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“It’s too dangerous to get out of the habit.” Vigil shook his head and faced Cal. “True called you when she escaped, didn’t she?”
True.
He finally had a name for the girl. It was somehow both a relief andan added weight. She wasn’t just a voice on his phone or the girl on the video anymore. She had a name, an identity. It made her real.
“I think you already know the answer to that.”
Evelyn—Clarity—bit her lip, casting a wary glance at Cal before turning to face Vigil. “This is insane. You can’t just bring an outsider into this! How do we know we can trust him?”
Vigil ignored her protests. “You’re here to help her.” A statement, not a question.
After a day filled with vagueness, Cal respected his straightforwardness and returned it in kind. “Yes, I am.”
Clarity flapped her arms in annoyance. “Vig?—”
“He’s a lawyer,” Vigil snapped. “He might be able to help us legally.”
“I’m a defense attorney, but, yeah, I may be able to help depending on what you need.” Cal studied the group. “What is this? A coup?”
“More like a prison break,” Clarity said. “We want out.”
Sincere nodded. “Serenity, my wife, won’t leave. She’s too loyal to Hopeful. Truthfully, I think she’s in love with him.”
“So you want a divorce?”
“If that’s what it takes. We have two boys—an eight-year-old and a three-year-old—and I want our kids as far away from here as possible.”
“Are the kids in danger here?”
The trio exchanged a glance filled with unspoken words.
Finally, Clarity nodded. “Hopeful had me close down the school. He said—” Her voice caught, and she exhaled hard before starting again. “He said we don’t need it anymore because our kids will be granted the gift of eternal youth. They’ll never grow up, so they never need to learn.” Tears spilled from her eyes. “I have a two-year-old daughter. I moved here with her because the school here really was doing amazing things for the kids. They’re all smarter. They test higher than the state average. I liked the communal living and thought she’d be safer here than in a public school.”
“But it’s gotten weird,” Sincere said. “This place isn’t what it started out as.”
Cal glanced at Vigil. “And what about you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t have kids.”
“Then what’s your stake in this?”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “I just don’t like where it’s headed.”
Yeah, the guy still wasn’t telling the full truth. Cal didn’t know how he knew it because Vigil had the poker face to beat all poker faces, but he did. “So why not just leave?”
“People who leave…” Clarity trailed off like she didn’t know how to end that sentence and looked at Sincere for help.
“Disappear,” he finished. “We had a couple stay after last year’s retreat, but a few weeks ago, they started voicing doubts. Within days, their cabin was cleaned out. It’s the one you’re in now.”
That was not a comforting thought.
And he’d left Ellie there alone?
Fuck.
“I’ve looked for them,” Vigil added. “They’re gone. No trace. They either went into witness protection or never made it off this mountain. And I have enough contacts in security circles that I’d know if they’d got swept up in WITSEC.”
Cal eyed the man. He’d spent enough time around the former soldiers of Redwood Coast Rescue to spot one. They all carried themselves a certain way and spoke with a kind of authority that civilians lacked. “You were military.”
