two very large men dragged me down the aisle, I did my best to plant my feet in the plush cobalt blue runner but I was no match for them. They didn’t miss a beat as my heels dug into the carpet. What felt like an eternity later, the men stopped in front of the dais and my blood pressure went through the roof.
“Kneel,” one of the men commanded.
I didn’t kneel. I was frozen solid as I took in the altar before me. It was massive, at least six feet long. The dark wood matched the pews behind me, but it was the words carved into the wood that had me mesmerized: Do This In Remembrance Of Me.
Then my eyes went beyond the altar to the large statue of Jesus on the cross. Crown of thorns, spikes protruding from His palms and feet, head bowed.
“You will kneel,” the other man demanded, and when I made no move to do as he asked, my feet were swept out from under me and I unceremoniously dropped to the floor.
The pain of my knees hitting the hard surface didn’t register.
We warned you and you didn’t listen. You must be cleansed of your sins.
Ho-ly shit.
Holy shit.
I had no idea what being ‘cleansed of your sins’ meant, I just knew I didn’t want to find out.
At that moment, I found I could beg and I would plead for forgiveness and salvation if it meant I never learned what these people meant by ‘cleansed.’
“Please. I’m sorry.”
Neither man said a word, their silence scaring me more than the pressure they were both putting on my shoulders to keep me on my knees between them.
A door to my right opened and a good-looking, older man wearing a blue choir-like robe with gold stitching casually walked through like there was nothing unusual about a woman kneeling against her will. Though, maybe he didn’t know I was there against my will. Maybe—
“Is this her?” the man in the robe asked, and my hopes he’d help me died a slow, agonizing death.
“Please. I don’t—”
“Silence,” he seethed.
“Yes, Bishop, this is her.”
Before I could plead my case, the man they called Bishop stepped behind the altar and picked up what looked like a bronze cowbell. Seconds later, he rang the bell and I heard murmurs behind me. I craned my neck to see people dressed all in white entering the sanctuary.
“You will face forward and bow your head,” Bishop insisted.
Slowly, I did what I was told, trying to hold back tears while thinking of a way to get myself out of this.
“Come.” Bishop’s voice boomed. “It is a splendid day. The Heathen is before us.”
There were boisterous cheers from behind me and I screwed my eyes closed and prayed.
32
“Yo!” I heard Drake shout as I made my way across the Triple Canopy parking lot. At the same time, two squad cars came squealing to stop in front of the entrance.
Ethan jumped out of the passenger side of one of the cars and jogged back to the building.
“What’s up?”
“Hadley.”
That’s all Ethan had to say.
All I had to hear for my world to tilt and acid to fill my gut.
I shoved past him to find Carter, Luke, Trey, and Drake in the reception area.
Looking visibly shaken, Ethan raked his hands through his hair as he said, “Ten minutes ago I got a call from Hadley. She didn’t get much out before the call disconnected. Only thing I got was that she’d followed a white Ford Focus and an address where she was. I sent a couple of squads to the address and came here. There’s an active shooter situation at First Union bank. SWAT and our only hostage team are on sight. I have authorization to—”
I had my phone out with Hadley’s name pulled up. I hit go and went straight to voice mail.
“What’s the address?” I cut Ethan off, not giving the first fuck what was authorized.
“Got people en route.”
“And you know she’s not gonna be there. What’s the address?”
I ignored the burn in my stomach, ignored the fear, ignored the overwhelming homicidal thoughts threatening to take over and focused what was left of my intellectual capacity to find her.
“Let’s—”
“If someone took her, she won’t be in that house and you fucking know it,” I interrupted. “What’d you get on those books?”
“What books?” Carter asked.
“Someone’s been destroying books. Dropping them off in the bin outside or putting them back on the shelves,” I answered then turned back to Ethan. “One of them said heathens