Page 63 of The Devil's Viking

“Go on,” he said.

“So… well, that’s kind of it, really.” Briley shrugged. “I do what he tells me, when he tells me, or my friend pays the price.”

“What does he ask you to do?” asked the one twin.

“All kinds of stuff, really. Most recently, he had me find out about vehicles in the area the night that Iris ran away. That’s how he knew about the van being registered to a Denver garage, owned by an MC.” She looked up at them. “I’m assuming you guys are members.”

“We’re asking the questions,” the blond said abruptly. “Do you cover up Gideon’s murders?”

“Murders?” She was aghast. “What – what murders? Who murders?”

“Lily, for one,” the man said severely. “Or did you just think that he’d let her go on her merry way after she humiliated him by flirting with some guy in town?”

Briley was silent, stunned. “No –no, he didn’t kill her. He sent her to the cult re-education center in New Mexico.”

“The – what?” They all stared at her, totally disconcerted. “The fuckingwhat?”

“The place where Gideon sends the women and Guardians who disappoint him, it’s some compound in the desert. That’s where he started his whole cult movement idea thing, way back about fifteen years ago. The group split and some moved here to Utah with their Master, while ten or twelve men stayed behind to do recruiting and to keep the center open in case Gideon and his Garden ever had to flee Utah. What Gideon told me is that when members need to be reminded of what they have in the Garden, they get sent away and they have to earn their way back in. It’s like banishment with strings.”

“You really believe that?” the blond guy asked. “That they just go to the desert until they see the light and then they get to come back?”

“Yes,” Briley said earnestly. “It’sabsolutelyGideon’s MO – humiliation and throwing them out of his little personal paradise, making them crawl and beg to be forgiven, engaging in re-education that’s really just brainwashing… that’s himall overthe damn place.”

“Except,” said the one twin. “Iris saw him murder Lily in the compound basement. He did it right in front of her.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered. “No. No, no, no.”

“Oh, yes,” he said mercilessly. “You really didn’t know?”

Numb, she shook her head. The twins stared at her hard, like they were looking right into her head and her heart, then they nodded at the blond.

“OK,” the one twin said. “Assuming that this place even exists, would he have Iris sent there? To New Mexico?”

“Noway. No, if two of his goon squad assholes have grabbed her from your place in Denver, then I can guarantee you that they’re bringing her back here. He’s furious that she escaped, and he’ll want to deal with her personally. If he’s really killing people who disrespect or embarrass him, then he’lldefinitelydo that to Iris.” She paused. “You know, all this time, I really thought that she’d gotten away and was safe. I mean, I assumed that Gideon had sent someone to check things out in Denver, but he hasn’t said anything in a while. I figured that she’d just moved on and he’d hit a dead end.”

“But you didn’t ask him?”

“I’ve learned the hard way not to ask Gideon anything,” she said simply. “I just do what he tells me.”

The twins exchanged glances, but the blond guy’s mind was clearly on things that had nothing to do with Briley’s issues.

“So we can just ambush the goons on their way back here then,” he said. “Just wait on the road leading to the compound and get them to stop. We grab Iris and if we really feel irritated, we kick those fuckers until they walking back to the Garden in wheelchairs.”

“Well, actually,” Briley said slowly. “Maybedon’tdo that.”

“Why the hell not?” he demanded. “You worried that Gideon will be unhappy with his little lapdog?”

“Jesus Christ,” Briley said. “No, I don’t give a fuckwhathe feels about anything, and I never did. What I’m thinking is that maybe – maybe there are other women in that compound who want out. Maybe we can help them.”

“Like who?”

“There was this one woman…” Briley thought about the brunette with the eyes so much like her own, sitting behind Gideon in the tub, telegraphing something at her, trying so hard to communicate. “She didn’t say a word but – I think she was begging me to help her. I couldn’t then, but maybe now I can.”

“What are you thinking?” the one twin asked her. “Because you obviously have a sort-of plan.”

“I’m thinking that youdon’tstop them from returning to the Garden with Iris,” she told him. “Instead, wait for them to take her back inside, then when I go for my nightly command performance with Gideon, I find her. Let’s work on the assumption that she’ll be in the basement, so I’ll get myself down there. I’ll free her and then find anyone else who wants to leave too.”

“Then what?” said one of the twins. “You just mosey on out of there with Iris, maybe this other woman, maybe more women, and Gideon and his soldier boys are just going to stand aside?”

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