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“It’s all right. We’ll get Antonio to cover it,” Will whispered with a smile.
A guard came around the corner. He spotted Peter first, then saw Will too late. Before he could call out the alarm, Will had an arm wrapped around his neck, dragging him down the hall. Peter helped tackle him to the ground until he was unconscious.
“Should I let you summon the other one? We’re out of vases,” Will said.
Peter lifted his head and yelled. “Ven aquí.”
“What did you just say?”
“I think I told him to come here. At least, I hope so.”
Will jumped back against the wall as the second man came around the corner. They took him out the same as the first. Then, Will riffled through their pockets and found a door key.
“Here we go.”
* * *
Maddy pried her eyes open. She had resisted taking anything to help her sleep, but after sickening dreams of her sister dying in every way imaginable, her blood pressure had risen too much, and the doctor had insisted again that her health would suffer if she didn’t relent to his demands. So she finally did and fell into a dreamless sleep.
But now that she was awake again, it wasn’t just her body giving her agony. Her heart hurt worse than she could ever remember.
Being angry with her sister was easy when she was safe, but now, she wanted nothing more than to pull her close and apologize for anything she’d ever done to give her sister grief over the years. She didn’t care about anything but having her back.
If she’d had Charlie with her, she may even have suggested they pray. She smiled at the look her sister would give her if she ever mentioned prayer. But as much as she fought against the idea of God’s intervention, she believed prayer had power in some ethereal way, even if she would never admit it. But she couldn’t overcome the thought that calling out to Him was pointless. He was useless to her.
Pride breeds disgrace. Humility breeds wisdom.
She squeezed her eyes closed as various scripture verses bombarded her mind. The harder she fought against them, the more insistent they became.
She searched the room for something to focus on as a distraction to save her from herself.
Her search stopped at a vase of white daisies. Her eyes narrowed. She couldn’t remember who had brought them, but whoever it was didn’t know her very well, or didn’t care. Flowers weren’t her thing. Charlie never would have brought flowers. Or if she did, it would be as a tasteful insult.
Pride breeds disgrace.
The words filtered through her mind again, and she groaned. It was no use avoiding them. She didn’t have the stamina to continue to resist. God was being persistent, and she wished she knew why.
It was no surprise that pride was partly to blame for her opposition to Him. Giving in to Him meant admitting that maybe she was wrong, and she didn’t want to be wrong because that meant her sister had been right, and her dad had been right, and everything that went wrong couldn’t be blamed on a higher power and left to rot there. It meant that, when she hurt, she couldn’t escape the reality of where that hurt came from. It meant taking responsibility instead of shifting blame, and she had always been exceptional at blame-shifting. It was how she had stowed her conscience away most of her life in order to have whatever she wanted. It was probably why she was so good at undercover work. She had a way of making things true simply because she wanted them to be.
But if God was real and He’d created her, then He was above her power to control Him. It meant He could see through any falsehood.
“Don’t make me ask You for help.” But she knew that Charlie was lost without Him. It was no longer a matter of Him keeping her safe. Charlie was in danger, and He was the only one who could get her out.
She let out a resolved sigh when it occurred to her that Peter and Will would be praying. She could add to their voices.
But she still had some fight left in her.
“Isn’t that enough? Peter and Will are praying for her. You don’t need my prayers too.”
I’m more concerned about you than I am about her.
“See, this is my problem with You. You make no sense. Stop wasting time on me. She’s the one who needs You.”
You need me more than she does.
Years of pain tightened in her chest.
“She’s the one in trouble. I’m not. I’ll heal, but she could die. She’s the one who’s lost.”
