White Heat by Brenda Novak Page B

Willcox, why haven’t you been able to bring her back?”
    He lowered his voice. “She’s not exactly listed in the phone book, Ethan. But I’ll find her. I have two men there as we speak.”
    â€œNot with the mark—”
    â€œOf course not! Do you think I’d send men so easily identified as belonging to us?”
    â€œNo. You’re too smart for that.”
    â€œThanks be to God I have never let you down. And I don’t plan to start now.”
    â€œBut by the time you recover her, the damage will be done.”
    â€œThe damage was done the moment she escaped and opened her big mouth. What more can she say now that she’s told the world we tried to kill her?”
    â€œShe knows details about the way we worship that I’d rather she didn’t share. What we do here is sacred. I won’t throw pearls before swine, won’t hold our beliefs up for the world to judge.”
    â€œShe’s probably already told. But we’ll get her back, and it won’t be too late. It’s never too late to punish the deserving.”
    Ethan watched the crowd disperse. “I can’t believe she slipped through the hands of two hundred people.”
    Bart lowered his voice. “She had to have help, as I said from the beginning.”
    â€œWho helped her?”
    â€œThat’s what I want to know. And I won’t be satisfied until I find out.”
    They’d called in at least two dozen people who’d been there that night, but all denied any knowledge of what had occurred.
    â€œOnce the fuss dies down, we’ll quietly reclaim her,” Bart said. “It’ll be safer then.”
    With a sniff, Ethan nodded. It was going to be another hot day. After last night, he’d rather not be wandering around. And he didn’t want to be so close to Bart. Sometimes his head of security made him feel…strange. “Cancel my meetings this morning and send me three women,” he said. Then he searched his pockets for the meth he’d put there and hurried to the Enlightenment Hall, where the privacy of his room awaited. He wanted to get high and experiment with the women who were always so eager to please him.
    But it was only an hour later that a knock on his door interrupted them.
    â€œHoly One!” a breathless voice called from the hallway.
    Ethan was pretty sure it was his housekeeper, Sister Maxine, but the sound came to him as if through a synthesizer. It took several seconds for him to realize he hadn’t imagined it, and even longer to bring the response swimming around in his head to his lips.
    â€œYes?” He’d had the women tie him to the bed so he couldn’t move. He didn’t want to leave the room, anyway. He’d been fantasizing about a most erotic encounter, one that didn’t include women at all.
    â€œHoly One!” The second call came with enough urgency that his companions sat up.
    â€œWhat is it?” he managed to ask.
    â€œCourtney’s mother is at the gate!”
    Â 
    Rachel stood just inside the entrance of Portal’s store/café with Nate at her side, waiting for someone who worked in the restaurant portion of the establishment to seat them. They wouldn’t have any trouble getting a table. The place was almost empty. Apparently, even birders avoided this part of America at the height of the summer.
    â€œYou’re quiet today. You okay?” Nate asked.
    â€œI’m fine,” she replied, but she already felt tired anddusty. She’d had only a few hours’ sleep and had to settle for a rudimentary bath. With such a limited water supply, a shower had been out of the question.
    Somehow, Nate looked none the worse for wear. Dressed in a loose pair of khaki shorts that fell low on his lean hips and a T-shirt tight enough to delineate his rock-hard pecs, he hadn’t shaved and he hadn’t showered. But acknowledging that he could rough it far more