We concluded our meeting with Corey, once again, telling me to do whatever Kieran told me to. I walked with the two men to the front yard. There came a point when it seemed I should leave, a conversation was to take place that I wasn’t to be part of. Although neither of them outright said so, it was the slight glances and the clipped, cryptic sentences that had me give my goodbye and walk slowly back.
I knew it wasn’t necessarily the right thing to do, but I paused on the front porch on the pretense of tying my shoelace. A silver sedan sat parked by the sidewalk and just before Corey got in, he handed Kieran what looked like a small envelope. Kieran pocketed it without even looking at it. I heard Corey mention Beau’s name, and wondered if the envelope was connected. He also revealed a couple of names I’d never heard of, Gabriel and Mich.
“One of Beau’s many contacts,” Kieran said as he passed me. There was no fooling that old man.
The FBI paid Beau to do their dirty work? I wasn’t sure that was what Kieran meant and hoped I’d misunderstood.
“Let’s start your training,” Kieran said.
Before a month ago, I’d never had any desire to hold a gun, let alone learn to shoot one. But then, I’d never been in this situation before. For a few hours I stood beside Kieran, and he taught me the mechanics of a handgun, none of which I would be likely to remember, how to load it, and lastly, how to shoot. It surprised me that it actually wasn’t as simple as some TV shows would have you believe. Not that I’d watched much TV, but the heroine was always able to pick up a gun for the first time, not worry about whether the safety was on, or whether it was actually loaded, and fire, to wound or kill someone.
I learned the difference between the weight of a loaded gun and an unloaded one. I was given many to test, and each time the seconds I was given to answer became shorter. Kieran wanted me to get to a point where I picked up a revolver and knew instantly. Of course, there were many guns out there and he only had a limited selection. By limited, he had a gun safe similar to Beau’s with a range of rifles, some automatic, and handguns.
Had the reason for me learning to shoot not been so serious, it could have been a fun session, and I was disappointed when Kieran stated that it was time to go in. I stamped my feet to gain some feeling into my freezing toes and sniffed back the snot about to run from my very cold nose. I should have bought that coat when I’d first thought of it. I also needed boots. My Converse were no match for winter.
My right palm tingled from the number of times I’d shot the gun; my left ached. Kieran had me using both hands, not that I was ambidextrous but as he said, who knew where my body would be, which hand was the closest to my weapon, when I needed it in an emergency. My shoulders ached from holding my arms aloft, and my stomach grumbled to remind me I hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
Rose had been at the diner all day. She scolded Kieran for not feeding me when she returned. I laughed; I could have helped myself had I not been so busy. She had brought back some leftover chili, which she reheated and we tucked in. I imagined one of the benefits of owning the diner was the fact she never had to do a food shop.
“What happens with all this?” I asked as we ate dinner and tapped the copy of Cecelia’s will.
“Beau is the executor, he gave me that copy to show you. He’s met with Cecelia’s lawyer and we need to set up a meeting for you.”
“When is he coming back?” I asked.
I had questions for him, and as much as I didn’t necessarily want to admit it, I missed him. Those few hours we shared in his basement were the most ‘normal’ we’d been with each other.
“I don’t know,” Kieran said.
“What happened to Rachel’s sister? Is she in the cult?”
“Not now,” Rose said.
“You got her out?” The gang had obviously liberated her.
Rose smiled, “We did, the last time we knew, she was in California.”
“Beau seemed genuinely surprised by the message I found in that novel, which confused me since Rachel had left so suddenly. I mean, Beau didn’t indicate they had problems before she ran. If she was scared of someone, worried she was about to be killed, I can’t believe Beau wouldn’t have picked up the vibes. I guess I should have thought a little more about that. I wonder now if that message was from her sister.”
A look passed between Rose and Kieran. “You might be right,” Rose said.
“What actually happened to Rachel’s sister?”
“She was passed off as divine child, I think that was the trade-off for getting the start up loan Paul wanted. We tracked her down, extracted her, and sent her to a family we knew in California. We have families that help us all over the country,” Kieran said.
“Beau never mentioned the sister at all, I wonder why?” I said, mainly to myself.
“I guess he didn’t think you needed to know, not at the beginning. He thought you might have been part of the cult, Charlotte. You’re not going to like this, but it was one of the reasons we brought you in close. It was so we could find out if his fear was true, and if it was, to see if we could help you. I guess in one way, you were involved, you just didn’t realize it.”
“Beau didn’t like me in the beginning, I’m still not sure he actually does. I know I remind him of Rachel and now…well, he killed her to save me, and he must have loved her at one point. I imagine he hates me right now. Perhaps it would be best if I wasn’t here when he returned,” I said, sadly.
Despite knowing Cecelia had wanted me to have her house, I didn’t believe it was fair to stick around if Beau was going to be affected by my presence. It seemed life was difficult enough for him without me being in the mix.
“You’ve been thrown right into the middle of all this, I can imagine that, right now, you don’t even know what way is up. Maybe you need to sleep on everything you know before you make any decisions,” Kieran said.
I did what he suggested and the following morning I had a clearer idea of what had happened. I’d been lied to, manipulated, and yet had found a group of people who would go out of their way to protect me. They knew me, they knew the kind of life I’d had and the kind of life I could have found myself in. I would be eternally grateful to them all. However, I needed to toughen up. I needed to grow up, and quickly. I might have been twenty years old, but I’d led a very isolated life. Despite my background, or rather, the years I’d been controlled by Damien, I still believed there was good in the world. Rose, Kieran, Beau, and Cecelia were it.
A week passed before I was able to hit a target with some accuracy, and I think I’d about exhausted Kieran’s patience with the gun training. I could take a revolver apart, clean it, and reassemble it in good time. I could pick it up and fire blindfolded, and I could shoot with either hand. Kieran thought it time I owned my own. He escorted me to the gun store and selected a revolver for me. Before he purchased it for me, I tested it. I liked the feel of it in my hand. It was lighter, designed for women, but with a powerful punch. The storeowner rang up the cost and I noticed a substantial discount was given. Kieran winked as he paid. A gang member, perhaps?
When we returned home, Rose was in the kitchen with Ellie, Kacy, and three other women I didn’t know. Kieran took my gun to place in his cabinet. I was ushered to a chair and a mug of coffee was slid across the table to me.
“Welcome to our newest member,” Kacy said, raising her mug to me.
“Charlotte, you’ve met Ellie and Kacy, of course. Let me introduce May, Hannah, and Janet. May is a school teacher, Hannah owns the general store, and Janet works in the local sheriff’s office.”
Janet chuckled when her job description was given over. I guessed, considering Cody was the sheriff, it was a little ironic.
“We meet weekly, each of us has different projects that we’re working on. The girls wanted to formally meet you.”
I smiled at each one. “It’s great to have you here, safe,” Janet said.
“It’s taken me a few days to come to terms with everything but I
want to help. I don’t know what I can do, obviously, but I’m willing to learn,” I said.
“We need some young blood, we’re all getting on a bit,” Hannah said.
“Well, I did laugh when Rose told me. Not that I thought you weren’t capable…”
Their laughter stopped my hasty apology. “So, where are we at?” Rose said, I guessed the meeting had started.
Janet told us that Corey Lowe had taken over one of the offices in the station for a little while, that had Cody on edge. She had managed to give details of Cody’s movements, it seemed all the department’s vehicles had some form of tracker and she printed off the details. Cody visited one property on a regular basis; Corey was to look into what that property was and whether it needed our intervention.
“So we work with the FBI?” I asked, amazed.
“Unofficially,” Kieran said, taking a seat at the table.
Hannah gave us an update on the urgency of getting Allana from the compound. She had an ‘in’ in as much as she delivered groceries to the compound and had developed a relationship with Rose’s sister, who ran the kitchen. Allana had been in the kitchen when Hannah had been invited in for a coffee, something not normally allowed. Allana was growing fast; Hannah felt she had no more than a couple of months before her removal was critical.
“Does Allana know about you?” I asked.
“No. We can’t run the risk that she’d tell Richard if put under pressure. However, we do know that she’s not a believer of their faith. Emma, my sister, has been helping her conceal her monthlies.”
I took that to mean she had hit puberty and my stomach tightened in fear for her at the prospect of what that meant.
“Corey’s old partner in the FBI, Mich Curtis and his friend, remember Gabriel? They’re going after the cult. Corey thinks they might need our help,” Kieran said to Rose.
“What do you mean, they’re going after the cult,” I asked.
“Gabriel’s wife was a divine child, she escaped a long time ago. I remember her, Savannah was her name. The cult killed her while her child was in the house,” Rose said.
“Shit!”
“Shit, indeed,” Rose said. “Do we know when this is likely to happen?”
Kieran shook his head. “Mich has gone rogue. He has a cell but doesn’t use it. Corey has been trying to contact him, to give him the location of the compound, and try to talk him into leaving it to the officials, but right now, he doesn’t know where they are.”
“Why would he ask him to leave it to the officials when he’s happy to work with us, unofficially?” I asked, Kieran’s statement didn’t make sense.
“I’ll know more when I meet Corey again, but it seems this is personal for Mich now. Corey doesn’t trust that Mich won’t go in there and shoot the place up, that might bring a lot of unwanted attention, and who knows if they will get out alive, if the cult might get away, or we get exposed.”
“And he doesn’t feel it’s personal for us?” Rose had been involved in the cult, Kacy had been abused by the cult, I’d nearly been kidnapped into it, and I didn’t know the involvement of the other women.
Kieran laughed. “You’re a group of old women, except you two. I don’t think he realizes exactly what we’ve been able to do.” He beamed at the women around the table.
Janet had a blue rinse, a floral oversized dress and sensible shoes. Hannah was a typical schoolteacher, even down the tight bun at the back of her head. Ellie was about the most glamorous of the lot. Kacy must have been telepathic; she looked at me and laughed.
“I know, I thought the same!” she said.
“It’s the best disguise ever,” Janet added.
“But you said we unofficially help the FBI,” I said.
“No, me and Beau unofficially help the FBI, Corey doesn’t realize the extent of the ladies’ involvement. You have to remember, any girl officially extracted has to go through the FBI for deprogramming. We don’t think that actually helps. Think about it, these girls are so brainwashed, so scared and very naïve, we feel it’s better they are in a family environment, with people who actually know what they went through. They are the best counselors.”
I let the rest of the conversation wash over me. Here were a group of women that had either been directly affected by the cult, or volunteered to put themselves in danger for the sake of others. Kacy and her son, me, plus the girls they’d saved, had been taken into their care without a thought for their own safety and with one common goal. I admired them. I was grateful for them, and I wished I’d known them a few years back. I believed I had something to offer. It might not be muscle, not that any of the others had that either, but I had knowledge and an understanding of what it was like to be controlled by a man. I knew what it was like to live a life, albeit only a part of mine was, where someone decided everything I did.
“Guardian Angel,” I said.
The conversation stopped. “There is a rose called a Guardian Angel, I remember my grandmother trying to grow it. That’s what you should call yourselves.”
For a moment the women were quiet.
“We’d sound like a fucking cult,” Kacy said. The women around the table stared at Kacy for just a moment before bursting into laughter.
“Guardian Angels it is,” Rose said.
I had no idea how these women had managed to do what they had so far. If I wasn’t sitting around that table and listening to their catch-up, I would have thought I was in some kind of TV show.
It was so unrealistic that it was brilliant.
With the backup from Kieran, although I still didn’t understand his role, Beau, and I guessed, Corey, it was the perfect team.
For the first time in my life, I knew I belonged somewhere.
A couple of days passed, I practiced with my gun, always with Kieran when he wasn’t working, and until I was confident I could shoot it. Whether I’d ever be able to shoot a human being was another issue, of course. I returned to work, enjoying getting some normality back in my life, and it pleased me to be welcomed back by customers. It pleased me more to feel my tip jar at the end of each shift was a little heavier.
Kieran and I visited the lawyer, paperwork was signed, and although I was given the key to Cecelia’s house, we were a little way from me actually owning it. Beau needed to sign some papers and he was still missing. I wasn’t confident to move into the house straight away, and I wasn’t sure Kieran and Rose would allow it, but we did go there each day to clean and pack away Cecelia’s personal possessions. I wasn’t sure it was a job that Beau would be up to. Kieran arranged for all the locks to be changed and for a security system to be installed. I gave him a set a keys, and kept another spare for Beau. We also arranged for the chair to be brought back from the apartment.
I needed to get a bank account. The money I’d been left couldn’t be given to me in cash, and I agreed that Kieran would become trustee. Not that I wasn’t old enough to handle my own money, but if something should happen to me, I wanted the money to be used to fund the ‘cause.’ I was sure that Rose must use her own money to relocate the girls and help them get on their feet.
I was sitting on the deck at the back of Cecelia’s, with a coffee in my hand, when a figure walked from the woods. It was midday and Kieran was in the kitchen with the security guy. I was about to shout out when I recognized him. Without speaking, he sat beside me. He looked shocking. Dark circles framed his eyes as if he hadn’t slept for a while. His hair was a mess, and he hadn’t shaved for days. He’d aged in the six weeks since I’d seen him last. He smelled like he’d been living rough and I tried not to wrinkle my nose. I raised my coffee mug in his direction and he took it.
“You don’t look so good,” I said.
“That implies I looked good before,” he answered, taking a sip.
“You smell.”
“I’m sure I do.”
“Where have you been?” I asked.
“Working, sometimes I have to spend a lot of time outdoors, hence the stench.�
��
“Kill anyone recently?” I wasn’t sure if my joke was appropriate or not. He chuckled.
“No, surveillance only this time.”
It dawned on me then. He didn’t look like a bum; he looked like someone who had camped out for a week without the luxury of a shower.
“Beau…”
“Charlotte…”
We’d spoken at the same time. “You go first,” I said.
He sipped the coffee and sighed. “I didn’t know it was going happen, I had no idea Rachel would turn up like that. I would never have taken you there if I thought for one minute we’d have ended up in trouble. I lost focus; I fucked up, big time. I should have taken you someplace not so isolated.”
“Is that an apology?” I said with a smirk, not that he could have foreseen Rachel returning, not that he could have stopped what had happened to both of us. I didn’t want to let the opportunity of an apology from Beau pass me by, though.
“One as close as you’re ever going to get.” He matched my smirk.
“Do you think we could be friends? Not bicker anymore, maybe?” I asked.
“Mmm, that I don’t know. You get on my last nerve as my dear old aunt used to say to me.”
He drained the coffee cup and went to hand it to me. I kept my hands folded in my lap. He gave me a wink and a smile before placing the mug on the deck.
“I’ll be back later, friend,” he said, then rose and walked away.
“That was Beau,” I said, as Kieran walked on the deck.
“I saw, thought I’d give you guys a little time alone.”
“I think we have agreed to be friends. I’m not sure how long that’ll last, though,” I said.
Kieran laughed. He sat beside me. “How are you really feeling?” he asked.
“I don’t know, to be honest. Some days I feel like it’s all a dream and it’s a load of fun, and then I realize it isn’t and it’s all quite scary. There are times when I think I’m the ideal person to join your gang, and then others when I feel so ill-equipped, so naïve, that I wonder how I’ve lived for twenty years.”
Harlot Page 22