Jonathan shuffled her past the window, going for the door and using her body as his shield while she fought against him. She bucked her weight, dropping to the floor suddenly and grabbing one of the shards of glass off the floor.
The angle was wrong for Cole to have a clear shot, with Jonathan hiding in the wall between the door and the window. I moved, lunging for the porch and darting across the space. Shooting a Disciple between the eyes as he made to grab me, I evaded them all and leaped in through the window. Del’s hand dripped blood from where she clutched the glass shard too tightly, staring at Jonathan like she might kill him herself.
I wouldn’t blame her, but the indecision on her face told me the truth I’d already known. Del would never forgive herself for taking a life.
Even his.
Drawing her into my arms, I didn’t have such hesitation as I raised my Glock to take aim. His mouth trembled, words forming like he could charm his way out of the shitshow he started. Without a word for him, I fired.
The bullet caught him directly in the middle of his face, obliterating his nose, and his body slumped back against the wall. I turned my gaze down to Del, my eyes roving over her for any injuries. There wasn’t a scratch on her, despite the bruises I suspected would appear overnight. “Del,” I whispered, hoping she could forgive me the deaths. Given her upbringing, and her eventual break from all she believed, I never knew where Del stood when it came to her faith.
“I guess I don’t need an Annulment,” she whispered, staring at what had once been the face of the man who led the only family she ever knew. There was a lighthearted joke to her tone, something I’d barely heard from her, given the stress of knowing she was hunted by a monster.
I grinned down at her, knowing more than ever that my woman was perfect.
“Anderson!” Coleman’s voice echoed through the window. Snapping my head to look out, the sight of one of Jonathan’s followers with an assault rifle greeted me. Fury owned his face—absolutely despair at the loss of his leader.
I twisted my body backward, tackling Del to the floor as the sound of automatic fire resounded behind me. The impact forced the breath from her lungs, but I couldn’t think about that then. Not when she curled her body into me as I covered her, pinning her and protecting her with my own body.
“Anderson,” she cried, running a hand over my face when the shooting stopped only a few seconds later.
“Clear!” Cole yelled. “You good?”
“We’re good!” I yelled back, shoving to my feet and helping Del up. My shoulder burned, the lone bullet wound spreading fire through my veins.
“We are not good!” Del called. “Anderson’s been shot!”
“Is he dead?” Coleman teased, climbing down from the perch in the tree and stepping into the light of the porch.
“It isn’t funny,” she whispered, turning me to examine the entry wound and the blood leaking through my shirt.
“Baby, I’m good. The team doctor is on his way already, and he’ll fix me up,” I murmured, touching my lips to hers softly. “Besides, now I’m symmetrical.”
“I’m going to kill you,” she laughed, burying her face in my chest. Only Del could make me feel at home, like everything was right in the world, when my house was destroyed and there were bodies everywhere.
Perfect.
Twelve
Deliverance
I watched Anderson’s doctor friend stitch him up after he’d finished with the bullet wound. Anderson barely flinched when the man dug the bullet out, and I tried not to think about what that implied for his pain tolerance and where it came from.
The thought of him suffering and in pain was enough to bring me to my knees. Particularly after I’d thought him lost to me.
“We have to get Noelle. We can’t leave her there; they might hurt her because of how she helped me escape. What if they blame her for Jonathan’s death?” I asked, wincing when Anderson stood without a single hitch of pain. I’d been rendered useless by a fractured wrist, but he didn’t flinch at a bullet wound.
“Tomorrow, Baby. It isn’t safe to go tonight,” Anderson said, but he nodded. He wore a determined expression, and I knew he would help me save her. He wouldn’t leave the woman who was responsible for my own escape to suffer.
“Okay,” I agreed, pressing my face into his chest and breathing him in. I wanted to surround myself with his scent, with that woodsy pine of the mountain that only he made attractive. Hammers pounded plywood into the broken window for the night as Anderson’s friends made quick work of cleaning up the house as best as possible.
“You two should stay with me tonight. We don’t know if they’ll come back,” Coleman sighed, staring at the door like he relished the thought of a house guest just as much as the pained expression on Anderson’s showed how little he liked the idea.
“We’ll be fine. Miguel is going to keep an eye out tonight, and then after we go to get Noelle tomorrow, we’ll have a better idea where we stand with the cult. I know they won’t be fond of us, but as long as they leave us alone, I couldn't give a shit,” Anderson grunted.
“Noelle?”
“One of Jonathan’s other wives,” Anderson explained, saving me from having to. Coleman’s brow furrowed in confusion, but he shrugged it off just as quickly. I had already gathered that taking more than one wife was not typical outside the Children of Awe. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to go to bed.”
Cole chuckled, raising his eyebrows at Anderson in a gesture that seemed meaningful. I couldn’t wait for the day when I understood all the hidden meanings to their social interactions, but for that night all I wanted was to shower and curl up in bed. When Anderson sent me up ahead of him, I didn’t waste a moment before stepping into the clawfoot tub and letting the hot water wash away the touch of the other men.
Of men I’d thought I’d known.
The blood on the back of my neck and in my hair stained the tub pink, reminding me of the death of a boy who’d been kind once. Before our goals opposed one another, and his blind faith in a leader who didn’t deserve his loyalty had corrupted his mind against all that was right and good.
Real men of God didn’t force women to stay in marriages that proved dangerous to them. I didn’t know what I believed after my experiences. Only that I had time to decide for myself, and that was all that mattered to me.
When I finally stepped out of the tub and moved to the bedroom to grab a shirt and crawl under the covers, Anderson perched on the edge of the bed. His hair was wet, and I assumed he’d showered in the bathroom downstairs before coming up. “Everyone gone home?” I asked, rubbing the back of my neck nervously. The towel wrapped around my body clung to my chest tightly, but Anderson’s eyes roved over me like I was already naked as he stood from the bed and prowled toward me.
“No,” I scolded him, and stepped back when he reached for the towel. “You’re injured.”
“So are you,” he grunted. “You were injured the first time I fucked you and I didn’t let that stop me. What makes you think I’d let a bullet wound get in my way of being inside you?”
I chuckled, dancing away from him until rough hands grabbed the towel and tugged it away, despite my efforts to hold onto it. “You brute!” I shrieked when he wrapped his hands around my waist and lifted me onto the bed. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
“The only thing that hurts me is not being inside you,” he grumbled, climbing up onto the bed and settling between my legs. His fingers dove between them, finding me ready for him already. “And she’s already wet for me,” he whispered, replacing his fingers with his cock and working himself inside without preamble.
“Anderson,” I cried out, arching my back and reveling in our connection. I’d never tire of being with him. Never get over the way he made me feel.
“Could have lost you,” he grunted, settling his weight over me and leaning forward to touch the tip of his nose to mine. With our faces so close, all I could see was him.
All tha
t existed was his stare on mine and the slow roll of his hips as he took me in slow, deep thrusts.
“You didn’t,” I reminded him, feeling like he needed the words to remember that, no matter how close we’d come, we both walked away in the end.
The worst was over. I didn’t suspect revenge would be a massive ordeal to consider.
“I love you,” I told him, wrapping my hand around the back of his neck and my legs around his waist. “Don’t ever let me go.”
“Never Baby. You’re mine now,” he echoed back. His thrusts turned harsher, the slow rhythm of them lost to the need to claim me for himself. The grind of him against me and the knowledge that he was close to his own release sent me spiraling into the white, shuddering in his arms as he finished.
Unlike the first time, he separated himself from me more quickly. Staring at the space between my legs, he refused to let me close them. His fingers moved to gather up the liquid that spilled free and shove it back inside me. I thought to say something, but the intensity on his face wouldn’t let me.
I had a feeling I wouldn’t be getting much sleep. Considering how tired I was, that was still somehow fine with me.
∞∞∞
Anderson and Coleman’s friends all joined us in our journey to the Children of Awe the next day. It felt strange, returning to the place that I once called home. Even looking on from the distance as we observed them in the woods, something felt different than before.
I knew it was that I’d never belonged. I’d never even wanted to.
With Anderson at my side, I had everything that mattered to me.
“You do not leave my side,” he grunted, wrapping himself around my back. While there was no weapon in anyone’s hand, I knew just how well armed they were beneath the surface.
“Who is that?” Coleman asked, gesturing to where a tall blond was bent over the well. She stared into the abyss, deep in thought and oblivious to the people hovering at the edge of the compound and waiting for the right moment to make themselves known.
“That’s Noelle,” I whispered, studying his face. Something about the way he fixated on her reminded me of the way Anderson looked at me.
“Well, shit,” Anderson laughed, patting his friend on the back.
Coleman didn’t wait for the others to be ready before he stalked forward into the clearing. His gait was determined and his gaze fully focused on his goal.
Noelle.
Epilogue
Anderson
Drinking my lemonade and taking a break from painting, I watched my wife and daughter dig their hands into the soil of the garden. Del let the dirt trickle from her closed fist, using the other hand to point out all the traits of healthy earth to Skye. She pointed to the pictures in the book resting on the ground beside them, talking about all the plants we would grow. There was a mix of talking about her own knowledge and reading the descriptions of each plant to our girl, like Del just couldn’t help but read whenever she could.
Every bit her mother’s daughter, Skye possessed a green thumb that appeared before she’d even started walking. At only two years old, Del and I had to force her inside at the end of the day and scrub the dirt from her body because of her enthusiasm for gardening.
Del got onto her hands and knees, maneuvering her body up to a standing position gracefully despite her growing stomach. It wouldn’t be long before she had no choice but to accept my help getting up, and only a little longer before she couldn’t kneel on the ground at all.
Our son would make his appearance in a few short months, much to Del’s dismay. The construction on the addition of the cabin to give both Skye and Trent their own rooms had only just been completed, and with her nesting impulse kicking into full swing, she was like an impatient hellion on a mission while she waited for a day when she and Noelle could go shopping together.
“Daddy!” Skye shouted, running across the grass with her awkward gait as Del turned her grey eyes to watch. She rested her hands on her hips, showing just how much her back already started to bother her when she leaned over too much with Skye.
“You have to stop catering to her demands. She’ll become a little monster,” I teased her, kissing Skye’s nose while she giggled.
“I can’t fault her for loving the garden. It’s beautiful,” Del sighed, turning to look at the flourishing garden and the raised beds she’d transformed from pitiful to plentiful.
“It is,” I murmured back. “I finished painting the little monster’s new room finally. Thought she might like to see it.”
Del moved into the house with a pout on her face. She already knew that I wouldn’t let her anywhere near those paint fumes when she was pregnant with my baby. She moved to the nursery instead, staring at the moss green walls in consideration since she could finally be in the room and plan out her nesting frenzy.
Skye and I left her to it, walking to the room across the hall. With the windows thrown wide open, the smell wasn’t too horrible, but I wouldn’t take any chances. The sunny yellow paint on the walls had been Skye’s choice, matching her cheerful personality with her favorite color.
My daughter would never know what it was to be controlled the way her mother had. She’d never have to worry about men dictating her life.
I’d kill any who tried.
“’Lellow!” Skye cheered, bouncing up and down happily. “Mommy, Lellow!” she called, making Del chuckle in the other room.
Everything was sunshine for my girls, and I'd make sure it stayed that way.
I hope you enjoyed Deliverance & Anderson's story! Please consider taking the time to leave me a review. Hearing from my readers means the world to me. Keep an eye out for news of Noelle & Coleman's story. Coming soon.
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More by Adelaide Forrest
Bellandi Crime Syndicate
Bloodied Hands
Forgivable Sins
Grievied Loss
Shielded Wrongs
The Men of Mount Awe
Deliver Me from Evil
Rescue Me from (Coming Soon)
Deliver Me from Evil (The Men of Mount Awe Book 1) Page 7
