Page 79 of Anchored to the Storm

When I knocked on the driver’s window, he jumped in his seat. Held his chest when he saw it was me.

I whispered, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’m coming with.”

He shook his head while rolling down the window. “No⁠—”

“Or I’ll scream.”

I didn’t know you had such a stink eye in ya, but I’m still going with you. I opened my mouth and took a deep breath, ready to wake everyone in the house.

“Fine,” Seb rushed. “But you’re staying in Tonka.”

Whatever. I rushed around the hood of the jeep, glaring and daring him to try to pull away without me. Once inside, I gestured to his criminal outfit. “Interesting.”

He snarled at my duck PJs. “Nauseating.”

Rude! “Who we robbin’ tonight?”

Unlike Bertha, the Jeep’s engine wasn’t loud. We drove away without waking anyone. “We ain’t doing shit. I’m spying on the pastor.”

Instantly, my stomach rolled. “By the way Ethan hugged me, I thought you guys were planning an attack without me.” I lifted my chin. “I’m glad you’re not alone.”

“No attack planned. He lives for now.”

“I prefer we gut him.”

Driving, Sebastian smirked at me. “I thought you were no longer on my team.”

Pfft! “Him dying slowly and painfully is not an issue for me. I’d personally love a chance at his innards with an egg scrambler. What I’m not on board with is one of those who I love getting caught and punished for it. I’d rather—” I didn’t finish my sentence. I felt like a broken record.

“Well, Johnny’s not here.”

Staring out the passenger window, I nodded, even though I had just witnessed him, so young and tiny, drowning. “Seb, do you think the crimes against us all, at such young ages, give us a Heaven ‘pass’ with any future crimes we commit?”

He stared past the steering wheel for a bit, gripping the leather. Then, finally, he said, “I hope so, or how will I ever see Blue again?”

A sob broke free before I could swallow it down. Even though I now believed tears were cleansing, I wasn’t sure if angry Seb wanted to see them while on the way to spy on his girlfriend’s murdering father. Seb felt far from Blue’s grace. I was hoping he would soon feel her, like I just did Caleb.

I begged Seb, “I promise to run away if anything goes wrong. Just… please don’t block me on this revenge.”

He growled, “If I say go back to the Jeep, you gonna argue?”

“No way.”

We parked the Jeep down the road between some trees and started walking toward the pastor’s place. He lived at the end of the street in a quiet neighborhood with lots of land around him. On the property were a few modest homes that were so alike they were hard to distinguish one from the other. Only tiny differences like the color of the flowers or the front doors set them apart. The lots all seemed to be the same size except for the pastor’s.

Getting closer, now there were many more homes. Manufactured ones. The full comprehension of what he was planning began to sink in. The pastor was building a fenced-in community. Construction on another church was already in progress. Tall gates were being erected around this property and beyond, spreading across the other houses on his street. It was then that I remembered the video Seb had watched, where the pastor had bragged about the safety he provided his congregation. And what Seb had just said about protecting strangers also.

I got the unsettling sense someone wanted to compete with the famous Warren Jeffs. Quietly, I said, “What kind of holy fuckery is happening here?”

The pastor we were dealing with had the audacity to describe this new construction in an online article, but what he didn’t reveal his true intentions.

Seb’s eyes saddened as he stared at the fence. “He’s accomplished so much in such a short amount of time.” A determined flex of his jaw proved he wasn’t shocked by this news. He must have snuck out more than once before tonight.

“All those innocents he invited online and during his interview. The bastard is preparing for new members for his church… and their children.” A violent urge to throw up had me bending over, placing my hands on my knees.

“He’s looking for new victims,” Seb seethed. Then he looked at me as if I had sprouted another head. He grabbed my hand. “Tonka. Now.”

I didn’t know what happened or what he saw, but I ran, hand in his hand, until back in Tonka, racing away.