The low drone of a voice lulled me, leaving my mind to wander. Images pushed in. Flashes of blood and a body…no, two bodies. One tied up, her legs splayed wide, deep welts so cruel against tender pale flesh that blood dripped from the wounds. Somewhere a cell rang and rang and rang, the nagging sound pulling me out of the memory.
I lifted my gaze and suddenly felt the vibration against my thigh. Not a cell, it was mine.
My fingers reached into my pocket. I pulled it free and stared at the screen.
Caleb.
Caleb? I scowled and swiped to answer the call. “Yes.”
“About damn time you answered. I’ve been calling for the last twenty minutes.”
Twenty minutes?
I stood in Hunter’s living room, in front of the TV mounted on the wall. Next to it was a clock. But the numbers meant nothing. Nothing much did at the moment. I felt…lost. “Sorry,” I said, suddenly remembering who I spoke to. “Caleb?”
“Yeah, Priest?”
“The Daughter,” I murmured.
“Taken care of,” he said carefully. “Just like you asked. So now it’s time to repay the favor.”
The TV droned as images changed on the afternoon news. I lifted my gaze to the screen as Cassius’ face filled the space, black suit, white collar. His face in full view with the headline, Local Priest Missing.
I stared at that face. “What do you need?”
My pulse was booming as he started. “We have the name of a man working with Hale to help him escape the country on a private jet. We plan on stopping that from happening.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow night. You, me, and Colt will meet with Benjamin Rossi and pay this guy a visit. If he knows Hale’s whereabouts, then we track him down. But more importantly, we make it so he can’t run. There is no escaping for him, not alive.”
My breaths deepened as a flicker of rage tore through me. My fist clenched, still feeling the weight of the cross in my hand. I’d murdered a man in cold blood, a man of the cloth. My focus narrowed in on the TV in front of me and Father Cassius stared back. A man I’d respected. The man I’d killed.
“Send me the details and I’ll be there,” I answered, my voice distant.
“Already have…and, Thomas?”
“Yes?”
“Pull yourself together or we won’t make it out of this alive.”
I swallowed hard, unable to find the words to answer. But it didn’t matter, because he was gone. I lowered my cell, found message, and opened the app. The details were there, date, time, and address.
You, me, and Colt will meet with Benjamin Rossi.
London’s son was included in all this? For some strange reason, it felt on purpose. Me from our family. Caleb from his, and Colt from Vivienne’s family. The three outsiders. I stepped to the TV and switched it off, then made my way out and up the stairs.
Pull yourself together or we won’t make it out of this alive.
He was right. As tormented as I was, I had to get it together, or this would be all for nothing. Others were depending on me now. Others I loved and admired. There was no way I was letting them down. I unbuttoned my shirt and pulled it over my head as I walked into my room. The black suit and white collar still sat crumpled in the trash in the corner.
I kept moving, kicked off my shoes and unbuttoned my trousers, then replaced them with sweats and a dark t-shirt before I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on my black sneakers, laces tugged tight. I pulled my hand away and that’s when I saw it.
There was blood under my nails. The rusted brown mess etched into the corners. I shoved upwards, lifting both hands, then lunged for the bathroom, slamming my shoulder on the doorframe as I ran for the vanity.
Water gushed, splashing around the sink. My hands shook as I lathered and scrubbed.
Get it off.
Get it OFF ME!
I’d done that. I’d…killed a man in cold blood. Not just any man…a man of the cloth. I closed my eyes and rocked forward, reliving that moment in my head. WHACK! You fucking WHORE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT GOD DOES TO FILTHY WHORES LIKE YOU?
Panic boomed, casting flickers of white sparks in my eyes as I rinsed and lifted my hands. Water dripped from my shaking hands as I stared at the edges of my nails. The faint trace of blood was still there.
God will show me the way. My own empty words returned. God will show me the way.
I needed to get out of here. I needed to…run.
I stumbled out of the bathroom and lurched toward the stairs. Sparks still danced in my eyes as I staggered outside and turned to the mountain, then started to climb.
God will show me.
God will show me the way.
Rocks kicked out from under my feet as I climbed. I forced myself to focus on the movement as my feet found the trail I’d run over and over, until my breaths deepened and the burn of my muscles pushed in. When I reached the top, I stopped and just stood. My hands continued to shake, drawing my focus. I still saw the blood, even if it wasn’t there. In my mind, it was. In my mind, I killed Cassius over and over again.
I lifted my gaze to the blue sky.
That ache I carried in my chest grew tighter.
Please, tell me I did the right thing.
I beg of you.
I searched the heavens, watching as a heavy, dark cloud blocked out the sun, casting me into the shadows. An emptiness filled me, one that seemed to push me further from God.
It was wrong, what I’d done.
I clenched my fists beside me.
I was wrong.
I WAS GODDAMN WRONG!
Agony tore through my chest with a sob. My shoulders curled as I closed my eyes. You betrayer…you goddamn betrayer. Warmth slid down my cheeks as I stood there, until a hand landed on my shoulder.
“Go away, Hunter,” I said, my voice husky and thick.
Still the weight lingered, forcing me to open my eyes and turn around.
Only my brother wasn’t there.
No one was.
Sunlight splashed across the ground at my feet, the afternoon rays finding a crack in the cloud. I stopped crying and stared instead as that pure luminescent glow brightened. Only, as it fell across the cracks in the mountain, it formed a cross.
A cross.
I lifted my gaze to the sky, finding that single perfect beam shining through and looked again. The cross was there, as plain as my own hands. But as I watched, it slowly dulled, faded, and disappeared altogether.
But it was there.
Right in front of me.
I stumbled forward, found the crevice in the stone the light had shone upon, and knelt. The rock was warm to my touch. Fingers splayed, palms pressed, I leaned down and closed my eyes as I pressed my cheek against the warmth.
He came to me.
He…came to me.
My chest trembled and my throat thickened until I could barely breathe. I stayed like that, with my face pressed against the mountain, shaking and crying, until the clouds moved on and the sun’s rays dulled. But it didn’t matter. I knew now. I knew that fighting evil was a battle worth getting bloody for, and Father Cassius had been evil.
To harbor that much hatred for another was evil.
To whip and mutilate and destroy.
I thought of Helene. My beautiful Helene.
To even think of doing something like that to her was evil.
And it was up to me to stop it, any way I could.
I lifted my face from the earth, brushed the bits of rock from my cheek, and rose. The sky was growing darker as I turned around and slowly made my way back down the mountain. With each step, I grew my focused. I was a fighter. Before, I’d fought with prayers, but now I fought with fists and weapons.
Either way, I’d rid this earth of one evil at a time. By the time I made it back down, the others had returned from the city. Riven’s four-wheel drive was in front next to Kane’s Audi. My brothers had their own paths. Now I had mine.
Their voices reached me as I neared the house. But my mind wasn’t on them anymore. It was waiting for the message…and a new sign from God. One I was ready for, more than ever before.
I PACED the floor of my bedroom, my focus divided between the clock on the bedside dresser and my damn cell. I’d waited all day, sat with my family last night after I returned from the mountain, and spent all day listening to Hunter strategize with his men. But now it was evening…and I’d had no call.
My boots muffled my steps, but still, I couldn’t quell the thunder in my head.
Should I call?
I lifted my cell and pulled up Caleb’s number, then my thumb hesitated over the icon. If I called him and he was with Ryth and the others, what then? I winced and lowered my cell, turning my focus to the room.
Buzz.
I wrenched the phone up.
Caller ID Caleb.
I answered it instantly. “I’m ready.”
“Well, this is better than last time. I was worried you weren’t up for the task,” he murmured.
My focus shifted to the statue of the cross standing in the middle of my dresser. “No, I’m ready.”
“Good. Then leave now and head to 105 Marketplace. I’ll meet you there.”
My hands were shaking, making it hard to grip my cell. “Okay, I’m leaving now.”
“I don’t need to remind you how important this is?”
“No,” I murmured. “You don’t.”
“See you there, Thomas, and Priest…”
“Yes?”
“You might want to keep this to yourself. Just until we know what we’re dealing with.”
I gave a nod. “Okay.”
I lowered my hand, the call now disconnected. This didn’t seem real and yet, in my soul, I knew this was where I was always meant to be. I was now a messenger in the most brutal way. One from God.
I turned around, grabbed my jacket from the end of the neatly made bed, and headed for the door. Voices reached me from downstairs. The others were in the living room. The bitter, comforting scent of a fire made a pang in my chest. Still, I made my way downstairs, the thud of the last step hitting harder than I wanted.
“About time you joined us!” Riven called out as I stopped in the middle of the landing.
But I wasn’t headed for them. Instead, I turned, grabbed Riven’s Audi keys off the entry table, and headed for the door. By the time I stepped out and locked the door behind me, they’d know tonight would be different.
There’d be no us tonight. There’d be no anything.
I hit the button to unlock the car and climbed in behind the wheel. The door to the house opened as the engine started. They all stepped out, staring as I shoved the Audi into gear and backed out, turned hard, and headed away from our mountain oasis.
There was no tremble in my hands now, no doubt in my heart. Faith steadied me. My cell vibrated in the console beside me. I glanced at the caller ID, though I instantly knew it was my family.
An ache radiated through my chest. But as the pain grew deeper, the image of that sundrenched cross on the ground filled my mind. I was doing this for them…and for me.
They needed to trust me.
I pushed the sedan harder and headed into the city. Marketplace was on the edge of town, down near the water. It was a place of joy and laughter, with playgrounds and a towering Ferris wheel. A place for families, not a place for death. But that’s exactly where I was headed.
I scanned the cars, searching for something Caleb would drive, and pulled into a parking spot across from a black Jeep Wrangler. The moment I reached to kill the engine, the Jeep’s back-up lights flared. As the four-wheel drive backed up, I caught sight of Caleb through the window. He motioned me forward, wanting me to follow.
Where the hell was he taking me? I scanned the streets as we passed. Children held hands with their parents, eating ice cream as they walked along the sidewalk. But we quickly left them all behind and turned onto a street that took us nowhere, until he stopped outside a gray, nondescript building and the steel-gated garage door rose. Then he drove inside.
I followed, easing the Audi around a turn until I came out in an under-ground parking area. Headlights bounced against glass walls as Caleb parked. I caught sight of the Black Escalade the Sons drove and a sleek steel-gray BMW.
It wasn’t until I’d killed the engine and climbed out that I saw them.
Colt.
Benjamin Rossi.
And Caleb as he climbed out of the Jeep and headed toward me.
“Thomas,” he called as Benjamin and Colt headed toward me.
The moment felt ominous and charged. Goosebumps raced along my arms. I didn’t know what we were in for tonight, where our violence would take us, or how many we might kill. What I did know was that this path of sin would be my salvation.
