Adam couldn’t see his face, only the top of his head, which was covered with a baseball cap.
Katie sniffed again, and Adam raised his finger to his lips to shush her.
“Allergies,” she whispered. She wrinkled her nose and held a finger underneath.
Oh, no. This wouldn’t help at all.
In a split second, she tilted her head back as if a sneeze was imminent. Adam grabbed her with both arms and, with his hand on the back of her head, pulled her into his shoulder. Her sneeze was muffled in his shirt, but she instantly pushed away from him. He cast what he hoped was an apologetic look in her direction and shrugged his shoulders, but he didn’t dare speak. A peek between the branches revealed that their hiding space remained secure.
Without knowing how many men were in the cabin or how much firepower they had, he couldn’t take them on all by himself. It was very likely he was outmanned and outgunned, and the best thing to do was wait for local law enforcement to show up. Still, despite the softness of the Amish woman next to him, or perhaps because of it, the hiding place was growing more uncomfortable by the second.
The woman sniffled again, and he pulled her into his shoulder as the second sneeze erupted. He wanted to shush her, but sneezes were uncontrollable. It wasn’t her fault. Plus he didn’t want the man somewhere below to hear him. They were like sitting ducks up here in their perch.
As the shuddering of the sneeze subsided, Katie pushed away. She seemed as uncomfortable as he was. But her push must have been too hard, for she wobbled on the branch, her hands grasping for anything to keep her steady. She finally found traction with one hand on the branch and one hand on his arm. Once settled, she let go and straightened her kapp and her skirt.
“Danki. You have saved me two times.”
Before he could whisper his response, the tree trunk exploded next to him.
“Ach!” Katie cried, her hand flying to her leg, obviously in pain but still trying to keep quiet.
Instincts kicked in, and he grabbed her close and pulled her down, trying to shield her from any other gunshots. Did the shooter know where they were, or was he the type to shoot randomly? Adam peered through the branches, but he couldn’t see a thing.
“Are you hit?” he whispered, but he knew the answer already.
Katie drew her hand away from her leg. There was blood on it. “Is that what has happened? My leg burns terribly.” Tears sprang to her eyes as she clutched the spot on her leg.
“Let me see.” After one more look through the branches, he gently removed her hand from the spot and separated the folds of her skirt. The fabric was torn and bloody around the edges, but the injury was not bleeding profusely. She whimpered in pain as he touched the spot and then gathered the folds of her skirt to apply direct pressure to the wound. “Hold this here. We have to get out of here.”
But was it safe to descend? He gingerly pulled the branches apart, but he couldn’t see anyone. A squirrel chattered nearby. Could that have been what drew the attention of the shooter? At least there hadn’t been another shot. Could Katie wait until law enforcement arrived? If they left the tree now, they could put themselves directly in the path of the shooter.
As Katie applied the pressure, her face grew pale, a sheen of perspiration breaking out over her forehead. “I have never been in danger before.”
Suddenly she didn’t look steady enough to sit on the branches. “An ambulance should be coming with the police any minute now. Can you make it?”
She moaned and clutched her stomach. “I do not know. Can we get down now?”
It wasn’t the best idea, considering he still hadn’t figured out the whereabouts of the shooter. But the alternative, Katie fainting and both of them falling out of the tree, wasn’t any better. Down it would be.
“Sure. Let’s go.” He stepped down a couple of branches and then turned to hold her around the waist and help her down. They stairstepped down to the bottom branch before a loud rustling sounded from brush nearby.
His heart thrust itself against his chest, and he turned back to signal Katie to be quiet. But with a look of dismay, she stared at her fingers, bloody from her leg wound, her face even whiter than before. He grabbed her around the waist. “Katie?”
Another shot rang out, tearing through the branches around them.
Surely they had been found. That shot had been aimed more directly at Katie.
She stared at him with glassy eyes. Time seemed to stand still in the nanosecond before she closed them. Then she pitched forward, off the branch, and plummeted to the ground, her lifeless body pulling him with her.
The pierce of sirens slowly circled in her mind as she became aware of the trees, the clouds and even the ground spinning around her. She grasped for something to steady herself with so that she wouldn’t fall off. But off what? Where was she?
The sirens stopped, and the buzz of summer insects filled the silence. Something tickled her forehead, and with great effort, she lifted a hand to brush it away.
“Katie?”
Whatever was tickling her sprang back, and she brushed it away again.
“Katie, can you open your eyes?”
It was a low but strong male voice, and she forced her eyes open to find that this man was the one tickling her forehead, brushing and smoothing her hair away with his hand. She closed her eyes again, wanting to lie there and rest. But the man squeezed her shoulder. “Katie, you fainted. Can you wake up? Are you all right?”
Adam. That was his name. The events of the afternoon came rushing back—looking for her bruder, finding him at the cabin, climbing the tree with the ICE special agent.
Her head rested on a soft surface, and she noticed he now wore only a navy T-shirt with his khaki cargo pants. His button-down shirt was gone. He must have used it as a pillow for her.
Where is Timothy? With her abdominal muscles, she pulled herself to a sitting position. The sky and trees began a violent spin around her, and she swayed against Adam. With eyes closed, she leaned against him until the spinning subsided.
Slowly she opened her eyes. “Are we safe now?”
“Yes. The police are here. They found the cabin cleared out.”
“Mein bruder? Timothy?”
“I’m not sure who your brother is, but everyone was gone. I would guess they scattered when they heard the sirens.”
“Who are they? What are they doing here?”
“First let’s get you some medical care. The paramedics are here. Can you make it to the ambulance? They drove off the country road and into the grass, but they’re going to have a tough time getting through the trees to us.” He scanned the horizon behind her.
“Jah,
