Page 101 of Glimmer in the Darkness

Vince’s head bounced off the hard floor. Tension leached from his body. Was he unconscious, or was he faking?

James flicked his gaze to Cassidy’s. Her skin was pasty white. The hands holding the gun still aimed at Vince’s head trembled. From having nearly been shot? Or from the truth Vince had just revealed?

If it was true.

James didn’t know what to think. “We need to bind him,” he said. The rest would have to wait. “Dig in my backpack. I have some rope.”

She did, and James rolled Vince over—no exit wound—and tied his hands behind his back. Then he grabbed the satellite phone holstered to his hip and handed it to Cassidy. “Call 911.”

She stepped out of the cave to make the call while James tied Vince’s feet together. He dragged the anvil—had to weigh a hundred pounds—nearer Vince and tied the rope to the hook. Just in case.

And for the sake of justice.

When he pressed the thin blanket Vince had left for Ella against the bullet wound, Vince screamed in pain. That bullet probably hurt like a hot poker on tender skin.

“Shut up,” James said. “I’m trying to save your life.”

“Why?” Vince’s voice rasped.

“Because you’re a human being, and vengeance is God’s, not mine.”

James needed to show mercy. No easy feat when fury coursed through his veins. Fury and fear.

Where was Cassidy? Where was Ella?

James dug in his backpack for his first-aid kit. Found antiseptic and poured some on the wound, eliciting another scream. This one made his stomach clench with sympathy. He unwrapped a handful of gauze and pressed it against the spot. Taped it in place. Blood was already seeping through, but that couldn’t be helped.

He threw the filthy blanket over his former friend to help with the shivers and shock.

James was standing to search for Cassidy when she stepped inside. “They’re on their way.”

He tried not to let his relief show—that she’d called 911. That she was still there. That Vince’s revelation hadn’t sent her running again.

With the light behind her, he couldn’t see her expression, didn’t know what she read in his.

“Where’s Ella?” he asked.

“She won’t come back in here.”

Made sense. “She okay?”

“Scared, mostly. I’m going to stay with her until they get here.” She disappeared outside again.

James tested the weight of the anvil, the knots in the ropes. Vince wasn’t going anywhere. Even if he could drag the anvil behind him—which James would surely hear—he wouldn’t fit through the passageway at the back of the cavern. And James and Cassidy would be at the mouth.

He snatched both guns from the floor and looked down at Vince’s weakened body—shivering, pale, bleeding. He tried to feel something besides anger.

His friend. But why? Why had Vince befriended him?

He resisted the urge to kick the wound, hated himself for considering it, and stalked outside.

Leaning against the stone wall, the little girl in her arms, Cassidy looked at him.

And then Ella did, too. “Uncle James!” She launched herself at him.

He took her in his arms and hugged her tight, hid his tears in her messy hair. “Sweet girl, I’m so glad we found you.”

“I want my daddy.”