Creed Read online

  Elijah ignored us. He was too busy circling Mike, as if trying deciding which part of him to mangle. He stopped directly behind him, removed the blindfold, and then ran his hand across his throat, yanking Mike’s head back. “Of course, if she doesn’t want you, I’d be happy to toss you back in with your brother.”

  Panic exploded through Mike, his entire body starting to shake. Wherever Elijah had stashed them, it wasn’t good.

  Slowly, so as not to alarm Joseph, I stepped forward. “No. I want him,” I said. “I assumed you were bringing Luke. My mistake, not yours.”

  “I don’t make mistakes,” Elijah said.

  He let go of Mike’s head, and Mike winced as his chin fell forward. I did a quick scan of his hands, counted all ten of his fingers before moving to his arms and legs. I couldn’t see any obvious injuries, but after being sliced open three times in the name of God, I knew Mike could have any number of wounds hidden beneath his clothes.

  “Lucky for you, my new wife isn’t picky.”

  Mike’s eyes flashed wide at Elijah’s declaration. Apparently he hadn’t been told about my new status in the community.

  “Take the gag off. I want to talk to him. Please.” It took an enormous amount of effort to add that last word. To beg Elijah for anything made me feel sick, like I’d given in. But at that point I would’ve begged, pleaded, traded my own life if it meant saving Mike and Luke’s.

  “I’ll do you one better. Being that it is our wedding night and your egocentric customs dictate I present you with a gift, I’ll make him your gift. I’ll give you an hour with him. Joseph will stay with you. Consider him a chaperone of sorts.”

  There was no way Elijah trusted either of us that much. The man I knew wasn’t generous or trusting or even empathetic. He was calculated and manipulative. Deadly. Which meant the time he was gifting me with Mike would come with a price.

  “What’s the catch?” I asked.

  “No catch. Rather, some added insurance.” Elijah walked over to his nephews and wedged himself in between them. “I could use your boyfriend, Luke, but he’s more useful to me alive than dead. You know … the whole one-indiscretion-one-finger bargain we agreed upon.”

  He paused and looked from James to Abram, then back to me. The obvious pleasure in his voice had me searching out Joseph, desperately hoping he could give me some silent insight into what dark, twisted path his father’s mind was traveling down now.

  Elijah caught my look and said, “Even my son can’t save you from this one.”

  “What are you talking about?” I yelled. I was tired of his cryptic messages. I didn’t have the energy to decipher his insane mind and plan my own escape at the same time.

  Elijah spread his arms, each one circling around the shoulders of Abram and James. “The way I see it, both are completely disposable to me. They have a habit of swaying from the righteous course, and for that, I fear, they will never flourish in Purity Springs. It’s only a matter of time before they succumb to the evils of the outside world, forcing me to do what is necessary rather than risk my entire community. To me, which one goes first doesn’t matter. You choose.”

  “Choose?” My eyes darted between the twins as I struggled to understand what Elijah was saying. “Choose what?”

  “I’m going to give you an hour with your friend, and then I’m going to return. If you aren’t here, if that boy is not standing right here, exactly where I left him, then one of them dies. Which one is up to you.”

  Was he kidding me? How was I supposed to choose? They were only fourteen, and I knew nothing about them. And they were twins. Identical twins. I couldn’t even tell them apart. Did he honestly expect me to casually pick one to die?

  “Time’s a-wasting.” Elijah flicked his hand to see his watch, the motion wrenching one of boy’s necks painfully close. “I’m thinking your sixty minutes starts right—about—now.”

  I turned toward Joseph, praying he had some sort of contingency plan. He shook his head and whispered, “Pick one.”

  Holy crap, he was serious. They were both serious. Looking up, I did my best to avoid making eye contact with either boy. Their expressions were blank, their posture steady and straight, but I could feel the fear pouring off them, could taste the bitter scent of it in the air.

  My gaze must’ve landed on the one to left for a fraction of a second too long, and the decision was made. “James it is,” Elijah said and moved toward the door. “Fear not, boys, so long as my wife makes the right decision, neither of you will be harmed. Yet.” He said that last part under his breath, a quiet acknowledgment of the fact that they wouldn’t be safe forever.

  “And Joseph,” Elijah said, not bothering to turn around as he opened the door, “I knew you were planning on running with your mother. Consider this a test, your last chance to prove where your loyalty truly lies. It shouldn’t be hard, son, but consider your cousin James a little added incentive to make sure you act wisely.”

  They filed out of the room. James turned back once, his haunted gaze landing squarely on me. I wanted to reach out to him, to tell him it’d be okay, but I couldn’t move. I could barely think.

  “Will he … Will he … ” I couldn’t get the words out, couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that Elijah would actually kill his own nephew as a warning to me.

  “My father wants to see if I’ll choose you over them … over my own family,” Joseph said. “He’s testing me, Dee, not you. He won’t give you up no matter what.”

  I shook my head, not understanding what he was saying.

  “Remember how he said he needed a son, one who would carry on the prophecy?” I nodded, and Joseph continued. “I’m it. Well, at least until … ”

  The weight of his words strangled me. If I left, if I grabbed Mike and ran, then James would die. And if Joseph did nothing to stop me, then he was as good as dead too.

  Thirty

  An hour was a long time when I was stuck in physics class or serving out detention. But here, trapped in a world controlled by Elijah Hawkins, sixty minutes wasn’t nearly long enough.

  I had the gag out of Mike’s mouth and was furiously working on the restraints that bound his hands behind his back. Joseph came around to help, struggling against Mike’s clenching fists to loosen the ties.

  The minute he was free, Mike let his fist fly straight into Joseph’s jaw. I didn’t try to stop him. Hell, I’d wanted to do that myself when I first woke up. I’d only held off because Joseph was all I had.

  Mike paused for only a second—long enough to see the blood soaking through my bandages—before he grabbed Joseph again. He hauled him up off the floor and pinned him to the wall.

  “First, you’re going to tell me exactly where that man has stashed my brother, and then I’m gonna kill you.”

  Mike’s hand circled Joseph’s throat, the pressure making speech impossible. “Mike, stop! STOP!” I screamed. Joseph’s face was bright red, his eyes tearing up as he struggled to breath. “You’re killing him!”

  Mike loosened his grip and leveled a hate-fueled glare in my direction. “Damn straight I am,” he yelled as he gave Joseph another hard shove into the wall. “Give me one good reason why I should let him live?”

  Somehow, Joseph had managed to wedge his hand between himself and Mike. He shoved Mike away and coughed, gasping to fill his lungs. “Because I’m the one trying to save you guys, that’s why.”

  “Oh that’s great. You’re trying to save us? The guy who used his friends to kidnap us in the first place is suddenly on our side?” Mike fired back.

  “That’s not what I intended—”

  “You think I give a shit what you intended?” Mike cut in, his anger flaring. “All I know is that you left us both for dead and took Dee. I don’t care about saving your sister, and I don’t care if he kills that James kid. All I’m gonna do is take Dee, find Luke, and get the hell out of
here.”

  Mike looked at me, his expression hard and determined as he held out his hand for me to take. “Let’s go.”

  I reached out and grabbed Mike’s hand, cringing as my fingers skirted over a patch of dried blood. I didn’t know if it was a “cleansing” wound or a gash from him trying to claw his way out of the zip-ties Elijah had tightened around his wrists, but I knew that when we got out of here, if we got out of here, I’d ask exactly what Elijah had done to them.

  “We need his help,” I whispered, praying that my instincts weren’t wrong. Joseph was on our side. Joseph was, in fact, the one person we could trust on the inside. “We’ll never get out of here without his help.”

  Mike sighed, his hand squeezing mine with excruciating force. “Help? Help? Are you insane, Dee? How has he helped us so far?”

  I didn’t know how to answer that. It wasn’t something I could explain, more of an overwhelming feeling that had it not been for Joseph, I would’ve been dead by now. Plus, I knew Joseph wanted out of here as bad as me. I’d recognized the desperation radiating off him the second we met. I knew the look—the one that said no matter what it cost you, you’d survive—because I wore it myself. It wasn’t Joseph I trusted, it was that look.

  “Have you seen yourself, Dee? You’re pale and your arms are covered in blood.”

  Mike squatted down in front of me, studying me as if he was searching for some sort of truth. My guess was he wanted to know if I was starting to believe all the crap they were spewing in this town.

  “You realize you’re defending the kid who sold you out, right?” Mike asked. “The one who dragged you in here and left me and Luke for dead.”

  I knew who I was defending, and no, I wasn’t buying what Elijah was selling. And as for Luke, I was pretty sure that was all Elijah’s doing.

  “Look at me,” Mike said as he grabbed my chin. “The last thing I saw, the last thing Luke saw, was this kid dragging you away. How can you believe anything he says?”

  I dropped my gaze to the floor. I knew Joseph had gotten me hurt. He’d hauled me into this hellhole on the ridiculous notion that I was strong enough to save his sister. But looking at him now, I felt different. I didn’t merely see the myriad of scars on his body or the pain in his eyes, I understood them. There was no going back from that, no erasing the knowledge that had already been burned into my soul and carved into my arms.

  “I know,” I whispered. “But you have no idea what’s going to happen to them. I won’t leave Joseph here. I won’t let Elijah hurt those two boys or Eden. Not if there’s a chance we can get them out.”

  Mike cocked his head as if staring at a stranger. “What are you saying? This kid is seven shades of crazy, Dee, and you want to save him? Keep him around?”

  I was fully aware Mike thought I’d lost it. Maybe I had. “I’m saying I want to find Luke and get out of here. But I want to take them with us.”

  With a grunt of disgust, Mike gave up trying to reason with me and turned to Joseph. “What did you do to her? What is this, some kind of brainwashing or drugs or something?”

  “You don’t—” I went to explain, but Mike cut me off.

  “Forget it,” Mike said. “I don’t care what he did or what he said to make you think you need to save him. It doesn’t matter, because I’m not giving you a choice. I’m leaving and taking you with me.”

  He moved to pick me up, to physically remove me from this place, but Joseph shoved him away.

  Mike growled and squared off. “Are you kidding me? You honestly think you need to protect Dee from me? Newsflash, kid, you’re the problem here, not me. But if you’re looking for a fight, I’m game.” He widened his stance and grinned, curling his fingers, inviting Joseph to take his best shot.

  Joseph did exactly that. He straightened up and pulled his fist back. I grabbed onto his arm before he could swing. Joseph may have been big, but Mike was pissed off. Either way, this wasn’t going to end well.

  “Let it go, Joseph. This is—”

  I tried to ease them down, but Joseph shook me off. “I didn’t do anything to her. I’ve been doing my best to keep her safe, to protect her from my father since we got here. Not once have I touched her. Not once!”

  Mike cast a suspicious glare my way, and I nodded. It was true. Joseph’s mind was broken and worked in a completely different way than ours, but he’d kept his word. He’d even taken a beating to protect us. In his own delusional way, Joseph had kept me safe.

  I headed for the door. Mike and Joseph could stay here all night locked in their pissing match for all I cared. I was going to find Luke.

  “Do you have any clue where Luke might be?” I asked Mike.

  “No. We were locked in that damn sin shack for a few hours, but then that man —”

  “Elijah,” I interrupted.

  “Whatever,” Mike said, obviously irritated that the crazy man and I were on a first-name basis. “His father split us up this morning, put me in a separate room from Luke. I was blindfolded the entire way, so I have no idea what building we were in, but it was a good ten-minute walk at least.”

  I dropped my head to my hands, frustrated and scared by the very real possibility that we would never find Luke.

  “I could hear him, though,” Mike added quickly. “Every once in a while I’d hear his voice, so I know he was close. We were probably only a room apart.”

  “You could hear Luke?” I asked. “Like, you heard him talking to Elijah?”

  Mike shifted his gaze to the ground so I couldn’t read his expression. “No, not all the time, and he never seemed to hear me. But there was … ” He trailed off, his hands hanging limply at his sides.

  “Was what?” I asked.

  “Screaming.”

  The word was choked, Mike’s voice cracking as if uttering that one word was excruciatingly painful.

  I inhaled sharply, wishing more than anything I could erase everything I’d just heard. Luke was tucked away in some torture chamber and I was sitting here, wasting time as Mike and I fought over Joseph.

  I fisted Joseph’s shirt in my hands and shook him hard. “Where is he? Where would your father hide him?”

  Joseph shrugged, his focus scattered as if he was searching his mind for a hidden clue as to where Luke was.

  I let go of his shirt and did my best to soften my tone. “Where is Luke? Think, Joseph. Where?”

  Joseph took a step toward Mike and spoke. “The place you were in … do you remember anything about it?”

  Mike shook his head. “Not much. Like I said, thanks to that asshole father of yours, I was blindfolded the whole time and tied down.”

  “Chair or floor?” Joseph asked.

  “Neither,” Mike answered quickly. “It was a bed.”

  Without a moment’s pause, Joseph rattled off his next question: “Twin or full?”

  “Small. Twin, I guess,” Mike replied. “Why?”

  Joseph ignored his question and followed up with one of his own. It was as if he already knew where his father had stashed Luke, and every question, every answer, confirmed his suspicion. “Do you remember what it smelled like?”

  “I don’t know, earthy? Maybe a little sweet. Like a combination of burnt paper and pot.”

  I swung my head toward Joseph, doubtful that anyone in this town knew what pot was, never mind had smoked it. Joseph caught my look of confusion and brushed it off, heading for the door. “I know exactly where he is. Let’s go.”

  Thirty-One

  I found myself staring at the house we’d crashed in twenty-four hours ago. Elijah had brought Luke home. That crazy son-of-a-bitch was holding my boyfriend in his own house.

  “You sure?” Mike asked, his gaze flickering anxiously over the darkened front window.

  “Positive. There’s a room in our basement. My father used to lock me in it all the time,” Jos
eph said, a shiver working its way through his body. “He’d say that the only way to rid my mind of childhood fantasies was to surround myself in complete stillness.”

  I could only guess what childhood fantasies would warrant such a punishment. Perhaps pretending a block of wood was a truck or dreaming about being a pirate. Or better yet, making Eden a doll.

  “It’s small, dark, and completely soundproof,” Joseph continued. “You wouldn’t have heard him unless my father opened the door.”

  Mike opened the front door to the house and the smell hit me, hard and strong. When we let ourselves in last night, all I’d registered was burnt pasta and garlic. Mike had pinned it right; it now reeked of burnt paper and weed.

  “What’s that smell?” I asked.

  “Sage,” Joseph responded. “My father burns it to rid the house of evil. He’s the only one who can do it, the only person pure enough to perform such a ritual. When my uncles come home for a visit, he does the same there, cleanses them and their houses so whatever they may have brought with them from the outside doesn’t infect the rest of us.”

  Mike crossed the threshold, his bloody knuckles tensing into fists. It was silent, and we turned to each other, our ears straining to pick up the slightest noise. We got nothing, forcing Mike to ask, “Where is he?”

  “There’s an old bookshelf in the basement. Next to it is a door,” Joseph said. “It’s locked. It’s always locked, but my guess is Luke’s in there.”

  Mike held out his hand. “Key.”

  “Top shelf, underneath the Bible,” Joseph said, and I prayed that the key was still there, that Elijah hadn’t slipped it into his pocket when he’d left to bring me Luke’s finger.

  The basement staircase was at the far end of the kitchen. It doubled as a utility closet, several mops and a dustpan hanging from hooks on the wall. I remembered the high-pitched squeak of the door when we opened it last night, when Luke and Mike made their way down to see if the family who lived here was camped out in some sort of storm shelter. I’d found the sound eerie then. Now it was worse.