Raging Love(72)

She turned in my direction. “They are about five minutes away. He is goin’ to call Conner and have them come here too. He said they found Thunder running around in the woods. He is pissed we left the house.”

“Let’s just keep looking.” Colt was going to be irate, but Miranda was right, we couldn’t just sit there doing nothing while our children were in danger.

We walked past three little covered spaces with no sign of the kids. I continued to call out into the night for Noah and Bella. Knowing that the guys were on their way, I let go of Miranda’s hand and sat on a large rock next to the lake. My stomach was knotted up and my legs were exhausted. I rubbed on my calf muscles while Miranda stood behind me flashing her light around. She continued to call out to the kids. The water was running from the woods edge and draining down into the water. I sat on the rocks watching it pour in. The muddy water was flowing fast all around us and with the winds picking up, nothing was secure. If the children were anywhere near this place, they were in grave danger. One false move and they would be carried away by the strong current.

When we heard the Gator heading toward us, I knew that we had run out of time to find the kids on our own. Miranda and I had exhausted all of our ideas of where our two children could be hiding. The headlights lit the area around us, and soon Ty and Colt were running in our direction. Colt held out his hand for me and I grabbed it and stood up, but my foot lost its gripping and my hands were too wet for Colt to grip on to. The water was draining so fast into the lake from the rain. The large rock I was standing on gave way, sending me sliding right down with it and straight into the water. One second I was holding on to my husband and the next I was being pulled away from him.

All I could think of was Noah and my unborn child. We didn’t have time to waste on saving me. They had to focus on the kids. I needed to save myself.

My first concern was the temperature of the water, but it wasn’t too freezing. The second thing I was worried about was something hitting me in the stomach. I brought my knees as high as they would go. It wouldn’t protect me from pointed branches, but large items such as rocks would not get to my belly. The current was pulling me toward the center and grabbing hold of something was becoming more difficult.

Colt yelled my name as I went under the water for the first time, fighting the current. I grabbed at everything that I could to try and steady myself. Colt continued to run along the water’s edge. He was screaming my name, never losing sight of me. He dove right into the water after me, swimming with the current to reach me faster. When I felt his strong arms grabbing me, I knew I would be safe. He grabbed a log that was half in the water and half out and we sat there waiting for Ty to get to us. As Ty slowly made his way out onto the log, something caught my eye. Actually, I don’t know why I looked over, but when I did I saw something I never thought we were going to see again.

Two little kids were cuddle together under the shelter of a bunch of rocks and logs. “NOAH!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. As Colt climbed out of the water and he and Ty pulled me to safety, I just kept yelling for my son. “NOAH! NOAH!”

The guys shined a light in the direction I was pointing and saw the two kids. They went flying toward them, leaving me standing there shivering with anticipation of holding Noah in my arms. Ty and Colt came walking out into the opening and as the storm continued to flash lightening across the sky, I saw two beautiful children being carried in the arms of their fathers. They were soaking wet and both crying, but we found them. We were all going to be okay.





Chapter 23

Colt

That there had to be the scariest moment of my entire life. I thought Savanna being taken was hard, but not knowing if I was going to find my child was terrifying. I would never want to watch my wife slipping out of my grasp and falling into that water again, but if she hadn’t, we never would have found them. Ty and I had to climb and maneuver over a bunch of wet limbs and a slippery embankment to get to them. There was no way we could have spotted them unless we were in the water.

Savanna helped save them both.

Conner and John pulled in as we got the other Gator. They jumped off and grabbed the girls, not wasting any time getting them back to the house. Ty and I held our kids on our laps as we followed behind the other Gator. We were a good ten minutes drive away from the house. I still couldn’t believe the kids had gotten this far away from us.

The ride back to the house seemed to take forever. The kids were weeping, but neither of them would say a single word. The wind was dropping trees all around us and three times we saw John and Conner ahead of us having to take different routes, due to fallen timbers.