by Dana R. Lynn
“Is it feasible?” Her sleeve brushed his arm as she moved up beside him. “I want to keep searching. The size of the woodpile is overwhelming, though.”
That was putting it mildly.
“We have to try, jah?”
“We do.” She threw him a shy smile. “I need to trust Gott more, I know. Sometimes it’s hard.”
Hard? He didn’t want to admit how often he struggled with his faith. Oh, in his head, he believed, knew all the facts. But his heart, well, his heart had been closed for so long, he didn’t know if it could open. He wasn’t sure he wanted to discover if it was possible.
Maybe that was why his reactions to Lilah set him off-balance.
She was standing much too close. A warm breeze tickled his nostrils with the scent of lavender oil. He knew that smell. Among the Amish women who made their own soap, it was common to add in lavender oil. Lilah must have used the soap as shampoo. He caught himself in the act of inhaling to get a better whiff and clenched his teeth together. Where was his self-discipline? Distance. He needed distance between him and Lilah. However, it would be childish to move away again.
Levi had thought he was beyond being affected by the presence of a woman. None of the women his mamm had introduced him to had sparked any interest in him. And now, to find that he was as capable of being distracted by a pretty face as any man. Except Lilah wasn’t just a pretty face. She had already shown tremendous courage, despite the blows she’d been dealt.
She was also a woman in danger.
“Here, help me lift that big board on the other side of the tree.”
Lilah strode to the other end of the rough wooden plank. Some of the tension bled from his shoulders as the space between them grew wider, allowing him to breathe freely. Together, they heaved the large slab of wood and carried it sideways to a clear spot on the grass. There were so many trees in the area the grass was still damp with dew.
“Danke. Just a few more and we should be all set to go. Easy peasy.”
He smiled as a discreet snicker met his ear. Easy peasy was a favorite phrase of one of his clients. He’d latched on to several phrases during his time as an Englischer. Sometimes, they slid out of his mouth before his brain could think of a better way to explain. Not that he would have tried that hard.
Lilah straightened, half turned, ready to go back for another board. The grass in front of her feet exploded. A familiar acrid odor rose in the air.
Gunpowder.
Someone was shooting at them.
“Get down!”
Levi leaped across the board, reaching Lilah as a second blast rent the air.
Heat and pain sizzled against his ribs.
He pulled her down in the grass, using his own body as a shield.
Please Gott, let me get her out of this. Alive.
* * *
Lilah hit the ground hard. The breath was knocked from her body. Before she could recover, she felt Levi slam into her. She cringed at the loud crack. A second bullet had been fired.
She didn’t hear it hit anything.
For a moment, she imagined the shooter had missed his target. But something was wrong. It took her a second to realize what it was. Levi breathed in her ear, a harsh, rasping sound. She jostled him as she attempted to shift so his weight wasn’t crushing her. He groaned. Lilah froze.
“Levi, are you hurt?”
He grunted. “I’ll be fine. He nicked my side with that bullet.”
She gasped. There wasn’t enough air. Why wasn’t there enough air? Lilah clenched her eyes shut, struggling to regain her composure. She couldn’t panic. Not now.
But what was she supposed to do if Levi was injured? She couldn’t leave him here and go get help, not with someone shooting at him. How would she even make it to the buggy? She’d be killed in the attempt. She didn’t even consider trying to carry him to safety. Levi might not have been that tall, but he was all muscle. He had to outweigh her by fifty pounds. There was no way she would be able to drag him to safety.
“Calm down, Lilah.” Levi’s breath tickled her ear as he spoke to her, his voice a low rumble. “There’s no need to panic. I’ll be fine. I won’t leave you.”
She frowned, irritated that he would make such an assumption about her.
“I’m not worried that you’ll leave me,” she hissed. “I’m worried that you’ll get killed if I leave you.”
She started with surprise when he chuckled. “My mistake. Stop talking. I need to listen.”
Lilah nodded. She closed her eyes, trying to listen, as well. She couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. Birdsong. The wind. A woodpecker was close by, hammering into a tree. All sounds she would have expected to hear.
What she didn’t hear was more gunshots.
“Why did he stop shooting?” she risked asking. Hopefully, the shooter had gone, but she wasn’t naïve enough to believe that.
“I don’t know,” he responded.
He was tense. She guessed Levi didn’t like not knowing what the shooter was doing.
All talking ceased when a cell phone went off somewhere nearby. It was cut short abruptly. Branches rustled for a couple of seconds, breaking off and leaving a heavy, expectant silence.
“Amateur,” Levi breathed, so low she had to strain to hear him. Still, the disgust in his tone was clear. “I need you to trust me.”
She wasn’t going to like this. Her muscles tightened and her stomach clenched. Lilah nodded.
“I need you to crawl away from here. We need to get behind the barn. Follow me. Don’t get up on your hands and knees. Keep low to the ground. Understand?”
Nausea flooded through her. She bit back a groan and forced herself to nod. “Jah.”
Lilah wanted to ask why. She didn’t, though. The back of the main barn was a few feet back from where the pile of debris extended. If the main door hadn’t been blocked by the fallen tree, they could have gone into the barn and out the door on the other side.
And then her opportunity to ask any questions was gone. Levi was moving. The hiss he couldn’t hold back as he eased away from her made her flinch. He was injured and in pain because of her. If she hadn’t hidden in his barn, Levi would be safe at home.
Was she doomed to cause others harm?
She fought against the memories of Jacob’s death. It would do no good to dwell on it now.
She needed to follow Levi’s instructions. Only then could he get his injuries treated.
Lilah raised her head slightly and squinted as she followed Levi’s progress with her eyes. He was mostly pulling himself along with his arms. She watched how his legs moved. He wasn’t getting up on his knees.
After several failing attempts, Lilah started to edge her way behind the barn. Her ears strained for the crack of a gun going off. There was nothing. Sweat trickled on the back of her neck. Within minutes, her back was drenched. Her shoulder muscles ached from the abuse she was forcing them to go through.
And still she moved.
Levi was out of sight now. She had to keep going.
Inch by agonizing inch, she pulled herself across the wet grass. If she hadn’t been wearing black, her dress would be ruined for sure. She would never get the grass stains out. But who cared about grass stains when they were a moment away from being murdered in cold blood?
The reminder of why she was crawling across the lawn reinvigorated her. With a sudden burst of speed, Lilah dragged herself behind the barn. Levi was waiting for her, his jaw tight. His obvious concern touched her.
Lilah arrived at his side. Levi grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Before she could squeeze back, he released it and sank back against the ragged barn wood. Lilah opened her mouth, determined to ask Levi what his plan was. The thought froze in its tracks, her eyes wide as they fastened on the left side of Levi’s blue shirt. A stain darkened it, continuing to spread
.
He hadn’t been nicked by a bullet.
He’d taken a direct shot. She knew about hunting. The bullet was possibly still in his side. He needed help, fast.
“Levi, a couple of inches, and he might have hit your heart.”
“Nah—” he waved her concerns away “—I’m gut. You don’t need to worry about me.”
She was worried. His skin was pale, with a fine sheen of perspiration at his brow. He needed medical attention immediately. Unfortunately, they were stuck where they were while there was a man hunting them down.
Levi’s eyes drifted shut.
“Hey, hey.” Lilah fell to her knees beside him and patted his cheeks with her hands. “Levi, open your eyes. You can’t sleep now. Please open them. Look at me. Levi!”
One eye popped open. “Why are you hitting me?”
She sat down on her heels, a sob clogging her throat. “I’m not hitting you. I’m trying to keep you conscious.”
He sighed, his head fell back and his eyes closed again. “I appreciate the concern. I’m not falling asleep. I’m thinking.”
“Well, think out loud,” she snapped.
He huffed a short laugh. “I heard his phone go off. That’s why I said he was an amateur. No one with training would have made such a rookie mistake.”
She blinked. “What do you mean by that?”
Both eyes opened to peer at her. Pain radiated from them. But they were clear.
“I left the Amish for a time,” Levi informed her. “In the years I was gone, I joined the military and served in Afghanistan.”
She remembered him saying something about being away from the Amish. She’d been right about something else, too. He was a soldier. She held in her curiosity. Now was not the time.
“If our shooter had been trained, he would never have left his phone on. I’m glad he did, of course. It gave me his approximate position. I think once we went down, he was unable to see us behind the pile. Between the downed tree and the height of the destroyed shed, he couldn’t see us as we crawled back here. Nor could he move without giving away his position.”
She nodded. “Gut. So now what?”
“Now we make our escape and hope he hasn’t found a way to leave his hiding spot.”
FIVE
So far, so good.
Levi motioned for Lilah to stay close to the barn. She complied without question, turning her gaze upon him. The trust in her expression unnerved him. He squirmed under the weight of that gaze.
Since returning from Afghanistan, he’d lived a quiet life. One could almost say isolated. For a while, he’d even lived alone in a small haus he and his friend Aiden had built, surrounded by woods and security cameras. He was serious about his privacy and solitude. He hadn’t put himself in situations where he was responsible for someone’s safety and well-being to this extent.
Until now.
Not even when he was drawn into assisting Aiden to protect Sophie and her young sister Celine. Aiden had been the one in charge, the police officer guarding the woman being hunted. Levi had just been the sidekick. Oh, sure, he’d helped. He’d risked his life and even been injured. But he had never had the responsibility of making the decisions.
He’d avoided such situations on purpose. If he wasn’t in charge, it was less likely that his decisions would cost anyone their life.
Not like it had been when he was soldier.
He brushed the memory aside like a bothersome cobweb. He was used to avoiding disturbing images from the past. Except while he slept. At night, those memories preyed upon him. It was rare that he enjoyed an uninterrupted rest.
His eyes settled on Lilah again. Jah, she was still gazing at him like he had all the answers. What would it be like to be worthy of such a woman? He snorted softly. What would she say if he told her he was winging it, as Aiden liked to say? He derived no pleasure from the conjecture. Her gaze burned through his barriers. The idea of disappointing her, or worse, of her being harmed through his failure, was unacceptable.
He had no choice. He would protect Lilah, and if he could, he would help her uncover what had happened to her brother and why. No matter the personal cost.
The burden settled uncomfortably on his shoulders.
His hand grazed his side. Pain pulsed through his side. He winced, then immediately straightened his features, hoping to disguise his reaction.
“You’re in pain, aren’t you?” Lilah hissed at him. Accusation rang in her tone, rather than the sympathy he would have expected. For some reason, that amused him. “Don’t smile at me! You need to be tended to, soon!”
He kept his response low to avoid being overheard by the sniper hiding in the trees.
“Ach, Lilah, let’s worry about getting out of this mess. You can scold me all you want later.”
She flushed. Whether with shame or irritation, he wasn’t sure. The glow looked better on her pretty face than its previous pallor.
“I’m not scolding. I’m concerned. You’re still hurting, ain’t so?”
“I’m fine. See?” He pulled his shirt gently away from his waist to give her a brief glance. “The bullet barely grazed me. It’s stopped bleeding.”
Her face wasn’t merely pink. It was bright, tomato red. He dropped his shirt down over the wound again.
He returned to the business at hand. “Listen, I think our sniper is actually up in the trees. Probably in the old tree stand that Jacob had set up to practice target shooting for deer season.”
She scanned the trees. “I can’t see it from here.”
“Jah, it’s not visible from here. If I’m right, then he can’t see us. Nor will he be able to see us if we go through the trees, there.” He pointed over to the side. “The problem is, once we reach the buggy, we’ll be in plain view. So, you’ll have to follow me close and try to step careful. We don’t want to alert him to where we are heading.”
“What if he leaves the tree stand?”
That was what he was concerned about.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I have my doubts about his skills at stealth.”
She frowned, her forehead creased.
“What I mean is I’m optimistic that he isn’t used to this sort of thing.” Maybe optimistic was too strong a word. He strongly hoped their sniper was a rookie, unused to the intricacies of stalking prey.
When she nodded, he blew out a breath and motioned for her to follow him. “Stay low and do as I say without question.”
Inching along the back of the barn, he arrived at the corner and squatted. Slowly, he peered around the corner, ready to duck behind cover instantly. He surveyed the area from the ground to the surrounding trees. Nothing suspicious popped out at him. Which didn’t mean no threat was there.
Well, they couldn’t stand here all day and wait for the shooter to come and get them.
“Gott, we could use some help.” He prayed, casting a brief look up toward the sky.
Lilah exclaimed softly behind him. He hadn’t meant the prayer to sound irreverent. It had been sincere. He could have prettied it up some, but he wasn’t used to praying in front of others. And prayer was meant to be from the heart. To his way of thinking, nothing ruined a prayer more than making it conform to the preferences of other people. If you were saying it for their benefit, it wasn’t truly communicating with Gott, was it?
“Jah, we could use lots of help,” a soft voice echoed.
Her addition caught him by surprise. He chuckled and winked back at her.
Crouching low, he left the shelter of the structure and made for the line of trees. Soft footsteps crunched behind him. Gut. Lilah was following. The safety of the trees had appeared close. Until one tried to get there, knowing there was a target on their back.
Sweat trickled down his forehead. Levi ignored it until it leaked into his eye. Wiping it away on his sleeve, he forged on
. He kept his head up, constantly searching the trees and the landscape for any motion.
Hearing a noise off to his left, Levi motioned with his right hand for Lilah to stop.
She took one more step and stopped, so close he could have reached back and taken her hand.
He didn’t, though his fingers twitched with the urge.
Motionless, they waited.
When nothing happened, he continued forward. She followed.
It took five minutes to reach the safety the line of large, elderly trees provided. There were majestic oaks, maples and even a few trees from the pine family. Their footsteps were muffled by the foliage resting on the floor. The branches and canopy provided cover. Had it been late fall or winter, they would have been in trouble.
Levi straightened, stretching his cramped back muscles. “We can move more freely here,” he whispered. “But we still should stay as silent as we can.”
Lilah took him at his word and nodded.
Leading the way, he continued walking. The goal was to get them back into the buggy. He wanted to make sure they came out of the woods slightly ahead of the buggy, about near the hindquarters of the mare. If all went as planned, the buggy would provide camouflage for them, keeping them from being seen by the sniper.
The tricky part would be getting up into the buggy without making any noise or without the horse fidgeting. Obviously, the moment the buggy started moving the shooter would know where they were. Levi was counting on the shooter needing a few minutes to get down from the tree stand in order to get to his vehicle to chase after them.
Of course, it was just as likely that the guy would just start taking shots at them from where he was. Their only option was they would have to stay low, and let the buggy take the brunt of the assault.
Just imagining putting Lilah in that kind of danger had him breaking out in a cold sweat. He couldn’t see any other way to do it, though. As much as he was pretending that his injury didn’t hurt, he had lost some blood and didn’t know if he would be able to walk all the way back to his parents’ haus. Not to mention, sooner or later the sniper would discover they had escaped and would come searching for them. They couldn’t stay in the woods forever. Walking on foot with no cover was out of the question. They had to have the buggy.
