by H. H. Fowler
Sighing regrettably, Dana turned away and refocused her attention on Izaiah. He had begun his sermon, but it was clear that he would have trouble getting through it. The way he kept looking at Asia would inevitably distract him. Young love, Dana thought. She remembered when she’d fallen in love with Gregory thirty-two years ago. It had been a long time, but the signs were frighteningly similar between then and today’s generation. Unfortunately, though, that thought was accompanied with a sudden ache to Dana’s heart. The disappearance of her husband kept her emotions vacillating. She bowed her head so no one would see the tears that were beginning to settle at the bottom of her eyelids.
****
After service, Montgomery made a beeline behind Dana who was quickly walking through the main exit. He had been wanting to get an audience with her from the first day he’d visited St. Donovan’s Chapel almost a year ago. She had spoken to him in passing a few times, but he hadn’t the courage to approach her until now. But that could be easily explained. Whenever he found a woman attractive, he had a tendency to observe her for a while before making any hasty moves. Dana was not just any woman he could simply approach and confess his feelings to. She was heavily outfitted with a life of her own.
To add to Montgomery’s chagrin, her missing husband had been the preceding bishop of the church and it appeared as if she still cared a great deal about his disappearance. He didn’t see why. Her husband had been involved in a very scandalous affair, which Montgomery learned had happened three years ago. Yet, she spoke of him often and stayed optimistic that one day he would be found alive. That alone would discourage the average man from pursuing any sort of relationship with Dana, but not Montgomery. He saw it as an opportunity to comfort Dana and to let her know that she had a strong shoulder to cry on.
It was time to make his move. He could no longer pretend as if his attraction toward Dana was a passing feeling. Seeing her depressed concerned him deeply and he ached to do something about it. He gave his daughter the keys to his Escalade and instructed her to wait until he arrived.
“Mrs. Beaufort,” he called gently. “I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time.”
Dana slowly turned and connected her eyes to the man she was plotting for her eldest daughter to marry. Up close, he was even better looking. She briefly observed how his slightly full lips wrapped around his white teeth. It was one of the warmest smiles she’d seen on a man in a while.
Be careful, girl. You’re vulnerable. She extended her hand and tried to match Montgomery’s warm smile. “Mr. Black, it’ll be a pleasure to talk with you. How can I be of assistance?”
Montgomery wasted no time with small talk. He was on a mission to pull Dana into his world as soon as possible. “Well, it’s a bit embarrassing for me to say, but as you may have noticed, I am a single father raising a fifteen-year-old girl, who is going on forty. It will be an understatement if I tell you that she is a handful. Picture this scenario: She has a purple Mohawk, tattoos and piercings in all of the wrong places.”
Dana chuckled. “Oh, I see where this is going.”
“You do?”
“Yes…I call it the adolescent bug – that delicate transition of a young girl into womanhood. This is the ‘acting out’ stage. You don’t have to explain. I have three daughters and it has been an adventure raising them. I am surprised that I’m still standing on own my two feet.”
Montgomery grinned at how easy it was to carry on a conversation with Dana. He’d heard that she was fifty-two years old, but she could pass for his forty-five years, maybe even two to three years younger. Her body was kept in good shape for a woman her age.
“I guess you can predict the question I’m gonna ask,” he said to her.
“I can, but I will allow you to put your own spin on it. I’m simply here to help any way that I can.”
“Wow…I did not know you were this nice. Thank you!”
Dana smiled in response. She had her own reasons why she was being so nice to Montgomery. Someday, he may end up being her handsome son-in-law.
Montgomery continued, “I was thinking, my daughter could use a woman’s touch. Her mother died in a car accident when she four years old. A few females came in and out of her life after that, but none of them stayed long enough to make any real difference. So, I practically raised her myself and now I think she is a little too rough around the edges. I’m afraid if I don’t do something about it now, she may never settle down and get married. Even now, she can’t stand boys and that concerns me. I think she has gone too far into the Goth lifestyle.”
“I’m inclined to believe that it is just a phase your daughter is going through,” Dana tried to assure. “Children never come with an instruction manual, but it appears to me as if you have done a good enough job raising her alone. At least you get her to come to church. I’ve had a chance to greet her once or twice and she doesn’t seem all that bad.”
“Get to know her,” Montgomery said simply. “Don’t mind those innocent-looking eyes.”
“Well,” Dana paused in thought, “we can arrange something. She could start by spending some time at my home and get acquainted with Asia and Candi. Dallis is no longer a single woman, but she and her husband will still be staying at my home until they figure out where they want to raise their family. But it will be fun – her getting to know everyone on a more personal level. You just have to get your daughter to agree.”
“Don’t worry,” Montgomery said. “She will agree or I’ll be dragging her by her two feet.”
Dana laughed, extending her hand again. “Let’s shake on it.”
Montgomery gripped Dana’s hand and said enthusiastically, “Thank you! You don’t know how much this means to me.”
“You are quite welcome, Mr. Black. I look forward to spending time with your daughter.”
And I look forward to it too – getting to know you, Dana. My daughter is only a ticket into your life. Montgomery watched Dana sway away to her Mercedes. Again, he was overcome with amazement at how youthful she appeared. That short hairstyle she sported enhanced her Caucasian features, which made her look like a woman from the classic forties. He looked down at her feet and smiled. She maintained great balance in those four-inch heels as her legs gracefully pushed one ahead of the other. Montgomery was sorry about Gregory’s disappearance, but he certainly wasn’t sorry about becoming the next man in Dana’s bed.
Giddy with anticipation, he turned away and joined his daughter at the Escalade.
Chapter Five
As an intercessory prayer warrior, Frank Dubbin knew what it was like to face spiritual battles from the opposing forces of Satan. And as relentless as the enemy was against Christians, so was Frank in his prayer time to God. He was well-acquainted with his assignment, which was to expose the works of darkness and bring glory to the kingdom of God. Part of his assignment was also to pray for church leaders who’d defiled their garments with the fatness of Babylon. Babylon, which the Bible uses as a symbol of idolatry and utter worldliness, had attached its demonic tentacles to the sacred and had made a desecration of it.
Frank was bold enough to proclaim the truth wherever he went. He observed times and seasons and tried to educate his Christian family on what was taking place in the atmosphere. So, three years ago, when it had been reported in the news that Bishop Gregory Beaufort had been kidnapped by a woman, Frank knew it was no random kidnapping. Bliss Haven suddenly appeared on the map as being one of the main areas of attraction for secret societies. From the moment the House of gods had been exposed, Frank felt compelled to intercede on Gregory’s behalf.
Three years had passed with no positive result, but Frank was not easily deterred from whatever God impressed upon his spirit. Beginning at four o’clock every morning, Frank would lie prostrate on the floor of his bedroom for two hours and keep Gregory’s name before God. Petitioning God to intervene into the diabolical schemes of the enemy. At his age of sixty-three, it was hard work and some mornings Frank struggled to
carry out the assignment. But he pushed on, knowing through experience that effectual, fervent prayers could produce a harvest of miraculous blessings. His unwavering obedience to God was a sign of a true intercessor.
****
Gregory’s former security men, who’d once been employed at the Beaufort estate in Bliss Haven, were now giving directives, rather than taking them. They were bossing Gregory around like he was a weak woman who couldn’t fend for herself. But Gregory didn’t see what point it made. The yacht they were on had run aground upon a huge reef. The beautiful forty-eight-foot vessel had suffered a significant hole in the hull and it appeared as if none of them were going anywhere anytime soon.
Using his finely-tuned eavesdropping skills, Gregory had overheard Ms. V talking to an informant, who told her that the waters were being patrolled by the Bliss Haven Coast Guard. The yacht had been in the waters for eight hours by that time, heading toward the House of gods’ secret entrance in New Mexico. Ms. V instructed her men to increase the yacht’s speed by five knots, so as to maintain the distance between them and the Bliss Haven Coast Guard.
But what Ms. V and her men didn’t anticipate was that the island of Bliss Haven was surrounded by hundreds of other small, uninhabited islands and cays, its archipelago stretching for thousands of miles in the open sea, was filled with hidden reefs. Gregory was certain the yacht was one of the top vessels in the world, built for safety and for speed, but it had been no match for the rugged terrain into which it had inadvertently been sailed.
They were able to swim to a mass of land, which was surrounded by white sand and a forest of trees which seemed to extend several miles into nowhere. The grim realization was that they were stranded on an uninhabited island and there was no telling how Ms. V would respond to the crisis when she was used to being in control. Yet, in the face of what had happened, Gregory was beginning to feel as if his prayer of intervention had been answered. He did not want to go back to New Mexico to be tortured by Ms. V and her men, which had been his earnest plea to God while riding in the back seat of the Eldorado.
It bugged him how Ms. V had toyed with his freedom, but her biggest mistake was to let him see Dallis. He quickly came up with a plan and then executed it right in the middle of Ms. V yapping her big mouth. Letting down that window could have cost him his life, but it was a chance he had been willing to take. However, he was overcome with joy, because he knew Dallis recognized him. His fear of Ms. V and her stupid men had long past faded and it did not move him when Ms. V began to lash out for what he’d done.
The best thing they could do for him anyway was to shoot him between the eyes. Without his family, he had nothing to live for. But they refused to satisfy his request. To them, torturing him was apparently more enjoyable. Being stuck on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean gave Gregory hope, as compared to being in Mexico, where his torture had been sadistically worse – being forced to indulge in all sorts of strange perversions. It was meant to break him and destroy what was left of his desire to reclaim his righteous roots.
Whatever they could take off the yacht before it began to sink under water, was attached to their person as they trekked tirelessly through the wild greenery. The cell phones, however, had received water damage, which made the situation all that much more frustrating to Ms. V. She couldn’t call for the big kahunas to rescue them out of this frightening jungle. The jungle, which was another area of concern for Ms. V, looked as if it had several species of unknown animals living on it. They had already passed a creature that closely resembled a small bobcat, but had a much longer snout.
Whether the creature was harmless or not, Ms. V and her men weren’t taking any chances. They were swiftly moving into day two and had approximately six hours before darkness fell. So they hastened to get back to the spot where they all had slept the previous night. Although a light breeze was blowing, the humidity was suffocating. The men had taken off their shirts, while Ms. V stripped off her outer blouse, rolled it up and used it as a rag to wipe the sweat from her face. She was trekking ahead of the men, madly slashing tree branches out of her way.
Sandwiched between Ms. V and her men was Gregory, who wore an amused expression. He was enjoying seeing his captors suffer the rigors of a failed operation. They should have been entering through the borders of Mexico by now, but somehow by God’s mercies, they were still in the vicinity of Bliss Haven. It made it that much easier for the Coast Guard to track them down. The men’s guns, swinging loosely in their hands, should have been pointed at Gregory’s back. But the humidity had sapped the men’s energy like a bloodsucking mosquito. They could barely think straight, much less keep their arms held high in one position.
Gregory could sense that their frustration was getting out of control, but he couldn’t stop himself from grinning when he saw Viola miss a step and fall headlong onto an old tree log. With a string of words laced with profanity, she pitched to her feet with one side of her face severely bruised. She winced in pain as she placed the blouse against her face.
“This is a sign from God,” Gregory said in response to Viola’s irritation. “You should have allowed me to go back home to my family.”
Viola snapped, “Shut up! Who the hell asked you anything?”
“I know my daughter recognized me,” Gregory rubbed in. “And I am crazy enough to believe it was she who contacted the police. It won’t be long now before the Coast Guard tracks you down.”
“And it won’t be long before I put a bullet between your eyes,” Viola threatened. “That’s the only way you’re leaving here!”
“Be my guest, Viola. You know how badly I want you to end my life. I am nothing without my family –”
One of the men violently shoved Gregory in the back. “Keep moving, moron. We don’t wanna hear a thing about your stupid family. They think you’re dead anyway.”
Gregory wanted to reinforce that it was quite possible that Dallis had recognized him, but instead, he stared at them and twisted his lips into a smirk. Decidedly, it was a better tactic. He could see that it had immediately gotten beneath their skin.
“Wipe that blithering smirk off your face!”
“And if I don’t?” Gregory goaded. “What are you going to do? Kill me?”
“I would have done so long ago if Viola would have given me the pleasure.”
Gregory turned his attention to Ms. V and said with an air of insouciance, “Well, the ball is in your court. Are you going to grant the request?”
“You keep pushing me and I will do it!” Ms. V spat in disgust. She swung her fiery gaze to the men and barked a few commands at them. “Keep a close eye on this fool,” she concluded. “I will be right back.”
Ms. V hurried ahead about twenty feet and then veered to the right into a concealed spot. There, she pulled down her pants and lowered his hips to the ground. The bruise on her face was inflamed, but the urge to relieve herself was more pressing at the moment. She couldn’t understand why she couldn’t bring herself to get rid of Gregory. She was not a woman to procrastinate when it came to killing someone. A fool like Gregory, who was obviously making a mockery of their scare tactics, would have been dead a long time ago.
She grinned, in spite of her irritation. She would love to see the look on Gregory’s face when she suddenly announced that she was going after his entire family. She had promised that she would leave them alone in exchange for his soul, but because of Gregory’s obstinate streak, she had been forced to change her mind. Promises were made to be broken. Going after Gregory’s family was the only way that she could get Gregory to bend willingly to her demands.
Out of the blue, something cold and wet began to slither on Ms. V’s skin. Her first thought was that she had probably peed on herself by accident. It was not until she looked down and saw the tail of a bull snake – a large nonvenomous creature that could grow up to two meters long—that she knew her problem was decidedly more serious. Bull snakes are considered constrictors who wrap around their prey and s
queeze. They are completely harmless to humans. However, the horrified look on Ms. V’s face showed that she wasn’t aware of any of that. As if sitting on a bed of coils, she pushed her hips up and then bolted for dear life.
Ms. V’s men raised their guns when they heard the piercing screams. An awful wretched sound that made their skin crawl. They saw Ms. V scuttling toward them. Their first thoughts were of naked men chasing Ms. V with long, sharp spears. Maybe the island wasn’t deserted after all. But the way Ms. V flew past them with her pants sagging halfway down her hips, the men thought that maybe something else had given her severe jolt.
“I guess you don’t fancy bobcats,” one of the men said as he laughed. “With buns hanging out like that I would be running after you too.”
“How disgusting!” Ms. V spat. “I won’t stay in this bloody jungle for another minute! Hand me your cell phone!”
Gregory exploded in laughter, and was soon joined by all of the men.
“What are you morons laughing at?”
“The cells all have water damage, remember? There’s no way of getting out of this place, except we all die of starvation.”
“Hand the phone to me, you idiot!”
Ms. V snatched the phone and continued her futile attempts to call someone from within the secret organization. While everyone seemed to be distracted, Gregory bowed his head in prayer, even though his stomach was still rumbling with laughter. Father, thank You for Your intervention. I know it is You working to deliver me out of the hands of my enemies. Continue to frustrate their plans and make a way for me to return home to my precious family…In Jesus’ name.
Chapter Six
Dallis’ eyes flickered open to the feel of something warm and succulent against her lips. She moaned, as she focused in on her husband’s soft kisses. He was gentle and was only concerned about pleasing her deepest desires. Her body quickly responded to his touch and before Dallis knew it, her moans were intensifying. After such a long and fiery session last night, Dallis was certain Anwar would be down for the count. But here he was sparking the flames before she had the opportunity to crawl out of bed.
