They took Jake’s truck and drove back the way he had come, reaching the county barriers in ten minutes. Rain was picking up again, falling in thick sheets, drumming against the roof of the truck. Jake got out, moved two of the barriers so he could drive through.
The road ahead disappeared into a wall of rain.
Jake gripped the wheel tighter as he cautiously drove down the deeply rutted road, water splashing under his tires. But it wasn’t deep—no deeper than any of the other roads he’d been on today, and none of them had been barricaded off. Were they worried about a flash flood? It had happened before. But the thing about flash floods is that they were usually unpredictable, and there were other areas of the valley more prone to them than Whisper Creek. Nowhere did the water reach the top of his tires.
Nothing was right about this.
When Jake got to his driveway, he knew the power was off because the light he and his dad had installed that illuminated theWhisper Creek Ranch sign was off. The generator at the house wouldn’t power any of the external lighting they put up.
He turned off his lights, keeping on only his fog lights.
“What’s wrong?” Travis said.
“Bad feeling.”
It took all his self-control to drive slowly.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Avery and Ryan took one of Baldwin’s ATVs across his property to the land bridge that Baldwin had built over Whisper Creek, at the point where it met his property line—or now Verdacorp’s property line, Avery thought. It was practically all her mom and Jake talked about the last ten days—Verdacorp buying up land or Jake deciding not to go to college. It had been tense around the house, and Avery wished they wouldn’t argue.
Ryan stopped the ATV as the headlights revealed a swollen creek that reached the underside of the land bridge, at the very top of the large pipe culvert that Baldwin had put in to direct the creek into the man-made lake.
“I’ve never seen it so high,” Ryan said. “Is the bridge going to hold?”
In the dry season, the lake always had some water because of irrigation overflow and Baldwin’s own system, but during spring it helped with both irrigation and flood control. It was wider than she’d ever seen it before.
They had already had to drive around flooded fields and the lake to reach this point, and Avery wasn’t going to be thwarted now.
“Yes,” she said, though she didn’t know. “It’s reinforced with theculvert, horses and ATVs have gone over it hundreds of times.” It was wide enough for a small tractor. Though the ATV was idling, she could hear the roar of the fast-moving water.
“Ryan,” she said, “go. Now.” She was nervous, but she had to get home. She had to make sure her family was okay.
He pressed the throttle and they moved forward slowly. Water splashed up from the creek that looked and sounded more like a river. But they made it across, and Avery breathed easier.
They drove along the higher western bank of the creek, which was a well-packed path. Avery spared a glance across the creek—the eastern fields were flooded, and she knew her mother’s beloved vineyard she’d planted with Dad wouldn’t survive. She hoped the western plot made it, because she didn’t like to see her mother sad.
They came toward the barn from the east, and Avery was surprised the barn lights were out and no one had started the generator.
“Hey, Avery, that’s my truck,” Ryan said as he released the throttle and they stopped on the far side of the barn, where they wouldn’t be seen from the house.
The lights were on in the house, and when Ryan spoke, she realized the vehicle parked next to the porch steps was, in fact, his truck.
Avery lurched forward, but Ryan pulled her back. “Be smart,” he said.
“That woman took your truck and now she’s here! Why?”
“Shh,” he said. “The front door is opening.”
Ryan turned off the ATV and they ducked into the barn and squatted in one of the stalls, the one that housed Sir Lancelot, her mom’s favorite horse. A minute later, the main barn door opened and Avery heard Rena say, “Hurry.”
“I am.”
Lyla.Her sister was with Rena.
A flashlight shined around the barn, and Avery instinctivelyshrank as small as she could. Lyla and Rena went into the small office. Lyla said something, but Avery couldn’t make it out. Then Rena said, “As soon as possible, we’ll leave. We don’t want to hurt anyone. This whole thing just got out of control.”
“You can always change your path,” Lyla said. “You don’t have to do what you’ve always done.”
