Page 110 of Forged in Deception

So many questions loomed in her mind, but before she could choose anything to say, Axel began with something practical.

“Where can we find a phone, Lily?”

In a heartbeat, the older woman’s face transformed into a mask of fury.

“There isn’t one,” she said, leaning forward and spitting onto the ground near Axel’s feet. He didn’t move, but she could see the slightest twitch of his jaw muscle and the way his finger drifted a millimeter or two closer to the trigger.

In that moment, he reminded her so much of John.

Despite the vastly different lives the two men had lived, they shared so much thanks to their time at war. Both of them had a way of subtly scoping out a room the second they walked into it, always on high alert for danger. She doubted the battle-won instincts would ever leave them, no matter how much they tried to leave their memories of Afghanistan behind.

And at the moment, despite the pain she knew that Axel felt, she couldn’t help but to be thankful for it.

“Don’t lie to me,” Axel said firmly. “There’s a phone. Tell me where it is.”

Lily kept her mouth pressed into a thin line, but Cora’s eyes flicked between the older woman and Axel, clearly debating whether or not to speak.

She was perched on the edge of the altar, bobbing her legs back and forth like a little kid waiting for a needle at the doctor’s office. The sight made Karlin’s stomach turn all over again.

Cora and Lily may have both been adults, but it was clear just who was in charge here.

Fortunately, it seemed the younger woman had decided it was safe enough to talk. “There’s a sat phone down that little corridor at the back, next to the big crates of water.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Axel nodded in Karlin’s direction, and she set off for the phone, expecting all the while to find an ambush, but there was none.

She made the 911 call quickly, giving as little detail as she could while still ensuring a strong police presence. She was eager to return to Axel’s side and, more importantly, she was certain the dispatchers had received more than one fake call claiming to have information about their friendly neighborhood cult.

When she stepped back into the room at last, everyone was in the same place they’d been a few moments before. She moved toward Axel, glad to know his gun was still resting firmly in his practiced hands.

“While we wait for the police,” Karlin began, “I’d like an explanation of what on earth is going on here. I think you both owe us that much.”

CHAPTER

FORTY-SEVEN

ASHER

Every muscle in Asher’s body ached.

After being drugged twice, traipsing through the desert all night, and not getting any sleep, his body was finally beginning to protest in earnest.

Fortunately, he’d learned a long time ago how to push the pain away, whether it was physical or mental, and he could do so now. Especially knowing that help was on its way at last.

Cora was safe. The teenage girls were most likely safe.

And most importantly, Karlin was at his side, his loaded gun standing between her and Lily.

He could hardly believe how much the older woman’s appearance seemed to have shifted. Her slightly messy, hippie-inspired look had been nothing but a facade, designed to conceal not only her true identity as Dana Corbett, but the warped depths of her clearly unstable mind.

“She’s right, Lily,” he said at last, nodding toward Karlin. “You locked her in a cabin and Cora drugged me. It’s over now. You may as well tell us how we got here.”

The woman’s lip curled up in a snarl. “I have nothing to say to you. You’ve ruined the ritual. You’ve taken our hope. You’ve destroyed everything!”

He’d gathered that much already.

Sorry, not sorry.

Careful to keep Karlin behind him, he stuck his gun into the waistband of his jeans and raised his empty hands.

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