The Haret (The Haret Series) (26 page)

             
“Let’s go Sharon.” He said putting the gun in his belt. “There’s no time to waste.”

             
She left the girls promising she would see them soon.

             
Lisette took the driver’s seat and Hayley rode shotgun. They watched Grant and their mother disappear in the trees. Lisette shook her head and started the car. Hayley shivered and hit the power locks.

             
“This is so creepy, hurry and get us out of here.”

             
Lisette waited a minute before putting the car in drive.

             
“Should we follow them?”

             
Hayley almost screamed.

             
“Are you kidding? Go in there? He’s got a gun and might shoot us, plus he is probably heading to his drug dealing hideout.”

             
“So you’re okay with momma getting killed?”

             
“He’s not going to kill her if they are having an affair. Please just let’s get going. We need to tell dad what’s going on.”

             
“So what is going on Hayley? Huh? Do you know?”

             
“No, other than the fact that I think everyone has lost their minds. What‘s happened to our family?”

             
Lisette remained silent and continued staring toward the woods.

             
“I think I know someone who could tell us.”

             
Hayley looked at her sister and paled.

             
“You’ wouldn‘t.”

             
Lisette continued to stare out the windshield.

             
“Don’t you want to know what’s going on?

             
Hayley shivered and looked around nervously.

             
“But momma said to go to grandmas.

             
Lisette put the car in drive and grinned. “We are.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

             
Ian cursed the third time Felicitas tripped over the hem of her dress and swore if it happened again he would remove it completely and make her go the rest of the way in her lingerie. He would do it too and Esther hated him because of it.  It was difficult at best to maneuver the narrow path let alone being blindfolded and wearing a floor length formal not to mention their bare feet had grown numb from the frigid ground making it almost impossible to walk. Several times she heard Felicitas cry out in pain but did not know the reason why.

             
Within minutes of being yanked from the limo and forced into the dense woods Esther realized they were not heading to the airport.  They were being taken deep into the forest and possibly being held in some run down shack or cave. She was relieved and a tiny bit of hope continued to surface thinking there might be a chance to escape after all. But on the other hand Ian was smart and had everything methodically planned out and she doubted there wasn’t anything he hadn’t accounted for.  Still she hung on to her hope because that’s who she was.

             
With her sight restricted her ears were more alert than ever and she paid careful attention listening to everything around her. She picked up on the sound of a running stream, about half an hour into their walk and once she thought she heard a waterfall in the distance. Every now and then Ian would speak to the men that were with them; they spoke in a language that she had never heard before and couldn’t place the dialect.

She was angry with herself too. She had stopped believing Felicitas story two weeks ago when Ian had convinced her that Grant was a dealer and had been drugging Felicitas. His point of view on the whole scenario made perfect sense and Esther found herself believing the deceivers logic rather than the heartfelt confessions of her dearest friend and even though she was more terrified than she had ever been in her life she was glad she was with Felicitas at this moment. She would hate to think of her enduring this alone.

              As little girls they played make believe dreaming up daring adventures fighting off evil villains and dragons and being rescued by the gallant prince. Back then she never suspected they would ever be in such dire circumstances and even though the odds seemed stacked against them she would not give up. She would wait for the perfect chance and then take it.             

             
She heard Felicitas stumbled again. Ian swore and said that was it; that he was removing the dress, but before he could carry out his warning the sound of heavy footsteps stopped him cold.

             
The man holding her pulled her close and placed his hand over her mouth then whispered if she so much made a sound he’d break her arm right there. She heard Ian give the same warning to Felicitas.

             
The men dragged them a few feet off the main path and forced them down onto the frozen ground. She sensed the tulle of Felicitas gown brushing up against her bare leg when she fell and knew they were sitting near each other.

             
“You okay?” she whispered.

             
A forceful kick to her lower back took her breath away nearly causing her to lose consciousness. She fell over into the dried leaves and pine needles and cried quietly. In her entire life she had never felt such pain and wondered if her kidneys had survived the blow.

             
Ian squatted down beside them.

             
“I hear a noise from either one of you and Esther’s dead. You hear?”

             
He wasn’t kidding.

             
Esther lay motionless paralyzed by the blow. So much for her plan to escape, even if a small window of opportunity arose she was in too much pain to move.

             
Unfamiliar voices joined their group speaking in the same tongue as before. Esther heard at least three distinct voices. Their party just increased which set the odds even more against them.

             
The men’s words were panic-stricken and whatever they were saying enraged Ian. His voice seethed with anger and Esther could tell he was doing everything in his power to keep from raising it. He barked out orders and the sound of everyone scurrying about gave Esther a tad of hope. Whatever infuriated Ian must be something to their favor because there had been a sudden change of plans.

             
She was yanked back onto her feet and forced several yards deeper into the woods. She heard the ripping and tearing of Felicitas dress against the overgrowth of sticks and branches. She was being hauled to the same location. She was forced back down to the ground and again she felt Felicitas fall up against her but this time she said nothing, the pain still radiating through her back served as an unpleasant reminder.

             
Ian squatted down beside them again.

             
“I don’t have anything to gag you with or I would so you are just going to have to keep quiet no matter what you hear. Try and restrain yourself from reactive screaming. My warning still stands…so much as a whimper from either one of you and Esther dies tonight. I wish I could stay and keep you company but I must go for a little while but no worries my love. I will be back very soon.” He leaned over and kissed Felicitas. Esther’s gut reaction was to kick him the same way as he had kicked her but knew if she did he might carry out his threat right then and there.

             
“I am leaving my friend to keep you two company so don’t get any heroic ideas either of you. You are not alone.”

             
With his final warning he left them. He was right they were not alone. Esther could hear the heavy breathing of a man standing close behind them. She desperately wanted to talk to Taz or communicate in some way but before she could think of what to do, Felicitas pinky finger touched her hand and entwined around hers. Without drawing attention to herself she twisted her wrist to where she was able to grab hold of Felicitas fingers and squeeze. Felicitas hand embraced back and although they were forbidden to speak, their friendship still communicated love and hope more than words could have.              

             
A loud shout and the firing of a gun caused both girls to gasp. The man with the gravelly voice yanked their heads back and warned them to keep quiet.

             
Another shot, and soon the area exploded in gun fire. Esther’s heart raced.  They were too close to the action and might become a victim of a stray bullet. She remembered all too vividly watching Rosie fall to the floor in her own living room when Ian’s stray bullet hit her in the shoulder. Looking back at that incident she was certain Ian had meant to kill her back then but played innocent as if he was a bad shot.

Her anger for him reached an
all-time high and if she ever got loose she could kill him with her bare hands and feel no remorse.

             
There was more shouting but she couldn’t understand anything that was being said. Gunfire continued and at times she thought she heard Native American war cries.

             
A stirring in the leaves behind them motivated the man to let go of their hair and brought him to his feet.  She heard him back away slowly obviously scanning the area. Her pulse raced, she swallowed hard and squeezed Felicitas hand tighter. Felicitas pinched her twice and tears welled up behind the blindfold. The double pinch brought back a flood of memories. It was their code; everything is going to turn out for good. 

             
The sound of a forceful smack and a crashing up against the tree shook the ground directly behind them. A fight followed neither participant making a sound other than the guttural gasps of air with each blow. Another hit, and a loud thump as one of the fighters fell to the ground brushing up against her followed by the sickening sound of ripping flesh and a last gasp of air. Esther shuddered. Who was dying an inch away from her? 

             
She felt the cold blade of a knife against her arm. She held her breath at the sharpness of it and feared her wrist being slit. A voice whispered into her ear to stay quiet, but the voice was not threatening like the others and she heard a familiarity in it. The knife cut through the ropes and her heart soared with the release. She pulled the blindfold from her eyes and saw the Drake lying near her, his eyes wide open blood pouring from the slit across his throat. She looked over at Felicitas; Reed knelt behind her cutting away at her rope. He had never looked more mysterious or more gorgeous. He gave her a slight smile then placed his finger over his lips to keep her quiet. He removed Felicitas blindfold and Esther could see she was just as shocked as she was.

             
He motioned for them to follow him which they did without question. Felicitas took Esther’s hand in hers as they trailed him ducking low through the overgrowth.

             
The gunfire continued. The sound of it was sure to draw the police so she relaxed a little more figuring rescue was eminent.

             
Reed led them away from the flying bullets and back around to the other side of the path into friendly territory and for the first time Esther wondered who and how many had come to set them free.

             
Reed pointed to a grove of fir trees whose branches hung low to the ground and grew over a fallen trunk making an ideal hideout. He suggested they crawl inside certain they would be safe there. He left his knife with Esther and told her not to think twice about using it should the shadows alert one of the drakes to their whereabouts. He said he needed to relay the word that Felicitas was safe and he would be back.

             
Esther gripped the knife and watched as her gallant prince disappeared through the trees and back into the front lines of battle.

CHAPTER THRITY-FIVE

             
Sharon did a good job at keeping up with Grant as he raced through the forest. She watched him move through the woodland and imagined him in his Chowilawu days hunting with his tribe, living free off the land not knowing who he was or where his destiny would take him. She wondered if he missed those days and if he ever thought of Velma. He had never spoken of her and to her knowledge he had never been with another woman and even now she sensed a deep sorrow hidden behind his eyes.

             
She had adored him when she was a child back in the days when he was Paul and would come around the house and stay with them for weeks at a time. He became a father figure to her. Back in those days she had a strange crush on him and hoped her mother would marry him and that way he could always stay and never leave.

             
She hadn’t recognized him when he showed up as Grant. Of course he was twenty years older and since she hadn’t seen Paul in that amount of time the picture of him she held in her mind had long since faded.

             
She was angry at herself for being attracted to him. She knew that was against all the rules she lived her life by. She was a Christian woman, she was married and not just to anyone. She was married to a minister and that seemed to make the whole attraction to someone else even more immoral.  She wondered if allowing herself to imagine being with Grant was a sin and if it was, well then she had sinned a million times over since he stepped outside on Rosie’s porch and fired his shotgun.

             
She tried to suppress the emotion but it wouldn’t go away. She didn’t think God would punish her for her thoughts as long as she never acted upon them. She wished she had the same type of feelings for Melvin but she didn’t. True he was handsome, charming, Godly according to his standards and wealthy but it was his arrogance that disgusted her. He preached against everyone’s sin week after week but failed to notice he was full of the original sin. He was guilty of the same transgression that brought about Lucifer’s downfall; and the one thing that caused the entire world to come crashing down. His pride and love for himself above all others had long since driven a wedge into their relationship.

             
Grant pulled a small piece of baby blue tulle from the thorn covered branch and showed it to Sharon.

             
“They aren’t covering their tracks that’s for sure.” He said tossing the fabric to the ground.

             
“Why would they be so sloppy?”

             
“Because they know once they get to the well, they will never be found. No need to cover your tracks when it’s impossible to be followed.”

             
Her heart sank.

             
“How far ahead do you think they are?”

             
He knelt down and wiped a spot of blood from the ground and rubbed it between his fingers. He didn’t answer her but Sharon could tell by the look on his face that things were grim. He stood back up wiping the blood on his jeans.

             
“He’s taking her to Haret to wait until the baby comes.”

             
“Haret? Can you go there and bring her back?”

             
Grant avoided her gaze.

             
“I went once, for just a little while, and fifty years passed here while I was gone. Last time I was gone for even a shorter amount of time and you aged thirty one years.”

             
Sharon began moving through the woods heading down the narrow path. Grant grabbed her by the arm and pulled her around to face him.

             
“If they get her through the portal then I promise you I will go through and do my best to bring her back.”

             
Sharon nodded. “I know you will.”

             
He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes.

             
“You realize you could be a very old woman by then?

             
Tears burned in her eyes.

             
“Yes unfortunately I have learned that the hard way.”

             
The sound of gunfire tore through the silence of the woods. Relief flooded Grants eyes.

             
“Let’s go. They’re not at the well yet!”