Book’s sharp gaze took in the weaponry displayed, and his mind filled in what wasn’t. A man like this, two guns was light. He’d have more. He’d know how to use them, and he wouldn’t be afraid of doing so. The damage to the vest he wore proved that point. The man was a warrior.
The shepherd was not unfamiliar with the type. He had the fleeting thought that this man and Zoe, if they didn’t try to kill one another on sight, would understand each other quite well. They had much in common. He recognized the breed for what it was, because for too long, it was what stared back at him from the mirror in the morning.
The man’s story was tragic, assuming that it happened as he said. Book had lived too long not to take claims like that with a grain of salt. The mind could play tricks on a body, especially if there was a length of time between the event and the present. Anger and guilt, those were some strong emotions, and they had a way of warping and shaping things around them. Even memories. Shepherd Book didn’t doubt the man’s family had died, and probably not in any nice fashion, but the details might be a bit fuzzy in the regard.
Didn’t really matter. What mattered was how the man reacted to it. And Book wasn’t all that surprised by the turn he’d taken. A person didn’t become a warrior over night. That took time, and training, and experience. The shepherd would bet that this man had a hard edge to him, even before he lost his family. And that loss had done nothing but temper the blade. Wasn’t surprising at all.
“Didn’t think you’d be the sort afraid of taking action,” Book conceded, his eyes holding those of the man in the pew behind him. “But you may have missed the fact that there’s not just one point to my story. True, the easy parable is that of a man unable to see the path that the Lord had laid before him. But there’s also the point that He works through men to do his works. May not have occurred to you, but it seems to me that the Lord is acting. Through you.”
These were dangerous waters to tread, and he knew it. But he told nothing less than the truth. However, that didn’t mean he wanted to see the man condemn his soul by taking things too far. “Question is, are you willing to do as He asks. Can you even hear Him? Or have you become so lost in vengeance that you’re in danger of losing yourself in the process? Can’t think that’s what your family would have wanted.”