Page 118 of Moose

Iwokebeforethesun was even up, my mind racing already. Slipping out of bed, I stepped into the bathroom and showered. Back in the bedroom, I grabbed yoga pants, Moose’s shirt, and his sweatshirt, throwing them all on.

Quietly, I stepped down the stairs into the dining room. My laptop was sitting on the table and I fired it up while I moved into the kitchen to make some coffee.

I smiled and closed my eyes, breathing the smell of coffee in. Early mornings could really suck, but then there were times like this when I loved them.

The silence was comforting, and it felt like I was the only one awake in the world. Grabbing the mug, I moved back to the kitchen table and started my day.

A few hours had gone by when there was a noise by the stairs. I looked up to see Moose coming down, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

He came shuffling over to me and placed a sloppy kiss on the top of my head.

“It’s too early, princess. Come back to bed and if you’re a good girl, I’ll eat that sweet pussy for breakfast.”

I shook my head and furiously typed away.

“Can’t. Too busy. I’m in the zone, so go the fuck away.”

Moose chuckled as he sat down next to me.

“What are you even doing?”

“Parker. She’s been in the back of my mind all night. I’ve been digging and digging and finally found fucking something!”

Moose scooted the chair closer to me as he looked at the laptop screen.

“Tell me whatcha got.”

I took a sip of my third? Fourth? Hell, who the fuck knew? Cup of coffee before pointing at my screen.

“They claim it’s this natural living, spiritual, green, co-housing community. But the more and more I look at it, the more I think it’s a cult.”

Moose nodded as I scrolled through their website. “What exactly is co-housing?”

“It’s supposed to be this cooperative that encompasses the intergenerational neighborhood. They normally are big into environmentally sound lifestyle, love energy efficient anything, and strive for a closely knit community. Awesome concept, but this place is not that.”

“What brought you to that conclusion?”

I pulled up one of their pages on their website. “That’s Parker. Look how they’re all dressed the same. In normal co-housing communities, they embrace their differences. But here, they all look identical. And very unhappy.”

“Well, shit. So now what do you do? You can’t go in there guns blazing.”

I shrugged. “Parker is trying to escape. But something is holding her back. So when she shows up next time, I show her all my cards in hopes she tells me what’s going on. I can save her, Moose.”

He smiled and pulled me into a hug. “I know you can, princess. You’re an amazing woman who can do this on her own. But... I’m here if you need help. We all are, babe.”

“I know. And thank you. It’s kind of nice to know I have all of you at my back. And it really makes the women at Hope Hearted feel safer knowing they have all those men on their side.”

Moose stood and kissed me on the forehead. “We gotta protect those women and kids. What’s been done to them just isn’t right. You want breakfast?”

I laughed as I picked up my papers that were spread all over the table.

“That would be great. I’m fucking starving.”

“An entire pot of coffee isn’t gonna fill you up, baby.”

As I was putting my papers in a stack, I noticed my hands were shaking. Some papers fell to the floor, and Moose came running over to help pick them up.

“Lily, what’s going on? Your hands are shaking like crazy.”

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