Chapter 28

Artus dropped onto the couch after he helped Jael to her feet. “Bring me a drink,” he said, rubbing his head like he had a headache.

She touched her finger to her mouth, dabbing at the blood.

“You want me to be your servant now?” she said. “What happened to looking after me?”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing. I want you to learn some manners. What happened to the hostess who was always pleasant at her father’s dinners?”

“I did that because he made me. And now you want to control me. That’s all any of you ever want.”

“You need to be controlled, Jael.” His voice was flat. “You thrive on it.”

She clenched her teeth and took a deep breath before moving to the dark wood cabinet at the wall where her dad had always kept his liquor. If she could get Artus drunk enough, she might have a chance. She’d always known Artus was a bad man, but she hadn’t realized the depth of the darkness inside of him. She also knew it was rare for him to drink himself into a stupor. It was only a slim thread of hope she held on to.

God. Now more than ever, I need your help. I know I don’t deserve one thing from you. But I’m asking anyway. Please. If you care about me as much as Danny believes you do, please save me.

She pulled a crystal decanter from the cabinet, and a strange thing happened. The fear that had encrusted her limbs with a heavy tingling, abated, and another sensation took its place—one she recognized but had always been afraid to embrace.

She pulled the stopper and poured the drink.

“Do you remember a man named Lucas McGregor?” she said with her back still to Artus.

“You’ll have to be more specific. I’ve come across a lot of men in my time.”

“He was a man my father killed for you years ago. He had bushy black hair and striking green eyes.”

“Lucas…Lucas…McGregor did you say?”

She carried the glass over. “Yes.”

“The eyes, yes, I remember. Funny I can recall him. But yes, he caused me a lot of trouble.”

She handed him his drink, and he grabbed hold of her wrist, pulling her to sit beside him. She didn’t resist.

“Is it just me, or are you coming around?” he said, reaching for her face. He rubbed his thumb along her lip where it had bled. “I’m sorry that had to happen.”

“My father never told me what Lucas had done.”

Artus’s hand drifted from her face to her shoulder where the tips of his well-manicured fingers traced lines down her arm. “This is what you want to talk about right now?”

She didn’t move as his hand continued down her body and stopped on her thigh.

“I’ve always wondered,” she said, “because there was something unusual about him.”

“Nothing unusual.” He retracted his hand and took a sip of the tawny liquor. “He was interfering with my trade.”

“He was dealing drugs on your turf?”

“I didn’t say he was dealing. I had a profitable business running in what I called ‘Yellow District.’ It’s a more undesirable part of the city. But the prostitution, drugs, guns, you name it, was a booming business. Then Lucas turned up and began proselytizing everyone. I sent Christopher to look into it, and he brushed it off. Said the guy wasn’t worth my time.”

“Lucas was converting people?” A picture formed in her mind of the man she’d watched die. She could imagine him on the street talking to the broken and hurting. They would have listened. He’d had no fear of death. He’d carried no shame or regret. He would have been the same on the street as he held the hand of a dirty beggar or encouraged a prostitute to hope for more. What she had felt in his presence was what she’d suspected all along but was never brave enough to admit.

What did it mean that the same presence was with her now? After everything she’d done. After watching Lucas die without lifting a finger to save him. Why would God want to be with her now, unless it was all true? Unless God really did want her the way He wanted every other broken soul.

“Cults can be very persuasive,” Artus said, breaking her from her thoughts. “And the people in Yellow District were desperate.”

“He must have had quite an impact.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time Christopher got it wrong. Sometimes he’s too full of his own self-importance for his own good. Maybe because I was so young when he was born, I didn’t raise him as well as I could have, but every parent has regrets, I suppose.”

“So because Lucas stopped people from wanting what you had on offer, you had him killed?”

“Don’t look at me like that. I know you like to help people, but there has to be a balance. If it makes you feel any better, you can think of him as a martyr.” He leaned back against the couch, having discarded his glass on the coffee table.

She wouldn’t be able to get him drunk, and her time was running out, but she could feel a strength rising from within. She wouldn’t leave the room with him. He’d have to kill her. He would kill her, but she could be brave like Lucas.

God, I don’t know how this works, but I want to go where Lucas went and where Danny will one day go. I want to be with you. If it’s really true that you can overlook and maybe even forgive all the things I’ve done, then I’m asking you for that. I want my life to be in your hands.

Artus squeezed her leg. “You look a million miles away.”

She lifted his hand and stood. “I can’t do this. I won’t.” She drifted away from the couch, wondering where would be the best place to fall when he shot her dead. She imagined Danny finding her body. It would hurt him. He’d think he should have saved her. How could she tell him she was already saved? That he’d done his work?

“That can’t be your final answer,” Artus said.

She reached the fireplace and turned to face him. “It is.” Artus would get away with everything he’d done, but only until his death. Then he’d face his creator. But she would be free. Death had always been an eternal punishment for her, equal almost to how life had felt on earth, but now it was her freedom. Finally.

Artus looked weary as he considered her refusal. “You do understand what that means,” he said, resting his hand near his hip where she figured the gun was concealed. “This is what you really want? To die this way? As trash?”

His words meant nothing. She couldn’t be shamed anymore. “Do what you have to do.” Her only regret was that Artus would remain alive to continue to hurt people.

God, if there’s any way for you to stop him. Do it. It’s beyond the reach of anyone else now, but not for you.

She clasped her hands behind her back, and her finger brushed against cold metal.

“This is your last chance,” Artus said. “Is there nothing I can say or do to convince you otherwise?”

“My soul is not my own anymore. But even if it were, you are the last person I would ever give myself to.”

His features hardened, but his eyes drifted to the ceiling in what might have been resignation. He’d expected this meeting to go differently. No one ever said no to Artus. “I could have given you the world,” he said with a shake of the head.

“I already have everything I’ve ever wanted.” A warm ball of joy swelled deep inside her chest, and she guessed it was similar to what Lucas must have felt as he faced death. In her last moments, it was a precious gift to finally understand what had given Lucas courage. “There is nothing you could offer me that could compete with what I have.”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“If I have, I’m okay with that. You helped me, Artus. If it wasn’t for you, I may have been lost forever.”

There was a bang at the front door. “Jael?” Came the muffled shout.

Artus pulled his gun and pointed it at Jael but focused on the locked door. “Looks like I have a bonus tonight.”

The bang came again. “I have to speak to you. It’s important.”

“I think our time has come,” Artus said.

With barely a thought, Jael’s fingers wrapped around the cold iron. Artus turned to her, ready to finish the deed, but her arm swung up, releasing the poker. As it flew across the room, she saw that her aim was remarkably on target, and so did Artus. His eyes widened in surprise, and Jael ducked away as he fired off a round before the metal found its mark.

Danny heard the shot and knew. He should have realized already, but his mind was overpowered with emotion that made his thoughts sticky.

He pulled his gun and shot at the door lock, then kicked it in. The entryway was dark, but he could see a dim light coming from the living room. He approached silently and tried the handle, but it was locked.

After pressing his back against the wall beside the door, he called out. “Jael?” He expected Artus to respond. His body was pumped so full of adrenaline, he felt like he could take a hundred bullets and still break down the door, but he wouldn’t let Artus get away.

A muffled, “I’m here,” came through the door. It was Jael’s voice.

“Is Artus with you?”

“Yes—well, kind of. I’m safe. Give me a second.”

He waited until finally there was a scraping at the door, then a click, and the door opened. Jael had blood on her face and arm.

“You’re hurt,” he said.

She shook her head, then hiccupped a cry and launched toward him, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his neck.

He held her, focusing on nothing but the fact that she was alive, then looked over the top of her head, where he could see Artus on the couch.

“Oh,” he said, holding her closer when he processed the full picture. “He’s dead.”

“I should be dead now too.”

“I heard the gunshot. I thought you were.” He pulled her away from him so he could check her over. Her lip was swollen, and her arm was bleeding.

“The bullet grazed my arm,” she said.

“Was that before or after you impaled him?”

“I don’t know how that happened. I don’t even remember picking up the poker, but then I threw it. I needed to stop him. I was okay with dying, but I couldn’t let him get away.”

He pushed her hair away from her face. “I wouldn’t have been okay with you dying.”

“I know.” She touched his face and smiled. “I thought of you coming in and finding me dead. I hated to think about how that would hurt you. How you’d blame yourself.” She shook her head with a laugh. “I wanted you to know I’d see you again one day.”

“I don’t think that’s how death works.”

“But it is. I figured it out. What you said about being free. I didn’t want to die without knowing where I was going.”

He couldn’t move for a moment. Even his lungs stopped working. That God would use a time like this to bring her into the light. He had been afraid for her that she could never accept the gift that was available to her. But not only had God found a way to open her eyes, but He’d saved her so she could be standing in front of Danny right now, smiling with a fat lip.

“I don’t know what to say,” Danny said.

“It might be a good idea to call someone and tell them where they can find Artus’s body. I’d rather get it out of the house as soon as possible.”

“Yeah.” He could still see into the room from his position, so he pulled her away where the light spilled into the darkness. “I want to say I’m happy for you, but this is such a horrible situation. I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I seem to be late every time you need help.”

“You turned up at the right time. God had it under control. But I guess Christopher will have to answer for himself now.”

“He’s dead too.”

“What? Artus said they took him into custody.”

“He ran from the room before he saw what happened. Christopher fired at the agents. They fired back.”

“Then it’s over.”

“It’s over.”

It was hours before Danny could take Jael away from the house. She’d called Hannah to arrange to stay so she wouldn’t be alone.

He pulled up outside of a small townhouse as the sky warmed with the first faint rays of the sun approaching the horizon.

“I hope this isn’t the last time I see you,” Jael said, looking at her fingers while she picked at her nails. “I know you must be eager to get back to your boys. I’m sure they miss you.”

“I do miss them, but I have some loose ends to tie up first. The FBI will want me to write extensive reports. It will be painful, but I won’t leave without saying goodbye.”

“But you’re definitely leaving.”

He took a deep breath and shifted in his seat, anchoring his arm on the headrest of her seat. Everything had changed for them. It was hard to shift gears after resisting for so long, and he was still worried about moving in a direction God didn’t have for either of them.

“I have to go back,” he said. “But…”

“But?”

“Like I said, I’ve got loose ends to tie up.” The corner of his mouth lifted.

“FBI reports and…”

“I wanted to take in some sights,” he said, his eyes remaining engaged with hers. “Definitely taking in some sights.”

She laughed. “Danny Fletcher, are you flirting with me?”

“Maybe.”

“Does that mean you’re going to ask me out and then take me somewhere unexpected?”

“You were paying attention. And then?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. You never told me.”

His eyes dropped to her lips, and he couldn’t help but touch the edge of the puffiness there. “Does it hurt?”

Her tongue ran across the injured flesh. “A little.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Why?”

“Because I was going to skip ahead a few steps and kiss you.”

“A few steps?” She inhaled softly. “Come to think of it, it doesn’t hurt at all.”

“No? Well then.” He leaned forward and kissed the uninjured side of her mouth, but when she responded, deepening the kiss, she let out a small gasp of pain and pulled away. “I lied. It still hurts,” she pouted.

“It’s probably for the best,” he whispered.

“That makes no sense at all.”

“After a night like we’ve had, emotions are high. My self-control isn’t what it should be.”

“I’m okay with that.”

He lifted his head and groaned. “Don’t say things like that to me. I want you bad enough as it is, but I want to do this right. We’ve both messed up enough in life. Now that I get my chance with Jael Heber, I won’t screw it up.”

She reached for his hand and wound her fingers through his. “That’s what I want too. But it will take some getting used to this new life. I hope making hard decisions like tonight gets easier.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Great. So, if this is going to go anywhere, we’re in for some tough times together.”

“I’m hoping for a lot of them.”

“Me too.” She reached for him, ran her hand through his hair above his ear, and pulled him in for another small kiss that held a promise for something more into the future.