Escape from the Badlands. Dana Mentink
He was breathing hard and unable to answer when Devin Ackerman jogged up. “What’s going on?” he demanded, hands on his hips. His dark hair was expensively cut, a tiny diamond stud winking in his ear.
Shane straightened. “Someone was in my trailer, going through my stuff.”
Devin blinked. “Who would want to do that?”
They were interrupted by the arrival of Martin Chenko on a golf cart. He pulled to a stop in time to hear Shane’s explanation. He stepped out of the golf cart and smiled broadly, his stocky frame a few inches shorter than Devin’s. Kelly guessed him to be in his early forties, fit and hearty. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Devin explained. “I’m sure it was nothing. Probably someone got disoriented and went into your trailer by mistake.”
Shane fixed Chenko with a dubious look. “The lock was picked. I thought I saw someone running away.”
Chenko’s thick eyebrows shot up. “Now why would anyone want to do that?”
Devin laughed. “When I heard you shouting, I thought someone had set their trailer on fire.” He clapped Shane on the shoulder. “It’s your imagination. You probably left your door unlocked. Too much late-night TV.”
Kelly saw Shane stiffen, but he did not pull away.
“We don’t have any dishonest racers around here, now do we?” Devin asked.
Kelly thought there was a challenge in Devin’s eyes before he turned to her.
“Kelly,” he said, clasping her hands in his, long fingers wrapping around hers. “I’m so glad you’re okay after what you’ve been through today. It’s like a bad movie or something.”
She wanted to pull away, disentangle herself from his grasp. “It turned out okay, thanks to Shane.”
Devin didn’t look at him. “I’m relieved.”
She finally managed to pull her fingers from his when Chenko spoke. “Wouldn’t do to lose our nurse before we even kicked off the race. So glad you’re okay. And the boy, too? Charlie? Is he all right?”
“Perfectly fine, thank the Lord.”
“How did you make it here so fast?” Shane asked Devin.
“I was out for a walk.”
Shane stared at him. “Bad weather for a stroll.”
A flicker of emotion passed across Devin’s face, but the smile never faded. “I’m not afraid of a little water. Lucky you aren’t, either. Lucky for Kelly here, too. We watched your progress via your GPS, but by the time we got close enough to help, you’d done your hero thing.”
Shane shrugged.
Chenko sighed. “It’s chilly out here. How about we all go to my cottage and we’ll have some coffee? I was just looking over the routes again and trying to think of some alternate plans if the rain continues.”
Shane shook his head. “No, thanks.”
Devin turned to Kelly. “We really just want to meet this lovely lady anyway,” he said with a chuckle. “How about it, Ms. Cloudman? Coffee? It’s boring just talking to Chenko, no offense.”
Chenko shook his head in amusement. “I’m a businessman, not an entertainer.”
Kelly felt Shane’s gaze boring into her, though she didn’t meet his eyes. “Thanks very much, but I need to get back to Charlie.”
She walked to her trailer, suddenly feeling a strange anxiety building in her stomach. Increasing her pace, she covered the ground quickly, confusion roiling through her. Shane’s wild accusations, Devin’s overly friendly gestures and her near drowning crowded through her mind, and she felt desperate to cocoon herself in her trailer with Charlie cradled in her arms. Entering quietly, she heaved a sigh of relief.
The horrible night was over. At least she could hold on to that. She breathed a prayer of thanks and eased off the flip-flops Gwen had loaned her, tiptoeing into the tiny bedroom.
Her heart thunked to a painful stop when reality hit home.
Charlie was gone.
FOUR
Kelly could not make a sound. Terror pricked her skin and froze her vocal cords. She ran to the bed and flung the covers off, checking underneath and in the small closets.
No Charlie.
She slammed into the small bathroom and checked every cupboard and cranny.
He was gone. Charlie was gone.
Body moving in spite of her fear, she ran out the front of the trailer, the door banging into the metal siding. Chenko and Devin were in the golf cart, headed back toward their cabins.
“Help!” she screamed, but they were too far away. She whirled in a circle, looking for some sign of the little boy. A light rain fell in icy needles, but she did not feel it.
“Charlie!” she yelled over the pattering drizzle.
Then Shane was there, turning her in his arms. “What is it?”
“Charlie’s gone. He’s not in the trailer.” She looked helplessly around until her eyes went toward the riverbed beyond the campground.
A strange look crossed Shane’s face as he followed her gaze, a mix of disbelief and horror. Without a word, he turned and ran toward the water. She was about to follow, when a flicker of movement caught her eye. Several yards away, illuminated by a porch light fixed to the side of the lodge, she saw a woman holding something.
Kelly moved closer until she could make out that the bundle in the woman’s arms was a boy.
Charlie.
She ran, yelling his name, and the woman looked up. It was Gwen, her face eerie in the dim light, a faraway look on her face amid the swirl of hair.
“Charlie,” Kelly said, tears on her face. Gwen held him out and she pulled him into her arms. “What happened?”
Gwen blinked. “He was walking around looking for you. I was going to bring him back to your trailer.”
“Walking around?” She looked at Charlie, who seemed dazed. He had been known to sleepwalk when he was disturbed about something, and the day had been traumatic, to say the least. Had he awakened and been disoriented? She kissed his forehead and tucked him under her chin, gently squeezing the comforting weight of him to reassure herself that he was really there, safe, unhurt.
Forcing in a calming breath, she looked at Gwen. “Thank you for finding him.”
Gwen’s eyes were fixed on Charlie. “He’s so sweet.”
“Yes, he is.”
Droplets of water collected on her hair. “You’re lucky to have him.”
Something in the way she said it, the longing in her voice, made Kelly draw back a pace. “Definitely. Thank you again, Gwen.”
She nodded and shoved her hands in her pockets before she walked into the rain.
Kelly hunched her shoulders to keep the cold wind off Charlie as she headed back to the trailer. Shane ran up, face wild and desperate until he saw her holding the boy. The emotion shimmered on his face, intensified perhaps by the watery moonlight, and it confused Kelly. The raw anguish she saw there disappeared under an easy smile.
“He’s okay, Kell?”
“Gwen found him sleepwalking.”
Shane opened the door for her as she eased Charlie up the steps. She unwrapped him from the wet blanket, and he blinked at her.
“Charlie, honey, did you go outside?”