“But he sent the two of you out in the storm instead, knowing you’d probably die out there.”
I nod my head.
“He shot at us but missed us for the most part. I think one bullet grazed my arm.”
“It did,” Alexis admits. “I cleaned and bandaged it. You should be fine.”
Anna brings me some broth and tries to spoon a little into my mouth. It tastes better than anything I’ve ever eaten.
“I thought we’d die out there. Especially since Graham couldn’t move and I couldn’t carry him. I figured, if he was going to die out there in the snow, I’d just die there with him, so I laid down and covered him with my body.”
“That’s probably what saved the two of you,” Alexis says. “Your body heat worked together to give you just enough heat to keep your bodies alive.”
“How did you find us?” I ask.
“Your dogs,” Aunt Ava says. “They sensed you were out there. I thought it was a coyote or cougar out looking for food. Both dogs tore out of here. They led me straight to the two of you.”
I struggle to get up, only to feel as though I’m about to black out again.
“We’ve got to get back there,” I say. “Mom and Kara …”
“I don’t understand,” Anna says. “Aunt Faith was married to someone besides Uncle Matt?”
I shake my head.
“I don’t know all the details, but from what I’ve experienced, he’s a very dangerous man. I think my mom even changed her name when she moved here.”
“Why would you think that?” Alexis asks.
“He keeps calling my mom Sarah. And mom just keeps saying, ‘My name is Faith now’ like she used to be another person.”
I look at my aunt who doesn’t seem shocked by this news I’m telling her.
“She’s afraid of him. Like really afraid and I’ve never seen my mom afraid of anything or anyone my entire life.”
I watch as Aunt Ava gets up and goes toward the hall closet bedroom, coming back with two rifles, a pistol and some ammunition.
“Mom what are you doing?” Anna cries.
“I can’t just sit here while Faith and Kara are at the mercy of that sociopath. Matt would never forgive me and frankly, I’d never forgive myself.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Alexis walks over and takes one of the rifles away from her mother. “First, we’re in the throes of this blizzard. It’s coming down so hard you can’t even see where you brought the boys back inside. Go ahead. Look. No tracks, nothing.”
Aunt Ava gives a frustrated sigh.
“Second, do you think this man is just going to sit there and wait for you to come through the door and shoot him? Well? Do you?”
The entire room remains silent.
“Mama please don’t go. You could be doing more harm than good by heading over there. He could see you coming and decide to shoot Faith, Kara and himself before you even get close to the house, then how would you feel?”
“He’s got several guns,” I admit. “And he’s paranoid. I think he believes my father’s going to be coming through the door at any minute. He kept looking at the window and checking his gun. He asked several times why our father wasn’t there and where he was. We kept telling him the same answer, but he kept asking. I don’t think anyone is going to get in there without him doing something desperate.”
“You see?” Alexis breaks in, a voice of reason in an impossible situation. “Is that what you want? To leave Daddy a widower and me and Anna without a mom?”
“No,” she says. “Of course not.”
“Then we’re going to have to sit tight and try and figure out how to let the sheriff know what’s going on out here.”
“You’re right,” I admit. “But the lines are down from the storm and no one’s getting any cell service out here. I tried before he saw what I was doing and threw my phone in the fire.”
I watch Aunt Ava pace around the living room. Her pacing made me more anxious. She turns to me.
“Your mother is a smart woman, Jake. If anyone can get them out of this situation alive, it’s her. She was brave enough to escape from him once. She knows him best and will know how to keep herself and Kara alive. The only thing any of us can do right now is pray. I intend to do a lot of that.”
“Yes ma’am,” I nod. “Where two are three are gathered …”
“Exactly,” she smiles and kisses the top of my head. “There’s five of us here. That will make a pretty powerful prayer circle so let’s get at it.”
Matt
I sit down to the table, my stomach still gnawing with uncertainty and fear over something I cannot name or know what it is. The Lodge is secure. The men are all accounted for and fed. The horses are in their stalls safe and warm with plenty of food and hay.
But I still can’t shake this horrible feeling that something is terribly, terribly wrong back home.
“Oh Matt!” Gary Campbell shouts from across the room where he’s playing chess with one of the older men from the ranch, Rhett Horner.
“Yeah?” I answer and try to manage a smile, because he’s smiling and is probably about to bust my chops about something that happened on the trail. I need to keep up moral for my men.
He rises from the rocking chair and heads over to where I’m standing.
“Before we got out of cell range, my wife called me and told me the strangest thing happened in town after we left,” he says as he pours himself a glass of iced tea.
“Oh?” I cock one eyebrow at him.
“Yeah,” he smiles. “I kept meaning to ask you about it, but something came up and I completely forgot about it until now.”
“We’ve got nothing but time and conversation until this storm is over and we can start digging our way out of here. Let’s hear it.”
“You know that party all the teenagers wanted to go to over the weekend storm or no storm?”
“Yeah. Kara didn’t even want to go to Florida unless she was promised she could go to that party first.”
“Exactly! Well Sharon said when she was leaving the lobby with Angela she sees Kara talking to some good-looking older man, like our age older.”
The protective Daddy in me comes out and I straighten up upon hearing this news. “Oh? Did she know who it was?”
“No. She said she’d never seen him before. She said Kara took his phone from him and texted something, then she handed it back.”
“Dear Lord.” I shake my head and look toward heaven. “How many times have I told that girl not to talk to strangers?”
“Well that’s not the strangest part,” he says. “Right after she did that, Kara saw Faith walking across the lobby and quickly said goodbye to the man and rushed over to her.”
“And?”
“This is where it gets weird. Sharon said the guy kind of hid behind one of those columns in the lobby and watches her.”
“What?”
“Yeah. And then get this, when he sees Faith he got this odd look on his face.”
“What do you mean odd?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t explain, she just said it was odd and that he kept staring at Faith like he’d seen a ghost.”
My fists tighten on my glass and I clench my teeth at his next words.
“She said he kept repeating the same name over and over.” He looked up at me. “Sarah.”
Faith
My heart leaps in my throat as I look at him. I know what he wants. I know what he expects and the thought makes me want to retch violently into the sink again.