“I’m coming,” I tell him. “I’m coming.”
After walking about ten minutes and feeling as though I’m on a wild goose chase with two dogs, I think about turning back and heading toward the house, but then I see it. The other dog, Audi is lying down, half covered with snow because it’s coming down so fast and hard. She’s whining and barking loud almost as though she’s in pain. I wonder if she somehow got hurt and also wondering how in the world I’m going to carry a one-hundred-pound dog back to the house in this blizzard.
Bandit runs ahead and starts digging in the snow beside Audi. That’s when I see them. Two bodies lying in the snow with no jackets or anything. They’re almost completely covered.
I rush up to see if they’re still alive and gasp when I notice who it is.
“Jake! Graham!” I call, but neither one moves. “Dear Lord, please don’t let them be dead!”
I take off my gloves, reach over and feel Jake’s neck. I can barely feel a pulse. Instinctively, I take off both my coats and lay it over the boys, before retracing my footsteps in the snow back toward the house.
I make it back in about eight minutes.
“Girls, get your coats on, grab some blankets and the sleds out of the garage!” I yell. “Now! Alexis, get the first aid kits and stoke up the fire in the fireplace.”
“Where is your coat?” she asks, as she grabs three logs and places them on the fire before putting on her coat. I reach in the closet and grab my old pea coat.
“It’s Jake and Graham!” I tell her. “They’re passed out the in snow about a half a mile from the house!”
“What? What are they doing out in this blizzard? I thought they were supposed to be in Florida.”
“Obviously, they didn’t go. They’re out there with no coats. The dogs stayed with them and I put my coats over them. Jake’s alive, but he’s barely got a pulse. I didn’t get a chance to check Graham’s pulse.”
The girls were out front with the sleds faster than I thought they could get them.
“What’s happened? Why are they out here?”
“I don’t know, but you’re about to get some real-life doctor training,” I tell her. “Let’s go.”
I button up my coat and follow the barking and the footsteps to where the two boys are lying. I can barely see my footprints and the coat I laid over the boys is already covered in snow.
“Help me dig them out and get them on the sleds,” I tell the girls.
It takes us a while to get them both on.
“It’s going to be hard pulling them back to the house,” I warn.
“We can do it, Mama,” Alexis tells me. “Anna and I will pull Jake. You pull Graham.”
I nod and pick up the rope. “Lord help us,” I say.
Slowly, we make our way back toward the house. The dogs stayed right with the boys on the sleds. Somehow, we manage to pull the sleds up the stairs and get the boys inside.
“Are they dead?” Anna asks. “They’re not moving. What do we do?”
“They’re hanging on. We need to get these wet clothes off them first.” Alexis takes charge and starts to unbutton Jake’s shirt and pants. “There’s blood on his shirt. It looks almost like he’s been shot here on his arm.”
I admit, I’m a little in awe by how efficiently she’s assessing the situation and I do as I’m told.
“Anna, go upstairs and get some of Daddy’s clothes and all the blankets you can find,” she orders her younger sister. “Mama help me get both of them over here next to the fire. We’ve got to warm them up.”
“Are they going to die?” Anna asks.
“I don’t know,” Alexis answers as we struggle to get Graham as close to the fire as we can. “I don’t know everything about rewarming a person who’s almost frozen to death. I read a book about it last winter. It was a library book, so I don’t have it here. We’ll just have to do the best we can.”
In a few minutes Anna returns with the clothes and the blankets. We put the pajama bottoms and clean t-shirts on both boys, then cover them with blankets.
“What on earth do you think made them go outside in this weather without any coats on?” Alexis asks. “And who would have shot Jake?”
I look in the direction of my brother’s house before meeting my oldest daughter’s gaze. I know both of us are wondering the same thing. If the boys are out in the cold, almost dead without coats on, where are Faith and Kara?
Faith
I hear the wind howling outside and see the snow pelting the huge flakes against the window panes. I try not to think of my sons out there in the middle of all of that with no coats, no shelter and no way of getting help for themselves, let alone me and Kara.
I swallow down the choking sob that’s lodged in my throat.
“You can untie us,” I tell Daniel. “Kara and I are hardly a threat to you. You’re bigger than we are and you’ve got the gun.”
Daniel looks at the two of us, weighing if it’s wise to untie us.
“I am getting kind of tired of eating the crackers and chips I found in your pantry. I remember you used to be quite the cook. I think I’ll sit here with Kara while you go make us a real dinner.”
“I’m not leaving Kara alone with you.”
He looks at me. His eyes narrow and I remember that look well. It was the look he would get right before he would hit me. He wants to hit me now.
I stare back at him defiantly.
“You’ll do as I say,” he says, his voice hushed and deadly, “or I’ll take Kara here upstairs and leave you tied up down here imagining all of the things I’m doing to her. Alone.”
“Mama,” she whispers. “Go make him his dinner. I’ll be okay.”
Only the Lord knows in that moment how much hatred I bear for this man before me. Only He knows how I want nothing more than to plunge a knife deep into his heart.
My sons are probably dead and before this is all over, he will more than likely violate my daughter. I fight the urge to hit him as he cuts the zip-tie holding my wrists with his knife.
“If you hurt her,” I say to him. “If you touch her, I will kill you.”
He pulls me to him, pressing the knife against my throat. I can feel his erection against my buttocks and I do what I can to control my breathing.
“Then I suggest you make me happy.”
“What would you like for dinner,” I say, trying to distract him from where his mind and body are going.
He releases me and pushes me forward toward the kitchen. I hear him following behind me.
“What do you have?”
“The freezer is stocked with any kind of meat you could want. There’s also frozen and canned vegetables and potatoes.”
I look over at my prized possession. My wall of chef’s knives Matt gave me for our tenth wedding anniversary. Daniel sees me and raises his handgun.
“You and your daughter would be dead before you could get to me,” he says.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie, pulling a beef tenderloin from the freezer and unwrapping it. “I just need one of those knives to prepare the meat.”
He walks and steps to the other side of the counter to watch me make the food.
“It’s like old times, isn’t it, Sarah?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, pulling my favorite knife off the magnetized strip.
“Me sitting here, watching you make dinner. Does your husband do that?”
My eyes flash to meet his gaze. I don’t like him talking about Matt.
“It’s too bad he wasn’t here,” he smiles. “I would have liked to have met him and compare notes. Is he as good a lover as me?”