Seeking Refuge

by Alana Terry

  “Be right back,” she repeated and shut the car door behind her.

  If it hadn’t been for her ridiculous heels and the fear that Ben might be watching her, she would have run. Even though she’d tried to stay composed, she’d been trembling on the ride over here, and now that she was so close to her daughter, she wanted nothing but to find Dez and crush her in a strong bear hug.

  She knocked on Aisha’s door and stood shivering in the cold.

  “Jade?”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t text. I left my phone at home. We decided to call it an early night. How’s Dez been?”

  Jade had been so relieved at the thought of having her daughter back with her, it took a few seconds to recognize the confused expression on Aisha’s face. When it sunk in, her racing pulse stopped, crashed to a halt. “What’s wrong?”

  Aisha shook her head. “Nothing. Did Ben drive you over?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  Aisha twisted the bracelet she was wearing and kept her voice low. “I wanted to talk to you about something while you’re here. I can drive you home in a little bit if that’s okay with you.”

  Jade studied her friend. “Sure. Did Dez get into trouble?”

  Aisha winced. “No, nothing like that. Could you just let Ben know I’ll take you home in a bit?”

  “Sure.” Jade paused before turning around, trying to guess what Aisha wanted to say.

  Ben rolled down his window as she approached his side of the car.

  “I’m going to hang out here for a while and grab a ride home later with Aisha,” she told him.

  “Everything okay?”

  She nodded, trying to believe it was true. “Yeah. We just haven’t had a chance to talk through everything yet. She’s a pretty good friend. Just wanted to have a little girl time.” At least that’s what Jade hoped was going on.

  Ben nodded. “All right. Tell Dez good night for me.”

  “I will. And thanks for everything. The dinner, the party, the perfume. I ...” She stopped herself. She couldn’t really say I had a great time. He’d know that wasn’t true. “I hope we get to do something like this again soon.”

  Ben smiled. “Me, too.”

  She figured he’d say something like that just to be polite. Tonight might have been the worst date he’d ever been on, but at least he wasn’t making this any harder on her. She paused in the driveway, wondering if there was anything more to say. “Well, goodnight,” she finally offered.

  “Goodnight.”

  She walked slowly back up to Aisha’s front door, listening to the sound of his tires rolling back down the driveway. Jade stepped up to the porch and let herself in. The first thing she saw was her friend lying on the floor.

  The next thing she saw was Sapphire holding a knife up to her daughter’s throat.

  Chapter 47

  “DON’T MOVE A MUSCLE.” Sapphire was shorter than Jade, but she kept her eyes level with hers.

  “What are you doing?” Jade didn’t move forward but studied her daughter from head to toe to see if she’d been hurt.

  “Just obeying God’s word.” A smile spread across Sapphire’s face. “Why don’t you come in. Nice place your friend has here, isn’t it?”

  Jade looked down at Aisha. “What’d you do to her?”

  “She’ll be fine. I just needed her to get that trooper to go home, and now she’s served her purpose. Come on. I hate standing in doorways. Feels so rude.”

  Sapphire backed up slowly until she was in Aisha’s living room. “Take a seat.”

  Jade shook her head. “I’ll stand, thanks.”

  Sapphire paused for a moment before shrugging. “Suit yourself.”

  More than anything, Jade wanted to talk to her daughter. To tell Dez that everything would be okay. She tried to read her daughter’s expression. What was going on?

  Sapphire sat down in Aisha’s white plush reclining chair, positioning Dez on her lap, careful to keep the knife just a centimeter from her throat. Jade balled her hands into fists. Her senses drowned out everything but Sapphire, her cruel and striking face, the melodic cadence of her speech.

  “My husband often preached that discipleship is costly. If we want to experience the full riches of God’s destiny in our lives, we must be prepared to make sacrifices. He still tests his children today, just like he did when he told Abraham to take his son up on Mount Moriah and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.”

  Jade kept her eyes on Sapphire but took in her surroundings, hunting for anything that might serve as a weapon. A metal bar, a vase, anything she could throw. But what could she do without risking her daughter’s life?

  She searched Dez’s face, but her daughter’s expression was unreadable.

  Jade’s soul recoiled when Sapphire resumed her speech.

  “Last night, God told me that he was going to heal my shoulder where you shot me. He also told me that he was going to test my faith. I didn’t know what he meant until I heard that your daughter was in the hospital, and I knew what I had to do. Isaac was the child of promise, but God still commanded Abraham to carry him up to that mountain, to tie him on that altar and sacrifice him there.

  “I didn’t want to do it.” If Sapphire had been any other human being talking about anything other than Dez’s attempted murder, Jade would have thought those were actual tears born from true emotion. “I told God I love this little girl as if she were my own. She’s my child of promise.” She held Dez closer. Jade didn’t know which worried her more, the knife so close to her daughter’s throat, or Dez’s expressionless face. Jade wasn’t even certain if her daughter knew she was there in the room with her.

  Was this some kind of psychological protective mechanism? Was God allowing Dez’s brain to shut down momentarily so she wouldn’t experience the fear and the horror of what she was going through? Or had Sapphire already done something to her?

  Jade’s stomach churned to see the way Sapphire wrapped her free arm around her daughter’s body. “Thankfully, like Abraham, God saw that I was faithful. He saw that I’d rather see this child of promise dead than disobey his word. I set out to do what he told me last night it was my duty to fulfill, and now he’s blessed me with this sweet child to call my own.”

  “She’ll never be yours,” Jade hissed.

  Sapphire waved her hand as if she were swatting away a fly. “God’s already shown me our future together. Mother and daughter leading others to their glorious destinies in Christ.” She leaned in and kissed Dez on the cheek.

  It was too much to endure. “Dez,” Jade snapped. “Dezzirae Rose Jackson.”

  Sapphire shook her head. “I’ve prayed over her. Prayed that God would protect her from the lies you’d try to use to woo her back to you. Her destiny and her future are already sealed. The only thing you have to worry about now is making this transition as easy for her as possible.”

  “You’re insane.”

  Sapphire smirked. “Christ’s followers have been called worse things throughout history. As for me, I count it a joy and an honor to suffer slander for the sake of my Savior and King.”

  Jade would do anything to make Sapphire shut up. She’d already shot her once. She’d do it again if she had the right weapon, only this time she’d be sure to check the body afterwards to make sure she did as thorough a job as possible.

  “I know you’re angry and confused,” Sapphire went on, “but this doesn’t have to hurt at all. In fact, I’d like to pray for you, to ask God to make your passing as peaceful as a baby falling to sleep at its mother’s breast.”

  Jade knew there was only one way out of her situation. She started to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” Sapphire demanded.

  “You are.” Jade tried to hold it in, but soon her sides ached from the chuckles that shook her whole body. “You’re nothing but an old, pathetic, dried up nobody who thinks you’re important because your husband called himself a pastor. You’re both nobodies. In fact, you’re worse than nobodies. You think you�
��re righteous and holy and doing God’s work, but I wouldn’t trade spots with you on the day of judgment in a million years.”

  Sapphire pointed the knife blade toward Jade. “What does the Bible say about speaking badly against the leaders of your people?”

  “You’re not my leader. You’re nothing to me. Your husband was a dirty, manipulative old man who died lonely and pathetic. The only future he deserved to see was the inside of a jail cell, and that’s where you’re going to rot away like the miserable piece of trash you are.”

  The plan was working. Pushing Dez aside, Sapphire rose from the seat, lurching toward her.

  Jade was ready. She lifted her knee, ramming it into Sapphire’s gut. The knife clattered to the floor. Sapphire reached down, but Jade got to it first. While Sapphire pummeled her from above, Jade grabbed the handle with one hand and Sapphire’s long hair with the other. Wincing in disgust, Jade stabbed once. Twice. A third time until she was certain Sapphire had given up her attack.

  Then she ran to her daughter.

  Chapter 48

  “BABY? BABY? CAN YOU hear me? It’s Mama.”

  Jade knelt beside her daughter, her fingers shaking while she tried to dial 911 on Aisha’s cell phone. She waved her hand and snapped her fingers in front of her daughter’s face while she waited for the call to go through.

  “Baby, look at me. It’s over now. We’re going to be okay.”

  Ben was the first to arrive on the scene. The ambulance crew was only a minute behind.

  “Is she dead?” Jade asked as Ben leaned over Sapphire’s body.

  “No.”

  A clash of emotions raced through Jade’s body. Relief. Disappointment. Confusion.

  Ben walked over to Dez. “Can you hear me, sweetheart? Are you hurt at all?”

  “She’s been like that since I got here,” Jade explained, holding her daughter tight.

  “Probably the shock. But we should take her to the clinic to make sure.”

  “What about Aisha?”

  “Hit to the head,” he explained. “She’ll have a nasty headache, maybe a concussion, but the paramedics don’t think it’s anything to get too worried about.”

  Jade took her daughter’s hand. “Baby, you want to come with me to talk to the nurse at the clinic? Make sure you’re doing okay?” There was nothing in the world Jade wouldn’t give up in order to hear some kind of sassy reply. Tears leaked down Jade’s cheeks. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

  “She’s all right,” Ben answered. “Probably just scared.” He reached out his hand and rested it on Dez’s shoulder. “You know what, princess? All the bad guys who wanted to hurt you are gone now. You don’t have anything to be afraid of anymore.”

  Jade waited for some sign of life to light up her daughter’s expression.

  Nothing.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t stand to see her daughter like this.

  “Hey, Dez?” Ben asked. “Want to go for a ride to the clinic with me? Want to take a trip with your good pal Ben?”

  Dez blinked, and a small, quivering smile spread across her lips. “I think you mean Officer Ben, don’t you?”

  Chapter 49

  CHRISTMAS EVE

  Ben knelt down and adjusted the halo of Dez’s angel costume. “That was the best Bible verse reading I’ve ever heard, young lady.”

  She beamed at him. “I memorized it myself.”

  “Yeah, well, I bet your mom helped a lot, too.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. Only a little.” She slipped her hand into Ben’s. “Come on. Didn’t you hear Pastor Reggie say there’s cake downstairs?”

  Ben hesitated for just a moment, glancing at Jade. “You coming?”

  Jade adjusted her earrings and nodded at him. He slipped his hand behind her back then leaned in. “Mmm. What’s that beautiful smell?”

  “That’s Mama’s perfume you gave her,” Dez announced. “She wears it all the time because she says it reminds her of you and how you kissed her that night the crazy lady got arrested.”

  Ben raised his eyebrows. “I thought you were asleep in the backseat when that happened.”

  Dez shook her head proudly. “Nope. I’m just a really good actor.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, you are. Your performance tonight was bar none.”

  Dez pouted. “What’s that mean?”

  “It means you were fabulous, baby,” Jade answered. “Now leave Mr. Ben alone.”

  “Don’t you mean Officer Ben?”

  They made their way downstairs, and Dez rushed toward the dessert table.

  Ben turned and faced Jade, taking both her hands in his. “So she’s doing well?”

  Jade nodded. “Yeah. She’s talking with a social worker at the clinic about what happened, and we’ll drive in to see a play therapist in Palmer next week. From everything I can tell, she’s doing fine. I’m the one who still feels like a wreck around here.”

  He leaned in and rested his forehead against hers. “I think you’re doing a wonderful job.”

  Jade squeezed his hands. “So, you’re still coming over for Christmas dinner at Aisha’s tomorrow, right?”

  “Yeah, what time should I be there?”

  “Around three, but don’t expect to eat until five or later.”

  “How’s Aisha after getting knocked out, by the way? I haven’t talked to her since that night in the clinic.”

  “She’s fine. They ended up sending her to Valdez for an MRI just to be safe, but the swelling was already way down, and she’s back to her normal self.”

  “That’s good.”

  Upstairs, a Christmas carol soundtrack played loudly enough to be heard over the laughter and conversations in the fellowship hall. Jade looked around at her friends from Glennallen Bible Church, men and women had braved the cold to search for her daughter, families who had donated some of their own presents to make sure Dez had plenty of new toys, far more than she would ever need.

  It was a hodgepodge collection of young and old and far from a perfect assembly. Pastor Reggie was still suffering from laryngitis and could barely croak out tonight’s closing prayer. His small son had fallen asleep backstage, leaving the bottom half of the donkey to complete his role without a head. While folks mingled around the dessert table, a mother scolded her teenage daughter, and a husband who was known to only come to church when his wife dragged him in on holidays was sulking in the corner.

  If you were to poll everyone here, each one would probably have a handful of suggestions on how to make Glennallen Bible a better church. Some were vocal in their complaints about the music, the children’s ministry, or the way the pastor’s kids fidgeted in their seats. But tonight, there was no other group of people Jade wanted to spend the holidays with.

  Tonight, she truly felt at home.

  From the Author

  I HOPE YOU ENJOYED Frost Heaves, which is my third suspense novel set in Glennallen. For twelve years, I’ve been proud to call Alaska my home, and I’m so happy to be able to share snippets of life in the great, frosty north.

  Thanks to Keith for answering some of my questions about trooper procedures. My husband continues to be a huge encouragement and sounding board. I’m also grateful for my team of assistants and editors who work behind the scenes to get these novels into your hands.

  One of the reasons I was so excited to be writing this book is because I think the issue of spiritual abuse is often overlooked. I’m sad to say that the degree of control and coverup in some congregations rivals that which you read about in this fictitious church movement.

  Alana

  Learn more about Alana’s books at www.alanaterry.com/novels.

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