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“I’m Angelina Harding. Who’s in charge?”
“I’ll get Steve.” His gaze traveled over her curiously before he turned and strode back to the building. Almost immediately, an older man appeared. Dressed in scruffy pants and a button-down top, boots and a hat, he came forward. He was as dark as midnight, yet had the kindest eyes.
“David!” The man tipped his hat. “I’m Steve Hawkins,” he said to Angelina. “You’d be Marcus’s sister, wouldn’t you?”
She shook his hand, shaken by how nice the man seemed. Forcing her professionalism to the forefront, she nodded. “I received a call from him yesterday. What’s going on? Where’s Marcus?”
The older man frowned. His gaze darted to David and then back. “I’m afraid I have some bad news, miss.” He took his hat off and held it respectfully before him. “Your brother has gone missing.”
Angelina blinked. “Excuse me?”
The man glanced at David again.
Irritated she started to correct him but David spoke up. “Has someone called the authorities?”
The man nodded. He motioned with his hat. “Let’s get in outta this sun. You’ll burn fast down here if you aren’t used to it.”
He turned and headed to the house.
Numbly, Angelina followed.
After years of being angry with her brother, full of bitterness, refusing to see him, then she got news like this? She was furious with him, and yet…
“Are you all right?”
She glanced at David and realized he was carefully watching her reaction. She forced her neutral expression back over her features. “Fine. Where are the authorities?”
She stepped into the warm house and realized just how chilled she’d become. Her body immediately reacted to the warmth.
“Ted, get some tea please,” Steve called to the man who’d originally greeted them and now stood across the room, rustling through some papers on a table. He looked up, glanced at Angelina again, then nodded and disappeared down a hallway.
Another man stood up, a set of ledgers in his hands. Tall, distinguished, he wore a dark suit and boots.
“This is Frank Henson. Frank, this is Marcus’s sister.”
Frank nodded. “Sorry about the bad news, Ms. Harding.”
“He’s one of our financiers. He’s been in on your brother’s venture since nearly the beginning,” Steve explained to Angelina. Turning to Frank, he said, “Can we finish this up later, Frank?”
The gentleman nodded. “Of course. I understand.” He studied David curiously and nodded. “David.” Then his gaze went back to Angelina. He was probably wondering why she looked as if she’d been dragged through a drain pipe backwards, she thought. He nodded again. “I’ll be back later.”
He left, going through the back hall that Angelina thought might lead toward the kitchen. Though she’d been here before, she didn’t remember everything, some things had faded with time.
Steve led them into the spacious living room and motioned to the sofa.
Angelina didn’t realize David had followed until he seated himself by her. Why was he acting so protectively, she wondered.
“Is your head okay, miss, or do I need to get you medical attention?”
“I’m fine—”
“She needs medical attention,” David said at the same time.
She scowled at him.
Ted brought in the tea and Steve said something in another language to Ted who replied, then nodded and left. There certainly hadn’t been this many people either, back then, Angelina thought. Frank, Ted, Steve…all living here with her brother?
“Ted also helps manage the mission.” Steve nodded to the nice-looking man who had slipped out the front door. She saw him glance back one last time and then disappear from sight.
Steve handed a cup of tea to Angelina. “What did the authorities say?” she demanded as soon as Ted was gone.
She didn’t want to play tea party. She wanted to find out about her brother.
David accepted the tea and handed it to Angelina. She scowled, but took it, favoring her right arm as she did.
“I was gone last night,” Steve began and Angelina wondered if he was purposely trying to ignore her direct question.
Steve passed tea to David and then took his own. He added cream and sugar and stirred. Expressive eyes filled with anger when he finally looked back to her. “I had to run one of the students into town. She’d been feeling bad and the nurse was gone. It was our night out anyway so most of the students were away. Your brother told me to stop and pick up some groceries on the way back for the house, and so I was later than normal getting back—”
“And?” Angelina interrupted. She reached up for her head, realizing she was being rude but really only wanting an answer.
“Forgive me, miss. But I thought you’d want to know why your brother was alone. When I got back, well, the house was empty. Furniture was overturned and some of the lamps broken. We just now only an hour past got the house put to rights.”
Despite being separated from her brother for years, Angelina felt the blood drain from her face. Suddenly she was once again that little girl whose uncle used to drag her brother out of the room to talk with him. “Someone took him.”
David took her tea and set it aside, which snapped her back to the present. She shook herself.
“It looks that way, miss. I called the authorities immediately. They came out and looked around and I told them all that I knew, but…we’re praying.”
Her scowl returned. “Praying?” She stood. “My brother is missing and you’re wasting time praying?”
Steve reacted in shock. “Well we might not know where he is, miss, but God does.”
“Please!” She’d had all she could of this bunk. “What did the police say?”
Steve looked a bit nonplussed by her reaction.
“Angelina.” David’s voice drew her attention. “You might want to let Steve finish his story.”
He was another one of those Christians, but the gentleness in his eyes convinced her to hold her tongue. She was out of line.
Turning back to Steve, she took a deep breath and let it out. “I apologize, Steve. Can you tell me anything else?”
He nodded. “Your brother had contacts with all sorts of underworld types because of the life many of our students come from. You know, he’d hang out and meet them as he was helping others. They might not like his ways, but they respected him. He went into the cities and into the bush alike and was always hearing things. He’s rather a hero around here. He helped cut crime nearly in half. He’d been out making his rounds when he heard something disturbing. He didn’t go into any details with me, but I do know he mentioned you several times and decided he just might ring you up.”
“Did he say anything else?”
Steve shook his head. “The authorities asked me the same thing. No, miss. We’re hoping Jake might be able to tell us something if he regains consciousness.”
“Jake?” David asked.
Surprised, Angelina turned her attention to David.
Steve nodded to David. “When I got back from town, we found this place tore up, and poor Jake was lying in the kitchen unconscious. We think the person or people came in through the back because of the woods and conked poor Jake over the head.”
“Who’s Jake?” Angelina asked, then turned to David. “And just how do you know everyone here?”
David answered this time. “He’s the cook. When Marcus led me to the Lord, Jake took me under his wing. He’s a special friend. And I used to own all of this land.”
“Still do.”
David acknowledged the other man’s comment.
Angelina didn’t ask him to elaborate. Her mind still whirled with the fact that all of these people knew each other and they were all Christians like her brother. She didn’t like that.
Putting it aside, she turned back to Steve. “Did my brother ever keep notes? Anything?”
Steve sighed. “The authorities already asked me that and went through his study.”
Her brother wouldn’t have kept it there. At least not when they were kids. They’d hidden everything from their uncle. “Can I see his bedroom?”
“You need medical attention,” David said gently.
She sighed. He was right.
“Ted sent for the nurse,” Steve told David.
She bristled. “Then I can search his room while we’re waiting for the nurse?”
Her brother, gone. It was starting to sink in that her brother really was missing, and that whatever he’d called her about tied into his disappearance.
Unfortunately, searching his room was going to have to wait as the nurse walked in right then.
Frustration built. “I need to call the police too,” she blurted out.
David touched her hand.
She jerked.
“Look sweet—gelina,” he corrected. His look calmed her as she stared into his eyes. And the way he’d changed the “sweetheart” almost drew a grin—almost.
Still, that gentle touch anchored her. What had happened to her world in the last twenty-four hours?
“I’ll call the authorities and report what has happened. I need to let my boss know why I’m gone as well. You allow the nurse to tend you and then, when someone arrives to take our report, you can question them about your brother. Before that, however, you can search your brother’s room. Maybe you’ll find something that will help them. All right?”
She didn’t want to admit this man’s plan made sense. She tilted her head slightly. “How long have I known you now?”
He smiled, dimples appearing. “Too long, I’m afraid.”
She chuckled. The man had a sense of humor. “I suppose I should apologize for your Jeep.”
“That is going to be hard to explain to my boss.”
“I’ll be glad to elaborate for him.”
“Americans,” he said softly and chuckled.
She lifted an eyebrow in response, which reminded her of the injury.
“You go this way, miss, and Myra will examine you.”
She glanced at the woman who stood quietly off to the side. Large, wide features, but pretty, she had her hair pulled back, wore a pair of faded jeans and a top tucked in with a brown belt. She carried a knapsack in one hand.
Definitely not what she expected a nurse to look like.
Maybe if she got her alone, she could find out a bit more of what was going on, or what had been going on. She glanced at David. “Sounds like a plan.”
David nodded. “Go with her then.”
She stood and David watched her go. When she was gone, he turned to Steve.
“How are you feeling?” Steve asked.
David picked up his tea and drank some. The heat felt good going down his throat. “Like I’ve been run over by my Jeep,” he answered when he was done with the hot liquid.
“How did you end up with Marcus’s sister?”
“That’s a story,” David said. He stood and paced to the window. His back and shoulders ached from going over that cliff. He still couldn’t believe he’d done that and laid that at God’s feet. It had just come to him in a small voice to do it—and they had survived. Of course, they were both sore—but alive and sore were better than the alternative. “I was out making my rounds when this woman came flying out a window of a passing vehicle. I honestly thought the little sheila had tried to kill herself until she jumped up and ran toward me. Bullets exploded about us so I started driving.” He turned and faced Steve. “How did an American—and not just any American, but Marcus’ sister—end up out there in the middle of nowhere?”
“God’s will,” Steve said simply.
“It must have been. I was the only vehicle for kilometers. They shot up the boot and filled the Jeep with holes. I had no petrol left.” He ran a hand through his short sandy hair and sighed. “And I have no idea if the people who were chasing her are still after us. I kept looking over my shoulder the entire time. All I could think was we had to get out of there and get here before something happened to Angelina.”
Why he’d felt that way, he wasn’t sure. But it had been his little wombat he’d worried about instead of himself. She was spirited. And when he’d touched her face in the cave…His blunt fingers had looked so large against her small delicate features. He’d wanted to fix all of her problems, even though he hadn’t known who she was. That was his purpose for being where he’d been.
Steve nodded. “Marcus would appreciate that. I know he’s never forgiven himself for not bringing Angelina with him.”
David nodded. Marcus rarely talked of his sister except to say they came from a bad background, and more was going on with Angelina than he’d understood at the time. David wasn’t sure what that meant, only that years later Marcus had regretted leaving Angelina in the States. He wondered how Marcus could have left such an innocent to fend for herself, though she was spunky and could handle a gun. “I need to call the authorities.”
Steve nodded and David went to the phone and rang up the nearest help. When he was off the phone, he turned back to Steve, who perused him and said, “You look a bit injured yourself.”
David glanced down. “I’m dirty, but the blood is from Angelina. What a sheila,” he said and shook his head. “I’m battered and bruised but I don’t think I have any other injuries.”
Steve nodded. “Still,” he said sipping his tea, “you should get checked out.”
David sank down to the couch. “After Angelina’s done, then. Tell me, why would they grab Marcus and not you, since you both run this mission?”
Steve shook his head and his features became inscrutable. “I don’t know. You know I do a lot of the tending and counseling, but Marcus is the more evangelistic of the two of us. Shari asked me the same thing,” he said referring to his wife who lived in their house about a kilometer away. “She was terrified for me to come to work today. But let me ask you something. Since you’re a millionaire, why didn’t they grab you?”
