Driven and dangerous. Her heart hammered in her throat. Eli shared those same qualities with his brother.
Behind her, Eli’s sharp inhalation drew cool air across her neck. Without warning, she was swamped with the urge to plow into him and stay safely huddled against his chest until this nightmare was finally over.
Caught between the compound that ruined her life and the man that could do the same again, she should run now while she had the chance.
“There’s no one around.”
Quickly, she scanned the area. “I don’t even see the truck. Maybe it’s been gone all night.”
“What could they be doing?”
Shaking her head, she answered, “I don’t know. Praying, maybe? Sometimes Noah would take them all to the basement for a prayer vigil. With him doing the praying, of course.” Her last words turned derisive.
“Yes, it’s called it seeding. With him controlling the prayers, he could be seeding his flock with specific instructions.”
She shivered. “I remember the things he’d ask for.”
Eli rubbed her arm lightly. “It’s all right. You don’t have to say any more.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You should know. Noah would take one of the flock and pray for them, claiming that it had been revealed to him that the person needed to have his or her wickedness purged.”
“Sounds par for the course.”
“Yeah, but it was me who delivered those lies.” Oh, how she hated what she’d done. Crouching down, she scowled at the drafty old farmhouse. The weather had been brutally cold last winter and everyone suffered. Even now, the memory chilled her bones. All those icy nights when she took pairs of socks or a sweater and jammed them in the leaks in the old bedroom window, anything to stop the drafts. Whose were they? Who complained in the morning when their clothes were stiff with frost?
She couldn’t remember.
She didn’t want to remember.
“I guess that’s why God doesn’t answer my prayers like Lois promised He would. I told awful lies for two years. I allowed Noah to intimidate me. My punishment, I suppose.”
Her words had been soft, barely audible and not really meant for Eli’s ears. But in the quiet woods, where even that lone bird no longer called, he heard. She should have kept her mouth shut tight.
“His grace is sufficient for you. You didn’t need anything else, nor do you now.”
With a twist around, she snapped at him. “Why are you quoting Scripture to me? It’s as if—” She tried to curb her anger by shutting her mouth, but being here, knowing Trisha had died…the pain was still so fresh.
The knot in her throat tightened. She waved her hand. “Forget it. Don’t answer. Let’s work our way around back. Sometimes there’s more life there.” Without looking at him, she thrust through the dense forest.
Eli caught her arm. “Let me go first.”
At the back, the forest encroached on the fence even more. If unchecked, it would soon swallow up the apron of cleared land skirting the chain link. Like the front gate, the back one was closed and locked with a huge padlock.
She looked up past it. The rear of the farmhouse lay as empty as the front. Kaylee’s gaze wandered up to the second-floor bedroom, the one she’d shared with Trish and Phoebe for a short time.
She’d been a prisoner there, allowed out only for ablutions, the occasional meager meal and prayer service when her “abilities” as prophet were needed. Left alone for hours in that freezing bedroom with its cracked and drafty window. Trisha and Phoebe would join her at night. Most of those nights they’d all huddled in the same bed. Phoebe had often reminded them that the pioneers survived and they would, too. That God was preparing them for the hardships that come with starting a new world.
Evil propaganda fed to them by Noah.
“No one’s around,” Eli whispered. “Would the kids also be downstairs?”
Kaylee threw off the thoughts and shook her head. “No. The older ones would have taken the younger ones outside. There’s no smoke from the chimney, either. And no chickens in the coop. This place looks like a tomb.”
Eli drew in a sharp breath.
She cringed. “Sorry. Bad choice of words. Maybe we should get a bit closer.”
Eli held up his hand and stood. Only then did she realize that he’d chosen his clothing well. His jacket, while not camouflaged, was a dark moss-green and his pants were chestnut. Only his pale blond hair stood out, but amidst the autumn golds and yellows of the birch and poplar, his coloring blended well.
He scanned the ground slowly, methodically, his gaze intent on finding something where trees met unruly grass.
Kaylee’s heartbeat quickened through her temples. A wild mix of emotions barreled into her chest and out to her shaking hands. She leaned forward, casting wary glances around them. “They’re gone, Eli. Taken off. Let’s go. I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.”
He studied the yard, not answering her. Just as she leaned forward to tell him she’d wait for him in the car, he turned. “How did you get out of this yard? Did Noah leave the gate unlocked?”
She met his stare. His eyes were an incredible electric blue. Her naïveté reared and she wished she could read him. She sensed someone wanting desperately to find his sister, or at least desperate to get into this compound. But she also sensed something else and hated not being able to recognize it.
Finally, she flicked her head toward the south side of the yard. “Over there.”
“Show me.” He stood, stepped back and wrapped his strong fingers around her wrist. Then, twisting her around, he led her through the woods the way they came. She wanted to tug her hand free, but having someone close felt good, especially here.
They pushed through the thick woods and around the corner of the yard.
“Where?” he asked.
She stepped past him and scanned the fence. There had been a large bramble bush that had caught her clothing. The children had told her it hid the break.
There! She bent down and after pulling her sleeve over her hand to protect it, she swept the prickly bush away to reveal the narrow break. When she turned back to Eli, his face was lit with anticipation.
“You may be too big to get through it,” she commented.
“I’ll manage.” He bent back the chain link, tearing it up slightly from the ground. “You go first. I’ll hold this back for you.”
She hadn’t needed him to do that, but once he stepped to the left, she swallowed down her reluctance and slipped into the compound.
She straightened. For a brief moment, Eli stood there, his eyes locked on hers. Wasn’t he coming in, too? Doubt flooded her. Was he returning her to his horrible place—
No. His expression told of his own mixed emotions. Finding Phoebe, but in what condition? Or finding nothing but pain and a missed opportunity. Kaylee wanted so much to pull him into her and hold him tight.
She knew all about mixed emotions. That day she’d escaped, the jumble of dos and don’ts tangled into her reasoning. Then, in a millisecond, she’d made her decision and escaped. She knew the pain Eli was feeling right now, and wished she could somehow take it all away from him.
She drew in a breath, hating the sudden attraction that both lured and frightened her.
“We don’t have to do this,”