Page 30 of Creed (Rock Hard Mountain Men #3)

Magnus, Brody, and I all jumped at the unexpected sound of a child’s voice. I’d completely forgotten about Robyn and Mavis, who were still waiting in the truck, and based on Magnus and Brody’s surprise, they’d also overlooked that part of my story.

“The lake house?” I asked as asked as I looked up at the two kids in the truck.

Robyn smiled back at me from where he sat amid the boxes.

“Yeah. It’s a house, by a lake, that always belongs to the leader.

Only the leader is allowed to go there. The adults say it’s a spiritual retreat that the leader uses for isolated reflection, but I know our leader has taken people there before.

Is that the kind of place you’re talking about? ”

One by one, I lifted the kids out of the tuck and set them down on the ground. “That is exactly the kind of place we’re talking about. You don’t happen to know where it is, do you?”

Robyn, it turned out, was not able to provide the lake house’s exact location, but he was able to give a pretty accurate description.

Based on this, Brody and Magnus were able to figure out which lake the house was likely located on, and we immediately headed there.

The truck that Magnus and Brody had brought to come find me easily charged across the rugged mountain roads, like the machine itself was on a mission.

Magnus and Brody sat in the front, silent but determined as they prepared to find their friend.

Meanwhile, I sat in the backseat with the two kids, who fell asleep in my lap almost as soon as we started driving.

It had been a long couple of days. I didn’t blame them for being tired. I was as well, and if I wasn’t so worried about Creed, I would have joined them in sleep.

We found the lake right where it was supposed to be.

It was a large body of water, but I couldn’t see any signs of a house.

We drove around the roads that encircled the lake, looking for any sign of a structure.

Not all the roads went close to the lake, and there were large stretches where I couldn’t even see the water through the trees.

Even if there was a lake house out here, we might drive right past it without even knowing.

“Wait, what was that?” Brody said as he suddenly grabbed Magnus’s arm, who was driving.

Without a word, Magnus immediately put the truck in reverse and backed down the road to try and see what had caught Brody’s attention.

“There.”

Brody pointed toward a small dirt road, barely visible between the trees. It wouldn’t have looked any different than a hiking trail, except for the metal gate blocking the road. The metal had been painted green, so it blended right in with the scenery. I would never have seen it as we drove past.

Magnus slapped the wheel and turned the car toward the new road. “Glad to see you haven’t lost those sniper eyes of yours, Brody. Someone get out there and move the gate so we can get through.”

I was out the door before he’d even finished speaking.

The gate was heavy, but luckily, it wasn’t locked.

I was able to drag it aside without too much trouble and let Magnus bring the truck through.

Then, just to be safe, I closed it behind us.

If any of the cult members were patrolling the area, then I wanted to make sure nothing looked out of place to alert them to our presence.

We drove a little way down the new road, when Brody told Magnus to pull the truck over.

“We should leave it here and approach on foot. That way we can surprise them.”

Magnus found a break in the trees where it was dry and flat enough for him to take the truck off the road and parked it.

We gathered up a few bushes and placed them in front of the truck to hide it.

It was a rushed camouflage job, and anyone looking too closely was bound to notice the truck, but hopefully, we wouldn’t need to sneak around for too long anyway.

“You two stay here,” I told the kids right before we left. “We’re going to lock the truck, so don’t try to leave. Just stay right where you are, and we’ll be back soon.”

They both nodded at me with wide eyes and their mouths pinched in identical looks of concern. I hated leaving them alone in the middle of the forest, but there wasn’t anything else to do with them.

If the cult members did come across the pair, surely, they wouldn’t hurt a couple of kids. Robyn and Mavis were no danger to them.

It was with a guilty heart that I left the kids behind and approached the end of the road on foot along with Magnus and Brody.

When we reached the end of the road, we stopped and hunkered down in the underbrush.

A cabin sat off in the distance, right on the water’s edge.

Several cars and trucks were parked around it, haphazardly scattered across the grass.

A pair of armed men stood beside the door like security guards.

I recognized one of them. It was the same man that we’d knocked out and locked inside our room when we escaped the first time.

“We’re definitely in the right place,” I whispered to Brody and Magnus.

Brody studied the cabin for a second, before announcing a plan.

“All right, here’s what we’re going to do.

I’m not sure how many people there are, so we have to be careful.

Magnus and I will take down the guard, while, Kayden, you go inside.

If there are any more armed cult members, then you come back out immediately, but if there aren’t, then go ahead and find Creed. ”

“And what if Creed isn’t here?” I asked.

Neither Brody nor Magnus answered me right away.

“We’ll worry about that if it comes to it,” Magnus said as he patted me on the shoulder. “Now, let us go first, and then you follow right behind.”

From the cover of the underbrush, I watched as Brody and Magnus moved in tandem, circling around the cabin so they could sneak up from either side.

The guards never saw them coming, and not a single weapon was drawn or fired.

One moment the guards were alert but at ease, and the next moment Magnus and Brody were vaulting over the porch railing and tackling them to the floor.

Magnus punched his target square across the face, knocking the man out flat, while Brody locked his target into a chokehold.

I didn’t wait around to see the end of the fight. Following my instructions, I ran right past them and into the cabin, on guard for anyone who might try to attack me.

Inside, the cabin was mostly empty, except for Chester Grieve, who sat near the fireplace drinking tea.

The cup slipped from his hands.

“What? No, you have to leave. You can’t be here. Guards!”

I almost felt bad punching an old man in a wheelchair.

Almost.

Then I remembered everything that the man had done to us, done to Creed and Creed’s friends, and my regret instantly vanished.

“I’m sorry,” I said as I shook out my hand, standing over his unconscious body. “But fuck you.”

That took care of that, but where was Creed?

The cabin was only a single story, and didn’t have many doors. I tried them one by one, until I came to a door that was locked. Magnus or Brody could have probably picked the lock just like Creed could, but I was too impatient for that.

Instead, I reared back and kicked the door in.

What I found inside made me freeze on the spot.

Creed lay there, handcuffed to a bed, with a naked woman sitting on top of him. I noticed with some relief that his clothes were still on, but the way he was writhing around and groaning was borderline indecent.

I saw red.

Charging into the room, I grabbed the woman by the arm and yanked her off of him.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I screamed at her.

She immediately crumpled to the floor like a broken doll, hands over her face as she trembled. My fury disappeared as swiftly as it came. The girl was younger than I thought, probably only a few years into adulthood, and she looked terrified.

From the defense ball she curled into, it also seemed like she expected me to hit her. Even in my anger, I could never stoop so low to hit someone who was cowering away from me.

For now, I ignored her and turned back to Creed.

“Creed, babe. It’s okay. I’m here now. You’re fine.”

He barely seemed to hear me, continuing to writhe on the bed and tug helplessly at the chains keeping him prisoner.

Searching the nearby side table, I found a key that looked like it would fit the cuffs on his wrist. As I was unchaining him, I finally got a closer look at his face. He was sweating, and his eyes were dilated so wide that his pupils had completely overtaken his irises.

“Oh, God. Creed, what did they give you?”

I never got an answer. The moment the cuffs were freed from his wrists, Creed latched onto me and pulled me down into a fierce kiss.