Desperate Rescue (4 page)

Her words had been soft, barely audible and not really meant for Eli’s ears. But in the quiet woods, where even that lone bird no longer called, he heard. She should have kept her mouth shut tight.

“His grace is sufficient for you. You didn’t need anything else, nor do you now.”

With a twist around, she snapped at him. “Why are you quoting Scripture to me? It’s as if—” She tried to curb her anger by shutting her mouth, but being here, knowing Trisha had died…the pain was still so fresh.

The knot in her throat tightened. She waved her hand. “Forget it. Don’t answer. Let’s work our way around back. Sometimes there’s more life there.” Without looking at him, she thrust through the dense forest.

Eli caught her arm. “Let me go first.”

At the back, the forest encroached on the fence even more. If unchecked, it would soon swallow up the apron of cleared land skirting the chain link. Like the front gate, the back one was closed and locked with a huge padlock.

She looked up past it. The rear of the farmhouse lay as empty as the front. Kaylee’s gaze wandered up to the second-floor bedroom, the one she’d shared with Trish and Phoebe for a short time.

She’d been a prisoner there, allowed out only for ablutions, the occasional meager meal and prayer service when her “abilities” as prophet were needed. Left alone for hours in that freezing bedroom with its cracked and drafty window. Trisha and Phoebe would join her at night. Most of those nights they’d all huddled in the same bed. Phoebe had often reminded them that the pioneers survived and they would, too. That God was preparing them for the hardships that come with starting a new world.

Evil propaganda fed to them by Noah.

“No one’s around,” Eli whispered. “Would the kids also be downstairs?”

Kaylee threw off the thoughts and shook her head. “No. The older ones would have taken the younger ones outside. There’s no smoke from the chimney, either. And no chickens in the coop. This place looks like a tomb.”

Eli drew in a sharp breath.

She cringed. “Sorry. Bad choice of words. Maybe we should get a bit closer.”

Eli held up his hand and stood. Only then did she realize that he’d chosen his clothing well. His jacket, while not camouflaged, was a dark moss-green and his pants were chestnut. Only his pale blond hair stood out, but amidst the autumn golds and yellows of the birch and poplar, his coloring blended well.

He scanned the ground slowly, methodically, his gaze intent on finding something where trees met unruly grass.

Kaylee’s heartbeat quickened through her temples. A wild mix of emotions barreled into her chest and out to her shaking hands. She leaned forward, casting wary glances around them. “They’re gone, Eli. Taken off. Let’s go. I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.”

He studied the yard, not answering her. Just as she leaned forward to tell him she’d wait for him in the car, he turned. “How did you get out of this yard? Did Noah leave the gate unlocked?”

She met his stare. His eyes were an incredible electric blue. Her naïveté reared and she wished she could read him. She sensed someone wanting desperately to find his sister, or at least desperate to get into this compound. But she also sensed something else and hated not being able to recognize it.

Finally, she flicked her head toward the south side of the yard. “Over there.”

“Show me.” He stood, stepped back and wrapped his strong fingers around her wrist. Then, twisting her around, he led her through the woods the way they came. She wanted to tug her hand free, but having someone close felt good, especially here.

They pushed through the thick woods and around the corner of the yard.

“Where?” he asked.

She stepped past him and scanned the fence. There had been a large bramble bush that had caught her clothing. The children had told her it hid the break.

There! She bent down and after pulling her sleeve over her hand to protect it, she swept the prickly bush away to reveal the narrow break. When she turned back to Eli, his face was lit with anticipation.

“You may be too big to get through it,” she commented.

“I’ll manage.” He bent back the chain link, tearing it up slightly from the ground. “You go first. I’ll hold this back for you.”

She hadn’t needed him to do that, but once he stepped to the left, she swallowed down her reluctance and slipped into the compound.

She straightened. For a brief moment, Eli stood there, his eyes locked on hers. Wasn’t he coming in, too? Doubt flooded her. Was he returning her to his horrible place—

No. His expression told of his own mixed emotions. Finding Phoebe, but in what condition? Or finding nothing but pain and a missed opportunity. Kaylee wanted so much to pull him into her and hold him tight.

She knew all about mixed emotions. That day she’d escaped, the jumble of dos and don’ts tangled into her reasoning. Then, in a millisecond, she’d made her decision and escaped. She knew the pain Eli was feeling right now, and wished she could somehow take it all away from him.

She drew in a breath, hating the sudden attraction that both lured and frightened her.

“We don’t have to do this,” she said softly.

“I need to.” His expression melted. “And I’m glad you’re here with me.” Then he stepped through after her.

“Where first?” she asked.

“The house?”

She wet her lips. “I’d rather not, thank you.”

“I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.” He dusted off his pants, tugging free a dried bramble twig as he did so. “Okay, we’ll do the outbuildings first. I wonder what they’re for.”

“The men sleep in one and wash up in the other. Only the married men were allowed to sleep in the house and only one man was married. Noah had strict rules about those sorts of thing. I don’t know why, but I was glad.”

“Perhaps abstinence was part of the starvation routine he used to wield his control.”

Good point. She hadn’t considered that, but it made sense.

Eli led her across the lawn to the front of the buildings. “Where does Noah sleep?”

“I don’t know. He never slept when I was awake. He was always the first up and the last to bed.”

“He always was a night owl.”

She watched as Eli searched the men’s building. It was much newer than the old farmhouse. Occasionally, she’d wondered what had been its original purpose. But she’d never heard the men complain about it. It must have been well insulated.

Finally, Eli came out. Without looking at her, he walked into the other one and within a minute, came out again.

The disappointment showed clearly on his face. The buildings were empty.

She felt her own heart sink and yet at the same time, relief sluiced through her.

Eli walked up to her. “There’s no one in either building. The beds are made, everything is reasonably neat and tidy, like they just left it.” He turned to the house.

“I don’t want to go in,” she blurted out. “Not into the house.”

Eli blinked, his mouth softening from that tight line she’d seen before to something sympathetic. He reached out and took her hand. His fingers warmed hers.

“I know. But I have to find Phoebe. This is my life, Kaylee. And my parents need answers.” After a moment of holding her hand, he dropped it. “I’ll be back.”

The wind slid across her face like strips of cold, wet cotton, the kind she’d used to wipe the dishes in The Farm when it had been her turn. Ahead, Eli stepped upon the rotting porch. She could hear it groan under his weight and the sound brought back a vivid memory. The day those who remained ate spring greens while the rest went grocery shopping. The woman who’d picked and steamed them had lifted her head sharply at the sound of those front boards relenting to Noah’s weight.

Kaylee could still remember the look of apprehension on the two starving children who were still finishing their greens. When the door creaked open, the children gobbled up the rest on their plates and hurried to the sink. They dumped them in there and dashed out the back door.

“It’s open,” Eli said, breaking into her difficult memory. He pushed on the front door, then still outside, threw her his own version of that fearful expression.

Her heart squeezed. He didn’t want to go in and find the cult dead, murdered by his brother or, just as bad, all having taken their own lives.

She pushed aside the terrible worry. This wasn’t fair to Eli.

“Eli?”

Just inside the door, he turned.

“Maybe you shouldn’t go in. Maybe we could call someone to search this place for you.”

He frowned. “Like who? The police?”

She cringed. He knew her history, probably from the diligent investigator he’d hired. He knew she wouldn’t want to deal with the police here ever again.

He shook his head. “Like I said, this is something I have to do.”

Then, with gritted teeth, he walked inside.

T
ears diluted the scene before her. She didn’t want to go inside her prison of two years.

But being out here, on what some might have been called the front lawn, wasn’t desirable, either. Her mouth dried, then her throat. She swallowed hard in order to break the crackling feeling. Around her stood remnants of farm life; a rusting hoe and one of those rakes that tractors drag behind them. Propped against an old skeleton of a pickup was an equally ancient tractor wheel.

Her gaze wandered upstairs. From the room upstairs she’d looked down for hours on end, asking herself time and again if she’d break her neck should she try to escape through the window. She’d always stayed put, afraid that should she misbehave, she’d end up in that dungeon of a basement where Noah spent so much time.

A blue jay called out a shrill, indignant cry behind her and flew off to her left. To her right, the cause of the disturbance rustled the bushes.

It sounded big.

And it wasn’t that far from the break in the fence. From this distance, she could see the break and the crushed, waist-high grass and weeds where Eli had twisted the chain link. Whatever was following them would see it, too.

The rustling moved toward the break.

Her heart leaped and pounded in her throat and one of her mother’s favorite sayings burst into her mind.

Better the enemy you know.

She broke into a run toward the house. Eli had left the door open and she leaped up past the squeaky plank, right to the stain where a welcome mat once lay and in the next step, over the threshold.

“There’s no one in the kitchen.”

She spun, so quickly she nearly lost her balance.

Eli didn’t seem to notice her agitation. He’d already turned and headed into the living room. To her left stood the stairs. Up to her prison.

Get a grip,
she scolded herself.
They’re gone. No one’s here. That rustling was just an animal.

Eli appeared at the end of the hall ahead that lined the stairs, having walked the circle from the living room to the back hall. “Let’s try upstairs,” he said, his voice tight with anxiety.

“You fully expect to find someone here, don’t you?”

He didn’t answer. She barreled on anyway. “There’s no one here, Eli. I can feel it.”

“How so?”

“In the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping, or when they were gone for supplies and there were only a handful of us here, you could tell. There was life here. Now there’s nothing.” Her voice wobbled.

“You don’t sound completely convinced. What’s wrong?”

“I heard an animal outside, that’s all. It spooked me.”

With a frown, he studied her. “Noah wouldn’t be noisy, if that’s what you’re thinking. You just said we’re alone.”

She bit her lip at his comment. She wanted to leave and to have Eli leave with her. But she knew what she’d said would only cement Eli’s resolve to find out for himself. Not to prove her wrong, but to prove to himself that there was no one here, dead or alive.

He brushed off her comments. “We need to look for any clue to where they may have gone. Let’s try upstairs, then work our way down.”

She nodded, telling herself again that she was here for Eli. She’d agreed to get him into The Farm, to help him find Phoebe.

Eli swept past her and up the stairs. They all could be upstairs, but she doubted it. Even dead, she wagered that Noah and his cult would command a certain presence.

And there was nothing here. With a deep breath, she forced herself to remember that. And that Eli was here. She was safe. There was nothing in this house to hurt her.

The urge to run still burned in her. Swallowing it down, she climbed that first step with shaking legs. Then another step, each worn tread giving way to her. Without staring at Eli’s legs as they walked upstairs, she knew he was there, guiding her in a way he didn’t realize. “So who slept in what room?” he asked casually when he reached the top.

A moment of righteous anger surged through her. Didn’t he realize that this was one of the most difficult moments of her life, here and now? Couldn’t he show some compassion?

At the top, Eli turned, fully expecting an answer. She stepped on the upstairs hall floor before giving him one. “Um, Phoebe and Trisha and I had this one.” She pointed to her right. Each door of the five small bedrooms was closed. “The older women had the two end rooms and the kids slept there.” She pointed to middle room.

He flicked his eyes from door to door. “There are five rooms up here.” He looked at the one she hadn’t mentioned. “Who had this one?”

“The married couple.” She didn’t want to think of them. They’d been the hopeful pair to lead the way for all of them to start a new generation. Except their plans hadn’t turned out the way they wanted them to.

Eli shoved open the door of the room she’d shared. It was empty. Only then, did she realize she’d pulled in a breath and held it. Letting it out felt like a relief. She focused on her old room, noticing that all the furniture was still there.

It only added to the eerie atmosphere.

She found herself stepping into the bedroom. The bed was made, the threadbare bedclothes not quite as neatly made as she remembered. The cheap, thin pillows, three in a row on the double bed ahead of her, barely made a lump under the faded chenille bedspread. The whole room had a hasty-looking feel to it, not at all like Phoebe’s usual meticulous standards.

She walked over to the window and looked down at the front yard. The same view as she’d seen so many times before.

Movement to her left caught her attention. That animal? Could it still be there, not scared off by her sudden flight into the house? She must not have made enough noise.

Like the silent house around her.

Silent? She cocked her head, listening. Hadn’t Eli just opened a door? What was he doing?

“Eli?”

Nothing. She peeked one more time at the far view outside, but saw no movement or rustling in the woods that had closed in on the compound.

“Eli?” she called again.

Still nothing. Swallowing, she moved from the window, avoiding any accidental glance around the room as she slipped into the hall.

All the bedroom doors were open. “Where are you? Did you find anything?”

There was nothing but a chilling silence. She dared to peek into the next bedroom, then the far one and soon all of them. No one. Not even Eli.

She hadn’t heard him walk down the stairs. They were old, and creaked—especially on cold, windy nights when falling temperatures and harsh eastern winds shifted the house.

Where was he? What was he doing? Trying to teach her not to be afraid of ghostly memories? To trust in God when there was nothing left to trust in?

Anger bubbled in her, followed swiftly by fear.

Maybe he’d left her in this house and that movement by the fence was him leaving.

His way to teach her a lesson on trust?

Just like Noah. The thought spat into her head and close on the heels of that accusation was another.

He
was Noah. Eli Nash didn’t exist. That was why Phoebe never mentioned him. He didn’t exist. For all she knew, Eli was Noah’s middle name and he was both left-handed and right-handed and had sought her out to avenge her desertion and fulfil his threats.

And Noah, now that he knew how she had escaped, was going to make sure she didn’t escape again.

Tears burned her eyes. Her throat hurt from the choke of falling totally apart.

She had to get out of there.

Whirling, she flew down the stairs, missing the last two treads in a blind panicking stumble.

Two arms caught her. Firm, well-muscled, they wrapped around her torso and stopped her from falling on her face.

Pinned by them, she let out a cry and threw them off. “No! Let me go! What kind of sick lesson are you trying to teach me, anyway? You’re insane!”

“It’s me, Eli!”

Total panic flooded into her and her eyes widened in horror. “No, no! You’re Noah! There’s no such person as Eli! You’re trying to trap me in here! To kill me like you threatened to do. I saw you!” She thrashed away from him, twisting until she was free.

“Kaylee! It’s okay!”

She heard him, but couldn’t control the fear racing through her. She flung herself at the front door, finding it closed. Then, firing it open, she fell over the threshold.

Eli shouted her name again. This time it registered, but she didn’t dare listen. Gulping in the fresh fall air, she raced across the front yard, not headed to the cut in the fence, but straight at the gate.

She tripped over something and fell ungracefully on the dry, dormant grass.

“Kaylee, stop! You’re going to hurt yourself. I’m not Noah! It’s me, Eli!”

She saw him close in on her. Even now, with the panic settling in her, she couldn’t stop herself. She knew the craziness of her actions, but she was beyond any self-control. She stumbled to her feet and began a zigzag trek around the house.

Reaching the back gate, she thrust out her arms and shoved hard. The posts, weakened by too many high winter snows, had lost their grip on the ground. One good shove from her and they toppled loudly, dragging brittle brush with them.

But they weren’t so weak that they gave her full rein. She stumbled and crawled over them, only to have one post fight back. Her weight wasn’t great enough to keep it down and she found herself scraped and tangled in the mix of chain link and barbed wire.

“Kaylee! What’s going on? Are you crazy? Stop! You’ll cut yourself to shreds!”

She stared up at Eli. He stood over her, worry frowning on his face.

There was no mockery, no smirk on his face. He held out his left hand and she saw the puckering scar he’d shown her before.

Confusion swept through her. Did Noah have that scar?

No, he didn’t. She was sure now. “Where were you?”

“You mean, just now? I went into the basement.”

“Why?”

“Looking for—Looking for any clues to where they went.”

“Didn’t you hear me call?”

“Once, but by the time I got up into the kitchen, you were already racing down the stairs. I had to grab you when you stumbled. You could have killed yourself.”

Her panic drained away. “What did you find in the basement?”

He pulled in a deep breath and shook his head. “Not much. A table, a few chairs. It looked as if it was set up for one of those prayer sessions you described. A few candles. There was a lightbulb hanging from one of the beams.”

A light? The times she’d been down there, only candles were used and she’d kept her head down in hopes no one would notice her. A shudder danced through her. Old knobby candles that smoked and stank and shot long shadows through the basement.

“To control us,” she whispered. “He only used candles to keep us in the dark.”

His lips tightened. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

She lay sprawled on the wire, looking up at him, trying to sort out her panic. “You didn’t answer when I called and I didn’t hear you go downstairs. I saw something outside…” She trailed off and her gaze flickered over to the break in the fence.

He followed her gaze. “What did you see?”

“The bushes move. Something deliberately stalking us, following us in.”

He looked down at her. “Deliberately?”

She felt a warmth seep into her cheeks. “We’d made enough noise to scare off most wild animals. I—I thought it was you.”

“Me?” A light of understanding dawned on his face. “You thought I was Noah, that I’d tricked you into revealing how you escaped.” He shook his head, and she saw pain and hurt flit across his features. “I’m not Noah. And I don’t ever want to be him.”

“Neither Noah nor Phoebe ever mentioned you.”

“I’d been chasing my brother, searching for Phoebe for years. Of course they wouldn’t talk about me.” He surveyed her grimly. “Now, we have to get you up, but don’t move. You have barbed wire very close to your temple.”

She rolled her eyes to her left. A sharp V-shaped piece of wire sat just inside her vision. Only then did she feel sting of the scrapes and scratches. She lay still as Eli gently freed her from the tangle of wire. He stepped on the fence, firmly enough for her to know he wanted her off it, too.

She reached out her hand. When he tugged her to standing, she glanced down. Her best pair of jeans was torn once at the left thigh and once along the outside of her right knee. The fence behind them lifted slightly under the release of the pressure from Eli’s foot. They were outside the fence.

She watched him flick off twigs, her heartbeat slipping back to normal. Slowly, she recalled her crazy reasoning.

Crazy, it was. If Noah had lured her in with plans to trap her here, he wouldn’t have been willing to go inside alone. He’d have lured her into the house.

And he would never have been so kind to her now.

Still bent over, Eli stared down at her feet. Curious, she followed his gaze to her well-worn street shoes.

“Kaylee.”

She heard the warning in his voice and then saw what he saw. A thin wire had tangled itself around her shoe and leg.

“No!” He reached out to clamp his hand on her arm. “Stay still.”

But she couldn’t. “It’s digging into my foot.”

“Kaylee! No! Stay still!”

Too late.
Jumping up, she flicked up her foot to toss off the wire.

Eli grabbed her and flung her down. Branches broke and gouged into her abdomen as she hit the ground. A second later, he fell on her.

A second after that, the ground around them exploded.