Page 85 of Protecting You
Only this time, there’d be no firemen showing up to save the day.
This time, it was up to her.
* * *
The plan was crazy.
Alyssa and Callan had talked through it, and it was simple enough.
Callan had settled back at the little table in the cramped hotel room, which seemed to be getting smaller and smaller the more time they spent in it.
Alyssa couldn’t stop pacing. From the door to the windows, over and over.
She wanted out of the room. Out of the hotel. Out of this terrible situation. Just…out.
Butoutwasn’t an option.
What if she couldn’t convince Ghazi…Charles? What if…what if she blew it, and her entire family paid the price?
“Stop overthinking it, Paris.”
She spun to face Callan, who’d somehow read her mind.
“I’m just thinking through what I’m going to say.”
“Right. Overthinking it.” He held out the hotel phone’s handset. “It’s time to practice winging it.”
They’d decided she should make the call from the landline. Charles had her cellphone, and she didn’t want to give him her new phone number.
It wouldn’t matter if Charles traced the call. They were a hundred and sixty miles from Boston, and even if he happened to have people nearby, she and Callan planned to leave as soon as the call was made.
They’d done their best to work through every aspect of this.
Callan set the phone in its cradle again, then held out his hand to her. “Come sit with me, please.”
She did, though she felt antsy and uncomfortable, like she needed to shed a too-tight sweater.
He took her hand, perfectly at ease touching her, as if it meant nothing to him, though she hadn’t grown nearly as immune to him.
“I’m going to pray, okay?”
“Good idea.” She should have thought of that. She believed in God, had surrendered to Christ when she was a child, but He felt distant and distracted.
She needed His help, and maybe, since the situation was so dire, He’d get involved.
Callan prayed that God would give her the words to say and the peace and confidence to say them well. He prayed that Ghazi would believe her, and that God would show her and Callan a way out of this.
“Protect Alyssa and her parents. Protect Brooklynn, Cici, Delaney, Kenzie, and the entire Wright family.”
She was impressed that he remembered her sisters’ names.
“Let none of this touch her family.” He squeezed Alyssa’s hand. “We trust You, Father. Be with us.”
At his amen, she looked up. “Thank you.”
“You’ve got this, Paris. I’ll be right here. If you start to feel panicky, find a way to end the call. Remember the plan.”
She’d already found Charles’s phone number on her laptop. Now, she took the landline’s handset and dialed.
