Hide first, figure out what’s going on second. Shelter. Then questions. Shelter. Shelter. Laura kept repeating the words in her head, because she really wanted to stop and figure out what they were running from. And how far behind them it was. And if it was going to catch them.
Seth had said hide and they had taken off. But she didn’t know what they were hiding from. Probably not the fire since you didn’t normally hide from fires. That meant men with guns.
Laura had Abby clutched to her chest and was moving as fast as possible without sounding like a woman running through the forest. Thankfully, Abby had picked up on the serious change in mood and was being quiet. When this was over, she was going to let Abby scream and play and giggle for a month solid. While on a sugar high. She certainly deserved it after being so good the last couple of days.
Laura’s legs moved from memory, heading to a place she hadn’t seen in years. Please let it still be there. Please. It should still be there. Her dad wouldn’t have destroyed it, but nature itself certainly could have.
Laura turned to make sure Seth was still with her. He was. Of course he was. His presence was reassuring. The look of his face, however, was not. He still seemed worried. Almost afraid. And his gun was in hand, ready to fire. Laura moved a little faster, deciding that making some extra sound would be worth it if she could take that expression off Seth’s face. Or at least figure out what it meant.
Laura looked up ahead and almost sobbed out her relief. It was still there. She turned to Seth, only to find he was closer than ever. She naturally slowed as she turned and he stepped up and held her arm. He was urging her forward. Taking the hint without any trouble at all, Laura decided to just get into the cave and explain it to him later.
She went toward the grouping of large rocks covered in moss and vines. The foliage looked tight, grown thick. Laura couldn’t see the entrance but it had to be there.
Laura put Abby in Seth’s arms, barely slowing down at all. He took her immediately, wrapping both arms around her. He also did not break stride.
Laura thrust her hands right into the overgrowth, pushing in up to her elbows until she felt smooth rocks underneath. She probed in the area where the cave should be. And found it. Bending down, she quickly ripped a seam at the bottom and along one side, creating a kind of flap door. Thankfully, the plant life was not thick enough that she needed to take precious time cutting it with her knife.
She lifted it as little as possible and crawled in. Oh, God, I’m just not sure I can deal with snakes right now. Or bears. Or spiders. Or anything breathing and moving, really. If You could just make this cave empty of the creepy-crawlies or things that want to eat us, I would really, really appreciate it.
Laura didn’t get her flashlight on before Seth crawled in after her. He still held Abby tight, but he smoothed down the flap she had ripped as much as possible. If the person on the outside wasn’t looking, he wouldn’t even realize there was a cavern. Hopefully.
Laura turned on the light and slowly scanned the area. It was exactly as she remembered. The rocks were clustered together, almost in a U shape. There was a larger slab of rock on top. She’d always called it a cave, but it wasn’t technically. That was just the closest description that fit the enclosure. The vines helped to seal it up and cement the effect of being in a cave.
It was tight for three people, especially since two were adults. But they fit. It was dry. And Laura did not see any animals or creepy-crawlies. Or slitheries. Thank You, God.
Seth held out Abby and Laura took her. She curved herself against the back wall of the space, sitting with her legs crossed and cradling Abby on her lap. She leaned down and pressed a kiss in the curve of Abby’s neck while holding a finger to her lips. Abby hadn’t made a sound, but Laura wanted to remind her to be quiet.
Laura moved her finger and Abby squeezed Duckie in her little arms. Her thumb was in her mouth. Laura had been working on breaking that habit, but she wasn’t about to deny her girl any measure of comfort right now.
Seth was crouched down, balanced on the balls of his feet. He had his gun out again. Laura had not seen him draw it—it certainly wasn’t in his hand when he passed Abby back to her. He had to have put it away to take Abby and then immediately pulled it out again. Because the danger was still real and right on top of them.
His hands went over the seams of the flap Laura had made, securing it again. To Laura’s eyes, it looked as good as possible. They were very well hidden. If she could just quiet down her breathing a bit, they should not be findable.
Seth reached for the flashlight, turning it off. There was enough light to see, but barely. Hopefully, the vines were thick enough to conceal them. Please, let them be thick enough.
Laura swallowed hard and tried to even the rise and fall of her chest. It felt tight, like she needed to gasp for air. She fought the urge. She was fine. Her daughter was fine. Slowly the thundering in her ears quieted down and she didn’t feel like she was huffing and puffing anymore.
Seth was still positioned in front of the flap with his back to Laura and Abby. His body was big and broad, completely filling the entryway. If someone did open that flap, they would only see Seth. And his gun.
Laura still had no clue what they had run from. What they were hiding from. But it had to be one of the armed men. The ones who were hunting them down. Why else would he have acted like that? If it had been the fire or an animal or pretty much anything besides a person, Seth would have talked to her while they fled. No, fleeing in silence had to mean fleeing from a man who wanted to kill them. Or men.
Seth was just staring at the wall of plants. Laura wanted to ask him if he saw anything. Or heard anything. Had they been quick enough? Was the man just coincidentally coming this way or was he actively pursuing them? Was it a man or men? And how many?
The questions flew through Laura’s mind faster than she could process them. She had the overwhelming urge to run. To pick up Abby and just run and run and run.
They were going to die. Laura’s fight-or-flight response was fully engaged, and the flight response was definitely winning out. Laura did not want to be here anymore.
They were going to die.
No. This was not truth. This was panic and despair. Laura closed her eyes and buried her nose back in Abby’s hair, smelling her sweetness. Abby was warm in her lap. Soft. Warm. Alive. Her greatest gift from God. Laura started counting her blessings. Going through all the ways God had been with her. Reminding herself that He was faithful and steadfast. He did not give her a spirit of fear.
This was okay. This was going to be okay. She was a capable woman. She was Malcolm Grant’s daughter. She could and would survive what this world threw at her. This was her mountain, her home. She would be safe here.
Laura opened her eyes and saw Seth’s back again. She wasn’t alone. He was here. He was strong and he was armed and he would not let anything happen to them.
Laura was overcome by the strength of her gratitude. After Josh had died, Laura had come back to the mountain. To be alone. She had decided that her dad was right and being alone was best. The world and its people was not for her. Right now, though, Laura was beyond glad that she wasn’t alone. That she had Seth. Whatever might happen, it wasn’t just her and Abby against the world.
Laura’s feelings for Seth were all caught up in the trauma of the past days and the relief that she was not by herself. He was a ranger. She was a widow with a small child. But Seth was here and Laura was extremely happy.
Laura saw Seth’s back tense, his arms raising the gun and aiming it at the door. She murmured a reminder to Abby to hush and held her close. And waited.
Then Laura heard it. The leaves were crunching. Loudly. There was the sound of men talking. And the thump of feet on the ground. At first Laura thought she was imagining it, that she wanted to hear something to explain the running and hiding so her mind gave her something. But as it got closer and Seth seemed to get tenser and tenser, Laura knew it wasn’t a hallucination. It was all too real.
She wished they had been running from the fire. Or a bear. She could make out the words the men were saying.
“Man, I’m about sick of looking at trees.”
Laura did not think those were the men from before. Maybe. She didn’t know. What she did know was their dash through the woods had been fast. And messy. Neither she nor Seth had taken the time to cover their tracks. If those men had any experience hunting at all, they could probably pick up the signs of their flight. And follow them to their hiding place.
Seth hadn’t thought those men looked like outdoorsmen when he saw them at her dad’s cabin. Please, God, let him be right. Cover our tracks and don’t let them find us.
“Shut it, dude. Complaining isn’t doing anything besides making me angry. I’m tired of hearing you complain. I’m tired and my feet hurt and I want a real bed and a real meal. But if I can’t have that, then I want you to be quiet.”
“Okay, okay. We’re done here. Let’s move on.”
Laura felt her heart lighten.
“No, we’re not done here. You heard the boss. There are not a lot of places they can be, but that woman is probably good at hiding in these woods. We have to search it all. He said to look under every rock, and I’m not going back there without following orders. He wants them dead and he wants confirmation that it happened.”
And Laura’s heart crashed into the ground.
The sounds got louder. The men were doing a lot more walking around and it sounded like branches were either being moved or run into. If they were looking under the foliage and forest growth, those men would find the cave for sure.
One of the men made a loud noise. “Hey, dude. Come here. Do you see this?”
Laura’s heart stopped completely.
* * *
Seth was definitely going to have cracked teeth when this was all over. If it ended in such a way that he was alive to go see a dentist, that is. Seth had never hoped to visit the dentist before, but he was wishing it now.
These two men were doing a much more thorough search than the previous two had done. Of course, this rock-cave thing was a lot smaller than the cabin. Smaller was harder to find. And it had been so well hidden that even Laura, with her innate forest sense, had struggled to find it. So those were things in favor of them not being found.
But Abby was awake this time. Even though she had been admirably quiet, that could change at any time. From what little Seth knew about children, Abby had been beyond good so far. Probably because of her slight fever. That was bound to change sometime. No one was perfect, and Abby was only getting more exhausted and hungry. And probably sick and tired of this walking through the woods nonsense.
And also, this cave thing was small. Tight. Seth was prepared to fight his way out, but he didn’t exactly have a lot of room to maneuver if the men found them. And there was absolutely no place at all to hide if the men just started shooting into the enclosure.
Seth wanted to spring at them. To jump out and get the men before the men found them. It went against everything in Seth’s nature to sit and wait. To see if they were found. He had been trained to be proactive, and he was much more comfortable bringing the fight to the opponent.
But he wasn’t alone. And the grim reality was that these men were not alone. There had been a lot more than two at the cabin. The others were probably close enough to hear gunfire if it came to that. And they probably had radios. No, Seth needed to sit and wait and pray that the men passed them.
“What is that?” They had found something. Hopefully not a trace of Seth, Laura and Abby.
“I don’t know. Some kind of print.”
No, God. Please, no. Seth’s plea was almost guttural, and his hands wavered as they held the gun.
“Dude, what was that?”
“Some kind of animal. A bear maybe. Do they have bears up here?”
“How should I know? Do I look like Ranger Rick to you?”
“That’s hilarious. Do you see any sign of the woman? Or that park ranger?”
“No. All I see are trees and leaves. That’s all I’ve seen for two days.”
“I’m so tired of this. Maybe they got away?”
“Nah. Boss is monitoring the radio in the park ranger’s truck. There hasn’t been any mention of them. No one knows they’re missing and no one is looking for them.”
Seth felt a jolt at that. He’d been gone for over twenty-four hours. Surely someone had noticed he never came back down the mountain? His boss or coworkers? Had it really come to this? He could disappear and no one would even notice?
“Well, that fire is getting closer. I know boss says he’s got it under control, but that thing scares me. I don’t know why he had to set it in the first place.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not your job to know why. Boss said this was the best way to kill the woman. They are trapped by the river and the fires will make them run to us.”
“I don’t know why we don’t just set this entire mountain on fire and be done with it. Then we could get back to where they have restaurants. And cable.”
“You know why. She knows about her husband’s safe-deposit box. Boss needs to make sure she’s dead. And, after the last two days, I think he wants to make it hurt.” The man’s voice took on a gleeful note. “I hope he wants to make it hurt.”
Seth didn’t know if he felt or heard Laura’s gasp, but when he turned around to look at her she had her hand physically over her mouth as though she was muffling her own voice. He wanted to reach out and comfort her but this was the very definition of not the right time. He turned back to the entry and focused on where the men were. He wanted to have as much notice as possible if they started closing in on the cave’s location.
The other man sighed loudly. “Fine. But can I be the one to shoot the park ranger at least?”
“Yeah, dude. If boss agrees, you can shoot the park ranger.”
The men’s voices faded and the sounds of their search also lessened. They were moving on, searching somewhere else. Thank You, God. Thank You.
Seth lowered his gun, but did not stop his vigil at the entrance. Thoughts were whirling around in his head, but he tried to push them away. First, he needed to be sure that the men were gone. And make sure Laura and Abby were safe. Then he could deal with the implications of the men’s conversation.
Seth looked at his watch. He waited five minutes. Ten. At fifteen, his muscles started to relax. Well, not relax. Just lose some of their tension. He still had a really difficult conversation to get through. And then they had to leave the relative safety of this place and continue the journey off this mountain. No, it wasn’t time to relax.
He sat back and leaned against the side of the wall. His legs ached in a good way as he stretched them out in front of him as much as the space allowed. He looked at Laura. She was still holding Abby in her lap. Her arms were wrapped around the girl like she wanted to cover her and protect her from the world. Both, at once.
Seth felt like he understood. He was struggling with some conflicting emotions and urges himself. His time overseas had taught him so much. One of those lessons was that it is always better to face the truth head-on than to deny its existence. If something was going to be hard and dangerous and risky, well, it was better to acknowledge that. Wade in the muck and deal with it. Pretending it didn’t exist would only lead to ambush and unexpected casualties.
“Laura, are you okay?” It was a dumb question, he knew that. Of course she wasn’t okay. He wouldn’t exactly say he was okay and it was not his whole world being turned upside down. “I’m sorry. I know you’re not.”
Laura unwrapped her arms from around Abby. The little girl was sound asleep, and Seth envied her ability to leave the tension of this hiding place. Laura’s voice was very quiet, but they were close enough together that Seth could hear her.
“They’re going to kill you.”
That wasn’t what Seth had expected her to say. Not at all. Not even a little bit. “If they find us, they are just going to kill you.”
“I heard.” He wasn’t really dwelling on that part, though.
“I mean, I know they’re going to kill me,” her voice hitched, but she continued, “and Abby, too. But I…don’t know. I just don’t know. They’re calling dibs on who gets to kill you. And they are happy that Mahoney is going to make my death horrible. How did this happen?”
Seth didn’t know how this had happened. He just knew that it had. And now they had to deal with it. “It’s okay, Laura. They’re not going to find us. We’ll make it off this mountain.” Seth prayed that he lived to see the truth of that statement. It hit him that the worst part of being killed was that he wouldn’t be there to protect Laura and Abby. He’d never know if they made it out okay.
No. That wasn’t going to happen. He needed Laura to keep hope. To believe. She was smart enough to realize if he was telling her to do something he wasn’t doing himself. So he needed to do it with her. For her. And for himself. It was one thing to be realistic and practical and aware of the dangers. It was another thing to get caught up in defeatist thinking. Seth wasn’t going there. Not today.
They just sat there, held tight in the space that cave made. The men were probably long gone by now, but Seth wasn’t in a hurry to leave this safe little place. He wished they could just curl up together, the three of them, and forget what was on the other side of that foliage.
But they had to leave. Their escape path was narrowing. They were scared. And it all just felt very pointless.
“Laura? Do you know what’s inside that safe-deposit box? How Josh came to be mixed up with Mahoney?”
She bent her head down, breathing into Abby’s hair. Seth hated that he couldn’t read her expression, couldn’t tell what she was feeling. Besides fear, that was.
“Laura, look at me.” He waited until she did. “I know that was a shock. I believe you when you say you don’t think Josh was involved with this. I believe you.”
He wasn’t sure if he did. But she needed her husband to be a good man. And Seth didn’t see any advantage to proving her wrong. At least not now.
Laura’s voice was distressed. Pleading, as though she automatically expected him to disbelieve her. To call her a liar. Turn against her. “I’m sorry, Seth. But it has to be a mistake. Josh would not have been involved with a criminal.”