Blair tried to find an answer that wouldn’t destroy his joy, but he spoke first.
“She’s still missing, isn’t she?”
Blair swallowed. “Yes, but Cade says they think they know where she is. They’re on their way there now.”
“What about Sheila?”
Blair moaned. “I’m sorry, Jonathan, but nobody knows for sure where she is.”
He looked past her, his eyes vacant as he stared at the air. Then he shook out of it. “Don’t tell Morgan. Keep evading.”
“I will. But hopefully it’ll all be over soon.”
CHAPTER 49
Mom! Mom, open your eyes.”
Sheila floated down a long black tunnel, groping for something to grab onto, reaching for anything that would give her footing. But she kept floating, unable to land, and the blackness got blacker, deeper, until the darkness came into her, its lethal edges cutting through her flesh, snapping her bones, crushing her skull.
Her brain was exploding, and electric shocks volted through her arm and leg. Help me. The plea was half-formed, with no destination, gonging in her head. Help me.
“Mom! Please, Mom. Wake up.”
Sadie. It was her voice, yet it couldn’t be. Sadie was lost, hurt somewhere, and she couldn’t get to her.
The voltage pulsed through her, and she heard herself moan.
“She’s waking up. Mom!”
Dim light slitted through her eyelids, and she tried to lift them. She wasn’t in a black tunnel. She was in a black pit.
Her eyes came open, and she tried to focus.
“Mom! Oh, thank God! Mom, can you hear me?”
“Sadie?” She heard the word rip from her throat, yet she didn’t believe it.
“It’s me, Mom. He hit you, and you fell.”
She tried to focus, to make some order of her random thoughts. Sadie was here. She was alive.
“Mom, Amelia’s here too. Look at her, Mom. She’s right here.”
Amelia. My baby. She forced her mind to function, despite the pain assaulting her. She settled her eyes on the faces above her, willed her eyes to focus. She saw Sadie sitting there, whole, weeping over her. And she saw another girl.
Amelia!
Her daughter was beautiful, just as she’d always imagined her. Petite and delicate, though her face was marred with dirt, sweat, and tears.
“Amelia. Oh, baby.” She tried to lift her arms to hug her, but excruciating pain shot through one of them.
“Be still, Mom,” Sadie said. “You broke your arm and leg, and you have a really bad head wound. But they’re coming to help you. I know they are.”
Now she remembered. Joe’s notes. The old man. That greasy Nate coming into the house.
“No one knows I’m here. No one knows.”
She saw Sadie and Amelia look at each other, helpless, defeated. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I wanted to save you.”
“You did, Mom.” Sadie lifted something above her. “You brought this.”
The gun! “Yes. It’s loaded. I made sure.”
She looked at Amelia again, reached up with her good arm, and touched her face. “Oh, baby, you’re so pretty. Look at you, my beautiful baby.”
Amelia touched her hand. “I’ve wanted to find you all these years. Not like this, though. I’m so sorry.”
“No, no. Don’t be sorry,” Sheila said. “You did right. It just went wrong.”
“My parents … do they know I’m missing?”
“Yes, baby. They’re on Tybee Island, sick with worry.”
Amelia wilted as tears filled her eyes. “Dear God, I hope I see them again.”
“Mom, how do you feel?” Sadie cut in. “Are you in pain?”
“Only a little,” she lied, “but we’re gonna be all right, girls. We’re gonna get through this. Your mama’s here now. I may be in bad shape, but I’ll be all right. God is with us, and I know He’s gonna take care of us. Look what He’s already done. You’re both alive, and He helped me find you. Now He’ll help somebody else find us.”
CHAPTER 50
From the bottom of the pit that held them prisoner, Sadie heard the sound of feet scrambling above them, the trap door being opened.
Sadie backed against the dirt wall and raised the gun above her head.
“Wait for him,” Amelia whispered. “He has to put the ladder down, or we’ll never get out.”
Sadie was shaking as she kept the gun trained on that hole.
“She dead yet?” Nate’s voice sang out above them, then he let out a blood-curdling laugh.
Sadie knew she had to bait him. “I think she’s still alive. You’ve got to help her. Please. We’ll do anything you say.”
“Like you have a choice.” He laughed again. The rope ladder fell in, swinging above her head.
She watched as he stepped onto it.
“Not yet,” Amelia whispered.
Sadie was shaking so hard that she thought she would drop the gun. Sweat trickled down her temples into her eyes. Slowly, quietly, she cocked the pistol and put her finger over the trigger.
Nate took one step down, then a second, a third.
“Wait,” Amelia whispered again.
Sweat ran down Sadie’s forehead and into her eyes, and her heart threatened to beat right through her chest. He stopped on the fourth step, swinging on the ladder, and turned to look down at her.
“Now, baby!” Sheila cried out.
Sadie squeezed her finger over the trigger, and the gun went off, its percussion so loud that it almost deafened her.
The bullet missed him, and he scrambled back up the ladder. Frantic, Sadie fired again, hitting his leg, and he cursed and tried to keep going.
“Don’t let him get away!” Amelia tore the gun out of Sadie’s hands and shot straight up, one, two, three times, each bullet hitting home in his hip, his stomach, his chest …
Suddenly he let go of the ropes and fell, plummeting toward them … and hit the ground with a thud.
Sadie just stood there, shaking, staring down at him. Blood oozed out of his wounds into the dirt floor. He was dead. He had to be dead.
“Check him for a weapon, baby,” Sheila said. “Make sure he’s dead.”
Sadie willed herself to move, but she seemed paralyzed, frozen. Amelia still held the gun pointed at him, every muscle in her body poised and ready to fire if he made a move.
Finally, Sadie swallowed and touched Amelia’s hands, made her lower the gun. She moved closer, touching his ribs with her foot, and shoved slightly.
Nothing.
Slowly, she stooped down next to him. She had to check for a pulse … make sure he wasn’t alive … but his neck was covered with blood. He had fallen on his arms, and they lay beneath his body, so she gently worked one of them out from under him, moved her fingers to the wrist …
His hand shot out and grabbed her.
As Sadie screamed, he clamped her wrist and came up from the floor, a switchblade drawn in his other hand. He pulled her against him and brought the blade to her throat.
She fought and struggled, watching as Amelia pulled the gun back up, preparing to fire. But she couldn’t. She’d hit her with him. She’d kill them both.
“Drop it!” Nate yelled through his teeth. He was getting weaker, breathing hard, but he held the blade solid against her flesh. “Put the gun down, or she’s dead.”
“Drop the gun, Amelia!” Sheila screamed. “Do what he says, baby.”
Sadie felt the blade pressing into her skin. He wanted to kill her, and she knew he was going to. There was no way out.
Amelia lowered the gun and began to sob, her lips curling up in pain and fear.
The blade against Sadie’s throat didn’t ease up. He was going to kill her anyway. She felt the slime of his blood seeping into her clothes, the rancid stench of his breath and his sweat, the burnt smell of gunpowder on the air.
Please, God.
“I said drop the gun,” he bit out.
“Not until y
ou take that knife away from her throat,” Amelia said.
“Drop it, or I’ll kill her!”
Sadie squeezed her eyes shut, waiting to hear the gun thump onto the dirt.
“Do what he says, baby, please!” Sheila cried.
A gunshot cracked through the air, and Sadie felt the wind of its bullet whiz past her face. She felt its percussion as it hit home, knocking Nate back. Screaming, she fell with him, then rolled away.
The bullet had hit him right between the eyes.
She looked up at Amelia, saw her trembling, still holding the gun. “I knew I could do it,” she said. “I knew I could.”
CHAPTER 51
Cade heard the sound of the gunshots, and he abandoned the old man who had answered the door, and ran around the house toward the sound. He heard the sirens of GBI agents turning onto the property, but there was no time to wait for them.
McCormick ran beside him, into the trees and onto the cut path …
And then he heard the screams, muffled and distant.
“There!” McCormick spotted the trap door at the same time Cade did, the open hole into a dark pit. And he heard a girl’s frantic wailing.
Leading with his gun, he looked into the hole, saw Sadie on the rope ladder, trying to pull herself up.
“It’s them!” he cried. “Over here!”
Sadie looked up. “Cade! Is that you? Help me! Please help me!”
He reached down for her hand, pulled her the rest of the way up. She came out of the hole, fragile and filthy, tears and sweat streaking her dirty face. “Who else is down there?”
“Amelia and Mom … and Nate. We killed him, I think. Hurry. You have to make sure. He had a knife …”
“I need a flashlight,” Cade yelled, and someone thrust one at him. He shone it down into the hole, saw Amelia hunkered against the wall, a pistol on the floor at her feet, and Sheila lying flat on the dirt floor, looking as if she’d been in a head-on collision with a bus.
From here, he could see the wound in Nate’s forehead, the blood around him.
“I’m going in.” McCormick stepped onto the ladder. Cade watched it swing with his weight.
“Sheila, it’s me, Joe. Are you all right?”
“Been better, Joe,” she said weakly. “I’m glad to see you, though.”
“Amelia?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
Cade saw the girl nod her head. She was clearly traumatized, and she looked pale and drawn.
“He pushed Mom in,” Sadie said. “She has broken bones, even in her face. How are you going to get her out?”
“The paramedics can do it. What about Amelia? Is she hurt?”
“She hasn’t had anything to eat or drink in days. She’s really weak, but she might be able to climb out.”
Sadie was shivering, so he put his arm around her to warm her. “What about you? Did he hurt you?”
“I think my ribs are broken, and I twisted my ankle. But I’m alive.” She burst into tears with the word. “Thank God, we’re all alive.”
He held her as she wept, pressing her head against his chest. “You’re okay. It’s gonna be all right now.”
“He’s got a pulse!” one of the paramedics called up. “He’s alive! Help us get him out!”
Sadie caught her breath and went rigid, and Cade saw the fear gripping her. “It’s okay. He’s unconscious. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
He watched as they tied Nate onto the basket, then as someone from the top pulled up, they brought him out.
Sadie clung to Cade as they moved Nate past her. His hair strung into his bloody face, and his face looked gray, dead.
She turned her head away.
They went back for Sheila and Amelia, pulling them carefully out. Cade walked Sadie to the ambulance, and she climbed in with her mother and sister.
“What hospital?” the driver asked.
“Candler,” Cade said. “That’s where Morgan’s having her baby.”
Sadie gasped. “Now?”
He nodded. “Now. I’ll meet you there.” He closed the doors, and Sadie turned her troubled face to her mother.
“She went into labor because she was so upset over you, baby. Her water broke and everything.”
“Oh, no.” She sat down, praying that God would give them one more miracle tonight.
CHAPTER 52
Sadie wished she could bask in her freedom, but a heavy sense of trepidation had settled itself over her. Nate lay just a few beds from her mother in ICU, comatose, but alive. The doctors said he probably wouldn’t make it through the night, but she still didn’t trust him. Besides, the second man who had helped abduct Amelia and Jamie was still out there somewhere, unidentified. He could come after them at any time to finish the job Nate had botched up. Or to silence Amelia.
When Blair came into Sadie’s examining room with Cade, she tried to swallow her fear.
Blair took her in her arms and held her for a long time, as if she’d given her up for dead, only to see her resurrected. “Oh, honey, are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m good. My lungs weren’t punctured by my broken ribs, so I was really lucky. Ankle’s sprained, but that’s no big deal.”
“What are they doing for you?”
“They offered me painkillers, but I don’t want them.” She had refused them, to the doctor’s chagrin. He assured her a few pills to help ease her pain would be all right, but she’d rather have the pain than the fear of addiction.
“Did they give you crutches?”
“I tried them, but the ribs hurt too much.” She pointed to the cast on her foot. “They put a walking cast on, but told me to use a wheelchair for the next couple of days.”
Cade came up behind Blair and looked hard into her face. “Enough with the physical stuff, kiddo. How are you?”
Sadie fought tears. “I’m still scared, Cade. Could you put a guard with Mom and Amelia, to protect them while they’re here? That other guy is still out there, whoever he is.”
“It’s already done.”
“But Nate is in the ICU with Mom, just a few beds down. What if he wakes up?”
“Sadie, Nate’s struggling for his life. Even if he did wake up, it’s doubtful he could move. He’s brain damaged beyond repair.”
Blair hugged her again, holding her like her mother would have if she’d been able to, like Morgan would if she were here.
“How’s Morgan?”
Blair smiled. “Why don’t you get in the wheelchair, and I’ll take you to ask her yourself.”
Desperately needing to see that her mentor was all right, Sadie got into the chair and let Blair push her down the hall.
When they got to Morgan’s room on the next floor up, Blair stepped in before pulling Sadie in. “Morgan, Jonathan, I have a surprise for you.”
“What?”
Blair backed out and pushed Sadie in.
“Sadie!” Morgan reached for her, and Sadie rolled to the side of her bed—then she saw what Morgan had in her arms. The little bundle, wrapped in a blue blanket …
“Is it—?”
“It’s a boy!” Morgan cried. “Oh, Sadie, he’s a beautiful, healthy little boy.”
“Healthy?” she asked. “Are you sure?”
Jonathan chuckled. “That’s exactly what Blair asked. Yes, we’re sure. It was a night for miracles.”
“Oh, Morgan …” Sadie started to cry again. “He’s so precious.”
“Here. He wants his aunt Sadie to hold him.”
Sadie took the tiny thing, feeling his limp weight settling with such trust into her arms. He slept deeply, completely relaxed, oblivious to the dangers that lurked in the world he’d just been thrust into. But he had worthy protectors. Just like she did.
Protectors sent by a sovereign, loving God, who gave them miracles just when they needed them most.
CHAPTER 53
Sadie stayed in the hospital overnight, sleeping next to Blair in the ICU waiting room. It was the closest she could get to her mother. M
orning dawned with harsh insistence, lighting the room through the curtains. Sadie finally gave in and got up, wincing at the pain in her side. At 7:00 a.m. she was allowed to go in to the ICU. She stole a look at Nate when she went past. He looked like a corpse, lying on that gurney, wires and tubes tangling over him. A woman with long, frizzy gray hair stood over him, crying.
Was that his mother? The thought did something to Sadie’s stomach. She wanted to run in there and tell the woman she shouldn’t weep over him, that he was an evil monster and deserved his time in hell.
The woman turned and met Sadie’s eyes, and she saw the despair, the brokenness, the regrets … the sheer humanity of another soul who’d been crushed by loss.
And then it hit her: Nate was human. He had a mother who loved him, a grandfather who doted on him. Had drugs turned him into a killer? Had his past somehow perverted his potential?
She closed her eyes, holding back her tears, and said a silent prayer for her enemy. And she prayed for his grieving mother.
She turned away and rolled her chair to her mother. Sheila looked worse than she had last night. Her face was swollen to twice its size, and her bruises faded from black to blue to brown to yellow. Her arm and leg were in casts, and she had shaved spots of hair where she’d needed stitches. If she woke up and saw herself, she’d be horrified.
But to Sadie, she looked like a hero.
When visiting time was over, Sadie got Blair to push her to the cafeteria for breakfast. Then, on the way back up, they stopped by Amelia’s room. The Savannah police had posted a guard outside her door, as Cade had promised.
Since Sadie was on Amelia’s visitors list, the guard let her in, but Blair had to wait outside. Sadie rolled herself in. Amelia was awake, and several people were there with her.
Amelia looked much better than she had the last time Sadie’d seen her. She’d showered and eaten, and the IV in her arm had hydrated her.
“How are you feeling?” Sadie asked.