“Gracie,” Jenna called out loud enough to silence the others, who now looked at her with even more curiosity.
Some of Jesus’s men shook their heads and muttered that Jenna was loco. That she was of the devil and would bring death upon them all. This angered Jesus and he barked an order for them to shut up.
But his men were right—only it wouldn’t be Jenna who brought death and the bowels of hell down on their heads. Isaac and his men would be the ones to carry out that mission, and it would be the most satisfying mission of his life.
“Does he tell the truth?” Jenna asked Gracie in a solemn voice.
Gracie peered around Zack’s back much to his protests and then stepped out to the side, nearly causing Zack to lose his mind. But Gracie had decided that if Jenna had risked so much in order to save Ari, she wouldn’t be the only one to do so.
Gracie reluctantly nodded, staring at the drug lord with a mixture of fear and disgust. “He speaks the truth.”
Jesus was visibly confused as he yanked his gaze between the two women. Then he frowned, his brow crinkling as he stared at Gracie, as if finally realizing her ability.
“If you think to change the deal in any way, I’d advise against it,” Jenna said, steel in her voice. “If you don’t keep your word, then neither do I.”
“Then how do I know you’re telling the truth?” he said mockingly to Jenna.
She nodded her head in Gracie’s direction. “Ask her,” she said defiantly.
Jesus snorted. “Oh, I’m supposed to believe she really reads minds.”
Gracie’s expression became one of disgust, and then she began to recite in great detail precisely what the drug lord was currently thinking. Like how a bunch of uppity women who hadn’t ever had to deal with a real man and who’d been allowed to get away with far too much, especially when it came to disrespecting the men who had power over them, should all be firmly put in their place by a real man like himself. She looked like she wanted to throw up when she added that there was nothing more that he wanted than to be able to fuck the truth into them all so that by the time he was finished with them, they’d know who their lord and master was.
His eyes widened, but he seemed amused and not at all regretful of the broadcasting of his thoughts. He smirked in her direction, as if to tell Gracie she was certainly included in his lascivious fantasy. Then he raised his hand. “Okay, okay, then tell me, is Jenna telling the truth? If I honor my end of the bargain by allowing her to heal the woman and allow the rest of you to go free and unharmed, then she’ll go with me without fighting and do every single thing I demand of her?”
Gracie’s eyes filled with tears, which should have been answer enough, but again she nodded and then choked out, “Yes, she will never break her word as long as you don’t give her cause to do so by breaking yours.”
“Very good,” Jesus said with smug satisfaction.
He shoved Jenna forward in Ari’s direction, his and his men’s guns trained on her and all the others as tensions rocketed in the area.
“Make it quick,” he barked.
Jenna stumbled past her mother’s body, her face whitening. She closed her eyes and continued on, squaring her shoulders even as pain burned brightly in her eyes. Pain and so much betrayal that it sickened Isaac. Betrayal he was part of, because he’d failed to keep his promise to Jenna.
“Everyone away from the woman except Jenna,” Jesus barked. “Anyone make a single move not to my liking, then I open fire and I’ll kill every last one of you fuckers.”
Jenna found Isaac standing in the distance, and her eyes filled with tears. “I love you,” she mouthed.
Before he could respond, she turned and found Beau, who was being forced to leave Ari’s side by his own men and was putting up one hell of a fight.
“Beau,” Jenna called softly.
Beau stopped immediately and turned to face Jenna, his eyes bright with tears, his face a picture of complete devastation.
“I’ll save her and your child. Please trust me. I’ll do just enough that if you get them both to the hospital, I vow on my life, they’ll be okay.”
“I’m trusting you with all that I am and all that I have or will ever have,” Beau said in an aching voice. “Please save her, Jenna. You’ll never know what your sacrifice means to me. Never. I owe you a debt that can never be repaid. But know that I will do everything I can to try.”
Jenna knelt beside Ari and gathered her hands in hers, and spoke gently to the woman to ascertain whether she was conscious or not. Ari’s eyelids weakly fluttered open and she looked up at Jenna with pain-filled eyes, tears pooling in a swirl of arresting colors.
“You have to save my baby,” Ari whispered. “He shot me in the stomach. I’m so afraid my baby is lost.”
“Never give up hope,” Jenna said. “I need you to lie still and try to believe. Have faith and don’t give up, Ari. You can’t give up. I need you to help me by doing that.”
Without further delay, Jenna placed both hands directly over the abdominal wound, blood covering her fingers and palms, and she closed her eyes, calling on the gift that at times had seemed more like a curse. But right now she embraced it for what it was. A miracle. God’s sweet mercy and grace. She sent light radiating into Ari’s shattered womb and gently cradled the tiny life in her palm, encasing her in the most radiant, warm, glowing light Jenna had ever called forth.
Isaac and the others watched, stunned as light illuminated Jenna until she appeared every bit the angel he’d dubbed her the very first time she’d used her shining goodness and light to heal him. Even Jesus looked upon the healing in astonishment, as if he truly hadn’t been certain that Jenna was all she’d been purported to be.
Ari’s entire body was bathed in the golden light and was lifted from the ground, where she hovered in midair six inches from where she’d lay a few moments ago.
Jenna began to sing a soft lullaby and it was obvious she was holding the infant’s life-form to her, refusing to let her go. The notes of the song lifted hauntingly in the air and flowed through the distance until not a single person present was unaffected by the amazing event occurring right in front of them.
“Be strong, sweet baby,” Jenna crooned. “God is with you. You are his child and he will forever grant you mercy and grace. You must fight as your mother fights and cling to the light in her womb. Never move away from that light until the time comes when you are called away. You are his chosen,” she whispered, after which she continued to hum the sweet lullaby.
Then she closed her eyes and leaned over Ari, who’d slowly been lowered back to lie on the ground, and finally it was evident that she was finished but so exhausted by the session that she continued to lie over Ari’s body as if protecting her, still too drained to move.