Whirlwind

67

Near Afton, Texas

Mason was going to sell the baby then kill me. That was his plan.

And to think I’d loved him and dreamed we could have a life together.

Remy tasted the salt of her tears as she fled across the scrubland.

After she’d overheard Mason’s phone call, she’d moved quickly, holding the baby with one arm, grabbing what she could, strapping one bag over her shoulder and carrying a second one. Using trees and brush as cover while walking and trotting, she’d put as much distance between her and the cabin as possible.

Her heart nearly burst when she’d spotted that green car approaching the property in the distance. She’d crouched down with the baby in a gulley and watched a man and woman steal up swiftly to the cabin. Were they police coming to arrest them, or drug dealers coming to kill them?

She was right to leave Mason.

When it was clear the strangers couldn’t see her, Remy continued as the weather worsened.

Clouds were churning overhead.

She shielded the baby as wind-driven branches rocketed by her.

Remy needed to get back to that man at the store before the storm broke. She could do it; it was only a mile. He seemed nice; maybe he could drive her to Lubbock? From there she could take a bus to Tulsa. Her girlfriend lived there. All she needed was a place to stay with her baby.

The bags were heavy, the baby was fussing, Remy’s arms were aching, the sky was growing darker and the wind was getting stronger. The gusts were nearly knocking her over.

Something underfoot crackled.

In a heartbeat Remy realized she’d stepped on the rotting wooden cap of an old well. With nothing but air under her she fought to keep from falling into the blackness with the baby.

“Look!”

As Blake guided their SUV toward the old Dixon place, Jenna spotted a flash of color far off in the brush and low-lying trees.

“It’s somebody walking, holding something in a bundle,” Kate said.

“That’s a woman with a baby!” Jenna said.

Blake cut the wheel, driving the SUV off-road over the vast field at top speed. As it bumped and bounced, they lost sight of the woman.

“She disappeared!” Blake said.

“To the left!” Jenna pointed. “I saw her there! Go! Go!”

Blake shoved the accelerator to the floor. They roared up to the spot, but nothing was in sight. As the black sky seethed they got out and searched the brush.

“Help! Please, help!”

Behind a thick stand of scrub, they found a woman nearly swallowed by the mouth of a well. She was clinging to the rusted anchor for the rotted well cap with one hand while a baby squirmed and cried in her other arm.

“Oh, help me! I can’t hold on much long-”

Jenna dropped to her knees, recognizing the woman under the blond wig as the one who’d taken Caleb at the flea market.

“Give me my son!”

“Get Caleb, Jen!” Blake shouted, dropping to the ground, and in one smooth motion he yanked the woman up to safety as Jenna took the baby from her.

As huge as the scene playing out in front of her was, Kate was transfixed by something else.

The cabin behind them exploded into confetti of wood, shingles and debris as a colossal tornado roared toward them. Black clouds boiled in a swirling, towering wall that stretched from the earth to eternity. The ground quaked as if a speeding locomotive were pounding straight at them.

Kate saw the strange woman running alone across the flat land in a futile attempt to escape the monster. Her arms swung wildly in a futile attempt to fend off the overwhelming force as it lifted her off her feet. It shot her skyward as if she were a tissue in a gale before it swallowed her and she vanished in the vortex.

“Kate! Down here!”

Blake had sheltered Jenna and the baby on the slope of a small ravine by wedging them under an enormous rock that offered a lip overhead. He drew up all of his strength to pack them against the rock until the screaming whirlwind passed over them.

When it ended, Jenna Cooper stared at her baby son then kissed him.

Caleb was alive and safe in her arms.

She turned to Blake and Kate and wept as they smiled.