Chapter 34 Calder
Calder
Eden’s voice settled like a funk in the air.
“Good morning, my children. We begin another day ready and willing to succumb to our wild core . . .”
I pressed my back to the side of the cabin and scanned the crowd of women, Eden at their helm.
Behind the rows of seated women, the six guards, including Matthew, stood.
His focus, though, wasn’t on the charismatic leader, but on Maxwell who stood next to him, looking just as unsettled as she had last night, making me suspect she was equal parts accomplice and victim.
Everyone was accounted for. I looked back to Eden’s cabin, where Lara had entered moments earlier, my entire body buzzing.
I wished there was another way to go about my plan. Unfortunately, Eden’s cabin was situated with the door faced away from the center of the compound, meaning the only way to confirm the coast was clear was to separate from Lara and watch—protect from a distance.
Movement caught the corner of my eye. I turned and my eyes tracked a figure climbing over the entrance gate like a wolf sneaking into a henhouse.
Ben.
What the fuck.
I strode back into the trees and then started to jog toward the gate. What the hell was he doing here? Nothing good, was the only answer I had. If he went for Eden’s cabin—if he saw Lara again—I couldn’t let that happen.
My feet fell quickly across the forest floor.
Decades of experience, of training with Cassius, made my path swift and silent.
I rounded the back of Eden’s cabin and advanced on the front gate.
Even at a distance, Ben looked the worse for wear, and not all of that worse was from me.
He must’ve come to and escaped the retreat before Matthew could do something about him.
I pulled my weapon as I reached the gate, scanning up and along the wall, but saw no sign of him. I was long past resolving anything with this man without at least a threat of serious force.
I crouched. His boots crushed some yellow grass and left a deeper imprint where he’d landed when he’d climbed over, the tread leading in a lighter pattern toward the opposite side of the compound—toward the building where the women stayed.
I gritted my teeth. As long as he wasn’t heading for Eden’s cabin, I’d deal with him later.
My first priority was Lara and her sister, and they should’ve been out by now.
I squinted at the door to Eden’s cabin. Dammit. Lara had left it open. I itched to go and close it, but the closer I got, the less I’d be able to see.
Minutes ticked by, each one draining the life out of me as I waited for them to leave the cabin. Come on, Lara. My fingers drummed against my leg. Waiting.
Waiting.
Fuck waiting.
Moving back along the perimeter, I lost sight of the center congregation and all my plans. My rules. For her. Striding up the steps, I slipped right through the open entrance and quickly shut the door behind me.
The cabin was empty. Bed. Table. Chairs. No sign of Lara or Rachel. What the hell . . . My head whipped around like they were hiding in plain sight.
“Lara?”
A grinding sound came from the back room—the bathroom. I continued forward and drew my Glock.
A moment later, the door swung wide and Matthew filled the frame. Our arms aiming at the same time.
Staring down the barrel of a gun was never how I liked to start a conversation. Even less so when it was clear Lara and her sister weren’t here, and Matthew was most likely the reason.
“Drop it,” the guard from the retreat ordered.
He looked both haggard and hateful. Dark circles under his eyes and wrinkled clothes, but an anger bright with life in his stare.
“I can’t do that, Matthew,” I said calmly. “Where are Lara and Rachel?”
“Gone,” he ground out. “Just like you need to be.”
My finger slid to the trigger, having to take the threat at face value.
“I’m not leaving without them.” My own anger electrified my skin. If anything had happened to them—to her—there was no corner of this earth I would leave unturned to find who was responsible and make them pay.
I heard his teeth grind together. “They’re gone. You need to go. Now,” he snapped, his teeth clacking together and his eyes darting behind me.
I didn’t fall for the distraction, in case that was all it was. Once your gun is raised, you never take your eye off the target. A moment later, the door swung open and the distraction became real.
Adam Eden, with Maxwell right behind him, stopped in the doorway, his eyes whipping back and forth between me and Matthew.
“What the hell is going on here, Matthew? Who the hell is this?” Eden demanded, and as soon as Matthew heard his name, his target quickly switched to the older man.
What the . . .
“Matthew!” Maxwell swayed behind Eden, who roughly shoved her back. She fell backward, hitting her head on one of the posts of the railing along the stairs.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second.” Keeping my Glock aimed, I put myself squarely between Matthew and Eden, hoping that would stop him from shooting the older man.
“Let’s all take a breath,” I said quickly, looking at Matthew and then lifting my free hand in Eden’s direction.
My preference was always to defuse a situation, not escalate it.
“What’s going on here?” Eden snarled, blocking the doorway with his frame. “Who are you?”
“I’m Calder Stone, and I was hired by Rachel Crane’s family to bring her home.” There was no reason to hide my purpose now. “I’m happy to go about my business without interfering with yours.”
Eden stepped into his cabin, calmer now that another one of his guards had appeared behind him. “This is private property. You’re trespassing, and the wilderness out here . . . it doesn’t take kindly to trespassers.”
So he planned to kill me and dump my body over that ridge. Understood.
“And you have some questions to answer for back in California, Mr. Braun.” I didn’t have very many cards to play, but at least that one struck a nerve.
“Thankfully, California can’t find me here.” His smile was cold just before he turned to the guard behind him. “Take care of both of them.”
Matthew’s finger tightened on the trigger.
My head tilted, warning the other man with the smallest shake. “Don’t do it. You can still walk away and leave. Leave it all behind.”
“I’ll never walk away from this,” Matthew said, his voice hollow and his eyes haunted, reminding me for a split second of Cassius after Mom’s death. “Not until he pays for Hannah.”
Hannah.
Matthew wasn’t a guard or a participant in Eden’s Children—he was a vigilante. He was Hannah’s boyfriend. The one who’d told the PI that there were letters. The one who’d tracked them across state lines and joined a cult to find them.
“No!” I lunged, but it was too late.
Matthew pivoted his gun an inch to the right and fired just before I slammed into him. Eden stared at the flashes sprouting from the barrel, not realizing he was the target until red bloomed through his white shirt.
Shit.
Eden fell into the doorframe and slid to the ground. Over Maxwell’s unconscious body, the second guard fumbled for his weapon.
“Let me go! He deserves to die!”
Matthew and I struggled on the floor. Gritting my teeth, I drew back just enough to let him think I was letting up and then let my hand fly, clocking him in the side of the head with the butt of my gun.
He’d have a nice lump there tomorrow, but the alternative was becoming a lump himself. Dead because of his own devastation.
“Master Eden—”
“Kill them,” the leader sputtered, blood seeping between his fingers where it rested over the open wound. He didn’t have enough strength to put solid pressure on the wound, which was what it needed.
Breathing heavily, I shook my head slowly when the guard looked at me. “Don’t do it,” I verbalized in case the message wasn’t clear.
Unfortunately, clear is rarely a deterrent to crazy.
I fired a nanosecond before he did, the slug hitting his shoulder, sending it whipping back and his weapon spinning from his hand.
The guard screamed in pain. Worse than his idol who probably wouldn’t survive the shots Matthew had buried into his gut.
I grabbed Matthew’s gun, dropped the mag and stuffed it in my back pocket. Next, I pulled a towel from the corner of the bed and went to triage Eden. The second guard looked at me with equal parts fury and fear, undecided which to fuel.
I helped him make the decision. “You can either die trying, or you can actually help him and live.” He nodded frantically, choosing the live option.
I pressed the towel over Eden’s middle, the man waking slightly to the pain before it swallowed him up again.
Police and rangers were already on their way, though I doubted he was going to make it.
Eden deserved no less than to live to see justice for all of his victims served.
“Press here as hard as you can.”
The man did as I said but asked, “What about me?”
Unbelievable.
“You’ll live.” I’d aimed for the meaty part of the shoulder, and the bullet had cleared straight through muscle and tissue. He’d be good as new in a few weeks; the same couldn’t be said for his leader.
I checked Maxwell’s pulse on my way out, confirming she, too, was okay.
I went first for the second guard’s gun, emptying the bullet in the chamber and then adding the mag to my pocket. By my calculation, at least two other men here had weapons. The last thing I needed was someone to take up the unattended Glocks and join the hunting party.
Around me, pandemonium was starting.
Matthew had used a silencer, but the guard and I hadn’t. I slipped around the corner of the building as footsteps barreled toward the cabin. Following the perimeter, I dipped into the woods just as the sounds of sirens started to creep through the trees.