With a heavily beating heart, Alice put her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it. She closed her eyes for a moment, praying that she would not be caught. She opened the door just a crack and peeked through to the other room.
It was only one other room. The front door was wide open. The three men who had stayed behind were lying about the room on various pieces of furniture. One had passed out sitting in a chair at the table, his head all the way back. His mouth was wide open and he was snoring loudly. She closed the door and let go of the handle, turning it so it wouldn’t click. They might have been drunk enough to pass out but she wasn’t taking any chances that the slightest noise would wake them up.
She moved quickly back to where the children were lying, wrapped in their blankets. Beads of sweat ran down her forehead. The children were both sweating profusely, their hair hanging in strings. As soon as she bent over Max, his eyes opened.
He stared at her in fear. “Aunt Alice,” he said. Alice pressed her fingers against his mouth and glanced over her shoulder. When no sound came, she looked back at him.
“Max,” she whispered. “Something bad has happened and we need to get back to your papa.”
Max’s eyes remained wide and he looked around the room without moving the rest of his head or body. “I can’t move, Aunt Alice,” he whispered. “Why can’t I move?”
“I’ll help you.” Alice kept glancing back over her shoulder and listening for any sound from the other room as she untied the blanket from around the little boy. “We need to wake up your sister and get out of here.” She moved frantically, struggling with the knot in the blanket. Someone had pulled it tight and it was refusing to budge.
“Help me, Aunt Alice,” Max begged, panic setting in. She shushed him as quietly as she could.
“Stay calm, Max. We’re going to get out of here. Your papa is going to come for these bad men that took us. Just stay calm. You don’t want Riley to be scared, do you?”
By the time she finished talking, she had loosened the knot and was pulling the blanket away from him. He stretched his arms and pressed his hands against his eyes. “My head hurts, Aunt Alice.”
“I imagine it does. So does mine. Come now, let’s get Riley. You stay calm, okay? She needs to know that we are not afraid.”
“But I am afraid. I am very afraid.” Alice could tell Max was trying not to cry. She knelt down in front of him and grasped both his arms with her hands, looking directly in his eyes.
“I know you are, Max. And so am I. However, Riley is just a little girl and she will be terrified if we show her our fear. There are men in the other room. They are asleep but if we make too much noise, they will hear us. If they hear us, they might hurt us.”
“Who is it, Aunt Alice? Who is doing this?”
Alice shook her head. “I don’t know those men, Max,” she wasn’t lying. Other than David, she didn’t know the men in the other room and she barely knew David. She had only seen him with Nathan on occasion. “Can you be good and calm and help me get your sister?”
Max didn’t respond other than nodding. He had regained some of his composure and Alice was proud of the little boy. He got to his knees, looking around the room. They leaned over Riley. Max began to untie the knot and Alice took the little girl’s face in her hands. She rubbed the sweat away gently and cooed to Riley.
“Wake up, sweet one,” she whispered. “Wake up.”
A noise in the other room made Max and Alice freeze. Alice looked over her shoulder at the door to the room. It had sounded like something thumping against the ground. When everything went quiet once more, she assumed something had been knocked over by a drunken hand and quickly went back to waking up the little girl.
Finally, after Max released her from the blanket tied around her, Alice gathered the little girl in her arms and lifted her up in the air. Riley’s head fell back, her long wet hair hanging down behind her. She was breathing steadily but that didn’t stop the fear from slicing through Alice.
“Why isn’t she awake, Aunt Alice?” Max asked, his eyes on his sister. Alice was also staring at Riley’s face, trying to hide her worry from Max.
“I don’t know, Max. But we have to get out of here. We have to go now. We can’t wait for her to wake up. Those men will… they will…”
“Are we going through there to get out?”
Alice thought about it for a quick moment. The door to the house was wide open. They could possibly sneak past the men. She looked over at the window, trying to decide which one would be their best bet.
“All right, Max,” she said in a firm voice. “You are a very smart boy. Do you think we should go through the other room where there is an open door but the men might see us? Or should we try to go through the window and run away?”
Max puffed out his chest. She could see he was contemplating the decision like a man would. She wanted to go through the front door but if Nathan and Carl returned when they did, they would absolutely be seen. And if any of the three men still in the other room woke up, they would not be able to escape.
“The window.” Max said at the same time she had come to her own decision. She nodded at him.
“That was my thoughts, as well. All right, Max, I’m going to need your help getting it open. I don’t want to put Riley down.”
“I can do it, Aunt Alice.” Max replied in a confident voice. She followed him to the window. He looked around but saw nothing to help him pry it open. He stared at the lock, which looked like it was many years old and had rusted over. He pressed against it with his fingers, trying to make it slide over. He looked over his shoulder at her with widened eyes. “I don’t think I can do it, Aunt Alice. It’s too tight.”
“Try, Max. Try harder. Put everything you have into it. Use your muscles. We must get out of here. We must get out of here.” Unwillingly, she had allowed fear and stress into her voice. He widened his eyes and went back to pressing against the lock.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Alice.” Max turned and looked through the room. There were rocks embedded into the floor. He moved to one that was somewhat flat and dug into the dirt around it to loosen it. Alice watched him, moved her eyes to the little girl in her arms and then back to him. He was struggling mightily with the flat rock, trying to pull it out of the ground. She wondered what he planned to do with it. If he beat it against the lock, it would make noise. If he broke the glass, he would have to break all of it and there was a good chance the three of them would be cut to bits climbing out.
She wondered if it was worth it.
“Maybe we should just go through the room to the front door and leave,” she suggested, seeing that he was having a terrible time getting the rock to come out of the ground. He looked up at her with his innocent young eyes and she felt guilt slice through her. He was just a little boy. She was putting too much pressure on him. It shouldn’t be his decision. She should be telling him what to do.
Struggling not to let fear overtake her, she pointed to another rock that was slightly less embedded into the ground. “Can you get that one?”
Max looked to where she was pointing and moved to it. He dug around with his fingers, picked up some smaller rocks that were around it and used them to help him dig it out. He made a small, soft sound of excitement when the rock loosened and came up. Holding the long, flat rock in his hand, he went back to the window and used it as a lever to try to get the lock to slide over.
Alice watched in frustration. Finally, she moved closer to him and said, “Can you carry your sister? Is she too heavy for you?”
Max shook his head and held out his arms. Alice transferred Riley to him. “She’s asleep so she is dead weight.”
Max’s eyes opened wide. She realized what she said and shook her head quickly. “That’s not what I meant to say, Max. She’s not dead. It’s just a way of saying that someone can’t help you hold them up. That you are holding all of her weight.”
“She’s not very heavy,” Max murmured. Alice nodded. She took the rock
from him and first tried to open the lock with her own hands, then tried using the rock to loosen it. Neither option worked for her. She made a soft noise of frustration and tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to come to her eyes. She didn’t want the children to see her panicked. As she worked on the lock, she could hear Max whispering to Riley, trying to wake her.
Alice pulled on the lock as hard as she could. It wouldn’t budge.
She took a step back, exhausted and angry. She was seconds away from throwing the rock through the window and not caring if the sound was as loud as thunder. She looked back at the door, picturing the open front door in her mind. Better to take a chance on going through that room than busting through the glass, making all kinds of noise and possibly cutting their skin to shreds trying to climb out. Once the window made all that noise, it was unlikely they would be able to get through quick enough not to be caught. She couldn’t take a chance that the men were so drunk that they would sleep through something that loud.
She went close to the window again and looked out. If they were to get out, they would need a horse to safely make it away from the men. She looked to the left and to the right and spotted a group of horses idling nearby, their reins tied to the hitching post in front of the small ranch house. She didn’t recognize any of their surroundings. She had no idea where they were.
She pulled in a deep breath and turned to take Riley from Max’s arms. “I’ve got her, Max. Try one more time with that window. If we can’t get it open, we will have to take a chance and go through to the front door. I want to get to those horses over there, do you see them?” She pointed through the window while holding Riley in her arms. Max nodded.
“So try one more time and if we can’t get the window open, we’ll…”
“You’ll do what?” A man’s voice stopped Alice from speaking. Terror split through her. She froze for a moment before slowly turning to look at the door behind her. It wasn’t David. It was one of the other men. She recognized his voice.
It was Matt.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SURPRISING HELP
SURPRISING HELP
Alice stood there staring at him in silence, frozen in place. Max crept to stand just behind her, hiding himself halfway and peeking out around her dress at the tall man who loomed in the doorway.
Alice started to cry. She pulled Riley closer to her body, hugging her tight, relieved that Max had wrapped his arms around her waist and was pressing his small body against her. She had the children. She would fight to the death for them.
Matt just stood there looking at her for what seemed like an eternity. When he came into the room, Alice instinctively took a step back.
“Please don’t hurt the children,” Alice pleaded with him. “Please, please don’t hurt the children. Just let them go. I’ll stay. Just let them go.”
Matt put both his hands up in the air in a stop motion. “Keep your voice down,” he said. “You will wake up David and Scott.”
Alice sucked in her breath and her tears stopped. He didn’t sound threatening at all. He took another step toward her and this time she stayed where she was. Max had loosened his grip on her and was staring curiously at the cowboy.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Matt said. “What your brother is doing is wrong. I think he may have lost all of his senses. If you are quiet and come with me, I’ll help you get out.”
“They will hurt you. They will kill you if they find out!” Alice cried out quietly. The big man tilted his head to the side and gazed at her.
“You are worried about my safety?” She could tell she had taken him by surprise.
“I don’t want harm to come to anyone. I just want to go home with the children.”
Matt shook his head and blinked at her. Without another word, he moved to the window and slammed the lock out of place. He shoved the window and it came out of the frame. He caught the edges neatly and lowered it to the ground outside. Then, he turned back. Alice was staring at him in astonishment.
“How did you…”
“I built this place. I know how to get in and out of it. Come on. I’ll help you go through here. I’ll break the glass after you’ve left so it looks like I didn’t help you. Will that satisfy you?”
Alice couldn’t respond. She blinked rapidly to clear her eyes of the tears that were still pooled up over her lids. She nodded. She went to him and handed Riley to him. He chuckled and took the little girl in his arms.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? We can protect you.” Alice hooked her hands under Max’s arms and lifted him onto the window frame. He put his legs over the other side and hopped to the ground.
Matt shook his head. He watched Alice climb through the window and then handed Riley through it to her. She took the girl. Before they ran to the horses, he leaned through the window and held his hand out to Max.
“You are one brave little man, Maxwell Collins. I’m glad to know you. My name’s Matt.”
Max blinked and took the big hand, which swallowed his own. “Thank you,” he replied in a shaky voice. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Matt laughed again and pointed to one of the horses. “That’s my horse. Take him. I’ll get him from you another time. And you can do me a favor, Miss Alice.”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Tell your man not to kill me if he sees me.”
“My man?”
“Adam. I know he’s going to come for you. I’d rather not die or end up in jail for Nathan’s stupidity.”
Alice nodded, feeling strange hearing Adam called her man. “You have my word.” She said, nodding. “You have my word.”
“Now go. Go quick!”
As she ran toward the horse, she remembered that she didn’t know where she was. She still did not recognize anything around her. She turned back to ask Matt but he was gone from the window. She looked at the glass on the ground outside and wondered if he still planned to smash it.
“He’s giving us time to get away first,” she surmised. She turned back to run to the horse. Max was already there. He was trying to hop up into the saddle but it was too tall for him.
“Untie him first,” she told Max. He did so and pulled the horse away from the others. Alice gave Riley to Max, hiked up her nightgown to her knees and pulled herself up into the saddle of the big horse. She was going to have terrible burns on her inner thighs but she didn’t care at that point. She just wanted to get home. She held out her arms and Max attempted to lift Riley almost above his head to reach her arms. They struggled with the limp little girl but Alice finally got her onto the saddle in front of her, and held her close with Riley’s small face rested against her chest. She reached down and gave Max one of her hands, gripping Riley tight with the other.
She and Max worked together to get him up onto the horse. He sat on the horse’s neck on the bottom of his mane, pushing back into the saddle horn.
“This hurts, Aunt Alice,” Max said over his shoulder. “But can we please get away from here?”
“Absolutely, Max.” Alice said, pulling on the reins and kicking the horse into motion. She was grateful it didn’t react badly as some horses did when someone other than their owner was riding them. The horse might have been able to sense the presence of children. Alice’s horse never bucked when he had children on his back. She was glad Matt’s appeared to be the same way.
Without knowing where to go, Alice set off in a gallop away from the ranch, clutching Riley close to her, watching Max hold on tight to the horse’s neck, leaning forward, his small hands laced through the fine horsehair of the long black mane.
She heard her name called behind her and panic rushed through her.
She tried to look over her shoulder, pushing the horse to go faster. He was already going through rough brush, over a rocky terrain. Dust kicked up behind him as he ran. Alice could barely see through it but she saw David had run from the house. He was followed by Matt and the other man, Scott. David was shak
ing his fist at her. He turned and shouted something to the other men. Matt shook his head and yelled something back, holding out his hand in her direction. She had the impression he was saying that she took his horse.
The other two men ran to their horses and were in pursuit of her and the children far quicker than she would have liked. The last thing she saw was Matt backing up toward the corner of the house and stomping on the window glass, kicking it around in the dirt.
She turned to face the front and saw that Max was also turned around staring behind him with a look of terror on his face.
“Turn around, Max!” She cried out. “Turn around and don’t look back! Maybe this horse knows how to get us back to town. However, we cannot be in fear. We will escape! We must get back to your papa! He will keep us safe!”
“I’m scared, Aunt Alice! I’m so scared!”
“I know! I am, too!” She admitted it. She held Riley close to her and leaned forward to wrap her other arm around Max. “Please, God, please help us!”
The horse jumped across the rocky terrain, almost as if he knew they needed to get away from the men who were pursuing them. Alice directed him toward a large patch of trees, hoping to get some cover for their whereabouts. Right now they were completely exposed. Cacti didn’t hide them well at all.
The horse didn’t stop as they headed toward the trees. He ran into the wooded area without slowing down. Alice dared to look behind her once they entered the woods and could see that David and Scott were still hot on their trail. Once they were deeper into the woods, she made the horse twist and turn, weaving two and fro, trying to lose them.
She eventually slowed him down. She wasn’t the only one breathing hard. He was snorting and shaking his head. She wished he would be quieter but she herself and Max were both breathing hard. Her heart pounded against her chest so hard, she thought it might come out. Her pulse was beating in her head, making the knot on the back of it throb once again. She had almost forgotten about it.
Handsome Widower’s Second Chance Page 16