Chapter 34

Sara's wrists were raw from where she had been twisting them to try to get loose. "I am going to hunt down and kill the man who invented duct tape. This shit is impossible to get out of."

"Talking to yourself Sara?" Tim Trainor asked from the doorway. "I guess now would be a good time to properly introduce myself, my name is Tim Trainor." He came over and sat next to her on the bed.

"I know who you are because my friends already figured it out and it won't be long before they find me." She saw the slight look of fear cross his face. "Yeah they found the file on your sister and put two and two together. By this time they will be digging up everything on both you and Manny that they possibly can and they will find this dive too. You're sick you know that?"

His hand was lightening quick and made contact with her cheek before she even had a chance to react. She felt the sting long after his hand left her face. "I love you, how can you say that about me. I've sent you gifts for years. I even bought your beach house to bring you back to so you could be happy again. Look around you, this is all for you."

"This isn't love this is obsession."

"This room is exactly like your bedroom in the beach house. Don't you think that's a loving gesture? This whole house is just like your beach house." His hand was caressing her cheek and Sara tried to move her head away but he grabbed her face and turned it towards him. "Do not turn away from me." His grip on her face was viselike and excruciatingly painful. "Your time for fighting has run out. No one is coming to save you this time. Your precious Catherine is probably going crazy with worry right about now isn't she?"

"You don't know how tenacious she can be once you've pissed her off and I think it's safe to say you've pissed her off."

"Well maybe we will have to change plans and get out of here sooner rather than later. I wonder if they will think to look in California." He stood up and started walking around the room. "Why is it so hard for you to accept my love?"

"Because I don't love you back."

"Ah, but you will, you will come to love me. You will learn to love me or just learn to live with it. Either way we will be together."

"You can't make someone fall in love with you, it just doesn't happen that way. I don't now and I never will love you."

Once again his hand made contact with her jaw but this time it was a closed fist. "If that's the way it's going to be then so be it." He brought his face close to hers and whispered. "You're going to regret that." He grabbed her around the neck and started squeezing. "Maybe I should finish what I started at the hospital." Sara didn't have the strength to fight him as he hit her twice more before she lost consciousness, he hit her one more time for good measure then left the room. "Manny, I think we'll take her with us whether she wants to go or not. I thought she'd go willingly but she won't so we'll have to drive instead of flying it will take a bit longer but it will work. When we leave all I need from this place is the hard drive from my computer. Can't let them get their hands on the information I've got in there. If there's anything you need you might pack it now because we might have to leave in a hurry."

Sara slowly woke and her face hurt like hell. She tried to move her jaw from side to side, it hurt but at least it moved. She started struggling again in hopes that maybe she could loosen the tape just enough to be able to move her hands. If she could get them close to her teeth she could rip the tape but there was no give in the tape. The only thing that ripped was more of her skin off of her wrists. "Damn I hope the team comes up with something because I can't get myself out of this one." She started crying when she realized that she may never see Catherine again and she hoped that she could forgive her for doing what she did. She hoped that Brass would be able to convince her that she did it because she thought it would be best for both her and Catherine if she caught this guy. "How the hell was I supposed to know that Manny was part of this the whole time."

"That was all part of the plan."

She turned her head and was barely able to open her swollen eye to see Manny leaning against the door frame. "Come on Manny let me go." She said in a weak voice. "I'll take off into the desert and you'll never see me again."

"How long do you think it would take him to catch you? Not long, if you think your face hurts now that's nothing compared to what he would do to you when he caught you and brought you back. When my little brother sets his mind on something he will stop at nothing to have it. You remember our little sister that was raped and murdered? Of course you do that's when his obsession with you started. You see Timmy is my adopted brother. My parents thought he was the sweetest kid in the world. Everything that went wrong was blamed on me or my sister, Timmy could do no wrong." She heard the bitterness in his voice. "When in reality he was the one who did all of the things that got us in trouble and he didn't hesitate to let us know. He actually bragged about it. He was also the one who killed Tess, our sister. He wanted her even more than he wants you. When she refused to comply with his wishes, well you saw the results of his handiwork on the coroner's slab in San Francisco. I heard it wasn't pretty." Sara shuddered at the memory of the wounds on the woman he was talking about. "I see from your reaction that you remember what she looked like. Timmy made sure he came home and told me all about it. He also told me about you, he said you would be his."

"You talk as if you hate him yet you do what he tells you to do, why is that?" Sara watched as he pulled up the chair and sat down.

"Well Sara that's a long story. But to make it short, he's got all the money and he's helped me out of a few jams and I owe him big time. He said if I do this for him the slate would be wiped clean and he would no longer hold a certain incident over my head. If it weren't for him I never would have made it on the force, he wanted to make sure I'd be able to follow you. You should see what he can do on a computer, it's amazing, he can change records or even delete complete records as if something never even happened. That's what he did for me. That's why I owe him this one thing. Then I am done with him."

"If he's so great with computers why did it take so long for him to find me?"

"Oh he knew where you were as soon as you landed here maybe even before the plane took off. He just had a job he had to do that took longer than he thought it would. But he's kept tabs on you and I've been able to follow you too."

"So your debt is paid off by delivering me right?" He nodded. "Then why can't you let me go and let me take my chances?"

"Because he would kill me then come after you. I value my life too much to let you go."

"You know that Catherine and my friends are not going to let you get away with this don't you? You have to know that you will be a wanted man. You fucking kidnapped a police officer Manny, that's a federal offense."

"What are you two talking about?" Sara looked over Manny's shoulder to see Tim standing by the door.

Manny turned around and looked at his brother. "I was just explaining to Sara why it wouldn't be a good idea for me to let her go and why I did what I did in the first place. She's been asking me if I would cut the tape and let her go free in the desert." He turned back to Sara. "He knew you would try to talk me into letting you go and he knew there was no way I'd do it."

Tim walked over to the bed and hit Sara again. "That's for even thinking about leaving me." They all heard the cars at the same time. Manny and Tim ran from the room grabbing the guns at their sides.

Sara lay back on the bed and just prayed that this would be the end of this ordeal. She heard gunshots coming from outside the house and then she could hear Brass shouting directions. Just when she thought it was over Tim came back into the room and put Sara and the bed between him and the door and put the gun to her temple. "If I die you die too so say good bye Sara."

Sara turned to the door and saw Brass and two other officers standing there with their guns drawn. "Shoot him Jim!" Sara yelled from the bed.

"I can't he'll shoot you." He looked at her bruised and battered face and knew he couldn't pull the trigger.

Sara just stared at him and maintained eye contact. "Jim, just shoot him."

Brass made eye contact with Tim and moved his gun to a ready position then looked back at Sara.
"Are you sure?"

She looked Jim square in the eye. "Do it."

Jim looked at her one more time before he turned his attention to Tim. "Ok."

"No don't shoot I give up." Tim threw the gun over the bed and it landed at Brass' feet. He stood up with his hands in the air and walked around to the end of the bed. "I give up."

Brass handcuffed him then turned to Sara. "Are you ok?" He took a knife out of his pocket and cut the tape on her right wrist. He turned back to the cops standing at the door. "One of you get Catherine fast." He turned back to Sara and cut her other wrist free.

"I'm hurting a little but hey I'm alive right?" Just as she said this Catherine came running into the room and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Sara's face. Brass cut the rest of the tape on her ankles.

Catherine looked at Sara and saw that she seemed to be ok. "Stay there." She pointed to Sara before she turned to where Tim was standing at the end of the bed handcuffed. She walked up and stood directly in front of him. "Do you have any idea what you've done asshole? Don't answer because I don't believe you are capable of knowing. I just have one thing for you." He was about the same height as Catherine so she rested her hands on his shoulders and brought her knee up as hard as she possibly could into his groin and took immense pleasure in the pain she saw in his face just before he doubled over in pain. She then turned to the bed and carefully sat down next to Sara. "Baby are you ok? Brass we need and ambulance."

"No, no ambulance. I'll be fine. Nothing is broken so there's nothing they can do. Help me up ok? I want to talk to him." Catherine carefully helped her up and held on to her as she walked to the end of the bed. Brass helped Tim stand up straight so Sara could look him in the eye.

"This is police brutality, you can't do this." Tim screamed to no one in particular.

"Did anybody see anything?" Brass turned to the other cops in the room. They all shook their heads and couldn't help but smile. "You should have been careful, those end posts on the bed are pretty low and you walked right into it. Go ahead Sara, say what you want to say."

"Oh I just have a couple of things for him." She put her hands in the same place Catherine had put hers and leaned forward and whispered. "You should have killed me when you had the chance because now I will take great pleasure in preparing the best case against you and be there when the state of California puts you to death."

"How did you know I wouldn't shoot you?"

"Because you're a coward and your fucking hand was shacking so bad I thought you were going to drop the gun you wimp." As she finished talking she brought her knee up just as Catherine had but as he doubled over she clasped both hands together and she heard a satisfying crack as they made contact with his cheek.

"Oops fell again. Too bad." Brass turned to Catherine. "Take her with you in your truck, I'll have the guys process the scene. Take her to the hospital just to have them check her out."

Catherine put her arm around Sara's waist and led her out of the room. When they met up with Nick and Warrick, who had been standing in the living room, they both gasped when they saw Sara's face. "Damn girl are you ok?"

"Yeah Warrick just a little banged up." Sara looked around the living room and shook her head in disgust.

"Where's the little shit so I can take a swing at him?"

"We've already taken care of that Nicky, he'll be talking a few octaves higher for a while." Both guys winced at the thought and protectively covered their own groins.

"Ouch Catherine remind me to never piss you off."

"Don't worry guys, unless you kidnap my girlfriend and duct tape her to a bed then beat her like this I think you're safe. Just make sure you get lots of pictures to guarantee this guy does not see the light of day. Come on baby let's get you to the hospital."

"Really Cat I'm fine let's just go home."

"Humor me ok? That cheek looks like it might need stitches. I just want to know for sure that there is no damage other than cosmetic."

"Ok." Catherine helped her out the door and they both stopped at Manny's body lying on the ground. Sara kicked it as hard as she could. "Just wanted to make sure he was dead." They continued to the Denali, and Catherine reached across her to fasten the seatbelt and gave her a quick peck on the cheek that wasn't cut.

"Why don't you lay the seat back and rest until we get there." Catherine watched her as she winced in pain but lowered the seat back so she was lying down. "Are you hurt anywhere besides your face?"

"No, I think I pissed him off when I told him didn't love him and never would."

Catherine had to laugh. "Ya think? Close your eyes and rest until we get there." She watched as Sara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I love you Sara."

"Love you too. I'm sorry Cat."

"Shhh we'll talk later."

"You just want to make sure I'm ok so you won't feel guilty when you yell at me don't you?"

"Yup." Catherine laughed as she pulled away from the house in the middle of the desert.

Back at the house Brass had sent Tim back with the officers with instructions that he not talk to anyone until Brass got back to the station. Now Brass, Nick and Warrick stood in the bedroom and couldn't believe what they were looking at. "How the hell did he get this close with no one seeing him?" They were staring at a wall that was completely covered with pictures of Sara at various places but all taken in Las Vegas except for the one life sized picture in the middle. It was a duplicate of the one on his coffee table of Sara in her wetsuit. "Man this just isn't right."

"Yeah Nick I have to agree with you there. This is just plain sick. Did Catherine really kick him where it counts?" Warrick asked Brass.

Brass laughed at the look of pain on both men's faces. "Both of them did." He said with almost fatherly pride. "You should have seen Sara, beaten and bruised she faced him down. I think she might have broken his cheek bone. He should have been careful, he slipped and fell against the bed post there." He pointed to the bed post and all three laughed.

"That's too bad. Hope he'll recover enough to be arraigned in the morning. I suppose there were plenty of witnesses to see him fall."

"Yeah Nicky, the other officers were right in the doorway, and we all saw the same thing. He was in such a hurry to surrender, he walked right into the bed post and then he fell and smashed his face. Sure looked like it hurt." They all had a good laugh and then Brass left and the guys got down to work.