Page 14 of Alpha's Forbidden Bond

“More or less.”

“More or less!” She balked. “Diana, as both your boss and your best friend, I demand you to tell me whether or not there is more to the story.”

I bit the inside of my lip, contemplating whether or not it was a good idea to tell Georgie about Mikeal’s brother. She was so easily frightened, and I wasn’t sure how she would react. On the other hand, I needed to hear someone else’s opinion on the matter. I still didn’t know quite what to make of what occurred this morning on the edge of the compound, and I hoped Georgie would be able to help me figure some things out. “Okay, fine. There’s more. I haven’t even told you the strangest part yet.”

Georgie’s eyes widened, and she came around to the other side of the counter so she could sit in the stool beside me. “Go on.”

“The guy who changed my tire—his name was Mikeal,” I said. “And while he was working on the car, we chatted. He was one of those people who are really easy to talk to, and I was having a surprisingly pleasant time, when suddenly another man came outside. He shouted Mikeal’s name and came over to give the two of us a scolding.”

“A scolding?” Georgie drew back with confusion. “What the hell do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I said! He was all angry and disapproving, and he talked to his brother like Mikeal was a little kid. Not to mention, he was totally suspicious of me. He even went through the boxes that I was supposed to take to the senior home. I guess to make sure I wasn’t lying about where I was headed.”

“Is that even legal? Doesn’t he need a warrant or something?”

“He’s not a cop, Georgie. And besides, the boxes were sitting out on the ground because we had to move them to get to the spare. Anyway, even after he realized that I really did have books to deliver, he didn’t exactly ease up. He tore into Mikeal, who I soon learned was his little brother. I couldn’t believe the way he spoke to him like he was his boss or something.”

“Maybe he is,” Georgie suggested. “He could be the cult leader. Did they look like actual brothers, or do you think they were using that word in a religious way?”

I thought back on the two men for a second. There were some similarities, although Andreas was taller and had broader shoulders. “It could be either one. I’m not sure. But speaking of potentially weird religious stuff, I also found out that the older brother is soon getting married to someone he doesn’t even know!”

Georgie put a finger on her nose. “That. That right there, that’s some cult shit.”

“Well, let’s not say so definitely. A lot of cultures practice arranged marriages.”

“But not a lot of white guys in Northern California are usually associated with those cultures. I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m just saying, this all adds up to look like one big red flag.”

“I know…” I folded my arms nervously across my stomach. “But it’s the brother that’s really tripping me up. The younger one, I mean. He just seemed so nice and normal.”

“Not everyone in a cult goes around acting like they are in a cult,” Georgie said. “At least, that’s what I learned from a documentary I watched once. They don’t want to bring attention to themselves, so they try to behave as normally as possible when interacting with someone outside of their in-group. In this instance, that person would be you.”

“I guess that makes some sense…”

“Can you think of an explanation that makes any more sense?”

I took a second, wishing that I would be able to come up with something, if only for Mikeal’s sake, but I was drawing a blank.

“I didn’t think so,” said Georgie with a bit more attitude than she usually had. “These people are dangerous, and if I were you, I would try to forget all about them and just move on. And next time we do a book run to that part of town, I’ll come with you to make sure you don’t get lost again.”

“Yeah… Okay.”

“You still seem like you’re hung up on this.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “Di, trust me, these people are bad news, and you want nothing to do with them. You didn’t grow up in town like I did, but the kids in school used to tell ghost stories about the people who lived out that way.”

“But that’s sort of the point,” I argued.

“Huh?”

“It’s because of how I grew up that I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. My parents were always talking bad about people they didn’t even know. They would say awful things about the locals here in Silverleaf and, in some cases, even act as if some of the poorer residents were dangerous. They would tell me and my sisters to stay away from certain parts of town, which I realized only when I got older were just the parts of town where low-income people lived.”

“That’s very different,” Georgie said. “I’m not saying you should stay away from the boonies because the people living there are poor. They’re not even poor! They can’t be if they own all that land.”

“See—we don’t even know if they have money or not. And it doesn’t matter, anyway. I’m not one of those people who cares what’s in your wallet—not like my parents. And we don’t know anything about these people in the compound, and yet we are jumping to all kinds of conclusions. This is how my parents were, and I hated it growing up. I don’t want to judge people.”

Georgie slumped her shoulders and took a big bite from her cookie. After chewing in silence for a while, she hopped up off the stool. “I understand what you’re saying and why it may seem to you that I’m being judgmental, but I just have a hard time believing that the rumors I heard growing up are all totally wrong. We’re talking about generations’ worth of whispers and stories. Do you really think everyone in Silverleaf has been making all of this up for decades? For what reason?”

“Can’t it be as simple as people fearing what they don’t know?”

Georgie laughed under her breath. “Leave it to you to say something like that, knowing I can’t really argue against it. I will say this, though, of course, people fear what they don’t know, but that fear isn’t always misplaced.” She put her hands up in the air, half a cookie in one. “But hey, this is your life, and if you want to go join a cult, be my guest. I’m not going to try and tell you what to do—that’s the cult leader’s job.”

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