know that. I just wanted you to repent to make it stop.”
“Corey, you can’t do this. Rebecca will never forgive you. She won’t marry you if you kill me.”
“I’m not going to kill you, Malcolm. I’m going to set you free. You will be purified. I’m helping you. It’s the only way. I’ve done my research. I know. It really is the only way,” he said as he used the zip ties to fasten my wrists and ankles to the chair. “We are just going to sit here and watch the sun as it begins to set over the river.”
“She won’t understand,” I insisted.
“She won’t know.”
Roman
Fredrick was waiting for me when I walked out of the station.
“Hey man, Ryan and Rand are back at the house waiting.”
“Okay, let me drive, and you see if you can get Becca on the phone.” He tossed me his keys, and we both got in the car.
He pulled out his phone and dialed. When she answered, he put it on speakerphone.
“Becca, just wanted to check in with you and see if you’ve made it to Trey yet.”
“I haven’t even left yet. Corey hasn’t shown up, and he isn’t answering his phone. Mom and Dad are acting weird, and I promised Trey I would come get him. I can’t go up there alone. But I don’t know what to do.” She sounded so young, and I remembered how sheltered Trey said she was. How afraid he thought she was to make her own choices because she hadn’t been raised believing she had any, and it drove home to me why it had been so important to him to get her out of there.
“Becca, it’s Roman,” I said, letting her know I was there. “Listen, it was really brave of you to offer to go get Trey, but since Corey isn’t calling you back, how about you just tell me where he is, and I’ll go get him?”
“Would you?” she asked, relief in her voice. “I told him I’d come, but Mother will be so mad if I do, and I don’t know what happened to Corey. He said he was coming and then never showed up. Poor Trey. He sounded so upset. I can’t believe they did this to him.”
“What exactly did they do?” I asked. All I knew was that she knew where he was and was going after him.
“He said they took him to the house on the river so he could have some private prayer and time to think. But they left him there with no phone, no money, and no car. He’s stuck there. Gavin’s with him to keep watch over him, but still. He sounded so upset when he called.”
“How did he call you?” I asked. If he had a phone, I wanted that number.
“He used the landline, but I don’t want to call it because I don’t want to let Gavin know it’s there.”
“That was good thinking, Becca,” Fredrick said. “But can you text me that number just in case we need it?”
“Sure. I’ll send it over. He isn’t in any danger, though, just angry because they tricked him and took him up there. Gavin won’t hurt him. He’s there to keep him safe.”
“I’m sure that’s true, Becca, but I’m going to go get him and bring him home. Now, if you’ll give Fredrick the information on where you were going, we’ll head that way.”
He took the phone off speaker and started jotting down the information. I knew I should feel better about things. We knew where he was, he had someone with him who knew to be on the lookout for the stalker, and he’d been fine when he talked to Becca. But I didn’t feel better. Instead, I felt unsettled, like there was a bad storm coming, and I only hoped I got to Trey in time.
“So, what now?” Fredrick asked, hanging up the phone.
“Now we get to the house, pick up my brothers, and then we go get Trey.”
Once we were back where Ryan and Rand waited, we looked up the house to see what we’d be dealing with. We’d decided we would take Frederick with us. He would walk up to the door and knock, hopefully confusing Gavin for a few minutes, and buying me enough time to slip in and get Trey out. I felt good about the plan until I got a call from Felix.
“Roman, hey, I have good news.”
“I could use some good news right about now. What you got?”
“We finally managed