Page 97 of Saving Summer
“And you were fifteen when you left?”
“Technically, I was a day shy of my sixteenth birthday.”
“Why’d you leave?”
Summer felt a blush sweep into her cheeks, a burning wave of embarrassment she didn’t normally feel when she spoke about her early years at the compound. She dropped her gaze to her lap, a self-preservation instinct that wouldn’t get her far with Jamie.
“Eyes on me, Summer.” His tone left no room for argument, and her chin lifted of its own accord until her eyes met his. “Why did you leave the compound?”
* * *
Murderous impulses taking over,Jamie had to work overtime at keeping his muscles loose and his expression neutral. If Oshram, the fucking bringer of the light, had so much as laid a finger on Summer, he’d have a reckoning coming in the form of a bullet to the brain at close range.
“My mother‘pledged’me to Oshram.” She made air quotes around the word pledged, and he added her mother to the list of people who’d never get near her again.
“What does that mean exactly?”
She sighed, but she didn’t look away. “It means, when I was born, she sold my virginity to Oshram in exchange for room and board.”
“What the fu—”
She cut him off with a couple of fingers pressed to his lips. “Before you go all feral, Jamie, you should know, it’s forbidden for the celestial union to take place before the age of sixteen, and I leftbeforemy sixteenth birthday.”
“Celestial union?” He had a pretty good fucking idea what celestial union was code for, and chest heaving with the burden of trying to keep his breathing even, he shifted in his seat, pulling her closer.
She waved her hand, dismissing the term. “The deflowering, the taking of the v-card, the popping of the cherry, whatever you want to call it.”
“I fucking call it child rape, Summer.”
She shook her head. “Age of consent in Nevada is sixteen, Jamie. Oshram gets explicit consent in writing and on video from his ‘wives’in advance.”
Again with the air quotes around wives, and he wanted to find this Oshram asshole and donate his services as an assassin to his‘spouses’.Surely one or more would take him up on his offer.
“He’s been investigated by state and federal authorities, and they found no wrongdoing.”
“So what happens if a pledge refuses this celestial union?”
Summer shrugged. “The family is forced to leave the compound. Most don’t have any money, and because possessions are considered communal, they aren’t able to bring much with them. It’s a hardship, and most don’t go that route.”
“But you did?”
“In a manner of speaking…”
Impotence beat wild against his chest, and he growled, “Use more words, buttercup.”
“I left without my mother’s knowledge or consent.”
“You snuck out.”
“Yes.”
“Without a penny or possession to your name.”
“I had my guitar.”
The blood rushed in his ears, a deafening roar, proving he had a precarious hold on his anger. “And you took off on your own so your mother wouldn’t be kicked out of Oshram’s cult?”
“Exactly.” She nodded, a sharp acknowledgement that made her blond curls bounce. “She’s a true believer, being forced to leave would have destroyed her.”
