CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT #2
A few minutes later, the bushes and trees began to thin out, and she could see another smaller clearing.
On the far side of it was the large rock formation Eddie had sketched out and made her memorize.
He’d said that if anything happened, they were to head straight to it, and there would be enough room for her and Isabella to hide behind it.
Apparently, when they were kids, he would use it as a hideout whenever his sisters got on his nerves.
She clicked off the flashlight and stood just inside the tree line. They remained perfectly still and listened for any sound that didn’t belong. After about five minutes, she decided it was time to move.
She squatted down in front of her daughter.
“You see those big rocks over there that kinda look like a stack of pancakes?” She pointed and waited for her daughter to nod. “When I say go, we’re going to run as fast as we can until we get there, okay?”
“Okay.” Isabella held up her foot. “My new shoes make me run really fast.”
“Perfect.” She kissed her on the forehead. Even in this horrible situation, her daughter still had the ability to make her smile. “Ready? Go.”
Dirt and small rocks kicked up behind her daughter’s shoes, and they flashed with each step. Her face scrunched with concentration as she pumped her arms back and forth. Lucia slowed her pace to stay next to her as they hurried across the moonlit clearing.
They stopped when they got to the wide base of the rock formation, their heavy breaths cutting through the quiet night air. Lucia tilted her head way back to look up at it and realized it was much larger up close.
She looked to the right, then to the left, trying to remember what Eddie told her.
“We’re supposed to go this way.” Isabella pointed to the right.
“How do you know that?”
“I heard you guys talking downstairs the other night.” She gave a negligent shrug. “Eddie said we should go around that way and there would be, like, a pile of big rocks. The hiding spot is behind them.”
Lucia stared in awe at her daughter.
“Come on.” She took her mother’s hand and started leading her. “I know where it is.”
They walked around the wide base of the formation until they came to the mound of boulders. She clicked on the flashlight and ran the beam over the pile. Above it was a scar on the cliff face where they must’ve broken away and landed in this spot.
She tried to figure out the best way to navigate the obstruction. The top was only about eye level with Lucia, but navigating the jagged rocks would be tricky.
Isabella didn’t bother to wait. She just put a foot on one of the boulders, stretched her arms up to grab hold of another one, and started climbing.
“Be careful.” Lucia held her arms out, ready to catch her if she fell, but there was no need.
Her daughter scaled the rough rock pile like a seasoned climber. And in a matter of minutes, she was at the top, looking down at her.
Well, hell, if her eight-year-old daughter could do it, so could she.
Lucia followed the same route Isabella took and made it up with no problem.
She shined the flashlight down the other side, and sure enough, there was a patch of dirt littered with smaller rocks about ten feet in diameter.
The rock formation was on one side, the cliff face curved around on two sides, and the boulder pile blocked the remaining side, creating a sort of cocoon.
Climbing over the rocks seemed to be the only way into or out of that space.
How in the world had Eddie discovered this little secret hideout?
“Wait here. I want to go first.” She held the flashlight in her mouth and made her way down the other side.
At the bottom, she swept the beam of light around and stopped when she saw an area at the back where years of erosion had carved out a space in the bottom of the cliff face.
Not a cave so much as an overhang. She approached it slowly and shined the flashlight all around.
It looked to be about two feet deep and only about three feet high by four feet wide.
She looked up at Isabella. “Okay, you come down, but be careful.”
Lucia shined the flashlight beam on the boulders as her daughter easily scrambled down the rocks. As soon as she knew Isabella was safely on the ground, she made sure there were no snakes or any other creepy-crawly things in the carved-out area and decided it would have to do.
She crawled in first and patted the ground. “Come in and sit here.”
Isabella tentatively checked it out before crouching down to move as far back into the space as she could get, then she sat down on the dirt and drew her knees to her chest. She started shivering and pulled her arms inside her sweatshirt for warmth.
The combination of the cooler night air and an adrenaline crash was taking its toll on her system.
Lucia wanted to comfort her but needed to see if her phone worked. She started backing out of the space.
“Wait!” One of Isabella’s arms shot free of her shirt, and she grabbed Lucia’s hand. “Where are you going?”
“Shhh.” She held her finger to her lips, pointed to the open area and whispered. “I’m just going right over there to see if my phone will work.”
She shifted the position of the pistol to keep it from digging into her hip, backed out of the carved-out space, and pushed up off the ground.
She tugged her phone from where she’d stuffed it in the side pocket of her yoga pants and was relieved to see the screen light up.
There was a long crack in the glass that ran from one corner to the other, and unfortunately, there didn’t appear to be any coverage. At least the phone wasn’t broken.
She looked down at the phone as she moved around the open space until one bar flickered in the upper right corner. She closed her eyes and said a little internal prayer, then scrolled to Eddie’s contact and tapped the green circle.
One ring.
She paced back and forth.
Two rings.
She started chewing her lip.
Three rings.
His voicemail answered, and the message cut out a few times, but then she heard beep.
“I’m pretty sure Munoz is here.” She talked as fast as she could. “I think Mark is …” She choked back a sob. “I haven’t seen Josh, and Isabella—
The line went dead.
She checked the screen—no coverage.
“Dammit.” She tapped the phone lightly to her forehead a couple of times to keep from throwing it against the rocks.
“Is Eddie coming for us?” Isabella gazed out at her.
Lucia moved into the space and sat next to her daughter.
“Yes, honey.” She wrapped her arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Eddie is coming for us.”
Lucia knew that in the deepest part of her soul.
Eddie would never stop looking for them.