Faceless (Sinister Secrets Book 2), page 28
A flood of agents swept in.
Sid cuffed Mitch, Felicia cuffed Tio, and another agent cuffed the injured man. While one agent gathered the discarded weapons, another checked the downed man for a pulse and slowly shook his head.
Well, one dead. And not one on his side.
All in all, a good day.
“Kev, we got them.” He called down the ladder.
Her face appeared a second later.
Clearly, she’d been waiting. He watched as she slowly made her way up the ladder, one slow step at a time.
Well, she’d make it when she made it.
He strode from the cabin and joined the others on deck.
The three captives had been moved to a sitting position.
Mitch looked up at him before glancing away.
“Is anyone else on the cruiser?”
Tio spit and offered a few choice words, none of which answered the question.
Dak crossed his arms and stared at them. No way was he going to get anything from Tio.
He turned to Mitch. “Is anyone else on the boat? Tell me and I’ll make sure the DA knows you cooperated.”
Mitch pressed his lips together and kept his eyes trained on the deck.
“Mitch?” Kevyn’s voice came from behind him. “Answer the question.”
Mitch’s head jerked up and his lips parted. “K-Kevyn? You made it.”
Thud, step, thud, step. It was almost painful watching her hobble across the deck in that walking boot.
“Yes. No thanks to your friend there.” She nodded at Tio. “Now tell me. Am I going to get shot when I board that cruiser?”
The idea was ridiculous. There was no way she’d make it down a rope ladder in that stupid boot.
Still, the threat seemed to work.
Mitch shook his head slowly. “No. There are–”
“Mitch! Shut up!” Tio roared.
Mitch threw a disdainful look at Tio. “Why? It’s over. Or can’t you see that?”
Tio’s jaw twitched and his muscles tensed.
“There are captives below deck. More donors.” Mitch looked at Kevyn. Only Kevyn. “No one else.”
Dak gestured for several agents to follow him, then descended the ladder while two agents covered him from above.
He landed on the deck, pulled his gun, and surveyed the area.
No sound of anything living.
The other agents boarded and the four of them swept the cabin before heading below deck.
Huddled against a wall, sat five people. They looked Asian. Or maybe Filipino. The poor lighting made it hard to tell.
What he could tell was that they were young. Maybe teens. Maybe slightly older. And terrified.
As they should be. They’d almost been killed for their organs.
“It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
Most stared at him in confusion, but one girl perked to attention. “You help us?”
“Yes. We’re here to help you get home.”
Tears burst from her eyes and she spoke quickly in a language he didn’t understand. Hope reflected in the faces of the other captives.
As Dak cut the ropes from their hands, he thanked God for a peaceful resolution.
They may not have been able to take Boggess, Andrews, or Cummings home alive, but they’d saved five lives. Probably more, when he thought about how many other people these guys might have taken.
He turned to face the agents who were with him. “Let’s get out of here.”
Twenty-Four
Kevyn sat on a crate toward the bow of the freighter, watching as the city steadily grew larger. The sun warmed her body, but couldn’t touch the chill surrounding her heart.
It was finally over.
No more OPR investigation, no more worrying about what her father was up to. She now knew. And it was far worse than she’d imagined.
“You okay?”
She started at Dak’s voice behind her. “Still processing.”
It sounded better than saying she felt numb.
He rounded the crate and settled next to her. “He’s asking to see you.”
A short laugh slipped out. “I don’t care.”
Dak’s lips tipped in a small smile. “I thought you’d say something like that, but wanted to deliver the message.”
“Do we know what he did with the bodies?” It didn’t sit well with her, not being able to return the bodies of Jason Boggess and Wes Andrews to their families.
“At this point, no.” Dak planted his hands on the crate on either side of his body and leaned forward slightly. “Tio and his goons have already lawyered up. Mitch claims he doesn’t know, that he was only recently brought in.”
Right. Like they could believe anything that liar said.
Dak glanced over at her. “We might get something from one of the other guys, or we might not ever know.”
He was right. As much as it pained her, the bodies might never be found.
“No clues on the cruiser?”
Dak shook his head. “Not so far, but we’ll know more once forensics gets hold of it.”
The cruiser, being captained by JD, had already disappeared toward the city. Part of her wished she’d traveled back to the city on that instead of the freighter, but navigating that rope ladder would have been difficult with her foot.
She was tired of the topic of her father and his criminal activities.
Maybe it was time to bring up the other issue she’d wrestled with. “You know, I prayed.”
“Really? What for?” Dak’s tone was casual, displaying mild interest.
Funny. She would have thought he’d be a lot more excited that she’d prayed. “To get away. While I was sitting in that warehouse, with my foot all messed up, I knew my options weren’t great. I also knew that you would have already been praying if it’d been you in that situation. So I thought I’d give it a try.”
“And what do you think now?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? Did she think that everything had simply worked out on its own, that Tio’s thugs had been sloppy enough to tie her hands in front of her instead of behind her, that they’d been slow enough to not be able to stop her from jumping into the water? Or did she think that God had opened an opportunity for her?
She wasn’t sure. Honestly, she felt a little too drained to process it all right now.
“I’m undecided. It could be good timing.”
“Or it could be God’s hand in your life.”
Or that. There was no doubt which option Dak thought it was. “I believe in God. I think I always have. It’s just hard to buy that He wants to be personally involved in my life.”
“He’s a personal God.” Dak rested his elbows on his knees so he could see her face. “I know it sounds crazy. The God who made everything knows your name and wants you to know Him. But God is all about relationship. It’s why He sent Jesus, why Jesus died. So you could be free to have relationship with Him.”
Jesus. He was at the crux of the issue, wasn’t He?
“I think I’d like to know more.” She turned to look at him head-on. “What time is church on Sunday?”
“Ten. Want to meet at nine to pick up coffee on the way?”
That sounded good. She nodded before she could chicken out.
While she wasn’t sure what she believed about God, or Jesus, she couldn’t deny that Dak lived with a confidence and peace she’d rarely seen. He made decisions wiser than most of the agents she’d worked with.
Was it God? She wasn’t sure, but she planned to find out.
₪ ₪ ₪
“Oh my gosh! What happened to your foot?” Wendy’s mouth hung open as Kevyn limped up to the table and dropped into a chair.
Angling an empty chair over, Kevyn propped her walking cast up on it. “I told you I hurt it.”
“A stubbed toe is hurting it. This… is it broken?”
“It is.” Kevyn looked at the toe of the walking boot, which extended above the table top. In some ways it was hard to believe it had only been five days since they’d taken down Tio and his crew.
Including her father. Whom she had yet to speak to, in spite of repeated requests on his end.
One of Tio’s men that had been captured at the raid on the warehouse confirmed that the bodies had been taken out to sea, weighted, and dumped overboard.
The families would never be able to bury their loved ones.
“Okay, spill.” With her elbows on the table, Wendy leaned forward.
A lot of the details were still classified, but Kevyn told her what she could, which was enough for Wendy to look appropriately horrified.
“What kind of person stabs someone in the foot?” Wendy stared at the boot as if trying to see the trauma underneath.
“The same kind of person who kills people to steal their organs.”
Wendy shook her head slowly. “I guess when you put it that way, stabbing a foot seems kind of mild by comparison. Unless it’s your foot being stabbed,” she added quickly.
“It’s still mild. I know things could have been a lot worse.” In fact, she tried not to spend too much time dwelling on the things that could have happened to her, had she not gotten away.
Had God not helped her get away.
Over the past few days, statistics had run through her head. She should be dead. Statistically, Tio never should have let her live. She shouldn’t have been able to escape from those guys on the dock. The cold water should have sent her into shock. She should have been spotted swimming to the fishing boat. She should have drowned.
Yet none of those things had happened.
God was the only explanation that made sense.
The waiter dropped off some water and took their order. Kevyn didn’t even look at the menu. She’d been craving baby back ribs for weeks and this place made killer ribs.
As the waiter walked away, Kevyn turned back to Wendy.
“I went to church with Dak on Sunday.”
Wendy’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” She filled Wendy in on the prayer and the odds she’d beaten in escaping. “I guess his church has been working through a book called John?”
The name meant nothing to her, but Wendy nodded in approval. “Good book.”
“Well, the preacher talked about some woman Jesus spoke to. He asked her for water, then told her things He couldn’t have known.” Unless Jesus was God. Only God could know those things, which had been one of the points of the sermon.
“Sounds like the woman at the well in John 4.”
How did Wendy know that? The Bible was a big book, yet Wendy had known exactly what she was talking about. “I think so.”
Wendy cocked her head and studied her for a second.
She almost felt like she was being clinically analyzed. Is that what it felt like when she talked to people?
“What caught your attention about that story?” Wendy asked.
“He didn’t reject her.” Kevyn didn’t even have to think about it. In fact, the story had so impacted her over the last few days that she’d returned to that same truth countless times. “The preacher talked about all the reasons Jesus shouldn’t have talked to the woman. She was a woman, lived a questionable lifestyle, racial tensions, all that stuff. But Jesus didn’t care. He talked to her respectfully and didn’t judge her. Didn’t reject her because of who she was and what she’d done.”
“Jesus doesn’t reject anyone who genuinely approaches Him in faith.”
Really? Not anyone? “How do you know?”
“He says so. John 6:37. ‘Those the Father has given Me will come to Me, and I will never reject them.’”
Jesus never rejected anyone. Unlike her father, and so many other people she’d known. “I don’t know what to do with all this.”
“I think you do.” Wendy speared her with serious eyes. “I think you’re afraid.”
Had Wendy – introverted, quiet Wendy – really said that?
Her surprise must have shown because Wendy laughed. “I know, pretty bold for me, right?”
“Yeah.” Kevyn swallowed hard. “But you nailed it. It’s a big decision.”
“It is. But Jesus is worth the risk. I guess the question you need to ask is if you believe that.”
Jesus. Dak and Wendy had both told her that belief in God wasn’t enough. If she wanted to really experience God, it was found through faith in Jesus.
She wanted it.
The peace, the confidence, the day-to-day help. Everything she saw in both Dak and Wendy. They had something, something real, and it had everything to do with their relationship with a God who was intensely personal. Jesus, who never rejected anyone, no matter how much they might deserve it.
“You’re right.” She held Wendy’s eyes for a second. “I’m in.”
Wendy’s smile stretched across her face. “Then let’s pray. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
It felt weird praying in the middle of the restaurant, but now that she’d decided, she didn’t want to wait.
When she finished, Wendy reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Now that’s worth celebrating. I say we order dessert and tonight, it’s on me.”
It was worth celebrating. It was a new beginning.
While she didn’t necessarily feel any different, she knew in her heart that she’d never be the same again.
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Dedication & Acknowledgments
Dedicated with deep gratitude to the men and women in law enforcement who put their lives on the line every day so we can enjoy safety and security. Thank you.
My heartfelt appreciation to my amazing editorial crew: Jamie, Del, Linda, and Christina. I’m amazed at the things you catch in my rough drafts. Thank you for your support and for catching the many, many things I miss.
Thank you to my friend and fellow author Jamie Lee Grey. You make me a better writer and challenge me to never grow complacent in the craft. Readers, be sure to check out Jamie’s books on Amazon.
Thank you to each of you who holds this book. Your support and kind reviews are such a blessing.
Finally, thank you to our amazing God, Savior Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. My life would be empty and worthless without You.
A note from the author
Thank you for joining me on this journey into Kevyn’s past! If you enjoyed the story, would you be so kind as to leave a review on Amazon? Reviews help me as an author and can help your fellow readers know if this book might be of interest to them.
I’m already hard at work on the third and final installment in this series, Relentless. Dak will face his greatest challenge ever when a close friend and mentor is abducted. Can he and the team survive long enough to save someone who means so much to Dak? Watch for Relentless in winter 2021. You can get a sneak peek of that story on the next few pages.
Would you like to receive updates on what I’m writing? Sign up for my monthly newsletter by visiting my website.
If you’re like me, you might sometimes forget what a personal God we have. Too often I go through life thinking of God as loving and all powerful, but forget how intensely personal He is. Yet when we look at scripture, we see time and time again that God is personal.
He walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. (Genesis 2-3)
He called Abraham his friend. (Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23)
He spoke with Moses as a friend. (Exodus 33:9-11)
He led the nation of Israel out of Egypt and through the desert, then gave them the land He’d promised. (Exodus-Joshua)
He called David a man after His own heart. (Acts 13:22)
He appeared to Solomon in a dream and offered Solomon the opportunity to ask for whatever he wanted. (1 Kings 3)
He appointed countless prophets to point people to Himself.
And if all of that wasn’t enough, He sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins. (John 3:16-17)
God is all about relationship. Crazy as it sounds, He wants to have a relationship with you! I hope you’ve responded to that call, but if you haven’t, or if you have questions, please find someone who knows God and talk to them. If you don’t know anyone, please feel free to email me at candle.sutton@outlook.com. I would be happy to talk to you.
Relationships take effort. God took the initiative and reached out to us, He made a way for us to know Him, but we have a responsibility to respond. If it’s been a while since you opened the Bible, or talked to God, why wait? There’s great blessing in engaging with our personal God!
Thank you for reading. May you enjoy the fullness of life with God.
Excerpt from Relentless
Prologue
Click.
Jon Rand’s steps slowed. He’d know that sound anywhere.
A switchblade.
He put an arm in front of his wife Elizabeth and surveyed the surrounding area.
No sign of any hostiles.
Didn’t mean someone wasn’t there.
Light spilled out of the restaurant behind them, casting long shadows across the sidewalk.
A muffled cry came from the alley a few feet away.
