Raging Love (29 page)

A gro
up of deer came leaping over a
thicket, almost trampling on top of us. We both screamed and fell back onto the wet ground.

I turned back toward Miranda and noticed she was h
olding her leg. She had fallen
on a patch of briars and had tiny thorns stuck all in the back of one of her legs. She was trying not to cry out in pain, but I knew that part of the skin was sensitive and she must have been in agony with the amount of them stuck in her.

I got her to flip around and with only a flashlight, I started removing the thorns one by one. She was crying out as I pulled each one of them out of her. When I got everyone that I could see out of her leg, I helped her stand up. She steadied herself and we began moving forward again.

Miranda was still in pain from her fall, but we held onto one another as we kept going further into the woods. Every few seconds we continued to take turns calling out the kids names, with no response.

“My God, where could they be Van? The guys have been searching for over an hour now. Do you have any idea how many acres of land we have to search?” Miranda hunched over and started crying worse. “I can’t
believe
this is happening. I can’t lose my daughter. I just can’t lose her Van. She has to be okay.”

I rubbed her back and tried to think of what to say. “We will find them. Noah is a smart kid. He has been
going out hunting and fishing with Colt. He knows about the outdoors more than other kids his age. You know he wouldn’t let anything happen to Bella. You have to know that Miranda.”

She nodded her head and wrapped her arms around me. “I just want to find them, Van. We. Have. To. Find. Them.”

I looked her dead in the eye. “We will. I won’t give up until they are home safe. I promise you that.”

We starte
d moving again, only pausing to
search with the flashlights, or when the loud crash of thunder startled us. The rain wasn’t as bad as we walked under the trees, but the wind was wreaking havoc on anything dead
in the forest. All around us we could hear limbs breaking and falling to the ground. Without being able to see our surroundings, it was impossible to know whether a limb was going to come tumbling down on top of us, or even a whole tree.

I didn’t want to admit how scared I was, because that meant that my child had to be even more petrified. I thought about the day he came into our life and that first initial moment when I considered not being able to be his mother. Guilt washed over me as I began to wonder if choosing to raise him had cause
d
this chain of events. Was I
the reason that those two children were out there somewhere, alone, in the dark?

All I ever wanted was to be a parent and Noah had given me that, how cou
ld I have let him out of my sight
tonight?
How could I have let this happen?

This time I was the one crying. Miranda stopped and started to hug me. “I’m sorry for freaking out. We have to keep moving.”

“What if we don’t find them? What if Colt never forgives me for showing Noah how to ride? My God, I would never be able to even forgive myself. Miranda, what have I done?”

Miranda stood there in the pitch black with me. She didn’t
respond
to me at first, causing me to cry harder. “This isn’t your fault. One of us should
have seen or heard them. We should have known they were up to no good. You can’t blame yourself for this Van. Colt would never want you to do that.”

I squatted down, holding my belly, and feeling the baby inside of me moving around. “I don’t know what to do. After everything I have been through, this has to be the worst. My baby that I lost was hard to deal with but, but Noah is real, he is here with me every singl
e day, loving me and calling me
Mommy. It is
my job to protect him. My little boy is out there somewhere and I don’t know what to do to bring him home, to bring them both home.”

Miranda grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me. “You have got to calm down, Van. We aren’t goin’ to find them if we stay here. Noah is a smart kid and if he is anything like his father, he is somewhere
safe. Colt has taken him
huntin
’
. He has to know of places to go.” Miranda suddenly froze. Her eyes got real big and she grabbed my hand and started pulling me along, without giving me an explanation.

“What is it? Why are you pulling me?”

“I think I know where they might be.” She kept going without turning around.

“What do you mean? Where?”

“Keep
moving and I will explain” Miranda’s slippery hands were doing a good job holding onto mine. We each had a flashlight and shined them in front of where we were walking. The ground was slippery and quite a few times both of us slipped on wet tree limbs on the ground.

“When we
were
kids, we used to go out to this old rope swing and swim in the lake. On the way there sits a bunch of little clusters of rocks
and a large stream
. Some of those clusters are actually like mini caves. They are only about four feet deep and not closed off from the elements, but they will keep you dry.”

“Why do you think they could be there? How far is it away?” We kept
walking even though my body was exhausted. I refused to tell Miranda to stop going. We needed to find the kids. I wasn’t going to rest until we did.

“I don’
t know for sure, but they would be scared and want to hide somewhere dry. It is the only place I know of. Even if they aren’t there, we can call the guys and have them pick us up.”

“How do you even know we are headed in the right direction? It is pitch black out here?”

Miranda stopped walking and bent over to catch her breath. I held on to my tummy and waited for her to answer me. “We passed this tree we used
to carve our names on a ways back. We crossed over the trail we used to ride our four wheelers on. The lake is up ahead. I’m not sure what part we will come out at, but I will be able to find the little hole they may be hiding in.”

I stood up and got a few more deep breaths in before we started
treading
through the slippery woods again.

Miranda had been right. Within five minutes we came out to an opening. When the
lightning
struck across the dark sky, I could see the reflection of it in the water in front of us. Miranda pulled me along the
water’s
edge and began calling out for the kids again. She pulled out her phone and started dialing on it before holding it up to her ear.  “Babe, it’s me. You and
Colt need to meet us at the water
…..I don’t care Ty, we couldn’t just sit there waiting it out. Yes, she is fine. No, we haven’t found them yet. Yes. Okay. See you in a sec.”

She turned in my direction. “They are about five minutes away. He is goin’ to call Conner and have them come here too. He said they found Thunder running around in the woods. He is pissed we left the
house
.”

“Let’s just keep looking.”
Colt was going to be irate, but Miranda was right, we couldn’t just sit there doing nothing while our children were in danger.

We walked past three little covered spaces with no sign of the kids.
I continued to call out into the night for Noah and Bella. Knowing that the guys were on their way, I let go of Miranda’s hand and sat on a large rock next to the lake. My stomach was knotted up and my legs were exhausted. I rubbed on my calf muscles while Miranda stood behind me flashing her light around. She continued to call out to the kids.
The water was running from the woods edge and draining down into the water. I sat on the rocks watching it pour in.  The muddy water was flowing fast all around us and with the winds picking up, nothing was secure. If the children were anywhere near this place, they were in grave danger. One false move and they would be carried away by the strong current.

When we heard the Gator heading toward us, I knew that we had run out of time to find the kids on our own. Miranda and I had exhausted all of our ideas of where our two children could be hiding. The headlights lit the area around us, and soon Ty and Colt were running in our direction. Colt held out his hand for me and I grabbed it and stood up, but my foot lost
its
gripping and my hands were too wet for Colt to grip on to. The water was draining so fast into the lake from the rain
. The large rock I was standing on gave way
,
sending me sliding
right down with it and
straight
into the water.
One second I was holding on to my husband and the next I was being pulled away from him.

All I could think of was Noah and my unborn child. We didn’t have time to waste on saving me. They had to focus on the kids. I needed to save myself.

My first concern was the temperature of the water, but it wasn’t too freezing. The second thing I was worried about was something hitting me in the stomach. I brought my knees as high as they would go. It wouldn’t protect me from pointed branches, but large items such as rocks would not get to my belly. The current was pulling me toward the center and grabbing hold of something was becoming more difficult.

Colt yelled my name as I went under the water for the first time, fighting the current.
I grabbed at everythi
ng that I could to try and steady myself
. Colt continued to run along the
water’s
edge.
He was screaming my name, never losing sight of me.
He dove right into the
water
after me, swimming with the current to reach me faster. When I felt his strong arms grabbing me, I knew I would be safe. He grabbed a log that was half in the water and half out and we sat there waiting for Ty to get to us. As Ty slowly made his way out onto the log, something caught my eye.
Actually
, I don’t
know why I looked over, but when I did I saw something I never thought we were going to see again.

Two little kids were cuddle together under the shelter of a
bunch of
rocks and logs. “NOAH!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. As Colt climbed out of the water and he and Ty pulled me to safety, I just kept yelling for my son. “NOAH! NOAH!”

The guys shined a light in the direction I was pointing and saw the two kids. They went flying toward them, leaving me standing there shivering with
anticipation
of holding Noah in my arms. Ty and
Colt came walking out into the opening and as the storm continued to flash lightening across the sky, I saw two beautiful children being carried in the arms of their fathers. They were soaki
ng wet and both crying, but we
found them. We were all going to be okay.

Chapter 23

Colt

That there had to be the scariest moment of my entire life. I thought Savanna being taken was hard, but not knowing if I was going to find my child was terrifying.
I would never want to watch my wife slipping out of my grasp and falling into that water again, but if she hadn’t, we never would have found them. Ty and I had to climb and
maneuver
over a bunch of wet limbs and a slippery embankment to get to them. There was no way we could have spotted them unless we were in the water.

Savanna helped save them both.

Conner and John pulled in as we got the other Gator. They jumped off and grabbed the girls, not wasting any time getting them back to the house. Ty and I held our kids on our laps as we followed behind the other Gator. We were a good ten minutes drive away from the house. I still couldn’t
believe
the kids had gotten this far away from us.

The ride back to
the house
seemed to take forever. The kids were
weeping
, but neither of them would say a single word. The wind was dropping trees all around us and three time
s
we saw John and Conner ahead of
us
having to take different routes, due to fallen
timbers.

John rushed Savanna into the house, while Miranda and Conner stood waiting for us to pull up behind them. We never let go of the kids as we rushed them into the
house
. I could hear Savanna fighting John from upstairs. He must have been insisting that she change into dry clothes before she came down to worry with the children. She was very pregnant and her safety was a major concern.

John came down shaking his head as he walked toward both of the kids sitting on the couch. Miranda and Ty went running up the steps gathering blankets and dry clothes. Both of their lips were purple and shivering. Ty and Miranda started removing Bella’s wet clothes while I did the same to poor Noah. He wouldn’t look directly at me,  and I went to lift up his arm, he screamed out in agony.

“What is it? What hurts?” I asked.

He just kept screaming and screaming. I had to get his shirt off to see
what was going on. I jumped up
and ran into the kitchen for a pair of scissors.
I was as gentle as I could as I tried to remove the shirt. Noah
continued
to cry out, even when he saw Savanna hurrying down the steps toward him.