Page 77 of Malachi
“Do you mean Ryder?” I asked, my interest piqued.
“Yeah, the one and the same,” Levi nodded, his eyes meeting mine.
“Who’s Ryder?” Delilah asked.
“He’s a Primal Dominant I met a few years back. Taught me the ropes,” I said with a shrug.
“Back off, man. Ropes are my gig,” Gideon teased, making everyone chuckle. The moment of levity was welcome right now.
“I won’t step on your territory, don’t worry,” I jibbed right back.
“Tell me again why we aren’t just running with this plan? The getting the hell out of here plan?” Naomi’s voice called out again. Gideon rubbed her back soothingly, and I felt for the girl.
“I agree. Get out now, and then try to help the girls from afar, where we can all be safe,” Ollie agreed with her, a fierce look written on his face as he looked around the room at each of us.
“If we do that, with all you boys know, what do you think they’ll do to those girls?” Talia spoke up, her arms draped protectively around her growing baby bump.
“How do we know they even have girls held captive right now?” Gideon asked, ready to jump to this new plan.
“They do. Trust me,” Levi spoke gravely. I did not like that tone of voice one bit, especially when it came to this.
“Tell me you haven’t actually seen it, Levi,” Ruth whispered, her eyes locked on Levi’s in the most gut wrenching expression I had ever seen on her. It mirrored what we all felt.
“Unfortunately, I have. Today, in fact,” Levi said, gulping audibly, likely stomaching the bile rising in his throat. I would, if I were in his shoes.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Zeke muttered in disgust, hanging his head down into his hands as he took in Levi’s words. I felt my stomach turn at the thought of witnessing what I knew he had witnessed.
“I wish I were. They took me to see the girls after church this morning, just before I made the call to bring you all in,” Levi spoke, his voice thick with emotion.
“I’m going to be sick,” Ollie groaned, running a hand over his face.
“Ditto,” I groaned. Could this shit-show get any worse? Better not think of things like that, however. Murphy’s law and all.
“How bad was it?” Zeke asked. I could tell that even asking went against everything in him. None of us wanted to hear those details, and yet we all knew we needed to.
“Worse than I could have imagined. Talia, Naomi — I don’t know how either of you survived it.” Levi’s words came with such pain, I knew it was worse than even what my imagination was cooking up. The idea of running was sounding better by the minute.
“And that’s why we can’t just leave,” Talia uttered with a renewed sense of purpose. “We can’t just leave them alone, with no one to save them.”
I hated how true her words were. For once, I didn’t want to be the good guy. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t the good guy. I was the gruff mountain man alone up in the woods. But when push came to shove, I did not stand for injustice. And this was injustice on an epic scale.
“You mean like we were alone?” Naomi scoffed, finally moving her feet down to the ground and raising her eyes to the rest of the room. The pure hatred and pain I saw shining back in them stopped me cold in my tracks.
“Naomi, you don’t mean that,” Talia whispered, eyeing Naomi with wide, shocked eyes. “You can’t mean that.”
“Of course I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I don’t like any of it. Everything inside of me is begging me to run.” That pain, ringing out in every word Naomi spoke, cut me to the quick. How Gideon didn’t just scoop her up and run for the hills away from here, I didn’t know.
“I know you want to run, but please don’t. Not without me,” Gideon pleaded with her.
“Not withoutus,” Ruth corrected, taking Naomi’s other hand and squeezing it. “We are a family now. All of us.”
My eyes moved over to Eden. She was looking right at me, Ruth’s words washing over both of us. Family. Was Eden family to me now? I cared for her, sure. How could I not? But caring for someone and calling them family was an entirely different beast. Speaking of, the Beast inside of me rushed to the surface as I tried to think of Eden as family.
If I were honest with myself, I knew the truth already. But I wasn’t honest with myself. I was a goddamn liar, holding her at arm’s length and refusing to let her into the deepest part of myself.
“Ruth is right,” Delilah added, standing from her seat and moving to face Naomi. “We are a family. Maybe not by blood, but by marriage. Marriage and something stronger.”
“Stronger?” Naomi scoffed.
