter.

Even though her subconscious mind was keeping her blissfully within the darkness, her conscious mind sent a warning signal across her mind. As Kendra began to leave the darkness of her subconscious mind and return to her conscious, she felt something brush against her legs.

Kendra was about to jump to her feet, when she was grabbed by her arms and she was pulled to her feet. Kendra's eyes shot open as she looked into the darkness, trying to see who was standing right in front of her.

The sound of a steady beeping was the first thing that came to his mind. He slowly opened his eyes, allowing his eyes to adjust to the light where all there had been was darkness for so long.

When his eyes had finally adjusted, he saw a familiar shape standing off to his right. "Walker?" Hunter asked his voice barely above a whisper.

Walker stepped up to the bed and placed one hand on Hunter's shoulder. "Glad to see you awake, Hunter," Walker said as he removed his hand from Hunter's shoulder and took his hat off and held it in one hand.

Walker handed Hunter a cup of water with a straw and waited until Hunter had abated his thirst. Walker was debating whether he should call the doctor when Hunter set the cup down and gave Walker a determined and stubborn look that told the Ranger that Hunter didn't want to waste time with a doctor until he his questions were answered.

"Where's Kendra and what am I doing in the hospital?" Hunter asked as he tried to look around the room for her, but that just caused the room to spin.

"What do you remember?" Walker asked, knowing that it was better for Hunter to remember on his own.

"I remember Kendra being upset with me and I was planning on making it up to her." Hunter paused to think about what else he had done that day. "I was in my apartment and then I had gone to bed."

Walker waited patiently knowing by the look on Hunter's face what memories were now coming to Hunter's mind.

"I felt something in my chest, as though I had really bad heartburn from Trivette's chili. Then I felt intense pain and I knew that it definitely wasn't heartburn. I opened my eyes, there was someone standing over me, and then I saw the gun. I was trying to raise my arms to protect myself, but I was too slow and I saw the gun go off. I felt the pain in my chest intensify." Hunter's gaze returned to Walker instead of the wall beyond the Ranger where his eyes had gone when he had remembered. "That's the last thing I remember."

"Its okay, Hunter, but now it's time for you to tell me what case you had been working on."

Hunter was about to answer when Butch stepped into the room. Butch grinned at Hunter glad that his friend was awake.

"Hey, Hunter, glad to see that you're finally awake," Butch said as he stood next to Hunter's bed and studied the younger man. He cast a glance at Walker, asking the Ranger whether he should go get the doctor.

"I'm fine, Butch," Hunter said guessing what Butch was thinking and knowing that something had happened recently to have Butch so concerned.

Butch raised a doubtful eyebrow and was about to comment when Trivette entered the room.

"I got Ranger Bank and Ranger Dunn to take the guy to headquarters," Trivette said to Walker before he noticed that Hunter was awake.

"I'm sure those good ole boys will take good care of him," Butch said his mouth becoming an angry line.

Hunter was about to ask Butch what was going on when Trivette asked how he was doing. After several moments of reassuring Trivette and Butch that he was fine, Butch realized that Cassie wasn't in the room.

"Where's Cassie?" Butch asked feeling a little guilty that he hadn't noticed that Cassie wasn't around.

"She went outside to get a little air," Walker replied as he returned his attention back to Hunter.

Walker asked Hunter again about the case that he had been working on.

"I was doing some research on a case that dealt with an old acquaintance of Greg Royce. I got my hands on an old interrogation tape. Royce had hinted on the tape that he had a connection with someone in the prosecutor's office. It had been a subtle suggestion but I decided to check it out."

"I'm surprised that the detectives hadn't noticed the suggestion," Trivette commented with a frown.

"I was wondering that too but I think that they didn't believe Royce could have a connection to the prosecutor's office," Hunter said wondering why he was giving the detectives an excuse for not checking out everything that Royce had said to them.

"You discovered who Royce had a connection with at the prosecutor's office," Walker said unable to keep from being curious about the person's identity.

"Judge Reynolds was Royce's connection to the prosecutor's office. He's known Royce since childhood and he's been dirty since he started his law career. He had been keeping Royce and his associates out of jail but he's been careful and clever to cover his tracks."

"Not until you find out about him being a snake dealer," Butch said his hands forming into fists.

"Are you sure about this?" Trivette asked still shocked at the revelation that Judge Joseph Reynolds was a criminal.

Hunter didn't hesitate as he nodded his head and continued with his story. "I took the information I had gathered and changed into a complex code. I split the coded information onto two flashdrives so that you would only be able to obtain the information if you had both of them together."

"So only Kim could decode it or your brother, Will," Butch said shaking his head at the extremes that Hunter had gone to protecting the information that he had gathered.

"That's right, Butch. I sent a flashdrive to my brother Will and I hid the other one where I knew Kendra would find it."

"Where would that be?" Trivette asked unable to hold back his curiosity.

"I hid it at the Coffee Bean Café but I'm sure Kendra has found it by now." Hunter looked at his friends for confirmation but all he received was silence as they tried to take in everything that Hunter had told them.

"Let's go, Trivette," Walker said as he placed his hat back onto his head and headed towards the door.

"Wait, Walker, you didn't answer my question," Hunter said as he sat up quickly, causing his chest to scream at him in pain, but he pushed that pain away knowing that he was going to have to deal with it later.

"Which one was that Hunter?" Walker asked keeping the concern out of his eyes so Hunter wouldn't see it.

"Where's Kendra?" Hunter asked his green eyes looking into Walker's blue ones.

"You already know the answer to that Hunter," Walker replied as he signaled to Trivette with a quick nod of his head as he went out the door.

Hunter looked at Butch who had crossed his arms across his chest. "You know Kendra, Hunter. Besides, I have it on good authority that your brother Will is with her. He'll keep her out of trouble."

Hunter would have snorted if he hadn't been terrified for not only Kendra's life but his brother's as well. He knew quite well that no one could keep Kendra from getting into trouble.

Kendra struggled to release herself from the grip of the men who held her but stopped when she felt the gun being pressed against her skull.

Several flashlights were turned on which illuminated the room well enough for Kendra to see across the room. When she looked across the room at Will and saw that he had a gun pointed at his head.

"If either of you try anything, the other is going to have their brains splattered around the room," Russell said as he stepped into the room.

Kendra glared at Russell wondering how she could have let these goons sneak up on her like this especially when she knew that they had been looking for her and Will.

"Now, where is the information that I want?" Russell asked as he held up a threatening fist in front of Kendra's face.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Kendra replied, her blue eyes blazing with anger.

Russell pulled back his fist and struck Kendra on the chin, causing her head to snap back. Tears stung Kendra's eyes but she looked at Russell her eyes seeming to be an inferno as she ignored the taste of blood in her mouth.

"Let her go, she doesn't know anything!" Will yelled, knowing that he couldn't try anything because one of the goons still had his gun pointed at Kendra's skull.

"All right, if you don't want to answer my questions right now, that's fine. It's time to take a little trip. Biff, dose them," Russell ordered giving Kendra an arrogant grin.

"What? No!" Kendra said as Biff jabbed a needle into her neck.

Will tried to pull away from the man who held the needle, but the men who held him made sure that the needle entered his neck.

Russell was glad that he had called in a few more men to help him with Prescott and Stone. He knew his boss was going to be pleased that he had found them, but he still hadn't found what his boss really wanted. Now his boss wanted to speak to Prescott and Stone which was fine with Russell. The girl had been getting under his skin in more ways than one.

guardianM3: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story so far. I always try to reply to every review that I get, but lately work has been keeping me busy and I've been trying (really trying) to update this story as often as I can. I also appreciate everyone's patience during my agonizingly slow updates. Please review and let me know what you think about this story, the characters, etc.