ABOUT THE BOOK
Taken!
A detour through the park leads Cooper, Gordy, Hiro, and Lunk straight into a trap, and Gordy is abducted! For the kidnapper, it's all a game, a way to settle an old score, with no one getting hurt. But evil has away of escalating, and once his identity is discovered, the rules change.Despite the best of police efforts, the hours tick by without a clue or a ransom call, leaving everyone to their own fears. Gordy is gone. Cooper descends deeper into a living nightmare, imagining the worst for his best friend and cousin. Hours stretch into days, and talks of a memorial service begin to surface. But Cooper still feels his cousin is alive and develops a reckless plan, changing all the rules. Now the one who set out to rescue his friend needs to be rescued himself. Sometimes rescuing a friend from darkness means going in after them.
EXCERPT
Chapter 15, pages 80-81
They rounded another level, coasting down the
ramp. No silver minivan. No clues to lead them to Gordy. “God,” Lunk whispered.
“If you’re really out there, and you really care—which I’m not so sure you do,
how could you let this happen?” His throat burned.
Lunk was going through the motions searching
for Gordy. Looking for a van that didn’t exist. Not in Rolling Meadows, anyway.
If the van was sitting in a parking lot someplace, it was more likely in
Wisconsin or Indiana, depending on which way the kidnapper headed. If the van
was in town, it would have been found by now. By the cops, or Gordy’s dad.
Yeah, Lunk was definitely involved in the
search effort. But it wasn’t because he felt there was any real hope of finding
Gordy. It was more about being a friend to Coop. Until Coop came to grips with
reality. Until he accepted what Lunk already knew. Gordy was gone, and he was
never coming back.
Coop had the lead, and he pedaled down to the
next level in the concrete parking garage. “We still have three or four more
levels,” he said over his shoulder.
Did he really believe it would make a
difference? There could be twenty more levels and they weren’t going to find
that minivan. Lunk hung back a bike length or two. He wasn’t looking at the
parked cars so much. He kept his eyes on Cooper.
Cooper swiped at his cheeks. Knocking back
tears, no doubt. Was he beginning to accept the truth? You wouldn’t know it by
watching him. Coop stayed on high alert, looking from one side to the other as
if he might see the silver minivan at any moment. Desperately searching for a
trail leading somehow to Gordy. Like so many were doing. Coop’s dad. Gordy’s
dad. Their entire families. The police. Hiro. Kids at school. All of them on a
useless, hopeless quest.
Now Lunk felt his eyes burning. If God was
real, then he certainly didn’t care about anyone. God was no better than his
own dad—hurting decent people. Cruel. Letting some sick-o take Gordy. “Why
didn’t you take me, God?” He felt tears pooling. “You should have taken me. Less people would have cried.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Happily married for more than thirty years to Cheryl, the love of my life.Dad to three grown sons and two daughter-in-lawsElder Chairman in my church and high school small group leaderFull time speaker and author since 2004Living in the greater Chicago areaGrateful for God’s incredible grace and mercy to me in countless ways.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment