Page 86 of Ambush

He gripped her shoulders and kissed her. It was a quick caress, and she sensed his stress in the rigid line of his spine and the press of his fingers.

She stepped back. “Okay, I’ll go tell your mother and we’ll pack up some things.” She’d rather stay here with him, but Jenna might need help corralling the boys. Plus, having another calming presence would soothe Jenna’s worries about what was going on out here.

Paradise felt Blake’s gaze on her back as she ran for the house in the deluge. She didn’t remember ever being in this kind of rain before, and unease shuddered down her spine at the pool of water on the other side of the driveway. The parking lot was full of water too, and she wasn’t sure they’d be able to get out with the van. The standing water might flood the engine.

She reached the house and stepped under the overhang before she removed her slicker. She shook the moisture from it and from her hair, then stepped inside and grabbed another towel. She left her muddy boots outside and padded in socked feet to find Jenna, who was with the boys in their bedroom.

Paradise beckoned to her from the doorway, and Jenna rose from the floor where they’d been playing with their dinosaurs.

Jenna grimaced. “It’s bad, isn’t it? I’ve never seen it rain like this.”

“It’s already flooding. Blake thinks we should go to the shelter. I suggested a motel, but he said we’d probably have to go to Montgomery to find one.”

“The shelter won’t be so bad. We’ll know people, and we’re all in the same boat. I’ll pack some clothes for me and the boys, and you can grab your things.”

“I think we should take Blake’s truck.”

“But what if he needs to escape? He’d be stranded here.”

“I’ll come back and get him. I don’t think the van will make it out.”

“Okay, as long as we have a plan. I know you won’t let anything happen to my boy.” Jenna turned toward the boys. “How’d you like to have some kids to play with tonight? We’re going to go to the university and stay in the gym.”

The boys gaped for a moment, then jumped to their feet and began gathering toys. “Only four things,” Jenna warned. “We don’t want anything left behind.”

Before she started packing, Paradise shot a text to Blake explaining the vehicle dilemma, and he approved the plan. At least she’d have good wheels if she needed to come back here. She had a very bad feeling about all of it.

Chapter 41

It was beginning to feel like the biblical account of Noah’s flood. Blake eyed the low-hanging clouds pouring down the greatest amount of rain he’d ever seen. Wind lashed the rain across his face, and there wasn’t a dry spot anywhere on his body. Even his feet were soaked from splashing through the cold rain. His teeth chattered as he rode the Gator, food pails loaded in the back, from area to area to feed the animals.

At eight in the evening, only the hyenas still waited to be fed. The Gator’s headlamps barely punched through enough of the darkness to drive out toward the far fence around the hyena encampment. The field was badly flooded with water only a few inches from rushing into his cab. The front passenger tire slammed into a hole, and the vehicle tilted heavily to the right.

Blake spun the wheel and tried to recover, but the slimy mud and water had made the area incredibly treacherous. The Gator ricocheted off a metal fence pole, and the next thing Blake knew, he was suspended upside down in the Gator’s seat belt. The top of his hair dragged in the floodwaters below him.

His head spun, and his arm hurt when he tried to unbuckle the belt. He fumbled with the clasp and finally managed to loosen it. The fall to the water and ground below jarred him, and his teeth slammed together. He sucked in water and came up choking and spitting.

For a moment he didn’t know which way was up or down. He shook his head to clear it and grabbed a piece of the vehicle to help him stand up out of the foot-deep water.

His phone had been on the passenger seat beside him, and he searched for it, but it was lost in the floodwaters and mud. He retrieved a flashlight from the vehicle and turned it on. There was nothing he could do about the Gator, so he slogged through the water, now nearly to his knees, toward the far exit. Some sixth sense made him turn, and the dim glow of eyes bounced off the flashlight he aimed at them.

The hyenas are in here with me.

The inner fence separating them from the outer enclosure must have washed away in the flood. They circled toward him, and he cut a glance to the right. Open field, so no help there. On the left was a large tree, and he just might make it.

He spoke in a friendly voice. “Hey, Clara. Want some food?” Backing away, he reached down into the water and found the pail of food. He continued to walk as he tossed pieces of meat as far away as he could. At first the hyenas ran toward the food, but the pieces of meat landed in the water and they turned their attention back to Blake.

He tried tossing pieces of meat so they landed on the partially submerged Gator, but the wind derailed his aim and most still landed in the muck. The hyenas ran that way and managed to gobble up a bite or two, but with so many misses, they turned back to approach him again.

He was nearly to the tree though. A few more feet and he’d try to clamber up. It had several low-lying branches, but the trick would be gaining the safety of the higher branches before one of the hyenas could latch onto his leg and drag him down.

In spite of the cold, sweat broke out on his forehead. He had so much to live for and didn’t want to end up dying out here in this flooded field. Heaven awaited him, but his mom and brothers would never recover from losing him, and he didn’t want to leave Paradise either. For their sakes, he had to live.

He touched the rough bark of the oak tree, then tucked the flashlight into the waist of his pants. He tossed the empty pail away, and one of the hyenas went to nose around it, but she quickly left it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Clara start to make her final charge. He grabbed hold of the closest limb and swung his legs up out of the water and tried to get purchase on the tree trunk with his wet shoes. One foot slipped back toward the dominant hyena’s laughing jaws, and he kicked out to push her back.

She yelped and came at him again, but she slipped in the water. The slight hesitation was enough for him to clamber onto the limb six feet above her head. She could leap that far, so he knew he should climb higher. Holding the tree trunk, he managed to stand on the wet limb and reach up to the next one. He yanked on it and decided it would be sturdy enough to hold his weight.

His hands kept slipping off the wet bark, and it was useless to try to wipe the moisture away on his saturated clothing. Clara was on her hind legs snapping at the limb a few inches below him. Through the wet leaves he spotted a platform above the tree branches.

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