“It’s not permanent,” Reno said. “I’ll be back before you know it and I’ll come out here and spend a whole week with you. We’ll go camping out on Big Sandy. You’ll have two homes! Won’t that be dandy?”
Emory clapped his hands. “Can Mr. Clay come too?”
“Why sure I can…” He stopped talking and held up his hand. “Did you hear that?” He held Reno’s eye.
Reno put his finger to his lips for them all to be quiet.
Bump! Bump! Bump!
Tess squealed as Clay, Reno, and Saul all stared at the floor. Something was under the house. Something big!
“Give me that coffee pot?” Reno whispered to Saul.
Saul jumped up and brought the pot cradled in a folded rag to keep from burning his hands. Reno took it by the handle, then stood up. Staring down through the cracks in the floor, he shut one eye to see better. While everyone held their breath, he poured a stream of red-hot coffee onto the intruder.
To their shock, it wasn’t the squall of a panther or the howl of a wolf that met their ears – it was the gasp and cry of a human in pain. In the next heartbeat, the smell of burning kerosene filled the room and smoke began rising from the timbers beneath the house.
“God, they’re setting fire to the damn cabin, Reno!” Clay yelled as he picked Tess up under one arm and Emory under the other.
Reno tried to remain calm. “Grab the bags, Saul. We’ve got to get out of here now.”
“All right.” He picked up some things and motioned for Huck to get the rest. “My journal. I can’t leave my journal.”
“Hurry!” Reno urged them, taking some of Huck’s load with one hand and his rifle with the other. “Clay, we’ve got to get these kids to a safe place.”
Journey
Still shaking, Journey returned to her car and began the trip home. Heading back the way she came, she traveled about a mile when a horrible thought occured to her. What if she saw them again? “Highly unlikely.” After plowing into that guy and facing possible arrest, she was sure they were long gone. Regardless, she couldn’t help but glance into the rearview mirror every second or two.
Once she was out of town and heading north on 965, Journey finally felt like she could breathe. This road was far less traveled. Especially at night. When the state park closed down, there was no reason for anyone to come this way unless they lived out here. And since the residences were few and far between, traffic was always light.
Journey held on to this thought as the wheels turned. As one mile followed another, she gradually relaxed. This feeling lingered until she looked into the rearview mirror and saw headlights. Her heart jumped in her throat. “Stop it, Sojourner. Could be anybody.” No matter – she kept a close watch on the pinpricks of light in the distance.
About five miles from the ranch, she noticed the vehicle following her was much closer. To her absolute horror, she could see the same hulking black truck coming up fast behind her. “Oh, no. No. Please, no.” Horrible thoughts began to bombard her mind. What was she going to do? If she went home, they’d follow her. If she kept going, they might try to run her off the road. What they’d do to her next – she didn’t want to think about.
Frantic, she tried to come up with a solution. Like a gift from heaven an idea came. She’d go to the nearest neighbor’s house, Mr. Blue, the friend of Myra’s who took care of the horses. As neighbors go, his house wasn’t very close – but at the moment, that mattered not one whit. She just hoped they were home. “Where is their road? Come on, Journey, get a grip!”
Leaning forward, she searched for the reflectors that would announce the turn-off. Behind her, the truck loomed like a menacing dragon. The idiots would rev the engine, come right up on her bumper, then back off a bit. She could just imagine them laughing, knowing they were torturing her. Suddenly, up ahead there was a twinkle. A reflector. Boldly, she put on her blinker, hoping the idea that she might have family at home would cause the men in the black truck to think twice.
Scared to death, she made the turn too quickly – one wheel going off the culvert. The only thing that saved her from wrecking was