Page 146 of Wyatt

Not embracing the inheritance of the family who wanted to adopt her.

You still have that home, honey.

Tears ran into her ears as she lay in the heat of the camper, staring up at the window cut into the ceiling. Trees swayed in the breeze.

What if she stopped holding back, afraid of being abandoned and…gave over her heart? Not just to Wyatt, but the family who wanted her.

The God who wanted her.

Commit yourself to the Lord. Let Him deliver you. Let Him rescue you, because He delights in you.

The tape muted her words, but she heard them in her head.“Please, God. Forgive me for being afraid. Forgive me for always taking my life into my own hands. I need You to rescue me. Please—rescue me!”

You don’t have to fix this, Coco. When you are weak, He is strong. Because to Him, you belong.

Belong. Her own words rang back to her.I wanted to be a Marshall with everything inside me.

Yeah, well, what would a Marshall do if they were tied up with a bomb strapped to their body?

Knox would think his way out maybe, and Tate would have never gotten here in the first place. Ford would use what he had, and RJ would file back through her research to figure out some hidden answer. Wyatt…

Wyatt wouldn’t give up. Wyattnevergave up.

If she could just stay alive, he would find her, she knew it in her bones.

Think. The duct tape had half-ripped off her mouth, but she couldn’t just lay here and scream. Still she worked off the tape with her tongue, enough to breathe.

“Help! Help!” But her voice was muffled inside the trailer.

Besides, who knew where she was?

Think!

Her captor had zipped up the bomb over her body, and it didn’t have a dead man’s switch, so probably she could take it off without it exploding.

If she could take it off, she could simply run, leave it here to explode.

She was still taped up, sure, but she could reach the window, kick it out. Squeeze through.

And…the man had said that he didn’t want her noises to upset anyone—so there’d be people around where he left her.

Hopefully people who could call the police.

You’re so small. I was always worried I’d crush you.

Shewassmall. And this vest was big. And he had made the mistake of wrapping it around her body like a burrito.

Or a hotdog bun.

She leaned up, and with her mouth grabbed the zipper of the vest, and slowly, her neck aching, managed to move it down an inch, maybe two.

Enough to get her head through the opening.

Then she pushed herself up on the bed to give herself room, bore down, and began to wiggle.

Her body moved inside the vest. She drew in a breath, brought her shoulder blades in and moved her hips.

The vest stayed, her body moved.

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