Page 41 of The Cult

Tobias tilted my chin to the side and examined my face. “You cut yourself.” He moistened his thumb and wiped my cheek. His grip on my arm tightened momentarily before he released it, a subtle mixture of determination and longing in his eyes. Tobias cleared his throat, his voice barely a whisper. “Listen,” he began. His jaw tightened, but he kept his attention focused on me. “What happened back there—”

“It’s nothing.” I hesitated for a moment, examining the conflicted expression on his handsome face. I’d had a crush on Tobias for as long as I could remember, but standing this close to him amplified my infatuation to a level I didn’t know was possible. His touch was addictive. His scent was enchanting. His voice was mesmerizing. I wanted to caress his face, to drag my palms over his facial hair. I wondered how kissing those lips would feel. Were they rough? Sweet? Or a bit of both? “We don’t have to talk about it,” I said. There was a place and time for explanation, and right here and now wasn’t it. “We have to focus.”

“Okay.” Tobias nodded. “Thank you.” The relief evident in his tone convinced me that I’d made the right call. I might be an asshole with the other guards, but making Tobias uncomfortable didn’t sit well with me. He wasn’t one of them. I knew that now. He was family.

We continued our trek to the guys’ barracks and, as expected, Tobias didn’t speak aside from the occasional this way and over there by means of hand gestures. “How did you know the way?” I asked when it turned out the route he’d chosen led us to the North Compound. It wasn’t the fastest way but was the least guarded. In fact, we hadn’t seen any guards since the three men walking in the woods.

“I scouted,” he answered. “Where are your friends?”

“Over there.” I pointed to a dark gray, one-story, triple-wide manufactured home with barred windows. “They should be inside.”

“Are they awake?”

“I hope so.” I’d wake them if needed. Who knew if we’d get another opportunity like this?

“What about your family?” Tobias asked, scouting the other rows of similar buildings.

I paused, thinking.

“I really need to get you all out of here,” he stressed. “The sooner the better.”

“Not yet. I have business to take care of first.”

“This fucking place is bad news,” he said, appraising me.

“You can say that again.”

He stepped closer, meeting my eyes. “There is some shit you don’t even know.”

“Like what?” I doubted he’d discovered anything we didn’t already know. I was standing there in the middle of the night, waiting for the window of opportunity to reach the guys, because we’d been planning an escape for months and needed to know when that moment would be. Plans were in place, and we were willing to risk our lives to get out of here.

“You and the boys aren’t safe,” Tobias answered.

“Tell me something we don’t know.” I chuckled. No one was safe in the cult. Mom used to say that Dad was just paranoid, but I could clearly see that now. “Let’s keep going before it gets too late.”

I didn’t wait for his response. Keeping to the shadows, I ran.

Nineteen: Tobias

Where the fuck is everybody? I thought to myself as we cautiously made our way through the cult’s eerily quiet compound, uneasiness settling deep in my gut. The guards were nowhere to be found and that alone was enough to set off warning bells in my mind. I’d always been a man of instincts, sharpened by years of surviving an unforgiving world. I didn’t believe in coincidence or luck; everything had a purpose and nothing was as it appeared. Believing otherwise was deadly. Based on my deception-filled history, I knew that the calmer the surface, the more dangerous what lay beneath.

“Hold up.” I grabbed Abel’s arm, ignoring the volts of electricity that skated across my skin. The guilt I had felt from touching him, pleasing him, had slightly diminished after finding out that he was almost twenty. I’d hoped giving in to the temptation would finally put out the fire of my cravings for him, but the result had been the opposite: having a taste of him was fuel and I was burning.

“What’s up?” Abel asked. His cheeks were crimson from our dash to get here. Sweat trickled down his chiseled face, and he stuck out his tongue to lick his upper lip. “Why’re we stopping?”

“Just making sure no one’s here.” I released my hold on him in a lame attempt to put distance between us. I needed to pay attention and Abel was a distraction.

“Okay.” He glanced behind me, then to his sides, and raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

I shook my head. It was easy to forget how sheltered he’d been. He probably wouldn’t know danger if it hit him in the face. There were a lot of things he needed to learn, and I’d make sure he came out of this mess in one piece. He didn’t belong here.

“Okay …”

“Just stay close to me,” I said. “The security guards could come back any time now. And do what I say.”

“Yes, Daddy,” he teased.

The visceral sensation that followed that word traveled to my core, where it flooded my senses. The feeling was indescribable. “Will you stop?” I barked. I’d aged ten years after spending a few days with Abel. I shuddered to think what would happen if I was around him constantly. It’d probably kill me.

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