by Katy Lee
“I need to put you on your side. I don’t want to turn you on your back because of all the glass. Can I move you?”
Naomi nodded and lifted her hand to him to help. It took only one moment to see the front of her gown was soaked.
“Anna!” Sawyer shouted. “She’s been hit. We need to stop the bleeding.” He bent close to Naomi again. “I’m so sorry. We’re going to help you.”
“Chloe.” Naomi squeezed his hand and implored him. “Promise me you will keep her safe. I have to know she will be all right.”
“You’ll know because you’ll be here to see for yourself. Just stay with me, and I’ll take care of you. I’ll take care of you both.”
Esau crawled up to Sawyer’s side. “I’ll help you get her to the hallway. Anna can inspect her safely there. Then we’ll check the outside for the shooter.”
“No!” Naomi cried out. “Don’t go out there.” She reached for his face, pressing her palm against his cheek and pulling him close. The fear in her eyes so close to his made him want to promise her anything. But they couldn’t sit inside wondering when this man would strike again, waiting for him to. Still, they needed to check her wound and stop the bleeding.
“I’m not leaving your side,” he promised her. Not until he knew she was safe. He breathed deeply when she relaxed enough for Esau to take her and drag her to the hallway.
Anna shouted, “Bring me clean cloths, if you can get to the drawer. Otherwise, I’ll need your nightshirts.”
Sawyer crawled alongside Naomi holding her hand as Esau moved her carefully to the center of the house. As he passed by the kitchen drawers, he let go of her to quickly reach up and take everything in the towel bin. He also ripped his shirt off himself. When he returned to Naomi’s side, she lay on her side in the hallway in front of his sister.
Now at his sister’s mercy.
“Please, Anna,” Sawyer passed the cloths over to her. He locked his gaze on Anna’s stern expression. “I can’t...”
Lose her.
The unspoken words hung between them. They made no sense when he’d already lost her eight years ago.
Anna’s eyes narrowed more. “I’ll do my best, but I’ve only delivered babies. Never bullets.”
“Chloe?” Naomi called out.
“I have the child,” Esau said. He had taken the baby from his fraa. Chloe was wide-awake, taking in the strange scene. Thankfully, she didn’t cry in fear, but observed and withheld her response.
Naomi reached out her trembling hand. “Sawyer, take her somewhere safe. Please protect her. Don’t l-let him g-get her. He w-will k-kill h-her.”
“She’s going into shock,” Anna said. “I need to work quickly. Esau, I need blankets.”
Esau handed the baby to Sawyer and pushed back into the darkness of the house. Sawyer leaned close to Naomi and put his finger to her trembling lips. He fought the urge to comfort her with his own. “It’s going to be all right. Anna will take care of you. And I’ve got Chloe. You don’t have to worry. Just—” He swallowed hard. “Just stay alive. For Chloe, ya? Stay alive for Chloe.”
Sawyer pulled away to allow Anna to tear Naomi’s gown and inspect the wound. At his sister’s intake of breath, he nearly pushed her out of the way to take over.
“Go, brudder. You’re no use to me in your distress. She needs a doctor. Bring Chloe upstairs to stay with the kinner. Then if you can safely get to the barn, call the sheriff. And pray,” Anna commanded over her shoulder. “Esau will help me with Naomi. I will do my best.”
Sawyer stared at the back of his sister’s head. Before he could temper his words, he said, “But what if your best for Naomi isn’t really your best? We all know how you feel about her.”
Anna stilled in her ministrations over Naomi. Sawyer expected her to call him to task, but instead she said, “Then pray for me too. Gott knows I will need every prayer if I am going to save her.”
EIGHT
“How bad is it?” Naomi whispered through clenched teeth. She’d waited for Sawyer to leave the hallway to ask his sister.
Anna huffed. “I’m not a doctor. Perhaps you should have thought about being somewhere near a medical facility instead.”
“I thought about the best place to hide.”
“Well, ready or not, you’ve been found.” Anna pressed harder, causing Naomi to inhale sharply. “The entry hole has stopped bleeding. The bullet went straight through and came out your side. It’s below your rib cage and only penetrated your waist. I don’t think it hit any organs. I can stitch you up if you want.”
“You know how to do that?”
“I’ve assisted enough births, ya.” Anna unrolled a long piece of thread and cut it. “Sometimes they require a little putting back together.” She lifted a hot needle from the lantern’s flame and threaded it through the eye.
“How long have you been a midwife?”
“For five years on my own, but a lot longer helping my mamm before that.”
“So I’m safe with you.” Naomi’s statement didn’t receive a response. The next moment, Anna put a wooden rod in Naomi’s mouth.
“I don’t mean to hurt you, regardless what you think, but bite down. It will help.”
Naomi did as she was told, and in the next moment, the pain of the needle stabbing through her skin had her gripping at anything she could find around her. Her eyes squeezed closed, and her breath locked in her chest. Naomi could feel the thread pulling at her skin as it closed up the bullet wound in her back. Somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind she knew this was only the entry wound. And the smaller of the two holes. After standing up against the pain for a few minutes, Naomi’s vision blurred. In and out of consciousness, she remembered a time when her family would have surrounded her in her distress.
Now she had no one. She had to depend on a woman who hated her to help her make it out alive. Naomi figured her own family would feel the same way. It was just as well they weren’t here.
She reached out a hand and frantically grasped Anna’s wrist. “If something happens to me, will you tell my parents I’m so sorry? I never wanted to hurt them. I never wanted to hurt anyone.”
Anna stilled for a moment and pursed her lips. The lantern’s flame flickered across her stern face showing her displeasure in the conversation. She took a deep sniff and resumed her stiches without a response.
“I know you don’t like me, but I beg of you to think of my parents instead of me. If I can bring them some semblance of peace, it would help them just as much.” The needle pierced harder, cutting off any more words from Naomi’s lips. All she could do was breathe deeply and steadily to get through the pain.
When Anna finished the sutures, she tackled the exit wound in Naomi’s side. “This one is larger, but I will do my best. How are you feeling?”
Naomi had trouble forming words as her mind felt fuzzy and her muscles weakened. To move her lips to speak required a forced concentration. She managed to say, “Tired.”
“Judging by these soaked rags, you’ve lost a lot of blood. As soon as the police are here, they can bring you to the hospital.”
“How?” Naomi whispered. “How did...you call?”
“Sawyer left for the barn. The phone is out there.”
Naomi’s eyes widened, and she moved an arm to sit up.
“Whoa!” Anna pushed her back. “Don’t move. You will restart the bleeding. I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop it again.”
“But he can’t...be out...there. It’s dangerous.”
“Ya, I know. But you didn’t think he was going to hide in here and let you die, did you? Regardless of what you think, Sawyer cared a great deal for you.”
“Of course, I knew that. I can’t let him put his life at risk for me. I have to stop him.” Naomi moved her arm to push up again, but Anna was a lot stronger at the moment and kept her from budging.
> “You trying to stop him would only put him in more danger. Let him focus on staying alive out there and not on you. It’s the least you can do.”
The dig hit Naomi hard. As Sawyer made his way toward the barn, dodging the shooter’s gun, he had to only think of himself to stay alive. Without her presence vying for his attention, he could be successful. She would be nothing but a hindrance out there. But Anna’s words weren’t meant just for tonight. Her return to Rogues Ridge had disrupted Sawyer’s life and derailed him off his course of success. He’d already had to move his business to the barn. What else had he had to change because of her presence?
“I shouldn’t have come back here.” She moved to lie back, then jolted at the slicing pain of the glass embedded in her skin. She cried out and twisted away from the pain.
“Ach! Don’t move. You started the bleeding again. Your choices are always so poor. You have already hurt so many. Don’t you die on me. Sawyer would never forgive me.” Anna stitched the shredded skin in her side, causing Naomi to cry out in a pain so blinding, she stopped breathing and the lantern’s light diminished as her world went dark.
* * *
A fear like nothing Sawyer had ever experienced immobilized him to the confines of the front porch. Before him, the shadowy farm loomed quiet and peaceful, but the wounded woman behind the closed door proved there was nothing peaceful about the scene.
Sawyer covered his mouth to stifle a cry that slipped out from deep within him. He would be no help to Naomi if he lost it now. He needed to call for help, or he could lose her. So much blood...
He pressed his fingers to his eyes, but nothing would erase what had happened right in front of him. He didn’t think he would ever forget the sight of Naomi being struck by that bullet. Her face as she went down would never leave him. Nor the way her body lay limp in his arms after.
His breath caught and his throat closed. All he wanted to do was turn back around and race to her side. He needed to hold her, to see for himself that she was alive. He needed to be there for her.
I need to get her help.
The task at hand cut in and forced him to put his own needs aside and focus on the truth. Naomi didn’t want him by her side. That was reality. Naomi had chosen the English way of life. That was reality. And now she would die by it.
No, that part didn’t have to be real. Whether she wanted his help or not, whether she wanted him or not, he would be true to his Amish ways and offer her aid. He would do whatever it took to keep her alive.
Even face a gunman unarmed.
Sawyer scanned the yard before him. Thankfully the moonlight cast a wide beam over the driveway and pasture, but there were still many dark shadows that the gunman could hide in. What Sawyer wanted to know was how the killer had found Naomi so fast. Had he followed them here?
But why wait to attack then? Naomi had spent the whole afternoon and evening outside before nightfall. Very few people knew she was here. Just the people at the furniture store. Had someone from the sheriff’s department informed the killer where he could find her? Even if it wasn’t done maliciously but accidently. Either way, Sheriff Shaw would need to investigate. If she had someone on her staff who’d put Naomi and the rest of them at risk, she needed to know.
Right after Naomi was safe. And he needed Cassie and her deputies here for that to happen.
Sawyer took a deep breath. Stepping out into the open had to be avoided. Up until this point, the shooter had stayed hidden, no doubt to protect his identity. Sawyer thought about forcing the man out. Perhaps as he made his way away from the house, the shooter would come out to try to take another shot at Naomi.
Or at him.
No, revealing his position wasn’t an option. If the shooter wanted to remain hidden, then so did he. Though stepping into full light would get him to the barn faster, Sawyer would instead navigate the dark corners.
A turn to his left showed the edge of the porch in complete darkness, but on the other side of the railing was pine shrubbery. If he missed his mark, he would land in the greenery and give himself away.
Sawyer took off in a fast run, reaching a hand for the railing as it approached. With one hand on the top, he bent his knees, so his feet landed right on the top of the railing. With all his might, he propelled himself off the railing in a full jump and scaled the tops of the shrubbery, just barely clearing it before gravity pulled his body down in full force.
Sawyer hit the ground and folded his body up to roll a few times and lessen the impact of the hard ground. After three rolls, he saw the darkness was about to come to an end, and any more rolls would expose him to the light.
But no amount of flailing would slow him down, and the next roll took him from the shadows and out onto the moonlit path to the barn. Not a full breath occurred before the first shot went off. Gravel sprayed up at him where the bullet skidded so close to him.
He didn’t wait for another to fly.
Jumping to his feet, he had no choice now but to run straight toward the barn in full moonlight. He pushed to his feet and ran at top speed.
Another gunshot echoed around him, pushing him faster, but it was the sound of sirens off in the distance that had Sawyer praying they were coming his way.
The sound of a car engine roared to life as he closed in on the barn. The sound growing louder, he realized the car was headed straight for him. Dodging a small bullet would prove easier than the front end of a vehicle aimed at him.
Headlights flicked on, drowning him in their high beams and blinding him to the point of pain. Sawyer shielded his eyes but kept running, even as he heard the roar of the car coming straight at him.
Suddenly, the car was on him, and he took a leap up into the air, diving forward in the hope he would escape from being hit. This time there was no time to tuck and roll, and the ground came hard and fast.
But not as hard of an impact as the car would have made. Sawyer had no time to assess any injuries. He crawled away but glanced back just in time to make out a few of the license plate numbers.
B-3-8-3-1 and maybe a 2 at the end. The farther the car raced away down the driveway the darker the plate got, and all that he could see were the red taillights disappearing into the night.
Sawyer jumped up to run the rest of the way to the barn, his only task to get Naomi help. He flung the doors wide and ran toward his office. At the back was the laptop bag and inside was a cell phone for business. He swung the bag down to land on a workbench, tearing into it for the phone.
Frustrating moments ticked by as it powered on and finally the number pad appeared. Pressing 911 hooked him up to an emergency operator, and Sawyer found himself yelling into the phone.
“Sir, calm down and slow down,” the dispatcher told him. “I already have a car heading your way. A neighbor heard the shooting. Now, did you say someone has been shot?”
“Yes!” Sawyer took a deep breath and slowed down. “Please send an ambulance. I’m Amish. I can’t drive her to the hospital.”
Sawyer zipped up the laptop bag and brought it and the phone out of the barn. With the authorities on the phone and on the way, he carefully made his way back to the house. Off in the distance, he could still hear the sirens racing toward him. Red and blue lights swirled at the end of the driveway. A cruiser, but not an ambulance yet.
“Please, Gott, help them get here in time,” he prayed on the way to the back porch. He climbed the steps and approached the blown-in window Naomi had been standing in front of. Shattered glass spread out in all directions and crunched under his shoes. He opened the door beside the window and entered the house. Once inside, he removed the laptop from the bag to place it on the kitchen table.
“You can’t have that in here,” Anna said, stepping into the large room and wiping blood from her hands.
Naomi’s blood.
Sawyer stared at his sister’s hands and swallowed hard the g
uilt at seeing what Naomi had lost. “How is she?” He ignored Anna’s command about the laptop and headed toward the hall, not sure of what he expected to find. He had left Naomi there on the floor, fighting for her life. “Is she—”
“Dead?” Anna finished. “Not yet. But I’ve done all I can. She needs a doctor. I heard more gunshots. Are you hurt?”
“No. The police are here, and the ambulance is on the way. Where is Naomi?”
“Thank Gott,” she mumbled and scrubbed at her hand with her blood-soaked apron. “She’s still in the hall. Esau is standing guard over her, but she’s in and out of consciousness.”
Sawyer headed toward the front of the house, but Anna stepped in front of him, putting a hand on his chest.
“You shouldn’t go back there. It’s not right.”
“I need to see her.”
“Why? She’s nothing to you. You said so. Let the paramedics take her out of here. Let someone else help her from now on. Please.”
Sawyer paused to think about what Anna was asking of him. “You want me to turn her away?”
“I want you to let her go. Can you do that?”
Sawyer glanced at the doorway to the hall, then down at the laptop in his hand. He had been ready to search the internet for information on the license plate and car’s owner. To let Naomi go would mean letting the search go too.
“Well, can you?” Anna asked again.
Sawyer sighed and closed the cover to return the device back to its bag. “I’ve let her go before. I should be able to do it again.”
“Good. Finally, some reason from you.”
Sawyer turned to leave the house.
“Where are you going?”
“To wait for the ambulance and see if I can figure out who was here tonight. They tried to run me over out there, but I think I got the license plate.”
“You did?” Anna’s voice squeaked.
“Ya, why?” Sawyer turned back to look at his sister. “Why does that surprise you?”
