Escape to Morning

by Susan May Warren

  She recognized the wounds she’d inflicted on his expression. But could he see the way his words had touched her, found the cracks in her anger? “I want to be God’s man.” What was she supposed to do with his betrayal? Help me, Lord. She could hardly believe she’d thought she knew the real Will. Just who was this man really? “Will, I—”

  All at once the pickup squealed, spun.

  Dannette slammed against the side of the truck. “Will!”

  Gravel pinged against metal. The engine shrilled as they went airborne. Dannette screamed, slammed her head up against the topper.

  They rolled over and over. Dannette was thrown from the topper and spun through the air.

  They crashed hard—metal screaming, wood cracking, tires spinning.

  Pain exploded through Dannette’s body.

  Darkness sucked her under.

  Will knew he’d dislocated his shoulder the second he blinked to consciousness. Pain radiated down his arm, crunched the breath from him. The good news was that the dog collar, which he’d been slowly fraying since they got in the truck, had ripped free.

  What happened? He wrestled himself to a sitting position, cringed against the fractured pane of light.

  Dani. She lay crumpled on the ground near the truck. Her forehead was bleeding. As he pulled himself toward her, he saw that her leg was broken, the tibia protruding from her shin. For a second, he felt light-headed, and he had to gulp in calm. He found a pulse in her neck and went weak with relief.

  Scared to move her, he climbed over her.

  Blondie lay in the road in a bloody heap. Will stumbled around to the front of the pickup. It lay on its back in a gully, its nose angled down into a creek, the cab half submerged.

  Please, Lord, no! “Amina!” He scrambled down the edge, peered inside the cab.

  Empty.

  “Amina!” He crossed to the other side of the pickup, where he found Dark and Armed. His throat had been dissected by a shard of glass.

  “Amina!”

  “I’m here.” She stood in the road, holding her arm, blood running down her forehead.

  Will raced toward her. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  She stepped away from him, fear on her pretty face. Okay, so he didn’t blame her. He wasn’t exactly dressed like one of the good guys.

  “Don’t go anywhere. I have to move Dani in case there’s a fire.” The smell of gasoline fumed the air.

  To his profound relief, Amina waited while he gripped Dani by her coat and dragged her away from the seeping truck. She moaned slightly. He knelt beside her. “Dani, I’m sorry.”

  “Is she your wife?” Amina crouched next to him.

  He could hardly breathe around the lump in his throat. “I wish,” he said softly. He turned to the girl. She didn’t look more than fifteen, but she had courage in her eyes. “Amina?”

  “Hafiz?”

  He gave a slight painful smile as he nodded. Finally, Simon’s mission, almost completed.

  “I thought you were dead,” she said, wariness in her eyes. “Bakym said he killed you.” She inched away, jumped to her feet, suddenly wary.

  “Okay, wait. Yes, Hafiz was killed. I’m his partner. I’ve been looking for you.”

  She narrowed her eyes.

  He made no move to corral her. How he wished Dani was awake. She’d tell her the truth—

  Oh yeah, right. What truth? Dani was just as likely to run as Amina. And he didn’t blame her. After the lies he’d told, he wanted to run too.

  “Listen to me—” Will kept his voice calm—“I know you are the daughter of General Nazar. I know he sent you out with information that will tell us where he’s hiding.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “Yes, I think so. I don’t know. But the sooner we get you to safety, the sooner we can help him.”

  She studied him as if gauging his trustworthiness. Oh, sure, he had trustworthy written all over him, with his bloody arm, his dislocated shoulder, the bruises and cuts on his face, and the woman he was falling in love with—yes, those were feelings of love, evidenced by the fact that he’d never felt anything so terrifying yet so exhilarating and complete in his life—crumpled at his feet. He couldn’t manage a reassuring smile to save his life.

  “Okay, listen.” Amina angled her head, as if testing out his response. “My father said I wasn’t to tell you one word until you have me safe.” She looked around. “I’m not seeing safe.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” He glanced at Dani and felt sick. Now what? He’d been stripped of his weapon and his cell phone when Blondie patted him down. But Dani had a cell with a GPS. …

  He reached into her pockets, discovered a couple of doggy treats. No cell. It must have been in her backpack.

  “What are we going to do?” Amina crouched beside him again. “She’s hurt, and so are you.”

  “And you.” He reached over and brushed a piece of glass from her hair. “How’s your arm?”

  “I think my shoulder’s broken. It really hurts, and I can’t move my arm.” She held her wrist, slightly in, and if he had to guess, he’d say it could be her clavicle.

  He stood up, walked over to Blondie, checked his pulse, then stripped the jacket off the dead body. Cushioning Amina’s arm with the body of the coat, he tied the sleeves around her neck, forming a sling. “Anything else hurt?”

  She stared at Dani. “How bad is she?”

  The answer felt too close to the surface of his battered emotions. Besides receiving a head wound and a broken leg, her trust in him had been shattered. “I don’t know. But she could go into shock.” He took off his coat, working it gently down his mangled arm, and put it over Dani. “We need to keep her feet elevated.”

  Amina found a stump, dragged it over. “Now what? We have to go for help.”

  He brushed Dani’s hair back. It was matted with dried blood; he saw that the blood came from a vicious gash on her forehead. She’d need a couple of stitches. But with her eyes closed, so gently … she could still take his breath away. “I can’t leave her.”

  “What?” Amina stared at him in horror. “My father is out there hiding, risking his life for America. We have to go.”

  “I can’t! I’m not going to leave her here alone. But I can’t carry her into town. And I can’t leave you alone.” He sat back hard, next to the dirt road.

  “Trust God one day at a time.” Micah’s words whispered in the back of his mind.

  Will covered his eyes with his hand. Lord, I’m in trouble here. Please, please help us.

  “Are you okay?”

  He looked at Amina. Then, slowly, he shook his head. “I’m not leaving her.”

  “Then my father and thousands of others are going to die very soon.” Amina got up and stalked down the road.

  Chapter 20

  DANI COULD HEAR voices as she clawed through the layers of darkness to light. She moaned and felt the darkness ease its grip, replacing it with pain. For a moment, she jerked back into the sweet embrace of oblivion.

  Then came Will’s soft voice and his touch on her hand.

  She forced her eyes open. He sat overlooking her, worry on his bloody, bearded face. His eyes were red, and she saw lines where tears had etched down his dirty cheeks. His left arm was in a makeshift sling made from a tattered black shirt.

  “What happened?” She started to push herself up on her elbows, but pain shot through her leg and exploded in her brain. She lay back with a gasp. The sky had gathered the twilight, and darkness edged in. Cold laced the air, and she fought a shiver.

  “Hold up there, speedy. You’re not going anywhere.” But she heard relief in Will’s teasing voice. He touched her cheek, his gentleness comforting.

  “Where are we?” Clearly, they hadn’t made it out of the forest, although she had a hard time remembering anything. The last clear memory she had was being on the beach in Will’s arms … yes, she could smile about that memory.

  “One question at a time.” Will pulled a jacket up t
o her chin, tucked it into place. “Amina grabbed the wheel and rolled the truck. You were thrown, and your leg, if not other parts, is broken.”

  Amina? Truck? “What are you talking about?”

  He gave her a wry look. “What is the last thing you remember?”

  She felt a blush, looked away. But his hand on her cheek pressed her gaze back to his. My, but he has warm chocolate eyes, and they looked at her with such tenderness. No wonder she remembered only the kiss they’d shared. “Uh, the beach.”

  “Oh.” He sighed. “Well, I’m going to skip a lot of the particulars, but the bottom line is that we were in an accident after finding the girl we were looking for. Now we’re somewhere in the woods, about forty miles from civilization, and we need medical help.”

  “That good, huh?”

  He wore the hint of a smile. “You really don’t remember what happened before … ah, before we crashed?”

  She narrowed one eye. “No. Why?” She pictured herself in his strong arms.

  “Nothing.” He smiled, pushed back her hair. “Someday, when you’re feeling better, I’ll remind you.”

  “Is that a promise?” She meant it as a tease, but he made a funny face— “Is she awake?” A young girl sat beside him. She was thin, and had dark hair, dark eyes, a bruise on her cheek, a swollen lip, and her arm was in a sling. She looked vaguely familiar. “Amina?”

  She smiled. “Yes. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m … I don’t know.” Dani looked at Will. “I guess I have a broken leg.”

  Amina nodded. “Sorry. I couldn’t think of any other way to get—”

  Will touched her arm, shook his head.

  Okay, her brain hadn’t been that jostled; Dani could still spot a cover-up when she saw one. “What’s going on?”

  Amina frowned at him. “Tell her.”

  “Amina, please go wait for me by the truck.”

  “We had a deal.” Her eyes sparked.

  “Go, please.” The last word sounded more like a groan.

  Amina turned to Dani, touched her arm. “Thanks for everything.”

  Dani opened her mouth, not quite sure what to say. What was she thanking her for?

  Amina got up and disappeared into the gathering darkness.

  “What’s going on?” Dani asked again.

  “Dani, I know you don’t remember what happened, but I gotta fill you in on a few essentials.” He held her hand but didn’t look at her, which hurt, probably more than her leg or her head or even the strange bruising in her chest.

  “I’m not a reporter. I work for the government. And that girl over there is an important government asset. She’s running from a terrorist organization named Hayata—”

  Dani blinked as images raced into the broken, empty spaces of her mind. A man with a gun. Will covered in blood. As he finished his explanation, memory hurtled back to her.

  “She has secrets, and I have to get them to HQ—”

  “Homeland Security,” she filled in, and her voice sounded like she felt—cold and distant.

  He noticed and looked at her. When she pulled her hand away from his, he said, “I guess your memory is coming back.”

  “Yeah,” she said, knowing that word spoke volumes. “She has information that can take down this Hayata group?”

  “Her father does. And she knows where he is. But the deal is, we don’t find him until she’s safe. And he’s gone into hiding. But he’s the only one who knows when and where the next attack will be. And we’re running out of time.”

  “So, getting her to safety is a matter of national security.”

  Will flinched. “But … I’m not leaving you, Dani. I can’t.”

  Dani looked away, felt tears burn her eyes. “We can’t be that far from civilization. You can go, send help back.”

  She closed her eyes when he touched her cheek. Still, he turned her face toward his and waited until she opened her eyes. One tear ran down his cheek, and he let it sit there, obviously not caring that she saw his emotions glistening on his face.

  Oh, Will.

  Her throat thickened. Suddenly, their heated argument in the back of the pickup rushed back to her. He’d lied to her. And she’d said she’d never make the mistake of trusting him again. Only that was a lie. She did trust him. She trusted him to her soul. He might not have told her his real profession, but he’d told her about himself. About the man he was and wanted to be. She probably knew him better than she knew Micah or Conner. She knew the real Will, the man behind the aliases. The man who wanted to keep her safe, be her friend—maybe more. And now he was crying. For her.

  Gulp.

  “Will, go. I understand. And I’ll be okay.” She fought the panic that came with those words. Go? And leave her here by herself, unable to move? What part of that was okay?

  But if he didn’t leave, it might take days for them to be rescued, and by then, maybe Amina’s father would be killed. Or worse, Homeland Security would never intercept whatever terror event this group had planned, and all chance of destroying these terrorists would slip through their fingers.

  All the sacrifices paid by people on the front lines—people like Micah and Conner and Wendy, her deputy-sheriff friend turned MP soldier from back home in Iowa—would be undermined. America was fighting wars on both sides of the ocean.

  “Go,” she repeated, hearing how her voice came out as a squeak. “I want you to go.”

  “I can’t leave you—”

  “Please. Before I beg you to stay.”

  “I’ll send help back as soon as I can,” he said softly.

  She tried to smile, tried to summon her courage, but all she heard was the wail of fear inside. Alone. He was leaving her alone.

  Abandoning her.

  So much for feeling safe with Will. She’d never felt more deserted in her life. Even if it was her choice.

  “I’ll be all right,” she said again.

  He leaned down, and she felt moisture on his cheek as he kissed her. “I’m sorry, Dani. I wanted this to turn out differently.”

  “Just go,” she said and turned away before he saw her break into tears.

  She heard his footsteps thump against the forest floor, scuff out onto gravel, then finally disappear into the curtain of the night.

  “Just go.”

  Those two words fueled every step but pinged louder in Will’s heart as he trudged away with Amina. He felt nearly nauseous as he struggled for breath.

  “Just go.”

  How could he leave her? He forced his breath out and stared at the stars. The moon hung like a fingernail in the sky, pointing north. Please, oh, God, be our portion tonight. Never did he long for those words to be true. Never did he need God more than at this moment, when he’d left the best of all he wanted lying cocooned in his jacket under a pine tree.

  “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him! The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.” The words from Lamentations in Lew’s Bible imprinted on Will’s mind as he escorted Amina along the black ribbon of gravel road. How ironic that he’d sat on the shore this very morning, watching the earth escaping darkness to morning, pondering those words.

  He’d attended more than a few of Lew’s Bible studies, Lew’s unveiled attempts to pull Will toward salvation. But for some reason, the Lamentations study had been slightly intriguing. The Israelites were a people struggling with pain, with understanding the reasons behind God’s heavy hand, and yet in the middle of the book sat a testament to grace and trusting in God in the darkest hour. He remembered their conversation:

  “You know what the word good means in that verse, Willy?” Lew said, sitting on a jeep, his feet swinging as he took a sip of warm water from his canteen.

  The desert had rippled out for miles. Heat embedded their dirty pores, sizzled the skin under their filthy uniforms. Will recalled the first tour of Desert Storm and the way Lew patiently counseled his fellow Green Berets toward eternity.

 
; “Good means ‘precious,’ ” Lew continued as he wiped dirt from his face with his sleeve. “And waiting means more than just drumming our fingers on the table. It means longing for and expecting God to show up. It means trusting God fully, especially for victory. The verse, as I understand it, means that if you trust God with your entire heart, especially in the darkest hour, you will see God faithful, and His salvation will be sweeter because of the waiting. Like Bonnie said about our daughter. Having Anna in her arms made her birth and the waiting that much sweeter. I can’t wait to see her.”

  He’d grinned, swung down from the jeep, screwed the top on his canteen. “But you will only experience that sweetness if you seek God. Long for Him.”

  Will remembered how Lew had clapped him on the shoulder and even now felt it, despite the burn in his injured arm. “God wants to be enough for you in every area of your life. But you have to pursue Him to find Him. Walking with God means getting to know Him and His Word a little more every day.”

  One day at a time.

  Micah had said the same thing. One day at a time.

  Sorta like how Will had gotten to know Dani. And she’d wound into his heart and become precious. God could become that.

  Will had thought that once he fell to his knees and admitted his failures, God would swoop in and turn him into Lew. Only how many times had he seen Lew in the early morning, his Bible open, saturating himself in God’s Word? pursuing God.

  If Will stopped looking at his everyday failures, lifted his eyes toward heaven, and began walking toward God, one step at a time, he might become that man along the way.

  Somewhat like those lepers being healed.

  He gritted his teeth, and for the first time he realized why he hadn’t known how to walk the path of a Christian.

  Because he’d been afraid.

  Although Lew had blazed the trail, Will had been afraid to take the first steps toward knowing God. Toward trusting Him. Because, frankly, although he knew God had saved him, cerebrally, he hadn’t felt it. Not really. His scars seemed too impenetrable.