Chapter 16
Blake winced when he saw Hez sitting in the chair beside the hospital bed. One side of his head had no hair, and the shaved
scalp held bruises. “This could wait, buddy.”
Dressed in khaki pants and a light blue shirt, his cousin waved a folder in his direction. “This couldn’t wait. Shut the door.
I don’t want to be overheard.”
Blake and Paradise exchanged a troubled glance, and she shut the door behind them before walking closer to Hez. “You should
be resting.”
“I’m tired of resting, and the fog is finally lifting where I can think. This is incredible news.” Hez opened the folder to
extract a sheaf of papers. “There are some gas and oil on the property, but they don’t mean much.”
Blake’s optimism faltered, and he stepped forward to study the report. “I’d hoped they might help our financial situation.”
“This other discovery means much more than oil or gas deposits, and you’ll want to keep it quiet, at least for now.” Hez touched a finger to a paragraph near the bottom of the report. “There are rare earth elements here, guys. And they’re worth more money than you can even imagine.”
“What are rare earth elements?” Paradise asked. “It’s a vaguely familiar phrase, but I can’t quite remember what it means.”
“There are seventeen heavy metals that are extremely valuable because they’re used in a lot of electronic components. They
aren’t really rare—but it took a long time to isolate them. Right now 81 percent of the world’s rare earth is mined in China,
so finding some in the US is a big deal.”
Blake struggled to understand it all, but the dawning joy on Paradise’s face was more important than anything right now. She
clung to his hand, and he looked down at her with the hope that their marriage might not have to be put off too much longer.
Blake took the paper and read through it. “What do you think it’s worth?”
“Many millions.”
Blake’s chest squeezed, and he glanced at Paradise. “But we’d have to sell the property.”
“Yes, but you’d be able to buy more property outright and build it out to your specs. A discovery like this changes everything.”
“I’m not sure Mom would want to sell and move. It’s not like packing up a household and moving a few miles way. We’re talking
hundreds of wild animals. The construction at the new place boggles the mind to think about.”
“True, but I’ve heard you complain about outdated buildings and security features. You could have state-of-the-art everything.”
Hez’s blue eyes flashed with enthusiasm until he winced and touched his head. “I need to not get so excited, but it’s hard
when I think about what this means for Aunt Jenna and the boys. You, too, of course, but I worry about her.”
“I’ll tell her, but Mom’s idea of the expedient road is to wait on God, and I have a feeling this won’t be any different. The Almighty himself might have to speak in an audible voice before she’d sell the place. I could be wrong, but we’ll see.”
Hez’s color waned by the moment, and Blake took Paradise’s hand. “Savannah would skin us alive if she saw you out of bed.
If we want to live, we’d better let you rest.”
“I might need a nap.” Hez gave a half smile.
Blake might need a nap before he told his mom about this.
Hez’s bombshell rattled Paradise. She couldn’t imagine leaving this place now. “I can fix a salad.” The sounds of cartoons
playing on TV came faintly from the living room. Blake’s deep voice explained the history of the old Popeye cartoons to his
little brothers. He hadn’t told Jenna about the rare earth yet, but Paradise planned to.
“Blake did it. It’s in the fridge.” Jenna set a pan of lasagna on the counter. “So what did Jane say about Adams being here
opening the gates?”
The breather of another topic appealed to Paradise as well. She stayed close to the oven to be able to check the breadsticks
in another couple of minutes. “She doesn’t have jurisdiction here, so she can only ask for information. She’s going to check
with Rod about the investigation. Greene was there for hours with his same innuendos and sneers. I didn’t want to call him,
but we had no choice.” She hadn’t dared to tell Blake what she wanted to do, but Jenna might understand. “I thought about
going to see Adams myself.”
Jenna set down the stack of plates in her hands. “Paradise, that would be so hard. Have you talked to him since you left here?”
“I haven’t seen him since CPS removed me from his house. Well, at least in person. Seeing his face on the video shook me.”
“He was trespassing on our property, and that’s likely the least of his crimes. If he unlocked the gate, it’s likely he also
shot Ivy with the tranquilizer gun. What would you gain by talking to him?”
Paradise shrugged. “Closure maybe. I’m not sure why I want to talk to him.”
“Have you been able to find out anything about him since he left town?”
“Blake thought he and his wife broke up, but if that’s true, they must have gotten back together. They’re both listed as owners
of a house in Birmingham.”
Jenna touched Paradise’s hand. “I hear the fear in your voice. I know you hoped never to face him again.”
“I don’t want to now, but I think the shock might shake some truth out of him that he wouldn’t tell anyone else.”
“I’m sure he thought no one had seen him.”
Paradise checked the breadsticks, which were golden brown and perfect. She opened the oven and put them on top of the stove.
She’d skipped lunch, and the yeasty-garlicky odor made her mouth water.
Blake had suggested she tell Jenna the news about the rare earth. He didn’t want it to apply pressure to his mom. “Jenna,
Hez dropped some news. There are minerals under your land, something called rare earth, and they’re worth a lot of money.”
“I’ve never heard of rare earth.” She listened to Paradise’s abbreviated explanation and what it could mean for The Sanctuary.
“I’m not sure I believe it.”
“Hez thought you’d be excited,” Paradise said.
Jenna added more oregano to the sauce. “I don’t know what to think. If it’s incredibly valuable, The Sanctuary will be saved
for generations. But we’d have to move to get it. There are a lot of things to consider.”
Paradise handed her the salt. “I know you’re very attached to this place—I am too—but there are large tracts of land you could
buy and develop for the animals if you needed to. You’d have the money to build from scratch.”
Jenna’s gaze went out the window toward the buildings in the distance. “Hank and I built this together. I don’t know if I
could leave it.”
“I’ll bet Frank would help you find the right property if it became necessary. You two have been seeing each other a little
while now. It seems to be going well.”
Jenna’s cheeks reddened. “I enjoy being with Frank, but I feel guilty about it sometimes. I loved Hank so much.”
“You’re still young, Jenna. Hank would want you to have a happy, fulfilled life.”
“I have my boys.”
“And they’re great—I love them, too, all three of them. But your little ones will be grown before you can blink. They’ll always
love you, but the house will be empty. There’s nothing wrong with finding someone to share your life with.”
Jenna smiled. “And what about your plans if this rare earth thing pans out? Blake isn’t fooling me with his ‘need to take
it slow’ talk. He’d swoop you up and marry you in a heartbeat if he wasn’t worried about providing for me and the boys. I
see the financials, and I know how thin our margins are. My boy doesn’t even cash all his checks—he plows most of his earnings
back into the business, and what he does cash, he spends on groceries around here.”
This time Paradise’s cheeks warmed. “I don’t want to get married until I find out what happened to my parents. It’s important to me, and if I start a new life, I’m afraid I’ll forget all about it.”
“Maybe that’s for the best, Paradise. You may never be able to get to the truth. I’d hate to see you put the brakes on your
life while you’re searching for something you may never find.”
Paradise moved the breadsticks to a plate and carried it to the table. How would she feel if she never knew the truth? “I
don’t know if I can live like that, Jenna. Never sure if the killer will strike at me next. Blake and I want kids. How could
we bring children into a world where some nameless, faceless maniac might strike in the night?” She shuddered and hugged herself.
“I have to find out what happened.”
“I get it, Paradise. I’ve suffered through my share of loss as well. When Blake’s father died, I was mad at God and bitter
at life. I vowed never to go through that again, but if I’d let that fear paralyze me, I wouldn’t have had those years with
Hank. The thought of more children terrified me, too, but Hank showed me each day is a gift and so is life. I should have
been the one to go first since Hank was younger than me, but that’s not what happened. If we let fear control us, we miss
out on the day-to-day things that make life rich and meaningful. Don’t let that happen to you. You and Blake are so good together.”
Paradise’s tongue felt stuck to the roof of her mouth. Jenna had put her finger on the past fifteen years of Paradise’s life.
The fortress she’d built around her had been impenetrable to everyone but Blake, who knew how to scale the walls. She needed
to dismantle them and welcome in whatever experiences God sent her way. But could she give up her quest? Maybe not even for
Blake.