The Outsider's Redemption

From babbling on and on to complete silence. He hoped she wasn’t going to be one of those moody types. One thing for sure, when he agreed to Dan’s offer, he hadn’t expected that he’d be leading a pregnant woman into a trap that would get her arrested and sent to prison.

Strange, he was supposed to be one of the good guys, but he felt a lot like a rat. He walked beside Sarah to claim her baggage, wishing every second that Dan Austin would call. The sooner he made the delivery and walked away from this, the better he would like it.

“I need to stop at the ladies’ room,” Sarah said. “Why don’t you go on to the baggage area, and I’ll meet you there?”

“No way. I was told to stick to you like flies to a Fudgsicle.”

“I don’t know why. I came this far. I’m not running out now.”

“I’m just following orders.” He took her arm and guided her to a spot by the wall where he would be out of the line of traffic but could still see the restroom door. “When you finish, meet me right here.”

“If you’re going to wait on me anyway, you can hold this.” She thrust the tote bag in his direction.

He grimaced. “No way. If you want me to hold your bags, you need to buy some that won’t get me laughed at.”

“A real cowboy wouldn’t let that bother him.” She set it down at his feet and walked away.

He watched her depart, her hips swaying seductively. Seductively? What in the world was he thinking? You couldn’t think words like seductive in reference to a pregnant woman. It was…

He didn’t know what it was, but he didn’t plan to let it happen again. He touched a finger to the pager at his waist, checking to make sure it was on. All he wanted to do was get this woman and her disk to Daniel Austin.

The disk. Surely it wasn’t in the tote bag she’d carelessly deposited at his feet. He yanked it up and started digging through it. A couple of James Bond videos, some books, a portable radio with headphones, an opened package of trail mix, a bottle of vitamins.

Nothing that even resembled a floppy disk or a CD. He looked up to find a couple of cowboys snickering at his bag. “Don’t worry,” he quipped. “You’re not my type.” Before he had time to give it another thought, the pager at his waist vibrated.

He checked the number and then turned to try and locate a pay phone. There was one about thirty yards down the corridor, but he’d have to wait for Sarah before he made the call. Shifting from one foot to the other, he wondered what in the hell was taking her so long.

SOMETHING WAS WRONG. Sarah had known it the second the young cowboy had stepped up and called her by name. Daniel Austin had promised her a bodyguard, and he wouldn’t have sent a boy to do a man’s job.

Not that the cowboy outside was younger than she was, but he wasn’t a heck of a lot older either, and he wasn’t big and brawny. He was lean and lank and much too cute and sexy to have ever been in a fight.

She’d become even more suspicious when he’d started questioning her about the location of the disk. Daniel had warned her that she might run into trouble, that she was not to give the disk to anyone but him. And, if anything alarmed her, she was to sit tight and wait for him to contact her.

That’s why she’d made up the story about having a lot of extra baggage. It would have worked, too, if the man waiting outside the ladies’ room had agreed to meet her at baggage pickup. Then she could have sneaked away without any problem. Now she’d have to use more desperate methods and pray they worked.

Stopping in front of the mirror, she shrugged her arms into the sleeves of her light coat. It wasn’t cold, but it would be easier than carrying it when she made her getaway. Taking a deep breath, she stepped outside the bathroom and walked up behind the cowboy who claimed to be her contact.

“Help, officer. This man stole my bag.” Her voice pierced the dull clamor of the crowd, echoing off the walls and ceilings.

Cody grabbed her arm, his fingers digging into her flesh. “What the devil are you doing?”

“Give me my tote bag,” she screamed, yanking it from his arm. “Thief.”

He grabbed the strap and held on. A crowd gathered around them, and two guys pinned Cody’s arms behind him while another pried the bag from his hand and presented it to Sarah. She took off running just as a cop pushed through the circle of onlookers. She didn’t wait to see what happened next.

A WALL OF HOT AIR slapped Sarah in the face as she stepped through the double doors and into the hustle of passengers just outside the airport. She had no idea where she should go or what she should do next. Mr. Austin had said she wouldn’t need any money. Still, she’d brought all the cash she had on her when he’d called and said it was time to swing into action.

A measly twenty dollars. A cab ride to downtown San Antonio probably cost more than that. Besides, there was no place for her to go once she got downtown. She’d just have to wait until she heard from him. But wait where?

A uniformed police officer stopped traffic and she crossed the street with a group of Japanese tourists headed for a motor van in the outside lane. She left them at the curb, picking up her pace and striding toward the parking garage. She could duck behind a car and wait to hear from Dan.

The dangerous part would be stealing the files, he’d assured her. After that, she could leave everything to him. Only now she was in San Antonio, alone and broke. And hungry. Tears burned at the back of her eyelids. She blinked them away. No one ever cried in James Bond movies. They always managed to do something brave and daring. She made her way to the back corner of the first floor of the garage and crouched behind a white minivan.

Her cellular phone rang, and she dug the phone from her handbag. “Hello.”

“Do you have the files, Sarah?” She recognized Mr. Austin’s voice at once, only it wasn’t calm the way it usually was. He sounded angry.

“I have them.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m in the parking garage at the airport. Your bodyguard didn’t show. Instead some cowboy tried to convince me to give him the disk.”

“The cowboy you left in the hands of the police is the bodyguard. You can trust him to bring you to me, but don’t give him the diskette.”

“Suppose he takes it away from me?”

“He won’t. I’ve warned him not to upset you any more than he already has. Now, tell me exactly where you are and then stay put until Cody Gannon shows up. He’ll bring you to me.”

Her voice trembled as she gave her location. Cody Gannon was the last man she wanted to see, but she ended the connection, slipped the phone back into her handbag and waited. The minutes dragged on, and with each one she wished she was back in D.C. in her cozy apartment.

Just her and her baby-to-be. Footsteps sounded around her. She didn’t bother turning around. Cody Gannon would not be glad to see her.

“Waiting for someone, lady?”

The voice was coarse and harsh, not Cody Gannon’s. She spun around just as the man’s briefcase collided with the side of her head. Her feet slipped and she stumbled awkwardly as her purse was ripped from her arms. She tried to scream, but the man slapped her hard across the face.

Her ears rang and blood spurted from her nose and dripped onto her lips. She tried to brush it away with the back of her hand, but the man grabbed her and pinned her against him, holding his large, meaty hand over her mouth.

He threw her handbag to the hood and ravaged it with his free hand, tossing the contents to the floor. Her cell phone cracked, the pieces went flying into the air and under the minivan. “If you like living, lady, hand over the disk.”

She’d be glad to, only her fingers wouldn’t move and she was seeing two and sometimes three of everything. So she spit into one of the man’s faces and let the hot, suffocating blackness consume her as she slumped to the concrete floor.

Chapter Two

Cody raced across the busy street and ducked inside the doors of the parking garage. Dan had chewed him out good for letting Sarah outsmart him, but his stinging comments hadn’t been nearly as caustic as the ones Cody had hurled at himself.

He’d had a hell of a time convincing the cop that he and Sarah had just had a lover’s quarrel and that causing the scene was her way of getting back at him. He doubted the cop believed him, but he’d released him anyway, thanks to the testimony of a middle-aged woman who claimed to have witnessed the whole show.

When he found Sarah, he would tell her how the cow ate the cabbage and he wouldn’t mince words doing it. He was delivering her to Austin if he had to handcuff her and tie her to the truck. Pregnant or not, she was a little spitfire, and he’d have no choice but to treat her like one.

He rushed past a man carrying a briefcase in one hand and an overstuffed duffel in the other as he made his way to the back of the parking garage. Someone’s alarm went off. He barely noticed. Dan had said Sarah would be waiting for him near the left back corner, behind a minivan. This was the first time Cody realized how many people drove minivans.

“Sarah.” He said her name, too softly to attract any undue attention, but loudly enough she could hear him if she were within a few yards. There was no answer. He kept walking. He was almost to the back corner now, and there was no one around. Nothing but parked cars and exhaust fumes wafting on the humid air.

And a moan.

Anxiety and a burst of adrenaline answered. He called her name again and tried to follow the direction of the sound. A large man in a dark shirt and jeans dashed from between a car and a white minivan, then disappeared behind a Land Cruiser.