“She was fucked up in the head,” Sierra said from behind me and I turned to face her seconds before she threw her arms around my waist. “She would talk to herself and make these hand gestures like she was trying to make a point or something. And her voice would change when she was muttering like that. Kind of like there were two people inside her or something.”
“We’ll probably never know exactly what was going on in her mind,” Nicole, who had walked up at the same time as Sierra, told our group. “She might have been treated for a mental illness while she was in prison and then got off her meds when she got out. Or she hid it while she was in prison and had a complete break when she got out and realized that you were happily married and weren’t going to take her back.”
“I feel sorry for the little one’s parents,” Shannon said from her spot beside Kale. She was holding onto the baby’s foot and smiling at her every time the baby looked her way. “She was probably feeling the same fear that you two were.”
“Our girls are fucking awesome,” I told the group, as if they didn’t already realize that. “They got away from her and rescued that little girl in the process. They even knew just where to hide so that no one could get to them.”
“And they could call out for help,” Grunt nodded. “Not that it helped since I wasn’t near the radio. Maybe we should install some sort of alarm in each of the shelters that will alert us inside the house if someone is calling. I mean, I’m not sure that it would ever be used, but… ,”
“Yeah,” Nicole agreed. “Let’s do that. I mean, my shelter is in my house, too, and it’s a panic room if I need it. It makes sense that I’d have an alternate way to call out if I’m in there without a phone or something. We realized today that the radios aren’t enough if there’s no one manning the other end.”
“I’ll get on it first thing tomorrow,” Grunt told us. “Right now, we need to get back to our kiddos. I called them earlier and told them everything was okay, but they worry.”
I smiled, remembering Grunt before he and Shannon got together. He was morose and surly on a good day then, but after he got a family of his own, he became just a guy who was happy he had his family around him.
I turned and watched our girls in the corral with their horses. They had both calmed down when Sierra went down into the shelter with them and convinced us that they would squeeze their eyes tight if we would just let them outside in the fresh air with their horses.
I knew the value of horse therapy and how it could soothe your soul when you were troubled. I hoped that was happening now for both of them.
“I would imagine that’s the parents,” Nick said when he spotted the plume of dust in the wake of a vehicle that was fast approaching my drive. “They must have broken a few records to get here this quickly.”
“I’d run that fast if it got me to my girls,” I told Nick, knowing he’d do the same for his baby girl, Esme.
Sierra and I walked to the driveway beside Kale and waited for the car to stop. Nick greeted the man when he got out, but the woman ran past him directly to Kale.
“Mandy!” the woman whispered as she took her little girl out of Kale’s arms. “Oh, my God, thank you!”
“I didn’t do it, ma’am - their daughters did,” Kale gestured toward us and I got my first good look at the woman’s face.
I almost went to my knees, the shock hit me so hard. I knew the second she recognized me because I saw it hit her, too.
“Rowdy?” she asked, confused.
“Susan,” I nodded. “I’m glad your daughter is okay.”
“Who took her?” Susan asked softly as she glanced over at her husband who was still talking to Nick beside the car. Her husband looked at his wife and slowly shook his head before focusing on Nick again. “It was my mother, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “She took her and then came here to take my daughter, too. Is your dad okay?”
“Yeah,” Susan’s eyes shot over to the corral when the girls’ laughter floated our way. She stared at them for a few minutes before she looked at me again. “Is one of them her?”
“My daughter? Yeah,” I smiled. “She’s your sister, you know?”
“Yeah,” Susan whispered and put her head down to kiss her sleeping baby again. “I guess she is.”
“You know what happened wasn’t Rowdy’s fault, don’t you?” Sierra asked Susan. “It’s not Leia’s fault either.”
“Her name is Leia?” Susan asked as she looked over at the girls. “Like from Star Wars?”
“Yeah,” I shrugged. “I didn’t have much to go on when it came to naming babies, so I named her after the coolest chick in the movies.”
“Which one is your daughter?”
“They’re both mine now, but Leia is the one on the gray mare. Lexi, our other girl, is on the black.”
“Can I meet her? Meet them? I want to say thank you,” Susan asked. “I won’t tell her who I am if you don’t want me to. I don’t want to confuse her.”
“She wouldn’t be confused. She knows all about you guys,” I smiled at Susan. “I didn’t have any reason to keep y’all a secret.”
“Yeah,” Susan whispered as she walked toward Nick and her husband.
“She kidnapped her own granddaughter and was going to call it hers?” Kale shook his head. “Crazy fucking woman. I’m glad she’s dead. If she wasn’t already, I’d be inclined to help her get there.”
“I went ahead and
