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Essie tried to stand but it was too much for her visibly shaking legs. Alison and Tiffany each took one of her arms and helped her until she was steady.
"I appreciate everything," Essie said like a woman off to the firing squad. "Thank you."
"We wish it could have been more," Janice said, and gave Essie a quick, impromptu hug. "It's best if you just submit right away."
Bile rose in Tamara's throat at the thought of what that submission had meant for Janice, Tiffany, and Alison. They were just girls. Their husbands, they'd informed her, were all in their late forties.
The door swung open. The guard who'd helped Jarrod drug Tamara took up most of the open doorway. A second guard stood right behind him. She and Essie may have been able to scramble away from one guard. Two? That ended that hope.
"I mean it," he said. "Let's go. We need to be there before the guests arrive."
All five of them started forward.
"Not you three." He pointed at the girls. "Just the brides."
The girls squawked in quiet protest, but didn't make a move forward.
Tamara took Essie's hand and whispered, "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
The quote from The Handmaid's Tale seemed to fit perfectly with the situation inside the Crest Society compound. Essie squeezed her hand and they walked through the door, heads high and brave faces firmly affixed under their lacy bridal veils.
* * *
Isaac
The bolt cutters snapped through the last of the chain-link fence on the east side of the Crest Society compound. Isaac peeled back the section of fence and held it while Marko and Elisa squeezed through the opening. He followed after.
They moved, silent and quick behind the outer line of cabins, their M4 rifles at the ready. The countdown clock had two minutes on it. They had to get in place before the ATF hit. They had a minute to go by the time they'd made it inside the third ring. Isaac signaled to Marko to cross the dirt alley between the houses to get to the next ring when the flash grenade went off with a loud boom.
After that it was chaos. People screamed. Gunfire sounded.
"Let's go," Isaac hollered, and all three of them took off running.
He cleared the fourth ring of houses and spotted two of Fane's guards rushing two women dressed like brides inside the chapel next to Fane's cabin.
"Let me go!" one of the women hollered.
He couldn't see the bride's face, but there was no mistaking the icy contempt in that order. Tamara was pissed. Good. That meant she was okay. Of course, she'd be better once he got her the hell out of here.
* * *
&nb
sp; Tamara
Tamara fought with everything she had, but she was not getting out of the guard's grasp. His fingers bit into her wrist, squeezing the small bones together. She cried out in pain. He didn't seem to care. He shoved her through the chapel door and slammed it shut behind her.
The second guard, who'd pulled Essie inside the chapel too, grabbed Tamara by the arm and swung her farther back into the vestibule. She sailed through the air, slamming into the wall. The impact knocked the air out of her and dislodged a short wood staff off the wall. It fell the floor and she followed, sliding down the wall as she fought for breath.
"Stay down and don't fuck with me, and you might make it out of here alive," the guard snarled, turning his attention back to the window.
Essie scrambled over to her and held her hand while Tamara tried to get her air back. Sucking in shallow breaths, she looked around the vestibule. The guard stood to their right, leaning against a sliver of wall off to the side of the window by the front door. An open archway divided the vestibule from the chapel behind them. It was small. Only twenty pews and a podium up on the altar. To their left was a wall with a door. They might be able to make it out while the guard was distracted.
"What's going on?" Essie asked, keeping her voice quiet.
Tamara finally sucked in a full breath. "Isaac's here," she whispered. "And it sounds like he brought friends."
The sound of gunfire went off like firecrackers outside, but it wasn't close. They could get out of here. Hide until Isaac got beyond the outer ring of cabins. She curled her fingers around the staff. It was a little over two feet long, but it was made of hard walnut with the Crest Society logo burned into it. As far as weapons went, it wasn't the greatest, but if the guard got close again she'd be able to whack him over the head with it. Another round of gunfire went off, this time closer. The guard's attention was focused on the activity outside the window. If they were going to make a break for it, they needed to do it now.
