“Are you hungry? I can cook breakfast,” she said, her voice barely carrying to me even though my chopping block wasn’t far from the house.
Swinging the axe down, I let the block hold it and made my way to her. Stroking a thumb over her cheekbone, I tilted her face up to mine and caressed her mouth with mine softly. “I’ll be in to cook in a minute. Now get your sexy ass back in the house,” I warned her, turning her on her heel and giving said ass a little swat in warning. She jolted, rounding to gape at me.
We’d have to work her into the kink of spankings, it seemed. I didn’t imagine they were a sexual thing in the cult. Though one never knew, considering the demented fuck who ran it.
“I can’t stay cooped up inside forever, you know,” she whispered, eying the woods behind the house. “I’ll go stir crazy.”
“Let’s just be cautious until the marriage is annulled. I’ll feel better when he doesn’t have a leg to stand on or any claim over you.” She nodded, pursing her lips like she didn’t like it but couldn’t argue with that.
Turning on her heel, she walked toward house and I watched her ass until the door closed behind her and cut off my view. My eyes went to the woods, hating that I had to keep my woman inside when she loved being outdoors as much as I did.
Soon, she’d be free.
Soon, she’d be mine entirely.
∞∞∞
Del ate like she was starved. Under any other circumstances, it might have worried me that she was so hungry. I might have been pissed at myself for not feeding her enough.
Instead, the knowledge that the voracious hunger came from our lovemaking the night before only filled me with pride.
She devoured her eggs and worshipped her bacon like she’d never seen it before. It occurred to me that she probably hadn’t. That was, if nothing else, just another sad indicator of the sheltered life she’d had. To never have bacon should have been a crime in itself.
Teaching a young girl that it was acceptable for her father to decide who she married, without even an inkling of permission from her, was another.
Carving into a woman’s flesh when she disobeyed would buy you a death sentence, in my book.
As soon as she’d finished, I set the plates on the coffee table and grabbed the book on plants. It wasn’t the best book to teach her to read on, admittedly, but it would do for starting to see if she knew her alphabet. “We’ll get you something simpler when we go to town eventually, but to start, do you know your letters?”
“No,” she whispered, and my fury over how they’d kept her so isolated only grew. She couldn’t even spell her name, because of their desire to keep her ignorant and desperate.
I pointed to a letter on the first page. “This is an A.” She stared at it with intrigued grey eyes, studying the lines intently.
“A tent with a line,” she said with a nod. “A.”
“Apple starts with A. So what sound does it make?”
She rolled her lips around as she considered, a blush spreading over her chest and up her cheeks. “Apple,” she said slowly. “Ap?”
“Ah,” I corrected with a smile. “But that was close.”
The shrill sound of the alarm rang through the house, and I cursed and jumped to my laptop, set up on the coffee table in the living room. On my screen, Jonathan strolled up the driveway, not a care in the world as he slid his hands into the pockets of his linen pants and pulled out a piece of paper. When he reached the steps up to the porch, he turned and looked directly at the camera with a sinister, knowing smile that made my blood run cold.
He knew.
Without a doubt, he knew Del was in the house with me.
The paper he slid under the door stared back at me like something from a horror movie, but Del never took her eyes off the laptop screen as Jonathan blew a kiss at the camera. Her face went white, her skin losing all traces of the radiant glow I’d seen on her for just a few passing moments that morning. Once he retreated down the steps and climbed into the truck at the foot of the driveway, I went to the door and picked up the note.
“All sinners must repent. Return my wife by sunset, or I’ll take her myself,” I read aloud, turning to look back at Del. She was already on her feet, surging for the back door in her haste to get out. “Del!” I shouted, leaping over the coffee table and following her as quickly as I could.
Her shrill scream filled the cabin in response as she willed her legs to make it to the door before I caught her. But my legs were much longer than hers, my willpower much stronger.
Nothing would take her from me. Not even her own fear.
“No!” she yelled when my arms wrapped around her waist. Tiny fists struck my arms, shoving and digging her short nails in to get me to release her.
“Calm down,” I snarled in her ear, catching her arms in my grip and pinning them to her body as I shuffled her to the couch. She kicked and screamed like a banshee, my sweet and soft Del replaced by a wild hellion determined to get free.
Tossing her to the couch and maneuvering her onto her back, I covered her with my body until she had no chance of escaping me. “I can’t stay!” she begged, shaking her head from side to side with wide eyes. “There are too many of them. I won’t let you put yourself in danger for me.”
“Woman, I’m a big boy. Stop hiding behind the excuse of wanting to protect me. I’ve fought worse than Jonathan and his Children of Awe. I’ll call my guys in, and we will knock them on their asses.”
“But—”
“If I’d let you go into the city, they’d already have you. You need to realize you’re much safer with me than you are on your own. Stop fighting it,” I warned her.
She paused, looking up at me with wide grey eyes and hesitation written all over the tense lines of her face. “If I don’t leave now, I never will.”
My body went solid, fury thrumming through my body in a solid twist of pain. “That ship sailed when you took me inside you. When you told me you loved me. When you let me come inside you. Fuck’s sake woman, you could already be pregnant; are you shitting me right now?”
The confusion in her eyes did nothing to appease the rage I felt that she would still consider leaving me. She knew she had to do it soon because of what was growing between us. Nothing was more frustrating than, knowing her feelings for me scared the hell out of her, not being able to do a damn thing to reassure her it would all be okay. “I will not lose you,” I barked at her.
“Anderson,” she whispered, staring up at me with tears in her eyes. The sadness there felt like a punch to the gut, but I was in no place to be gentle with her in that moment.
“I’m going to put up the traps I got from Coleman and call the guys. Lock the door behind me and stay fucking put, Del. I mean it. You leave this house, and I will hunt you down.”
I jumped up from the couch, swinging the pack of traps and cameras over my shoulder as I grabbed my rifle.
“Anderson,” Del whispered at the last second, sitting up and staring at me in the open doorway. “I do love you. I just-I can’t go back.”
“You won’t, Baby. Over my dead body. I’ll be back soon. Do not open this door for anyone but me or Cole, got it?” She nodded, and I turned and stalked out the back door. I had booby traps to set for some shit stains who needed to be shown just what happened when someone fucked with what was mine.
Ten
Deliverance
In his absence, I paced around the cabin, feeling nothing but shame for the way I’d treated Anderson. If I stopped to think about what might be out there waiting for me in the rest of the World, I couldn’t think of one thing that I wanted more than the way I felt with him.
He made me real.
He made me feel.
Maybe the best solution would be both of us leaving the mountain for a while and waiting for Jonathan to give up. But I just couldn’t bring myself to take Anderson away from his home. He loved nature and the sanctuary of his cabin. The closeness of his friend Coleman and the others they’d menti
oned in passing while he gathered supplies.
Moving into the kitchen, I tugged the refrigerator open and used my left hand to grab the jug of water Anderson kept there. The weight of it felt enormous to my weaker side, but the fracture in my right rendered me useless. I nearly dumped over my glass when I tried to pour it.
The sudden shrill of Anderson’s perimeter alarms sounding through the house was the final straw to my lack of coordination. Water sloshed all over the counter and floor, tipping the glass until it fell and shattered against the tile at my feet.
I slipped in the water in my haste to get to Anderson’s laptop on the coffee table, but it was closed. I suddenly wished I’d pushed for him to teach me how to use the thing. His phone was nowhere in sight, and I hoped to God that meant he would hear the alarm. That he’d know either he’d tripped it and scared me, or that someone else was on the property.
I’d wanted to know who I was on my own?
I was nothing without Anderson. I needed him like the very next breath in my lungs. I needed the safety and comfort of his arms wrapped around me and his calm, stern voice telling me what to do.
Minutes passed with me staring at the closed laptop and wondering what to do. My indecision plagued me; my inability to make choices for myself poking at me like a taunt.
How had I ever thought I could exist out in the real world?
I couldn’t even make a single decision without Anderson’s help.
Footsteps echoed on the porch, and I listened for a moment. More footsteps. More than one person.
I bolted to the back of the cabin, throwing open the closet door and pulling it closed behind me. Hiding behind Anderson’s bulky winter jackets, I made myself as small as possible and hid in the mound of winter clothes and boots on the floor. Men were unorganized, and frankly disgusting, but I’d never thought I could be pleased with that like I was the moment the weight settled on top of me and hid my legs.
I could barely hear the voices outside from my place in the closet. Only the soft murmur of what I suspected had to be men shouting orders at one another. They continued, until one of the voices rose in pitch finally, his frustration broadcasting even through the barriers between us.
Glass shattered in the living room, the distinct sound of it echoing through the cabin. I covered my mouth with my hand, muting the shrill scream of pure terror before it could escape.
More glass clinking, and then there were footsteps inside the house itself.
Tears burned my eyes, the question echoing in my head.
Is Anderson hurt?
I trembled in my hiding spot, the sound of men invading his home stroking the flame of anger inside me. With each thump of furniture and God knows what being thrown around, it burned higher and higher within me.
Until I wanted nothing more than to look Jonathan in the eye and make him bleed the way he’d bled me. The way he’d hurt Anderson by breaking his sanctuary from the world. Still, I knew from the depths of my soul that all the stuff in that sanctuary would be replaceable to Anderson.
I would not.
That knowledge was the only thing that kept me tucked safely in the closet while they ravaged the cabin I’d begun to think of as my new home. “Come out, my wife. Let me rescue you from sin,” Jonathan called out. His arrogance and lack of concern that Anderson might come only increased my concern for him.
When there was still no sign of Anderson, my terror for him became unbearable. If something happened to him because of me, I would never forgive myself. I’d deserve everything Jonathan did to me as penance for the sin of endangering the only man worth my love.
The closet door opened suddenly, and I froze in my hiding space, hoping they would find no one and walk away. Those hopes were dashed when an arm roughly swept the coats to the side, revealing my hiding place so instantly I gasped when the cruel brown eyes of a boy I’d grown up with stared back at me.
“Peter!” I pleaded, flinching when he dove forward and a harsh hand grabbed me by the hair. “Let go of me!” I screamed, tugging at the fingers yanking my scalp. Pain exploded through my head. Pulling. Tearing my hair by the roots and using it as motivation to make me rise to my feet and follow.
The pressure was enough to send me lurching to my feet. Once he positioned himself behind me, the pain eased slightly. The damage was done however, as he lifted me off my feet with an arm around my waist and shuffled me into the living room. Kicking my legs and panting through the effort, I screamed as loud as I could.
Hoping that the broken window next to the couch would carry the sound to wherever Anderson was. Praying he would hear me.
Jonathan rounded the back of the couch slowly, stepping into the space in front of me while I kicked my legs at him futilely. He swatted them down to the floor, positioning himself in front of me while Peter held me still with a tighter grip on my hair that made my eyes water.
“Hello, wife,” Jonathan murmured, reaching up a hand to touch my cheek delicately. As if I was precious to him. As if I was more than just a commodity and something to breed. His hand trailed down over Anderson’s shirt, through the valley between my breasts, until his soft fingers toyed with the hem at my thigh while I struggled against the skin to skin contact. “Such a shame,” he whispered, bringing striking green eyes up to study my face. “You always were my favorite. Even as a little girl, you promised so much potential.” My skin crawled. Goosebumps slithering over my skin at the sick confession. Saliva pooled in my mouth, accompanying the urge to vomit in his face. “Did you give him what belongs to me?” he asked, his voice deepening to his attempt at a growl. In contrast with the fierce masculinity I’d come to expect from Anderson, for the first time I saw how weak Jonathan was.
How pathetic.
I kicked a leg into the side of his calf, taking whatever I could. His glare turned harsh for a moment, before he turned his eyes away from mine to address the other men in the room as much as he spoke to me. “He’s corrupted you. My poor, obedient wife led to temptation by the Devil himself.”
I smirked back at him, only barely resisting the urge to peel my lips back from my teeth and snarl at him like a wild animal. It was how I felt in those moments. Trapped. Caged.
And I realized that Anderson had shown me true freedom, even while keeping me with him. He’d given me the freedom to be me.
“Was I so obedient when I refused to fuck you on our wedding night?” I announced, speaking the words loud enough to make sure all his men heard his failure. His inability to seduce his young wife should have brought him shame, but the men of the Children of Awe didn’t seduce. They took, feeling it was their right. He only grinned back at me, calculation moving through his eyes as he studied my struggling form. I continued, “The only one who is corrupted is you. Corrupted by your own greed and the lies you tell each and every one of your Disciples.”
The accusation made the first trace of unease trickle over his face, his jaw slacking just enough to show the comment bothered him. He leaned in, touching his lips to the shell of my ear. “I’ll very much enjoy rebreaking you.”
“You never broke me in the first place,” I growled back. “I’ll escape every chance I get. Do you think your reputation can survive a wife who doesn’t want you? That your followers will continually support your chasing down a woman who wants nothing to do with your version of God, while you shun the others who would?”
He pulled his face back from my ear finally, a slow grin transforming his deceptively handsome face. “Noelle misses you,” he said, the strike hitting me directly in the center of my chest. I didn’t know her well, but I knew enough about her life now to feel responsible for her suffering. I was free. She was not. “She’s been finding it…difficult to cope with my worry for you. If you care for her at all, you’ll come home so my righteous fury can go to the person who deserves it.” I stilled, hearing the threat in those words for what it was. The others might have remained oblivious, but I knew without a doubt that he took his anger with me out on her
every night in the privacy of his home.
Because she’d helped me escape.
I couldn’t just leave her to continue to suffer the punishments meant for me. I opened my mouth, ready to condemn him for the monster he was.
A muffled thunk echoed through the mostly quiet room, and the pressure on my scalp suddenly released as fluid splashed onto the back of my neck. The weight of Peter collapsing nearly dragged me to the floor, and only Jonathan reaching out and pulling me into his embrace stopped my fall. Placing his back to the wall, he positioned me in front of him, facing out.
My eyes landed on Peter’s body on the floor. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen one.
But it was the first time I saw the inside of a head.
Eleven
Anderson
Most of them scattered with Cole’s first shot. Their blind loyalty to their leader only lasted so long in the face of a bullet to the brain.
Nobody came into my home and put their hands on my woman.
I only regretted that I hadn’t been the one to fire the shot. Instead, I cut my way through the Disciples who didn’t flee, getting closer and closer to Del with every shot from my pistol and every swing of the blade in my hand.
I’d known the moment they touched my property, gotten the alarm the moment they dared to step into my territory.
But there’d been two dozen of them, and only one of me. Even as skilled as I was, those numbers were not in my favor. I was no good to Del dead.
So, I’d had to make the painful decision to call Coleman and to take a stealthy approach, picking at the edges of their numbers slowly and carefully. With the cameras and security system, I’d know the moment they tried to take her from the house.
Her scream echoing through the newly fallen night would haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. Just like the scream that came after Coleman’s first shot.
His announcement that he was ready to party.
“Anderson!” Del cried, and there was both relief and fear in that sound. It appeased something inside me to hear how much she cared. How much the prospect of being taken away hurt her. I watched through the open window, observing the situation as the last of the Disciples filtered out of the cabin door and ducked for cover, with Cole’s shots targeting them from his perch in the tree stand out front that I’d set up for emergency security situations.
Deliver Me from Evil (The Men of Mount Awe Book 1) Page 6