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“But he did, Josiah. He came to the Outer Banks because the sheriff believed the islands housed a serial killer. Your mom reported Ahnah missing, and he believes I have her. Again, I do not. Let me ask you, in all the time he’s been here, been in your home, played video games with you, has he once revealed he’s your father?”
“No.” Josiah snapped his head in Ty’s direction. “Is that true? Did you know this whole time? When we played video games and talked about art? Did you know you were my father?”
Ty’s tongue stuck to the dry roof of his mouth, and he nodded.
Josiah’s nostrils flared and he backed up next to Lysander, allowing his uncle to drape an arm around his shoulders.
“We were going to tell you after we found Ahnah.”
“Lie!” Josiah boomed. “You’ve known all this time. My mom lied about you.”
“She’s a liar,” Lysander singsonged. “She’d rather you be miserable than tell you the truth. What kind of mom is that?”
Josiah shouted exactly what kind of woman she was. Lysander had gotten into his head, filling him with lies, and he’d swallowed them down until they rooted in his heart. Ty could not undo a year’s worth of grooming in five minutes, and they needed to find a safer place where glass couldn’t slice them open.
Lysander had become what Josiah needed—an excellent cult leader if ever there was one.
Ty’s son was loyal to a psychopath.
“Josiah,” Ty pleaded. “I love you.”
“You have a funny way of showing it,” Josiah said, the venom in his voice tearing through Ty. But he did love this boy more than he’d loved anyone. All lanky arms and green eyes and unruly hair.
Josiah’s hands balled into fists. “You don’t even know me.”
Ty stretched out his arms for him. “I want to.”
Lysander tsked him. “Now, when you’re caught, you’re trying to backpedal. If you wanted to know him, you’d have told him. Bexley would have told him years ago.”
“Your family isn’t criminal,” Josiah shouted. “She lied. Your father is a pastor of a big church. Lysander told me everything this morning and why he approached me with a different name. Because he didn’t know what kind of lies Mom or you told me about my family.”
“No,” Ty said. “None of that is true.”
“Remember what you said about your father?” Lysander patted Josiah’s shoulder. “How you wished he was dead, that you could be the one to look him in the eye and blow him off the planet? Now’s your chance. You know in wartimes, warriors would bring their captives back, and their sons would run them through with a sword to bring them into manhood. It’s biblical. God allows it in wartime. God called David a man of war. Approved of the slaughters, sanctioned them. Men. Women. Children and even babies. Oh yes. And animals.”
“This isn’t war.” Ty held out his hands again. “You don’t want to do this. I know you’re angry and we have a lot to talk about, but this is murder, not war.”
“The written word says an eye for an eye,” Lysander said.
Josiah’s eyes darkened, and a bolt of panic shot through Tiberius. No longer did he look like Ty but like Lysander. Most of his family was unstable. Had he passed on some kind of broken gene to him?
Lysander offered the gun to Josiah.
“Don’t do it, son.”
“Don’t call me son. I am not your son.” He accepted the weapon and aimed it at Tiberius, but his hand shook, and the wind howled as more solar panels ripped away. One of the women shrieked when a shard of glass fell onto her cage.
“I—I...” Josiah was unsure. He was not a murderer. He wouldn’t do it. Couldn’t. No matter how angry he was at Ty. But it wasn’t Josiah who had Ty’s attention.
It was Lysander.
Jaw working, he’d cast a glance in Josiah’s direction. “Do it, Josiah. He’ll wash away with the storm, and we’ll be a family. I’ll take you to meet your grandfather, who will love and adore you. You can live here with me on this island once I establish my own following, but you’ll like Asheville too. We have to spend some time there until then, but you’ll never want for anything.”
“I don’t know,” Josiah said through trembling lips.
“What don’t you know?” Lysander said, gritting his teeth.
Josiah wasn’t acquiescing. The profile. Narcissist with a god complex. Untouchable. Invincible. Punishing those who didn’t obey his commands. If Josiah didn’t comply, Lysander would kill him.
