the church having some great kids’ programs, she had all the fun. Our parents felt that Noah and I should sit through the regular service. We were treated as though we were the same age, even though he’s eighteen months older than I am.”
Noah bullied everyone. It wasn’t until he started his cult that his parents saw that. By then, he’d taken Phoebe and hurt them all.
As if reading his mind, she asked, “How long have you been looking for Phoebe?”
“Actively? Five years,” he answered.
“Searching must have been hard for you,” she murmured. “But in all honesty, Eli, it’s not going to be easy to talk to her.”
The forest deepened and the quiet road narrowed. The sun retreated behind a bank of thick clouds and the brilliant fall leaves mutated into dark, ominous clumps.
“Then just get me in,” he finally said.
“I won’t be welcomed, you know. Noah was the only one who wanted me there. He called me Deborah, the prophetess. I was to reveal knowledge that he’d been secretly feeding me.” Despite her derisive tone, her voice quivered. “I could barely handle it.”
“But you did.”
“It was either that or he’d kill Trisha.” Her voice shook. “So I ended up doing as he said.”
Eli glanced at her. He should pull over, take her and hug her. Tell her it’s over; she’s safe from Noah.
But was she? The border crossing had just appeared ahead of them. There was no turning around now. They were headed right back into the very danger from which she’d escaped.
He was as cruel as his brother was.
The border guard checked their identification and asked some basic questions that Eli answered just as briefly.
The whole time, Kaylee remained silent, probably thinking of the last time that she’d crossed the border, having escaped from the compound. Trisha had paid for Kaylee’s freedom with her life.
And now he was taking Kaylee right back into that den of evil.
The guard handed back their identification and wished them a pleasant day.
Eli drove into the United States. Within minutes, they reached the main highway that ran parallel to the international border. A few moments later, he pulled into a small, rural service station.
“We need gas,” he told her.
Kaylee peered warily around her. When she caught his eye, she explained, “I know what you’re thinking. It’s over. There’s no way that Noah can hurt me again. Still…” She offered him a watery smile.
He found his heart pounding at her small smile. “I won’t let my brother hurt you again. We’re doing the right thing here, reaching out to Phoebe. I know if I can just talk to her…”
Except he didn’t know. He was just hoping…hoping for a miracle.
He glanced again at Kaylee’s face. Tears flowed down her cheeks and he felt his heart clench suddenly.
“I—I’m sorry,” she stuttered out, while swiping her face with the back of her hand. “I don’t think I can do this, Eli. I’m not just scared of Noah. But also of myself.”
Wariness prickled the hairs on his neck. “What do you mean?”
“There’s something you should know.”
THREE
Kaylee wished she could wipe away the alarm growing in Eli’s expression. But he deserved to know the truth. Something she hadn’t told a soul and had barely begun to acknowledge herself.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She gnawed on her lower lip. “Going back there…I mean, it’s not going to be easy. You have no idea…” She couldn’t form the right words.
Eli reached across the console and took her hand. His palm felt warm and comforting on her cold skin and she wished she could cling to him.
No. He was a stranger, a brother of the man who’d killed her sister. As much as he, right this minute, offered warmth and comfort, she knew she’d have to be crazy to be swayed by his charisma. One forceful Nash was enough for any lifetime.
“Talk to me, Kaylee. Tell me what’s going on.” His voice turned smooth, soothing her raw nerves. She liked the way he said her name.
“Noah convinced everyone I was a prophetess,” she whispered. “And, yes, he threatened me with terrible things to get me to say what he wanted. But it wasn’t completely like that, not toward the end.”
“I don’t understand—”
She pulled back her hand, unable to focus on her thoughts while he held it. A tendril of her hair had worked loose. When it dropped against her cheek, she hastily tucked it over her ear and was glad for the distraction. “At first, some of the women asked Noah to kick me out because I was so adamant about being there against my will and they were tired of listening to me. But Noah refused. He was insane and power-hungry. To him, I must have represented the secular world and he wanted to be able to control it. I think he also must have thought that if he managed to tame me, it would send a message of dominance to the rest of his cult.”
Eli’s blue eyes snared hers. Deep within them she saw uneasiness. “How did he manage to convince you to stay?”
“His threats grew. At first I refused to listen to them, because they were vague and full of innuendos. Then they got specific that one day. And later, his threats against Trisha became too real. One day, she got hurt outside. A board fell on her from the top of the woodshed. Noah looked at me and I knew he’d staged it to show me he meant business. So I shut up. I was scared.”
She paused, wondering why she was rehashing all the pain with this man, Noah Nash’s brother, of all people. But then, a second later, the rest poured out of her as if a plug had been pulled from a sink full of bitter, dirty water. “The months of semistarvation, of cold, browbeating captivity. There came a point where I just did what he said, period. I’d been taken to the lowest point in my life.”
She struggled in vain against the tears and the humiliation that she’d just let loose with all her fears and pain. “Before I escaped, though, I’d actually started to believe what I was prophesizing.” Shame added to the burn in her cheeks.
Through a swim of tears, she spied Eli climbing out of the car and walking around the front. He opened her door and tugged her to standing. Beyond, the gas attendant chose that moment to step out of the store.
Eli ignored him to pull her close. For a brief, delicious moment, she felt important, cared for. For that time, she didn’t care who he was. He was what she wanted. Strong arms wrapped around her, protecting her. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.
“It’s all right.”
“Noah had started to make sense. The way he was interpreting things that had happened around us, the past and even what the Bible said. He’d started to really sound right.”
Eli tightened his grip on her.
She cried for a while longer. “I don’t want to go back there. I know what happened to me. I had started to believe some of the things he was saying. Then one day, Trisha left me alone in the kitchen. The back door was there and the yard was empty. I made this split-second decision to escape. I…I think it was just as possible that I would have stayed there. I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to risk getting trapped again.”
He stiffened but held her tight. She felt his shoulders drop slightly. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I won’t let anyone hurt you or take you.”
“What about Phoebe? What if Noah hurts her to get even?”
His mouth thinned and he tightened his jaw. “We just have