With All Your Heart

27~White Knight

"Someone's coming!" Kate hissed, cowering against the wall with her arms folding around body and her head lowered.

"It's him!" another girl shrieked.

Annie and Rachel watched in despair as the girl who refused to reveal her name folded herself in a fetal position, clearly terrified. Fear was alive in the room.

"I'm scared," Rachel admitted, taking hold of Annie's arm.

"So am I."

"What will they do to us?"

Rachel's questions brought whimpers and cries of anguish from the other girls in the room.

Taking Rachel's hand, Annie began to pray aloud. "Jesus, we need you. You know that. We're scared. But I trust you to be with us. No matter what happens I trust you. Please forgive me for my fear and give us courage. Amen." Hearing Rachel's gasp, Annie turned and saw Rachel looked shaken.

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Rachel wore an awestruck expression on her face. "I've chased after many things, but never God with all my heart. Oh, Annie," her voice broke. "Will he forgive me?"

"Of course. Jesus will forgive anyone who turns to Him and repents of sin."

Annie felt their attention even before she opened her eyes she saw the girls were watching her. Their expressions ranged from surprise, to fear, and some a flicker of hope.

Rachel turned suddenly to Annie. "Listen."

The door was no longer rattling on its hinges, but the sound of fists connecting with flesh and grunts of pain snapped their attention to what was happening outside.

***

Danger.

Ty's skin tingled, his senses hyper-alert. He prayed. Please God, protect Annie and Rachel. If he thought about how much she meant to him, he'd lose control so he pushed his feelings aside and kept praying.

From Caleb's worried glances, Ty knew his friend suspected Ty wasn't doing well. Focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, slow, easy steps he kept moving.

He fought off the wave of dizziness that crashed over him, threatening to sweep him under. Staying on his feet consumed all his effort. He knew God was helping him, because frankly it was a miracle he'd made it this far.

The man jerked his thumb to the left, and Caleb and Ty followed. It seemed like they'd walked for miles before he spotted the cabins nestled in the copse of trees. Something about the small, pink cinder-block cabins made his heart race.

"Which one?" Caleb barked.

"I don't know."

The hair at the back of his neck lifted. Ty was afraid it was a trap, and one look at Caleb confirmed he felt the same.

"We'll check them all." Caleb's hooded gaze flicked to Ty. "Wait here."

Leaning against the trunk of a tree, Ty managed a nod. Sweat dripped from his face from the effort it took to stay upright. "Go," he urged, seeing Caleb's torn expression. "Find the girls."

With a swift nod and compassion flashing in his eyes, Caleb did as asked. Once he was alone, Ty sank down against the tree. He'd never been this cold before or so weak. He felt the sticky, oozing blood from the wound on his side. Looking down, he realized it was as bad as he feared.

Ty knew would never leave this island. An overwhelming peace settled over him. He wasn't afraid to die. His hope was in Jesus. As his eyes fell closed, Ty's last thought was of Annie.

***

He didn't want to leave Ty.

Caleb knew his friend was hurt more than he was willing to admit, and he was afraid none of them would see Ty alive again. He'd glimpsed the wound Ty had tried to hide. There was a lot of blood. So much blood he couldn't see how anyone would survive.

Lord Jesus, what do I do?

His silent plea was answered with two words. Have faith.

God had led them here, and Caleb had no choice but to see this through to the end. Stomping down the edges of doubt, he kept moving checking one cabin after another.

Five cabins and he'd found nothing. Hiding the flicker of concern that he'd been led on a goose chase, Caleb directed his hostage to the next cabin.

"Unlock the door."

"No one's there."

This was the first time the guy had complained and Caleb's jaw tightened, his senses suddenly alert. "Didn't ask if anyone was there. I said unlock it. Now."

A soft cry from inside had his muscles twitching. He listened. There it was again—crying. Turning his head toward the sound was a mistake. His hostage spun around and lunged for his gun in a lighting-quick movement that caught Caleb unaware.

POP!

The sound of a gunshot exploded into the night, and pain surged through Caleb as they went down, both of them struggling for the gun. His fingers closed around the handle, and without warning something hard slammed into the back of his skull.

Caleb swayed, and the barrel of another gun kissed his temple. His gut clenched. Sunny had found them.

"Hands where I can see them! That's it. Real slow." Sunny's voice was oily and smug.

Following orders, Caleb lifted his hands and saw the blood—not that he needed proof to know he was bleeding like a stuck pig. He felt the warm blood trickling from his head.

"Not so tough are you know," his former hostage cackled.

"Shut up, Tiny," Sunny snapped, his eyes glittering with anger. "You let two boys kidnap you."

Tiny stopped laughing and stiffened. "Well, where were you?"

Sunny threw his buddy a scowl. "Boss gets wind of this, we're dead men."

"So we get rid of the evidence."

Caleb's skin tingled with the chilling words.

"We're not murderers."

"Yet," Tiny taunted, his gaze sliding to Caleb. "It's us or them. 'Sides I got a grudge against this one."

Sunny nodded in the direction Caleb had left Ty. "The other one won't last the night." His gaze fell on Caleb. "It's this one we need to get rid of."

The doubt in Sunny's eyes didn't reassure Caleb. The dude might not want to kill him, but faced with the choice of protecting his own skin and doing the right thing it was clear what Sunny would do. Funny, he wasn't afraid. The only emotion he felt was regret because he couldn't save Ty and Rachel and Annie.

Lord, protect them.

"Get to it," Tiny barked.

"Why does it have to be me?"

"You got the gun genius." The last word was a sarcastic twang.

Sunny moved to change that fact and a figure emerged from the woods with battle cry yell. Caleb reacted instinctively and pivoted. He swung at Tiny, one solid punch, and the man dropped to the ground. Wasting no time he spun to face Sunny and what he saw made him feel like a kid on Christmas morning.

Grinning, Josh held the gun. "Looks like I made it to the party just in time."