Page 20 of Toy

“At least there’s one good thing to come out of all this crap,” Jolie said when she finally pulled back, forcing a shaky smile.

“What?”

“You figured out something you were really good at. Acting. Now you use it for positive stuff. You teach kids and do it for fun, right?”

Martha smiled too as she sniffed back another set of tears. “I guess that’s one way of looking at it, huh?” she said, her voice low and shaky. “Would’ve been nice if I discovered my passion in a more normal way, but hey… can’t change the past.”

The two women hugged each other again.

Travis looked over at me, regarding me with a shrewd expression. “I hate to make this awkward, but obviously this wasn’t just a social call. You’re trying to figure out who leaked the information to the cult men, aren’t you?” he asked in a low voice.

“Yes.”

“I figured. Otherwise you wouldn’t have asked Marty if she was the rat.” He cocked his head to the side. “Can I ask why? Is it just something you want to know, considering what they did to you and your family? Or is there something else?”

I nodded slowly. He was a smart man. “Jolie,” I said, reaching over and patting her on the shoulder. “We should let them know.”

Jolie nodded and dabbed at her face with a tissue Martha had just handed to her. “We aren’t supposed to tell you this, so please keep it quiet,” she began. “But we recently discovered that the cult men didn’t die in that plane crash.”

Martha’s brows shot up. “What?”

“They registered a flight plan with a passenger manifest that had all the men’s names on it. Then they put a few men on board and made sure it crashed over that river somehow. That way the recovery team would find some bodies, or body parts at the very least, and they’d assume everyone was on board when it crashed.”

“Holy shit.” Martha’s eyes were like saucers. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know they’re out there?”

“One of them came looking for me last month,” Jolie said. She looked at me. “Show them what he did.”

I stood up and lifted my shirt, displaying the long line of stitches on my abdomen. “He shot me while I was trying to get rid of him,” I explained. “He was trying to kidnap Jolie and take her to her father. He told us that before I killed him.”

Martha’s left hand fluttered near her mouth. “Oh my god. I can’t believe it.”

“At first I couldn’t believe it either,” Jolie said in a grim tone. “But it’s true. They’re alive.”

“Why do they want to take you?” Martha asked. “Because you betrayed them all those years ago?”

“I think so. It just took them a long time to find me.”

“Why didn’t they kill you eight years ago? If they knew it was you and Mason behind the upcoming FBI raid, why did they only go after Mason that day?”

Jolie shook her head. “I have no idea. Maybe they just ran out of time. They had to scramble to arrange their escape plan and get out of there, and they also wanted to arrange all the stuff to hurt Mason and his family. I guess they didn’t have enough time to kill me too.”

Martha nodded slowly. “Hm. Maybe. But it would’ve only taken five seconds to put a bullet in your brain, as horrible as that sounds.”

“True.”

“I think it’s more likely they didn’t want to cause panic to break out amongst all the women in the shelter by suddenly killing you. That could’ve messed with their escape plan, and they wanted to get away as quickly and quietly as they could,” Travis said. He held up a hand. “I promise I’m not one of them. I just watch a lot of crime shows, okay?”

Martha’s eyes crinkled as she smiled. “He does. He always figures out all the twists and the criminal’s motive way before me.”

“That’s cool. I get it,” Jolie said. “Anyway, all we know for sure is that the cult is looking for me. So we figured if we found the person who betrayed us all those years ago, we might find a link to the men. Then we could find them before—”

“Before they take you and hurt you,” Martha finished Jolie’s sentence for her with an understanding nod. “Jeez. That’s heavy.”

“Yup.”

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