Terror seized Abby, but she kept running faster and faster until they were hidden in the trees. She finally stopped, panting, and looked over at Ella.
“He killed him!” Ella cried. “Pa killed Jay! He’s gonna get us, too!” The child’s eyes were wide and brimming with tears, her body trembling.
Abby wanted to keep running. But she had to know. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
Abby moved closer to the edge of the woods and looked out, her heart pounding so hard she could scarcely take a breath, shocked and relieved that Jay didn’t appear to be shot. He and Isaiah were rolling on the ground, engaged in a fistfight, the rifle not far from either.
“Jay, get the rifle!” she shouted. “Don’t let Isaiah pick it up!”
Lord, help him!
Everything in her wanted to run out there and snatch the rifle. But if she failed, there was a good chance Isaiah would end up killing all three of them.
Ella came up next to her and clutched her arm.
“Father, we need You,” Abby said aloud. “Help us. You’re all we’ve got.”
Jay, his nose and T-shirt bloody, struggled to his feet, only to have Isaiah get up and knock him to the ground, flat on his back.
Isaiah reached down and picked up the rifle, pointing it at Jay’s chest. “You stupid kid! You shoulda left well enough alone!” He cocked the rifle. “That’s the last time you’re gonna give me grief!”
“Nooo!” Abby cried.
Kate opened her eyes, her heart pounding wildly, her head still ringing with the sound of Abby’s scream. She must have imagined it. How could it have been so real? So chilling?
She got up out of the porch swing and stood at the railing, her pulse racing faster than a doe that bounded across the driveway and disappeared into the woods.
She listened intently to the quiet, which seemed to taunt her. The only sound was the distant reverberation of the helicopter, a haunting reminder that another member of her family might never come home.
There was a time when she might have felt some satisfaction in shaking her fist at God. Now she had neither the passion nor the energy nor even the assurance that there existed a God to blame. The more she suffered, the more convinced she was that nothing happened for a reason. It was all by chance. Chance that had victimized her again with no warning and no higher purpose.
She heard the screen door open behind her.
“You okay?” Elliot’s voice was as soothing as his touch.
Kate had loved being held by him and was disappointed with herself for relishing the arms of a man other than Micah. “I’m fine. I must have dozed off and had a dream. I thought I heard Abby screaming. It sent a chill right through me.”
“I’m sure it did. You haven’t heard anything more from the sheriff?”
“Nothing. I’m so afraid he’s going to be too late. That Abby …” Kate’s voice failed.
Elliot came up behind her and put his warm hand on her shoulder. “Don’t say that. Don’t even think it.”
Kate turned around and looked into Elliot’s understanding eyes, grateful he didn’t tell her that she needed to have faith. Or hit her with meaningless platitudes. Instead, he simply pulled her into his arms and comforted her.
Abby hid Ella’s face in her chest and closed her eyes, waiting for Isaiah’s rifle to fire. Would she ever feel joy that she had found her sister if Jay was killed because of it?
A single shot rang out, echoing across the Arkansas sky. She was pierced to the heart and paralyzed with dread, unsure whether it was she or Ella who was shaking.
Someone shouted a string of obscenities, and Abby’s eyes flew open. Isaiah had dropped the rifle and was shaking his hand, shouting vile words that made her cringe.
A second later, a young man wearing a camouflage T-shirt and matching cap marched boldly out of the woods like a soldier on a mission, his hunting rifle pointed at Isaiah.
Hawk! Abby wasn’t sure whether she had spoken his name or merely thought it.
“Don’t you dare move,” Hawk said, sliding the fallen rifle to Jay with his foot. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Jay said. “Am I ever glad to see you! Abby and Ella are safe. They ran into the woods.”
Abby glanced over at the log house and saw someone close the curtain. She stood at the tree line, waving her arms. “Hawk! His wife’s in the house! Be careful!”
Hawk turned sideways so he could see the