Chapter 16 #3
"You've heard it?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"But Gideon used titles constantly."
"Elder."
"Brother."
"Shepherd."
"It kept people from asking real names."
Sunshine nodded.
"They said names belonged to the old life."
Steel muttered,
"Convenient."
"It made people disappear easier."
Nobody argued.
Cipher clicked again.
Another document.
Another transport list.
The same title.
Brother Malachi.
Three different compounds.
Five different delivery routes.
Twelve inspections.
My stomach tightened.
"He wasn't attached to one location."
Cipher nodded.
"He moved."
Toxic looked toward the county map.
"If he's here..."
he said quietly,
"...he isn't visiting."
"No."
Sunshine answered before anyone else.
"He never traveled alone."
The room froze again.
I looked toward her.
"What do you mean?"
"He always had someone with him."
She stared at the photograph.
"Usually younger."
"They carried records."
"They drove."
"They watched."
Steel looked toward the trail camera images.
"Two people."
Sunshine nodded.
"I think..."
She hesitated again.
"...I think the second man would be the dangerous one."
Mace blinked.
"More dangerous than him?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
She looked toward us.
"Because Brother Malachi never punished people himself."
Silence.
"He chose."
Her voice grew quieter.
"Someone else carried it out."
A chill worked its way through the room.
Toxic slowly rubbed his jaw.
"So..."
he looked toward Cipher,
"...we're hunting two men."
Cipher nodded.
"And one may be considerably younger."
I felt Sunshine's breathing become uneven again.
Without thinking, I reached beneath the table and gently rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb.
She didn't look at me.
She simply held on.
Cipher changed the screen again.
"This came from one of Rebecca's hidden drives."
The photograph showed a loading dock.
Several men stood beside a transport truck.
Children played in the background.
Sunshine inhaled sharply.
"I know that place."
Everyone looked toward her.
"You do?"
"Yes."
She stepped closer to the screen.
"It wasn't our compound."
She pointed toward the building.
"This was called Restoration."
The room became deathly still.
Lilith's eyes widened.
"Restoration?"
Sunshine nodded.
"They brought women there."
My pulse quickened.
"Women from where?"
She looked down.
"Different compounds."
"Some stayed."
"Some..."
Her voice faltered.
"...didn't."
No one pushed.
Not even Cipher.
He quietly wrote the name onto the board.
Restoration Property
Toxic looked toward Sunshine.
"Have you ever been there?"
"No."
She shook her head immediately.
"But everyone knew about it."
"What did they tell you?"
She looked almost embarrassed.
"They said..."
She swallowed.
"...obedience was restored there."
The words carried enough horror on their own.
Nobody needed more explanation.
Mace quietly swore beneath his breath.
Steel stared at the floor.
Even Bishop's jaw tightened.
Toxic finally broke the silence.
"Rebecca found three properties."
He pointed toward the board.
"Redemption."
"Restoration."
"New Beginning."
Sunshine nodded slowly.
"There were more."
Every head turned toward her.
"What?"
She frowned as though searching through memories she hadn't accessed in years.
"I don't remember all the names."
"But..."
She closed her eyes.
"...there was one called Sanctuary."
Cipher immediately began typing.
"And another?"
She nodded.
"I think..."
"...Harvest."
Lilith leaned forward.
"They used Bible words."
"They always did."
Sunshine looked exhausted now.
"They wanted everything to sound beautiful."
Her eyes drifted back toward the photograph.
"So nobody questioned it."
I watched her shoulders begin to tense again.
Enough.
I gently squeezed her hand.
She looked toward me.
"You're done."
She blinked.
"I remembered more."
"You did."
"I should keep trying."
"No."
She frowned.
"What if—"
"Sunshine."
My voice remained soft.
"You've given us more in twenty minutes than we've had in months."
She looked around the room.
Everyone nodded.
Even Toxic.
"You've helped enough for today."
The guilt remained in her eyes.
"I feel like if I stop..."
I understood.
Because I'd felt exactly the same after emergency calls.
If I stopped moving...
someone might die.
I reached for both of her hands now.
"Listen to me."
She met my eyes.
"You're not responsible for finishing this tonight."
"But—"
"No."
I shook my head gently.
"The Order spent years convincing you every burden belonged on your shoulders."
Her eyes shimmered.
"We don't do that here."
The room remained completely quiet.
I continued.
"You remembered what you could."
"You told us."
"Now it's our turn."
A tear escaped before she could stop it.
She quickly brushed it away.
"I'm sorry."
"No."
Bishop spoke from across the room.
"You never apologize for surviving."
Sunshine looked toward him.
He smiled gently.
"Never."
She drew a long, shaky breath.
"Okay."
The single word seemed to lift something from the room.
Not because the danger had changed.
Because for the first time...
she had allowed herself to set part of it down.
An hour later, the meeting finally ended.
Cipher continued cross-referencing every property name Sunshine had remembered while Toxic assigned additional search teams to the old logging roads.
Mace and Steel headed back toward the east perimeter with Carson's deputies, determined to sweep another section of forest before nightfall.
Bishop remained behind to coordinate Harbor House volunteers, while Lilith quietly photographed every document now pinned across the investigation board.
Sunshine stood near the conference-room window watching afternoon sunlight break through the remaining clouds.
She looked exhausted.
Emotionally.
Physically.
She had relived more of her past in two hours than she had spoken about in the previous several weeks combined.
I walked over beside her.
"You okay?"
She smiled tiredly.
"I think I'm finally feeling all of it."
"I figured."
She looked out toward the motorcycles parked below.
"I didn't realize remembering could be so exhausting."
"It is."
She nodded slowly.
"I keep expecting someone to tell me I should've remembered sooner."
I turned toward her.
"Has anyone?"
"No."
"Then whose voice is that?"
She looked down.
"Theirs."
I gently tipped her chin upward until our eyes met.
"They don't get to live in your head forever."
"I know."
"Do you?"
She smiled sadly.
"I'm working on it."
I smiled back.
"That's all I ask."
For several quiet moments, we simply stood together looking out over the clubhouse grounds.
The search continued.
The danger remained.
But so did something else.
Hope.
Not because we'd solved everything.
Because we'd finally learned our enemy's name.
And sometimes...
giving darkness a name was the first step toward destroying it.
Behind us, Charlie's laughter echoed faintly from downstairs where movie day had officially begun.
Sunshine smiled before I even looked at her.
"I should go find her."
"You should."
She started toward the door before stopping beside me.
"Remedy?"
"Yeah?"
Without saying another word, she rose onto her toes and kissed my cheek.
It lasted only a heartbeat.
Soft.
Warm.
Entirely her choice.
When she stepped back, I saw something new in her eyes.
Not just trust.
Not just hope.
Confidence.
The kind that only appeared after someone realized they had survived long enough to begin living again.
She smiled.
"Thank you."
Then she walked out of the room toward Charlie, leaving me standing beside the investigation board with the faint warmth of her kiss still lingering against my skin.
For the first time since the trail cameras had captured a stranger watching Harbor House, I believed we weren't simply reacting anymore.
We were finally one step ahead.