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From the corner of my eye, I saw doors opening and people stepping onto their lawns to gawk at the newcomers who dared to infiltrate their sacred land, but I couldn’t bring myself to tear my gaze from the house in front of me.
Myra’s voice pulled me out of my head and back into the present. “You okay, sweetie?”
It was a struggle to take a full breath, but after a couple tries, I finally managed. “I-I’m all right,” I answered, my shaky words betraying the sudden bout of nerves twisting my stomach into knots.
Bennett pulled the truck to a stop, the one with his family in it doing the same right next to us and shifted it into park. I was just about to tell them to wait in the car while I took care of everything when he unbuckled his seatbelt and threw his door open.
He shifted to my own door and opened it before extending his hand to me. “All right, honey. We’ll make this quick. In and out, yeah?”
I looked up at him and heaved out a breath so big, it emptied my lungs of air. He looked so sure of himself, so comfortable and relaxed. Meanwhile, I felt like I was seconds from coming out of my skin.
Myra rounded the hood and came to join us, taking my hand and giving it a comforting squeeze. “Deva, sweetie, this is Jase.” She pointed to a tall, insanely gorgeous man in nice jeansand a pale blue button-down shirt. He smiled politely and was handsome enough to make my breath stutter.
“Nice to meet you, Deva.”
“You too,” I said on an exhale.
“And this is Cannon.”
The other man was just as attractive, only in a very different way. Like Jase, he was in jeans, but his were faded with wear over time and had holes in the knees. He was wearing a T-shirt with a motorcycle on the front and the wordsBanks Body and Auto Repairin white arched over it. And like I’d noticed with Laeth earlier this morning, he too had tattoos stretching up his arms and peeking out from his collar. The two were polar opposites, one clean-cut, the other rugged. Yet, they both were good-looking enough to make my heart speed up and my cheeks heat. They were alsohuge, an added bonus.
“Hi, Cannon.”
He returned my greeting with a silent tilt of his chin. Even his communication was different than that of his brother-in-law, but it felt no less polite.
“Thank you very much for helping. I’m sorry to drag you away from your day.”
“Don’t mention it,” Cannon said in a deep, raspy voice.
“Yeah,” Jase added. “We’re happy to help.”
Myra pulled me back to reality with another squeeze to my hand. “You ready, darlin’?”
Not really, but I was already here, so there was really no point in delaying. I inhaled through my nose and nodded my head before starting toward the house.
I could feel the four people behind me, their combined strength easing some of the tension that had built in my muscles.
I squared my shoulders and raised my chin as I lifted my fist, prepared to knock. As far as I was concerned, this wasn’t my home any longer, and I didn’t feel right just walking in.However, before I could, the door was thrown open, and Agnes was standing in front of me in all her righteous, angry glory.
Her eyes held a familiar fire she hadn’t bothered to bank. It was a fire that indicated she’d taken the hours since discovering I was gone to think up a punishment suitable for breaking her rules and leaving the house without her permission. “What in the world is the meaning of this? Where have you been?”
I pulled in a soothing breath, fighting back the tremble in my voice so it would sound stronger than I was currently feeling, at the very least. “Agnes,” I greeted, relieved that one word came out strong and steady. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was leaving this morning. I know that was against your rules.”
Her eyes rounded, and I noticed for the millionth time they didn’t hold so much as an ounce of the warmth Myra’s contained. “You’resorry? You leave here without permission, sneaking off to God only knows where, gone for hours, probably doing something only Satan himself would approve of, then you have the audacity to show up on my front steps with thesepeople, and that’s all you have to say for yourself? You’re sorry?”
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” I defended, the people at my back giving me the kind of courage I’d never felt before. “I went into town for—”
“You went intotown?” she bellowed, like I’d just admitted to committing every sin known to man and some that hadn’t been invented yet. “Howdareyou go to that heathen-filled breeding ground of sin without my permission? You’ll be spending the next five hours kneeling in prayer, begging the Lord Almighty’s forgiveness for what you’ve done.”
I lifted my chin and narrowed my eyes. I might not have believed in the same things the people of the Fellowship did. I might have found their rules archaic, but I’d strived all my life to be a good person, one free of judgment and hate. However, itwas nearly impossible not to hate the woman standing in front of me.
“I’ll do no such thing,” I told her, my voice carrying the steel I felt solidifying my spine. “I went into town for a job interview. And I got it.”
Her face had grown so red it was a wonder steam wasn’t pouring from her ears and nostrils. “So help me, when the Elders hear about this, you’ll be in a world of hurt.”
“I’ve only come back to tell you I’m moving out and to pack up my things.”
Agnes tossed her head back, the laugh she released bitter and ugly, just like she was inside. “Things? You don’t have things,” she hissed. “You have what I was generous enough to provide for you, nothing more. If you dare to leave here, you’ll be doing it with absolutelynothing.”
