Authors: Ann Vaughn
“I
see...and have you claimed any others as your own?”
A
smile touched his lips. “As Supreme Leader, all women, even claimed ones,
are available to me. I admit that in my youth I readily exercised that
privilege, but I have, shall we say, mellowed in recent years. I found
that I wanted someone I could actually have an intelligent conversation
with. Someone strong enough to lead alongside me. I knew the moment
I saw you walk into my tent that you would be that special someone for me.”
“Someone
call Hallmark, I think he just wrote their next sappy card for them,” Pete spat
out, giving Tessa a genuine reason to smile when she really wanted to throw up.
“That’s
so sweet,” she breathed, leaning in to kiss him, “but I’m still not sure of all
this.”
“Tell
me. Perhaps I can put away your doubts.”
Her
gaze swept the room. “These women...they are all very young and very
beautiful.”
“All
are over eighteen and all here by invitation, yes based on their beauty, but
also with full disclosure and consent for our lifestyle.”
“A
lifestyle that involves actual whippings? The girl I saw, Stephanie, her
back was bleeding. Will she scar? What could she have possible
done, Nathaniel?” she asked for the third time since discovering the girl.
“Careful,
Tess,” Shane cautioned, having noticed the two men over Nathaniel’s shoulder
tense at her questioning. “Don’t force his hand before witnesses.”
“A
whipping of that severity could only mean she violated a direct command from
Paul or one of the Elders you see at the table with us.”
“Violated
a direct command?” she repeated and could not keep the disgust from her tone.
“Tessa,”
Shane again warned.
“Again,
my rose, each woman present has agreed to our lifestyle.”
“Not
every woman, Nathaniel,” she pressed, “as much as I am intrigued by you, I will
never consent to allow anyone to beat me in such a way, and that includes you.”
“Nor
would I allow it,” he said, raising her knuckles to his lips. “For
myself, I do not choose a woman such as that. I would have a woman who is
above all others.”
She
leaned in closer to him, until their faces were mere inches apart. “That,
I certainly am, Nathaniel.” A hush fell over the hall when she placed her
hand on his cheek and kissed him soundly for all to see.
“You
are a diamond among rubies, Madelyn,” he whispered to her.
“And
don’t you ever forget it,” she said with a laugh and a wink.
“Not
likely,” he breathed, then in a lower voice, “I can’t wait to have you in my
bed.”
She
traced her thumb along his lower lip. “I’m afraid you will have to wait a
while for that,” she said, smiling at his raised brow expression. “Yes, I
know you aren’t used to waiting, which is exactly why you will for me.”
“My
people expect a bedding ceremony,” he informed her. “Tonight.”
“Oh,
well, I’m afraid they will be sorely disappointed. You are Supreme
Leader, Nathaniel. Tell them we demand and expect the privacy your
position is due. But know this, Nathaniel Helton, what I do is for your
benefit and your benefit alone. If I am to be yours, then I will be
solely yours, for your eyes only. That is solid and non-negotiable.”
His
eyes glinted, clearly intoxicated by all she said. Tessa wondered if
anyone like her had ever been in his life or if he’d always been surrounded by
subservience.
“I
do believe I shall enjoy my pursuit of you, my fiery one. It will make
your ultimate surrender that much sweeter.”
“Count
on it,” she tossed back at him.
“Know
this, though, Miss Parker. I will indulge you only so long. You
will be mine, in every way.”
The
pencil Shane had been holding snapped in half. He prayed for patience for
himself and divine protection for Tessa. How she was ever going to
continue to dodge Helton he just didn’t know.
Over
the next days, Tessa settled into learning how she was intended to fit into
Nathaniel’s life and organization. She spent several hours each day in
the classroom with the children. She told Nathaniel she would like to
spend time with the single women in the dormitories, something he resisted at
first but she managed to manipulate him into agreeing to during a romantic
interlude in the gardens. Against her initial instincts, she began to
develop a grudging admiration for Nathaniel. The image he presented to
her was one of actual caring for his “people”. It was Paul who had begun
the practice of subjecting the women to rigorous rules designed to result in
them being sent to the Arena for “adjustment” at least once a week. Tessa
resisted this and questioned Nathaniel on it to which he once again insisted
that the women chose this lifestyle. It wasn’t an outright S&M
outfit, Tessa decided. It was some crazy in between. Indeed, the
women were given full disclosure of the society’s expectations and tenets and
she did see at least three new recruits who decided it wasn’t for them and were
given leave to go.
After
the end of her first month in the compound, she began to wonder if she would
ever gain enough info on the group to shut them down. If it was truly a
lifestyle choice made by each woman, then how could they put a stop to
it? By passing themselves off as a religious group, it wasn’t as if the
women were paying the Heltons for this service or that the men were paying to
have sex with the women thus making it a prostitution ring.
It
was during one of the times she did not have her earpiece in, that Shane got a
call that changed everything. He’d been monitoring her with Nathaniel
just before bedtime, with Crownover being the only other team member present
when his cell rang.
“McCanton,”
he answered, not looking at his caller ID.
“Shane!”
he heard his sister’s shaky voice.
He
sat up, his heart beat accelerating. “Cordy? What is it? What’s happened?”
“Shane...you
need to come home. There’s been...an accident,” she said, through her
sobs.
“What
kind of accident?”
“Daddy...he
had someone stopped. It was raining. A truck rounded the corner and
hydroplaned and hit him. It doesn’t look good. You need to come
home.”
He
was already scrambling to his feet. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Hurry,
Shane,” she cried.
He
ended the call and immediately began dialing Bruce’s number. His eyes
locked on Tessa on the monitor.
“Shane?
It’s almost midnight, what...”
“I
have to go home. My dad was in an accident. Cordy says it’s bad and
that I need to hurry. You need to send someone here with Crownover.”
“Of
course, son, you go. Be careful. Keep me updated.”
He
turned to Crownover. “Tell Tessa I’m sorry. I don’t know when I’ll
be back.”
Crownover
nodded. “Yeah, sure, man, I’ll take care of her, don’t worry.”
Shane
sent him a pointed look. “I’m trusting you with her. Don’t let me down.”
He
hurried out to his truck and began the three-hour drive back to Indian
Springs. Once he was safely away from the area of the compound, he
put his light in the dash and flipped on his siren and floored it, determined
to make it home as fast as he could.
He
called his sister when he arrived at the hospital and she ran out to greet him,
leaping into his arms and sobbing. He held her tight and listened as she
cried. From what he could tell, his dad was still in surgery. They
rushed in and he embraced his mother and his other sister Gracie.
Practically the whole town of Indian Springs was in the waiting room with
them. The McCanton family had been involved in law enforcement in Indian
Springs for as long as anyone could remember.
Luke
McCanton was strong. He came out of surgery and survived the night, but
his condition was critical; and touch and go for days. He was placed into
a medically induced coma to aid in healing. Shane stayed at the hospital
with his family, and at the town council’s request, helped the Sheriff’s
department with the investigation into the accident and filled in for his dad,
all while keeping tabs on Tessa’s investigation, which was crawling at a
snail’s pace.
Three
weeks after the accident, Luke woke. Shane was in the room with his
mother when his father opened his eyes, lifted his hand and touched his
mother’s cheek. After a few hours of tests, Luke was alert and talking
and everyone breathed a sigh of relief to know that it looked like he was
indeed going to be OK. It was Luke’s sharp eye that was the first to notice
that something wasn’t right with his son.
That
morning, Shane had received a call from Bruce that contact with Tessa hadn’t
been made for several hours. It wasn’t unusual except that she had never
gone quite this long with the mike turned off.
“Has
anything changed in her investigation? Any behavior toward her changed?” he
asked Bruce.
“Not
that has been reported. Gib and I were getting ready to pull the plug on
the whole thing. She hasn’t really come up with anything to show that any
women are being held against their will. Stephanie Quinn seems perfectly
happy to be there. Not much we can do with that.”
“But
Tessa hasn’t turned the mike back on?”
“She
turned it off for her shower and they have not gotten her back online
since. That was three hours ago.”
Shane
cursed under his breath, an uneasy feeling washing over him. “OK,
look...my dad is awake and doing better now. I’m gonna see if a friend
who has a helicopter here can fly me in. I don’t like this.”
“I’m
sure it’s nothing...but yeah, I’d like you to be here.”
When
Shane came back into his father’s room after that, Luke’s sharp eyes zeroed in
on him.
“Son?
What is it?”
Shane
raked his hand through his hair. “Maybe nothing. An investigation I
was running hit a snag. I need to go back. I’ll see if Bob can fly
me over, I need to get back fast.”
“Is
it Tessa?”
For
a moment, Shane froze, then he remembered that Bruce had briefed his dad on
what was going on, and that his dad likely knew much more than he realized he
did.
“Yeah,
it’s Tessa. I’m hoping it’s nothing, but it doesn’t look good right now.”
Luke
nodded. “You go take care of things, boy. I’m fine.”
Shane
stepped to his dad and embraced him. “Love you, Pop. I’ll be back
as soon as I can.”
During
his short flight back to the command house, Shane couldn’t fight off the uneasy
feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong. He knew
it. Tessa wouldn’t cut off communication for that long.
When
he exited the chopper and he saw Bruce’s face as he emerged from the house, he
knew his fears were justified. Something bad had happened.
“Tell
me,” Shane said, following Bruce into the house.
“She
came back online as you were en route. It’s bad, son. Somehow they
found out. They know she’s not who she said she was...I think the mike
came back on when her head struck something...we’ve got to get in now.
They’re killing her.”
Shane
rushed in, ashen. Crownover met him at the entrance to the control room,
flak jacket in his hand. Gibson was there and gearing up as well, his eyes
piercing Shane as he took the vest from Crownover.
“I
need to know if you can handle this,” Gibson said.
“I’m
going in and bringing her out. You won’t stop me. I...”
He
fell silent when he heard Tessa scream. It was an ear-piercing,
pain-filled scream like he’d never heard before. Cold sweat broke out
over his entire body. They heard another chopper land and knew that SWAT
had arrived.
“Do
we know what room she is in?”
“GPS
has her in the Arena,” Pete replied.
They
hesitated only long enough to form a takedown plan and then loaded up for the
compound. They were greeted with light resistance at the gate, which was
surprising. They barreled through and drove through the grounds to the
gymnasium referred to as the Arena and blasted their way inside. Screams
of the other women scattering greeted them as the smoke cleared from the
door. The entire population of the compound was gathered in the
arena. Tessa was in the center of the room, arms suspended above her
while Paul and Nathaniel took turns beating her. When Shane led the way
into the room, Nathaniel grabbed her around the waist and held her before him
as a shield, a knife to her throat. The SWAT backup quickly evacuated the
others from the room, leaving a small contingent to confront the Helton
Brothers. Paul held a gun on them, just to the right of Nathaniel and
Tessa.
“Let
her go, Helton,” Shane demanded. “This ends now.”
Sweat
beaded on his brow and ran down the small of his back. Shane couldn’t
remember ever being this scared in his entire life. He aimed his gun at
Nathaniel, trusting the others to have Paul covered. He dared not look
too closely at Tessa, not wanting anything to break his concentration. He
knew she was nude and severely beaten already, but she was on her feet and that
had to be a good sign. Even without looking directly at her, though, he
could see she was losing blood fast.
“It’s
over, Helton,” he said, “the place is surrounded. You can’t win.
Let her go and have your day in court.”
“I
don’t recognize your courts. My word is Law.”
“That’s
fine. You can recognize that I’ve got a gun on your head and if you don’t
cooperate, I will shoot.”
“You
won’t chance hitting your colleague here,” Nathaniel countered.
“I
won’t hit her.”
“That
sure of yourself, are you?” Helton said, tightening his grip on Tessa’s hair
and pulling her head back, further exposing her throat to his blade.
Beside
him, Paul began to move but Gib and Crownover advanced on him. Tessa
didn’t make a sound, not that Shane expected her to. Tessa was the
strongest person he knew.
“Let
her go,” Shane repeated, taking a small step forward.
“Take
one more step and I’ll slice her open,” Helton warned.
“I’ll
put a bullet in you first.”
Helton
laughed then, pushing the point of the blade into Tessa’s throat so that blood
began trickling down.
“If
you were going to shoot me, you’d have already done it. Now, you get me a
car and let me out of here or I’ll cut her damn head off.”
“Not
going to happen, Helton, you know that. Only way you’re getting out of
here is in custody, on a stretcher, or in a body bag. Now, what’s it
going to be?”
“I’m
not afraid to die, but if I go, she goes with me.”
“Shane!”
Bruce yelled from the doorway behind him.
Shane
saw something flicker across Helton’s face, knew the situation was about to
elevate. He watched Helton’s grip on the knife change slightly.
“Shane,
huh? This Shane?” Helton asked, indicating with the blade the tattoo on
Tessa’s abdomen. “This is the man you whored yourself for?” he breathed
into Tessa’s ear.
Tessa
grit her teeth, staring intently at Shane and doing her best to ignore
Nathaniel altogether. Shane’s gaze was trained on Nathaniel; he had yet
to look her in the eye. Blood loss was beginning to make her dizzy and
she feared she would pass out at any moment. Her vision was already
blurred due to repeated blows to the head. She studied Shane’s face as
best as she could, trying to memorize every detail. It had been so long
since she’d last seen him, she was glad she got to see him one last time.
She
listened to the two men tap dance around each other, each trying to make the
other back down. Twice Nathaniel inflicted more pain on her but she kept
her jaw clenched, refusing to cry out.
Bruce
called from the other side of the door, calling Shane’s name. Now
Nathaniel knew who he was; knew that he was the man whose name she’d marked her
body with. Things were escalating now. She could feel it in
Nathaniel’s body...that tightening of muscles, the dampening of skin. It
had to end now.
Steeling
herself, she swallowed hard and licked her lips, happy she at least got to see
Shane one last time.
“Shane,”
she said, her voice hoarse and weak, but she knew he heard her even though his
eyes never left Nathaniel. “Shane. Wildcat.” She saw
recognition flash in Shane’s eyes and then there was nothing.