by Emma Easter
He left his room quickly and strode to the living room, hastening to get out of the house so he could get to Eric and Paula’s house as soon as possible. Just before he got to the living room, he remembered that he had promised Rachel he would bring her suitcase to her today. He went back to his room, walked to the corner where he had placed it, and wheeled it out of the bedroom, into the living room. He grabbed the keys to his car from the coffee table and carried the suitcase out of the house.
As he drove to Eric and Paula’s, the suitcase in the trunk and the engagement ring tucked safely in his pocket, he rehearsed again and again the words he planned to say to Rachel. They had eagerly and earnestly declared their love for each other the day before, but today, he planned to pour out his heart to her, too, and show her just how much he loved her.
He waved to a few people who called out greetings to him as he drove. He saw the florist was open and he stopped to buy Rachel some flowers. When he got into his car again and began to drive, he looked into his rear-view mirror and frowned. There was a black SUV following close behind. He did not recognize it and now that he thought about it, it had been following him for some time. He slowed down so the SUV would overtake him, but the driver slowed as well. He increased his speed and the driver did the same.
His frown deepened. “What is this?” he muttered. Why was this car following him so closely? He drove even faster and the SUV behind increased its speed once more to match his. He began to approach a long stretch of road with no houses on either side and his body suddenly jerked as the SUV hit him from behind. His eyes widened in shock as he realized that the driver behind him was out for him.
He kept speeding, trying to outrace the driver, but his old car was apparently no match for the SUV. He almost hit his head on the steering wheel when the driver smashed into him again. He held on tighter to the wheel. And then the SUV hit him a third time.
“Lord, please help me,” he prayed, and once again tried to outrace the vehicle. His car began to screech, complaining about the unusual speed. The SUV hit him again and, once more, he tried to stay on course, but he lost control and began to careen off the road. He pressed his brakes hard as he speedily approached a huge tree, but he was going too fast and it was too late. He felt himself flying out of his seat as he smashed into the tree. He flew through the window and landed somewhere on a grassy field. Excruciating pain shot through him and his vision blurred.
He tried to stay awake but felt himself fading away fast. His body was wracked with pain and he cried out again, asking the Lord for help. He fought the darkness creeping in on him and then remembered his grandmother’s engagement ring in his pocket. He wondered if it was still there, as he could not feel his legs, and his mind went to Rachel and panic set in. With all his heart, he wanted to see her again, but he felt himself fading fast. Before he slipped away, a terrible sadness filled his heart. He would never see Rachel again or get the chance to marry her.
Rachel stood up from the sofa, unable to sit still. She dialed Keith’s number as she had done a hundred times in the last hour. She listened as his phone rang and rang, but there was no answer. Frustrated, she glared at her phone and resisted the urge to smash it against the wall.
She looked at Paula, who had just walked into the living room, a worried expression on her face. Paula was holding a basket, and in it was her husband’s lunch. She said to Rachel, “You still haven’t gotten through to Pastor Keith?”
Rachel sighed. “I haven’t.” She began to pace the living room, and then glanced at Paula and said, “Why won’t he answer my calls, Paula? Why?”
Paula went and put her arm around Rachel. “Shhh... Rachel, stop worrying. Pastor Keith is a big boy. I am sure he’s fine.”
She shook her head. “But Eric called to say he didn’t see Keith in his house when he went to check on him.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s not okay.”
“He is supposed to be here by now. He told me he was going to come by early this morning, Paula,” Rachel said frantically. “I haven’t known him for long, but from the short time I have, I know Keith never fails to keep his word. It’s already two o’clock and he’s still not here, and he is not picking up his calls. I really think I should go to his house.”
Paula gave her a small smile. “Remember why you both made a decision not to go to his house for now. Besides, Eric said he is not home. He would have answered his landline if he were.”
Rachel sighed loudly. “I can’t just stay here waiting. I’m getting sick with worry.”
Paula gave her a sympathetic smile. “I am sure he’s okay. It’s only been a couple of hours since he promised to come. I think he’s busy somewhere in town. That’s probably why he has not been able to pick up his calls. I’m sure he will call you back as soon as he can,” she said.
“It’s not like him to ignore my calls,” Rachel said.
“I do not think he is ignoring your calls, Rachel.” Paula placed her hand on her shoulder. “Alright, Rachel. Since you are so worried, I will check in on Keith again at his house after I have dropped off Eric’s lunch for him at the site.”
Rachel nodded, feeling slightly better. Paula had promised to check in on Keith. She made Paula promise that if she didn’t find Keith at his house, she would check his store.
Paula hugged her and told her she would be back soon and hopefully with news about Keith. After Paula left, Rachel dialed his home line again and listened as it rang and rang. She huffed when he still didn’t answer the phone and called his cell phone number again, expecting it to ring again without him answering. Instead, an electronic voice said, “The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again later.”
She bit her lip and then marched into her room to get her purse. Despite Paula’s optimism, she knew something was wrong. She had to go find him. She would first check his store and then his house. If she didn’t see him, she would walk through the whole town searching for him if she had to.
After she had gotten her purse from her room, she headed towards the front door. On her way to his store, she would ask around for him. Destiny was a small place. Someone had surely seen him today.
Just before she opened the door, a loud knock sounded, causing her to jump back in surprise. And then her heart soared with relief and joy. She rushed to the door, ready to fall into Keith’s arms and let him know he had scared the living daylights out of her by not answering any of her calls.
She flung the door wide open and gasped. Fear ran through her as she recognized the man standing at the door, who definitely was not Keith. She immediately tried to shut the door, but the man, a squad guard from Fallow Creek, held it firmly open and walked in. She opened her mouth to scream, but the man grabbed her around the waist and covered her nose and mouth with a napkin. She kicked and tried to free herself from him without success.
She tried to scream again, but the napkin muffled the sound. She began to get weaker and weaker, and then felt herself losing consciousness and being lifted from the ground. The man hoisted her over his shoulder as she faded away.
A strong antiseptic smell assaulted Keith’s nose, and he grunted. He slowly opened his eyes and looked up at an IV pole and a small bag filled with liquid hanging on the pole. He frowned at the tube running from the bag to the back of his hand. He was clearly at the hospital.
He tried to sit up and groaned when excruciating pain shot up his arm. He winced as the memory of the accident instantly flooded his mind. He began to panic as he recalled that he had been on his way to Eric and Paula’s to propose to Rachel when he had been hit hard by that madman in the SUV.
He tried to sit up again as he remembered his grandmother’s ring. Where was it now? Was it still in his pocket? Dread ran through him as he looked down at his body. His clothes were gone. He was wearing a hospital gown. The ring had been in his pocket. He shut his eyes tightly, praying that he had not lost his family heirloom.
More details of his accident kept rushing back t
o him and he groaned. The accident had not been an accident at all. That driver who had crashed into him had followed him almost all the way from his house and had kept hitting him again and again until he crashed into that tree. That troubled him deeply. Who on earth would want to harm him in Destiny? He loved the people of this town and he was sure they loved him back. And yet it was clear that someone was trying to get rid of him. But who could that be? He remembered that he’d not recognized the car that hit him and sighed.
Once more, he struggled to sit up and then succeeded in doing so, but not without painful consequences. Pain shot up from his arms to his shoulder and from his waist to his neck, and he moaned. He had to get out of this hospital gown right now, find his clothes, and make sure his grandmother’s ring was still in the pocket of his jeans. And then he had to leave this hospital so he could go and propose to the love of his life. He tried to swing his legs to the ground, but he just could not manage it.
He blinked in frustration and gritted his teeth as he tried again. If not for that awful accident, he would be engaged to Rachel now and they would probably be in each other’s arms, celebrating their love for one another and their future wedding plans.
His determination to leave the hospital grew. He slowly put his legs on the floor and began to lift himself up. His eyes widened in terror as he crashed to the floor, his legs unable to hold him.
Why can’t I stand up? What is wrong with my leg?
But instead of the answer to his question coming to him, another answer did. Mike. That was the only person he could think of who had something against him. Mike had made threats when he’d appeared at the house unexpectedly. From all that Rachel had told him about Mike, he had not expected the man to be capable of murder, but he should have. A man who kept someone against her will and forced himself on her on several occasions would be capable of anything, especially if something he thought he owned was taken away from him.
Suddenly, terror raced through his veins. As certain as he was that Mike had been behind his accident, he also knew that Rachel was in danger. “I have to get out of this hospital,” he whispered. He tried to lift himself off the floor by holding onto the hospital bed, but his legs did not want to obey, and he fell down again.
He groaned in pain and turned to the door as someone came in and screamed. Jenny was standing at the door, staring at him with a look of horror on her face. She ran out of the room shouting, probably for the doctor.
Dr. Kingston and a nurse rushed into the room with Jenny at their heels. Dr. Kingston and the nurse lifted him off the ground and forced him to lie down on the bed again, ignoring him as he complained bitterly.
“I have to leave this hospital right now,” he said to them, panicking. “I have to go to Rachel.” He looked past the doctor, who was sticking a needle into his arm, to Jenny. Her eyes were filled with fear as she gazed at him. “Jenny, please I need to...” He blinked as he suddenly felt himself fading away again. He tried to speak once more. “Jenny, please tell me...” but his tongue felt heavy and he couldn’t find the right words. His eyes began to close and his world went black again.
Chapter 19
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From deep within her sleep, Rachel heard a baby chuckling. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn’t. She felt something crawling all over her face and shook her head to try to shake whatever it was off. Once again, she tried to force her eyes open, asking the Lord for help. Finally, she opened her eyes and then shut them again, wondering if she was still asleep and dreaming.
She opened her eyes once more and stared into Emily’s smiling face. She blinked in astonishment and sat up. Someone had laid Emily beside her on the bed while she slept. She gasped, and overwhelming joy flooded her soul. Lifting Emily into her arms, she kissed her baby’s chubby cheeks. “How come you are here?” she whispered and kissed Emily again.
She wrapped her arms around Emily, happily sniffing her, her heart bursting with happiness and amazement. Emily laughed and Rachel said, “What are you doing here, little one?” And then her heart jumped into her throat as she looked around the room and realized where she was. “No, Lord. It can’t be. No!” She was back in Fallow Creek.
She held Emily away from her so she could inspect her. Her daughter didn’t seem to have any injuries or bruises, and with relief she hugged her once more. Emily gurgled and then, as she usually did whenever Rachel carried her, she grabbed a fistful of Rachel’s hair and put it in her mouth.
Rachel held her baby close while she shook with anger and despair. She began to clearly recall the squad guard who had walked into Eric and Paula’s when she’d opened the front door. He had placed a handkerchief over her nose and mouth, and she had passed out shortly after. She was in Mike’s house, in his bedroom, which meant that Mike had sent him to bring her back here against her will. She suddenly remembered what she had been doing before Mike’s goon had kidnapped her, and fear gripped her once again.
Keith, where on earth are you? She looked around her. Her phone was nowhere in sight, nor was her purse. She kissed Emily’s cheek again and swallowed a sob when Keith’s face appeared in her mind. Now that she had been brought back here, would she ever see him again?
She stood up from the bed, still holding onto Emily. She could not bear the thought of never seeing Keith again. She had to find a way to escape. And yet, even as the thought crossed her mind, she knew there would be no way this time. If Mike had been desperate enough to come back to Fallow Creek knowing he might lose everything he had — the punishment for men who just upped and left the community — it meant he was serious about making sure she never found a way to leave him again. She was stuck in this place.
Rage and misery warred in her. What right did Mike have to force her back to this place — back to him? She had finally been free for the first time since she was a child. Free to be her true self and to be with the man she loved. Now she had come back to this wicked place where she would become enslaved and entrapped once again. Her only solace was the tiny person in her arms now and the God she had drawn closer to in Destiny, thanks to Keith.
Keith! Sorrow filled her soul, and she cried out once more. How would she live without ever seeing him again? She instinctively grabbed the curtain behind her and pulled it back. She looked out the window and sighed. As she’d suspected, members of the security squad were all around the house.
Emily began to cry and Rachel bounced her up and down on the bed, singing softly to her, trying to soothe her. She prayed for deliverance in her heart and thought about Destiny, about the nice people she had met who had treated her as an equal, both men and women. She thought about Eric and Paula, how worried they would be once they found out she had disappeared. She thought about the dreams that she had shared with Keith. She had never shared her dream with anyone except for Taylor, but that was years ago when they were kids. Even then, at that age, she had dreamt of being a teacher. Her role model had been Mrs. Madison, the nice teacher who’d taught English at the public school she and Taylor had attended before their mother moved them to Fallow Creek and turned their lives upside down.
She bit her lip as her mind settled on Keith again. She had been trying to call him for hours before she was kidnapped. She prayed with all her heart that Paula had found him.
She jerked up her head as the door suddenly opened. Mike walked into the room, followed by two squad guards. Rachel smothered the urge to lunge at him and tear his eyes out. She glared at him and said, “You wicked man! You kidnapped me and brought me here by force. What do you hope to gain by being with a woman who hates your guts?”
For a short moment, anger and hurt burned in Mike’s eyes and then disappeared again. He sneered at her and put his hand in his pocket and brought out a phone. “This is your phone, Rachel. You have several missed calls from someone named Paula.”
She gasped. Paula would probably have news of Keith. She reached desperately for her phone, but Mike held his hand away and chuckled. “It feels good to have Emily in
your arms again, Rachel, doesn’t it?” He turned around and nodded at one of the men. The man approached her and she shrank back and held Emily tightly. She screamed when the man forcefully took Emily away from her.
“Take my daughter to Olivia,” Mike said to the squad member and pushed Rachel back as she tried to reach for Emily.
“Give me my baby!” she shrieked and stood up from the bed. “Give her to me right now!”
The second guard came and forced her hands behind her back, and she struggled to free herself. Mike said to her, “Welcome home, Rachel. This is where we belong. This is our home.”
She wanted to spit at him, but she restrained herself. She would not let him see how badly his words had affected her. She said scornfully, “You came back to Fallow Creek because you could not live like normal people. You had to come back to this weird place because you are weird.”
He laughed. “You are also weird, Rachel. I came back because I finally had to admit that there is no place like Fallow Creek.” He shook his head. “You thought you could leave me to be with that pastor. It’s why I also returned. Here, women know their place. This time you will never be able to escape again.”
Bile rose up in her throat and she wanted to curse him for taking her away from the town that she had grown to love and the man she was desperately in love with. She glared at him instead and said nothing.
He shook his head and said to her, “Like I said, don’t even bother to try to escape this time. I have hired a bodyguard for you. After you are released from the Restoration House, he will follow you everywhere.”
The Restoration House. She remembered that awful place and shut her eyes, nauseated. She would be separated from Emily again.
“And also, there’s nothing for you anymore in Destiny. That pastor you were fooling around with has been taken care of.”