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I shove my phone in my pocket, my eyes briefly landing on Eden’s heated, but worried, gaze.
“Tell me exactly what happened.” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.
Derek grabs his wife’s hand, who’s sitting beside him on the bed, and kisses the back of it before placing it in his lap.
“I went out to the shed to get a bucket to wash the car. As soon as I stepped through the door, a noise came from behind me. I turned just as the bastard swung a shovel at my head. It was lights out after that.” His gaze moves to Misty and shame and regret shines in his eyes. “I’m just glad he left and didn’t go after Misty and the kids.” His eyes close for a moment before they open again, and he looks back at me. “I almost sent Brittney after the bucket.”
Misty leans forward and kisses her husband’s cheek, tears swimming in her eyes. “Don’t do that to yourself, Derek. Even if you did, you couldn’t have known that man was in the shed,” she reassures her husband quietly.
He nods but doesn’t look soothed. What good parent would be? Even if he didn’t know the danger that laid waiting, the threat of your child being hurt is crippling.
“I wonder what he was doing in the shed,” Eden muses curiously.
“My guess?” Derek offers. “He was hiding out. The shed is big with plenty of room. We have a mattress in there we had planned to use for Jacob when he grew too big for the toddler bed. It was thrown on the floor with a couple of blankets. There’s also a lot of food wrappers lying around.”
That explains why no one has seen Diego around. He couldn’t simply walk into The Hill for a meal, so he came prepared. Even so, it’s hard to imagine the likes of Diego slumming it in a dirty shed. The man’s rich on his own. Add in his family’s money and you had one loaded person. I bet it really busted his chops to have to live less than stellar for the last week. It also shows his desperation. Whatever he thinks Eden has must be really important.
“Keep a close eye on your family,” I advise him. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to not let the kids outside to play by themselves.” He nods. “I doubt he’ll go back to the shed, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I’m not letting any of them out of my sight.”
I nod and turn to Trouble, who’s leaning against a counter. “You mind taking Eden back to your place for the night? I want to take a ride around town and check out a few places. Not sure how long I’ll be.”
“I can do that.” His eyes glitter with hatred. “You call me or one of the others if you find anything.”
I tip my chin in acknowledgement, then face Eden. “You okay going with Trouble?”
Reluctance mars her features, and I wonder if it’s because she won’t be going home with me or from the prospect of staying with people she hardly knows.
I step up to her and tuck a piece of loose hair behind her ear. My finger lingers on her smooth cheek.
“I’m sorry our evening got cut short,” I murmur quietly so the others can’t hear. “But I’ll make it up to you.”
“Don’t worry. I want Diego caught before he hurts anyone else.” Her expression holds despondency, like she somehow feels responsible for what happened to Derek. She couldn’t be further from the truth. The bastard’s just a whacked-out asshole who enjoys hurting people he thinks is below him.
Leaning down, I press a quick kiss against her lips. “We’ll get him. He’ll show his face eventually.”
And when he does, he’ll pay dearly for everything he’s done. Diego Tomas may be walking around Malus undetected, but he’s a dea
d man walking. It’s only a matter of time.
SEVERAL HOURS LATER, I toss my keys in the bowl on the kitchen counter. My gun, which is strapped to my side, gets set on the counter by the bowl. I’m tired, hungry, and very fucking pissed. I knew my chances of finding Diego were slim, but it still angers me no less that every place I checked was a dead end. I hit all the places he could be hiding out in—garages, a few abandoned houses, and even Emo’s Dad’s hunting lodge. No fucking luck. There has to be some place I’m missing.
Stopping by the fridge, I snag a beer, twist off the cap, and down half of it, turning over every possible avenue Diego could use. Even his car hasn’t been spotted. The fucker’s good, but he’s not invisible. Someone will eventually spot him.
Remembering the blueprint of the town I found years ago that my parents had, I finish off my beer, toss it in the trash, and go to my bedroom. There’s not much of my parent’s belongings that I kept when I moved back to town, but I did keep the map and a few banker boxes full of papers. Good old Mom and Dad were part of the town council, so they had access to a lot of the town’s records. Apparently, they kept a lot of them at home.
My jaw tightens when I remember the town’s law book regarding Hell Night that was among the papers. The shit my brothers and I have found out about the town over the years never ceases to amaze me. Experiencing the depravities of the town’s monthly rituals was hard enough as kids, but it was so much more than we thought.
Members of the same family are not permitted to create a child together. It’s totally acceptable to fuck, and even rape, a family member, so long as a child isn’t conceived.
Females are not allowed to participate during their menstrual cycle. Get this shit. It’s considered sacrilegious to rape a female during her period, but any other time of the month it’s okay.
Females are required to submit to an ovulation test the day before The Gathering. If the female is found to be ovulating, she is given a dose of Levonorgestrel the next morning following The Gathering. In other words, the morning after pill is shoved down her throat to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.
It is the sole discretion of the child’s parents on whether they give permission to other members of the community to show affection to their child. Affection my ass. Or they may choose to keep that luxury to themselves.
Once a child reaches one year of age, the parents are required to initiate the child in The Gatherings. Final initiation will commence once the child reaches five years of age.
