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“Do you have questions? Each one is different.”
“It seems like they brainwash their followers. Did they do that to us, Kane?”
I kissed her forehead, hating that I was her only gateway to the past. The only reason I talked about it was to help her. I swore I would never look back the day I left the compound, but it hadn’t happened like that. The abuse had caught up with me … in a hole underground.
“Can I show you?” Brie’s blue eyes filled with eagerness. She took my hand and led the way.
I walked down the hallway, a growing sense of trepidation nagging at me. Whatever it was, it was important to Brie, and she was what mattered. Her healing. When she healed, a part of me did, too.
“Sit.” She pointed to the bed.
“Bossy much?” I laughed, climbing onto her mattress and propping myself up with pillows. Brie opened a drawer, then joined me with a metal lock box in her hand. She stared at it, then glanced at me.
“Mom gave me this. I’ve never looked inside of it before. She said when I was ready, it would be there. The only thing she would tell me was that it wouldn’t make sense until I had my memories back. But, in a way, I do … with you. So, I was hoping we could open it together, and you could help me understand what we were looking at.”
“Are you ready?” I hated second-guessing her, but I had to make sure before we skipped through the fields of terror straight to hell.
“Yeah.” A brave smile eased into place.
“Let’s do it.” I hoped I didn’t regret my decision later.
The click of the box opening filled the room, and my pulse spiked while I waited to see what she was looking at.
Carefully, she lifted the contents out before she pushed away the container and sat next to me.
“Jesus,” I whispered as I focused on an image of a younger Brie with bruises and cuts all over her face and arms.
Brie flipped the photo over. “It has the date on the back, then a note saying I was at Memorial Hospital. I look like hell.”
“Do you remember any of that, babe?” I placed my palm on her knee, hoping to show my support.
She shook her head. “No.” She glanced at me. “Mom and Dad said that I was banged up, but … I don’t understand. Did I get the bruises before I left you that night?”
Brie was right, that didn’t match her running through the woods the evening she escaped. Even if she tripped a few times or ran into a thick tree limb, the marks on her didn’t add up.
I held out my hand to study the picture, assessing the damage. “Do you know if you had bruises on your legs?”
“No, I can ask Mom and Dad, though.”
I squinted, narrowing in on her thigh. A dark mark peered out from beneath her hospital gown. The world blurred, and my stomach churned. Had Brie been found and raped before her parents had discovered her on the side of the road? There was no way I would share my suspicions. Maybe her mom and dad could talk to her.
“Okay.” I gave it back to her. “What else do you have?”
“Another picture.” She paused, then, “Holy shit!” She turned the photo toward me. “Kane, he looks like Jagger Whitlock!”
I took it from her, shocked. “I’d forgotten about Lyle.”
“Who?” Brie leaned over, looking again.
“Lyle. He was a year older than I was.” A messy lump of emotion clogged my throat. “We were good friends and practiced football after our chores.”
“What happened to him?”
“He died when the FBI stormed the compound. Lyle was terrified and ran in the wrong direction. He got caught in the line of fire when they took out one of the elders.”
Brie fell silent, focusing on Lyle. “The first time I met Jagger, I couldn’t figure out why he seemed so familiar. It was like I could feel a pull to him, but I wasn’t attracted to him. It was weird as hell.”
“That makes sense. Even though Jagger and Lyle aren’t related, they look a lot alike. Jagger’s hair is darker, and his eyes are bluer than Lyle’s were, but similar build and expressions.”
