Seth opened the door to peek out again. The sun was setting. “It’s going to be dark soon. I think we should spend the night here. Rest, gather supplies.”
Laura looked like she was going to argue. “What about the fire?” she asked. “I really don’t want to wake up surrounded by flames.”
It was a valid fear. And Seth didn’t know anything for sure. “I think we’ll be okay for now. I still think it’s moving slow.”
Laura looked at him, her face screaming that she was entirely unconvinced.
“Laura, I’ll do whatever you want, okay? If you think we should keep moving, we will. But right now we just smell smoke. We don’t see it and we don’t see flames. None of our choices are good. But I think we should hide and rest for a bit.”
Laura nodded. “We should go ahead and seal ourselves inside here as best we can. Try to hide the shelter as much as possible in case they come by.”
Seth agreed, grateful that she was trusting his plan. Of course, that also meant anything that went wrong would be on him. A sharp pain shot across Seth’s jaw and he realized he was clenching it.
There were no good choices, he reminded himself. They just needed to do their best.
Laura opened doors and drawers, much as Seth had done earlier. When she found a doll and a set of large blocks, she gave them to Abby. Abby promptly sat on the bed and began playing quietly.
Seth raised his eyebrows at the find. Looking at him, Laura smiled sheepishly. “Those were mine. Dad liked to keep me busy. I was quieter when I was busy.”
“I bet.” Seth pictured a rustic mountain man taking a little girl along on his excursions.
Laura went back to her exploration of the cupboards. She pulled several cans out and rummaged until she found a can opener. “Well, we’ll have something to eat at least.” She looked at the fireplace and then at Seth. “I don’t think we should start a fire. The smoke would be a dead giveaway.”
“Agreed.”
Laura opened the first can and smelled the contents. Seemingly satisfied, she dumped the contents into a bowl. “I hope you like pork and beans. Cold.”
Seth thought about some of the meals he had eaten in Afghanistan. “That sounds perfect.”
Laura filled three bowls, found three spoons and they sat down at the table to eat. Even though they were near strangers, on the run, hiding in the woods and eating cold pork and beans, the meal reminded Seth of home. Of eating with his family at the kitchen table. He felt a pang of longing.
Seth was brought from his thoughts by Abby grabbing his hand. Her other fist gripped her mother’s hand. Laura held out her free hand toward Seth’s. Her voice was quiet. Tentative. “Um, we always hold hands and pray before we eat.”
Feeling a little foolish for not realizing earlier, Seth took Laura’s hand.
Laura looked at Abby. “Go ahead, honey.”
Abby closed her eyes and bent her head down. Seth did the same. “Dear God, thank You. Amen.”
Seth smiled and looked over to see Laura’s sheepish smile. “Her prayers are a little...short.” She sounded amused and almost embarrassed.
Seth looked at Abby and patted her on the back. “That was great, Abby. I like a woman who knows how to be concise and efficient.”
Abby smiled at Seth, likely not understanding all of his words but knowing she was loved and adored. She quickly remembered the food and concentrated on eating her dinner. Seth took a bite, pleased to find that the meal, while simple and cold, was actually quite good. “This is delicious. Thank you.”
Laura chuckled. “All I did was open a can, but you’re welcome.”
After eating dinner, Laura put Abby to bed and then sat across from Seth at the table. The old oil lamp Laura had produced from somewhere made a nice glow. If it weren’t for the armed men coming after them, this could have been a fun camping trip. Seth had certainly spent worse nights in his life.
Laura’s voice was low when she spoke. Seth wondered whether it was because she didn’t want to wake Abby or because of the subject of her question. “What are we going to do if they find us?” Laura turned her head and looked at Abby. Seth saw tears glistening in her eyes before she faced him again. “What are we going to do if they don’t find us?”
Seth didn’t want to give her platitudes about roses and bunnies. She was an adult. She was a mother. She needed to hear the truth and to know the risks of all their options. But, first, Seth needed to figure out what their options were. He wasn’t exactly coming up with a long list.
“I don’t honestly know, Laura.”
“The smell of the smoke lessened as we walked to the shelter, I think. But that could have been the wind. Do you think we’ve walked far enough away from the fire?”
“I’m a little turned around after our adventure as moles, but we’re farther up the mountain now than we were before, aren’t we?”
Laura nodded.
“Okay. So when I saw the fire it was definitely spreading in such a way that it will block all attempts to get down this side of the mountain. The wind could change but—”
“We can’t go down.”
“Well, there’s a chance that crews are fighting the fire right now. That if we walked toward the flames we’d also be walking toward help. But that risk makes me nervous. So I’d say the shortest route to help is probably out. I would hate to try it, hoping the fire won’t block us, and then find out it is. I don’t like that scenario at all.”
Laura’s gaze was steady. “And the men with guns might still be out there. Looking for us.”
“Yes.” Seth wanted to lie to her. But he respected her enough to give her the truth, even though he hated the expression that crossed her face. She looked, well, trapped. And it was a horrible thing to see on another person’s face.
“How do you feel about us staying here?” Laura asked. “We have enough food for a couple of weeks. Maybe longer if we ration it. If it came down to it, I could leave to hunt. It feels safe here.”
Seth thought about her question, appreciating the way she was treating him. The war between the park rangers assigned to this area and her family was almost mythical. But she was not digging into the conflict. Instead, she was dealing with the here and now. And, in this here and now, they needed to work together to get out alive. To get Abby out alive.
Seth froze when he thought he heard something outside. He had barely formed the thought when Laura extinguished the lamp and moved over to the bed where Abby slept. She had heard it, too, which meant it was real.
Seth knew there was a full moon and a sky full of stars out there. Bright and beautiful. He’d walked through the forest on nights like this before and had never even needed to pull out his flashlight. The cabin was completely dark, though, so overgrown on the outside that no light came in.
The sound outside became louder and more distinct. Something coming through the brush, breaking branches and crunching the leaves and needles that made up the forest floor. And voices. Male voices, loud and aggressive.
“This is pointless. We’re wandering around in the dark getting eaten alive by mosquitoes for no reason. They could be anywhere.”
“Shut your mouth. Boss says to get them—we get them.”
Seth looked at the dark shapes that were Laura and Abby on the bed. He wanted to go over there. He wanted to wrap his arms around them and use his body as a shelter. He stayed where he was, though. He was afraid that he would bump into something or knock something over if he tried to get to them in the dark. The last thing they needed was for him to alert these guys of their location.
Instead, Seth looked at the door. Or, where he thought the door was. He thanked God that he still had his gun on him. He hoped he would not need it, but he felt better having it in his hand.
Seth stopped breathing when a small beam of light came inside the cabin. The men had powerful flashlights. And th
e cabin wasn’t as protected from outside eyes as he had thought.
FIVE
The small beam of light almost danced as it moved along the far cabin wall. If Abby had been awake, she would have probably laughed in delight. That light should be beautiful. Instead, it made Laura feel like she was going to vomit.
“Yeah, well, I don’t care what the boss says. If I see a bear, I’m getting out of here.”
The man’s voice was louder than before. Closer. Laura wanted to cradle Abby to her body, but she didn’t dare wake the sleeping child. Abs was a heavy sleeper, but Laura was poised to hush her if it looked like she was starting to stir.
“Why are we even here? I’m telling you, man, they went down the mountain.”
“Boss says the fire would have stopped them.”
The light left the cabin. Where were they going?
“Then they’re in the middle of the fire, nice and crispy. Why are we looking for dead people?”
Laura winced. The man sounded pleased at the thought of three people burning to death.
“Yeah, well, this is pointless.”
“I heard you the first time. I don’t want to hear it a third. Boss has us split up, covering the entire mountain. We’ll find them. And, when we do, she’s gonna watch her daughter die. Then she and that ranger are gonna get it, too. They’ve made this hard enough. Boss is done with accidental and humane.”
The voices had been decreasing in volume as the men were hopefully walking away, but Laura clearly heard that last part. She swallowed rapidly several times, trying to fight the urge to vomit, which had become almost unstoppable as those men talked about hurting Abby. Hurting her sweet little girl who couldn’t even conceive of such evil.
It was silent outside, but no one moved inside the cabin. Laura put a hand over her stomach, willing it to calm down. There was a time and place for everything, and this was neither the time nor the place for her to have a breakdown. She needed to save her daughter, then she could worry about hysterics.
When she felt like she had control over her body again, Laura looked at Seth. Well, she looked in the direction she had last seen him. He had been utterly silent ever since she had blown out the light, so Laura assumed he was still at the table. She would have heard him move.
Was he was looking at her, too? What was he doing? How long should they wait until those guys were out of earshot? Were more coming?
The questions were flying in Laura’s head, and she realized her hands were squeezed into fists. No. No, no, no. She forced her fingers to relax and folded them together. She slid to her knees on the ground without making a sound and kneeled next to Abby’s sweet little sleeping body. Laura leaned over, closed her eyes and began to pray.
It was a familiar prayer. Her favorite saying was one about why worry if you pray and why pray if you are going to worry. Laura loved that saying, but it was also her nemesis of sorts. She prayed. She tried to give her burdens to God. Truly. But, no matter how good her intentions, she always kept the worry. She obsessed. She planned. It made her prayers feel like a mockery and inevitably started a cycle of worrying and praying about worrying and worrying about worrying while praying.
But Laura still tried. Because when it came down to it, Abby was going to learn by watching what Laura did. No matter what Laura said. So Laura kept on trying. She prayed about her worries. And she prayed that God would help her release them to Him.
Here, in this dark cabin, Laura felt very much alone. Out of control. And absolutely terrified. So she leaned over her daughter, turned her fists into hands of prayer and tried to talk to her Heavenly Father. It was working, too. She was still anxious, but the absolute panic was fading. God was in control. God was in control. God was in control.
“I’m coming your way.” Laura jumped at his whisper, but was thankful for the warning. She was so focused that she might have screamed if Seth appeared next to her without telling her first. He didn’t make a sound as he crossed the room, and Laura didn’t know he was there until she felt his warmth next to her. He placed his hands over hers.
“I’d like to pray with you, if that’s okay?”
“Is it safe?” It felt almost sacrilegious worrying that they both should not pray at the same time. But practicality won out again. Shouldn’t one of them be watching the door? Maybe they should pray in shifts. The thought made a wave of hysterical laughter bubble in Laura’s throat, but she suppressed it.
Of course it was safe to pray. Especially now. This man wanted to pray with her. He wasn’t scorning her for praying in such a dire situation. He wasn’t being cynical about her prayer. No, he wanted to join her.
“Of course you can. I have to warn you, though. I’m not very good at this. I never have been. It seems that practice doesn’t make perfect in my case.”
Seth squeezed her hands, and this time his voice was slightly chiding. “Hey, don’t do that. Don’t be all self-deprecating. I’m scared, too. I was grateful when I realized you were praying, because I really need it, too.”
“I, um...” Laura really didn’t know how to respond to that. She went back to bowing her head, looking away from Seth’s face, which was still hidden in shadows. Here, in the dark, it seemed intimate, yet right, that they should hold hands and pour out their fears together.
They didn’t say anything, just interlaced their fingers. Kneeled side by side. Shared warmth and communion. Laura’s mind calmed. Her body strengthened. She breathed out an “Amen” and looked up at Seth as he did the same. She removed her hands from his and pulled the covers back up around Abby as she slept.
Seth stood and moved to the cabin door. The longer they stayed in the complete darkness, the more Laura was able to see. Seth’s eyes must have been adjusting the same way because he did not seem to stumble. Laura watched him put his ear near the door, though he was definitely a shadowed figure instead of a clear person.
He moved to the shuttered windows and did the same thing. Then he came back to where Laura was still sitting on the floor next to the bed. “I think they’re gone. I don’t think they realized we were here.”
“But they are going to keep looking, aren’t they? Mahoney really wants us dead.”
Seth crouched down, sitting back on his heels so that he was about face level with her. “Yes. It sounded like they are going to keep looking until they find us.”
Laura noted that he said us. And he was right. He was in this now. She had done this to her daughter and to him. She was the one who finally felt ready to go through all the boxes of her husband’s things. She was the one who had found the key. And somehow she was the reason Mahoney knew about the key. She had to be. Laura didn’t know how Mahoney knew. But she found the key and less than a week later he was here. This was all her fault. Even though she had just prayed, she still felt helpless. That feeling of not being able to do anything to change an awful situation rose up again.
Like when her parents died. Like when Malcolm, her second dad, died. Like when Josh died.
Laura put her hands down on the bed and felt Abby.
Abby.
And she sniffled back a laugh. Yes, she had been in many horrible, helpless places before in her life. Circumstances that she couldn’t change, no matter how hard she prayed and wished and tried. But God had brought her through. Had given her a new father. A daughter. Reasons to keep going and ways to smile and laugh even after she’d sworn she’d never do either again.
Seth came back and Laura looked at him from her place on the floor. “What do you think we should do?”
“We need to sleep. We won’t be any good in the morning if we’re both exhausted.”
That was a good plan in theory. In reality, though, Laura knew she would never be able to sleep with a forest full of armed men looking for her. And her baby. “I won’t be able to sleep.”
Instead of arguing with her, Seth just nodded his head. Lau
ra liked how he did not dismiss her concerns as trivial. “I agree. I’d be too afraid of waking up with a gun pointed at my face.”
Laura cringed at his bluntness. She really didn’t need an image to go along with her fear.
Seth looked at the door and nodded. “Here’s the plan. We’ll take turns keeping watch and sleeping. We have about seven hours until daylight. You go to sleep now. I’ll wake you up in a few hours and then I’ll sleep.”
It wasn’t a bad plan. “You’ll really wake me up? I’m going to be mad if you let me sleep all night and you stay awake.” Laura wanted to get out of this alive more than she wanted chivalry. She was going to need Seth alert and awake tomorrow.
His smile was rueful in an adorable kind of way that confused Laura. “I’ll wake you up. My goal is to keep you and Abby safe, and I need to get at least a few hours shut-eye to make that happen.”
“Okay.” Laura climbed into the bed with Abby, pulling the small child to her and smiling when little arms and legs automatically curled around her even though Abby was sound asleep. Laura saw Seth move closer to the door and sit on the floor, leaning against the wall. He didn’t light the lamp again.
She closed her eyes and tried to breathe slowly and evenly, but gave up after a couple of minutes. She stared at the black of the ceiling and tried to listen to the forest, the sounds that had been her lullaby since the day Malcolm Grant took her out of that hospital. She only heard her blood roaring in her ears.
“Seth?” she whispered, hoping he would hear her.
“Yeah?”
“What are we going to do in the morning?”
He didn’t answer right away, and tears rose in Laura’s throat.
“When it’s light outside, we’ll make a plan. It’ll be a new day.”
Oddly, that helped. A new day. Yes. Things often looked better in the morning. Laura closed her eyes and slept.
* * *
Seth woke up and had absolutely no idea where he was. That never happened. Whether in the desert, in his bed or camping in the forest, Seth always woke up and knew exactly where he was.
Rocky Mountain Showdown Page 5