She frowned. “What do you mean with Rose? How was that bad timing?” Gabriella took a step back and tilted her head. “Wait a second. Did you know about her and Thad before I did?”
He shook his head. “No. I tried to tell you back then, but I didn’t handle it well. I had intended to break it off with Rose before we ever found out her and Thad were together behind our backs. And if I had broke up with her, maybe they wouldn’t have kept it a secret, and we could have found out in a much less painful way. I’ve always regretted that.”
They reached the second river. She tugged on his shirt to help him keep his balance and led him to the dirt trail next to the bank. “You meant to break it off with Rose earlier? Why?”
He kept his head down, but his eyes darted her way. “I had no idea she was cheating, but something felt off.”
“How?”
He rolled his eyes. “You’ll think I’m shallow.”
She rolled her eyes. “Spill.”
“Fine. I knew things weren’t right between us when she stopped laughing at my jokes.”
Gabriella’s breath hitched. She looked away from him so she could wipe the giant smile off her face before he spotted it.
“You’re laughing at me, aren’t you?”
She shook her head, staring at the skies in hopes she really didn’t laugh. “I don’t presume to know how guys work, but it just seems a bit cliché.”
“How so?”
“Not that you were wrong, but in the future, you know, if you find the right girl... What if your jokes just aren’t that funny?”
“Too far.”
She turned to find him holding up a finger, but his wide grin assured her he took it how she intended. “My jokes kill.”
“Good. You can use them on Rodrigo.”
He chuckled, his voice deep and comforting. She instantly regretted not being able to tour the property under different circumstances.
It seemed ironic that laughter could soothe and hurt at the same time. As if she was dehydrated for joy, but when she had some, it reminded her of all the other sorrow in her life. She quickened her step.
Luke sighed. “To put it a better way, when Rose and I were together it was like she’d mentally checked out. Except, of course, when we hung out as couples.”
“I’m jealous.” She glanced up. “Not that she checked out...that you knew ahead of time. So you could guard your heart.” Maybe she’d had him all wrong. Maybe he didn’t take relationships flippantly. Was it possible he got over Rose so fast because he had already emotionally distanced himself? Or was the reason he pursued her so soon after the breakup because of loneliness?
“Can I ask you a question?” he blurted. “You started the foundation here, but then you decided to teach in Oregon. Why? Is it because Thad moved here?”
That was the most ridiculous question she’d ever heard. Could it mean he was jealous...of Thad? “No. I purposefully didn’t keep track of where he went. It’s one of the reasons I don’t even have a Facebook account. I didn’t want the temptation to torture myself with how they were doing.”
The wind picked up and blew back her hair. At least it was finally dry. “Believe it or not, I was a really poor student in math in junior high, but my mom and my aunt had what seemed at the time as a natural business sense. Well, apparently we know why now, but anyway—they were responsible for helping it finally click for me. I used to tease Mom that she should be a teacher because she could make math sound exciting. She lit up when explaining the importance of being able to figure out percentages and do multiplication in your head. Then she took me shopping.”
Her heart squeezed at the memory. “I never forgot that. I kept thinking about all the other kids in my school that hated math. I wondered if I’d ever have found the dream to teach if I didn’t have someone to support me and tutor me like Mom. And most parents don’t feel qualified enough to help their kids with advanced math, so...”
“That’s why you started the foundation.”
She nodded. “And I knew it would have a greater chance to succeed if I based it in a city.”
“Then why didn’t you move here, too?”
Her gut churned. “I wanted a chance to succeed without my mom.” Her voice caught. He had no idea how much she regretted the choice. She would’ve spent more time with Mom and not cared to prove herself if she could reverse time. “I thought if I taught in the valley it’d be a slap in the face not to live on the property, too.”
“Did your mom ever call you on it?”
“No. My great-aunt gave me grief, but not Mom. I think she understood.” Her breath grew shallow. “I hope she understood.”
He nodded. “She did.”
She raised an eyebrow. How could he possibly know—
“Did you ever end up dating?”
Her neck tingled. Couldn’t they just walk without talking?
“Talking keeps my mind off my leg,” he said, as if he could hear her thoughts.
“Oh,” she stammered. “Um. Yeah. Some. Nothing serious. They didn’t really get why teaching and the foundation were so important to me.”
He nodded. “They didn’t get that your love language is service.”
Her eyes widened, and her step faltered at his words. Another gust of wind blew her hair back. The leaves flew off the tree and spun all around them. Luke stepped closer, as if ready to shield her if she needed it. Her throat closed at the gesture. The lightheartedness she experienced only moments ago seemed to blow away with the wind.
Gabriella pointed over his head at the storm clouds building at the top of the foothills to the west. “Looks like we might get rain later.”
“Good. Should help lower the risk of you getting stung out here. How much farther to the barn?”
“There will be a sharp bend in the river up ahead. If we walked out of these trees we would need to just run diagonally across the corner of the alfalfa to get to it. Going the long way...maybe a mile left?”
“Do you know why your mom built the barn so far from the house?”
Ah, a safe topic. “Yes. So I guess we lived in the barn while she started her business and mined a big section of the property. Once she made enough money, she built the house and we moved.”
She waved her hand in front of her. “She wasn’t done mining the rest of the property, though, so that’s why the buildings are so far apart. It had the most land without water features. You’ll probably get the most houses out of that portion of property if you decide to develop it.” She bit her lip. She hated thinking about the beauty all around turning into subdivisions of cookie-cutter houses.
* * *
Luke noticed her eyes turn down every time she mentioned the future possibility of ripping up her beloved property. It would be necessary, sure, but would she look at him like the man that helped her make sure her aunt was taken care of? Or the man that ripped up her mom’s pride and joy, her legacy...
Or both?
The beauty around him, despite the horrible situation they found themselves in, was a reminder of God’s grace, His majesty, and the fact that Luke could trust Him. And his job basically destroyed all the beautiful creation. People needed places to live, sure, but...
Gabriella slowed her pace and looked at him, as if waiting for a response. But he wasn’t ready to share his frustration.
“Did you always know you wanted to teach?” he asked.
She huffed. “Believe it or not, I was aimless.”
“You didn’t act aimless.”
“I didn’t want to disappoint my mom. I didn’t want her to feel bad that all I ever wanted was to be a wife and mom. She never had that. Maybe it’s because I grew up without a father. I don’t really think that’s why, but I’m sure someone could make the case.” Her eyebrows rose as her eyes widened and he
r jaw went slack. She dipped her chin to her chest. “I’ve never told anyone that.”
He shrugged. “Really? Why not? What’s the big deal of sharing you wanted a family someday?”
She shook her head. “Because I also wanted to be independent. If I told people that—” her eyes darted toward him “—they might get the wrong idea.”
Luke almost laughed. In other words, she worried he’d take it as a pickup line. And even if he was delusional enough to think that, it seemed clear she didn’t like the idea. His leg ached with each step, and another trickle of blood slipped down his thigh. The conversation wasn’t helping him keep his mind off the pain anymore.
* * *
Five feet ahead a collection of boulders sat in the middle of the trail. She stopped. “I’d forgotten about these.”
“What are they?”
“Once a year, on Easter, we would go on a family hike and go down this trail. Mom loved spring because it reminded her of new beginnings and a new life in Christ.”
Her mouth twisted to the side. “We didn’t do it this year. They visited me in Oregon because I had too much grading to catch up on to drive here for the weekend. I was so selfish.” Her entire life had been cast with a different light. Where once she thought her classwork of the ultimate importance, now she’d give it all up just to have another hike.
“Gabriella, you weren’t selfish. You were trying to be responsible. Your mom knew that. It’s why she came to you instead.”
She brushed away the tears. “Yeah, maybe.” She glanced at Luke. “Are you familiar with the story of Joshua and the Jordan?”
His lips shifted to the side. “Um...”
She thought as much. “Sunday school makes sure most people remember the parting of the Red Sea, but my mom’s favorite story is in the Old Testament, when Joshua needs to lead the people across the Jordan River. When the feet of the priests who carried the ark touched the water, it parted, and all the people crossed the Jordan on dry land.”
The story her mom had told so many times lightened her mood. “Once everyone crossed, they were to pick out twelve stones—”
“So when their children asked their fathers what the stones were all about, they could share what the Lord had done for them.”
She grinned. “You do remember.” They reached the stones, although they almost qualified as boulders. “So during the mining, whenever they found these giant ones, Mom had the guys move them here. After she collected twelve, she sold the rest for landscape purposes.”
Gabriella stepped up on the first one, two feet above the ground. “I used to pretend I was on top of a mountain range and hop from one to the next one. Scared my mom to death.” Cold rushed through her veins at the realization of what she’d just said. She’d never given the common expression a second thought until now.
“Are you saying your mom put these here so she could tell you what God had done for her?”
The change of subject felt like a slap in the face. “Yes.” Her memories seemed to be playing in fast-forward through her mind. Except now, with the new knowledge...
“Luke, I never really understood the significance until now. Maybe she put these here as a reminder of how God saved her, my aunt and me from the life of the mafia...from death.”
A movement to her right, through the swaying leaves, caught her attention. She froze and hoped the man wading through the alfalfa next to the line of trees hadn’t seen them. He appeared to be a couple of acres away, looking left to right. “Luke,” she whispered. “He definitely figured out we weren’t deer.”
“Which way is he going?”
“He’s following the same line of trees around the field that we did. Only he’s just a mile or two behind us.”
A sudden wind gust propelled Gabriella forward. Luke reached out and caught her as she slipped headfirst. She strained against his arm that pressed into her abdomen to right herself. Her heart raced at the thought of the pain she would’ve experienced had she crashed into the next stone. “That was out of the blue,” she started to say.
Crack!
She couldn’t see where the bullet had gone, but the sound was unmistakable. They’d been spotted.
She looked up at Luke, but the giant wall of darkness in the distance took her breath away.
TWELVE
Luke flinched at the sound of the gunshot. Gabriella’s wide eyes seemed more terrified of whatever lurked behind him. He followed the path of her gaze.
Above the foothills, the sky turned into a massive front of swirling red and gray hues. It reached as high as he could see, as if there were no end to it. His grip on Gabriella tightened as he lifted her up and set her down on the ground beside him, behind a tree where Rodrigo couldn’t see them.
Except the trees all bent with the force of the sustained winds. Leaves and twigs rained down. His heart jumped to his throat. The last thing he wanted to do was to run and test the wound in his leg further, but it looked as if they had no choice. “It’s a dust storm. We need to get to that barn...now.”
Her eyes widened, and she trembled, clinging to him. They needed to get to shelter before the winds brought the choking sand and blinding dust any closer.
Luke should’ve recognized the signs. When fires raged in the west, an impending storm traveled their way and the early morning air stayed below fifty degrees, it made the conditions ripe for what they called a “haboob.”
While dust storms weren’t uncommon in the area, Luke had always been inside when one was about to hit, especially one of this magnitude. Seeing something that resembled a tsunami of dirt about to wash over the land filled him with a combination of awe and terror. Right now, terror won by leaps and bounds.
Gabriella pulled on his wrist. “I don’t think we’ll beat it if we stay to the trail.”
“What if we cut across the alfalfa like you mentioned earlier?”
“But...but you saw him.” Her shaky finger pointed to the trees. “He might see us. Might shoot at us again. And this time, he might meet his mark.”
The massive dark coils of dirt and clouds moved closer, over the top ridge of the mountains. “Assuming he has half a brain, he’ll be more worried about finding shelter himself.” Luke imagined what the stinging bits of dust and sand would feel like against his skin with the intense force of the winds. “I think it’s a risk we need to take.”
She nodded and moved to an oak tree just beyond the trail of stones. “It’s going to be a challenge to keep my bearings. Have you ever run through alfalfa? There are natural rows, but we need to cut diagonally through the corner so the plants are going to hit us more. Stay close. If the dust hits us, grab my hand and we’ll hit the ground.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Gabriella crouched down and took off. Luke hunkered down and pushed off his toes. He almost cried out at the sudden sting of his leg. He narrowed his eyes and focused on Gabriella’s thick hair swishing side to side as she ran through the sticky plants.
The alfalfa hit against his legs. The plants whipped his broken skin. He pressed his hand over his wound, gritting his teeth together to forget the pain. The smell of the air filled with leaf oils, hay and dust. The wind shifted slightly and the alfalfa moved as a unit to block their way.
Gabriella slowed. He heard her voice cry out but through the wind couldn’t tell what she was saying. Maybe running through the plants hurt her knees? She fell to the ground.
Luke almost tripped and fell on her, but he strained his back, turning to the right, and landed on his side, next to her. A thick branch soared through the air two feet over their heads. He gasped and his lungs seized with coughing. So she’d dropped because of the branch.
Gabriella kept her head down. “I don’t know if we can keep going,” she yelled.
Luke pulled his shirt over
his nose and mouth and peeked behind him. While the air was dusty, the giant mass had turned into a brown wall and had yet to hit the land.
He pulled Gabriella close. “It’s coming.”
Her head turned as her hand moved her flying hair out of the way. He watched her mauve lips move before he registered what she said: “We have to keep going.”
She blinked slowly, watching him until he nodded, then jumped up and set off running through the wind. Luke followed her lead and understood her despair. The wind had to have reached upward of seventy miles an hour. It seemed he was running against an invisible force holding him back. His throat hurt from trying to take a breath. They had to get shelter.
Gabriella’s right arm shot out. She pointed to a grouping of bent trees. Through the hazy sky he could make it out—the barn! Her pace slowed but judging by the way she pumped her arms, he realized running against the wind and the plants proved too much for her. Luke dared a look over his shoulder. The swirling had crossed the foothills. It would only be a matter of seconds now.
“Gab—” he tried to shout, but it did no good. She couldn’t hear over the noise. Splattering of moisture slapped his face. Rain or escaped droplets from the many creeks, ponds and the lake?
Luke had never been more thankful for his three brothers. They’d trained him for wrestling and tackling, despite his lack of enthusiasm for the sports.
He dipped down. His arm wrapped around Gabriella’s frame. She stiffened as he cupped his right hand underneath her knees and swept her up into his arms. As he cradled her against his chest, she turned in to his shirt. She trusted him, and he refused to prove her wrong.
Luke sprinted like never before. His legs pleaded for relief as the alfalfa beat against him and the wind shoved him backward.
A rumble in the distance pushed him faster. Crackling trees and the sound of dirt pelting the ground in the distance drove fear into his spine. Gabriella’s arms reached around his neck, clinging to him.
Faster, he needed to go faster. He lengthened his stride as the trees grew closer. Tumbleweed rushed across the field. He hurdled over it and ducked underneath the flailing branches in front of them.
Code of Silence Page 10