Page 74 of Malachi
“Yes, Sir. Malachi and I are with you, and I can assure you, our younger brothers will fall in line. Isn’t that right?” Levi urged, barking the question at Ollie and Zeke.
“Yes, of course,” Ollie and Zeke answered in turn.
“Good. We’ll leave you to it, then,” Father reiterated the reverend’s words.
We stood there, stone still and silent as night while the Elders got back into their cars one by one. Our cars were here as well, a few of the Elders having driven with us to make sure we all arrived, of course. Now, while the boat burned away into oblivion, we could do nothing but watch it burn.
“What are we going to do?” Ollie breathed out as the last of the Elder’s headlights faded into the dark.
“Continue as planned. We put the fire out, go get our wives, and meet at my place,” I answered firmly. Zeke, without a word, jogged towards the house, pulling Naomi out by the hand gently and leading her to Gideon.
“Gideon!” she exclaimed with a choked sob.
“Naomi, I’m so sorry,” he half sobbed, pulling the crying woman into his arms and holding onto her like a lifeline. I couldn’t blame him. All I wanted to do was get home and get Eden in my arms, where I knew she would be safe.
“What happened? Why would they do this?” Naomi cried out, turning in Gideon’s arms to look at the burning mess that had once been the Ataraxia.
“Not now, love. Go back inside. We’re going to put out the flames and then head out to Malachi’s.” His words were gentle, and she walked back into the house.
“Let’s get to work, boys,” Levi sighed.
“Don’t you think we should talk about this?” Ollie exclaimed, running a hand through his hair errantly. “They just burned down a motherfucking boat!”
“Fire first, then we will talk back at Kai’s place,” Zeke reiterated. Nodding his head, he finally agreed. Each of us made quick work of gathering buckets, Levi running over to grab the hose from the side of the house. The fire took much longer to put out than I had expected, and in the end, all that remained were burning embers and a pile of charred wood and metal.
The drive home afterwards was quiet, and I was thankful for it. I needed a moment to gather my thoughts, not to mention my emotions, before talking to Eden. How was I going to explain what the fuck had just happened?
I pulled into the house, killing the engine and taking yet another minute to find my cool. My breaths came out in short pants as I hit the steering wheel once, twice, then a third time for good measure.
“Fuck!” I screamed out to no one at all. By the time I opened the door to the truck, stepping out carefully, Eden was waiting there at the door for me. She had a shawl wrapped around her arms in the cooling air of dusk, her arms wrapped tightly around her midsection in an almost protective gesture.
“Malachi—” she began, but I held up a hand, halting her words. Instead, I rushed up to her, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her close. I tucked her head into my shoulder, lifting her clear off the ground as I simply held her.
“Kai…” she trailed off, her hands wrapped around my neck as I held her close. Her fingers thread into my hair, playing with the curling tendrils at the nape of my neck in a soothing gesture I didn’t realize I needed.
“Shush. Not now. Not yet,” I murmured, feeling tears prick at the corners of my eyes as I swayed us back and forth so slowly it was almost imperceptible. I just needed her close, just for a moment.
After a long moment, I released her, gently setting her feet back down against the steps and allowing our bodies to part, but only just. I kept my arms around her, and thankfully, she did the same.
“What happened? I was on the phone with Naomi and some man yelled and—” she began, her words tumbling out of her lips a mile a minute.
“There are a million things to say, but the cliff notes version is that Reverend Jacob called us all in to discuss the project,” I began with a heavy sigh, releasing her and turning to sit on the front step.
“The project as in…” she trailed off, both of us knowing full well what project I was referencing. I simply nodded.
“Yeah, that one. Well, apparently Gideon did something stupid. He got caught, and the Elders caught on to the fact that things with us brothers are not exactly on the up and up by Zion standards,” I groaned, rubbing a hand over my face in frustration.
“What did he do?” she asked quietly, sitting down beside me on the step.
“He decided to take Naomi into town,” I grumbled, shaking my head at Gideon’s stupidity.
“I’m failing to see the issue. We go into Zion all the time…”
“No, not Zion. St. George,” I clarified.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,oh, is right,” I scoffed.
