by Amy Gamet
“Sure. Do people ever leave The Community?”
The shift in his demeanor was so subtle, she might have missed it. “No. Everyone here has taken a vow to remain part of the group for the rest of their lives. If you choose to stay with us more than a few more days, you’ll need to make your vow as well.”
Over my dead body.
“What if someone who’s taken their vow wants to leave?”
“That doesn’t happen.”
“But what if—”
He held up his hand. “No buts.”
“Does that mean everyone who’s ever been to The Community is still here now?”
He cocked his head to the side. “Why do you ask these things?”
Cassidy wished she could backpedal. She’d pushed him too much and roused his suspicions. She shrugged. “I’m just curious.”
“Are you finished with your meal, Sister Cassidy?” She turned to find Lucas, David’s personal helper, standing behind her. He’d been kind to her since she first arrived and she smiled warmly.
“Yes, thank you. Everything was wonderful.” She turned back around to find David looking at her intently.
“I have a few questions for you, too,” he said.
Crap. “Okay.”
“What do you do for a living?”
She’d invented a completely fake persona to rely on when questioned. “I’m a schoolteacher. Fourth grade.”
“Where do you live?”
“Virginia, outside D.C.”
“Ever been married?”
“No.”
“Have you been with a man?”
Her mouth dropped open, blood instantly rushing to her cheeks. “Excuse me?”
“The answer to that question says a lot about a woman’s character. Have you let a man lie with you out of wedlock?”
She’d never wanted to tell anyone off so badly in her life, but the sweet little schoolteacher she’d invented for this occasion probably wouldn’t do that. She forced her mouth closed but didn’t trust herself to answer him.
He stroked up and down her thigh. “Now I’ve upset you.”
She yanked her leg away. “I don’t think I’d like to walk this evening, after all.”
“Be very careful, Sister Cassidy.”
The hair on her arms stood up on end. Was this what had happened to Julianne? Had she made David angry? Had he hurt her?
She stood abruptly and pushed her chair in.
“I’ll call on you around eight,” he said.
She didn’t trust herself not to stay in control, so she turned on her heel and left, weaving her way in and out of the others who were leaving the dining hall.
She was suddenly certain this place wasn’t what it seemed. It couldn’t just be people living together and working in harmony.
The Community had lured Julianne in and closed around her like a Venus flytrap, her disappearing just as surely as a fly in that same predicament. Was the same thing going to happen to her?
You’ve been lazy, waiting for answers to come to you. You must explore the compound. See for yourself where Julianne might be.
It would be dangerous, but she saw now it was something she must do. David wasn’t just going to tell her what happened to her friend. She would have to find out for herself.
3
If she doesn’t want to leave, you’re going to have to drag her out, kicking and screaming.
Austin thought it with every step as he hiked up the mountain to Longwood Ranch. If he’d learned anything during his weeks with Cassidy Lane, it was that woman had a skull even thicker than his own, and damn the person who tried to argue with her.
He could only hope once she learned about the press pass and the necklace, she’d understand her friend was gone and she herself was in danger, but somehow he imagined she wouldn’t concede a damn thing without a body and a coroner to pronounce Julianne dead beyond saving.
Maybe she’d grown up by now and wasn’t so damn stubborn. He imagined she’d throw her arms around him and thank him for coming to his rescue.
He scoffed out loud.
He had drugs in his pack he could use to knock Cassidy out if necessary. He’d probably have to carry her down the whole damn mountain against her will, but he’d be lying if he said the task didn’t sound more than a little like fun.
Even if she wouldn’t fight for me.
The old resentment bubbled up through layers of forgotten memories. Since Cassidy’s parents came to visit HERO Force, he’d been swimming in the moments he’d shared with their daughter, from the most intense lovemaking to the final argument that had ended it all.
Austin spit on the ground and climbed up a small cliff. He wasn’t a dreamer and he never expected she’d come back into his life. But he was on a journey to bring her to safety, and with every step he secured that destiny as surely as if he were flying cross-country to meet her.
Again.
He’d been such a fool. A one-night stand had turned into a weekend, a weekend into seventeen days of the most intense lust and most comfortable lounging in bed together he’d experienced to this day.
He’d been on leave from the SEALs. She’d been on break from college. Neither of them had anything to do beyond strip naked and fuck until their bodies were nearly raw from the friction and his soul sated beyond belief.
Austin had found something in Cassidy he’d never found in another woman before or since. A true partner, a lover and a confidant.
Then all hell had broken loose.
He thought of her father sitting across the HERO Force conference table, still looking regal despite the years that had collected at his feet since Austin had seen him last. The only time he’d seen Senator Keaton Lane even remotely weary was when he stumbled upon his daughter riding Austin on the diving board of the family pool like a jockey in the last stretch at the Kentucky Derby.
It’ll be okay, I promise.
But it wasn’t okay. Not that day when he got dressed and shook her father’s hand, and not a week later when he flew in before going wheels up with SEAL Team Fourteen just to tell her he loved her.
It would never be okay again.
She let him go, just like that. As if none of it meant anything to her.
We’re from different worlds, Austin. I know you understand.
He understood, all right. He understood her father was calling the shots and Cassidy was letting him. She was a fighter—that much was clear—but she’d chosen not to fight for the guy a dozen spots beneath her on the social totem pole.
It was going to be a pleasure to pull her out of that compound, even against her will. To make her do what was best for her even if she didn’t want it. The fact that all of this was at her father’s bidding was just the icing on the cake, karma come full circle to bite Cassidy on the ass.
He frowned at the direction his thoughts had taken.
So much for being over her.
He stopped walking and checked his compass, then continued, slightly adjusting his course. It was beginning to get dark and he needed to setup camp near Longwood Ranch before he stopped moving for the night.
He looked around him. How the hell did they get people in and out of this place, much less supplies? Air was the only reasonable answer, but that was expensive.
He shed his first layer of clothing, tucking the fabric neatly into his pack and retrieving his canteen, taking a long pull of water before moving again.
From here he could see the mountain rise up before him, its majestic peaks arranged in a jagged sawtooth pattern, which was where they’d gotten their name, the Sawtooth Mountains.
You’re not in Brooklyn anymore.
The first time he’d thought that he’d been trudging through Tel Aviv. Ever since then, whenever he saw or experienced something extraordinary - whether good or bad - those same words ran through his mind.
You’re not in Brooklyn anymore.
That was part of the reason he’d signed up in the first place, the navy seeming
like some magical ticket that could transform his life and experiences—hell, even himself—into something beyond brownstones and the same life everyone around him led.
He wanted adventure. He wanted to see things, do things that other people didn’t get to see and do.
He grabbed onto a tree trunk and pulled himself up a steep incline. The brush underfoot had given way to pine needles and dirt, the terrain quickly becoming more rugged.
This was what he lived for now. The ever-changing adventure that constantly surprised him, the scenery unlike anything the old Austin could have dreamed.
He was proud to be military, even if now he was collecting a pension instead of a paycheck. It wasn’t hard to get the time in when you started early enough, and he’d always be a SEAL even without the active duty.
HERO Force seemed like a good fit so far, keeping him interested with a variety of assignments and enough clandestine missions to keep him interested and challenged.
The watchtower came into view before anything else, rising above the forest like the spire of the castle. There was plenty of cover here, and he moved stealthily from tree to tree without difficulty. By the time he approached the less-vegetated area that separated him from the compound, he was ready for the necessary break.
He’d wait until sundown to gain entry to the compound and find Cassidy. And God willing, get her the hell out of there.
4
David Kelleher stood on his porch and sipped at his honey whiskey. The sun was setting over the mountain, the sky streaked with purple and red. The kind of sky his mother would have called heaven sent, and gone on to talk about how lucky they were to live in the mountains of Idaho.
He liked them much better without her here. His father, too. The day they died was his emancipation, the start of something better and his own kingdom atop the hill. It was good they were gone. When they were alive, they’d spent their meager earnings from the farm on flying to private therapist appointments for their son’s delusions of grandeur.
Stupid people.
He tossed back the rest of his drink, the cloyingly sweet liquor what he considered to be Bacchus’ nectar of the gods.
His birthright to drink it up.
In his mind’s eye he could see Cassidy as she tried to drink it down, the image colliding with an equally appealing fantasy of her giving him oral sex. He liked the new girl—even more than Julianne—and that was saying something.
The thought of his betrayer made him sneer.
Fucking reporter.
He’d worked tirelessly to build The Community into what it was today, poised on the verge of mass adoption, and that bitch had nearly ruined everything. Thank goodness for the tip he’d received that warned him of her true identity before it was too late to stop her from exposing Longwood Ranch and his followers.
He needed her to disappear. It had been a difficult order to give, his desire for the woman and his need to punish her warring in his mind until good sense had finally prevailed.
Now Julianne was dead, but Cassidy was very much alive. She certainly seemed like an honest soul, but hadn’t Julianne seemed like one, too?
Touching her at dinner had gotten him hard, the soft firmness of her thigh and the uncomfortable way she tossed her hair. He smiled. She’d been flustered, and he liked his women flustered when he took them to bed. Too willing and it sucked some of the fun from the experience. He needed that uncertainty in order to have something to conquer. A branch to bend, an arm to twist backwards.
He thought back to her reaction when he asked if she’d been with a man. She’d been shocked, certainly. But he didn’t think he’d be so lucky as for her to actually be a virgin. In this day and age, people had no sense of sexual morals, no reason to hold off pleasure today for a greater pleasure tomorrow. The idea of saving yourself for your future husband was considered antiquated and unnecessary.
Not for long.
The Community was going to change all that.
Longwood Ranch was its own little world, a sample of the larger society, proving his ideals could survive on a grand scale if given the chance. Like a seed sown in ready soil, his community would flourish in the wider world. He needed only to till that soil and destroy the weeds that currently covered the earth with sinners and non-believers so his doctrine could take root.
Then there would be virgins for any righteous husband, ripe for the picking.
Or breaking, as the case may be.
Thomas walked onto the porch, Lucas on his heels.
“What have you learned about Cassidy?” David asked.
Lucas looked to Thomas before speaking, continuing only after the other man gave a nod. “Cassidy Lane is a schoolteacher from Richmond, Virginia. She’s never been married. Her parents are deceased and she’s an only child.”
So she’d been telling the truth. He grinned as he walked to a table and poured himself more honey whiskey. “Gentlemen, I believe I have found the woman I will marry.”
“Perhaps in time,” said Thomas.
David spun to face him at the blatant insubordination. “I decide when. Not you, and you not entitled to an opinion in this matter. Unless of course God has been whispering in your ear without telling me?”
Thomas looked suddenly pale. “Of course not, Brother David. Only you have the ear of the Lord.”
“That's right.” He turned to Lucas. “Good work, man.”
“Thank you, Brother David.”
David looked back to Thomas, defying the other man to contradict his next words. “I will have her before we take down Seattle.”
Thomas’s eyes registered no emotion. “As you wish, Brother David.”
“Good. How is the training going?”
“Very well, sir. The men have truly taken to the assault rifles. They believe they are for hunting.”
“They are lambs who must become bulls. First we teach them the skills, then we plant the desire to proselytize. Only when I say so will the transformation begin.”
“As you wish,” said Thomas.
“Brother David?” asked Lucas, his brows knitted together. “Should we pray for the people of Seattle, that they may find conversion before it is too late?”
The earnest expression in Lucas’s eyes filled David with pity for this man who thought anyone was worth saving. “No, Brother Lucas. It is already too late for them.”
He finished his drink and slammed the glass down. “I have courting to do, gentlemen.” He turned on his heel. Cassidy no longer wished to go for a walk with him, but that was no deterrent to his plan.
She would accompany him. She would walk anywhere he wished to walk, and she would like it.
5
Cassidy stepped outside with David, the cool evening air instantly chilling her arms.
“You’re cold,” he said.
“No. It feels good.”
“I can get you a jacket.”
“No, really. I’d just like to see the garden and get back.” Again with that smile locked onto her face. She swore, if she ever got out of this place she’d never smile again. They walked in silence past the other dormitories and his residence.
Would he kiss her? The thought was sobering, the idea of his hands on her body akin to being covered with spiders, and she shook her head to clear the image.
“I’ve enjoyed having you here at The Community,” he said.
“As I’ve enjoyed being here.”
“Not just as a member of the group, Cassidy. I’ve enjoyed having you here as a man enjoys having a beautiful woman nearby.”
His hand touched hers and she pulled away, crossing her arms over her chest as she walked.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
Doormat. Be a doormat, Cassidy!
She clenched her teeth to keep from telling him off. She’d been flabbergasted when he showed up at her dorm after dinner, asking for this walk after she’d specifically told him she didn’t want to walk with him. But several women were standing nearby and she suspec
ted it was wiser to go with him than to challenge him in front of their audience.
Now they were alone, some five hundred feet from the nearest building, and she used her best diplomatic voice, the one she reserved for her father’s cocktail parties and the drunken old politicians who’d stare at her cleavage.
“I told you I didn’t want to walk this evening,” she said quietly. “But you came for me anyway. You put me in a difficult position.”
“I told you at dinner I would be by to collect you. It shouldn’t have been a surprise.”
“You ignored my wishes.”
“I wanted to spend time with you.”
She sighed heavily. “Where are the gardens you wanted to show me?”
“Just ahead. Near the fence over there.”
Cassidy couldn’t even make out a fence in the near darkness. She’d never been to this area of the ranch and it struck her that if she wanted to find Julianne, she needed to cover more territory than the dormitories, fields and dining hall. “I’d like to see more of the ranch. Would it be all right if I looked around tomorrow instead of helping with the planting? I’d like to see the rest of the property.”
“Of course. I’ll have Lucas take you on a tour.”
“There’s no need. I can look around myself.”
“It’s four thousand acres. More than six square miles.”
Disappointment pierced her heart. She’d never find Julianne in that much space. “Okay then, Lucas it is.”
They walked a few more minutes in silence, then he stopped and lifted his head, calling, “Jerome, will you light the garden, please?”
She could just make out the silhouette of the guard tower against the sky when a large spotlight was lighted, burning her eyes and forcing her to turn away. It moved to the ground, illuminating a large round labyrinth made of gravel and sand. She stepped closer, amazed. “Oh.”
“You didn’t think it would be a flower garden at this time of year.”
“I don’t know what I thought. But this is…unexpected.” She began at the opening, following the twisting, turning path as it folded in on itself, leading to the middle of the circle.