The White Lily

by Susanne Matthews

  He went over to the bar, opened the mini fridge, took out a bottle of cognac, and poured it into a glass for Lilith. “It’s brandy. Good for shock,” he said, handing it to her.

  She nodded, and shifted slightly so that he could sit beside her. He reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers encouragingly as she finished explaining what had happened. She raised the glass to her lips, sipping the brandy. Her color was back to normal, and that reassured him.

  Trevor pulled out his phone. The screen displayed the message that had been in the box.

  “The techs are checking the place from one end to the other for fingerprints, DNA, and anything else they can discover. If he dropped so much as a flake of dandruff, they’ll find it. From the message he left with the keys, it looks like Pierce isn’t happy with us. Sorry he targeted you, but I guess he thinks you’re the easiest to get to. We’re positive he doesn’t know about Jacob, which makes your current location a safe one. The media’s flooded with Pierce’s picture and the description of that vehicle. It’s obviously cramped his style. We found the van a couple of blocks away from your hotel. They’ve taken it to the impound where a forensic team will take it apart if they have to in order to find the clues he’s mentioned. Tom’s looking through the file to see where you and Pierce might’ve crossed paths. There was another message with the flower.” He swiped the screen on his phone and brought up the lily. Magnifying the image, he zoomed in on the note.

  Jacob read the words, but they made no sense to him. Lilith grabbed his arm, imprinting her fingers on his flesh. Whatever color she’d had was gone. The message meant something to her, and whatever it was, wasn’t good.

  ... west ... name ... fire ... Tess ... Joe ...

  “Do you have any idea what this means?” Trevor asked.

  She stood up and nodded, looking like a kangaroo caught in the headlights, too frightened to move one way or the other, waiting helplessly for the vehicle to slam into it.

  “They’re words from a song,” she whispered.

  “What about the name Mariah?”

  She gasped and her knees buckled. Jacob grabbed her before she could fall. The distress on her face broke his heart. Pulling her into his arms, he cradled her the way he would a terrified child. She clung to him, but her trembling didn’t stop. Tears spilled down her cheeks.

  “Lilith, talk to me. Does any of this have to do with Utah?”

  She nodded and buried her head deeper into Jacob’s shoulder, the sobs stronger than before.

  “What about Utah, Trevor? What’s this all about?” Jacob asked.

  “Lilith did some undercover work there five years ago. I knew she’d used an alias. There was a candy bar in the van with a note attached to it. It said ‘Enjoy it while you can, Mariah.’ I thought it might be the name of his accomplice, but obviously I was wrong.” Trevor turned to Lilith. “Well, at least we know where you met him. It’ll save time. I’ll have to look through it all, Lilith, you understand that, don’t you?” His voice was tinged with regret.

  Trevor reached out his arm to touch her, and she cringed, burrowing deeper into Jacob’s chest as if she wanted to crawl inside and hide.

  “He won’t get away this time,” Trevor said. “We’ll catch him, and when we do, he may be able to tell us what happened to Kelly Kirk.” He pulled his hand away and stood. “Stay here for the rest of the day. I can send a doctor over to have a look at you, if you like.”

  She didn’t answer but shook her head.

  “Let see how it goes,” Jacob said. Since he was the odd man out, with absolutely no idea of what had happened, hopefully he was making the right decision.

  “If she’s up to it, and you want to go to New Hampshire tomorrow or the next day, let me know and I’ll have the helicopter on standby.”

  “Excuse me,” Lilith said softly and pushed herself out of Jacob’s arms, stumbling to her bedroom and closing the door. The sound of her weeping reached them.

  “I had no idea it would turn out this way,” Trevor said. “If I had, I wouldn’t have asked her to join the team.”

  “What happened in Utah?” Jacob asked repeating the question Trevor hadn’t really answered earlier.

  “I don’t know it all,” Trevor said. “There’s a portion of the file that’s sealed in her dossier. Five years ago, she went undercover in a cult to try to locate a fourteen-year-old girl. Her cover was blown, and she was tortured. The man who did that to her almost killed her. She never saw his face. Mariah must’ve been her alias.”

  “Pierce,” Jacob hissed the name of the man he hated above all creatures. “He’s got to be the man who tortured her, but how could that be? If the cult she’d been with had been part of New Horizon, you’d have known it, right?” If Pierce had been the one to whip her, then she’d suffered far more than Trevor could understand. Jacob’s stomach burned.

  “I don’t know, but five years ago, Pierce was with the FBI, working in conjunction with the DEA assigned to tracking down a Mexican drug lord hiding in the Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico area. He was out there. I’ll have Tom check it over, but if your uncle knew Cliff Rivers, the self-proclaimed son of God who was the figurehead for the Faithful Followers of the Word, he might’ve arranged some part-time work for Pierce in that area. It wasn’t until Lilith recovered that we realized Rivers wasn’t the spiritual leader. Come to think of it, we thought your brother was the Harvester until Faye told us the truth. This might be a pattern with your uncle—another reason he’s so hard to find. He stays out of the limelight and lets someone he trusts take the credit. Did you know anyone named Cliff Rivers?”

  “No, but that doesn’t mean anything considering how the cult has grown.”

  “Pierce is a sick, sadistic son of a bitch. Torturing women would’ve been right up his alley. I’ll let you know what Tom finds out.”

  Jacob nodded. “I felt scars on her back through her sweater. If she thinks he’s back, it’s enough to send her into full-blown panic.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’ve cleared this floor and hired the Guardians to add to security. Three men will be in place by this evening. I won’t let anyone hurt her, Trevor, never again. If you, Rob, and Tom want to stay here, you can each have a room. The floor’s locked off to unauthorized personnel. It’s as safe as we can make it.”

  “Thanks. We’ll talk about it and let you know, but it’s an excellent idea. He won’t expect us here. I’ve doubled the guards on duty at the jail, too. Take care of her. I’m glad I did that digging into your background. With the way the original task force members have become targets, you’re the best person for this job. There’s a SWAT team on the floor. Between them and your paid bodyguards, she should be safe enough.”

  Jacob nodded and slipped the night chain in place after Trevor left. He headed to the bar and poured himself a stiff drink. The sound of Lilith’s weeping tore at his heart. He couldn’t let her go on like that. Slowly opening the door, he approached the bed.

  “Lilith, I understand how you feel. If there’s anything I can do, just say so.”

  “Hold me,” she said haltingly through her tears. “Jacob, I’m so scared. I don’t want to be alone.”

  He lay on the bed beside her and pulled her into his arms, rubbing her back, letting her cry. The welts under his fingers sparked a horror in him as he recalled the beating he’d taken at Pierce’s hands. Holding her like this brought its own special agony as well. He was falling in love with her, and God alone knew if there could be a future for them, wounded as they were. If he ever got close to Pierce, he’d kill the bastard himself—not for what he’d done to him, but for what he’d done to her.

  • • •

  Lilith awoke slowly as if she were coming out of a dense fog. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was, but then she felt Jacob’s arms cradling her, and everything came rushing back. For five years, she’d searched for the monster who’d maimed her, but he’d found her instead. She’d almost convinced herself the bastard was dead—one of the nine
men who’d protected Rivers. Never once had she suspected he was a colleague. All she’d ever seen had been his eyes, cold, gray shark’s eyes she was convinced belonged to Pierce—the man who’d whipped Jacob, the one who’d killed so many others in the name of the demon he called the Prophet, the man who had those poor children. No wonder seeing that black and white photograph of him had unnerved her. She must’ve subconsciously recognized him.

  How long had she slept? It was still light out, so it couldn’t have been more than an hour or so. The will to fight had oozed out of her the way the blood had all those years ago, leaving nothing but emptiness behind. She felt Jacob’s warm breath on her neck and relaxed. The gentle rise and fall of his chest against her back told her he slept still—thankfully, he’d been able to get some rest.

  She was all cried out, as they said. Between the meltdowns a few days ago and today’s events, she was drained. She’d wept for all the pain and suffering she’d endured five years ago and was waiting for her again out there somewhere. The brand on her stomach burned, the scars from the lashes ached. If Pierce got to her, he’d want to finish what he started, and she’d die before she’d ever give in to him. Of course, that was probably exactly what he had planned for her.

  Cool air caressed her stomach. Her top had ridden up, exposing her lower torso, but she was powerless to fix it. Jacob’s arm covered most of the bare flesh, his hand splayed across her. She tried to wiggle the shirt down, but it was a futile gesture. Resigned to her fate, she prayed he’d move before he opened his eyes so he wouldn’t see the disfiguring scars. But he can feel them. Well, it would all come out now. It had to. Trevor would unseal the file and know it all—the photographs spoke louder than words could.

  The week before she’d gone undercover, she’d attended one of San Diego’s amateur theater companies’ staging of the musical, Paint Your Wagon, and “They Call the Wind Mariah” had stuck with her. She’d hummed the tune for days. So she’d chosen Mariah—first names only were used for those who were part of the Faithful Followers of the Word.

  The words on Pierce’s note were from the first verse of the song. Her tormentor had hummed the tune as he whipped her, had sung the words in a rich baritone voice when he’d branded her. It was the tune that replayed itself in her nightmares.

  The candy bar had been the icing on the cake. It was the food he’d offered her the last time he’d interrogated her.

  Admit you enjoy it, Mariah. Admit it while you can. Call me master, and I’ll release you. We can have all kinds of fun together, you and me. Rivers says I can keep you once you’re broken.

  She trembled and Jacob pulled her closer to him, the heat of his body warming her.

  How had Pierce found her? She’d let her hair grow long, had allowed her natural red color to grow in. As a disguise, it was useless. He’d seen her on television, and as any good FBI agent would do, he tracked her to the hotel for out-of-town agents. That thought calmed her a bit. If he’d found her that way, then Jacob was safe, and if Jacob was safe, so was she—for now.

  “Feeling better?” he asked, surprising her. He hadn’t moved his hand either.

  “Yes. I’m sorry for everything. I wasn’t ready for this. I should’ve been. I’ve always known we’d meet again ...”

  “He won’t get you, Lilith. As God is my witness, we’ll catch him. Trevor’s watching your hotel. If he shows up there, it’s over.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Your demon has a face, and we will find him. Tom’s looking for the school Ellie described. The walls are closing in on Pierce. Right now, the focus is on taking him down, but once we do, finding my uncle and putting an end to his schemes will be that much easier. They won’t get away.”

  His stomach groaned, forcing an awkward giggle from her.

  “You’re right, but at the moment, we need to eat. We never did get to have lunch.”

  “I meant to order food when we arrived, but as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men.”

  He moved his arm away and she pulled down her shirt. “Let me unpack and shower, and then we can eat. I suppose Trevor told you some of it?”

  “Not much, but enough for me to know what you went through and who was responsible for it.”

  She shuddered. “If I’d known who he was, I’d have walked right into his office and shot the son of a bitch.”

  Jacob chuckled. “Justifiable homicide in my book. I’ll let you get cleaned up and see what I can do about scaring up a late lunch. Then, we can work on the charts. You can tell me what you want me to know later.”

  She smiled. “Thank you.” Sitting up, she watched him leave the room, and it was as if he took some of the sunshine with him.

  Enough with the pity party. I’m not the hapless, inexperienced agent I was last time. She could defend herself, and she had friends who would protect her. It was time to pull on her big girl panties and deal with this. Lilith Munroe wasn’t a damsel in distress anymore—she had a knight in dented armor by her side, and they’d get the son of a bitch before he got them.

  Standing, she reached for her suitcase, pleased to see that despite her quick packing job, nothing was the worse for it. She put her clothing into the dresser drawers, lined up her shoes in the closet, including the shiny black ones Jacob had paid for this morning, and hung up her skirts, dresses, blouses, and jackets. She found a laundry bag on one of the hangers and tossed her dirty clothes into it.

  After placing the LED lanterns on the bedside tables, she carried her toiletry bag into the en suite bathroom. The reflection in the mirror looked less haunted than she’d expected. Maybe there was still a little starch in her backbone. Put there by Jacob, no doubt.

  Stripping off her clothes, she stepped into the double shower and let the warm water cleanse the last of her distress away.

  • • •

  Jacob stared at the charts they’d made the previous day and waited for room service and Lilith to appear. He’d searched the Internet for Utah FBI cults and had hit on the raid to liberate a senator’s granddaughter from the Faithful Followers of the Word. The article mentioned several people had been killed during the rescue and that three people, including an FBI agent, had been taken to the hospital in critical condition. He’d closed the browser.

  Calling downstairs, he ordered lunch and a six-pack of the same beer they’d ordered yesterday. He also asked for a basket of fruit and assorted snacks. Hopefully, the candy bars wouldn’t upset Lilith, but he was a muncher, and since it looked like going out for a walk and a bite was off the agenda, he’d settle for what he could get here.

  Once that was done, he called Rob, got the information on Faye’s flight, and sent a message to his manager and his housekeeper in Melbourne, making arrangements for Faye and her mother to be collected when their flight arrived. He wished he could send Lilith to Australia too, but he knew better than to suggest it. This was her fight, her dragon to slay, and while he’d help her wield the sword, he couldn’t do it for her.

  The bedroom door opened and she came out dressed once more in her jeans, but instead of the sweatshirt, she wore a long-sleeved plaid shirt. She’d left her hair down, and it curled softly around her face and shoulders. She wore no makeup, and her lips shone with a touch of lip gloss, but her color was good and her eyes clear. Anyone seeing her now wouldn’t realize what she’d gone through earlier.

  “Did you order food?’ she asked, stopping at the mini fridge and taking out a can of cola.

  “I did. I ordered burgers and fries, but if you’d like something else ...”

  “No. That’s fine. You’ll have to wait until this is over for me to treat you to that street vendor hot dog, though.” She popped the tab on her can. “Jacob, I’ll tell you about my time in Utah, but not now. You can probably imagine some of it,” she said, staring down at the floor.

  He nodded. “You were whipped, as I was,” he said matter-of-factly, as if it happened to everybody. “I felt the welts on your skin. I have a few of my ow
n. I know the quality of Pierce’s work only too well. The man enjoyed inflicting pain. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

  Nodding, she sighed. “For the moment, I want to forget he’s out there and concentrate on this. We need to make sure the settlers are safe and try to find the children.”

  “Agreed. I gave Trevor Micah and Ellie’s information, and he’s got three likely potentials near Bennington, Brattleboro, and Newfane. He’s also located the owner of those plates, a farmer near Bellows Falls. Trevor’s having someone from the Montpelier office check it out.”

  A knock at the door startled her—she wasn’t as calm as she pretended to be.

  “That’ll be lunch. Don’t worry. Getting up here isn’t easy. I’ll bet you’re safer here than you would be at headquarters.”

  He opened the door, and the SWAT team member followed the room service attendant inside. After searching the cart, the young officer let the woman set up the meal. Jacob signed the check, handed her a tip, and nodded to the police officer, who escorted the woman back to the elevator. He noticed Lilith had put the security chain back on the door.