Page 149 of Unseen Danger

Pops. His words, his voice in her head brought hot tears to her eyes. He was more right than she’d known.

“Keep fighting, honey. God will help you. You just got to ask.”

Her breath caught. Another tremor tumbled through her.

She could see Pops’ face as he’d said those words, leaning in the window of her pickup the morning she took the kids to school. He was so confident, so certain.

But she’d asked God for help the last time. Cried out to him to save her life, to stop Walter from murdering her. It hadn’t done any good.

“Who do you think helped you survive that man beatin’ you at that prison and used it to make you stronger?” Pops’ question that day in the kitchen with Branson outside, helping with her sister’s move, had grated on her nerves. But was he right?

She swallowed, her throat thick and dry.

Walter had only been stopped that day because the inmates still locked in their pods saw him beating her. They saw it and used the phones in their pods to call outside for help. They’d called the police and told them what was happening.

The police had gotten hold of the other COs to alert them. And they’d been able to come to her rescue.

She stared across the empty, cold basement. Had that been God? Had He been there? Had He answered her prayer?

Was He here now?

“God’s God, child. He does what he wants and ain’t nobody can stop Him.”

If Pops was right, then somebody more powerful was here. Right now.

God.

Even Walter couldn’t stop God.

She never saw it until now. But God had rescued her the last time.

He had ended the beating. He’d saved her life. He’d protected her.

Warmth flared in her chest.

Was God more powerful even than her fear?

Pops had told her to take the fear to Jesus or it would own her forever. He’d been right about everything else. He had to be right about that, too.

“God.” The word came out weak and raspy. She swallowed and tried again. “You know I need help. I’m not gonna make it unless you help me.” She pulled in a shaky breath as tears dropped down her cheeks. “I know you can save me again. I’m sorry I didn’t see it before. That I didn’t believe you’d rescued me when you got those inmates to call for help. But I need your help now, God. You’re my only chance out of this.”

A thump above her head made her jerk.

A surge of fear shot her pulse into overdrive. Panic gripped her from the inside out. Her hands shook as she tried to hold her knees.

“Oh, God. Please.” A sob escaped. “I’m taking this fear to you, Jesus. Please, help me beat this. I don’t want to be controlled by it anymore. It’s killing me. Take it away, God. Take it away.”

“He does what he wants and ain’t nobody can stop Him…What He wants is for you to be His child.”

She moistened her lips as her grandpa’s words echoed in her head. “Okay, Pops. Okay, God. You want me? You got me. I’m sorry I haven’t lived the way You want me to. That I haven’t believed in You. That I pushed You away like Pops said. But I know Cora and Bris always talk about how forgiving You are. And that all a person has to do is be sorry and ask for forgiveness.”

She tilted her head up, staring at the cobwebs decorating the ceiling, the closest to heaven she could see right now. “I am sorry, God. Sorry I rejected you. Sorry I thought I could do life on my own. I’m a mess. You know that.”

A sardonic laugh bubbled up her throat. Here she was, sitting in the fetal position, waiting for somebody to come back and kill her. Yeah. A mess was putting it mildly.

“I can’t do any of it alone. I need you, God. I want to be your child. Please, forgive me. I want what the girls have. What you did for Bris and Sof. Cora was probably born that way, I don’t know. Give me the peace and courage they have, God. Please. Rescue me.”

She shut up and waited. Listened. For what, she didn’t know. A voice from heaven?

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