Thomas didn’t want to fight. He wanted quite the opposite. “Truce?” He squeezed her hand.
“Truce.” She squeezed it back. “For now.”
“I guess we’d better get some sleep. You’re welcome to lean on me again.” He swung an arm around her and attempted to draw her close, but she resisted. “Come on. I don’t bite.”
“I don’t know about that,” she teased. “I seem to remember you had quite a dangerous bite in the past.”
“Dangerous? Or Enjoyable?”
“Both,” she said, but even so, she fell against him and laid her head on his shoulder. And after a few sighs and huffs and snuggles, she fell fast asleep.
As usual. While Thomas sat awake for hours.
Still, it gave him time to ponder their discussion. She’d made some good points, but then again, so had he. Regardless of which god was better, in their present circumstances, the choice was easy. Follow Lucifer and live or follow this Jesus and die. And Thomas was not ready to die. Not after he’d finally found Tori again. Now, all he had to do was convince her that allegiance to the NWU and Lucifer was the only logical choice.
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek: for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:31-33
Chapter 19
Tori woke up with Thomas gently stroking her forehead as he used to do when they’d spent the night together so many years ago. All those glorious sensations instantly flooded her, warming every inch of her body right down to her toes. She gave a moan of pleasure before she realized where she was.
And leapt from his arms.
His brows shot up as a sparkle of humor filled his blue eyes.
She wanted to be angry—at herself for feeling things she ought not. But the man before her looked nothing like Thomas Benton, Vice Regent of the NWF North American Region she’d met weeks ago. His normally perfect, slicked-back hair stuck out in all directions. Dark stubble lined his chin, while a streak of mud spread across his face from forehead to cheek. His shirt was torn and stained, his jeans caked in mud, and he smelled like a dumpster left out in the hot sun for weeks.
She giggled.
“What’s so funny?” His brows crossed, joining two smudges of dirt between his eyes.
Dabbing her thumb on her tongue, she attempted to wipe some of the mud away, but he grabbed her hand. “What are you…? Ah, I’m a mess, and I stink.” He lowered his nose to his armpit and cringed. “This is all your fault, you know.”
She smiled. “You’ve changed. You used to be obsessed with your appearance.”
He huffed. “It’s not like I have a choice anymore.”
“I like it.” She held a hand to her nose. “Except for the smell, of course. But the grungy, scruffy look suits you.”
He rubbed the stubble on his jaw and quirked his lips to the side in that sexy smile of his. “It does?”
She slapped his arm. “Don’t get a big head about it.” Yet suddenly she felt self-conscious of her own appearance.Andher smell, a foul smell she wasn’t sure belonged solely to Thomas. “I guess we both could use a shower.”
Rising, she dusted off her jeans and glanced out the window, where the gray of dawn pierced the darkness, then back at the rest of them, fast asleep—Callie and Carla cuddled up to their mother, Sara curled up in a corner, and Aaron, back leaning against the wall, chin on his chest. She hated to wake them, but they had a long day of walking ahead. If only they could find a car that worked, but that would only expose them further.
“I’m going to go pray,” she whispered to Thomas. “Let them sleep a few minutes longer.”
Nodding, he smiled up at her, and in that smile a thousand memories resurfaced, and with them, feelings she’d long since buried. He’d been her first love, and if she were honest, her only real love. Even as a teen, he’d been so caring, so adoring, gentle. How many times had he listened to her as she rambled on about her abusive stepfather and then held her for hours while she’d cried her eyes out?
Jerking her gaze away, she headed out the door into the front of the restaurant. No time for memories. No time for sentimental feelings. And especially no time for romance. Not with a nonbeliever.
“Oh, Lord.” Tori knelt before one of the booths and folded her hands. “I need you. I need Your guidance, Your wisdom, Your protection. I don’t know what I’m doing. These people look to me to keep them safe, to feed them, to guide them to a place where they are protected. But who am I?” Tears began to fall, and she dropped her head to the sticky booth. “I’m a nobody. A woman who didn’t even have the common sense not to get involved in all the evil of this world. Please help me.”
I am with you, daughter, until the end of the age.
Although she wasn’t sure she was only remembering a Bible verse or hearing directly from the Lord, she hoped desperately for the latter. “I know, Father,” she murmured. “But I feel so lost.”
