Page 97 of Avenging Angel

Daisy

Several of the girls are huddled in the corner, except for one. Brit Larson. She walks up to us and says, “Please tell me you have a plan that doesn’t involve us dying in a massive fireball. While I’m sure it would be quick considering the size of this building, it’s not really the way I saw myself going out, ya’ know?”

“You are as surly as your father,” I quip.

“How do you know my father?” Brit asks. “Everything I remember about him is so hurtful. He abandoned my mom and me, then killed her!”

Eva wraps her arms around the girl. “Shh. Those memories were implanted, Sweetie. Your mother is very much alive, and your father has been looking for you since you were taken. He hasn’t stopped, not even after threats of imprisonment and getting shot. Kenneth loves you very much.”

“Then where is he? Why isn’t he here? Why didn’t he come for me?”

“He wanted to,” I tell her. “He came to us so that we could bring you home.” I walk over to the four other girls huddled in the corner. “All of you.”

The lights suddenly cut out, and I hear the electronic lock to the room disengage. Men are shouting in the hall, “We’re under attack!”

One of the girls starts screaming as fear grips her tightly. I squat down and take her hand, hoping to calm her down. “What’s your name?”

Boom!

“Flashbang!” Chelsea shouts. “We need to get out of here. Follow me!”

“Staying out of the line of fire seems a lot safer for all of us,” I tell her.

“All right. We can sit here and risk being used as leverage. Dan and his men know where we’re at, and the only thing between us and them are CIA operatives who may or may not be aware of our location. I’ve been transmitting the entire time, but I have no idea if our tech guy was able to hack the cameras.”

Chaos ensues on the other side of the door; the girls have tears streaming down their faces, and none of us have a weapon to defend ourselves with. Then I remember I still have one weapon in my arsenal.

I get down on my knees and hold my hands out to the Lord. Eva realizes what I’m doing and joins me, taking one of my hands in hers. “God, I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m way in over my head. All I ask is that you save these girls so they can return to their families and begin to heal from the lies they’ve been fed. Your will be done, Amen.”

Chelsea looks at us like we’ve lost our minds. “Prayers aren’t going to do much good in a time….” She’s cut off from denying the power of God’s help when the door flies open and smoke fills the air. The man filling the doorway is no man at all.

“We meet again,” Uri says.

I get to my feet, pulling Eva up and then helping the girls as well. “Took you long enough,” I joke.

“I’ve been here the entire time, Daisy. God was just waiting for you to seek Him and ask for help.”

“Great, Daisy’s lost her mind,” Chelsea says to Eva. “Now she’s talking to herself.”

Brit scrunches her nose and gestures toward Uri. “She’s talking to the man in the doorway! He’s kind of hard to miss!”

“Come with me and stay low,” Uri says.

We follow him out of the room, down a smoky hallway, leaving Chelsea no choice but to join us. I motion the girls past me as I take up the rear. “Do not leave his side!”

The girls disappear around a corner, then Chelsea. “We need to go up, not down!” she yells to anyone who will listen. Eva disappears next when I’m suddenly yanked backward and thrown to the ground.

A heavy weight covers my body, and I hear Angel yell, “Incoming!”

I barely have time to register what he says when another flashbang goes off. The concussion alone has my ears ringing, and though my eyes were closed, they turn red as the bright flash illuminates the back of my eyelids.

I’m still recovering from the non-lethal blast when the weight pressing upon me disappears, and I’m flipped over onto my back. My feet and hands can’t find purchase as I get dragged down the corridor that Uri and the girls disappeared into.

“Daisy, are you hurt?” Angel asks as he checks me over for injuries.

“You look all soldiery!” I tell him. “I like it! It’s very alpha male.”

“Are you concussed?” he asks.