CHAPTER 15

DESTINY

I was both horrified and relieved when Brock told me about his murderous past. It did disturb me that he could not only execute other human beings despite how wicked they might have been, but also that he seemingly enjoyed it on some level. However, I was relieved that the killings were situations where justice for various victims had not been served.

The thing is, I knew in my heart, mind, and soul that as far as men go, Brock was a great one. Yes, he may have killed other men in cold blood, but it was before he became a believer. However, he stopped killing after seeking and eventually surrendering his life to Christ.

After Brock confessed his darkest sins to me, my mind was so absorbed with his spiritual struggle and his tormented guilt that the next direction he went took me off guard.

“It’s not only about forgiveness,” he had said.

I was ready to reply in agreement and acknowledge that repentance follows forgiveness. Then he said if I was able to look past his past that he would like us to have a future together as a couple. My heart pounded with excitement at the prospect. I blubbered something about “I do.” Then Brock made a joke about being glad that I had said that instead of Nora. Then he kissed me.

It was quick peck, and I wanted a little more. So I looped my arm around his neck and pulled him back. For a minute or two, we became lost in our lip lock. Then a voice startled us back to reality.

“Hello, the camp,” Captain Kirk’s voice boomed, as the pastor warned us of his approach.

Brock sprang up from our seat on the bench like a naughty schoolboy.

“Brock, sit back down,” I said as I pulled on his hand. But he remained standing, as if at attention in the military. Well, our pastor was a former army officer.

“Sorry to intrude,” Captain Kirk said as he walked up to us. “I was talking with your aunt this morning, Dee. Now that your ordeal is over, what do you two say we have a couple of baptisms this afternoon? It’s going to be a hot, humid day, and a perfect time to make use of God’s natural baptistery.”

Captain Kirk waved his hand upstream to a deeper, calmer part of Cottonwood Creek. Brock looked like a deer in headlights.

“We’d love to, pastor,” I declared.

“What do you say, Brock?” Captain Kirk asked, addressing my man. Yes, my man indeed!

Brock looked at me with frightened eyes. I stared back with an earnest intensity and then smiled reassuringly at him. Brock’s face relaxed and his eyes filled with love.

“If you think I’m ready,” Brock said, turning to look at Captain Kirk.

“From my position, I think you’re more than ready,” he replied. “But only you truly know your heart and mind.”

Brock looked back at me, and I continued to smile as I nodded.

“I’d be honored if you baptized me, pastor,” Brock said, smiling happily. “It’s time I publicly acknowledge the new life I have in Christ.”

“Good, good,” Captain Kirk replied, clapping his hands twice. “I’ll let you kids get back to your conversation. Fellowship does start in fifteen minutes, though.”

After Captain Kirk turned to leave, Brock and I glanced at each other and burst into laughter. Then Brock turned stone cold serious.

“Dee, do you really think I’m ready?”

“You’re sure that you’re never going to do what you did to those sex offender guys again, right?”

“Positive.”

“God forgives you, sweetie. Don’t you believe that?”

“I do, Dee. That’s not the problem though.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

“Couldn’t be,” I couldn’t help replying, even though I was beginning to feel hurt.

“Then who?” Brock responded with a sad smile.

I was really starting to feel hurt now, and I didn’t know why. I stopped playing games. I needed answers.

“Why am I the problem, Brock?”

“I’m gonna tell Captain Kirk that I’m actually not ready.”

I cupped Brock’s face with both of my hands and made him look at me.

“Why am I the problem?” I demanded with a quiver in my voice.

“I can’t do what we were doing when Captain Kirk walked up and remain celibate,” Brock said.

I almost told him we should stop doing that then, but I didn’t want to. We had opened some kind of door, walked through it, closed it, and then barricaded it. We couldn’t get out now, and neither of us wanted to either. We deluded ourselves by thinking that we would simply be friends after he married Nora. Not that we would have given into temptation, but it would have been psychological torture with our desire for each other being so strong.

He covered one of my hands with his. “Do you know what 1 Corinthians 7:9 says?”

“Enlighten me.”

“It says if you can’t contain, you should marry.”

“Then let’s get married after we’re baptized,” I suggested.

“Yeah, funny, Dee,” Brock replied.

“I’m totally serious,” I told him, causing him to look at me with a completely baffled expression.

“We don’t have a marriage license,” Brock mumbled discombobulated.

“So you would marry me?” I asked as a big grin grew onto my face.

“Of course,” Brock said, smiling sweetly. “You know that.”

“Then lets get a license when the courthouse opens Monday.”

“You’re serious?”

“I am,” I grinned. “You can wait a couple days to consummate, right?”

Brock wore a horrified expression before nodding. I couldn’t help giggling, but then turned serious when I realized I had to make him aware of something first. “There’s one more thing you should know. Due to a complication with the abortion I had as a teenager, I can’t have children.”

“That’s okay. I’ve never longed to be a father.”

“Well, I do long to be a mother,” I said as tears unexpectedly welled in my eyes.

Brock smiled lovingly as he put an arm around me.

“Dee, there’s plenty of orphans in the world,” he assured me. “When the time is right, we’ll adopt.”

“Do you mean it?”

“Of course I do.”

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you, too,” he replied.

It was crazy, because I had really only known Brock for a short time. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he was going to marry another woman just days ago. But I’ve always been an impulsive risk-taker. The difference with me now is that sin would not be involved. My future risk-taking would be in the service of my savior.

            Brock suddenly knelt down on one knee in front of me and gazed at me with longing as he took my hands in his hands. I frowned, giggled, and even though I suspected his motive, I asked. “What are you doing?”

“Dee, I know we really have known each other only for a short time,” Brock said, “yet it seems like we’ve known each other forever. When I’m with you, I experience something I’ve never experienced with another human being. When I’m with you, I feel like I’m home.”

Tears of joy leaked from my eyes as I grinned from ear to ear.

“Miss Knight, will you marry me?” he asked earnestly.

I knelt down in front of Brock and kissed him.

“Yes, Mr. Storm, I would be honored to be your wife.”

Brock plucked a thick blade of grass and began twisting it. Then he took my left hand and very carefully tied it around my left ring finger. “Tomorrow we’ll go shop for wedding rings.”

“Okay,” I answered meekly, yet batted my eyes a little.

“I have a plan if you agree to it,” Brock proclaimed.

“Okay,” I said again.

“We’ll go ask Captain Kirk if he’ll marry us right after we go to the courthouse.”

This time I responded, “Yes, lets.”

I was nervous that Captain Kirk would say no, especially after Brock attempted to marry someone else here one week ago. But after church we shared our plan with Captain Kirk. Instead of answering verbally, he grinned, sat at the piano, and played the wedding march.

“Is that a yes?” Brock asked with a chuckle.

“It is, my son,” Captain Kirk replied happily. “This time you’re yoking with the right one.”

I put a hand to my mouth as I welled up with tears. Then I threw my arms around Captain Kirk and hugged him tightly. He laughed with a deep, grandfatherly rumble as his long white beard tickled my cheek.

“Okay, kids,” Captain Kirk said. “We’ll go down and baptize you both now. What a great Sabbath day!”

The water felt great on that hot humid day, but the Spirit of God, bringing joy and love to our hearts, felt even better!

Two afternoons later, Brock and I both said “I do” at the appropriate time. My Aunt Annabelle and Bentley Bonanno were our two witnesses in the Pastor’s office. We decided to have a more public wedding on our first anniversary.

It was the best night of my life when Brock and I entered our marriage bed together for the first time. It was about five hours after my name was legally changed to Destiny Knight-Storm. Getting to that point in some ways seemed like a violent weather night storm.  

Then the dawn arrived beautifully. But in the world we will have tribulations, so more storms were in our future. Thankfully, Jesus overcame the world, so we would take refuge in him as we experienced life’s battles. And a major one was on the horizon.

A couple days after our nuptials, Nora Medora gave us the information on Jezebel Black’s sister. Her name was Amy Autumn, and she was a waitress at a family restaurant. She was eighteen and had been raised mostly by her fraternal grandfather. He had died around a year previous, necessitating Amy to move in with her half-sister Alexandra Gomez, aka Sexy Lexy.

Nora gave us the go ahead to tell Amy what we knew. If Amy rejected what we had to tell her, it would likely blow Nora’s cover with Jezebel Black. However, we had no choice. Nora left it up to Brock and me as to how we should approach the young lady.

Due to a little sleuthing and surveillance, we discovered that she always seemed to finish her shift at 11:00 p.m. I went into the restaurant at approximately 10:45 p.m. and ordered a piece of cherry pie. Brock waited in his car so as not to chance frightening her.

Amy waited on me, and I found her to be sweet, lovely, and bright. She wore little if any make up and no jewelry, although her ears did appear to be pierced. Her medium-length red gold hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, and her one blue eye and one green eye made her an exotic beauty. She was a little on the tall side of average with a graceful, athletic body. After giving her a good once over, it was easy to see why her sister, Sexy Lexy, wanted Amy to become an adult entertainer.

“Are you Amy Autumn?” I asked when nobody else was in earshot.

“Yes,” she said cautiously.

“I have something to tell you,” I said, wincing. “It’s gonna sound crazy, but I didn’t know the best way to approach you.”

“Okay,” she said with a tone that agreed with crazy.

“My husband and I are working with an FBI agent who has reason to believe that you might be in danger.”

“In danger from who?” Amy asked, more curious than skeptical. It didn’t seem to surprise her.

“Your sister, Jezebel Black,” I told her.

Her eyes became wide and her mouth gaped open as she sat on a stool next to me.

“I don’t really know Jezebel that well,” she almost whispered. “She’s, like, eleven years older than me, and I didn’t grow up with her. But I know she’s some type of cult leader. She has been wanting me to check it out or something.”

“Have you?” I asked.

“No way,” she said emphatically.

“The sister you live with, Lexy – is it true that she wants you to become a stripper?”

Amy’s eyes looked alarmed as she gasped. Her hand flew to her mouth, and she mumbled that she needed to go. She stood up ready leave, but stopped and spun on her heels. “How did you know about that?”

“Like I said, my husband and I are working with an FBI agent who found out quite a bit of information by way of Jezebel Black’s cult.”

“Why should I trust you?” Amy asked as she folded her arms. “We just met minutes ago.”

“You probably shouldn’t,” I told her. “Maybe we could go somewhere and talk so we can get to know each other.”

“At an hour before midnight, I don’t think so.”

“Fair enough,” I acknowledged. “How about we meet tomorrow at a park or something?”

She agreed, and we met at Green Square Park in Cedar Rapids. It was the same park my Aunt Belle went for a walk in nearly thirty years ago after nearly committing suicide. Not coincidentally but providentially, she crossed paths with Mary Gold and Jake Weston on that stroll. It would become a life changing encounter for my Dear Auntie.

Amy and I clicked like long-lost sisters, spending most of the day together. We bonded so well that I invited her over for dinner, and to meet Brock. The next day she went to church with us. She was curious why we went to church on Saturday instead of Sunday. I shared with her the ten commandment law of God, specifically the fourth commandment that recognized God’s Creatorship.

“But we keep Sunday in honor of the resurrection,” she protested.

I could tell she had church experience. When I inquired, she acknowledged that she had belonged to her grandfather’s evangelical church. After he passed away and she moved to Cedar Rapids, she occasionally attended a similar congregation.

“Do you know where that is instructed in the Bible?” I asked.

She frowned. “Well… no.”

“That’s because it’s not there. If we keep it in honor of the resurrection, why did the apostles still keep it in the book of acts?” I asked very gently. “Christ had already rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.”

“They did?”

“Yes. That is just one example,” I said, flipping through my Bible until I found Acts 17:2.

She read it, frowned some more, pondered a bit, and changed directions a little. “But we’re saved by grace so we don’t really need to keep the ten commandments anymore.”

“Absolutely we’re saved by grace. But like the Apostle Paul asks in Romans 3:31, do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

“Isn’t that legalism?”

“It is if you keep the law to be saved.”

“Isn’t that what you’re suggesting?”

“No, the key is LOVE. We obey the law God because we love Him. Jesus said in John 14:15, that if we love Him, we are to keep His commandments.”

“But Jesus also said somewhere that to love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself hang all the law and prophets. Or something like that.”

“I know what you’re talking about, and you’re right. But Jesus wasn’t omitting any of the ten laws that God wrote with His own finger. Keep in mind God doesn’t change. Jesus was simply summarizing. The first four have to do with our duty to God. The last six have to do with our fellow human beings.”

“It still rings of legalism to me.”

“Sweetie,” I said with a pleasant smile. “Is it okay to steal, lie, and kill?”

“Of course not!”

“Is it okay to make idols, and worship them? Or worship celebrities like most modern people do instead?”

“Dee,” she giggled, calling me by my nickname for the first time. I loved it! “Once again, of course not.”

“So what’s the problem with the law of God then, the Sabbath?”

“Well, what difference does a day make?”

“So you’re telling me I can forget the day God said to remember?” I asked lightheartedly, my eyebrows raising innocently. I was careful not to be argumentative. Very seldom to people see truth if you try to argue.

She both frowned and grinned. “You know, you make some good points. I’m gonna look at a concordance and study out the Sabbath issue.”

“Good for you,” I encouraged. “Just like the noble Bereans.”

“The Bereans? What do you mean?”

“They searched the scriptures daily, for themselves, to see if the things they were taught were true. That’s also in Acts chapter 17, but verse 11.”

Right about then, the service began. Afterward, we convinced Amy to move in with Brock and me until her personal storm blew over. I was relieved when she accepted. After getting to know her, I found it hard to believe that she was actually flesh and blood with Jezebel Black. It was sort of like a modern-day Cain and Able situation.

 I became somewhat of a mother hen over Amy. I felt like she was being too carefree and reckless with the dual threats looming over her. One sister wanted her for a satanic sacrifice, while the other sister was fit to be tied that she refused to become a stripper and had moved out.

Amy acted annoyed with my brooding over her, but I knew my love and care touched her deeply. Then my fears for her were fully realized in a big way. Due to her carelessness, she was set up by her own sister.

Lexy Gomez sicked several drunk hooligans on her. She escaped their first attempt at rape. But then they gave chase and caught her in a desolate part of the city. This experience resulted in the most intense prayers of my life.