Page 14 of Mountain Captive

“I just want them to leave me alone.”

“I want that too. But I want more. I want to stop them from ruining other lives.”

She halted alongside her Subaru, keys in hand. He stopped, too, five feet away, giving her space but hoping she would listen. “Why do you even care?” she asked.

“Because I like you. And I don’t want you to leave when we’ve just met.”

She shook her head and opened the driver’s-side door of the car. “Sorry to disappoint you,” she said.

“And because I didn’t do enough to help my sister.”

She stilled, holding her position for a long, breathless moment, until at last she lifted her head and met his gaze. “You mean, you couldn’t persuade her to leave,” she said. “But that was her decision to make, if she was an adult.”

“I should have dragged her away from them when I had the chance,” he said. “I’ll never get over that regret, but I can help others now.”

“You can’t make someone leave that lifestyle unless they want to,” she said.

“I should have at least tried.” His face was flushed, his breathing ragged. “We tried for two years to persuade her to leave, but she wouldn’t. And then we found out she had committed suicide.” He could say the words now without the stabbing pain they had once caused, but the hurt would never completely go away.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her previous anger replaced by softness.

“So am I. And I’m sorry there was nothing we could do to stop that cult from ensnaring others. But I’ll do anything I can to help you stop the Vine.”

“What do you think we could do?”

“I don’t know. But if they’re really going to stay around here until you go with them, that gives us a little time to find out what else they’ve been up to. And if they do come after you, we’ll stop them.”

“I’m not sure they can be stopped,” she said. “They have a lot of money, and that gives them power.”

“Does that give them power over you?”

She didn’t hesitate in her reply. “No.”

“And they don’t have any power over me.” He moved closer until he was standing right in front of her. “Together, maybe we can find a way to stop them from hurting anyone else.”

“All right.” She slid into the car. “I need time to think. And to talk to my mom. She might know or remember something that can help us.”

“Call me,” he said.

She nodded and started the engine.

He stepped back and watched her leave, his stomach in knots. It was easy to make bold declarations about stopping these people, but all the talk in the world hadn’t saved his sister.

Chapter Six

Chris gripped her phone tightly and paced her small living room as she told her mother about that morning’s encounter with the Exalted’s followers. “They walked right up and said all that about planning a wedding—in front of my friends and the sheriff and everyone. Now I know they all think I’m a freak.”

Harley sat up on his bed by the sofa and watched her, forehead wrinkled in what seemed to Chris to be an expression of worry.

“It doesn’t matter what they think of you,” April said. “You can’t let the Vine get you in their clutches again.”

“I know that, Mom. And I’m being careful.”

“Now that they’ve found you, they won’t give up until they have you back,” April said. “You need to leave.”

Leaving had been Chris’s first thought too. But Rand’s plea wasn’t the only thing that had stopped her from packing up and fleeing. “I have a good life here,” she said. “I’m tired of running.”

“Then come stay with me for a while. Just until they give up and leave town.”

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