Chapter 7
Riptide
The surprise on Ethan’s face was almost worth the pain of walking over here. Almost.
Ethan looked down at his watch, but I was a few minutes early so he just motioned for me to sit with an evil grin. He knew exactly how painful that was going to be and was relishing it.
Evil fucker.
“Good morning, Brother Derek.”
“Good morning, My Lord,” I said between gritted teeth as I sat on the chair. My back protested the movement and was letting me know it. If I ever had to utter the words My Lord after I got out of here I pitied anyone around me.
“I would like to go over the finances and what your plans are for them. I’d also like you to get with your contacts to set up work crews to make the utilities we have out here permanent.
” He looked down at a sheet of paper. “If there’s any chance of bribing someone at the permitting office to get it all done on the up and up, but behind closed doors, that would be ideal. ”
His list was impressively long and I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me.
While I was here I’d actually have to get some of these things accomplished.
Of course he wanted to see if he could get these projects permitted, and without inspections.
It would make it harder to be thrown off State Lands if somehow he’d managed to gain the permits to build here.
Arizona was finicky about squatters and often they ended up with more rights than the property owner.
I knew thanks to helping out one of my brothers by renting his house for him while he was overseas.
It’d been a clusterfuck to get the current renters—who’d refused to pay—out so I could get new people in.
I wondered how the government would feel about being tied up by their own laws. It would serve them right.
I winced inwardly because somehow I’d just looped around to wanting to stick it to the government, just like Ethan. I tuned back in as Ethan continued listing shit off that he wanted me to do.
“My Lord…”
He paused, looking up at me.
“It’s going to take me a few days to get my work station set up and for me to properly dig into your finances, once you give me full access, that is. Once you do, I’ll be able to walk you through everything.”
Ethan had only given Chet, and therefore other Derek, partial access to make sure he could do what Ethan was asking.
Ethan certainly wasn’t stupid. Letting one man, a man not even on the compound at the time, have full control of his money would be stupid.
Giving me full access now was easier, after all he could just kill me if I stole any.
“Of course. In three days’ time, then.” He tapped a few buttons on his computer.
Once his phone dinged, he looked at the authentication code and entered it.
“There. Now you’ll have the access you need.
” He paused, facing me and steepling his fingers together.
“I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the commandments. ”
Someone sure as hell needed to. I shook my head.
“Good. Stealing from me would be a grave mistake.”
I forced myself to give him a pleasant smile. “I wouldn’t dream of it, My Lord. I want this to be my home.”
His eyes narrowed as he studied my face.
I refused to let the mask slip, only showing him a happy man eager to be here.
It was only technically the second day and already this was taxing.
Butcher hadn’t been kidding about the difficulty in doing this.
I was up for it, but I wouldn’t have minded a beer with my brothers.
It didn’t matter that it was only nine a.m. I’d have plenty of takers.
“I’ll show you around the town.”
I was surprised he was taking the time out of his day to personally show me around, but I was sure it had something to do with keeping an eye on me.
It was going to be a while before I gained his trust. After all, Chet was missing—dead, not that Ethan knew that yet, for all he knew he’d skipped town—and I had access to all the money.
I was a stranger with an unusual amount of power.
Ethan must hate that. In the meantime, I needed to start getting to know the others.
Figuring out who here was going to be savable and who was a lost cause.
We walked out of his office and he started the tour.
There were many more buildings here than when we’d first found the compound.
They must be putting up one per day. I listened quietly as he spoke, soaking everything up.
Knowing the layout was going to be beneficial when the time came.
There would likely be that many more buildings by the time our club came for them.
That seemed to be part of Ethan’s plan. Speed.
Get the buildings up, get the utilities in, and get the permits.
By the time someone got around to realizing that nothing should have been built and no permits should have been issued, it would be too late.
He would be a ‘real’ church. They wouldn’t be able to evict him.
I wasn’t sure about his past, but I’m betting he’d been run out of a few towns in his life. He was learning from his past mistakes.
I had three days to get a handle on these finances and I was eager to get to work.
We’d been wondering how they were funding this lifestyle.
Between my own expertise with computers and Rat, that shouldn’t be too difficult.
Okay, okay, it was because of Rat and only because of him I’d have a chance.
He was going to remote into my terminal and make the magic happen.
I was decent with computers, but nowhere near his level.
Static had already gotten me a list of names that I could contact for various jobs I’d need to get done.
It’d been a shock to see that they hadn’t destroyed my cell phone.
Probably the only reason they hadn’t was because I needed to be able to talk to other Derek’s contacts in order to get Ethan what he wanted. That would work in my favor.
Of course, Ethan was keeping the phone on him, so I couldn’t blatantly ask anyone for help.
He would be reading all my texts and listening to all my calls, as well as checking the emails.
He didn’t even bother to give an excuse, just said it as if it were as natural as breathing.
I wouldn’t have any kind of contact with my brothers.
Only with people who could help me get the to-do-list Ethan was giving me done.
I wasn’t about to try to send anything covert unless absolutely necessary. Too damn risky.
I walked slowly alongside Ethan, not letting him see my impatience to get started. His gaze had turned calculating. He had something on his mind.
“Two days from now will be your wedding day.”
Shock almost tripped me up, but I managed to hold back what I’d initially thought. “Wedding day, My Lord?”
Ethan’s grin stretched slowly over his face. “That’s right.”
Other Derek had mentioned something about getting a woman. I’d assumed he meant a fucking girlfriend. I should have realized it’d be more than that in this place. Hell, after looking at Derek, I realized it would have to be a wife bound to him by a cult. A girlfriend would run off.
“We have a young woman for you.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. The look on his face told me he was enjoying this, immensely. “She’s…a bit of a handful,” he explained. He cocked his head, giving me a hard look. “Starting Wednesday night, it’ll be your job to keep her in line.”
Shit. I knew what that meant. This was another test. Being the new guy they were giving me the woman everyone else had passed over because she was too much of a handful.
These pussies saw a spitfire as a bad thing.
Of course they would. Hell, I wouldn’t mind this at all if it weren’t for two things.
One, married? I wasn’t looking to get married. And two… Sloane’s face entered my mind.
Gritting my teeth to help stop the anger from exploding out of me, I bit back my thoughts on his plans. I was going to need a damn mouth guard or I’d walk out of this place with no teeth.
We’d stopped next to a building, and my anger faded when I heard a familiar soft feminine voice. I peered through the window. My brows shot up when I saw Sloane at the head of the classroom, children listening to her lecture. She was the teacher here, too? Was the woman a saint?
It didn’t matter what I wanted. I had to keep up appearances. It wasn’t easy to paste a happy look on my face, but I managed. “Thank you, My Lord. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
He tossed me a look of confusion. I fully understood that any trouble my new ‘wife’ started was going to be made my problem.
Physically, in most cases. Even crazy cult leaders don’t enjoy beating women, much easier to beat men and let those men in turn discipline their women.
Ethan was looking forward to punishing me in any way he could until I became an integrated part of this group.
He had a sadistic side that needed to be kept fed.
It wasn’t hard to see. Who better to beat on than the new guy?
Biting back a sigh, I followed him back to his office. My back was a raw bundle of nerves at this point, but I didn’t utter a single complaint. Showing weakness to him was like putting blood in the water around a shark.
He stopped by his door. “We’re done for now.
I’ll introduce you to the men later. I expect you’ll be ready to go over the finances in three days,” he said.
There was no mistaking the warning in his voice.
“Wednesday at five p.m. you’ll need to be up on the dais.
I’ll have Brother Jacob bring you something to wear. ”
I nodded and left. There was so much to do in such a short time I didn’t give in to the urge to fall face first onto the bed.
Downing a few of the painkillers Sloane had left for me, I started setting up my laptop and other equipment on the small desk that was in the spare room.
It would double as my office. The home they’d provided me was small, but it wasn’t like I needed much space.
I was surprised they’d even bothered to give me my own area.
I shouldn’t have been. It was a cult, not a literal torture chamber. These people had mostly, or at least partially, come from the real world. You needed certain basic luxuries or they would eventually doubt the power of their ‘Earth God’. So a small, but semi-private space shouldn't be a surprise.
The time passed quickly and I quietly closed the lid to my laptop when I heard a knock on the door. Jacob shoved a hanger with neatly pressed clothes on it. Without saying anything, he left, hurrying off to whatever his next task was.
I hung the clothes in the closet and went back to work. By the time I raised my head again shadows had made their way across the floor as night crept in. Raking a hand through my hair, I stood and stretched, immediately regretting it when my back twinged.
Throwing myself into work had kept me from thinking about what was going to happen in two days. Rat was the only one I’d have a form of communication with, because it was going to take both his and his wife’s enormous brains to help me pretend to be as smart as other Derek.
I tapped on the keyboard, opening up the app we installed on the computer.
It was Rat’s own invention and only worked as a direct line between us.
We couldn’t speak to each other, but it allowed him to see everything I was doing on the laptop and assist in making the shit happen that I needed to, like making shell corporations.
I didn’t know how to do that, but all I had to do was type into a search what I needed done and he’d take care of it for me.
Anyone snooping on my computer wouldn’t have a clue that I wasn’t doing these things myself.
I quickly shut down the program as I heard another knock on my door.
Getting up, I opened it. My breath caught in my throat as Sloane’s beautiful blue eyes locked onto me.
I hadn’t been expecting to see her again so soon.
A grin slowly spread over my face. It wasn’t a coincidence.
Couldn’t be. She could have found someone else to bring me food and check on me.
She couldn’t help this pull between us anymore than I could.
“You shouldn’t be up,” she admonished me, a frown marring her pretty features.
I leaned a shoulder against the doorframe. “Then why did you knock?”
Her cheeks blushed a delicate pink color and I found myself wanting to see how deep I could make her flush. I wanted to keep flirting with her. Instead, I stepped aside and let her inside.
She quickly dropped the basket of food on the table and spun when I walked up behind her.
Panic was written all over her face and she all but jumped out of her skin.
I wondered if she’d been told that I was being given a wife—not a phrase I ever thought I’d hear—in two days’ time.
Maybe that’s why she was acting this way.
“I need to go.”
She scurried past and I didn’t stop her.
It took all of my willpower not to grab her by the waist and pull her back against me.
To take her lips with mine. She wasn’t mine.
A woman like her likely already belonged to another man.
She was running home to a husband and children and I was left here aching just from the sight of her.
Shaking my head, I sat down to eat the meal she’d prepared and tried to reason out how to let her go. At least for now. Once we took over this compound and saved those we could, there might be a chance.