AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hands on the wheel!Jesus.”
With a chuckle, he grabs the wheel again. “You know I’m good at research.”
“Yeah. Has nothing to do with the fact that you’re married to a private detective but do go on.”
Never one to be deterred, Mario grins at me. “Okay then. You know Gloria’s got us access to all sorts of shit.”
“Yup.”
Mario clears his throat. “Our research has led us to North Carolina. There’s some talk that there’s a cult there called the fellowship, and the women are just like her.”
A cult.
A cult?
“What? That shit still happens?”
“God, dude, all the time. This group, they preach modesty and detachment from worldly possessions. They arrange marriages and shit, and women are second-class citizens. You know the deal with cults—their beliefs are the only truth, they demand obedience, and they control the thoughts and behavior of every member. They’re separated from the rest of the world…”
“And why don’t people know about this? Step in?”
“Well, their whole plan is to be separate from the world. That’s why a lot of people think they’re Amish, or Quakers, or whatever the fuck.”
We pick up speed and drive faster, the wind whipping through our hair. I’ve always loved the exhilaration of fast driving, the feeling like I’m about to take flight.
“So I’ll be able to find her husband.”
“Uh, I wouldn’t advise that…”
“And why not?’ I clench my hand into a fist, the bright, sunny air and breeze forgotten in my need to seek revenge.
“Who knows who they know, brother? There’re reasons no one infiltrates a cult. The only reason the government would is if they had reason to believe that someone was being held against their will.”
“She’s being abused.” I shake my head. “Wasbeing abused.” I won’t let that shit happen again.
He curses under his breath. We’re both quiet for a minute.
We both know men who hit their wives. Our generation decided to do better. Mario finally shakes his head. “I’ll help you servethatjustice. But yeah, according to state law, you can’t do anything about that unlessshe’sthe one who presses charges.”
I laugh. Actually laugh. “Since when have you ever known me to give afuckabout what’s legal?’
Mario grins. “True.”
“Tell me more.”
He taps the steering wheel as the world around us whips past like someone’s pressed fast-forward.
He tells me when they were founded, and what the rules are. Gloria located an online account of one woman who escaped and now blogs about it. She talks about the strict rules and adherence to punishment, the cruelty she experienced at the hands of her father and eventually her husband, how she was forced to have babies and told she would raise them with the same strict methods. How when she miscarried, she was told it was punishment for her sins.
I feel sick. My family’s not exactly a bunch of nice guys, but this…
“That’s fucked up.”
Mario shakes his head. “You have no idea. Anyway, Gloria thinks Eden escaped because there was a missing person report. Eden’s husband seems to think she was taken.”
This is so fucked up. “Right.”
I want to take her. I want to protect her. I want to show her that she deserves so much better than anything she’s ever had before. I’d cherish her innocence and honesty and never hurt her. I couldn’t.
