Snowbound Amish Survival, page 3
The man calling the shots looked at her through narrowed eyes. “I don’t believe you. Where’s this house she inherited from her grandmother?”
Hope swallowed several times to quench her dry mouth. “I have no idea. Like I said, she came to my house to deliver the baby and, when she could, she left. Penny told me she and the baby were going to see relatives in Colorado.” None of it was true. The story that spilled out was as much a surprise as how easily it came.
“Enough games. This lady and her baby are dead if you don’t start telling me the truth,” he yelled, with the gun still pointed at Naomi.
Hope believed he wouldn’t think twice about killing Naomi and the child. Her friend’s life depended on what she said next. She looked him in the eye without flinching. “I am telling you the truth. Penny left and she told me she was going to visit family in Colorado. Maybe you don’t know everything about her life.”
The man’s face burned with anger. For a second, Hope believed he would strike her.
Hunter now had the weapon in his hand. The minute he made his move, those men would be gunning for him. She had to keep stalling to give him time to get it in the firing position.
“Penny said her family lived near Denver.” Hope took a chance and named the only city in Colorado she could remember.
Without blinking, the man shoved Naomi at his partner and started dragging Hope to the door.
She jerked her head at Hunter in time to see him leap to his feet. A second later, her captor noticed. He released Hope and whipped toward Hunter. Hope grabbed Naomi from the second man’s clutches. They ducked behind the sofa and out of sight of the battle to come.
“Drop your gun,” Hunter said with dead seriousness. Hope inched far enough back that she could see Hunter. He kept the shotgun aimed at the leader. The man reacted quickly and opened fire. Hunter hit the floor, and the bullet meant for him lodged in the wall near where he’d stood moments earlier.
As the second man grabbed for his weapon, Hunter fired. The man dropped to the floor and grabbed his side. “I’m hit,” he wailed. “I’m hurt bad.”
Hope tugged Naomi lower behind the sofa as a war filled the room.
Please keep Hunter safe, she prayed with all her heart. She’d brought this trouble to his door. This was her fault. Would it end up costing Hunter everything?
* * *
He’d never shot another man before, but Hunter had done so now without hesitation and with a steady hand because, if he didn’t stand and defend, others would die.
The injured man writhed on the floor. His partner fired off several rounds. Hunter dived for the cover of the sofa as one shot came close enough to graze his arm. When silence returned, Hunter peeked out in time to see the shooter grab his partner by his collar and drag him behind the wall leading to the bedroom.
Hope stumbled to her feet and pulled Naomi up and alongside her until they reached Hunter. His coat sleeve flapped open where the bullet had ripped through it and his shirt. Blood stained both garments.
“You’re hurt.” Hope’s troubled eyes found his.
“It is nothing.” He dismissed the injury to his arm and felt around his head to spot where he’d been struck. His fingers connected and he winced.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hunter noticed the barrel of a weapon peeking from behind the wall where the men hid.
“Watch out.” Hunter pushed the women down low before backing the men up with another round of shots. “We have to get out of here,” he said once the two were out of sight again.
He gathered Hope and Naomi close and crossed to the door quickly. Slinging the shotgun strap over his shoulder, he stepped outside with the women. “If we can make it to the barn, we’ll have something between us and them.” Huddled against the weather, they started down the steps.
Just getting across the yard proved its own battle. Snow mixed with sleet made it seem as if they were walking through a wall of needles. Hunter was relieved when the barn came into his line of sight.
He urged everyone around to the side while glancing behind them. The dim light from the house backdropped the two men as they left the porch and headed for the barn. Hunter ducked out of sight before their flashlights could pick him up.
“They’re coming,” he whispered. If they hid inside the barn and those men found them, they’d be trapped. Their only option was to get to Hope’s place, which was the next house down from his, though still some distance away. “If we can reach your place, we can check on your daed and then take the buggy to the phone shanty to call for assistance.”
At the back of the structure, the woods had begun to encroach on his property. Hunter checked behind them first before they entered the trees. After they’d covered some ground, he looked over his shoulder. So far, there was no sign of the men coming up behind them. They were probably checking inside the barn.
All he could think about was Conrad. Hope didn’t know how serious Conrad’s injuries might be, but Hunter had witnessed firsthand how dangerous these men were. There could be others out here looking for them. Or worse, waiting at Hope’s house for them to walk into a trap.
“Our only chance to help Conrad is to reach the phone shanty and call the sheriff.” On foot, it would be impossible.
Naomi stopped and grabbed her stomach, doubling over. Hope rushed to her side. “Is it the baby?”
Naomi pulled in several breaths and shook her head. “I don’t think so. Just a cramp.” Yet her worried eyes held Hope’s.
“You are doing great. Stay strong. For Conrad and the boppli.”
Naomi managed a couple of shaky breaths before nodding.
As they continued walking, Hunter found himself wondering about something he’d overheard the one man say. “They were questioning you about a woman called Penny. Why do they want her?” Hunter didn’t recognize the woman’s name.
“I have no idea.” Hope shrugged. “Penny is a sweet young Englischer who showed up at my house and asked for my assistance. She told me Sadie Zook from the bakery gave her my name and how to find me. Penny delivered a healthy baby boy a few days ago at her home.” Hope cast a watchful eye to Naomi before continuing. “I checked on her yesterday. She appeared fine. Nothing seemed to be bothering her. I don’t understand why this is happening.”
That made the situation all the more troubling. What reason could they possibly have to come after a mamm with weapons?
“I told them Penny had the baby at my house because the last thing I wanted was for them to find out where she lived. She’s a new mother raising a child on her own.”
Still, there had to be a reason those men were looking for her. Hunter found the idea of such threatening men coming into the community disturbing. “Where is the child’s daed?”
Hope looked at him. “She didn’t really say other than he was no longer around.”
Was it possible this Penny was running from her husband? “Whoever these men were, she’s in danger. They are determined.”
Hunter stopped suddenly. Just the faintest of noises above the storm had alerted him to something nearby. He listened for a handful of seconds. Nothing. Still, after what had happened, they had to be careful.
“Someone’s coming. Hurry, let’s get out of sight.” He looked around for a safe place to hide. A cluster of lodgepole pines created a natural refuge among the other trees growing in the woods. “Over there. Quickly.” He assisted Naomi into the pines.
They scarcely managed to get out of sight before tromping sounds came from nearby. Hope grabbed Hunter’s arm while her frightened eyes glued to his. He gathered both women close in a protective gesture as two flashlight beams came to within a few inches from where they hid. With the light, those men would be able to see their recent footsteps. The thought cleared from his head when one of the men spoke.
“They’ve been here. I see three sets of footprints. We’re on the right track. Let’s keep going.”
Labored breathing sounded far too close to their hiding place. “I don’t care if we’re right on top of them. I can’t go on. I’m losing a lot of blood. We have to turn back.”
The first man’s irritation exploded. “Are you kidding? They’ll go to the police. I don’t want to go back to jail.”
Jail. At least one of them had committed a crime before.
“Well, I can’t go on any longer.” The man’s voice was barely audible over his heavy breaths.
An annoyed-sounding sigh followed. “Go back by yourself. I’ll keep on their footprints. Best not to leave any witnesses behind. They’ve seen our faces. They can identify us, and I, for one, don’t want to cross him. You saw what he did to his cousin.”
Those chilling words clenched Hunter’s stomach.
“I can’t make it by myself.” Each word sounded forced from the speaker. “You’re gonna have to help me. I’m about to pass out.”
A string of curse words followed. “Fine, but for the record, I don’t like it and I’m going to tell him as much. And if this comes back on us, I’m not going to jail, I’ll promise you that. I’ll make sure of it.”
The other man grunted. “Come on. Give me a hand, will you? Chances are with the one woman pregnant, it will slow them down. They’ll freeze to death out here before they reach another home.”
Even after the pair’s movements grew faint, Hunter didn’t trust it wasn’t a trap. “Let’s stay out of sight a little while longer,” he whispered while going over every single word the men had said. They were obviously working for someone they both feared.
He poked his head around the tree. No one stood close, waiting to pounce. “I think they’ve gone. We’d better keep moving in case there are others out here looking for us.”
Walking through the deep accumulation slowed their progress tremendously.
It felt like they’d been walking for hours when Naomi said, “Can we stop for a second? I need to catch my breath.”
Naomi obviously struggled with exhaustion. Her strenuous breathing grabbed Hunter’s attention. When she clutched her side again, he became worried.
The stress would not be gut for the child. He led Naomi over to a downed tree log and brushed off snow. “Rest.” She nodded and held her side while gasping for air.
“I’m really worried about her,” Hunter said when he returned to where Hope kept watch on the path they’d traversed.
“Me, too. She can’t lose this child.” She bit her bottom lip as she studied Naomi’s huddled form.
“How are you holding up?” From where he stood, her fear had almost become a living thing.
“I’m so worried.” She turned her troubled face up to him. “About Conrad. Penny. Naomi. My daed. If they hurt him...” Her voice broke off.
Hunter struggled to find something comforting to say and fell short.
Hope and her father were close. Had been most of her life. Since her mamm died tragically after battling a severe case of the flu a few months before Hunter and Hope became engaged, her relationship with Abe had grown ever more important.
Rhoda had been the family rock and the only one who could keep Abe’s stubbornness under control. Hope tried, but she was his dochder, and Abe was not fond of listening to anyone. Rhoda’s death had just about broken Abe. He became filled with bitterness. Hunter often wondered if that bitterness had played a part in the feud between their fathers.
“We don’t know what happened to Abe for sure. They could have used intimidation to force him to talk. As soon as Naomi has a chance to catch her breath, we’ll keep going.”
Hope glanced past his shoulder to where Naomi sat. The wind caught strands of her loosened raven black hair and tossed it in her face. Her prayer kapp was soaked, along with her clothing. There really hadn’t been time for her or Naomi to warm up before the attack at his house.
He skimmed her troubled face and still couldn’t believe she was standing here with him again. It felt surreal.
In the last five years, he and Hope had had virtually no contact—not even at the biweekly church service. He’d done his best to avoid both her and Abe, yet most days, he was forced to drive by the piece of property where Abe accused his daed of illegally logging. He still remembered the day he and his bruders had gone to walk the property line marked by some stacked stones put there years ago by his daed and Abe. The half dozen downed trees were evidence someone had been logging the property recently, but it hadn’t been them.
Hunter’s daed had tried to tell Abe this but as usual, he’d refused to listen. Hunter had tried to speak with Hope about it. She’d vehemently defended her father. With he and Hope on opposite sides, there’d been no way of fixing things between them and so she’d called off the wedding.
His jaw tightened. Would this bitterness be in his heart forever? “We should get going. Naomi needs to be out of this weather.” He turned away too quickly. Winced. The knot on his head was a reminder of what bad men were capable of doing. His head hurt like all get-out, which wasn’t doing much for his stomach.
Hope didn’t miss his reaction. “How bad is it?” she asked gently.
“It’s nothing.” He dismissed her concern with a shortness she didn’t deserve. Hunter collected himself. “I’m really sorry this is happening to you,” he said to make amends. “To Naomi and Conrad. Your father.” Sorry that violence had once again worked its way into their community. Into many innocent lives.
“And to you. You didn’t deserve any of this, either.” Her hazel eyes held his. She sincerely meant what she said, and his chest tightened. Holding on to his anger with her had made the breakup almost bearable. It humbled him that she could be so generous when he didn’t deserve it.
Hunter cleared his throat. “The sooner we reach your haus, the better. I don’t trust that one man not to come back.”
She visibly shivered. “I don’t want to even think about another run-in with those dreadful men.”
He stayed at Hope’s side as they returned to Naomi.
“How are you feeling?” Hope asked her friend.
Weariness had carved itself on Naomi’s face. “I’m oke. Just worried about my Conrad.”
Hunter shared the same fears for his friend. He lifted Naomi to her feet. “We will do everything we can to get help for Conrad.”
Keeping Naomi close between them, he and Hope started walking again. The woods held the brunt of the wind at bay, and yet Hunter could feel himself slowing down from the cold. Just putting one foot in front of the other had become a challenge.
When he wasn’t sure he could continue, the woods thinned and the property clearing near Hope’s home came into view. Those men had been here before and he was worried they’d returned, but there was no other option.
“Denki, Gott,” Hope whispered through chattering teeth.
As they stepped from the woods into the clearing, goose bumps traveled up his arms. The dark house did little to ease Hunter’s concerns. What if those men had circled back while they’d been in the woods? Everyone here could be walking straight into an ambush that none of them were equipped to survive.
THREE
Often, Hope struggled to think of this place as home despite the years she’d lived here. Yet it had never appeared more welcoming than it did now. She ran toward it as fast as her exhausted limbs would allow. All she could think about was finding her ailing daed.
“Hope, no.” Hunter’s warning reached her ears, but she didn’t slow down. Her father could be in trouble.
Reaching the house, Hope rushed up the steps. The delicate curtains her mamm had sewed were one of the many things that reminded her of what she’d lost. The drapes were open. She caught a glimpse of the dark living room beyond. No sign of her daed.
Her heart pounded against her chest as she reached for the door handle. Hunter stepped up behind her and covered her hand with his. “Let me go in first,” he whispered. The shotgun, no longer slung across his shoulder, was gripped in his free hand. “We don’t know if they left men inside.”
She hadn’t considered the possibility there might be armed men in her home. The idea of them holding her father hostage terrified her.
Hope stepped away. Yet all she could think about was rushing inside to find her father and assure herself those men hadn’t hurt him.
Hunter slowly turned the knob, then moved across the threshold with Hope and Naomi inches behind.
The quiet of the house stretched out without a peep. If there had been people here, they were now gone.
“Daed. Are you oke?” Hope called out when she could no longer stand not knowing. The only answer was silence. She turned to Hunter. “Where could he be?”
“I’ll check the rest of the house. If he’s here, we’ll find him. Stay with Naomi. Let me check.”
The fire in the stove had faded to a few glowing embers. Proof that her father hadn’t been in the living room in quite some time. When she’d left with Conrad to check on Naomi, it had been dark for a while.
Hope guided Naomi to the sofa near the stove and placed the quilt she kept there over her friend’s shivering body. All the while, she listened for any sound from her daed.
She quickly stoked the embers, then added several logs. “I’m going to help Hunter,” she told Naomi because she was worried about her father. “Stay here, where it’s warm, and rest.” Naomi barely acknowledged her words.
Hunter was preparing to open her daed’s door when she reached him. He glanced her way before slowly turning the handle. Pushing the door open, he stepped inside with her close behind.
The moment she saw her father’s broken body lying on the floor near his bed, her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, Daed.”
