Ransom At Christmas. Barb Han

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      STAY AWAKE. STAYING ALERT was Kelly’s highest priority. She hated being in this position, feeling like a victim. There was nothing worse than a feeling of helplessness, but it was taking all the strength she had inside her to stay awake and fight the darkness weighing down her thoughts.

      Her mind zinged back to when she was a teenager. It had been two days since her thirteenth birthday had officially ushered her into her teen years. Kelly woke with a cramp in her side that made her double over and left her rocking back and forth in pain.

      Her mother walked in after working her shift at the hair salon and gasped when she saw her daughter on the floor. Her appendix had almost burst and she’d been cramping so hard she could barely walk.

      “Why didn’t you call me?” her mother had asked.

      “I thought it would pass,” Kelly said weakly, in between blowing out breaths to try and manage her pain. She’d done everything she could think of in order to distract herself.

      Before she could blow out her next breath, her mother was helping Kelly to her feet.

      “I’m taking you to the hospital,” she’d stated and Kelly had heard the panic in her mother’s voice. She had immediately known that she must have looked awful based on her mother’s expression.

      After her mother had managed to get her buckled into the passenger seat of the family sedan, Kelly saw how much her mother’s hands were shaking on the wheel. It took three tries for her to get the key into the ignition. Her mother let out a few choice words, glanced her daughter’s way and apologized, before finally finding the hole and starting the engine.

      Kelly must’ve been in bad shape because her mother kept repeating, “Stay with me, baby.”

      Pain threatened to drag Kelly under and hold her in the current, pulling her further out to sea. Then there were tires squealing as her mother stomped on the brakes in the ER bay. The sun was out, brightening the sky, and would be for hours before plunging into the western landscape. It was an unusually hot afternoon even for August in Texas.

      People rushed toward them and then Kelly was being placed on a gurney and wheeled into the hospital. She remembered the rectangles on the ceiling and the bright fluorescent lights. The sound of doors opening and closing while a male voice shouted orders.

      She didn’t remember how long the nurse told her she’d been out when she woke from surgery. There was a recovery room and the strangeness of fading in and out. And then suddenly her mother was there.

      It didn’t strike her as odd at first that her father was nowhere to be seen. It should have, because he was the family’s rock. Her first thought was that he’d been held up in traffic. Then she’d realized it was Sunday—Sundays were for fishing.

      There shouldn’t be any traffic. But still, she reasoned that it would take time to dock the boat and load it onto the platform before driving the boat home. Would he go straight home to drop off the boat? Based on her mother’s panicked expression, Kelly thought he would rush straight to the hospital.

      There was no sign of her brother, either.

      And then it dawned on her that an eight-year-old most likely wouldn’t be allowed near the surgery area. Her dad was probably in the waiting room with Kellan, feeding a vending machine a few quarters to give him a snack. Her brother had been on a growth spurt and there wasn’t enough food to keep that child satisfied lately.

      “Hi, baby,” her mother had said and then her chin had quivered. Her voice was shaky.

      Before Kelly could respond, her mother burst into tears.

      “What’s wrong?” The words finally came. Her mouth was as dry as west Texas soil in a drought, so she choked when she tried to speak.

      Her mother shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

      Her words were strained and a knot immediately formed in Kelly’s stomach. She thought there was something terribly wrong with her, like the doctor had found an incurable disease.

      And then a few moments later, when her mom said the words that changed both of their lives forever, her father and baby brother had been killed in an accident on the way to the hospital to see her.

      Kelly wished she was the one to die.

      All Kelly remembered was rolling onto her side and crying herself to sleep. She didn’t want to wake up. Didn’t want to get out of bed. It was as if a heavy weight pressed down her limbs, her body. She was powerless. Helpless.

      It had been the worst feeling in the world.

      Another bullet pegged a tree near Kelly’s head, shocking her thoughts back to the present.

      Anger roared through her. No one got to make her СКАЧАТЬ