He held himself in high regard, thinking himself better than everyone else.
Tonight he proved to be far lower than the worst of them.
“You will not have this baby.”
“I won’t give him up,” Lucy wailed.
Gabriel shook her. “You’ll do as you’re told!”
Lucy’s gaze dropped and she shook her head. “You can’t make me.” Her defiance set Gabriel off.
He shook her again, making her head snap back and forth like a rag doll’s. “You will!”
“No!” she shouted right in his face.
He shoved Lucy to the floor and kicked her right in the stomach, sending her body sliding across the hardwood toward the dresser. “Why are you trying to ruin everything?”
Skye pressed her hand over her mouth to cover her shocked gasp.
Lucy screeched, then let loose an agonizing wail.
In a blind rage, Gabriel kicked her again, then stomped his big booted foot right into her thigh as she tucked her legs to her chest to protect herself from further harm.
Too late.
Lucy’s piercing scream echoed in Skye’s ears.
Bright red blood spread and saturated Lucy’s white dress.
Gabriel stood over her, his breath heaving in and out with the fury still tightening his muscles and etched in his face.
Lucy stared up at him, her teary eyes wide and wild. “Why?”
Gabriel gave no answer for his horrendous behavior. If he felt any remorse for his child and what he’d done, it didn’t show.
Lucy clawed at the material, dragging it up her thighs, and stared as blood spread and pooled on the floor between her legs. She clutched her belly. “No!” Pain etched lines on her distraught face.
Skye wanted to rage. She wanted to help Lucy, but fear locked her in place, witness to the horrifying tragedy. Stuck in this terrible nightmare, her mind couldn’t make her body move.
Lucy stared up at Gabriel, her eyes huge and filled with grief and blame and unimaginable sadness. “Y-you k-killed him.”
Gabriel stared down at Lucy. “He was never meant to be.” Those flat words left Skye cold.
He squatted next to Lucy. Skye hoped he’d finally help her. But no, he gripped her jaw tightly in his fingers and glared at her. “My son will be born to my wife, not some whore.”
How had so much malice corrupted his heart?
Shame washed over Lucy’s face, but she retaliated. “Skye w-won’t have you. When she f-finds out . . . you plan to m-make her . . . m-marry y-you . . . tomorrow, she . . . she’ll . . . re-refuse you.”
That truth narrowed Gabriel’s eyes and filled them with renewed fury. He released Lucy’s face and backhanded her, splitting her lip and sending her sprawling on her back. Her head cracked against the floor and her tear-drenched eyes fluttered.
Gabriel pointed his finger in Lucy’s face. “No one refuses me. I am the supreme leader of Sunrise.”
No, he’s not!
There was no such thing here. They worked in cooperation with one another.
But Gabriel wanted to be treated like some patriarch. He demanded people’s respect, but hadn’t earned it through his words or actions.
Tonight, he’d proved he’d lost all reason.
Lucy’s head rolled to the side and her eyes locked with Skye’s through the crack in the door. “Love is free.” Lucy’s breath slowed. “Love is kind.” Lucy sucked in a shaky breath as the blood pool between her legs grew wider and she looked up at Gabriel. “You will never have love, because y-you’re cruel.” Air whistled as she inhaled. Then Lucy exhaled, “Ruunnn,” though barely a sound left her lips.
Lucy bled out and didn’t breathe again.
Skye watched the soul disappear from Lucy’s beautiful hazel eyes. Her heart broke and her mind reeled. She should have done something. Anything to stop this.
But her brain found some reason and whispered the disturbing truth: Get out of here before you’re Gabriel’s next victim.
He couldn’t be reasoned with or deterred from his deadly path.
Ever since his dad died two years ago, he’d changed. Grief gave way to acceptance of his leadership role at Sunrise Fellowship and morphed his childish selfishness and tendency to push the limits into destructive subterfuge.
He lashed out at those who didn’t go along.
Anyone who questioned or defied him suffered his punishing disapproval, fury-fueled tantrums, and petty retribution.
What had once been a peaceful community of people living a quiet, simple, self-sustaining life had become corrupted by power and greed. In one short year, Gabriel had tainted their community-first home, built on cooperation and the farm everyone worked to sustain them.
She took Lucy’s last request to heart, found that her