Page 2 of Keeping Lilith

Now she didn’t see it or feel it. It was just another place she would rather not be in.

Micah knocked on a door, far more quietly than she thought he would. She imagined he would pound it down, considering how angry he had been with her. Then again, this was Staunton’s office, so their erstwhile leader probably wouldn’t tolerate that sort of behavior, even from the men of the group, the same species who Staunton hounded into the women and girls were to be revered.

“Sir Micah, is there a problem?” Staunton’s voice was calm, as if a woman being dragged into his office was a daily occurrence. It probably was.

“Yes, The Great Sir Staunton, thissisterhere”—he shoved her forward, causing her to almost fall, but Micah kept her upright—“is destroying the plants she’s been tasked to look after. She is uprooting perfectly healthy ones that provide us with our nourishment.”

Lilith wanted to protest loudly. Oh, how she wanted to, but she bit the inside of her lip to stop herself from shouting that Micah was lying. That he wouldn’t know what a healthy plant looked like because he was too good to work in the garden. It was much safer to scream the words internally rather than out loud.

“You may leave, Micah. I will deal with this myself.”

“What? But?—”

“You dare to question me, Micah? Are you quite sure you wish to do that?” Staunton’s voice was silky smooth, but there was no mistaking the venom in it. The unspoken threat of what could happen should Micah argue further.

“No, The Great Sir Staunton, my apologies. I will take my leave.”

Micah gave her upper arm another tight squeeze before he headed out of the office, leaving her alone with Staunton andhis two bodyguards, who stood in the corners, looking more like statues than real men.

She willed herself not to move. Not to give anything away to suggest that she was worried about being here alone with Staunton. She glanced at the bodyguards, but their faces remained impassive—not getting any help from them. Not that she expected to.

Lilith lifted her chin in a silent “bring it on” message. Staunton would expect her to keep her eyes lowered and shoulders hunched, but she’d done that once before. She wasn’t doing it again.

“You look like you have something to say. Perhaps you’d like to explain why Sir Micah brought you here?” Staunton asked, as if they conversed every day, but he was anything but relaxed about having her in his office.

“Nope. I’ve got nothing to say.”

His fingers curled into fists at her failure to use his full and correct title when she addressed him—a deliberate move on her part. She was done. Done with it all.

“You dare disrespect me like this?” Staunton’s voice pitched a little louder than he normally spoke.

In that moment, everything in Lilith stilled. Her rampant thoughts. Her rapidly beating heart settled into a slow rhythm. She’d already pushed the envelope. Why not push it a bit further?

Lilith had nothing to lose. Had no idea if her life would end right this moment, or if she would be punished so severely, she wished she were dead. But whatever happened, she would face it head on because death surely had to be better than the hell life she was living.

“Yes, I do.”

Chapter Two

Julian Bennington lookedthrough his long-range binoculars at the compound housing the Hopeful Sunshine cult in eastern California. This place looked a little better than some of the other ones they’d raided and disbanded. Surveillance drone photos had shown many huts dotted all over the place, along with a massive log house and what appeared to be a few smaller ones behind the main residence.

He was very familiar with how things in cults worked. The women would be in the huts, and the men would be in the fancier houses. If a woman were “lucky,” she would live in the house with the man. She’d have to share him though. He’d likely have two or three wives. Julian used that term loosely because there was nothing legal about those marriages. He should know. He’d seen enough of them when he’d been younger. Had almost had one himself, but by then, the rose-colored glasses he’d lived behind most of his life had been ripped off, and his eyes had been opened to just how wrong his life had been.

The defining moment, the one where everything had changed for him, had been when he’d seen a line of girls, young enough to be his daughters, all quivering and crying, as they waited to be chosen to become wives. He’d known it was wrong.So very wrong. In a split second of rage, he vowed to bring down the cult he’d grown up in, and he’d succeeded. But his actions had caused his sister to be drawn back in from the life she’d made after escaping. Guilt that he hadn’t protected her like a big brother should have still ate at him, even though Rose was happy, had found love again, and was living a full life.

He rubbed his leg over the scar from the bullet he’d taken for her. It hadn’t been enough because she’d still almost died.

Rose may have forgiven him, but he hadn’t forgiven himself and would spend the rest of his life trying to right the wrongs he’d been a part of.

“Is everyone in position?” Julian asked through the comms. He now worked with the FBI as a specialist on a task force designed to bust open sex trafficking rings and organizations like The Hopeful Sunshine.

Not only did they use agents on these missions, Julian had also reached out to a specialized security company whose members were all former military who still wanted to rid the world of assholes. The arrangement with Alliez Security had proven prosperousand having them involved made the takedowns a lot smoother. Not to mention, some of his operations were black ops, and the guys from Alliez were used to running similar ops, so they knew what they needed to do to get in and out with minimum disruption.

“Affirmative,” Brighton “Fox” Chambers responded. He was the Alliez team leader on this mission.

“A woman was just dragged into the main house by some fucker.” Porter “Hound” Hammond reported, his anger not hard to miss.

Julian gripped his binoculars a little tighter. He shouldn’t be surprised the women were being mistreated. Shit, he expected it. Not once had the roles been reversed, and the women were the ones in the position of power, and men were the lowly subjects.Having it confirmed, though, always cut him deep. Always reminded him of the time when he’d been in the room when a woman had been dragged in, and he’d done nothing but stand to the side and let it all unfold.

---