Page 77 of Rescued Faith

She tried the door next to the bathroom. Locked.

Of course it couldn’t bethateasy. She quietly tapped on the door—the secret code she’d taught Hazel and Harry when they had a clubhouse. Nothing.

She tried it again.

“I’ll check on the kids. I’m telling you, you’re hearing things. No one is out there.” A deep voice came closer.

A noise like bedsprings squeaking sounded on the other side of the door.

Penny tapped the sequence one more time. She laid her ear against the thin wood of the hollow door.

“Aunt Penny?” a young voice said. Hazel!

“Yes, it’s me. Unlock the door,” she whispered, hoping Hazel could still hear.

Noise from the other side of the trailer, the deep voice of a man—was it Alonzo?—reached Penny. They were coming this way.

The jostling of the knob creaked, and soon, the door cracked open, Hazel’s scared face on the other side. As soon as their eyes locked, the door swung wide open and a whimper escaped. Heavy footsteps from the other end of the hall sounded louder,the man getting closer. He would see her soon. Penny engulfed Hazel in one arm and quietly closed the door behind her. She relocked the door, then scooped Hazel up and held her close.

“I knew—” the little girl started to say.

Penny pulled away quickly enough to cover Hazel’s mouth and scanned the room. A queen bed took most of the space, and the little body curled up on it about broke her heart. But the rise and fall of Harry’s chest meant he was alive. Thank God.

“Listen carefully. The man is coming to check on you. Lie down next to your brother and pretend to sleep. Be super-duper still. Quick!” Hopefully the whispered words conveyed how urgent it was. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Penny laid Hazel next to Harry, who thankfully was already asleep, though tears and sweat ran down his forehead and cheeks. She had barely enough time to slip under the bed before the doorknob jiggled again and the door opened.

Heavy breathing from the doorway. A grunt. Then the door closed again. Penny waited for a ten count and slowly rolled out from under the bed.

“All right, Hazel. Let’s wake up Harry and get you two out of here.”

Hazel popped up and fell into her auntie’s arms, crying. “I knew you’d come,” she squeaked out between sobs.

TWENTY-FOUR

First stuck in a pantry and now this. Waiting outside doing nothing was torture. Bryce about broke down the wall as he watched a big bulky body approach the room where the kids were on the TIC screen, especially when he saw how close Penny’s outline was to what had to be a man’s body. Bryce could hear the heavy footsteps from the bathroom window.

Please Lord, protect them. Don’t let them be seen.

From the open bathroom window, he listened. It sounded like the man opened and then quickly closed a door. A deep voice sounded right outside the bathroom. “I told you the brats are fine. They’re asleep. You’re hearing things.” The footsteps faded as Bryce watched the blob on the screen move away from Penny and the kids and back to the other side of the trailer where Libby was.

He breathed easier. Soon Penny and two little outlines moved toward him. She hoisted Harry up through the window first. Then Hazel. Bryce grabbed them and helped them down to the ground, a finger to his lips reminding them to stay silent. Once Penny was back outside, they each grabbed a kid and ran for Izan in the tree line.

In the shadows of the tree trunks, Penny looked each child over. “Are you guys okay? Did they hurt you?”

He’d never heard such tenderness, such raw emotion in her voice.

Harry sniffed but held his chin high. So much like his aunt. “I told Hazel that you would come save us.”

“Nuh-uh! I told you?—”

Penny cut her niece’s argument off with a swift hug. “It doesn’t matter because you were both right. I’m here and we’re going to keep you safe. No one will ever hurt you again!”

Harry held tight to Bryce’s neck. “And you came too, Coach?”

“I told you I was here for ya.” Bryce gave the kid a big grin. They had to have been scared out of their minds. “You guys are so brave.”

Hazel’s lip trembled. “But what about Mommy? Those bad men have her. They hit her. And they said if she didn’t do what they said, they would hurt us.”

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