Page 6 of Bryson's Treasure

Chapter 2

“When areyou going to find yourself a good man?” Eric Richman grumbled.

It was the same question the gray-haired man asked each time Lynn came into the feed store. He was hell-bent on her finding a man to take care of her. Lynn didn’t need anyone to watch over her. Joining a cult taught her that lesson the hard way. Three years ago, almost to the day, she ended up having a bad day and thought joining Faith of the Glorious One would help her deal with her troubles. It wasn’t glorious at all. Lynn hadn’t realized what she’d gotten herself into at first. When she’d been told she couldn’t leave, her hackles had raised, but by that time, it had been too late. She shook her head, trying to stop thinking about the cult.

She smiled back at the old farmer. “I told you last week, and I’ll tell you the same this week: whenever you’re ready to take me on a date, I’m game.”

“I’m too old for you.” He tapped his chin for a second. “But that new man that came into town, now he’s a sharp lad. What’s his name…? Noah… Noah Steele.”

She shook her head. “Noah Steele is happy with Matilda. You know I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him, Matilda, and Hank Patterson. It’s going to take me years of doing them favors to repay them for what they did.” Shivers ran down her arms as she thought about what might have happened if Noah hadn’t broken up the cult before Keith sold her.

“Yeah… I thought I heard someone say something about Matilda having a brother and that’s why she ended up here.”

Matilda’s brother was the sweetest young man in the world. He cared about everyone, and the reason he joined the Faith of the Glorious One was to get money to help Matilda out. Each day Sebastian had made sure everyone was okay. He wasn’t like the other men at the facility. Lynn was happy nobody except Keith touched the women without getting in trouble. A few tried, but the women had been told those men were sent away. She knew now that wasn’t true. The men were killed along with any women who tried to leave. The police found a burial spot in the back of the land the cult was on.

“He’s too young.” Lynn tapped the Christmas bell hanging on the two-foot tree next to the register. “I promise I’ll be fine alone.”

“Nobody should spend Christmas alone. Rosa and I’ve spent every Christmas together since we were married sixty-five years ago.” Mr. Richman’s eyes always twinkled when he talked about his wife.

Lynn hadn’t met her yet but planned to soon. She loved to cook, and making Christmas cookies was something she enjoyed. That coming weekend, she planned to make a batch and take them to a few people around town for what they had done for her.

The bell above the door sounded, and they both looked to see who had walked in. It was someone Lynn didn’t recognize, but she hadn’t been around long enough to know everyone in the small town of Eagle Ridge yet. Mr. Richman nodded to the newcomer as he walked down one of the aisles.

The old feed store was one of her favorite places to go. Everyone wanted to help. Each time she came in, Mr. Richman would give her a different man to go on a date with. He even tried to set her up with his twenty-one-year-old nephew.

Dating wasn’t at the forefront of Lynn’s mind. She was still licking her wounds because she had caught her husband of three years cheating on her and made a rash decision to join a cult. She didn’t need a man anymore. Her vibrator did just fine, and the horses at Brighter Days gave her someone to talk to. There would come a time when she would leave the ranch and start her life over. Lynn just didn’t know when that would be.

“I’m happy for you and your wife. Sometimes marriage works out, and sometimes you come home to find your husband in bed with your friend.”

“Did you kill him?”

“Nope, spending time in jail for him wasn’t on my to-do list, but a stupid self-help podcast was, and I heard Keith Creighton talk about Faith of the Glorious One. Next thing I knew, I was handing him all my money.”

“Mr. Creighton should have had a slow, painful death for what he did to you and those other women,” Mr. Richman muttered as he curled his lip.

Lynn wanted to move on and no longer think about Keith and the cult. Most of the women in the cult had been young. She was one of the older women and spent her time talking to the girls. Almost every girl in the house had run away from home or an abusive relationship.

She glanced around the old store as the hairs on her neck rose. She felt like someone was watching her. It wasn’t the first time she’d had the feeling since the night the Brotherhood Protectors raided Faith of the Glorious One. Over the last week, she’d felt it more often. Unsure if she should tell Taz or not, she’d kept it to herself. Lynn didn’t want to bother her boss with it. Taz and Hannah had been kind enough to hire her. Deciding the feeling was her cue to leave, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the check Hannah had written and handed it to Mr. Richman.

The old man meant well, but it was time to head back to the ranch. Lynn loved the cold December days. Last week, Brighter Days Ranch had brought in a rescue horse, and she’d spent almost every free second she had with Midnight. Someone had abused the horse, and he was having a hard time adjusting—the same way Lynn had felt when she came to the ranch.

The guy who had walked in a few minutes before came up to the counter with a stack of rope and a shovel. He was close to her five-foot-eight height and had shaggy black hair. She couldn’t see his eyes, because he had glasses on. Something about him gave her an uneasy feeling, and she quickly grabbed her bag and said goodbye to Mr. Richman.

She wrapped the scarf tighter around her neck as she pulled open the door. A gust of cold wind took her mind off the creepy guy. Careful not to step on an icy patch, Lynn made her way to the truck. Once inside the cab, she locked the door and placed the bag on the seat next to her. Creepy dude came out of the store and watched her as he got into a new BMW. Not the type of car she often saw in Eagle Ridge, especially in the dead of winter.

Lynn turned the engine to the old pickup truck and sighed when it started. The heat was on full blast, and she waited for the truck to warm up a little. Fuzzy gloves protected her hands from the cold steering wheel. The area to pick up the feed she’d bought was around back. After waiting for the BMW to back up and leave, she slowly made her way out of the parking spot. Georgy, Mr. Richman’s nephew, was waiting by the back door with her four bags of oats.

He had the bags loaded into the truck before she had time to exit. With a wave, the young man walked back inside the feed store, and Lynn turned the truck down Main Street to head back to Brighter Days.

She smiled to herself as she drove down the snowy road toward the ranch. Not a day passed that she missed living in a large city. Everything moved so fast. Time seemed to move even faster, and sadly people didn’t stop and get to know each other. Forty days had passed since Noah and the Brotherhood Protectors security team had rescued her. Each person rescued had a loved one to go home to except Lynn. Oh, she had a cheating ex-husband she could have called but nothing else.

Lynn had grown up in foster care after her parents died in a car crash when she was younger. With no immediate family, she got tossed from home to home. Three years before graduating high school, Ms. Jackson took her in. That was where she learned about horses and nature. But Ms. Jackson didn’t want her to stay at the ranch the rest of her life. The older lady made Lynn keep her grades up so she could go to college. And as a ward of the state, her college was paid for. During Lynn’s last year of college, Ms. Jackson died of a heart attack, and her oldest child took over the farm. Lynn fell into a depression, then along came Gabriel, her good-for-nothing ex. They met her freshman year. His family was rich, but she didn’t care. He was a good friend, and gradually they started to date. When they both graduated, he proposed, and she said yes. Looking back, she’d married more because she had no one.

Spending her days with the horses even when the temperature was ridiculously cold gave her more validation than sitting behind a computer all day. It also made her miss Ms. Jackson when she snuck the horses apples. She turned down the back road to the ranch. Snow started to coat the road as she flicked on her wipers. Gripping the steering wheel, she watched the road like a hawk. That week was her first time driving again in three years. Keith hadn’t let her leave the compound once she showed up at Faith of the Glorious One.

Taz had driven into town with her the first couple of times to make sure Lynn felt comfortable. With each day that passed, she felt a little more stable. Hannah had talked with her off and on to see how she was doing after getting out. Six FBI agents had interrogated her four hours after the release. Now she felt stupid that she had joined.

It wasn’t just that. She’d watched other women come and go. Now she knew Keith had sold them, and Lynn had done nothing to protect them or figure out what was going on. The last list of women who were to go to auction had her name on it. If Noah hadn’t shown up in time, she would have become someone’s slave. A chill went down her spine just thinking about it.

Motion in the ditch made Lynn’s lips twitch. A momma deer and her baby were running through the field. The sight brought back so many memories of living on Ms. Jackson’s farm—getting up before school to help Gerald with the fence. They would often see wildlife waking up and walking around. Lynn placed her foot on the brake to slow down. She wanted to make sure she was going slow enough in case they decided to turn and run toward the road, but she couldn’t stop. Nothing happened. No matter how hard she pressed on the brake, the truck didn’t slow. Her knuckles turned white from gripping the steering wheel so tight. She took a couple of deep breaths and pumped the brake again. Nothing. It seemed the truck was speeding up instead of slowing down.

She stared at the sharp turn coming up. If the road was in good condition, she might be okay taking the turn at sixty miles an hour. But the road was slick from the snow. Survival instincts kicked in as she scanned the area, looking for a way to slow the truck.

She spotted her only option. Noah might not be happy, but she had to go straight down the Steele brothers’ road instead of taking the turn. Even with her foot off the gas, the truck’s speed kept increasing. She eyed the large trees along Noah Steele’s property.

Her only options were to jump out of a moving car or take the tree head-on. No time to change her mind. The turn was coming up.

Everything happened in a matter of seconds. Lynn turned the truck slightly toward the tree, and she braced for impact. It didn’t matter how well she braced. Her head flew forward and hit the steering wheel.

Pain shot through her skull, and darkness enveloped her.

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