"Both our ambulances are out on calls. Judy is contacting the fire department. She will make no mention of Kelly or Hannah's names. I don't know what's going on, but it sounds bad."
"Kelly has a stalker who's a cop. He killed her boyfriend. Now she's in labor, and Hannah said there are complications." He flipped open the locks on his truck. "I'll talk to you later."
"I'm coming with you," his dad said forcefully. "And I'm bringing my medical bag. Hannah and Kelly might need my help, especially if we can't get an ambulance out there fast."
He didn't argue. As much as he hated to admit he needed his dad for anything, he might need his medical expertise. He jumped in behind the wheel, as his dad got into the passenger seat, and he tore out of the parking lot.
His father didn't have much to say as he sped down the slick highway, occasionally bracing himself with one hand on the side of the door.
When he skidded a few feet around one curve, his father finally said, "Jake, we need to get there. Slow down."
"I know you're right, but I'm worried." He slowed the truck down as gusty winds sprayed blinding snow across the windshield. His wipers were working fast, but they couldn't keep up. The storm had arrived.
"Tell me what's going on," his father said.
"Hannah is trying to deliver Kelly's baby and there's a killer stalking Kelly, which means Hannah is now in the line of fire." He picked up his phone and punched in Hannah's number. He had to know what was going on, but he had no reception now. "Dammit," he swore. "Phone isn't working."
"We'll be there soon," his father said.
"I hope it's soon enough." A bad feeling was churning his gut. Hannah had to be all right. She had to be. He could finally tell her the truth. He could finally be completely honest with her.
"Hannah is a survivor," his father reminded him. "She'll fight to the end."
"That's what she told me about her sister."
"It's true for Kelly, too."
"I just wish…"
"That you'd told her the truth all those years ago?"
He glanced at his dad. "I wish I hadn't cheated on her. God, it took me until just this second to realize that the mistake was mine. I've been blaming it on you for twelve years."
His father stared back at him in surprise. "Well, it was my fault. You were shocked by what you saw and the promise I begged you to make."
"But I had a choice. I could have just gone home. But I didn't. And I hurt the only girl I've ever really loved. But even if she can never forgive me—even if we can never be together—I just want to know she's having the life she deserves, that she's happy."
"I'm sorry, Jake. I should have let you out of that promise years ago. I want you to be happy, too. And if Hannah needs the truth, then you should tell her."
"I will."
As he turned off the highway, the road became much more difficult to navigate. The wind picked up, and his windshield was quickly covered with snow. He only had a mile to go, maybe less. But then he heard an enormous roaring sound. He didn't understand where it was coming from until branches hit the top of the truck, and to his horror, he saw an enormous pine tree coming down just ahead of them. He slammed on the brakes, which caused the car to skid.
He wasn't sure if they were going to slide off the road or get crushed by the tree heading straight for them, but there was nothing he could do except hang on…
Chapter Twenty-Two
"I can't do it," Kelly screamed.
"Yes, you can," Hannah said firmly. "You're through the worst of it now. Violet has changed positions. She's headfirst now, and she's crowning. On the next contraction, you're going to give me a good push. Here we go."
As Kelly bore down with a scream, Hannah put her hand under Violet's head. "Her head is out. We're almost there, Kelly."
"I'm so tired."
"One more push, Kelly. Take a breath, and let's meet your baby."
Kelly pushed with every last ounce of strength she had, and Hannah brought baby Violet into the world.
Violet blinked and then let out a cry. It was the most wonderful sound Hannah had ever heard, and tears came into her eyes. She'd delivered babies before, but this one was special. This one was her niece.
She wrapped a towel around the baby and placed her on Kelly's chest. "Your little girl is beautiful," she said, her heart breaking at the beautiful sight in front of her.
Kelly was smiling and crying as she held her child. "She's so small. Is she going to be okay?"
"I think so, but we'll want to get her checked out as soon as we can since she's several weeks early."
"I can't believe everything I've put her through this past month—all the stress, the running around, the skipped meals, and then the crash."
"She's a tough cookie, like her mother." She paused, grabbing her phone. "I need to find out where the ambulance is." Unfortunately, she had no signal. But her last text from Jake reassured her. He was sending an ambulance and he was on his way.
However, that text had come in almost thirty minutes earlier, and neither Jake nor the ambulance had arrived. They had to be on their way, she thought desperately. While both Kelly and Violet seemed stable, Kelly had lost a fair amount of blood and Violet was premature.
As she helped clean Kelly up and get her ready to go to the hospital, she finally had a chance to talk to her. "Can you tell me now what happened, how you ended up here?"
"It's a long story."
"Give me the short version."
"Seven months ago, Tom Washburn, a police officer, moved into the apartment across the hall from me. I thought he was nice. We were friendly neighbors. We had drinks one night at the bar across from our building when Brett was on a play date. I didn't think much about it. I was dating Russ, but he was out of town for a few months, so I was at loose ends. I told Tom I had a boyfriend, and he seemed cool with it. We had a few other casual meals, mostly with Brett, or just grabbing a coffee at the bakery. I had no idea that Tom was getting all kinds of crazy ideas until Russ came back," she said, letting out a tired breath.
As much as Hannah wanted to hear the story, she was a little worried about the pallor of her sister's skin. "We don't have to talk about this now. You should rest."
"No, I want to tell you. I need to tell you. When Russ came back, Tom suddenly seemed to show up wherever we were. Then Russ got stopped for speeding twice, not by Tom but by his friends. I knew Tom was behind it. I told Tom that I wasn't interested in him, that I was actually pregnant with Russ's baby. I started spending most of my nights at Russ's house, so I wouldn't have to see Tom. He seemed to back off for a while. And then last month, I ran into Tom at the market. I was really showing by then, and he started acting weird. He made comments like he wondered what our baby would look like. I went to the police, and the man I spoke to said Tom was one of their finest officers, and I must be imagining things. Then Tom really started to threaten me. He said I'd regret trying to make trouble for him."
"Oh, Kelly, I'm so sorry."
"The tipping point was when Tom went to Brett's school in uniform and picked him up, and the school let Brett go with him, because he was a cop, and he said I'd been in an accident. He wanted me to know that he could get to Brett at any time. When he brought him back to me, he said he wanted us to be a family. That night, Russ and I left town. We went to a campground, but Tom tracked us down."
Kelly's voice filled with anger and pain. "He killed Russ, and I ran. I didn't know where to go, so I came here. I couldn’t take the chance you or Mom would tell me no, so I used a fake ID. I lured you to the cabin and left my necklace so you might realize Brett was my son."
"Why didn't you just say so in the note?"
"I didn't know if you would call the police and show them the note, and then Tom would find out. But I waited until I was sure you were with Brett. I love my son."
"I know you do. I'm so sorry, Kelly."
Tears slipped from Kelly's eyes. "Russ was a good man. His only mistake was to fall in love with m
e, and now he's dead. The fathers of both my children are dead." She gave a helpless shake of her head. "And Tom is coming for me."
She zeroed in on that piece of information. "You said you hit his car?"
"Yes. He found me near Black Falls, and he tried to run me off the road, but I turned my car into his, and we crashed. His vehicle went off the highway, and I got away. I didn't see what happened to him. But if he's alive, I'm sure he's still tracking me, and I don't know how he found me yesterday. I had switched cars."
She frowned, wondering the same thing. "Maybe he put some kind of tracking device on you or in your purse or something."
Kelly's eyes met hers, and there was a new fear in her gaze. "If he did, he's coming here. What are we going to do?"
Kelly had no sooner asked the question then the front door of the cabin crashed open and footsteps came down the hall.
Hannah desperately wanted to see Jake come through the doorway, but it was another man, a big bear of a man with blood smeared across a jagged cut on his forehead, and two black eyes.
She jumped in front of her sister as he raised the gun in his hand.
Jake blinked his eyes open. The truck had come to a crashing halt, the airbag hitting him in the chest. As he came fully awake, he realized that the vehicle was surrounded by a sea of branches, pinecones, and needles, all coated with a heavy snow. He couldn't see the road. He couldn't see anything but the tree that had engulfed them.
He glanced at his father, who was also coming back to consciousness, and he was relieved to see his eyes opening. "Are you all right, Dad?"
His father gave him a bemused look, putting a hand to his head, where blood was dripping from a cut.
"Are you hurt anywhere besides your head?" he asked. "Do you feel any pain in your legs, arms, chest?"
"No," Davis said finally. "I—I'm okay. What about you?"
"Same." He took his phone out of his pocket. He had no signal. They would not be able to call for help. He looked around as he unfastened his seat belt, trying to assess the situation. One thing was clear. "We've got to get out of here."
His father tried to take off his seat belt, but the door on his side was bent inward and had jammed the mechanism. "I can't get it off."
"It's okay." He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out an emergency box of tools, which included a pocketknife. It took him a few minutes to cut through the belt, and every second that passed added to his tension and frustration. Not only did they need to get out of this truck, they needed to get to Hannah.
Finally, the seat belt released. Then he worked on getting his door open. Once outside, he was able to cut through some branches to make some space. His dad couldn't get out of his side of the truck but was able to maneuver his way out of the driver's side, and he brought his medical bag with him.
When they were both on their feet, he could see that they were at the far end of the tree branches. The heaviest part of the tree had missed them by about ten feet, probably because they'd skidded completely off the road. Most of the tree was behind them, which was better. They couldn't go backward, but they could go forward, and that's where Hannah was.
"The cabin is that way," he told his dad.
"Are you sure we didn't get turned around?"
He wanted to be more certain than he was. But even though it was only afternoon, it was dark, and the snow was thick. It was not easy to see in any direction. "My gut tells me we need to go that way," he said, looking at his dad. "Whether I'm right or wrong, we can't stay here."
His father nodded, giving him a grim look. "No, we can't. You lead, I'll follow."
He was oddly touched by his father's trust in him. He hadn't felt that trust in a long time, maybe not ever. There had been no respect between them since he'd been seventeen years old. But now they would need to work together in order to survive and to get to Hannah and Kelly. God knew what was going on with them. But he couldn't think about them. He couldn't let fear or worry get in the way. He had to focus on one step at a time.
Using the knife at times, he was able to cut their way through some of the brush. They finally came out on the other side and made their way down the road. As they went around the next curve, they stopped abruptly. His heart sank. The bridge over the Whisper River had cracked and broken away, half of it now submerged in the icy water below. It wasn't a long bridge, just twenty feet across, but that twenty feet now seemed almost insurmountable.
"Damn," his father said, giving him a troubled look. "We're trapped."
"Not trapped," he said decisively. "We'll just have to cross over at another spot."
"There's no other spot, Jake. We can't cross the river. The ice isn't solid enough."
"Don't tell me what we can't do. Tell me what we can do," he snapped, angry at the situation more than at his father, but he was the closest target.
"Why don't you tell me?" his father countered.
"I'm thinking," he grumbled. "We're not giving up. We just have to figure it out. There has to be a way." His mind raced with possibilities, but each one seemed impossible. They couldn't cross the river for the reason his father had given. They could follow the river in either direction and possibly find a narrower place in which to climb across, but he didn't know this area that well, and they could waste far too much time, only to end up exactly where they were.
"We need something to get us across the river," his dad said. "Something long and sturdy enough to take our weight."
"Like a huge branch of a huge tree?"
His dad smiled. "Think we know where to find that?"
They were both so excited to have a possible solution that they practically flew down the snowy road. The wind had eased, which was helpful as the snow wasn't so blinding. After searching for the right branch, they found one they thought was long enough. He cut through some extraneous thinner branches to release the one they needed, and then they dragged it toward the river.
It took more than a little effort to get back down that road, but adrenaline was giving them the push they needed.
Then came the most difficult part: getting the branch across the river. It took them several tries, and Jake groaned in frustration more than once. Finally, they were able to span the distance. The branch was still somewhat precarious, but it was probably the best they were going to be able to do.
"I'll go first," he said.
"Be careful," his father said, worry in his eyes. "Even if it doesn't break, if it gets dislodged, you could end up in the river."
"I know. Once I get to the other side, I'll be able to secure it better so you can cross." As he took one step onto the thick branch, he felt like he was about to walk the high wire. He wasn't as worried for himself as he was for everyone else. There was no way an ambulance or the police could get past that tree in the road, not without some heavy-duty equipment to clear the way. There was no help coming, and if they didn't get somewhere warmer, they could freeze to death before they had a chance to help Hannah. There was a lot riding on this high wire. But he was up to the challenge.
Every fearless thing he'd ever done in his life had prepared him for this moment. He had the agility and he had the confidence. He could not be stopped.
He lowered himself close to the branch as he made his way across the makeshift bridge. It creaked and groaned at times, and the wind whipping up the branches didn't help, as it sometimes blinded his gaze with snow. He didn't look back. He put his focus on the hilly incline in front of him. He could hear his dad shouting words of encouragement, which felt more than a little surreal, but he had to admit it was nice to have the support.
He was almost to the end when the branch suddenly shifted and slid three feet down the opposite embankment. He held on, not breathing, until it came to a stop against a rock. How long that rock would hold was anyone's guess. He moved once more as carefully as he could. Finally, he was able to step off the branch, his feet hitting the ground.
He took a few breaths, then looked around for some rocks to b
olster the stability of the branch. He set them around the bottom of the branch and positioned himself in a way that would hopefully prevent the branch from sliding again. Once that was done, he motioned for his dad to cross.
He'd never really thought of his father as an athlete, even though he'd heard about some of his athletic accomplishments as a kid. But all the while he'd been growing up, his father's expertise had been in science and medicine. His brilliant brain had been his most impressive quality.
Now, watching his sixty-two-year-old father cross the river on a narrow branch without much more trepidation than Jake had had was quite an eye-opener. Maybe he'd gotten more from his dad than he'd realized. He might not be following him into the world of medicine like his brother, Paul, but they both had a cocky confidence and enough athletic skills to overcome some tough obstacles.
When his dad reached his side of the river, he gave him a hand and helped him to the ground. Then they made their way up the embankment, which wasn't that easy, either, with the thick snow making every step difficult. When they got to the top, they moved through the trees and he felt an enormous sense of relief when he saw the clearing and the circle of cabins.
That relief faded when he saw an unfamiliar vehicle next to Hannah's car. He hoped it was Kelly's car, but it certainly wasn't the one she'd stolen from Trevor.
He paused, looking at his dad. "I don't know who that other car belongs to."
"It looks like it was in an accident," his father commented, nodding his head toward the shattered windshield.
That sight sent another chill through him. Hannah had said Kelly had a stalker, someone who was tracking her. Was he here? Was he inside?
"I'm going to get closer," he said. "Stay here, Dad."
"No. We're doing this together."
"Then we need to see what's going on inside, before they see us."
"Agreed."
They slid through the trees toward the house, avoiding the porch. There appeared to be a light on in the bedroom, so they made their way around the structure. They were almost to the back windows when he heard a baby crying.
Just One Kiss: A heartwarming Christmas romance (Whisper Lake Book 4) Page 22
