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CHAPTER

FORTY-SIX

ASHER

T here was no time to think, but Asher didn’t need to.

The momentary fear he’d felt ebbed away more quickly than it had come, leaving behind nothing but pure instinct and the years of training that had honed it.

He reacted in a mere heartbeat, rushing out from the shadows and into the center of the room, his gun a comforting weight in his hands.

Lily turned and spotted him. Her eyes were filled with genuine surprise, and he could see by the way she stood trembling now that she realized it was far too late for her to try and run.

He pointed the gun at her.

“Drop the weapon. Now!”

His voice was firm, and loud enough to echo through the space.

Behind him, he could hear the rest of the small crowd moving around and calling to each other in panicked voices. There was a chance one of them would pull a weapon and try to sneak up on him, but he couldn’t afford to turn around.

Not until Lily dropped that knife.

He knew now what she was capable of.

“Lily, move now or I’ll shoot!” he called out again, louder this time. He stared at her, refusing to let his gaze waver even an inch. He didn’t want to hurt the woman, but he would if he had to.

He wouldn’t hesitate.

But to his relief, this time, she obeyed immediately.

The dagger clattered loudly against the floor, the sound mingling with the insistent pounding of the drumbeats.

He glanced behind him, but no one was close.

Already, the space was clearing out. The others were rushing off in all directions, retreating into the hallways that surrounded the central room.

Hopefully, they would hop on their little ATVs and head for the hills.

The authorities would have to round them up later, but at least the missing girls would be safe.

“Hands above your head,” he said, no longer shouting. He didn’t need to. Lily’s face had sunk with defeat, and Cora was now sitting up on the altar, watching blankly as the others scurried away.

Suddenly, the sound of the drums went quiet.

Asher looked behind him, expecting trouble, but instead he found Karlin in a far corner of the room, clicking a button on a large black stereo.

Lily and Cora stared at him, and he stared back, keeping the gun pointed in their direction as he waited for Karlin to cross the room and join them.

For a few more moments, they listened to the retreating sounds of running feet, and then there was only silence.

KARLIN

Karlin forced herself to walk slowly toward Axel, Lily, and Cora.

Though she knew he had the gun–and therefore, control–the situation still felt terrifyingly volatile, like a tiny spark could set off a conflagration at any moment.

So many questions loomed in her mind, but before she could choose anything to say, Axel began with something practical.

“Where can we find a phone, Lily?”

In a heartbeat, the older woman’s face transformed into a mask of fury.

“There isn’t one,” she said, leaning forward and spitting onto the ground near Axel’s feet. He didn’t move, but she could see the slightest twitch of his jaw muscle and the way his finger drifted a millimeter or two closer to the trigger.

In that moment, he reminded her so much of John.

Despite the vastly different lives the two men had lived, they shared so much thanks to their time at war.

Both of them had a way of subtly scoping out a room the second they walked into it, always on high alert for danger.

She doubted the battle-won instincts would ever leave them, no matter how much they tried to leave their memories of Afghanistan behind.

And at the moment, despite the pain she knew that Axel felt, she couldn’t help but to be thankful for it.

“Don’t lie to me,” Axel said firmly. “There’s a phone. Tell me where it is.”

Lily kept her mouth pressed into a thin line, but Cora’s eyes flicked between the older woman and Axel, clearly debating whether or not to speak.

She was perched on the edge of the altar, bobbing her legs back and forth like a little kid waiting for a needle at the doctor’s office. The sight made Karlin’s stomach turn all over again.

Cora and Lily may have both been adults, but it was clear just who was in charge here.

Fortunately, it seemed the younger woman had decided it was safe enough to talk. “There’s a sat phone down that little corridor at the back, next to the big crates of water.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Axel nodded in Karlin’s direction, and she set off for the phone, expecting all the while to find an ambush, but there was none.

She made the 911 call quickly, giving as little detail as she could while still ensuring a strong police presence.

She was eager to return to Axel’s side and, more importantly, she was certain the dispatchers had received more than one fake call claiming to have information about their friendly neighborhood cult.

When she stepped back into the room at last, everyone was in the same place they’d been a few moments before. She moved toward Axel, glad to know his gun was still resting firmly in his practiced hands.

“While we wait for the police,” Karlin began, “I’d like an explanation of what on earth is going on here. I think you both owe us that much.”