A Little Ray of Sunshine: A Christian Romance (The Callaghans & McFaddens Book 7)

by Kimberly Rae Jordan

  “Yes, I imagine that is something that is a bit of a challenge.”

  Hannah struggled to find words to converse with the man. After a year on her own, with essentially no one to talk to, it was like she’d lost the ability to carry on a conversation with someone. Her own thoughts had been all she’d had for so long that she didn’t know what to say to another person.

  She felt her eyelids drooping, so once again lowered herself to the lumpy mattress. It had gotten to the point where she slept a good portion of her day away. That wasn’t anything she could likely change even with someone for company. Her body lacked the strength, and her mind lacked the will, to stay awake for hours on end.

  Ryan heard the woman’s breathing deepen and realized that in the space of a few minutes, she’d fallen asleep. Now that he knew who she was and had a name to put with the voice, he couldn’t help but feel concerned for her. If she’d been on her own like this for the past year, he could only imagine her mental as well as her physical state.

  From what little he’d gathered from their conversation, her spiritual state seemed to be strong, but physically, she had to be suffering. One meal and one small cup of water a day would lead to a weakened body. He was feeling the effects on his own body and mind already, and he’d only been in similar circumstances for a handful of months. Four or five, if his calculations could be relied on.

  His stomach cramped, so he decided to follow Hannah’s lead and sleep for awhile. Hopefully until his next meal.

  Unfortunately, when he next woke, it was still dark, and it was silent in the cell except for Hannah’s breathing. Hunger pangs attacked his stomach, and try as he might, he couldn’t fall back to sleep. Instead, he was left with the same thoughts that had plagued him over and over since the first time he’d woken in captivity.

  What on earth had gone wrong?

  Without knowing the state of the others in his group, he couldn’t determine what those who had kidnapped them had hoped to achieve. He absolutely hated not knowing. Though there had been beatings initially, his captors hadn’t asked him for much in the way of sensitive information, and what they had asked him, he hadn’t known the answers to.

  And then he’d been moved to this new place where there had been no beatings or questions. Just the darkness.

  So these new captors weren’t holding him for information, and it appeared there was no political motive either. Although, he and Hannah were both Canadian, so maybe there was a political motive—just a different sort than he’d expected. But if, by chance, the reason for their captivity was neither of those, what was left? Personal? Religious?

  Ryan shifted onto his back, his chain rattling in the silence, and pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes. It was ridiculous to try to block out the darkness that way, but it made him feel better. More like it was his choice.

  Soft whimpers drew Ryan’s attention, and he immediately pushed to a sitting position. He listened for a moment, trying to figure out if Hannah had woken up or if she was dreaming. It quickly became clear that she was still asleep.

  “Hannah?” He paused to see if she’d respond, but when she didn’t, he tried again. “Hannah!”

  It took a few more tries before he heard her stir and take several deep breaths.

  “Hannah? Are you okay?”

  She cleared her throat, and Ryan could hear her shifting around. He waited for her to respond before saying her name again.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you okay?” Ryan couldn’t ignore his concern at the woman’s slow responses. Without being able to see her, it was difficult to judge the exact state of her health and mental wellbeing. “You were crying in your sleep.”

  “Was I?” Her words were hesitant. “I didn’t realize.”

  “Are you hurt?” Ryan moved forward, trying to see how far his chains would let him move.

  “No. I’m not hurt, just tired.”

  Even though he wasn’t familiar with her voice, Ryan recognized the weariness in it. He grunted in annoyance when he got to the end of the chain and still hadn’t reached Hannah. “Are you sick?”

  “Sick? No. I don’t think so,” Hannah said then sighed. “I just don’t have much energy. All I want to do is sleep.”

  “Have you been sick at all while you’ve been here?” Ryan asked, wondering if perhaps she wasn’t a good judge of her own condition.

  He heard her moving around again before she answered. “I had a couple of stomach bugs early on.”

  “Nothing else?”

  “No.” She sighed. “Just don’t have much energy because of having so little food to eat. It’s easier to just sleep.”

  “Are you having bad dreams?”

  She was slow to answer again. “I don’t really remember. Not that it would be surprising, I suppose.”

  “How have you kept hope for a rescue alive during all this time?” Ryan needed to know her secret in case this dragged on longer than he hoped it would.

  “I’m not sure I have, to be honest. There have been plenty of days that I prayed that if I wasn’t going to be rescued, that I just wouldn’t wake up. The hunger. The darkness. Losing count of the days. It makes it so difficult to keep hoping for freedom. I have had no way of knowing if people were even trying to rescue me.”

  “I have to believe that my company and my family will move mountains to find me, and when they find me, they’ll find you, so don’t give up all hope just yet.”

  Ryan hoped that he wasn’t giving her false hope, but he also knew that he had a lot more possibility of being rescued than she did, given that it had been over a year with no rescue coming for her. He had to believe that BlackThorpe would be able to get to him because if they couldn’t, what good were they at their job?

  The next day—or at least Ryan assumed it was the next day—he heard Hannah crying again in her sleep. The sound pulled at him, causing him to wake her up once again.

  After he was sure she was awake, instead of asking her how she was doing, he said, “Tell me what food you miss the most.”

  “Food? Are you trying to torture me?”

  “No. But let’s focus on something besides this darkness.”

  “Okay. Food I miss the most.” She paused. “Fried chicken. You?”

  “Bacon and all the foods that go with it.”

  “Yeah. Bacon is good.”

  “Now you ask me something.”

  “Like what you miss the most?”

  “Sure. Or if you have another question. We’ve got all the time in the world, it seems.”

  Hannah sighed. “So it seems.”

  “Ask me anything. Actually, how about we ask each other five questions? Alternating between us? Then tomorrow we’ll ask each other five more.”

  From the length of time it took her to ask her first question, Ryan had started to wonder if she wasn’t going to play along.

  “What’s your favorite chocolate bar?”

  “Unfortunately for me, my favorite one is only available in Canada, so I only get to eat it when I go home.”

  “You should stock up on them.”

  “I used to, but I have no willpower against them which meant that I would inhale them within the first week of getting back to the Twin Cities. And then on top of not having any candy left, I had to spend even more time in the gym.”

  “Do you work out a lot?”

  Ryan wasn’t sure if that was her next question but decided that it didn’t matter. If she wanted to talk, he was more than up for that. “Probably a bit more than your average guy, but I don’t live at the gym. My job requires me to be physically fit, as well as adept at things like shooting and sparring.”

  When she didn’t respond to his comments, he said, “Okay. My next question. Movies or television shows?”

  “Uh…books? I’ve never spent much time watching television or going to movies. If I do watch TV though, it’s usually documentaries.”

  “I like documentaries, but I’m also a fan of movies. Sci-fi or thri
llers, for the most part.”

  “No chick-flicks?”

  “Ha. Only if my sisters or Mom pay me. That’s why they have husbands.” Although, in his current situation, he’d happily go to any movie his siblings wanted if it meant he got to see them and spend time with them. Feeling darkness begin to seep into his emotions, Ryan quickly said, “Your turn.”

  “Um. Coffee, tea or soda?”

  “Coffee, definitely. And sometimes soda. How about you? Are you one of those people who drink a soda first thing in the morning?”

  “Sometimes, but I also drink coffee. Of course, now I’d just be happy with a glass of cold water.”

  “True.” Ryan leaned his head back against the wall and pondered his next question. “Cat or dog?”

  “Oh, that’s a hard one. I think a lot depends on the animal. I’ve never had a pet, so I can’t say I have a real preference.”

  “Well, I do. It’s going to have to be a dog even though I don’t have a pet either. When I was a kid, I had a friend who had a cat, and I discovered that I had a bit of an allergy to them.”

  After a brief discussion about other animals they liked and disliked, they finished their five questions, sticking to rather mundane ones like their favorite colors. When silence fell between them, Ryan found himself searching his memory for anything he could recall about Hannah Walsh.

  He’d actually assumed that she’d been rescued. He recalled hearing about the rescue of the kidnapped aid workers a couple of months after they’d been taken, but he hadn’t realized that not all of them had been freed.

  Before he could ask her anything further, the sound of her even breathing told him she’d fallen asleep again. The frequency and ease with which she fell asleep concerned him. It was almost as if her body didn’t have the strength or energy to stay awake. But without being able to see her, Ryan had no idea of how to accurately judge her physical condition.

  He must have fallen asleep himself because the next thing he knew, he woke to the sound of someone opening the door. Though he wasn’t usually a light sleeper, since the kidnapping, it was as if his mind wouldn’t allow him to fully relax in order to sleep deeply. The deepest sleep he’d had lately had come as a result of the drugs he’d been pumped full of.

  “Food.”

  The word was roughly spoken as his foot was jostled. He held his hands up, and when the metal bowl was placed in them, he figured that the idea they had night vision goggles held some merit. The bowl was warm to the touch, and as he lowered it, the aroma wafting from its contents was appealing. He could only hope that it tasted at least as good as it smelled.

  After he had rested the bowl on his lap, the man spoke again. “Water.”

  He held his hand up and wrapped his fingers around the cup that was placed in it. Sadly, the cup didn’t hold the coldness he would have loved to have felt from a glass of water. Still, he immediately brought it to his lips and took a sip. At one time, he would have gulped the liquid in order to ease the parched feeling of his throat, but he’d learned to not assume more water would be forthcoming.

  When he heard the man leave, Ryan frowned. He hadn’t heard the man speak to Hannah at all. Concerned, he called her name a couple of times, saying it more loudly each time.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  When Ryan heard Hannah stir, he let out a sigh of relief.

  “They brought food,” he told her when she finally responded to him saying her name again.

  “Oh. Okay. Thanks.”

  “Do you mind if I say grace for the meal?” Ryan asked.

  “Not at all.”

  Ryan took a moment to consider his prayer then began. “Heavenly Father, we are grateful that no matter where we are, You are with us. I pray that You grant peace to our family and friends who may be worried about us, and if it is Your will, I ask that You work in the hearts of those holding us captive so that they would free us. Thank You for the provision of food and water, and please give us the strength to continue this journey You’ve sent us on. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

  Ryan didn’t take a bite of his food until he heard Hannah move around and the clang of her spoon in the bowl they had left her. Though he was suffering from weakness and lack of energy himself, he had a feeling it was so much worse for Hannah. He wished that he could give her some of his food.

  “This isn’t too bad,” Ryan commented after taking a bite of the food. It seemed to be rice with a soup or stew of some kind and with it was a tortilla or flatbread. He was a bit surprised at the tastiness of the meal which wasn’t too bland or too spicy.

  “The food is usually fairly tasty,” Hannah said.

  “If only there was more of it.” At that precise moment, that was Ryan’s biggest complaint about the meal. If it had been awful tasting, he would have been fine with the amount they’d been given. “Has the food always been like this?”

  “Pretty much. Early on, there were some meals I didn’t care for, but soon enough I learned to appreciate what I was given.”

  They both fell silent as they focused on their meal. Ryan tried to eat slowly, so as to savor the food, but all too soon the bowl was empty. After setting the bowl down, he took small sips of the water, wishing that he could keep some of it to drink later, but it appeared they weren’t inclined to let them keep their cups.

  His full stomach—well, partially full stomach—left him feeling satiated, so instead of trying to converse more with Hannah, Ryan settled back down on his mattress and closed his eyes. He knew they’d be back in awhile to retrieve the dishes, and then apparently, he and Hannah would be taken to use the bathroom.

  He didn’t know if they were only taken to the bathroom once because they only ate and drank once a day, or if they were only fed once a day so they’d only need to use the bathroom once a day. He had no idea if they’d come at any other time if they tried to get their attention. The unknowns were driving him crazy.

  When someone came back a short time later, they took him first, releasing him from the chain around his ankle and then leading him from the cell. When they got to the small room down the hallway, he was surprised they gave him privacy. There was actually a small candle flickering in the corner of the room, which, while not bright enough to illuminate the whole space, was a welcome relief from the darkness.

  Out of curiosity, he took his time using the facilities and washing up afterward, using the small sliver of soap in the dish next to a bucket of water. The break from the darkness was welcome, but he didn’t want to dawdle too long because he knew Hannah needed her time away from the cell too.

  Once he was done, Ryan pounded on the door then allowed himself to be led back to the darkness of the cell without complaint. Once back on his mattress with the chain around his ankle, he heard them take Hannah out. He hadn’t heard the clank of metal before she left and wondered if she was always left unchained. Perhaps they didn’t view her as a threat.

  As the minutes ticked by without Hannah’s return, Ryan felt a pit forming in his stomach. He knew that in situations like this, women were often not treated well. Given how long Hannah had been in captivity, he would be naive to assume she hadn’t suffered some sort of abuse. If abuse was happening, being in a weakened condition would only make it worse.

  He didn’t want to think about it, but at the same time, if she’d actually suffered through something like that, it would be wrong of him not to acknowledge it. While he could pretend nothing had happened to her as long as she didn’t confirm it, she would never have that luxury.

  From the moment he’d been taken, Ryan’s prayer had been for his own freedom, but in the time he’d been in this new place, he’d found himself worrying more about Hannah’s well-being than his own. While he wanted to be rescued, he had the feeling that Hannah needed to be rescued. Sooner rather than later.

  His concern continued to grow as time moved on without Hannah coming back. It could have been just minutes, but it felt like hours before he finally heard the rattle of the door. No words were spoke
n by whoever had brought her back, but Ryan heard the shuffle of feet and then she let out a sigh.

  He waited until the door shut again before he asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. I’m fine.”

  Ryan was pretty sure that fine was a stretch, but at least she didn’t seem upset. “I was worried when you didn’t come back right away.” He paused. “Did they hurt you?”

  “No. They have a woman here who does the cooking, so I have to help her with washing up and stuff.”

  “Do they have you do a lot?”

  “Nothing too strenuous. Dishes. Wash clothes. That sort of thing.”

  Ryan felt a surge of anger. “The least they could do is feed you more often if they’re going to make you work.”

  “I understand this will probably make it sound like I’m a victim of Stockholm syndrome, but I know that they can’t afford to feed us more.”

  “Well, then maybe they shouldn’t have kidnapped people if they can’t afford to keep them alive.”

  “That’s very true. These people’s motivations have never been as clear as they were for the people who originally kidnapped me and my co-workers. And even then, I’ve never been able to figure out why they took me since I ended up here.”

  “You think the motivation in kidnapping the others was money?”

  “Yeah, it seemed to be. I mean, it’s not as if we would have been a fount of military information. We were medical aid workers. I certainly had no information that would have benefited them. Of course, I didn’t have any money to give them either.”

  Ryan himself didn’t have military information either. It had been several years since he’d last been in the military, and besides that, his rank had been so low he wouldn’t have been privy to the type of information the kidnappers would have wanted.

  The unknowns for him were the hardest. He wanted to know why. He needed to understand, for it all to make sense. They had beaten them and asked random questions, but in talking with the others when they’d still been together, it seemed there was no rhyme or reason to any of it. It was beyond frustrating to not have a clear idea of why he’d ended up there.