Galen's Gemma - Dale Mayer Page 0,28
is pretty rough if that is the case. Would they have taken just her and not Becky?” she whispered.
“If they couldn’t get a hold of Becky, maybe,” he said.
Just then her phone rang. “Hello?”
“It’s me,” Rebecca said in a hoarse whisper. “Oh, God, you’ve got to come. I’ve been kidnapped.”
“What are you talking about?” she said. “You drove out of here in my car.”
“Yes, I did,” she said. “I just went back to Joe’s cabin though. I thought I could pick up a few things to make it a little easier. You know how little bedding there is at that hippie commune.”
“That’s hardly the point now,” Gemma said, rubbing her temple. “Where are you exactly?”
“I’m in the cabin,” she snapped, “but people are here.”
“You said you were kidnapped.”
“Well, I haven’t been yet,” she said waspishly, “but men are downstairs. It’s not like they are going to let me leave. You have to come and get me out of here.”
“Yes, we’re on the way,” she said. “You need to hide and stay hidden.” At that, the phone went dead. She turned to look right at Zack, who was already racing to the door. “Why would she do that?” she muttered.
“It doesn’t matter,” Zack said. “You stay here with Becky.”
She stared at him and frowned.
Galen returned and told them, “I just checked the laptop, and the cameras picked up people at Joe’s cabin. Rebecca too.”
She held up her phone. “My sister just called me. First, she told me that she was kidnapped, then changed it, saying she was hiding upstairs and people were down below. She wants us to go get her.”
Galen looked at her, startled. “You stay here with Becky, and we’ll be back in a bit.” He and Zack bolted out the front door.
Becky grabbed Gemma’s hand. “Is Mommy okay?
“She is at the moment,” she answered, “but she went back to the other cabin.”
“Why?” Becky cried out. “It’s nice here.”
“I don’t know, honey. Your mom has a mind of her own.”
“She didn’t want to leave our house. She said it was her home. And Joe left it to her. She’s mad at you for bringing her here. I’m not. I like it here.”
“Good. I don’t know if your daddy left it to her or not.” She turned to look at Becky. “Why did you call your daddy Joe?”
“That’s what Mommy said to call him. But he was my daddy, wasn’t he?”
She nodded slowly. “Yes.”
Becky sighed. “Sometimes I wondered.”
“Wondered if he was?”
“Yes. Mommy told Daddy that I wasn’t his.”
“Ouch,” she said, staring at the little girl with sad fascination. “That must have been rough.”
“Daddy was upset,” she said pragmatically.
“I’d be terribly upset if somebody told me that you weren’t mine,” Gemma said, reaching out an arm and hugging the little girl. “I think your mom was angry, and that’s why she said it. People say all kinds of things they don’t mean when they’re angry, honey.” She closed the front door and motioned to the couch. “Want me to put on some hot chocolate?”
Immediately Becky smiled. “Yes, please! Thank you.”
A chill had settled in the room now that the sun had set. Their cabin had a wood-burning fireplace, but she hadn’t looked for any logs. It was summertime, but it still would have been comforting to have a fire. She walked over to the little two-burner gas stove and heated up some water. She was pretty sure hot chocolate mix would be in the cabin. If not this one, at least in hers. When she couldn’t find any, she turned off the water.
“Let’s go to my cabin. I think the hot chocolate is over there.” Becky immediately hopped up, and, holding hands, they walked over to Gemma’s little cabin. As they neared hers, she caught movement of someone or something behind the cabins. Frowning, she looked down at Becky. “Shh, let’s play quiet.”
Becky looked up but seemed to have some understanding that something was wrong, and she nodded.
Together the two tiptoed inside the cabin, while Gemma watched as much as she could from the back window. With no lights on in this cabin, and the lights still on in the other one, she could see a single male approaching from the back. She didn’t recognize his shape. It definitely wasn’t Zack or Galen, and neither was it Tim. Hating this, she immediately packed up the little bit of clothing and things that they had. “We have to be really, really quiet.”
“Are we leaving again?”
“We might be, yes.”
As the stranger circled around