Page 87 of Tactical Revival

“Anytime. You’d do the same.”

“You know I would.” I end the call, then turn to Lance. “My former partner is flying out. He knows Morah, too, and he’s going to help.”

“Good.” Lance runs a hand through his hair. The head of Knight Security was a Captain in the Army, a Ranger, and is one of the few people I trust with my life. “I want to say a prayer, then we need to get to work. Elijah, you’re on security. Pull the footage from every camera you can.”

“Warrant?”

“Just do it,” Lance replies.

Elijah nods. “You got it, boss.”

He turns to Silas. “You get with your cousins. See if one of them can fly out and help us locate her.”

“On it.” Since he never prays with us as a group, Silas turns his back and walks away, already prepping to make the call. I’m honestly a bit relieved that he’s going to do so. Silas’s cousins opened a Tracer business and can track anything with a pulse. They find people that have been missing for decades. Sometimes dead…sometimes alive.

Please be alive, Margot.

“Michael, you and Jaxson head over to the B&B and see if anything was missed. Scrape the place.”

“You got it,” we both respond at the same time.

Lance nods, then bows his head, we all do the same. “Lord, we ask that You watch over Margot. That You keep her shielded, and that You guide us to her so that we may bring her home. Heavenly Father, we pray that You will help us remain strong and that You will be with Matty during this stressful time. Please watch over Chad and guide Doc as he does what he can to save him. In Your holy name, Amen.”

Twelve hours.

It’s been half a day since Margot was taken, and we still aren’t any closer to finding her. I sit on a church pew, staring at the cross that hangs behind the altar, my heart heavy, my fear crushing me. The sun has started to come up, basking the world in rays of gold, but I can’t stomach the beauty of it when I know that Margot is suffering.

I put my trust in God a long time ago. I know that no matter what I face in this life, He has promised a Kingdom where there will be no more suffering. No more pain, or tears, or loss. And I am trying so hard to cling to that when everything around me is falling apart.

“I thought I might find you here.” My former partner and his wife arrived in town late last night, and he’s been working tirelessly alongside us, searching for anything we might have missed. “Even after all these years, I still can’t fathom how I survived not believing God was there.”

He’d been a nonbeliever until his now wife introduced him to Christ and he found his faith in the midst of the fear he’d lost her. Even though he didn’t fully understand, Alaric leaned on God in those moments because he felt the Holy Spirit guiding him.

“Once you truly open your heart, you realize just how much you need Him.”

“Amen to that, brother.” He’s silent a moment. “Do you remember when Wrenley was missing?”

“That’s not something you easily forget,” I reply.

“Fair enough.” He chuckles. “We found her, though, didn’t we?”

“We did.”

“Because God guided us to her.”

“I don’t feel pulled in any direction right now,” I reply. “I just feel lost.”

Alaric nods in understanding. “God is still there, brother. Even if you can’t feel Him.”

“I love her.”

“I knew that before I even got on that plane.”

“Fair enough,” I repeat his earlier words. Alaric knows me better than I know myself. We might as well be brothers for all the time we spent together when we were partners. “I don’t know how I’ll survive without her.”

“You won’t have to find out, because we’re going to bring her home.”

“You sound so sure.”

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