The Mitchell Family Series BoxSet 1-4.5 (65 page)

Ty shook his head and leaned his elbows on his knees. He clapped his hands together and kept shaking his head as he talked. “I don’t know man. I’m willing to do whatever we need to do to help him, but this shit is not something I know anything about. If he is using drugs, I can’t allow that shit in my house, or my parent’s house. And frankly, I don’t want that kind of shit happening around my daughter.”

“I get that, but I don’t think it will happen. We need to get him as far away from here as we can for a while. Other than to force him into the military, this is the best scenario.”

Ty didn’t say anything for a good two minutes. I noticed him glaring out the window at the ladies swinging on the porch. “Let me talk to Miranda. I don’t want to say yes or no without really talking to her about it first.”

A weather alert came on the bottom of the screen, catching our attention from the conversation we were having. It was a severe weather alert for our county. They were calling for strong thunderstorms with high winds that could potentially create funnel systems, turning to tornados. “Damn, we picked the wrong weekend to visit.” Ty joked.

“It says we are under the warnin’ until nine tonight. I guess we better get the girls and the kids inside and call to the main house in case they don’t know what’s goin’ on.”

Ty got up and walked outside, while I dialed my mother and let them know about the storm. Sam came running into the house and went right upstairs. She only did that when she was afraid. I had no sooner got off the phone, when I heard the women calling the kids names. I went out to the porch with the rest of the adults and waited to see the kids coming around from the side of the house.

After a good five minutes of calling, Ty and I looked at each other and started walking down the porch steps.

“Where could they have gone? The golf carts are here. His battery operated cars are here. Do you think they are hiding?” Ty suggested.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and I had noticed that the wind was picking up. “Noah doesn’t like thunder storms. If they are hiding then we will see him any second running for the house.”

I felt confident that any second my son, and my niece would come walking up to us. The girls were standing on the edge of the porch looking all around. “Colt, please go check the barn. They are probably with the horses.” Savanna started to walk down the steps. The sound of the wind chimes on our back porch echoed against the woods. I could tell the wind had really picked up by the loud clatter of them.

Ty and I headed toward the barn where we kept the horses. “I’m surprised that we can’t hear Thunder. He starts getting loud when storms come in.”

We both looked at each other and started hauling ass toward that barn. My greatest fears were confirmed when we opened the door and only saw Daisy in her stall. Ty threw his arms up above his head. “Fuck! Goddamn it!”

“Go get the Gator. We can cover more terrain with it. I have to go tell the girls what’s goin’ on.”

Ty went flying out of the barn, while I jogged over to the girls, who were standing on the porch. “I was sure they would be in there.” Savanna looked so disappointed.

“I got somethin’ I need to tell you both.”

The girls looked at each other and I watched their faces change from frustration to fear.

Chapter 22

Savanna

“What do you mean? Do you know where they are? What is going on?” I was frantic to find out where our kids were. The weather was picking up and they needed to get inside before it started raining.

Colt creased his brow and couldn’t look me directly in the eye. When he finally did, I could tell there was something wrong. Instinctively, I put my hand on my belly and took a few steps toward him. “Tell us, Colt. What is going on? Where are they?”

“Darlin’, we can’t find them and the horses are missin’.”

No! No! No! This can’t be happening….

My stomach turned into knots and my heart started pounding. I heard Miranda gasping behind me, then felt her reaching her arm into mine. At the same time, Ty came whipping around the corner on the Gator, a cross between a golf cart and a four wheeler. I turned my direction back to Colt.

“Ty and I are headin’ into the woods to look for the kids. You two stay here and call us if they come home. Call my mother and tell her to be on the lookout at the main house and try to hunt down Conner. If the kids are on the horses, we are going to need his help.”

Colt leaned over and kissed me on the forehead before he hopped on the vehicle with his cousin. Ty started pulling away from us. “We will find them.” His voice carried as the guys disappeared from out of our view.

I started to cry immediately and Miranda pulled me against her chest. “They’ll find them Van.”

“I hope you’re right.”

The rain started coming down harder as Miranda and I headed into the house. We frantically both went after our cell phones and started calling everyone with a phone on the ranch. I didn’t expect Colt’s mother or Aunt to go searching through the woods, but they did go out and check all around their vicinity. John happened to be over Aunt Karen’s, so when we called, he and Conner set out to start looking themselves.

Once our phone calls were done, it was hard for both Miranda and myself to remain calm. The sun was starting to set and the rain was really coming down. In the horizon, large bolts of lightning lit up the sky. 

Our children were out there somewhere. If they were anywhere near Thunder during this storm they were in danger. I didn’t know if I could bear to lose another child. Noah meant everything to Colt and I.

Poor Miranda stood by the front door, hugging her arms around herself. Tears strolled down her face. Noah had been riding for over a year, but I knew that Bella was not as experienced. Noah wasn’t even great at it himself. His little body was too small to maneuver a pony, and especially a horse.

God, please help us find our kids.

“Miranda, I’m so sorry this is happening. Noah knows better than to get on a horse by himself. Maybe Thunder just got out by himself and the kids were never with them. Maybe they are just hiding somewhere.”

She covered her face with one of her hands. “Bella doesn’t like thunder and lightning. Ty knows that too. She hides in his arms every time there is a storm. There is no way she wouldn’t have come inside by now. Something bad has happened. I can just feel that something is wrong, Van.”

“Don’t talk like that! We don’t know that. We just saw them a little while ago riding around having fun. We were outside the whole time and never heard anything. If they got hurt they would have cried.”

I was trying to comfort Miranda, but also myself. She said nothing, but went flying outside. I followed behind her, wondering if she saw one of the kids. Instead, we saw Atticus coming down the driveway, running around neighing. As if seeing the pony running free wasn’t enough, I noticed the horse had a saddle hanging loosely to the side. The reigns were hanging down to the ground as the pony paced around the yard.

It was dark outside and the only thing that gave us light was the flashing of the lightening. Miranda headed toward the pony, but I grabbed her and pulled her back onto the porch. “No, wait! I will never forgive myself if you get hurt. Just let the guys catch the pony.”

Miranda turned around and sat down on the porch. She was sobbing. I sat down behind her and hugged her as close to my body as I could get her. My big belly wasn’t helping too much. “They were on the horses, Van. They were on the horses,” she kept repeating.

  Teaching Noah to ride was something that had made me so proud, but now I worried if my teaching him had been the wrong thing to do. Our children were out there somewhere, they were alone, in the dark, and afraid. It was hard to not think that they weren’t hurt or worse.

I didn’t know how to comfort Miranda when I was petrified for the safety of the kids myself. If something happened to them I would never forgive myself.

Miranda pulled out her phone and started dialing what I assumed was Ty. I must have been right because I heard his voice pick up. “Have you found them?” She asked through sobs.

“What do you mean? Well, you have to keep looking. I know…yes, but I can’t sit around here and do nothing. Ty, please, I need to do something.”

She hung up the phone and buried her hands into her face.

I grabbed her hands. “Miranda, what is it?”

She shook her head and avoided looking directly at me. “They found Noah’s hat.”

“What do you mean? Where?”

“In the woods, somewhere in a thicket. They said they saw Atticus runnin’ and found the hat a few minutes later. They ran into Conner and John and they are all lookin’ for them. So far they haven’t heard a single peep from either  of them. Where could they be Van? Where could they be where they can’t hear us callin’ for them? I can’t just sit here waitin’ for word. I have to go look for my daughter.” She got up and started walking toward the front door.

As I watched her bending down to put on her shoes, she turned back toward me. “Miranda, wait! I’m going with you.”

There was no hesitation in my voice. My son was out there somewhere and I felt responsible. There was no way in Hell that I was going to let her go out into the dark, while it was storming, alone. I ran back into the house and grabbed us a couple of flashlights and two jackets. They weren’t waterproof but they would at least keep us warm for the time being.

As we headed out into the woods, reality really hit both of us. It was pitch black outside. We were heading into the dark woods, while heavy gusts of wind were blowing and the rain was pouring. Loud cracks of thunder caused us both to jump as we joined hands and continued trudging through the forest.

Miranda and I both took turns calling the children’s names. We would walk a few feet and shine out the lights all around the area, before continuing forward. I’d taken many walks in these woods and Miranda had grown up on this property, but it didn’t really help at night time. Getting lost in the woods was easy to do, especially without the light of the moon to guide us.

In the distance we could hear one of the gator’s motors and voices calling the kids names. They were too far away from us to get their attention.

As the vehicle got further away from us, I got excited when I heard the sound of crackling leaves heading toward us. As it got closer, it sounded like more than one person coming our way. Miranda and I stopped, while shining the light in the direction of the sound.

A group 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 holding 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 started 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 caused 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 could 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 single 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.”