Despite himself, he grinned at that, and nudged her with his elbow. “You’re crazy.”
“I know.”
The fifth day, the call came. When the phone rang, they all stopped what they were doing. Stacy and Steve had been watching an old movie, Charlie pretending he wasn’t interested in the girly flick, a magazine in his face he’d peek around to watch.
Dean was playing cards with him, something else that had been forbidden on the compound, and Matt was getting whooped in the current hand of gin rummy.
It all stopped when that phone, purchased solely for that call, went off in the trilling ring they’d set it on from its place on the fireplace mantel. Dean was the first to reach it, but he didn’t answer, glancing at all of them as if pleading to know what to say.
Matt grabbed it from him and answered it, a stammered, “H-hello?”
“Matt? Matt is this really you?”
Relief flooded him. He’d been terrified it was his father or one of the goons that had found the phone and hurt Aaron in the process. “It’s me, yeah, Aaron. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I almost threw that paper out. I got insurance two weeks ago, but the rates, well, and then…I read it over a couple times, and it seemed so familiar and it struck me! It had to be you.”
Matt put the phone on speaker so the others who were gathered around him so close he could barely breathe, could hear. “I have you on speaker, Aaron, and Dean’s with me, and some friends. They want to help with this, but we need someone inside to tell us what’s going on. My father and the others found out about me, Aaron.”
“Don’t I know it? I heard some of the goons talkin’, Matt, and I thought they killed you. Said you were turning against us, calling the law, all of it. Are ya?”
He couldn’t lie, but he couldn’t scare Aaron off, so he eluded, “I’m not turning against you all, Aaron and you know that. Just what Daddy and the others are doing. Trust me, please.”
“I trust ya, dang it, Matt. I’m just scared. What if it’s me next? If they knew I was talking to you! I’d lose my wife!”
Before his eyes closed, he saw Steve, and the concern there. The pain for him. “I don’t want to put you more into this than I have to, Aaron, but we don’t have anybody else. You don’t have to do much, I swear. Just listen to the talk, tell us when the next girl is supposed to be married off, off the compound.”
There was silence on the line, and for a moment, Matt thought he’d lost the call, but then Aaron sighed, “I can do that.”
Charlie spoke up, and it made Matt glare at him. “Aaron, my name is Charlie, I’m a friend. Safety for you and the others is our only concern, but if you are able to get any evidence, you need to try.”
“Evidence? Are you a cop?”
“No,” Matt lied, hating himself for it. “But he knows some, some that can help, without hurting the people. I swear, please trust me. I wouldn’t get you or my sister hurt, my mom, anyone.” That reminded him, and he asked, “How is my mom? Everyone?”
“Rachel, she’s been over there a lot. Says your mama’s been crying steady since you been gone. Matt, they all think you ran off. Your daddy told everyone you are a traitor and said you don’t believe in the word no more.”
The word. Not the word of God, no, but the word of the prophet. It was true, but he wouldn’t get into that. “I wish I could tell you to tell my mom I’m okay, but you can’t without risking yourself. Don’t even tell Rachel we talked.”
“I won’t. I’ll keep an ear out, and I’ll tell you if I hear anything, but being you’re gone, and your daddy’s been telling people you want to call the law, everyone’s worried.”
“That means they’ll lay low with the outside marriages for a while. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but the minute they start up with them again, please, tell me. Find out everything you can on them.”
With more determination and strength than he’d had at the beginning of the call, Aaron assured, “I will, Matt. End this. There are good people here, that just want what’s best.”
“I know, Aaron. I think about them all, and you. Hide the phone, but keep it charged and the ringer off. I won’t call unless it’s an emergency. If you can, without drawing suspicion, try to get my old job. If you can leave the compound, we can better communicate. I won’t come myself, but I have a couple people that can meet you.”
“Your daddy already said no one’s leavin’ the compound for a while. We’re locked down over you, but before he announced that, I heard the next marriage would happen in a week or two. In the compound though.”
Hating to ask, he had to. “Who?”
“Little Marsha Lee.”
Cringing, he saw her in his mind, the little red-haired girl who was covered with freckles and couldn’t stop giggling in school. “She’s only fifteen now, isn’t she?”
“Next Friday, she’ll be fifteen, Matt.”
Stacy left the group and Charlie followed her. Matt told Aaron, “Call in three days, whether anything is going on or not. I need to know you and my sister and family are all okay.”
“I will, Matt. I’ll get alone and call. I’ll keep the phone in the floor at the house. That board Rachel’s always after me to fix.”
“Thank you, Aaron. I’m thankful.”
“Take care of yourself, Matt. Don’t let them find you.”
When the call was over, he closed the phone, hurting all over. Suddenly, all his wounds were throbbing, his head pounding, and his eyes blurred from the tears he wouldn’t let fall. He set the phone back on the mantel and went to the room he was staying in, closing the door so he could be alone.
For him to think of praying made him feel like a hypocrite, but he didn’t know anything else. He was raised to pray. Pray at meals, at bedtime, whenever his father or grandfather told him to. It was evil not to pray.
His relationship with God was tarnished, connecting it to the compound and his father. Sections of the bible were given, not the whole thing. He read the entire bible once, though he understood little of it. He read about Joseph Smith too, Brigham Young, the leaders of their relatively young church. The founders. The members of the compound didn’t have birthday celebrations for themselves or even their kids. They only celebrated Smith’s birthday. He was important, and they weren’t.
These were the people that gave him the God of his young understanding, though he never understood a thing about it all. When he most needed it, he prayed on his own, when he wasn’t told to, and it felt differently. He felt like that was the only time he was heard.
He stared up at the ceiling and tried to see past that. To the sky, and higher, to where it was told to him that God resided, watching over them all, and counting off their sins in a book. He wondered for a moment if God was judging him for not honoring his father. What son could? It didn’t say in the bible to honor a dishonorable father, did it?
“Tell me what to do, if you’re up there. I need to help these girls. I don’t know what’s happening to them, but whatever it is, it can’t be something you want. Love, they don’t have love. Isn’t that important? Isn’t finding love, and making a family that way, more important than making babies just to make them? To fill some quota? Tell me, please, I do want to believe in you! I need to believe in you.”
Instead of an answer, he got a knock on the door. He turned from it, wiping his eyes. “Come in.”
“Hey,” Steve said as he came through the door. “That couldn’t have been easy for you.”
“You think?” he snapped but regretted it immediately. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. You’re going through something I can’t imagine.”
He felt him getting closer, and he wanted him closer. He wished he could turn and be embraced, held until he cried and screamed it all out, and that while he was held, be told it would all be okay, even if it was a lie. “I’m praying, asking for something, and I keep thinking how stupid I am. It was them that told me there was a God and he was always there watching and
listening.”
“And they said you had to behave, because God sees all, knows all and if you sin, he’ll make you suffer for it.”
Sniffing, he laughed sardonically. “You too?”
“Oh yeah, Catholics are infamous for guilt. We get a huge serving for every meal, and twice before bed.”
He glanced back, seeing Steve’s tired smile. “We’re both pathetic.”
“Yeah, that’s true. I still break out the rosary beads when I’m really in trouble. Charlie, he’s getting ready to go. He’s going to get back and talk to his bosses, see what kind of help he can round up that won’t entail bringing in the big, loud guns.”
Feeling defeated, he knew it would be weeks before anything happened. His father was greedy, but cautious. He had to know Matt would want to stop him. “By the time he feels comfortable enough to start up again, Charlie will have lost interest.”
Steve touched his arm, then moved his hand up to Matt’s face, turning his head. When he locked eyes with the man, he felt like God was speaking to him, answering him. “That’s just not true. You don’t know Charlie like I do. He’s stubborn. You know, after he and Stacy broke up, he hasn’t seen anyone else seriously? He hasn’t given up on her, after she told him to screw himself and never contact her again.”
Could he believe? Could this be his answer, this man, this quiet, sweet man? “And you? What would make you lose interest?”
“Are you kidding? Not a damn thing, Matt. I’m in this now. It would take God himself to pull me out.”
The following day, Matt woke to the sun shining through the window. He’d forgotten to close the curtains, but he’d barely slept anyway. He left the room after pulling his shirt on, planning on drinking coffee for the third time in his life to renew his energy.
That was what he’d planned, but not what happened. Not right away, anyway. He was passing by the other spare bedroom, and Charlie came out, running right into him. Matt stepped back, scanning over Charlie quickly, his tie in his hand, shirt unbuttoned, hair a disheveled mess, and an embarrassed smile matching the bright red blush all over his face.
“Sorry, Charlie.”
“My fault. I was…making a run for it.”
Coming up behind him, wrapped in a short robe, Stacy slapped the back of Charlie’s head, warning, “Keep that talk up. Go ahead. See if I don’t pistol whip you.”
He turned, kissing her and sucking up badly. “I’m whipped already, baby.”
Knowing he was seeing something that was none of his business, Matt knew he should start back for the kitchen, but he couldn’t. They were blocking the hall with their kissing.
Stacy pulled back and smirked at him. “Sorry, you know, renewed love and all.”
“Never said I renew-ly loved you,” he teased.
Matt tried again to slide past them, but their kissing started again. Finally, he cleared his throat, and Stacy came up for air long enough to laugh as she pulled Charlie back into the bedroom. Matt hurried to the kitchen, feeling like he’d escaped torture. Not that public displays of affection were torture, but when he’d never had one, watching someone else’s was uncomfortable to say the least.
Steve was eating a bowl of cereal. “They at it again?”
“Yeah. When did it start?”
“Last night. Stacy finally pushed her way through his bullshit, and told him she was sorry for her part, but she wasn’t going to take all the blame. He fessed up to his part of it and the rest is obnoxiously loud history.”
“I must have been out cold during that. I didn’t hear a thing. Guess I slept better than I thought.”
As he was reaching for the cereal to fill the bowl he’d retrieved, Steve whispered, “Consider yourself lucky.”
Matt chuckled as he sat across from him, pouring the milk into his cereal. “Can’t say I don’t. I got enough of a recap in the hall.”
Just then, they heard a loud moaning, and Steve dropped his spoon into his nearly empty bowl with a clang. “Again?”
“Suddenly, the porch sounds like a great breakfast spot.”
They took their bowls outside, and Steve was lagging behind, producing a cup of coffee for him once he joined him.
“Thanks, I needed this.” He sipped the coffee and tried to think of a way to thank Steve for the kind words of the night before, but all he could manage was, “It was nice of you, you know, last night.”
Setting his bowl on the floor of the porch, Steve stayed leaning over his knees, not turning his head to Matt. “Being nice, yeah, maybe it was. I meant it, though. I want to see you happy, and I’d do just about anything to see that, but I won’t make things up or be fake to achieve that. In other words, I’m not being nice just to be nice, Matt.”
He sorted through that but didn’t understand. “I don’t think you’re being fake, Steve.”
“I have a lot of things going on in my head right now, and pretty much all of them have to do with you. I’m trying to stay professional, to keep my distance and not show my hand until you’ve gotten through some of this. It’s hard, Matt.”
More confused than ever, he struggled to figure out what he meant. There wasn’t time, though, as Steve picked up his bowl and mumbled, “I need to go get the kitchen clean.”
Chapter Ten
Matt followed him inside, the sparkling clean kitchen in front of him as he teased, “Yeah, how can you stand this mess?”
Steve slapped his hands on the counter and growled, “I’m being an ass. I’m sorry, Matt. My issues, I assure you.”
“Okay. Can you at least tell me what all that meant?”
After taking and letting out a long breath, he said, “I took offense to being called nice. Isn’t that ridiculous?”
Approaching him cautiously, not relishing another freak out by Steve, Matt said, “You are nice. Why would that bother you?”
He turned to Matt, his eyes on the floor between them. “I want to be nice, of course, Matt. It’s nothing, please, disregard this entire conversation.”
He was gone again, like he was running, and Matt didn’t know what he was running from. The noise from the bedroom was over, and he heard the two coming down the hall. They were dressed, though their hair was still messed, and they were red in the cheeks, lips swollen, but their smiles were crazy wide, and they walked closely, like they were one person moving into the room.
“Matt, I’m glad I found you again. Can we have a talk?”
“Sure.” Stacy was going to sit with them before Dean came in, rubbing his eyes. She herded him from the room and that worried Matt, as to why Charlie wanted to speak to him alone.
“I’m real sorry you had to see that. I feel very unprofessional.”
“I’ve heard that a lot today,” Matt mentioned, thinking on the crazy conversation with Steve.
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Go on, and I’m happy for you two. Really.”
Sighing, Charlie confessed, “It’s a surprise, and yet it’s not. I haven’t gotten that lady off my mind since…” He shook his head as if to clear it and went on, “Anyway, I have to get back. I’m not abandoning you, though. I’m leaving you in good hands while I go back to see what I can do from there. I’ve spoken to my superiors, and I’ve let them know this isn’t a case that we can go in with guns drawn.”
“Thank you, for that.”
“It’s not a hard pitch, believe me, Matt. The feds have gone the rounds with cults and militias and came out looking bad, and for good reason. Now, with all this religious freedom stuff being pumped out, it’s a tightrope to deal with cults. If they claim religion, we have to have a ton of evidence to so much as serve a search warrant. I’m going to see what we can put together, to get this investigated without becoming overbearing.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“If we could get them the way we got Warren Jeffs, it would not only be legal, it would have the support of the differing communities, like the religious right, the left, the center. Few want to see young girls married
against their will to old men, Matt. Thing is, like I’ve railed against, as have many in my profession, we let the public know how we catch these scumbags, and it is like a blueprint for the next set of scumbags to use of what not to do.”
Matt knew what he was saying and saw it for himself. “My dad used to read the books about Warren Jeffs and a few others that told stories of how they were arrested and their compounds broken up.”
“Exactly! He’s using how we caught Jeffs and others. It’s frustrating, knowing he is doing the same thing, and worse, and not be able to catch him. I’m sticking to this, Matt. I’ll call in every favor, whisper in every ear, until I have to scream in every ear. We’ll help those girls.” He cleared his throat, growing calmer, but more urgent. “What I need from you is that you think about after. We’ll get these men, but it’s going to leave a void. There are going to be a lot of people confused, hurt, looking for answers, but more importantly, a new leader. You and Dean and Aaron and whoever else gets involved in this, you all will need to think of how to help them when our help is over. That may be the hardest part, Matt.”
He’d been so consumed with helping his family, his community, that he hadn’t thought about what would happen after it was over. He wasn’t ever sure it would be over. “I can’t…I can’t be a leader. I don’t think I believe one thing like they do anymore.”
“You can’t take all that on your shoulders, Matt. That’s not what I’m asking you. I would have no right or desire to ask that of you. What I’m hoping is that you can suggest and guide them to get out of that whole situation, be in the real world, get education for the kids and job training for the adults. I don’t know, those are simply my thoughts.”
He’d left a lot for Matt to think about, and he found he did, all the time. Stacy was sad to see Charlie go that afternoon, but she knew he’d be back. Matt was a lot more confident of that as well.
Every day, Aaron called, checking in. The lockdown went on, and though that stalled them helping the compound, it gave them time to calm down and think of some of the things they needed to.
The Principle (Legacy Book 2) Page 9