Steve sighed quietly and Matt started back to his story. “When I saw Brandon’s sister, she was pale and her eyes were red and puffy. It was no secret that the girls who left to marry men on other compounds were never heard from again. I managed to get her alone, which isn’t easy. Girls were forbidden from being with boys alone at all.
“I asked her if she wanted to leave, to marry this man. I didn’t tell her the real story. If she freaked out and ran to tell her parents, my secret would be out. I have to play it cool with them, so I asked, really casually, and she started crying so hard, I figured someone would hear and come running.”
“That had to be frightening for you,” Steve commented. “You never know which of them will tell.”
“Exactly. We’ve come across a few that were upset with just the questions. We knew we had to back off and then…then they were either gone or they were married on our compound.”
“You said we. You have someone inside, someone you were working with there?”
He blinked up at Stacy, not wanting to answer that. He had to, however. “My brother-in-law. He married my older sister a couple years back. He really loves her and doesn’t want another wife. The only reason he stayed there was for her. She doesn’t want to live the principle either, but she doesn’t want to lose her family, so she doesn’t want to leave the compound.”
Stacy’s voice was low and heavy with disgust. “They’d disown her?”
“Yeah. And…he’s got a wife and two kids to think about. He can’t get caught. They’d take my sister from him and give her to someone she hated, just to punish him. His kids too. He can’t be involved anymore.”
Stacy and Steve exchanged looks that were obvious. They were going to ask him to involve Aaron. Stacy asked, “There’s no one else you can trust?”
Matt shook his head, explaining, “I didn’t try to get a lot involved. You think what they did to me was bad? This is nothing. They have their own police, sure, but the compound also has its own goon squad. That’s who got me. They’re heavily armed and patrol. The cops are mostly for show, to talk to other cops and people in authority outside of the compound, and they can arrest people, but mostly it’s the goons.
“You said it was like the mob, well, you know that part of the Godfather where Michael had those men kill all their enemies? My father is Michael, and the goons are those guys who killed the enemies. All Daddy has to do is point his finger and they head off to do what he wants.”
Stacy whistled, and Steve squeezed his hand. “All cults are like that, and this is a cult. Make no mistake. Most are armed, most have rules regarding contact with the people outside their cult. They collect money from each member for the common good, which mostly goes into the pockets of the leaders. We protected a couple of cult members before. Not me, but friends. They were after people who left and spoke out. Nothing more than that. Spoke out about the workings of the cult,” Steve warned. “This is a far-reaching cult, Matt. Your sect may be small, but it’s part of a wide one that makes you an evil person, telling on your people.”
Stacy chided him, “You can’t scare him like that.”
“Yeah, I can. He knows that, though. I doubt I’m telling him anything he doesn’t already know.”
Ignoring him, she promised, “I will protect you.”
Sitting up straighter, Steve echoed, “I will too. I will protect you.”
He couldn’t help but smile, his two protectors. They didn’t know he didn’t want that, someone protecting him, having any sort of control, even if it was to protect him. “How do we do this? I can talk to Aaron, but I can’t risk him. I can go in myself and get the evidence you need.”
“Tell me something, and I’m not trying to be shitty, Matt, but why didn’t you get evidence already? I know no one was listening to you, but if you could get it, why not?” Stacy was pleading, trying to understand, and he didn’t have a lot of answers for her.
“We were focused on getting them out. Like I said, once Dean called the cops, social services, but there are protections in place for those things. Like I said, Grandpa and Daddy watched and paid attention to the other compounds. All the things those other prophets got into trouble for, they changed it. Married to the youngest and newest wives instead of the first wife. Having the first wives teach the younger ones how to act if people came around asking, separating the boys from the girls and teaching them differently. In our compound, the girls are barely taught their ABCs. That way, if they run, they have very little chance of making it outside the walls.
“Everything is a secret. We’re taught not to tell outsiders anything about ourselves, and the first time a member leaves, they are banished. That way, if they tell anything, they are seen as someone with a grudge.”
They were both staring, and he was just getting started. They wanted it, he’d give it to them.
“It’s all for God, for the heavenly Father, for our life in Heaven after we die. Our families, so important, that’s how they get us. We love our families and our God, so we’d do anything to please them. If He says we need to have ten wives and fifty kids, we do it. Only it’s not God saying it, it’s the prophet, who speaks directly to God, through a rock in a hat.”
The last sentence was left hanging, silence engulfing the room. That didn’t last, however.
It was Stacy who started, then Steve joined in, and finally, hearing the words ringing in his head, he joined in and they all laughed, breathlessly, Stacy holding her side, Steve letting Matt’s hand go so he could slap the table.
Realizing the absurdity of it, he didn’t think he could go on with the explanation. Steve apologized over and over, following it with, “Really, this is wrong of us. These are real people’s actual beliefs. Just…”
“I’ve heard of it. I think I saw it on South Park, of all things.”
Matt had not only heard of that episode of the cartoon, they’d been lectured about it. “Man, I was a kid when that came out. My father and grandfather had fits about it. Thing was, I didn’t understand how they knew about it, since we weren’t allowed to watch television. Little did I know, they not only have a television, but a whole man cave in the men’s lounge at the compound.”
Stacy’s laughter halted, and her smile left as fast. “It’s just the women and kids who aren’t allowed.”
“You got it. Until they reach a certain age, even the boys are kept in the dark about a lot. Women, they’re taught only how to care for the husbands and kids. It made them easy to lead.”
With his voice gravely, Steve spat, “Keep them dumb, they won’t ask questions or want things the leaders are unwilling to give. It’s the same they did to the slaves, not allowing them to learn to read or write. It’s a disgusting tactic, but, sorry to say, common with types like that.”
“It’s not like they all liked it. There’s something in humans, a want to learn things, to see things. When planes would go by? I’d see kids looking up, and the wonder on their faces. Shoot, me too. I’d think on the places they were going, what they’d see, the people they might meet. Now that I know more, sometimes I wish I was that dumb again, but I’d never go back.”
“Ignorance is bliss,” Stacy whispered.
He nodded and told them, “I know Daddy stashed a lot of the papers, the joy books, anything that could get them into trouble, but they wouldn’t take anything off the compound. We have a couple bunkers, you know, like storm shelters. The last time we got a tornado warning, everyone was in them, except Daddy and a few of the other elders. My mom was in one, and I was in the other. She ran to me after, asking where Daddy was, so that’s how I know he wasn’t in either one. It’s wasn’t a false alarm, either. The tornado touched town just east of us. Not common in the mountains, but it happens, so it was a big deal.”
“You think the bunker your father was in was where the paperwork is kept,” Steve reasoned.
“Yeah. I’d bet. And I think it’s under the men’s lounge. Women and unmarried men aren’t allowed in there.”
“I can get there and look around.”
Steve held up his hand and begged, “Slow down, please! We can’t let you go back there. No way! They’ll finish the job. We will find another way.”
Matt didn’t want to hear that. “I can’t put other people in danger. I just can’t.”
“Wait, you two, let’s not jump ahead. I have an idea. It’s not going to be easy, and we’ll need patience, but if we could follow the people next time, once they take one of the girls. We find her, save her, and she can tell the others where she was. If we open their eyes, we can get them to turn on him.”
“They won’t,” Matt protested. “You could spear the devil right there in the middle of the compound, and if Daddy said that wasn’t really the devil, they’re gonna believe him.”
“Planting a seed,” Steve said. “That’s all that needs to be done. The women that had daughters supposedly taken to other compounds would start to rightfully worry. We could get a few that would come forward. If we even have to wait on that, which we shouldn’t. Matt, of all the people you could have found while you are on this journey, people with marshal and FBI ties are the best.”
Matt moved his eyes from one to the other, seeing Stacy smile and nod at him, Steve’s eyes shining. “If anyone can help me, I guess you’re right. No one better.”
Steve leaned in and confided, “I know you don’t want to ask for help, and you’re not. Not really. We are not only offering, we’re anxious. This is what we wanted to do, which is why we were in our careers.”
Before he could say anything, the doorbell sounded, a tinkling sound like water falling on crystal. Steve and Stacy were both on their feet, and Stacy nodded to the door, whispering to Steve, “You go. I’ll be here with him.”
“There are weapons in the hall closet.”
“Right.”
Stacy moved over to Matt, who was freaking out some, his heart thrumming in his chest. Stacy was the one to grab his hand then, promising, “We have you, Matt.”
They heard the door open, then muffled voices. There was no urgency in the sound, so he saw Stacy relax right before he did. For Stacy, however, she changed too soon. When the door closed and they heard footsteps, she whispered, “I can’t believe he’d invite someone in with you here.”
“It’s okay, Stacy, I’m sure it’s no one who knows me.”
“It’s not good procedure.”
He got it then, that they did want to help him and the others on the compound, but there was another reason they were doing what they were, and that is, it made them feel like when they still had their careers.
Stacy stepped back as they saw the men who entered the room, then Matt felt the animosity coming from her like a blast furnace.
Steve seemed like he wanted to find a corner to hide in while he was rolled into a ball. He sheepishly told Matt, “This is Charlie De Soto.”
Furious, Stacy demanded, “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I came to help. You’re welcome,” Charlie droned, his voice deep and tinged with annoyance. He was tall, built, blond and gorgeous, but obviously straight and in love with Stacy. “I had to find a flight, which didn’t get me anywhere near here, so I had to take a helicopter to get here.”
“Oh,” she moaned, “You poor thing! The big bureau boss was forced to chopper in? I’m surprised they haven’t given you your own helicopter by now, you’re so indispensable.”
Matt wasn’t the only one backing out of the way from what seemed to be a bomb waiting to go off with the two of them. Instead of yelling at her, he stepped right to Stacy and moved a piece of hair from her forehead with his index finger, gazing over her face. “My God, how did you get more beautiful than the last time I saw you?”
For a second, Matt thought she was disarming, softening her expression, fluttering eyelashes as she stared up at him. “You…you too.”
“Come on, baby, let’s not fight. Just let me help you guys out with this one, in an unofficial capacity.”
Her lips spread in a wide smile, but Matt tensed, as it wasn’t her normal smile at all. There was pure venom there. “You are so generous. You came all this way.”
Steve had to have felt it to, the change in the room, heaviness weighing over it, as he gripped Matt’s arm and backed them both toward the hall.
They watched Charlie moving in to kiss her, but before he could, her knee came up and connected hard with his crotch, causing him to let out a whoosh of a grunt as she spat, “Big, big man didn’t think we scrubs could handle it? You thought you could sweep in and save the day?”
Charlie was bent over, trying to catch his breath, Steve was moving them even farther from the couple, and Matt could only stare as Stacy stormed from the room until they heard the front door slam.
Charlie turned around, braving out a smile at the two as he attempted to stand straight, but failing. “Told you she was a she-wolf,” he grunted.
When he could manage it, he followed Stacy, and they soon heard the door slam once more. Steve sighed, “Ah, true passion.”
“Passion? She hates him!”
“Maybe a part of her, but the rest of her is tragically in love with the man. I saw that when I told her he called her a she-wolf.”
The word he caught confused him. “Tragically?”
Cutting his eyes to Matt, he grinned tiredly. “They are like two brick walls, Matt. Neither is willing to give to the other, stand down on their side. Two dominant people being in love, always wanting the upper hand, it seldom works. Sure, it’s passionate, and fiery, but in the end, it burns itself out. It already has once. She wanted him to stand with her and walk out of his career, and he wanted her to understand that he couldn’t do that. Both were wrong. There was no right in that situation, but it ended in heartbreak.”
Matt looked in the direction of the front door, though they couldn’t see it from their place in the hall and asked, “What you’re saying is that passion kills a relationship?”
Steve stepped in front of him, catching his eyes. “Oh no, passion, love, those are things we humans live for isn’t it? What I’m saying is that there has to be some give and take. Compromise at the least. Maybe I’m biased, because my greatest desire is to please the man I’m with. His passions, his needs are my pleasure to fulfill. I want to give up my control to him, and in turn, I get what I need the most.”
He went numb all over, Steve’s dark eyes staring into his, like he was telling Matt what was in his deepest heart and soul. He’d seen women do this, give up their control to their men, and few were happy, but they had no choice. For Steve, it seemed to be all he wanted.
“I…I hope you find someone like that, to make you happy, you know?”
Steve’s eyes moved to Matt’s lips and he mused, “I’m sure I’ll find it.”
Chapter Six
Steve left to try to referee the two screaming outside, and Matt had to watch him go, unsure of what to feel. With Steve, he felt off balance, but not in a bad way. He didn’t think Steve had a malicious bone in his body. In fact, he felt the opposite, like anything he’d ever need or want, Steve would grant him without question.
He watched as they all came back into the house, and Stacy hurried right to him, apologizing. “That probably wasn’t the best thing to do in front of you. Steve’s right, you’ve just been attacked, and here you had to witness two grown adults acting like bickering children.”
Matt kept his smile at bay, barely. “I’m not upset about it, except kinda worried about you. But then again, maybe I should be worried for him?”
Her eyes flashed but she managed a wicked grin. “I shouldn’t tell you this, and I shouldn’t feel this way, but that felt so good.”
They laughed together until Stacy stopped herself. “Okay, as much as I hate him sweeping in like the damn cavalry, he can help us a lot. He’s got lots of connections and not only those in law enforcement, but some
outside the law.”
Stiffening, Matt glared at her, like she was telling him the mafia was going to come in and gun down all the members of the compound. “Stacy, I don’t want a bunch of thugs in this.”
“Honey, would I let a bunch of thugs run rampant? No! I mean, things that the bureau can’t do because of red tape, they will do. He was in the marines, and a few of his buddies from back then…well, they took different routes than he did, but they’re not deranged killers out for blood. They know how to be stealth and find things people love to keep hidden. Even people.”
“We have a plan? Are you telling me that outside, in between you yelling things at him and him yelling back, that you hatched a plan?”
Stacy grabbed his hand, pulling him after her back to the kitchen as she tried to explain. “No, no, but I know him. I know him very well, and he would not come here if he didn’t really want to help.”
“Sure, he would. He wanted to see you.”
She stopped and let his hand slip from hers, turning to him slowly. “I…no, him and I, that’s over and done.”
Matt didn’t budge but thought over what Steve had told him. “Maybe it could work with you guys if you weren’t both always trying to be top dog. No offense.”
They were right outside of the kitchen, and instead of continuing inside, she started back the other way, mumbling to herself. He had to jog to catch up to her.
“You’re right, of course you’re right, and I’m sure a therapist would tell me the same thing, in fact, I think one did once, but I don’t remember. I mean, it was a bureau shrink and I didn’t want to talk to her in the first place. I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Matt forced her to stop and pushed her against the wall, facing him. “Calm down. I’m not saying you have to back down and let him run over you. Just…find a way to compromise sometimes, and if he doesn’t return that, forget him.”
Stacy’s eyes locked with his and in them, Matt saw fear and anger, all mixed in with something he could only assume was love. “That’s something I will never be able to do, forget him. Thing is, there’s too much history. Too much time passed to ever think we could get back to where we were.”
The Principle (Legacy Book 2) Page 5