I bent over and gulped down a sob when I heard my daughter’s voice saying frantically through the speaker of the radio as Grunt got closer to it, “Somebody answer me, I need help. This is Leia Lincoln. Please, somebody. Anybody. I need help. Over.”
“Baby girl, it’s Grunt,” I heard my friend say, his breathing hard. “I hear ya, honey. Are you okay?”
“We’re safe. We’re locked in the cellar. There’s a crazy fucking woman up there that says she’s my mother.”
“Okay, honey - is Lexi with you?”
“Yeah and we have a baby, too. Lexi stole it from her when I put my thumbs in her eyes just like you and Uncle Lout taught us. Then we ran down here and sealed the door.”
“Good job, sweetheart. I’ll let your Daddy know that. Do not open that fucking door for any reason, do you hear me? Promise me - both of you.”
“We promise,” I heard Leia’s voice first and then Lexi’s said, “I promise.”
“Can you hear anything from above you?”
“That lady has been screaming my name and telling me to come out and we heard Sierra say that we wouldn’t come out for any reason unless my dad used a secret knock.” Leia told Grunt. “I think she was telling us not to come out.”
“She was, baby,” Grunt told her. “Hold on for just a minute, I’ve got your Daddy on the phone and I need to tell him what’s going on.”
“Tell my daddy to come get us, Grunt,” Leia sobbed. “I’m so scared.”
“Don’t cry, honey. Fuck, please don’t cry,” Grunt told her softly. “We’ll come get you, I promise. Just sit tight.”
“I don't want to see that woman. She’s not my mom. Sierra’s my mom,” Leia sobbed.
“I need you to suck it up and get your shit together, Leia Lincoln,” Grunt said gruffly and I knew it killed him to do it. “You calm down, sit tight, and wait on us to get you. Hear me?”
“Yessir,” Leia’s voice sounded stronger. “I will. I’ll be strong.”
“You hear that?” Grunt asked me. “Come to my house. Cut the fence and drive through the field to the back of my house at an angle that will block sight of you from your barn. If you come in on the road, you’ll be noticed. Kale and Lout will be here soon. We’ll creep over to Nicole’s house and look in. You can see your barn from her side porch.”
“Okay,” I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Be there soon.”
“Let somebody else fucking drive,” Grunt said before he hung up.
I handed my keys to Hank and told him, “Drive me.”
17.
SIERRA
“Where the hell is he?” Beverly stomped back and forth on the concrete in front of where I sat on a bale of hay watching her. “What’s taking him so long?”
“He’s got to grab the food,” I told her.
“You have to buy your meals? You don’t cook? Of course you don’t,” Beverly rolled her eyes. “Well, when we get settled down with our daughter and our baby, I’ll cook Rowdy every single meal from scratch.”
“He’d like that. He can’t cook at all,” I told her. She barely even glanced at me as she paced back and forth in front of the rescue horse’s stall. Most of the time she muttered to herself, as if she didn’t even remember that I was there.
I sat quietly waiting to strike at just the right moment when she was lost in her head again.
“He’s my smart boy,” Beverly told me. “If he wanted to, he could cook. He just doesn’t want to show you up.”
I didn’t even acknowledge that with an answer since just yesterday the man had burned three different packages of Pop-Tarts using the same toaster I used successfully almost every single day.
Beverly started muttering again and this time, she was waving her arms as if she was arguing with someone. Or herself. I wasn’t sure.
‘She’s probably arguing with the fucking demon that possessed her body and told her it was a good idea to take me and my children hostage, the stupid bitch,’ I thought to myself.
I timed her footsteps through three more turns across the concrete and then launched myself at her with a roar.
I used all the strength in my thighs I had built up riding horses with my family in the last few months and pushed myself up as my arms planted in Beverly’s side and steamrolled her off her feet. With a grunt, I flexed my arms at the last of my upward motion and threw the crazy bitch over the door of the rescue horse’s stall.
She flew up and then back down, screaming the entire way as the horse inside went crazy. Beverly’s gun clattered to the floor at my feet and I reached down and calmly picked it up and then lifted my purse up off the floor beside the hay bale before I walked over to the door of the storm shelter and sat down.
◆◆◆
ROWDY
“Leia, baby,” I said into the radio. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I was so scared, Daddy. I didn’t know what to do,” I heard Leia say.
“Rowdy, is my mom okay? She’s been really quiet. We can’t hear her talking anymore,” Lexi’s voice said next.
“I can see your mama, Lex. She’s sitting on a hay bale, just listening. She’s not talking at all, so you haven’t missed anything,” I reassured her. “Do you know what’s wrong with that baby?”
“His diaper is wet - well, I think it’s a he. He’s only got on one of those white baby shirts. I don’t have another diaper to change him, so I haven’t looked,” Lexi explained. “He’s got his whole hand in his mouth, so he might be hungry.”
“Did she say who… ,” I didn’t finish because I was watching Sierra explode into action. I knew exactly what her plan was when she tossed Beverly over into the new horse’s stall.
“Holy shit!” Kale yelled. “Did you see that?”
“Whoa,”
