Карен Кингсбери - A Distant Shore [calibre]

“If I could go back and take you from that place… give you the life you deserved, Eliza…” He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Nothing… nothing you ever saw or did at that place was your fault.” He gently faced her. “You know that.”

“Yes.” The peace in her eyes was not of this world. “But I made choices I regret. If I had it to do again, I’d let the guards shoot me rather than talk a single girl into going to the Palace.” She sighed. “I want to put everything about that time behind me.” She slipped off her swimsuit cover-up and tossed it on the dry sand. Then she took a few steps into the shallow water. “Please?”

From his phone app, Jack had read the Scriptures about baptism on the elevator ride down to the lobby. He peeled off his T-shirt and set it on the shore. He was ready to do this. They walked out ten yards or so, where the water was waist deep. It was only May, so the sea was chilly.

Eliza didn’t seem to mind. She wasn’t shivering or jittery. Her eyes met his. “Go ahead, Jack.”

He nodded. “Throughout the book of Acts, when someone came to life-changing faith in Jesus, they got baptized. Jesus, Himself, was baptized by John—to show us the way.” A hope that knew no limits filled him. “Eliza… do you want Jesus to be your Lord and Savior?”

“I do.” A smile lit up her face.

Jack remembered how this was done. When he was growing up, baptisms happened regularly at his church.

He stood beside her and brought her hand to her face so she could hold her nose. “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For the forgiveness of your sins and for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Buried with Him in death”—Jack laid her backward under the water and then carefully lifted her out again—“raised with Him to new life, Eliza. Now and evermore.”

Salt water streamed down her hair and brow, but nothing could dampen the joy on her face, the healing that filled her eyes. She laughed and raised her hands in the air. “Yes!” She looked to the sky again. “Yes, God!”

“Congratulations.” He searched her eyes. Maybe this was only the beginning for the two of them. It was possible, right? They had made it this far. He put his hand alongside her face. “I’ve never… experienced anything like that.”

Laughter spilled from her lips. “I feel it. I feel God here.” Then she turned to Jack and held him, like she might never let go. “I’m brand-new, Jack. Like when I was little.”

When she was little…

Suddenly, in that very instant, Jack knew what he had to do. He could remember again her child-sized body, limp in his arms when she was just nine years old, the way it felt to rescue her from the waves and carry her to shore. Her arms around his neck like they were right now.

I need to tell her, God.

Yes, my son. Today is a new beginning.

Jack took a deep breath. As pinks and blues streaked across the Cancún sky, they gathered their things and walked up the beach. She dried off with one of the resort’s blue-striped towels, but though the air was still warm, she was shivering. Jack found a sweatshirt in her bag, and gave it to her. “Here.”

“Thanks.” She pulled it over her head. “I think I’m just… amazed. In awe.” Her damp hair hung down her back, but her face was dry now. “I can’t believe it.”

Jack had a feeling that was about to be a theme. Again, there could be traffickers watching them, but he wasn’t worried. He and Eliza were more than convincing. They had long since moved past pretending. He took her into his arms and hugged her again. For a long time.

Finally he stepped back. “Eliza, what was the one thing?”

She was still smiling. “The one thing?”

“Yes.” He searched her face. “You said you only lied about one thing in your emails. What was it?”

The look in her eyes changed and the attraction was back. He could see it in her sudden shyness. “You want me to tell you?”

Hidden facts and clandestine behavior were part of life for undercover agents and informants. But not with the two of them. Not anymore. “Yes.” He looked all the way to her heart. “No more secrets between us.”

“Okay.” She stepped back, but she didn’t look away. “When I told you I only saw you as a friend.” She laced her fingers between his, still facing him, their faces inches apart. “That wasn’t true, Jack. You could never be just a friend.”

“No.” He drew her closer still, and brushed his cheek against hers. “You’ll never be only a friend to me, either.”

“Really?” Tears filled her eyes. “You mean it?”

“Eliza…” Everything disappeared except her. “I love you. I’m in love with you.”

There were no people on the beach, no strangers walking toward them or studying them, not that Jack could see. He could barely remember his name let alone the mission they were on. And in a way that he couldn’t stop if he had all the strength in the world, he kissed her.

The fire between them was instant, and after a minute Jack moved a few feet away from her. Now was the time. He had to tell her the truth. No matter what she thought of him after today. Before he changed his mind. He breathed in sharp. “There’s something… something I have to tell you, too.”

Concern flickered in her face. Like she couldn’t imagine anything that might cause him to break the moment they’d been in.

He eased his fingers between hers once more. Make her understand, please, God. “You aren’t going to believe this. Because… when I found out, I didn’t believe it either.”

She held more tightly to his hands and waited.

“When I met you at the Palace that day… it wasn’t the first time.”

Confusion filled her expression. “It was.” She shook her head. “I’d… I’d never seen you before.”

“You had.” Jack hesitated. “Eliza, that day in the ocean… the teenage boy who rescued you.” He fought to keep eye contact, to hold on to the connection with her. “That was me. My family and I… we went to that exact beach every summer. Including the summer of your rescue.”

Even in the fading light, he could see the blood drain from her face. “No… that boy was younger than you and he was with his—” Eliza released his hands and moved a few feet away. Her body began to shake. “Your brother.” She put her hand over her mouth and when she dropped it, she shook her head. “No, Jack. Not your brother!”

Then she turned and ran from him, along the shore away from the resort. As if by running she could put distance between the two of them, distance from something she hadn’t known until now. The awful truth about her rescue. A rescue she had never wanted in the first place.

And the price Jack had paid to make it happen.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

—Deuteronomy 31:6

If she ran for the next week, she couldn’t get far enough from Jack. She didn’t care that she couldn’t breathe or that night was falling. Don’t stop, she told herself. Keep running. All the way to the other end of the beach. Or the other side of the world. However far and fast she could go to get away from him.

It couldn’t have been true. It wasn’t possible. And how come he hadn’t told her sooner? She had no idea he’d ever been to Belize before. Her mind raced faster than her bare feet. Of all the people in all the world, how could it be?

Jack Ryder had rescued her that day?

Finally when the resort was so far behind her she couldn’t see it, and when darkness spread across the shoreline ahead of her, Eliza stopped. She gasped for breath the way she had as a child that day. No! No, God, please. Not Jack. Not his brother.