Mitchell Family: Raging Love Part 17

She hung up the phone and buried her hands into her face.

I grabbed her hands. "Miranda, what is it?"

She shook her head and avoided looking directly at me. "They found Noah's hat."

"What do you mean? Where?"

"In the woods, somewhere in a thicket. They said they saw Atticus runnin' and found the hat a few minutes later. They ran into Conner and John and they are all lookin' for them. So far they haven't heard a single peep from either of them. Where could they be Van? Where could they be where they can't hear us callin' for them? I can't just sit here waitin' for word. I have to go look for my daughter." She got up and started walking toward the front door.

As I watched her bending down to put on her shoes, she turned back toward me. "Miranda, wait! I'm going with you."

There was no hesitation in my voice. My son was out there somewhere and I felt responsible. There was no way in h.e.l.l that I was going to let her go out into the dark, while it was storming, alone. I ran back into the house and grabbed us a couple of flashlights and two jackets. They weren't waterproof but they would at least keep us warm for the time being.

As we headed out into the woods, reality really hit both of us. It was pitch black outside. We were heading into the dark woods, while heavy gusts of wind were blowing and the rain was pouring. Loud cracks of thunder caused us both to jump as we joined hands and continued trudging through the forest.

Miranda and I both took turns calling the children's names. We would walk a few feet and s.h.i.+ne out the lights all around the area, before continuing forward. I'd taken many walks in these woods and Miranda had grown up on this property, but it didn't really help at night time. Getting lost in the woods was easy to do, especially without the light of the moon to guide us.

In the distance we could hear one of the gator's motors and voices calling the kids names. They were too far away from us to get their attention.

As the vehicle got further away from us, I got excited when I heard the sound of crackling leaves heading toward us. As it got closer, it sounded like more than one person coming our way. Miranda and I stopped, while s.h.i.+ning the light in the direction of the sound.

A group of deer came leaping over a thicket, almost trampling on top of us. We both screamed and fell back onto the wet ground.

I turned back toward Miranda and noticed she was holding her leg. She had fallen on a patch of briars and had tiny thorns stuck all in the back of one of her legs. She was trying not to cry out in pain, but I knew that part of the skin was sensitive and she must have been in agony with the amount of them stuck in her.

I got her to flip around and with only a flashlight, I started removing the thorns one by one. She was crying out as I pulled each one of them out of her. When I got everyone that I could see out of her leg, I helped her stand up. She steadied herself and we began moving forward again.

Miranda was still in pain from her fall, but we held onto one another as we kept going further into the woods. Every few seconds we continued to take turns calling out the kids names, with no response.

"My G.o.d, where could they be Van? The guys have been searching for over an hour now. Do you have any idea how many acres of land we have to search?" Miranda hunched over and started crying worse. "I can't believe this is happening. I can't lose my daughter. I just can't lose her Van. She has to be okay."

I rubbed her back and tried to think of what to say. "We will find them. Noah is a smart kid. He has been going out hunting and fis.h.i.+ng with Colt. He knows about the outdoors more than other kids his age. You know he wouldn't let anything happen to Bella. You have to know that Miranda."

She nodded her head and wrapped her arms around me. "I just want to find them, Van. We. Have. To. Find. Them."

I looked her dead in the eye. "We will. I won't give up until they are home safe. I promise you that."

We started moving again, only pausing to search with the flashlights, or when the loud crash of thunder startled us. The rain wasn't as bad as we walked under the trees, but the wind was wreaking havoc on anything dead in the forest. All around us we could hear limbs breaking and falling to the ground. Without being able to see our surroundings, it was impossible to know whether a limb was going to come tumbling down on top of us, or even a whole tree.

I didn't want to admit how scared I was, because that meant that my child had to be even more petrified. I thought about the day he came into our life and that first initial moment when I considered not being able to be his mother. Guilt washed over me as I began to wonder if choosing to raise him had caused this chain of events. Was I the reason that those two children were out there somewhere, alone, in the dark?

All I ever wanted was to be a parent and Noah had given me that, how could I have let him out of my sight tonight? How could I have let this happen?

This time I was the one crying. Miranda stopped and started to hug me. "I'm sorry for freaking out. We have to keep moving."

"What if we don't find them? What if Colt never forgives me for showing Noah how to ride? My G.o.d, I would never be able to even forgive myself. Miranda, what have I done?"

Miranda stood there in the pitch black with me. She didn't respond to me at first, causing me to cry harder. "This isn't your fault. One of us should have seen or heard them. We should have known they were up to no good. You can't blame yourself for this Van. Colt would never want you to do that."

I squatted down, holding my belly, and feeling the baby inside of me moving around. "I don't know what to do. After everything I have been through, this has to be the worst. My baby that I lost was hard to deal with but, but Noah is real, he is here with me every single day, loving me and calling me Mommy. It is my job to protect him. My little boy is out there somewhere and I don't know what to do to bring him home, to bring them both home."

Miranda grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me. "You have got to calm down, Van. We aren't goin' to find them if we stay here. Noah is a smart kid and if he is anything like his father, he is somewhere safe. Colt has taken him huntin'. He has to know of places to go." Miranda suddenly froze. Her eyes got real big and she grabbed my hand and started pulling me along, without giving me an explanation.

"What is it? Why are you pulling me?"

"I think I know where they might be." She kept going without turning around.

"What do you mean? Where?"

"Keep moving and I will explain" Miranda's slippery hands were doing a good job holding onto mine. We each had a flashlight and s.h.i.+ned them in front of where we were walking. The ground was slippery and quite a few times both of us slipped on wet tree limbs on the ground.

"When we were kids, we used to go out to this old rope swing and swim in the lake. On the way there sits a bunch of little cl.u.s.ters of rocks and a large stream. Some of those cl.u.s.ters are actually like mini caves. They are only about four feet deep and not closed off from the elements, but they will keep you dry."

"Why do you think they could be there? How far is it away?" We kept walking even though my body was exhausted. I refused to tell Miranda to stop going. We needed to find the kids. I wasn't going to rest until we did.

"I don't know for sure, but they would be scared and want to hide somewhere dry. It is the only place I know of. Even if they aren't there, we can call the guys and have them pick us up."

"How do you even know we are headed in the right direction? It is pitch black out here?"

Miranda stopped walking and bent over to catch her breath. I held on to my tummy and waited for her to answer me. "We pa.s.sed this tree we used to carve our names on a ways back. We crossed over the trail we used to ride our four wheelers on. The lake is up ahead. I'm not sure what part we will come out at, but I will be able to find the little hole they may be hiding in."

I stood up and got a few more deep breaths in before we started treading through the slippery woods again.

Miranda had been right. Within five minutes we came out to an opening. When the lightning struck across the dark sky, I could see the reflection of it in the water in front of us. Miranda pulled me along the water's edge and began calling out for the kids again. She pulled out her phone and started dialing on it before holding it up to her ear. "Babe, it's me. You and Colt need to meet us at the water.....I don't care Ty, we couldn't just sit there waiting it out. Yes, she is fine. No, we haven't found them yet. Yes. Okay. See you in a sec."

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 p.i.s.sed 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 s.p.a.ces 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 flas.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+ned a light in the direction I was pointing and saw the two kids. They went flying toward them, leaving me standing there s.h.i.+vering with antic.i.p.ation 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.

John rushed Savanna into the house, while Miranda and Conner stood waiting for us to pull up behind them. We never let go of the kids as we rushed them into the house. I could hear Savanna fighting John from upstairs. He must have been insisting that she change into dry clothes before she came down to worry with the children. She was very pregnant and her safety was a major concern.

John came down shaking his head as he walked toward both of the kids sitting on the couch. Miranda and Ty went running up the steps gathering blankets and dry clothes. Both of their lips were purple and s.h.i.+vering. Ty and Miranda started removing Bella's wet clothes while I did the same to poor Noah. He wouldn't look directly at me, and I went to lift up his arm, he screamed out in agony.

"What is it? What hurts?" I asked.

He just kept screaming and screaming. I had to get his s.h.i.+rt off to see what was going on. I jumped up and ran into the kitchen for a pair of scissors. I was as gentle as I could as I tried to remove the s.h.i.+rt. Noah continued to cry out, even when he saw Savanna hurrying down the steps toward him.

Through his cries, I heard him say 'Mommy'. She crouched down at his side and rubbed his little head.

"Mommy's here, baby. Mommy's here." She helped me remove the rest of his clothes and watched his body tightened up as we moved the s.h.i.+rt away from his injured arm. From Noah's shoulder down to his elbow was black and blue, and I could tell from one single glance that it was completely dislocated.

Savanna and I looked at each other, while behind us we heard Conner. "I will drive."

If things weren't such an emergency. I may have worried about Conner's sobriety, but he seemed like he had his head on straight and was determined to get us there safely.

He knew, as well as everyone in the house, that Noah needed immediate medical attention. I looked over at Ty and Miranda and got a good look at Bella. She had some dried blood on the side of her head and some scratches on her arms. Miranda had a washcloth and was trying to clean the mud off of the child to see the extent of her injuries. Ty turned around to face me. "We need to take them both to get checked out. They could have concussions and s.h.i.+t."

I was trying to remain calm around the children, and I knew Ty didn't like to curse around Bella, so he was obviously in a nervous wreck. "Let's go then. I think Savanna needs to get checked out as well."

She nodded and walked over to grab some shoes. I got Noah some dry pants on, but wrapped a blanket around his body instead of trying to dress him with a s.h.i.+rt. The boy was in excruciating pain.

We ended up having to take two of the ranch trucks to the hospital to accommodate the whole family, and even my mother and Aunt Karen showed up moments later.

We were thankful that the hospital wasn't too crowded and took the kids and Savanna back within fifteen minutes of us arriving there.

Although we were put into separate rooms, we were able to keep checking on each other since the emergency room was not crowded with patients. Bella had minor sc.r.a.pes and some bruising from where she fell off of the horse. They did some x-rays and other tests to check for concussions and any internal bleeding, but she seemed to be just banged up.

Savanna was immediately hooked up to monitors and seen by an OBGYN. The baby was fine and they even left the monitor on so everyone could hear the heartbeat. Just as an extra precaution they did a sonogram and offered to keep her overnight for observation.

Noah was the worst off. He had a gash on the back of his head, that required two st.i.tches. His shoulder was dislocated. He had one broken rib and a broken arm, in two places. They had to re-set his arm and I can't even explain the agonizing sound that came out of my son when they did. They gave him something for the pain that also seemed to relax him and allow him to rest. Even though he did not have a concussion, they were having him stay overnight as well.

With Bella being discharged a few hours later, The family started to head out, leaving me with just my immediate family. Once Savanna knew that the baby was okay, she became adamant that she be able to share a room with Noah. I think under normal circ.u.mstances it wouldn't have been possible, but the nurses were very kind and got Noah moved into Savanna's room. He didn't really need to be hooked up to any monitors, so it wasn't necessary to transfer all of the equipment over.

Once Savanna had Noah by her side, she started to relax. Her blood pressure had been high due to the anxiety of the night, but it went back to normal almost at the exact moment our son came into the room. She held his hand and kept watching him.

I was still pretty angry that she had gone out and risked her safety, but I knew we wouldn't have found Noah otherwise.

I tried to sleep while my family slept, but I think my adrenaline was still in full force playing out every moment in my head. When all this was done and we were home safe, I was determined to get to the bottom of why my son thought it was okay to sneak on a horse he wasn't familiar with. I never wanted to bust his little b.u.t.t until this stunt he pulled. That boy had put not only his life, but his cousin Bella's life, in danger.

The thoughts of punis.h.i.+ng my son were interrupted when I heard Savanna's voice.

"Hey Baby."

"How you feelin' Darlin'?"

"My legs are killing me, but I feel better now that I know everyone is okay. Colt, I'm so sorry that I went out into the storm. I couldn't sit at home just waiting. I had to go out and look for them."

I shook my head. "I'm not goin' to say I'm not angry with you. What you did was reckless and you put not only yourself but our baby in danger. If something would have happened to you I couldn't live with myself."

"Nothing happened. Well, nothing terrible. We are all okay Colt." Savanna knew things had happened and she could have lost that baby. I was p.i.s.sed and she needed to know it, but at the same time, I was so d.a.m.n happy that they were safe now.

"Savanna, what you did was careless, but you are the reason the kids are safe now. I don't know how to feel about it when you're the only reason for that. I love you Darlin', but please be more careful."

She started to cry. I watched her look over at Noah and caress his little hand with hers. "I just love him so much, Colt. I couldn't spend one more second not knowing he was safe. I'm not sorry for what I did and if I had to make the choice again, it would be the same. I'm his mother and it is my job to protect, even if it means risking my own safety."

I figured that it was best if I just dropped the conversation all together. Savanna was pretty clear about her feelings. None of us could get much sleep at the hospital, so when it came time for them both to be released, we rushed out of there to get home to our comfortable bed. Of course Savanna wasn't ready to let Noah anywhere out of our sight. She put the boy right between us in bed and had her arm around him immediately.

She loved that boy so much, it brought tears to my eyes.

The family started showing up some time after lunch. My mother and Lucy brought a whole spread over to feed everyone. Bella was attached to Ty and she and Noah hadn't really said much to each other.

Savanna put a show on for Noah and Bella to watch and they sat there together not saying much to one another. We all just kept watching them, wondering why they couldn't talk to each other. Finally Miranda went over and squatted in front of them. "Hey, you two. What's goin' on? How come you aren't sayin' much to each other?"

They both shrugged but refused to look toward the other.

"I think we would all like to know what exactly happened yesterday. Who had the idea to get on those horses?"

They finally looked at each other before looking back at Miranda. Savanna had sat down across from them, while the rest of us stood behind the couch. I leaned down and patted Noah on the shoulder. "Buddy, you need to tell us all what happened. I know last night was scary, but we need to know what happened."

"I don't want to get in trouble," he said sadly.

Miranda grabbed his knee. "Noah, Sweetie, we aren't askin' because we want to yell at you. We just want to know so it never happens again."

The little guy put his head down and stared at his knees. "Bella wanted to. She said she knew how."

Bella started crying and we all turned in her direction. "Bella, did you tell Noah you knew how to ride?"

"I'm sorry, Mommy." Bella cried harder and Miranda put her hand over her mouth in shock. Ty came up beside her and lifted his daughter's face.

"Izzy, Honey, why would you do something like that? You know better than to do something like that."

"I know, Daddy. Please don't be mad." The little four year old leaned forward against her father's chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and kissed her head.

"Iz, you can't do anything like that ever again." He pushed her away to be able to look her in the eyes. He took his thumbs and wiped them away. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir." She put her head down again and continued to cry.

"You need to apologize to your cousin."