by I. T. Lucas
“Was there even a fire?”
“It was fake. We used pyrotechnics.”
“Why?”
“It’s a long story, and I need to take you to the hospital.”
“We need to wait for Shirley to come back with my purse. Until she does, you can tell me what’s going on.”
Margaret was surprisingly lucid given the morphine in her system. Was it wearing off? Or maybe some humans tolerated it better than others?
He didn’t know enough about their physiology or about opioids.
“We had undercover agents in the retreat.” He shook his head. “I need to start at the beginning. Anastasia’s father suspected that Safe Haven was a cult and that his daughter was being brainwashed. He asked us to investigate. We sent three undercover agents. One of them managed to convince her to give the outside world a chance and join him on a week-long vacation. The other two stayed behind to investigate.”
“Ana’s father is not really in the hospital, is he?”
“He’s not.”
“Did she know?”
“Of course.”
“She lied to me,” Margaret whispered. “She put up such a convincing act that my heart broke for her, and it was all a lie. I thought of her as a daughter, and she left without even saying goodbye.”
“Anastasia wanted to leave the door to Safe Haven open. A medical emergency was the only excuse she could use to take a week off, and she didn’t want you to know so you wouldn’t get in trouble for not telling anyone. If she planned to leave and never come back, she would have no reason to come up with a charade and she would have told you.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
“Because I met her, and I know the kind of person she is. She also asked me to keep an eye on you because she was worried you would panic when the fake fire started.”
“Is she happy out in the world?”
Bowen chuckled. “It hasn’t been long enough, but she is with the man she loves, so she must be happy.”
Her eyes widened. “Ana is in love with Sam? Did she tell you that?”
“No, and she didn’t tell him either, but it was obvious to me that they were in love and just afraid to admit it to each other.”
A tear slid down Margaret’s cheek. “She’s not coming back, is she?”
“Probably not, but not because she’s in love with Leon. That’s the agent’s real name. Emmett is gone, and he’s not coming back. I hope the community will survive without him, but I doubt people will feel as strongly about Safe Haven with their charismatic leader gone.”
“I can’t believe that Emmett did the things you are accusing him of. Do you have proof?”
“The two agents who stayed behind were supposed to find out whether Emmett was doing anything illegal. They suspected that he was drugging his sex partners, and they wanted to find out why. Women went willingly to him, and except for exhaustion, they didn’t seem physically harmed. The female agent arranged to get an invitation from him, and when she didn’t return in the morning, her partner got worried and called for help.”
“Marisol and Devlin, right?”
Bowen nodded. “Their real names are Eleanor and Peter. How did you know?”
“Ana mentioned them. She said that I should check out Devlin because he’s handsome.”
For some reason, the idea of her checking out Peter annoyed Bowen. The guy was immature and completely unsuitable for a delicate woman like Margaret. “Did you?”
“I didn’t get the chance. Maybe you can introduce us before you take me to the hospital.”
“I wish I could, but Emmett took Peter with him when he ran away.”
Her eyes widened. “Why?”
“To get information out of him. Peter decided to play the hero and rescue Eleanor by himself. Instead, he got himself caught.”
A haunted look flitted through Margaret’s eyes. “Is Eleanor okay?” she whispered.
“She’s fine. Emmett figured out that she was an undercover agent, but he didn’t harm her. He just locked her up in a room.”
“Oh, thank God.” Margaret closed her eyes. “I don’t understand any of it. Emmett is a good man. Why would he do things like that?”
“Perhaps you didn’t know him as well as you thought you did.”
“He took me in and gave me a home when I had nowhere else to go. I couldn’t pay for the retreat, so he offered me a job and told me that I could pay it off over time. He saved my life.”
Margaret was probably being overly dramatic, but what she’d just said saved Emmett from getting his face turned into hamburger meat, which was what Bowen had planned as retribution for what he had done to Eleanor and Peter.
“People are rarely all good or all evil.” He took her hand and clasped it gently in his much larger one. “Emmett could have done a lot of good deeds and a lot of bad ones at the same time.”
The haunted look returned to her eyes. “I know what evil looks like, Bowen, and Emmett is not it.”
59
Eleanor
Magnus walked into the kitchen, looking smug. “Do they have coffee in this place?”
He’d been gone much longer than it would have taken him to report to Kian and Turner, and Eleanor wondered what had kept him busy. Given his satisfied expression, whatever it was must have been good. Except, Jay and Elliot hadn’t found any clues about Emmett’s origins, so it must have been something else. Emmett’s computer was in the fire engine though, so maybe William or Roni could find some clues in there, but first it had to get delivered to them.
She pushed to her feet. “Take a seat. I’ll pour you a cup.”
“Thank you.” Magnus sat between Elliot and Jay. “You guys should relieve Robbie. He’s been on that front lawn managing the humans the entire time.”
Jay waved a dismissive hand. “Let him finish the job. When are we allowing the humans back in? There is no reason to keep them out there. It’s cold.”
“They are finishing the headcount, and then they are going to call out names and let them in one by one.”
“Here you go.” Eleanor put the mug in front of him. “Do you want something to eat?”
“What do they have?”
“I can make you a sandwich.”
“That would be awesome.” As she began to prepare the sandwich, Magnus eyed her from under lowered lashes. “Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden? You’ve never made me a sandwich before.”
That was true, but then they hadn’t been on the best of terms. Magnus had welcomed her into his home, but he had done it for Vivian and hadn’t been happy about it.
“You’ve never come to rescue me before either. Besides, Vivian wouldn’t let me make you a sandwich even if I wanted to.”
“True.” Smiling, he leaned back. “My wife is very territorial and possessive, which is precisely how I like it.”
Eleanor pretended shock. “What you’ve just said is considered sacrilege in Safe Haven.” She put the plate with the sandwich she’d made on the counter in front of him and then sat down. “The crap they feed the people here.”
Magnus took a bite. “It tastes good.”
She cast him a sidelong glance. “You looked smug when you came in. Do you have good news that you want to share with us?”
“Roni and William are searching for Emmett’s car. The guy drives a blue Corvette with Emmetway on the license plate. There are only a couple of highways he could have taken from here. It won’t take them long to find him.”
Eleanor’s lips twisted in a grimace. “By now, he could be all the way to Portland or Sacramento, depending on which direction he chose, or he could be on a plane to Timbuktu.”
Jay shook his head. “Why do people always use Timbuktu as a synonym for bumfuck nowhere? I’ve been there, and it’s a cool place. Well, it’s actually hot as hell over there because it’s a desert city, but it has a rich history.”
Magnus ignored him. “Emmett is not getting on any commercial flight. Roni hacked into t
he No-Fly list database and uploaded his picture with fake information, flagging him as a known terrorist.”
“What if he hires a private jet?” Elliot asked.
“He wouldn’t know that he needs to.” Magnus took another bite of his sandwich and then put it down and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “They are also monitoring security cameras in all airports within a four-hour drive radius from here. Emmett is not taking Peter out of the country.”
Letting out a relieved breath, Eleanor leaned her elbows on the counter and rested her chin on her fists. “That’s good. It eases some of the guilt I feel.”
“None of this is your fault.” Magnus put a hand on her shoulder. “I told you that already.”
She tilted her head towards him. “Tell me the truth, Magnus. When Peter called and told Turner that I was missing, did you think that I ran?”
“It crossed my mind once or twice, and I’m very glad that you didn’t.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Vivian will be happy to hear that she’s been right to trust you all along.”
The acceptance in his eyes slayed her, and all the pent-up stress and anxiety that Eleanor had managed to keep down by sheer willpower burst out of her with a vengeance.
The shaking started in her hands, crawled up her arms, and then the tears started flowing.
“Come here.” Magnus pulled her into his arms. “Let it all out.”
“I don’t want to. I’m supposed to be tough. Hell, I am tough.”
The screeching of chair legs on concrete signaled Elliot and Jay’s departure, and as she lifted her head from Magnus’s shoulder, they were gone.
“Cowards,” she murmured. “The brave Guardians are afraid of a few tears.”
He chuckled. “They thought that you’d be embarrassed to fall apart in front of them. That’s why they left.”
“I am embarrassed. But they’ve already seen the girly display. I guess I can kiss my future as a Guardian goodbye.”
“Nonsense.” He patted her back. “As long as you don’t fall apart during a mission, you’re good.”
Sniffling, she nodded. “I didn’t, even though it was truly horrible. I’ve never felt so helpless before. I’m a damn good compeller, and I can bend most humans to my will, but Emmett wasn’t human, and he was so damn strong. When he sucked my blood, I couldn’t pry his hands off me.” She dipped her head, resting her forehead on Magnus’s shoulder. “But that wasn’t even the worst part,” she whispered. “I responded to him. I wanted him to do more than just suck my blood.” She lifted her head and looked into Magnus’s kind eyes. “Does it mean that Greggory is not the one for me? Because if he was my fated one, I wouldn’t have felt attracted to another male, right?”
“I don’t know, Eleanor. We don’t know what powers Emmett has. Maybe it was just the venom’s effect.”
She sighed. “I kept telling myself that maybe he had some special mojo, like a unique type of pheromones that no female can remain unaffected by. But that’s just speculation. The bottom line is that I was unfaithful to Greggory, and I feel guilty.”
“You didn’t have sex with Emmett.”
“I didn’t. He kissed me once, and he bit me twice. That’s all.”
“Then you have nothing to feel guilty about.”
60
Margaret
It hadn’t been long enough for the morphine’s effect to start tapering off, so Margaret couldn’t ask Bowen to give her the injection that Shirley had left behind. Besides, what bothered her at the moment was not her fractured knee but a heartache.
Emmett had done something bad and had fled, leaving the community leaderless. The future was unclear, and if Safe Haven didn’t survive without its heart, Margaret would have nowhere to go.
But that wasn’t the only reason for her melancholy.
She was disappointed that the only reason Bowen had shown interest in her well-being was that Ana had asked him to keep an eye on her.
He wasn’t interested in her, which should have been clear to her if she hadn’t been delirious, first from the pain and then from the morphine. He was a young, handsome man, probably not even thirty yet, and she was a decade older and looked it.
She also stank of vomit.
“Would you like to talk to Anastasia?” Bowen leaned closer.
Her mood improved instantly. “Can I?”
“I’ll call Leon and ask him to give his phone to Anastasia. But you’ll have to keep it short. I’ll need the phone back when Shirley returns to check which hospital is the nearest and the directions to get there.”
“I can tell you that. It’s in Eugene. It’s called PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center.”
“That’s a mouthful.”
He pulled out his phone and after scrolling for a while placed the call.
“Leon. I’m here with Margaret, and she wants to talk to Anastasia.”
There was a moment of quiet as the other guy answered.
“I’ve already told her that you, Eleanor, and Peter were undercover agents and that Emmett kidnapped Peter to pump him for information.”
Another moment of silence passed as Leon answered.
“We are alone in the ambulance. Margaret fell down and injured her knee. I’m taking her to the hospital as soon as her friend brings her purse.” He listened for a moment longer and then handed her the phone. “Anastasia will be with you in a moment.”
“Thank you.”
Clutching the phone to her ear, she waited for her best friend to get on the line.
“Margaret? Are you okay? Leon told me that you got injured. What happened?”
“Your friends staged a fake fire, including two loud explosions, and everyone panicked. People were pushing and shoving to get through the gate. I tripped and hit my knee on a rock. The angle must have been bad. Gwen ran to get me help, and she found Bowen. He carried me to the ambulance.”
“Are you in a lot of pain?”
“I was. But Shirley, bless her soul, gave me a morphine shot. The pain was gone almost instantaneously.” Margaret glanced at Bowen. “It was good that she was here because the pretend firefighters don’t have any medical training. Your friend wouldn’t have known what to do.”
“Did he tell you why I really left?”
“He did.” Margaret swallowed the lump in her throat. “I thought that we were best friends. Why didn’t you tell me? Why the act? I felt so bad for you.”
“I’m sorry. I really am. I was worried that your loyalty to the community was stronger than our friendship, and that you would expose Marisol and Devlin. I couldn’t risk it.”
“Bowen already told me their real names, and you should have trusted me. If you told me to keep it a secret, I would have taken it to my grave.”
“You worship Emmett, Margaret. Your eyes get glazed when you talk about him.”
She sighed. “Not as much as I used to. Bowen told me that Emmett was drugging his sex partners and having orgies in his basement. That wasn’t my experience with him, but maybe he did it to others. I don’t want to condemn him without hearing his side first.”
“We might never get it. I hope for Peter’s sake that they find him, but they might not.”
“Who are they?” Margaret glanced at Bowen. “Are they the FBI?”
“No, they are a private organization that mostly deals with traffickers. They rescue trafficking victims and rehabilitate them.”
“So what are they doing investigating Safe Haven?”
“It started with my father hiring them to get me, and since lately several cults have been found guilty of dealing in trafficking, in some cases of minors, they decided to check whether Emmett was involved in that as well. I’m glad that they found no evidence of it. If he drugged his sex partners, it was bad, but not as terrible as trafficking.”
“I still can’t believe that he did even that. Emmett has an overactive sexual appetite, but he’s a good man. You’ve met him. Did he strike you as someone who could do things like that?”
61
Anastasia
Anastasia thought back to her one meeting with Emmett. He’d listened to her problem, hadn’t judged her, and had allowed her an exception he hadn’t allowed anyone else. He’d done it out of kindness without expecting anything in return.
“Frankly, no. But then he took Eleanor and locked her in a room, and he kidnapped Peter. Maybe he panicked? People do all kinds of crazy things when they feel the noose tighten around their necks.”
“But if he didn’t do anything wrong, he had nothing to be afraid of.”
Ana sighed. “The world doesn’t work that way. A lot of innocent people end up in jail, while many evildoers never get caught. It’s naive to think that justice always prevails.”
“Amen to that,” Margaret said.
As Leon left the room, Ana lowered her voice. “What do you remember from the times you were with Emmett?”
“There were no orgies and no drugs, or at least I don’t think there were. I was always alone with him, but I knew that there were others before me and after me. His appetite was legendary. But even though I wasn’t his favorite, he always made me feel special.”
“In what way?”
“I’ll tell you someday when we are alone,” Margaret whispered. “Bowen seems uncomfortable with our conversation. He went to sit up front, but I have a feeling that he can still hear me.”
“Just give me a hint. You can keep whispering.”
“He always said that I smell and taste divine, if you know what I mean. And it was so phenomenal that I blacked out every time.”
“Oh, wow.” Ana chuckled. “He has that in common with Leon. Until I met him, I’d never known that it was possible to black out from too much pleasure.”
“Are you happy with him?”
“We are still in the stage of getting to know each other, and naturally there are some difficulties, but Leon keeps the voices at bay, and just for that, I’m willing to marry him.”
Margaret gasped. “Is it that serious?”
