Barbara Phinney - Desperate Rescue

“Hang in there,” Eli said softly.

“The last time I was here, I was fleeing for my life.”

He winced. Kaylee checked her grim satisfaction. She’d meant her words to be harsh. Noah was dangerous and Eli’s faith wasn’t going to help them. Nor would she trust her life to a God who’d allowed Trisha to die.

When Eli slowed down, his eyes alert, on the lookout for any visible activity, she searched for another subject to calm herself. “What do you do for a living?”

“When Phoebe went missing, I sold my business and devoted my time to finding her.”

“Why did it take you so long?”

“Halfway through my search, I took some psychology courses and negotiation training. I actually got a short-term job working for a local police station.”

The road straightened out and both of them fell back into silence. With the car crawling along the dirt road, Kaylee spent the time digesting his words.

Itinerant. Nothing to tie him down.

With her father gone so much when he was alive, her mother found herself doing many things to stave off boredom, both Kaylee and Trisha had learned to appreciate security and stability.

Eli, a wanderer and one who could just hand over his life to the Lord. It was easy to understand how Lois could do that—she was a widow in the winter of her years—but how could he?

She stole a fast look at him. His handsome chiseled profile could lure a woman in. Under other circumstances, she might even have considered dating him.

No. She reined in that thought. He was a driven man who defined himself by his one noble goal—saving his sister. And once he’d achieved his aim, he’d be gone like a shot. He was one of those who were only in a person’s life for a season—in this case, a short one.

The car bumped over some rocks, jarring her to the present situation. “We’re getting close. I remember tripping over those rocks and some of the women would complain that they should be removed. Noah disagreed.”

The tips of the rocks scraped the undercarriage, a terrible grating noise. “Of course. They serve as a natural early warning system.” He slowed down even further, obviously trying to avoid any more detection. Branches scoured the doors, issuing more surreal screeches as they scratched the paint.

Kaylee nodded. Eli certainly knew his brother. She leaned forward, staring down at the road ahead. “Stop.”

Eli stopped.

“No fresh wheel tracks, and it rained last night. No one’s left the compound today.” She paused, wracking her brain for a possible reason. “Up ahead, past those blackberry bushes, is a turnaround point. You’d better take advantage of it.”

He maneuvered the car until it was safely facing the way they’d come. They climbed out as quietly as they could before Kaylee leaned over, her voice dropping. “After the next bend, you can see the compound. But they can also see you.”

“Then we’ll move off the path now.” He headed into the thicket.

She held her breath, hating the anxiety growing in her again. “Setback city, here we come,” she muttered.

Eli held back a branch for her. She heard him chuckle softly. “What may seem like a setback could be a test.”

She stepped past the branch, tossing him a cool look as she slipped past. “And all your setbacks? There were bound to have been some. Did you call them tests?”

“Yes. The investigator couldn’t find anything for years. It wasn’t until CNN reported on you that we got a lead. I was so grateful for it.” His voice cracked as he peered through the bushes ahead of them.

Unexpectedly, tears sprang into her eyes.

A bird called behind them.

Are You there, Lord?

Eli held up his hand. “I see it. Get down.”

She knelt and, with a preparatory breath, looked up. Chain-link fencing, topped with barbed wire, encircled the overgrown old farmhouse and the two outbuildings that sat askew to it. One was a washhouse for the men, the other the men’s quarters.

She’d never seen Noah enter or exit them. Driven and dangerous, he’d always stayed in the dark basement, keeping his face hidden. Trisha and Phoebe would say he was praying, but Kaylee couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t do that in a warmer and drier room.

Driven and dangerous. Her heart hammered in her throat. Eli shared those same qualities with his brother.

Behind her, Eli’s sharp inhalation drew cool air across her neck. Without warning, she was swamped with the urge to plow into him and stay safely huddled against his chest until this nightmare was finally over.

Caught between the compound that ruined her life and the man that could do the same again, she should run now while she had the chance.

“There’s no one around.”

Quickly, she scanned the area. “I don’t even see the truck. Maybe it’s been gone all night.”

“What could they be doing?”

Shaking her head, she answered, “I don’t know. Praying, maybe? Sometimes Noah would take them all to the basement for a prayer vigil. With him doing the praying, of course.” Her last words turned derisive.

“Yes, it’s called it seeding. With him controlling the prayers, he could be seeding his flock with specific instructions.”

She shivered. “I remember the things he’d ask for.”

Eli rubbed her arm lightly. “It’s all right. You don’t have to say any more.”

“No.” She shook her head. “You should know. Noah would take one of the flock and pray for them, claiming that it had been revealed to him that the person needed to have his or her wickedness purged.”

“Sounds par for the course.”

“Yeah, but it was me who delivered those lies.” Oh, how she hated what she’d done. Crouching down, she scowled at the drafty old farmhouse. The weather had been brutally cold last winter and everyone suffered. Even now, the memory chilled her bones. All those icy nights when she took pairs of socks or a sweater and jammed them in the leaks in the old bedroom window, anything to stop the drafts. Whose were they? Who complained in the morning when their clothes were stiff with frost?

She couldn’t remember.

She didn’t want to remember.

“I guess that’s why God doesn’t answer my prayers like Lois promised He would. I told awful lies for two years. I allowed Noah to intimidate me. My punishment, I suppose.”

Her words had been soft, barely audible and not really meant for Eli’s ears. But in the quiet woods, where even that lone bird no longer called, he heard. She should have kept her mouth shut tight.

“His grace is sufficient for you. You didn’t need anything else, nor do you now.”

With a twist around, she snapped at him. “Why are you quoting Scripture to me? It’s as if—” She tried to curb her anger by shutting her mouth, but being here, knowing Trisha had died…the pain was still so fresh.

The knot in her throat tightened. She waved her hand. “Forget it. Don’t answer. Let’s work our way around back. Sometimes there’s more life there.” Without looking at him, she thrust through the dense forest.

Eli caught her arm. “Let me go first.”

At the back, the forest encroached on the fence even more. If unchecked, it would soon swallow up the apron of cleared land skirting the chain link. Like the front gate, the back one was closed and locked with a huge padlock.

She looked up past it. The rear of the farmhouse lay as empty as the front. Kaylee’s gaze wandered up to the second-floor bedroom, the one she’d shared with Trish and Phoebe for a short time.

She’d been a prisoner there, allowed out only for ablutions, the occasional meager meal and prayer service when her “abilities” as prophet were needed. Left alone for hours in that freezing bedroom with its cracked and drafty window. Trisha and Phoebe would join her at night. Most of those nights they’d all huddled in the same bed. Phoebe had often reminded them that the pioneers survived and they would, too. That God was preparing them for the hardships that come with starting a new world.