The White Lily

by Susanne Matthews

  Jacob nodded. “He’ll keep her drugged, then. It’s the only way he’ll be able to keep her complacent, and we all know using drugs isn’t new to him.” He sighed, his heart heavy. “I’m going to try to get some rest. I’m useless right now; I need to focus.”

  “We’ll head to the camp as soon as the helicopter can fly again,” Trevor said.

  “Let’s hope that won’t be another dead end.”

  “I wish I could tell you it won’t be,” Tom said, “but we have a fifty-fifty chance this time.”

  “True, but only if your intel is right and Pierce isn’t jerking us around once more.”

  Once in his room, Jacob removed his clothing and took a shower. He’d planned a very different kind of night for them. He was going to arrange another dinner, similar to the one they’d enjoyed last night, and then make love to her—slowly and thoroughly. When he finished, she’d know he cherished every bit of her as much as she did her grandmother’s locket.

  The locket! He hit his head against the shower wall. She’d said the locket had saved her before. Why? Think, damn it, think. What had she said about the locket?

  Slowly he replayed that portion of their conversation. She wore the locket always. It was her talisman because ... it contained a GPS microchip! One they hadn’t disabled because she’d refused to part with the locket for even a second.

  Turning off the faucet, he hurriedly dried and grabbed his cell phone, pressing the speed dial for Trevor.

  “I know how to find her,” he said as soon as the man answered. He repeated what Lilith had told him last night. “If you call and find out who ran the operation, you can get the tracking information we need.”

  “I’m on it.” Trevor said and hung up.

  Jacob stared out the window at the pouring rain, hoping Pierce wanted to make the locket dance again. If he did, then the talisman was still around her beautiful neck, and they’d find her. And if Pierce had hurt a single hair on her head ...

  Turning away from the window, he dropped onto the bed, knowing he wouldn’t sleep until she was in his arms again. He reached to turn off the lamp, but stopped. Instead, he turned on his side cradling the pillow in his arms the way he’d held her.

  “I’m coming, Lilith, I’m coming. Hang in there, sweetheart.” He closed his eyes.

  • • •

  The sound of a baby crying dragged Lilith out of the darkness into the gloom. Where was she? Her head pounded, her mouth was dry, and she was nauseated. She groaned. The bed beneath her was hard.

  Slowly opening her eyes, Lilith realized she was in a large room with another woman. Sunlight filtered in through the slats in the blinds. She tried to sit up but couldn’t. Her hands and feet were shackled to the bed. Memories flooded her, kindling her fear. Pierce had her, but where was she?

  She looked around the room and counted three playpens and a crib. A woman sat in a rocker, using a bottle to feed a baby. Were these the missing children? They had to be.

  “Hello?” Lilith called cautiously.

  “You’re awake,” the woman said. “How do you feel?”

  “Like I’m going to be sick,” she answered, hoping the woman might untie her before she was.

  “That’s the medicine he had to give you. Retrieving a runaway mare is never pleasant, and judging from the scars on you, this isn’t the first time you’ve needed readjustment. You should be grateful he doesn’t just sell you.”

  “I’m not a mare, and no one owns me.”

  “And I suppose that brand on your stomach is the latest fashion statement. Let me finish with the little filly, and I’ll help you relieve yourself and see if I can make you more comfortable.”

  Lilith lay not too patiently waiting for the woman. She’d already taken stock of the fact she was naked under the rough, scratchy, wool blanket. No doubt they’d taken her gun, but her locket hung around her neck as always. As soon as the woman unchained her, she’d subdue the miserable old bitch, find her clothes, and get the hell out of here.

  The woman put the sleeping baby in the crib and approached.

  “I’m Mother Jane. You’ll address me as Mother.” She held up a riding crop. “It’s not as big as the whip your master used on you, but I can assure you it stings. I may not be used to working with mares, but I know how to discipline a stubborn filly.” She struck her on the arm to prove her point, and Lilith winced.

  “I need to go to the bathroom, Mother,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “I expected that.” The woman removed the blanket, displaying Lilith’s naked body for all to see, and slipped a bedpan under her.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. I want to use a real toilet.”

  “Wanting and doing are two different things, child. The sooner you learn that, the less pain you’ll feel. I couldn’t untie you even if I wanted to. Your master has the keys. You’ll stay like that, subject to his discipline, until you’re prepared to obey. I’ll shave your head in the morning, proclaiming your shame to all.” She pulled the covers over her again. “This is all the privacy I can give you. I’ll get you something to settle your stomach.”

  Lilith watched the woman leave the room. Unable to prevent it, she voided and waited for her to return. Shave her head? Based on Faye’s experience, Pierce intended to keep Lilith alive to use and abuse at will. She closed her eyes. Jacob! By now, they’d know she was missing and that Pierce had taken her. They’d be looking for her, but would they know where to look?

  The door opened, and the unmistakable sound of humming filled her with terror.

  “Hello, Mariah. I like that name so much better than Lilith or Lily. I’ve decided you’ll keep it.”

  “They’ll come for me, you bastard. They’ll find me.”

  His hand was swift and struck her, splitting her lip, startling her.

  “Now, look at what you’ve made me do. You know, it took me a long time to find you. I still don’t know how the FBI knew to look behind the false wall. I was going back for you, but the Prophet insisted I rescue Rivers first. I was too late. That idiot actually believed in his divinity. Losing his firstborn son was a bitter pill for our Lord to swallow, but I managed to save the four vessels who carried his grandchildren. Unfortunately, they’d found you, and I had to let you go.”

  Lilith frowned. “Rivers was Duncan Lucius’s son? How’s that possible?”

  “The Prophet and the Chosen have names they use in the world, names to protect them from the vermin. James was best known as Jimmy Farley, Simon was Cliff Rivers.” He reached out his hand and caressed her chin. “Such beautiful skin. You know, the Prophet was angry with me for failing him. He claimed I’d spent too much time with you and not enough following the case against his son and the Faithful Followers of the Word. But I’ve redeemed myself, and I know he’ll let me keep you now. I’ve collected the children and one more for good measure, and I’ve inflicted damage on your task force.”

  “You killed those people for nothing—made them suffer ...”

  “Not for nothing, Mariah—for you, for us. The Creator brought us back together because I fulfilled his wishes. Funny how things happen. I searched for you, and you were practically under my nose. As much as I followed the FBI’s attempt to bring down Rivers, I wasn’t privy to the case involving Kelly. It never occurred to me that you could be an agent. I believed you were Special Forces hired by the family. You were magnificent, strong and stubborn, but when you gave in to me ... well, I haven’t felt like that since. You can’t imagine how wonderful it is to have you again.”

  “Did you plant the bomb, too?”

  “You know very well that I didn’t, but one of my protégés did. They are the Creator’s hands and feet in the fight against evil.”

  “You’re a sick, sadistic bastard,” she said.

  He laughed. “It takes one to know one. Be patient, my sweet. We’ll have lots of time to play soon enough. Here’s Mother Jane with lunch. Do as she says or you’ll be punished, and not by me.”

 
; He stood. “After she’s fed, gag and blindfold her. This mare needs to learn humility.”

  “As you wish, master,” Mother Jane said, throwing back the covers to expose her atop the bedpan.

  Lilith closed her eyes, fought to keep the tears of embarrassment inside, but slowly they trickled from the corners and ran into her hairline. Pierce chuckled and walked away.

  Mother Jane wiped her and removed the bedpan.

  “I have porridge for you. It’ll settle your stomach.”

  Lilith was going to refuse, but the thought of another strike with that riding crop, Pierce’s anger, and her own hunger convinced her to cooperate just this once. If the food was poisoned, so be it. Death was preferable to life as Pierce’s slave.

  Mother Jane spooned the thin gruel into her mouth until it was all gone, and then, using an infant’s sippy cup, gave her a drink to wash it down. The liquid tasted odd, but Lilith was so thirsty, she’d have swallowed just about anything.

  “I’ll tell the master you cooperated. Maybe this lesson won’t have to last as long,” she said. “I’ve given you something to make it easier.”

  “Are you one of his mares?”

  “No, child. My job is to care for the Chosen’s children. I’m to guard them with my life. Now be quiet.”

  Lilith choked as the ball gag was put into her mouth, the foul taste nauseating her, but panic gripped her when Mother Jane pulled a black hood over her head, eliminating all light. She couldn’t breathe, she felt herself spiraling into the darkness. Oh God, Jacob. She’d never see him again, never be able to tell him she’d fallen in love with him. The whirlpool increased in speed; a kaleidoscope of color flashed through her mind and pulled her down into nothingness.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Jacob crept across the wet grass on his belly, the night goggles he wore bathing the landscape in an eerie neon green. The storm had ended at dawn, and the helicopter had flown west as soon as the coordinates had come in. It was small comfort to know that none of Tom’s locations had been the right ones. A trip to either Rockingham or Bennington would’ve yielded nothing more than Newcomb had and would’ve wasted even more time. Without the locket, it would’ve been like searching for a needle in a haystack, and they might never have found her. The thought curdled his stomach, as it had all day.

  Now, it was almost eleven, and the task force, along with a six-man SWAT team, made their way closer to the abandoned resort at the base of Ascutney Mountain. Knowing she was in there all day and that he was this close but unable to help her had almost driven him crazy. The only thing that had grounded him had been the low-frequency blip from Lilith’s locket. The satellite rerouted earlier in the day had picked up twenty heat signatures—seven in a smaller building at the back of the property that had originally been the staff quarters, two at the far end of the main building housing the kitchen, and seven in the hotel area. Four others moved around inside the two buildings, no doubt on guard duty.

  Trevor, after consulting with the SWAT team commander, decided to concentrate the task force on the smaller building. It stood to reason Lilith wouldn’t be kept in the same area as the young men.

  “I don’t see any sentries,” Rob said. “I guess they think they’re so safe here, they don’t need to be careful.”

  “Well, I don’t trust him. There could be trip wires and booby traps all around us,” Trevor said, leading them around the derelict pool. “He might even have perimeter alarms, so watch your step.”

  As if on cue, floodlights came on.

  “Bloody hell,” Jacob said, ripping off the glasses, momentarily blinded.

  The rattle of gunfire filled the air but was concentrated in the hotel area to their left.

  “Move quickly,” Trevor said, rising from the grass and squatting. “I don’t know who set that off, but now that they know we’re here, Pierce will go into the room with Lilith, and we don’t know how he’ll react once he realizes he’s cornered. If he has other hostages in there ...”

  “Hopefully, he won’t have a secret escape the way he did in Utah,” Jacob said. “Half a dozen people managed to escape that raid. We can’t let anyone get away this time.”

  Running in a crouched position, night goggles hanging loosely around his neck, Jacob followed his teammates across the field to the stone building. Rob reached for the back door, found it locked, and fired into the mechanism, the rapid gunfire elsewhere masking the sound he made.

  “According to the satellite, we’ve got three men in here—one of which has to be Pierce. It’s possible the gunshots drew one or both guards away, but we can’t be sure. There were six heat signatures in the room at the east rear side on the main floor. The experts say four of those are children. Rob, find that room. Jacob, back him up. Tom, check out the rest of the building. I’ll stay here and make sure no unwanted guests try to crash our party.”

  Jacob followed Rob up the stairs to the main floor, while Tom continued up to the next level. Gunshots sounded, indicating he’d found one of the guards. Rob led the way down the hall. He pulled his head back suddenly, narrowly avoiding the shots aimed at them. At Rob’s unspoken signal, Jacob watched his teammate count down three on his fingers before opening fire ahead of him, emptying the magazine of the semiautomatic weapon he carried into the man guarding the hallway leading to the east side of the house.

  “Looks like we’ve come to the right place,” Rob said, kicking the gun away from the body as they passed.

  “Duck,” Jacob yelled as a man ran, firing his weapon blindly behind him, and entered the room at the end of the hall.

  “That’s Pierce,” Jacob cried. “We’ve got him.”

  “Lilith and the children have to be in there with him,” Rob said.

  “And we have to get in there before he kills them or sneaks away under our noses. Do you have the stun grenade?”

  “I do. Are you ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be. I’ll open the door, and you let her rip. You take care of the children. I’ll get her.”

  They approached the door cautiously, and Jacob, his heart in his mouth, prayed to the powers that be that Pierce hadn’t locked it. When the door opened slightly, he and Rob dove aside to avoid the gunfire, but the burning in his right shoulder told him Pierce had hit his mark. Damn.

  “You okay?” Rob asked.

  “He winged me. It’ll slow me down, but it won’t stop me.”

  “Good. Now where were we?”

  Using his left arm, Jacob pulled the door open, and Rob lobbed in the grenade. While the device was meant to be nonlethal, it could still injure and cause a fire if it landed on incendiary material, but it was a chance they had to take. After a loud flash and bang, Rob ran into the room, but before Jacob could follow, a woman in a long, white nightgown, screaming like a banshee as flames licked at her nightdress, tore out of the room and collapsed on the floor beside him. He tried to get close enough to roll her and smother the flames, but couldn’t.

  Babies shrieked in terror. Where was Rob? Smoke from the smoldering mattress where the grenade had landed obscured the room. He saw Rob on the floor and moved to help him, but before he could, the tableau against the far wall paralyzed him. Through the lingering smoke, he saw a panel next to the bed standing open. Pierce held a K-bar knife in one hand and a pistol in the other. Lilith lay on the bed, her head covered. She hadn’t made a sound. That hood would block out all light, leaving her in darkness as profound as her prison had been. Jacob couldn’t tell if she was alive or not, and the fear Pierce might’ve murdered her enraged him.

  “Don’t come any closer or I’ll kill her,” Pierce said.

  Not dead yet. Jacob relaxed slightly, well aware the bastard could slit her throat before he could fire his gun.

  “I won’t,” he said, his Aussie accent more pronounced than ever in his anger and distress. “It’s over. The place is surrounded, and you’ve no place to go. It’s been a long time, Pierce. You don’t look quite as scary now as you did that day in
the desert. You’re really a small man without your whip, aren’t you?”

  Pierce blinked rapidly in an effort to regain his bearings.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  Jacob moved through the smoke, closer to the bed, and stopped a few feet away. “Don’t you remember me? I’m hurt because I recall everything about you.”

  “Jacob?” Pierce’s voice filled with confusion. “Impossible. You’re dead.”

  Jacob laughed. He had the bastard off kilter, and that would give him the opening he’d need. Slowly inching closer, he continued to bait the killer.

  “It seems the rumors of my demise were exaggerated. My uncle isn’t the only one the Creator favors. Let her go.”

  Pierce laughed. “Never. She’s mine. I’ve worked too hard to find her to give her up to one of the Chosen.”

  Before Jacob could react, Pierce fired his weapon, the bullet searing Jacob’s left side, dropping him to his knees. Pierce’s laughter filled the room.

  “You always were too big for your britches, boy. Mariah is mine. And you,” Pierce said, stepping away from the bed and approaching him, “will soon be dead again.” He kicked Jacob over, sending him sprawling to the floor, the pain as intense as it had been when the tree had impaled him.

  “Maybe I should give you back to your uncle,” Pierce continued, “but re-education didn’t work before, and if there’s one thing he can’t abide, it’s willfulness. Of course, he could always milk you, the way they do the stallions, but there are enough demigods running around as it is. No. I think the best thing for me to do is shoot you like a rabid dog and put you out of your misery.” He put the barrel of his pistol against Jacob’s temple, and Jacob squeezed the trigger on the gun he held in his left hand.

  The crack reverberated in the room. The look of surprise on Pierce’s face gave Jacob the strength to push the bastard aside before he collapsed on top of him.

  The sound of footsteps rushing down the hall put Jacob on alert again, his gun aimed at the door.