Chapter Twenty-One
“Ryan! Your radio is squawking!”
Ryan had just gotten in from school when his mother yelled at him about his radio. He wished he hadn’t even gone, most of his friends hadn’t gone because of the storm, but because he lived in town he didn’t have an excuse to skip.
“Thanks, Mom.”
He ran up the stairs to his room and hoped it was Avery.
He worried about their farm because Avery and her family were concerned, especially after the hail damaged their vineyard.
He’d wanted to help them, but his dad said no.
After all his lectures about being a good neighbor and helping people, he wouldn’t let Ryan miss school to help the McKennas.
“… please answer. Over.”
It wasn’t Avery, but the voice sounded familiar.
He grabbed his radio off the charger and depressed the talk button. “Who’s this? Over.”
Silence, then in a rush, “Ryan, is that you? This is Bobby McKenna and we’re in trouble and I can’t call home and I need you to call my mom and get help.”
He didn’t say over, but Ryan heard the click telling him that Bobby was waiting for a response.
“Bobby, it’s Ryan. What happened? Talk slow, you’re crackling. Over.”
“Avery is in trouble. She’s at … There are bad people … a gun. I lost my boots and am hiding in the old equipment shed near … Mendozas’ house. Call your dad and … be careful because they have a gun. Over.”
Ryan’s head was spinning. “Bobby, I only caught part of what you said. Avery is in trouble? Where, is she? Over.”
“The Mendozas. She and Gianna and Gianna’s family. There are bad people … Avery is tied up. Call your dad! Over.”
Ryan said, “I’ll call my dad and I’m coming up right now. I’ll call your house. You stay where you are, okay? If it’s safe, I mean. Stay so someone can come get you. Where, exactly? Over.”
“The Mendozas’ old equipment shed. My mom and Jake know where it is. It’s safe, but I’m wet and cold and I’m worried about Avery and I can’t find Cleo anywhere. Over.”
He was still looking for the stray cat?
“Okay, I’m calling your mom, stay there. Over.”
Ryan pulled on his heavy-duty boots and ran back down the stairs, cell phone in hand. “Mom! I’m going out.”
“No, you’re not,” she called from the kitchen.
“Mom, Bobby McKenna is trapped in a barn and they need my help.”
She stepped in the doorway, drying her hands on a rag, giving him the once-over. “Are you lying to me?”
“I wouldn’t lie to you. I’m calling his house now, but he called me because he couldn’t reach anyone.
He said that there’s something weird going on at the Mendoza house.
” He didn’t want to tell her about the gun, but he knew that if she found out he had withheld information from her, she’d call it lying and ground him for weeks.
“I’m calling your dad. The roads are a mess out there, and Rock Creek has flooded.”
Rock Creek always flooded, but the McKennas didn’t live anywhere near there. “I won’t go near it. But yeah, tell Dad that Bobby says there’s a stranger with a gun at the Mendozas’ house.”
“You are not going there,” she stated.
“No, I’m going to call Jake and help him get to Bobby. Please, Mom, they need help, and you know it’ll take too much time to get a deputy up there with everything else going on with the storm.”
She sighed. “Keep the emergency radio on in your truck, and I swear, you’d better take every precaution on these roads. Don’t go to the Mendozas, I know you want to, but stay away. You keep in touch.”
“If you reach Dad, have him call me and I’ll tell him everything I know, but I need to go, I’m worried about Bobby and I don’t know why he couldn’t reach his family.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” She glanced behind her into the family room where his three younger sisters were doing homework and watching television at the same time.
“No, I don’t know how long it will take.” He gave his mom a quick hug. “I’ll be careful, I promise. I’ll call you.”
And he left before she could think twice about it. He had a lot of autonomy because he didn’t usually get into trouble, so he capitalized on that now. This was an unusual situation, however, and his mom could have stopped him. He was glad she hadn’t.
As soon as he was in his truck, wipers moving full force against the torrent of water, he called the McKenna house.
The phone rang. And rang.
Jake called his mom from the corner of the porch, pulling the long kitchen cord out, as he watched the driveway, willing his brother to show up.
“Hello?” His mother’s voice was clipped, tense.
“Mom, it’s Jake. Bobby’s not home and no one is answering at the Mendoza house. I’m going over there.”
“No, stay put. I’m not far.” The cell reception crackled on her end.
“Where are you?”
“Just about to turn onto Orchard from Ranch. I have to go slow.”
“The creek is high, Mom. You might not get through.”
“I’ll get through.”
“Call me as soon as you know what’s going on. I can look for Bobby.”
“He has to be at the Mendozas,” she said, as if willing it to be true. “I’ll call. And—”
Then the line cut off.
Dammit.
Lyla ran up to him. “Whisper Creek is at its banks. But it looks like the water is diverting east, not west. That’s good, right?”
Partly, Jake thought. At least better than the alternative. The bulk of their pastures were west of the creek. But if it flooded to the east, they’d lose the sunflowers and half the wine grapes, not to mention, depending on the severity, Baldwin’s property could flood.
Not your concern, Jake thought. It was Verdacorp’s concern now.
But he thought about Greg’s horses. He still had the ten-acre parcel with his house and horses, and there was no one there to make sure the horses were safe.
He hadn’t heard from the sheriff if Greg’s caretaker was there. Mateo took care of feeding and watering the horses this morning, but the storm had to be agitating them.
Jake looked back down the road, willing Bobby to drive up. He could have gotten the ATV stuck again—how many times had Jake had to pull Bobby out of a jam?
“Jake, what’s wrong?” Lyla asked.
“Just worried about Bobby. Mom is on her way back and will stop at the Mendozas.”
Lyla frowned. “She needs to get home fast. The creek is going to flood the road. She won’t be able to get through.”
“Mom knows.” He put his arm over Lyla’s shoulders and squeezed. He didn’t want her to worry. He had enough worry for both of them.
Penny called out, “Jake! Ryan’s on the phone.”
“Avery’s not here,” he said, irritated.
“He asked for you.”
Jake didn’t want to talk to Ryan. They were friends, sure, but ever since Ryan started dating Avery at the beginning of the school year, things were just weird.
He went inside the house. “Ryan? It’s Jake. I’m in the middle of—”
“Bobby called me over the radio, over the channel Avery and I use. He said that Avery is in trouble at the Mendozas’ house, that there’s something going on there, that a stranger is in the house and has a gun. Bobby is trapped in the old equipment shed on the other side of your creek.”
“You talked to Bobby?” Had Jake not heard the radio? He didn’t always have it on him when he was at home, but Lyla would have heard it in the barn.
“I don’t know why he didn’t reach out on your family channel,” Ryan said. “Except that maybe if he’s right, and there’s someone with a gun at the Mendozas, he has Avery’s radio. I’m on my way now, I told Bobby to stay put. I can help you get to him.”
“Where are you?” Jake asked.
“Just coming up to the Sorenson Ranch. Visibility is crap.”
“It’ll take you at least another ten minutes to get here, probably longer. Our road is partly flooded, and Whisper Creek is about to breach to the east.”
“That’s where the equipment shed is,” Ryan said.
“I’ll get Bobby.”
“I can—”
“Do you have your radio?”
“Channel nine.”
“Okay, let me know when you turn onto Orchard, and I’ll let you know if we need help, otherwise I’ll see you at the house.”
“What about Avery?”
“My mom is on her way to the Mendoza’s now. I’ll call and warn her that something weird is happening over there.”
Jake hung up and called his mom.
But she didn’t answer.