And he was going to do his best not to fail.
By the time they went to bed, it was late into the night and their efforts at thinking of a means to stop Jacob was futile. There was nothing they could do.
Mabel let Nate stay with them. Rachel wouldn’t hear of him sleeping on the couch so she invited him to her room where he lay on the tiny bed with his legs dangling over the edge and his arms around her.
“You are such a large man, do you know that?”
“In more ways than one,” he joked.
Rachel laughed lightly but she was thinking again. “What if Jacob was to take you to court, hard as his kind of story is to believe, he does have that sheet of paper naming him as Fredrick’s heir, what will you do if you lost your wealth?” she asked. “I can’t imagine you living in a place like this where your feet dangled over the edge of the bed.”
“I’ll survive. I don’t worry about the money, I only worry about the children. He will cut off all expenses and enslave them in the mines as Fredrick did.”
Rachel lifted her head so she could watch his face, his eyes were closed as he spoke but he opened them when he felt her staring.
“What?”
“I want to see Gabore. I want to see the children.”
He frowned. “Not right now when we have an invincible enemy.”
They were whispering because it was so late in the night.
“How would he find us if he doesn’t know where we are? He believes I am dead and he thinks you’re still in the hospital. Besides, he is too busy running to whichever network would believe his cock and bull story so what’s the problem?”
“The problem is, Tshepo put you here because he wanted you to be safe. Now,” he pressed her head down on his shoulder. “Go to bed and I promise you when this is over I will show you Gabore and the children and the mines and whatever else you want to see.”
Was he ready to face Gabore now?
Rachel reluctantly laid her head on his shoulder and slipped her arm around his waist. His body was warm and strong and she leaned into it. Within minutes he was snoring and she smiled.
She found that she couldn’t sleep because her mind was running amok at the thought of everything they had been through. Jacob’s slow poison was killing her and she thought of every nook, every cranny, every loophole that would lead them to find a way to capture him. The man was slippery.
Their best bet was finding this hideout. It was probably a place in Gem Hills. It was there he had many connections with his powerful friends. If they could find the island where he kept the girls they would be closer to exposing him.
When Tshepo had found her after Jacob’s plot to kill her, he wanted her to give him a description of what the house Jacob kept her for three months looked like but no amount of explanation and description brought them any closer to finding him. The man was larger than life, living dangerously because he had the power.
Is there a way to nail that bastard? She thought.
It was that thought that lured to her sleep. Personally, Rachel would have preferred to appear in his face with a gun, or a knife, or some other kind of weapon she could use.
“Thought you could kill me?” she would ask with a cynical laugh. “In your face, Jacob,” and she would exact her revenge on him.
Hmm, she thought as she sighed sleepily, maybe I can write a script and make a movie about all of this instead.
She had barely started sleeping when she smelled the smoke. Lightly at first. Suddenly the heavy pungent smoke filled and nostrils threatening to cut off her breath. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the red flames and then she heard the crush of the timber roof.
“Fire!” she hit Nate beside her. “There’s a fire!”
He grunted sleepily beside her. “What?”
“Wake up!” She screamed, smacking him hard. When he finally opened his eyes he jumped into action at the sight of the fire that was fast burning the house down. He grabbed Rachel and without grabbing his clothes ran with her to the living room where the smoke was even heavier. The red flames were licking. The angry red flames were licking the walls of the room, heading toward the stone hearth with its sparse firewood.
“Oh my God,” Rachel cried. “Mabel. Mabel.”
Nate dropped Rachel to her feet. Thankfully she was dressed in a thin night rail, it did nothing to cover her body completely but it was just enough to protect her. The flames roared higher and he could feel it scorching his skin. He pushed her gently.
“Go outside where it’s safe.”
She couldn’t even refuse, she was already coughing as more smoke filled her lungs. She threw a hand over her mouth and went out of the door. The handle was hot to the touch and the fire was getting closer to the door. She pushed it with her shoulder and as soon as the door closed behind her the building groaned. The woods were beginning to weaken.
Nate coughed and called out for Mabel. There was no response from the house.
“Mabel!” he called out. There was no response and he didn’t know which room she slept in so he went to all the rooms, his body hot and sweaty. Every door he opened led to an empty room until he got to the end of the hallway and saw a hand reaching for outside. He saw her red hair and ran forward trying to hold his breath.
Her room was engulfed in flames and the smoke was so thick he couldn’t breathe as he reached down and tried to lift her. She was breathing but her eyes were closed. She must have inhaled too much of the smoke and judging by the position of her body she must have tried to escape the room when she passed out.
With as much strength as he could muster he reached under her and lifted her up. She was limp in his arms. When he started to take a step the roof above him groaned threateningly. His heart lurched into his throat. The building was covered in flames now and he knew his only choice was to go as fast as he could before the building crumbled over his head.
Mabel coughed and a puff of smoke escaped her lungs.
He needed to get her to safety before she succumbed to the smoke in her lungs.
The building continued to groan. His eyes watered from the heat of the flames and his skin itched. Thinking past his fear he ran down the hall and made for the living room door when the roof came crashing down. He jumped back just in time to escape a burning log of wood. His eyes continued to water damping and blurring his vision. He was growing weaker, his arms sagged under Mabel’s weight. The heat was getting unbearable and he was getting dizzy. The ground grew hotter beneath his feet and when he took a step back in his dizzy state and pushed his feet through a weakened floorboard, he fell with Mabel in his arms.
His breathing grew laborious and his life flashed before his eyes.
He just wanted to die. The smoke clogged his throat making breathing impossible. He thought about Rachel and tried to rise but the smoke made it impossible for him to see what he could hold on to and Mabel’s limp body was a heavyweight against his torso.
Above him, the flames continued to eat up the wooden beams sealing his fate. Just when he was about to give up, a pair of strong hands lifted his shoulders and forced him to sit up. He heard voices but they came from afar.
He was lifted to his feet and dragged outside.
“Ma...Mabel,” he moaned and smoke poured out of his mouth.
“She is safe,” was the response.
Just before he succumbed to the darkness around him he thought he saw Rachel’s face, ash streaked and with tears running down her face.
"Don't you die on me you idiot, don't you dare die on me!"
He suddenly didn't want to. He wanted to live.