Page 89 of Three to Fall

All I could see of her was her golden hair, flashing in the moonlight, before the shadows swallowed her up again.

“Where the hell is she going?” Gray muttered as we all moved to follow her.

She ran in the opposite direction of her house. Away from all the homes, where people slept. If she was going to alert Josiah of our presence, then she was going the wrong way.

When none of us answered, Shari filled the silence. “She’s going to the women’s center.”

I stopped and stared at her. “Why would she go there? After what Josiah makes her do?”

Shari swallowed hard, not questioning how I knew about that. Details didn’t matter now.

She pressed her lips into a tight line. “I don’t know for sure, but if it were me, I’d be going back for the hard drive with all her photos on it.”

22

KARA

The huge, corrugated iron shed loomed over me, a dark, hulking figure between the trees. It somehow whispered of the evil things that took place inside the walls, and I shivered, despite the thin trail of sweat dripping down my back from running.

“This way.” Shari didn’t bother to keep her voice down. The shed was at the other end of the main community, well away from the houses we’d been trying to keep quiet around.

Hawk had risked radioing Whip and his team to follow us for backup, even though chasing after Jacqueline had taken us all farther from the getaway cars than any of us really wanted to be.

It didn’t matter. I wasn’t leaving without my sister, and the guys weren’t leaving without me. I followed Shari through the open doorway, eyeing the pin code by the door which clearly Jacqueline had known in order to get in ahead of us.

I hated she knew it. That she’d been forced to work here, lying and scamming people all while being abused herself.

The entire bottom level of the shed was filled with cheap desks that could have been picked up on the side of the road after their owners had considered them trash. There were a fewoffice chairs, but it was mostly hard stools or unmatching dining table seats pushed neatly beneath each desk. Desktop computers or laptops sat at each workstation, along with thick booklets that looked like movie scripts.

Shari saw me glance at one. “They’re the lines we’re supposed to feed the targets. He and Onith created them to streamline the whole process.” She turned away. “You don’t want to read the things in them.”

I couldn’t stop myself from opening one. The lines on the page were familiar. The same ones Alice had used in the beginning of her texts to Golden. I flicked through the pages, noticing where she’d gone off track, the conversation turning personal and their true feelings playing out, script clearly forgotten. But that didn’t stop my eye from skimming farther along and balking at the things Josiah had these women saying to unsuspecting targets. Each page got worse and worse. I shut it quickly. “Let’s just get Jacqueline and get out of here.”

She nodded, pointing to the mezzanine level. “She’ll be up there, probably. In Josiah’s office.”

I headed for the stairs, but Jacqueline appeared at the top of them, holding a small hard drive. Her eyes gleamed with determination. “I’ve got it. I can’t do anything about the photos already out there in text chats. But I have all the originals. And so much more.”

Relief at just the sight of her filled me. I rushed up the stairs as she ran down them, and I enveloped her in my arms, hugging her tight. I didn’t know what she meant by so much more, but I prayed it would be enough to get Josiah arrested. “Clever girl.”

She trembled in my arms. “They’re making me marry him, Kara. I can’t.”

I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her just a little, hoping to get through the terror taking hold of her now she’ddone what needed doing. “Who? Who are they making you marry?”

I had to know. Maybe already did, somewhere deep inside me, but I had to hear her say his name.

“Josiah. Please. We need to get out of here. If they catch us—”

“They won’t.” I refused to believe any other alternative. But that didn’t stop the bile churning in my stomach.

Josiah was never going to stop punishing me. Marrying my baby sister was just the latest in a long line of cruel moments.

I caught Shari’s hand at the bottom of the stairs, and Hawk glanced at me, a silent question of,we good to go?on his face.

I nodded.

I just wanted this to be over. Wanted to be back in my bed, safe with my sister and my daughter on either side of me.

“Well, that was too easy.” X practically pouted, wandering through the maze of office equipment. “Saved the day without even breaking a sweat. No knives. No bullets. I could have done this in my sleep.”

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