Chasing Sunsets (5 page)

“That’s why the patrol cars. So that won’t happen this time, right?” Marcus waited. He wanted more than hope here. He wanted a promise.

“You have our word.” The mayor nodded. “This center will be for kids looking for a way out.”

“Great.” Marcus led the way to the door. He couldn’t get out of this meeting fast enough. Yes, of course, he knew the streets were tough. They were dangerous to anyone in this part of town. But if someone didn’t offer these kids hope, then nothing would ever change.

So maybe that’s what the whispered response meant while he was driving in. Maybe this was exactly what God had cho
sen him to do—to give kids hope where currently they had none. If things had never been worse, like the officers said, then the rest of the whisper made sense, too.

He had been chosen for such a time as this.

JAG AND ASPYN
stood in the corner of the room, invisible to human eyes. The news was troubling but not surprising. They had been told from the beginning that this mission would be dangerous. And so it would be. The officers had no idea how serious the gang activity would be that night.

But Jag and Aspyn knew.

They knew about Dwayne Davis and his plan to kill Marcus Dillinger. They knew about the trap Lexy was in and the desperation that filled every home along the streets of this neighborhood. That’s why they were here.

It was time to decide where they would take their stands.

“I’ll be a police officer.” Jag spoke first.

“Good.” Aspyn looked serious, her mind working. “I’ll be a volunteer. A local parent.”

Jag liked the idea.

“We need to break up the gang activity tonight. EastTown plans to kill Dwayne. They know he’s pushing to be the leader of the WestKnights.”

“Such a waste.” Aspyn stayed in place. “Why do they want to kill each other?”

“Sons and daughters of Adam have strange ways of finding identity and power.” Jag watched the two police officers, the mayor, and Marcus Dillinger. “The offer of love and salvation
is available for any of them.” He felt the pain of earth. “But they choose this.”

They needed a plan for tonight. Aspyn was small but capable. Jag believed in her. He steadied himself. “The biggest danger tonight is Dwayne Davis. One of us has to stay here at the center. Distract Marcus. Keep him from going out front. No way Dwayne’s coming inside the center tonight. Not with the police here.”

“I’ll stay. I can distract him.” Aspyn’s confidence was unwavering. “All of heaven will be praying. Don’t forget that.”

“Exactly.” Jag thought for a moment. “I’ll deal with the EastTown gang . . . and keep watch over Dwayne.”

Aspyn must’ve seen the look in his eyes. She put her hand on his shoulder. “You have nothing to avenge, Jag. Nothing to prove.” Her smile was weighted with understanding. “This is a new mission.”

“I know.” New mission or not, Jag had a score to settle with the enemy. He needed to succeed at this Angels Walking mission. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Aspyn knew Jag’s past, the reasons he hadn’t been on a mission in ten years. “Remember how this works. You can’t have the assistance of heaven unless you follow the rules.”

“Of course.” He reached out to her. “Let’s pray.”

They held hands and asked God to guide them, to give them wisdom and vision, and to help them prevent any loss of life—one of the directives of those angels who walked among the sons of Adam.

Jag turned to Aspyn. “Godspeed.”

“You, too.”

And with that they were gone.

5

J
AG HAD NO TROUBLE
finding the alley where the EastTown Boyz hunkered down, waiting for nightfall. He could see the enemy gathered in the shadows up and down the passageway. He could feel the presence of darkness.

You’re not winning this one
,
he thought to himself. “Jesus has already defeated you.” He uttered the words out loud and smiled when the demons in the shadows cringed, when they shrank back in fear.

The name of Jesus. Scripture was clear about the power of that one name. At the mention of Jesus the demons had no choice but to obey. Every time.

But that didn’t mean the enemy would run from a fight.

As soon as they gathered themselves, the dark beings lunged toward Jag, hissing at him, trying to scare him from their gathering. “This is our territory.”

But Jag wasn’t about to move. “I’m here in the name of Jesus.”

Again they twisted, writhing in pain at the sound of the name of the Savior.

Jag felt a holy satisfaction. How dare the enemy send his evil army to destroy the sons and daughters of God, His chosen ones, His creation? Moments like this made Jag impatient for the time when all angels would be unleashed and the enemy would be overthrown once and for all. When time ended and eternity began.

Until then, Jag wasn’t backing down. The scene about to play out tonight was all too familiar. He’d already failed on a day like this one.

While the demons hissed and spat at him, Jag remembered. The years faded and Jag was there again. That Angels Walking mission had also been in Los Angeles. Jag had been assigned to protect a man of great faith, a police officer. Terrance Williams was his name. He had been called to testify against one of the city’s most notorious drug dealers.

There had been only two days left in the trial when Jag failed.

Up until that point Jag had kept Terrance Williams safe at every turn. Two hit men had been assigned the job of killing the officer. In the weeks that led up to that fateful day, Jag had found ways to distract Williams, ways that had saved his life. Jag had also created obstacles for the killers, delays that had kept the men from carrying out the murder.

The whole time Jag knew the situation. The murder was the bad guys’ only hope to avoid a guilty verdict. If the trial reached a guilty verdict before the hired guns could kill Williams, then the deal was off. No hit, no payment. No point.
With only two days left in the trial, Jag was hovering behind Officer Williams’s car when the man stopped at his son’s school.

This was not part of the plan.

Jag hadn’t known that on that day the man’s son was in a class play, or that the boy had invited his father to watch. Jag had missed that. Even now, with a host of demons threatening him, Jag could see what had happened that day. Terrance Williams had parked his police car across the street from the school and gone inside. Jag had been nervous, his instincts on high alert. His Angels Walking partner had been across town, working behind the scenes at the courthouse.

So Jag was alone.

He stayed in the auditorium with Officer Williams for the entire hour-long school program. It was an hour Jag could still remember, every detail. The boy attended a Christian school and that day he sang a solo from the front of the stage. “How Great Thou Art.” Halfway through the performance Jag saw Terrance Williams wipe tears from his eyes.

The boy was ten years old and everything to the man.

Which created a problem. What if Terrance decided to take the boy home with him early? For weeks, when Terrance picked his son up, Jag had his Angels Walking partner with him. Together they had been able to protect both father and son.

But that day Jag could feel the demons, same as he could feel them now. Without his partner he would be outnumbered if a battle ensued.

Long before the program was over, Jag knew the hit men would be waiting for Williams, their guns trained on him from
the moment he left the school. They had followed him here. Jag knew he would have to appear like one of the parents picking up their child at school.

But he had wondered if his efforts would be enough.

As the program ended, Jag had materialized in a hallway outside the auditorium. He looked like any other parent as he walked into the crowded room. Quickly he found Terrance Williams and his son, Ryan. Jag had walked up and put his hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “Hello. You’re Ryan Williams, right?”

The child looked startled. Same with his father. Officer Williams stepped forward. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“I’m Jag. My nephew Billy Goodall is in Ryan’s class.” Jag smiled. But he could see the confusion on the officer’s face.

“How do you know Ryan?” The man pulled his son close.

“Ryan’s been a good friend to my nephew.” It was true. Information Jag had picked up during the mission. “Billy gets picked on by the other kids, but Ryan . . . he stands up for Billy.”

Ryan smiled and looked at his dad. “Billy’s my friend.”

Jag remembered feeling desperate. He was out of ideas. He needed time to figure out how to get between Terrance and the hit men. If Jag could delay the officer long enough, the hit men would leave. They needed the cover of a crowd to pull off their deed without getting caught.

“Okay, well . . . thank you for saying so.” Terrance Williams took a step back. “We need to go.”

Jag could still feel the way his heart had fallen. If only they could’ve stayed in that moment. He would’ve begged God to freeze time so that the father and son might’ve stayed there, safe in the auditorium.

But freezing time was not something angels could do.

“See you.” Terrance Williams waved and then he smiled at his son. “Mom made lasagna!”

“Hold on!” Jag had followed him. For five minutes he tried stalling by asking the officer questions. But in the end, it wasn’t enough. As they left the school, Jag stayed behind them. He saw the hit man across the street behind the wheel of his car, saw him lift his gun, aiming for Terrance Williams, and in that split second Jag tried to knock both of them to the ground. “Look out!” Jag had shouted.

But years of police training kept Terrance standing on his feet even as his son hit the grass face first. The bullet was through Terrance’s chest before Jag could say another word.

“Daddy!” Ryan screamed, and ran to his father’s side. “Daddy, no!”

Demons celebrated in the air above them as Jag rushed up to Terrance. A crowd gathered quickly, but Jag kept them at bay. “Give us room. I know CPR.”

But even as Jag began administering chest compressions, he knew it was too late. The gunman had been too accurate. Ryan stayed near his father’s head, patting his hair and crying. “Please, Daddy, wake up! Please, God!”

That afternoon Jag tried for twelve minutes until the paramedics arrived. Only then did he stand up and disappear into the crowd. He watched the rest of the scene from a few feet away, hovering over the fallen officer and his brokenhearted son.

Please, God
,
he had prayed.
Don’t let him die.

Paramedics finally helped Ryan away from his dying father. Even then the boy stood as close as he could, reaching
out both hands and crying for his daddy. It was a scene etched forever in Jag’s mind. They didn’t officially declare Officer Williams dead until an hour later at the hospital. By then Ryan’s mother was with him, along with half the officers from Terrance Williams’s precinct.

But none of that changed the truth for Jag.

He had failed.

The loss of Terrance Williams made Jag doubt his very purpose. He had been given one task—protect the life of Terrance Williams. Yes, God knew the number of a man’s days. But sometimes that number was small because the enemy had cut it short.

The demons in the alleyway hissed at him again, grabbing for him.

“Jesus will win this battle.”

Screeches filled the air, the demons recoiling in painful fear.

Jag remembered what happened after his last failed Angels Walking mission. The other angels had tried to comfort him. Failure was always possible. The enemy would win some battles—but not the war. The other police officers would care for Ryan Williams now. He would never be without the love of a father figure.

Jag had appreciated their efforts. Their words were true.

But none of that would ever give Ryan Williams his daddy back. Jag had failed. He would always believe the failure was his fault. He should’ve found another way to protect Terrance.

It had taken every one of the past ten years to believe he could be used by God again. When he learned of this mission, of the danger it entailed, he knew it was time. His chance—
not only to find victory in this mission, but to make right the one he’d failed at a decade ago.