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She toyed with the plastic top on her to-go cup. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”
“You shouldn’t be. I’ve earned your distrust. Your disgust, too.”
“I have no right to judge.” She smiled, a genuine one this time. “Looks like the Lord nudged you to the right place.”
He laughed softly. “Nothing like a two-by-four upside the head. Redemption in Redemption Creek.”
His smile faded as he checked the clock above the stove. “I have to run. I’m sorry. It’s an important appointment.”
She rose, fighting a renewed wave of skepticism at his eagerness to leave. “So you’ll get me that list?”
“I’ll email it to you as soon as I’m back this afternoon.” He rose stiffly, painfully, even. “I know I’m not in a position to make demands, but would you pray with me?”
Pray. Of course. The man was a church leader. He was probably on his way to offer comfort or counsel to one of their own. And she was delaying him. She held out her hands, feeling like an idiot.
He gripped her hands lightly. His own felt cold and clammy. The physical sign of stress soothed her, oddly. It corroborated his story. Even thinking about confessing publicly would make her dizzy with fear.
He bowed his head. “Dear Lord Jesus, we thank you for this blessed day, and we offer you our faith and our trust in you as our Savior as we pray for the safety of my wife and Jane’s brother. You are the final measure in all things. Give us the strength to do your bidding.”
His words filled her with hope—for both him and Jason—like the clear morning sun pouring into the valley behind them.
She snatched up her unfinished latte and followed him out the front door. While the pastor paused to lock it, she continued on to her car.
The early morning sun blinded her. She lifted a hand to shield her eyes. The next thing she knew, she was surrounded by a rush of heat, and a wind so intense it threw her to the ground.
As her consciousness faded, the world exploded in a fury of sound.
11
Bridger grabbedthe wheel of his Jeep, barely waiting for Tai to get buckled in before he floored the accelerator. “Did I not tell the woman to hang tight?”
Tai pressed down on the plastic cover on his coffee cup. “I believe you did.”
Whatever else the man muttered got lost to wind noise as they hurtled down the highway toward the Redemption Community Church. Probably for the best. He didn’t want to have to smash his bro in the face.
When he caught that flash of Jane’s truck heading past, an icy dread had crept up his spine. Those were the worst kinds of feelings: the shots of intuition that hit for no reason.
Even the most clueless combat vet knew those were the feelings to trust.
Especially since the tracker Tai dropped in her bag the other night stopped transmitting a few minutes later.
He zoomed around the only vehicle on the road, an eighteen-wheeler loaded down with hay.Please, Lord, let this be an equipment glitch.I don’t buy it, but let me be wrong.
Tai pointed out the windshield. “Smoke at two o’clock. I don’t like the looks of that.”
Black smoke, the noxious, charcoal-colored kind created by burning plastic and man-made materials billowed into the air from behind a line of trees. Whatever was on fire, it was roaring. He could picture the kind of combustion needed to produce that amount of smoke. The flames would be high and hot and voracious.
Jane.
Tai dug his fingers into the dashboard and eyed his phone, sucking in a breath. “Smoke’s coming from her last known position.”
Bridger pressed the accelerator to the floor. The vehicle surged forward. “ETA?”
“Two minutes. I’ll dial up emergency services.”
“For what that’s worth.”
Bridger risked a glance at the ranch lands on both sides of the road. Redemption Creek wasn’t big enough to support a paid fire department, let alone state-of-the-art emergency services.
