Chapter 17
Malachi
Beep, beep, beep…
The alarm I set on my phone jerks me from sleep.
I had set it to wake us several hours before dawn, and it feels like I only just closed my eyes.
It’s hard to believe I got any rest at all.
But the knowledge that we need to leap into action jumps straight into my head, and I’m wide awake within seconds. Adrenaline will do that for you.
The beeping has woken the others, too. Cain stirs in the bunk below me, and Roman shifts in the double bed above the cab.
Something catches my eye, and I frown. The pullout where Daisy was sleeping is empty.
“Ophelia?” It’s Roman’s voice, still sleep slurred but tinged with the edge of something hard.
He scoots to the end of the bed, his legs hanging off. “Anyone seen Ophelia?”
“Daisy’s gone, too,” I say. “They must be together.”
“Fuck,” Cain growls. “They shouldn’t be wandering around, not with the Prophet and the commune so close.”
“Your men are keeping watch,” I reply. “They’re safe.”
But despite my reassurances, my stomach knots. I don’t like not knowing where she is, especially considering what we’re about to get into.
Cain pushes to his feet. “It’s still dark. Why the fuck would they go outside?”
“Rome, she was lying right next to you. How did you not notice her getting up?” My tone has a bite of accusation I can’t help. I know I’m wrong to blame him, but this is serious.
He rubs his hand over his mouth. “I took an analgesic. Fuck. I didn’t plan to.
I wanted to keep a clear head, but the pain got too much, and I told myself it was better I get some sleep than stay awake for hours in pain.
It was only the one. I didn’t think it would knock me out.
” He narrows his gaze at me. “Anyway, you two weren’t on pain meds, and, last I checked, you didn’t have half your face and body fucked up, so what’s your excuse? ”
Cain is first at the door. “Let’s stop arguing and go find her.”
I’m hot on his heels. He takes the couple of steps down to the ground first, and I follow.
I hear Roman close behind. The whole time, my brain conjures reasons why the two girls would have gone out alone in the dark, and I’m beating myself up for not hearing them either.
It had been a long journey, and we’d all been exhausted.
Cain and I had shared the driving between us, and Roman had been in pain.
Ophelia and Daisy weren’t driving and they weren’t in pain, and it’s the community they were raised in that will be under siege within hours, so perhaps they just couldn’t sleep.
They wouldn’t have tried going to the commune, would they?
It’s a crazy idea, and one I don’t want to give much thought to. The possibility that Ophelia has returned to the Prophet willingly?
“Where the fuck is everyone?” Cain says, drawing to a halt.
Cain’s men should be standing guard, but there’s no sign of them. Shit.
Cain breaks into a run, circling the RV. “Over here!”
My heart leaps, praying he’s found her, but instead I find Cain standing over Felix, who’s lying on the ground. Felix groans and puts his hand to his head.
“What the fuck happened?” Cain asks.
Felix’s words are a little slurred. “I—I’m not sure.”
“There’s another one over here,” Roman shouts.
It’s Derrick.
Felix manages to sit up. “There was some kind of gas. I think it knocked us out.”
Gas? What the hell?
“Where the fuck is Ophelia?” I demand. “Where is Daisy?”
Derrick winces. “I have no idea.”
“The Prophet and his men must have taken her,” Cain says. “It’s the only explanation. They came here and knocked out the men, and then when Daisy and Ophelia left the RV, they snatched them.”
One by one, the three other men come crawling out of the woods. They all seem to have been hit by the same gas that knocked out Felix. How the fuck did this happen?
Mal shakes his head. “We should be grateful they didn’t kill you when you were all unconscious.”
They’re not going to be in any fit state to help us get Ophelia back. The advantage we had of having five highly trained men with us has just been reduced. Perhaps that was the Prophet’s plan?
Did he think we’d just give up? Did he think we’d agree that Ophelia isn’t worth risking our lives for and that we’d turn around and go home? Because he got that part fucking wrong.
I clench and unclench my fists, pacing across the ground.
Daisy was in on this. She must have been, as there’s no other way the Prophet would have known we were here.
I always thought we couldn’t trust her. Even if the Prophet or someone at the commune saw the bikes and followed them, Daisy still had to have been in on this, as she somehow got Ophelia outside.
She must have lured Ophelia out of the RV, knowing the Prophet and his men were going to take down the team we brought and smuggle the two women back to the commune.
“We shouldn’t have trusted Daisy. She led us straight into this. Fuck.”
“It wasn’t just us,” Cain says. “Ophelia trusted her. That was the only reason we did, too.”
Is he blaming Ophelia? We can’t let this create conflict between us. It’s what the Prophet would want, so I don’t argue with him. That can wait for later.
Roman looks around at the men. “There’s no point in beating ourselves up about it. We can’t go back and change things. We can only figure out what’s ahead and work out what to do next.”
He’s echoing my own thoughts, and I nod. “Agreed. We need to focus fast and come up with a fucking plan.”
Felix starts coughing, and it gets so bad it leads into him gagging. He struggles to catch his breath enough to speak. “You can’t be thinking of going into the town, just the three of you.”
Cain grits his teeth, his expression cold. “We have no choice.”
“Your father won’t like that.”
“Fuck my father,” he snaps. “The five of you were supposed to keep us safe, and look what’s happened. You think you’re still going to have jobs once this is done? We might as well have had children standing guard over us.”
As if to prove a point, one of the men, Smith, lets out a loud groan and bends to vomit behind a tree. He slumps back to the ground, his head in his hands.
What the fuck are we going to do?
I look around at the other Preachers. “The Prophet will be expecting us, right? He’ll think we’ll try to get Ophelia back, and he’ll be ready for us.
That means there’s a much greater danger to us, to Ophelia, and to the other commune members.
This rescue can’t go wrong. We need a massive amount of firepower and some way to still retain an element of surprise.
” Although how the fuck we do that, I don’t know.
Roman scowls. “Or will he think we’ll hightail it home? Maybe he’s not expecting us at all. He took out the guards, after all.”
Cain shakes his head and kicks out at the dirt. “What, and leave Ophelia with him? He must be crazy.”
I almost laugh at that. “He is fucking crazy. Isn’t that the point?
He’s convinced a whole town’s worth of people to commit suicide, and now he’s gotten our girl involved, too.
I bet he does think he’s untouchable, and that’s what will be his downfall.
My fear is, he’s going to take Ophelia with him. ”
Roman stares at me, terror in his eyes. “Do you think he’s going to kill her?”
I give this some thought, even though I don’t want to let my brain go there.
“The best we can hope for is that, after the ascension, he’ll run and take her with him.
At least then she’ll be alive.” Then I square my shoulders.
“Not that it matters because he’s not having her either way. We will get her back.”
We haven’t got much time. It’ll be morning soon. No time to bring in extra men or get help from anywhere. No time for the men we have brought with us to recover from whatever gas they’d been knocked unconscious with. No, it’s just us Preachers who must somehow get our girl back.
I picture Ophelia back in the Prophet’s clutches, and it makes me want to tear the trees up by their roots and launch them through the air, all while screaming my fury.
She’ll be so fucking scared. The monster she’d thought she’d escaped has come back into her life, and it’s our fault.
We should have left her at Verona Falls.
We’d brought her with us, thinking we’d keep her safe, but we’d delivered her right into his hands.
How could Daisy have betrayed her so badly?
It doesn’t make sense, though. Daisy wanted us to leave Ophelia at home, she practically begged, so why would she do that if she needed her here? Unless she’s some grand, 4D-chess-level master of planning, it isn’t making sense.
We did the opposite of what she wanted, in case she was playing us, and instead she’s still managed to double cross us? This is all so fucking weird, and the only answer is Daisy, which is mind boggling.
How have we been fooled by a sheltered, seventeen-year-old girl?