John and Tara froze, then Tara sneered. “Do it,” she said. “I dare you.”
Steve willed his finger to pull the trigger, to end those two miserable lives. He shook. His vision blurred.
John snorted. “You fucked this wimp?”
“Not my proudest moment,” Tara replied. “Come on, Steve, shoot us! Think about how I betrayed you. Think about how I coaxed you into a mind-blowing fuck. You really thought I wanted you. You’re dumb as shit.”
Her words tore at him, made him quake with anger.
Do it, he told himself. Do it now. But he couldn’t. John and Tara laughed, but their merriment was
cut short by the sound of a chopper flying overhead and the sound of a megaphone echoing across the valley. “FBI. Everyone come out of your homes with your hands in the air.”
“Fuck,” John growled.
“Go,” Steve said, his gun still trained on them. “Run while you still can.” He knew it was a stupid move not to hold them until the police arrived to arrest them, but he knew he was about to pass out. If he did, he and Jane would be dead. He needed them gone. He needed to save Jane. With his father gone, Steve couldn’t risk giving John another notch on his belt as a victim.
Tara leered at Steve as she passed him, following John out the door. “This isn’t over yet, Steve,” she said. “I’ll haunt your dreams. I’ll be there in your darkest fantasies. And one day, I’ll be there to fuck you over.”
He didn’t respond.
The moment Tara and John ran out of the cabin, he collapsed, letting himself drift into a dark abyss.
20
The Date
Steve peeled his eyes open, blinking up at the ceiling in his bedroom and silently cursing himself for not getting all the papers graded last night.
Sitting up, he reached for his phone and turned off the alarm. He’d dismissed his earlier alarms, the ones urging him to get up and finally start running again. But he couldn’t. Not yet.
Tara had cracked his ribs and given him a mild concussion at Breitenbush a month ago. She had killed his father. Threatened to come after him again. Cursed his existence. If only he hadn’t gone on that fucking run.
He wasn’t afraid to start running again; he just wasn’t ready. It would be painful. It would stir up bad memories. Each night before bed, he said he’d try in the morning, and each morning, he snoozed his alarms, plunging back into a sleepy world of violent nightmares.
It was the weekend. Steve got up, took a warm shower, and picked a crisp button-up from his closet. He stared at himself in the mirror. His face looked significantly better than it did a week ago. It no longer had the purple and green bruises, but it still looked swollen. It was healing.
He walked to the nearby café, hands in his pockets, keeping his eyes on the ground. He checked his watch. He was late.
When he stepped inside the café, he spotted Jane sitting at a table against the window. She waved him over with a smile when she saw him. He wearily sat down across from her. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey. How’re you feeling today?”
He shrugged. “I’m not as sore as usual. Should be good as new in another week.”
Jane nodded. “Good.”
Steve looked over at the crutches leaning against the window. “How’s physical therapy?”
“A bitch,” she said, sipping on a coffee. “But I won’t need those in a few weeks. I was lucky my leg didn’t get infected.”
Steve nodded solemnly. “So, no word on Tara and John?”
Jane shook her head. “They’ve disappeared. We have no leads. But I’m joining the FBI task force in hunting them down, Steve. We are going to get them for what they did to your father. I am taking the fight to them. I am going to get them. I promise. It’s a new hunt.”
Steve gritted his teeth. “Maybe if I had just found courage back at that cabin . . .”
Jane placed a hand over his. “Steve,” she said quietly. “You did the right thing.”
He set his jaw.
Jane leaned back in her seat. “The victims of the cult have been returned home to their families, most of them. Some of them are still in shelters. They’re getting the help they need. We did the right thing in a difficult circumstance. We saved them. You are a hero again.”
“And Samantha?” Steve questioned
“She’s traumatized and severely malnourished, but she’ll survive. She will need mental help after all of this. Very lucky Tara didn’t kill her also. For everything she put Tara through.”
Steve nodded. “Good.” The waitress came by and he ordered a coffee. “And the Breitenites?” he asked.
“As many as we could round up? Standing trial. Including Sergeant Tim. I still can’t believe no one saw through his lies and misleads all this time. He really fooled us. We actually found out he joined after John was in jail from the trail and he was the one to help John escape the work detail. Tim and Alvin covered it up. There were many lies, Steve. Many lies behind the woods.”
Steve shook his head. “I still can’t believe . . . this whole time . . .”
“I know,” Jane said softly. “I know.” She watched Steve carefully. “But we can trust each other, Steve. We’re not alone in this.”
Steve’s eyes met hers. He felt a surge of attraction to her, one that went above physical beauty. “I never said sorry for putting you through what I put you through. So, I’m sorry. But also, thank you for coming to warn me about John. I appreciate that. Do you want to grab dinner sometime?” Steve finally asked after his apology.
She smiled. “I’d like that. And you are welcome. The apologies are not needed. I think moving forward and putting them both behind bars is what we need for closure.”
“I agree,” Steve said as his coffee arrived. “So, it’s a date.”
Jane smiled while she took a sip
