by Nicole Casey
“Eloise is from here, isn’t she?”
I gritted my teeth, wondering if I’d made a mistake allowing him into my plot but his next words put my mind at ease.
“Hey, Harding, I’m willing to help you, man, I am.”
I paused and looked at him over my shoulder.
“But?”
“But there’s a reason that law enforcement leaves these guys alone. They’re fucking unstable. No one knows what’s going on behind closed doors. We shouldn’t go in there blind.”
“We’re not going in there blind,” I assured him. “We’re going in there with a plan.”
I didn’t tell him I wasn’t sure what that plan was exactly.
We crossed over an acre of land, entering the ravine behind the camp and I touched Aaron’s hand, holding him back.
Several women were milling around in various stages of work.
We ducked back, studying them in their homemade, ankle-length dresses, hanging clothes from lines and washing over basins.
I felt like I was in a time warp, staring at a turn of the 20th-century setting.
And then we saw her.
Her long blonde hair was twisted into a long braid, falling halfway down her slender waist and tucked beneath a bonnet.
Unlike the others, she sat completely idle, sitting on the stoop of the barracks, staring out into nothingness and even from the distance between us, I could read the expression of melancholy on her face.
“Is that Eloise’s sister?” Aaron asked and I knew I wasn’t alone in seeing the resemblance between them. “She’s beautiful.”
“It must be,” I muttered, the desire to scale the fence, barbed wire and all almost choking me.
Aaron seemed to sense my irrational thought and grabbed my arm.
“Even if we get in, we’ll never get out. What do you want to be they’re fucking armed to the tits?”
I wished I had thought to do the same.
“Come on,” I said, spinning to leave. “We’re going back to the cabin for guns.”
“Oh man…”
But he followed me, sneaking through the trees, our eyes still fixated on Jillian.
As if she could feel us staring at her, she suddenly raised her head and looked in our direction, causing us to freeze.
But it was too late.
She had seen us and her mouth parted in shock.
Oh shit! Don’t say anything, Jillian! Don’t blow our cover!
My message seemed to reach her and slowly, her mouth closed, her eyes reluctantly pulling away from mine.
“Come on, Harding. She’s going to get us caught,” Aaron mumbled but I didn’t need any more encouragement.
We were back to my truck in minutes, backing down Route 14 and heading back up toward Black Mountain.
“I’m thinking there’s only one way to do this,” I told Aaron after several minutes of silence.
He didn’t say anything but I knew he was waiting for me to elaborate.
“We have to storm the gates and let out anyone who wants to leave.”
“You make it sound so simple, Harding but you don’t realize that most of these people have never known another way of life. They are brainwashed into believing that Denton Crowe is some messenger of God or some shit.”
It was so strange. How could normal adults be so easily manipulated?
But it didn’t matter if the others didn’t want to go. Getting Jillian was the only important part.
The rest of them could stay and marry Crowe for all I cared.
“And we might be outnumbered,” Aaron reminded him. “Who knows how many people live in there?”
I was glad I had thought to bring him along for the ride.
He really was the voice of reason.
“Do you have any better ideas?” I asked and Aaron shook his head.
“No,” he replied, surprising me. “I think it’s the best one we’ve got but I think we should do it at night in the cloak of darkness. We don’t want them to see us coming and we don’t want them to be alert. With any luck, we can get in and out before they get their pants on.”
I agreed.
That’s what we would do.
We finished the rest of the trip to the cabin in silence and when we arrived, Aaron headed directly to his car.
“I’m going to go home and change into darker clothes,” he told me. “I’ll be back around midnight. That should give us plenty of darkness and they should be asleep by then.”
I looked at him, nodding slowly.
I was slightly surprised at his renewed desire to do this and I wondered where it had stemmed from.
“Thanks, Aaron,” I said sincerely as he unlocked his Dodge with a fob from his pocket. “I appreciate this and so does Eloise.”
“I’m doing it for Jillian,” he said and my eyebrows shot up.
“You don’t even know Jillian,” I replied, shaking my head but a strange smile touched his lips.
“I know but when she looked at us, Harding, I felt like I had known her before. Isn’t that weird?”
I shook my head.
“It’s not weird at all,” I replied quietly. “I know exactly what you mean.”
He waved toward the cabin and I saw Eloise watching us, an apprehensive expression on her face.
She was waiting for word on her sister.
Aaron pulled off and I hurried to join my lover inside the cabin where she threw herself into my arms suddenly.
“I got scared the minute you left,” she confessed and I could read the truth of her words in her face.
“Why?” I asked gently. “I told you, nothing is going to happen to you.”
“I was scared for you,” she replied, her chocolate eyes searching my face. “He has a violent temper. If he caught you there – ”
“We saw Jillian,” I cut her off, hoping to put her mind at ease.
“You did? Was she hurt? What did she say?”
“Shh,” I whispered, stroking her hair and kissing the top of her head. “We only saw her, we didn’t speak with her.”
Her frail body pushed into me was giving me a burst of heat in my groin.
She was so indefensible in my arms, a beautiful work of untainted art who I wanted to violate over and over.
The memory of her ecstatic squeals was fresh in my ears and suddenly I knew I needed to feel myself inside her once more.
Without warning, I grabbed her by the shoulders, shoving her back against the wall, my mouth crushing her surprised lips.
At first, she was too off-guard to react but when my arm snaked down against her ass, yanking her tiny waist toward me, she responded eagerly.
I rubbed my scruff against her cheek, inhaling the sweetness of her skin as my lips closed around her earlobe, nibbling deliciously as she panted softly.
My free hand slid across her front, slipping beneath the waistband of the too-big bottoms I had loaned her, fingertips meeting the cleft in her legs.
She was already fucking wet.
I wedged her deeper into the wall, one hand massaging her butt cheek, the other teasing the slippery button at her center.
Eloise gasped and moaned as I allowed one finger to “accidentally” slide inside her, the others still playing with the slickness.
“Fuck,” she mumbled and my head jerked back in shock, amusement lighting my eyes.
She was swearing already.
Corrupting her was going to be so much fun.
In and out, I fucked her with my index finger slowly and her knees buckled.
Instinctively, her arms reached out to hold my waist and I placed one palm on my growing rod, my hips thrusting toward her gently as I encouraged her to stroke me.
We fell into a slow, dizzying rhythm, my mouth finding the lines of her neck and shoulders, feeling the prickled flesh as my hands grew wetter with each jab of my finger.
Her hand tightened around my shaft, her free palms sliding my jeans lower so my entire package was exposed for her to explore.
We would have plenty of opportunities to learn from each other.
That day was for her alone and when I added my middle finger to the mounting thrusts, I was rewarded by a stream of heat against my hand.
“Take me,” she begged me, her eyes pleading with naked desire. “I need you inside me.”
I lifted my head and smiled at her, my digits still prodding at her soaked core.
“Of course,” I growled. “Your wish is my command.”
10
Eloise
I thought I was going to climax again, the way his fingers continued to fill me, long and deep but it wasn’t the same as it had been before.
I needed his shaft inside me, his hot breath against my skin.
“Please,” I moaned. “I need you – ”
My sentence did not get finished as he spun me around, my hand falling from his engorged shaft, my body pinned up against the wall as he fell into me.
Heart pounding, I tried to turn and look at him but his face was pressed against mine, his mouth against my ears.
The steam of his breath caused ripples through my body, my cheeks being spread apart to make way for his monolithic member.
I was trembling when the head pried its way into my wanting entrance and I jutted my buttocks backward.
In one fluid motion, he had filled me and I cried out, the muscles of my spiracle contracting against him.
Harding groaned at the feeling, my opening sucking him in deeper as my hands splayed against the wall.
“Oh you’re so fucking tight,” he groaned, pushing my back down to leverage my hips against his.
We melded together, a gasping chorus as he began to plunge into me, deliberately and deep, hard and strong.
I was finding it difficult to breathe, this position somehow reaching me higher than before and I was filled with is a massive unit but somehow wanting more.
Again I pushed against him, my clitoris rubbing against his shaft as he slid in and out.
The pace increased, the slapping of his sack against my cheeks stinging me deliciously and I moaned, tears forming in the corners of my eyes as I realized I was going to cum again.
I decided to tell him.
“I’m – I’m – I’m exploding!” I choked and the words seemed to make him harder.
I yelped, his thrusts becoming ruts of pleasure, the grunts from his mouth becoming cries of passion and as I spilled my juices all over his raging pole, his seed spilled into me like a wave at high tide.
I could barely hold myself up and I realized if not for Harding holding me up in such an erotic fashion, I would have fallen in an unceremonious pile to the floor.
His bulging forearm embraced my waist as he withdrew from me, carefully keeping me from collapsing.
He spun me around once more, his eyes boring into mine.
“I get it now,” he said suddenly and I stared at him uncomprehendingly.
“You get what?” I asked.
A wry smile formed on his lips and he brushed aside a stray strand of hair from my face.
“I understand why my father never wanted to deal with the real world,” he said, lowering both our bodies to the floor.
It didn’t matter that there was debris from the renovation all over the ground or that the sweat on our bodies was attracting every inch of dust.
We were far too lost in one another to notice such unimportant details.
“Did your father have a hard time dealing with the real world?” I asked, surprised that he was volunteering such personal information.
He had spoken so little about himself since I had arrived.
That’s because he’s been so busy trying to learn about you, I realized.
“My mom always wanted my dad to walk the straight and narrow line, to go get a job and move us out of the mountains. She was a city girl who fell in love with my dad when she was here visiting family.”
My eyes widened but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to ruin his desire to tell the story.
“But he refused. He kept us up here, away from everyone. We lived off the land for my entire childhood.”
I tried to imagine what it would be like to live like that, just me, mom and Jillian, away from everyone else.
The last two days with Harding had been a dream to me. I had never felt safer or more secure.
I could live like this my entire life, I was sure.
“Why did he do that?” I asked when Harding didn’t continue and he smiled.
“He wanted to keep my mom to himself. He didn’t want to share her with the rest of the world.”
I stared at him to see if he was kidding but the way his eyes burned into mine, I could see he meant every word.
“And I get it. For the first time in my life, I think I understand my father entirely.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“You would keep me away from the rest of the world?” I asked lightly but there was genuine emotion in my voice.
“If that’s what you want, Eloise, I will spend my entire life building us a fortress up here away from everyone’s prying eyes.”
My smile slipped.
“And what about Jillian?” I mumbled, hating myself for bringing darkness into his sweet words.
“I hope she’s agreeable to what you want,” he answered smoothly. “Because I’m afraid you’re the only one I will answer to from now on.”
It seemed surreal that we could know after such a short time together but there was no doubt in my mind that Harding was the one.
I opened my mouth to speak but he shook his head, stopping me.
“Tonight, we are going to storm the camp and get Jillian,” he told me. My heart leaped into my throat.
“That sounds dangerous,” I whispered. “What if – ”
“It does sound dangerous, doesn’t it?”
My head spun around and I cried out as Randolph entered the entranceway with my sister in his arms.
There was a pistol pointed at her head.
“Jillian!” I screamed, leaping to my feet.
I didn’t even care that I was half-naked. Harding jumped at the same time.
“Get back!” Randolph barked at us, using Jillian as a shield. “Don’t do anything stupid or your sister is going to get it!”
Through my peripheral vision, I could see Harding looking around for a weapon but my gaze was fixed on Jillian.
And of course those damned mutts are nowhere around when we need them, are they?
“Jillian, are you hurt?” I asked her, reaching toward her.
“You can catch up back at the Community,” Randolph told me, waving the gun at me to follow. “Let’s go.”
“Neither of them is going anywhere,” Harding said flatly. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll turn around and walk out of here before you wind up in over your head.”
Randolph snorted.
“Look who’s talking! You’re the one who led us here with all your nosing around. If you hadn’t come by, we would have had no idea where to find Eloise. Come on, Eloise, Sir is waiting.”
“I am not going back!” I cried, trying to keep my voice strong. “You can’t force me to go with you, Randolph.”
“You can come with me or your sister is going to get seriously hurt and then I’m just taking you back to Sir anyway. Don’t be stupid, Eloise.”
Jillian’s face was opaque with fear.
“Run!” she whispered and Randolph scowled, twisting her arm roughly behind her back.
“This is illegal,” Harding called out. “You can’t keep women locked away behind barbed wire fences and make them marry the same man.”
“Sir can do whatever he wants,” Randolph scowled. “He is a prophet and these women belong to him.”
“These women belong to no one.”
Aaron appeared in the doorway, tossing rifle at Harding’s open arms and pointing another at R
andolph’s head.
“Let Jillian go, Randolph,” Harding said, reaching for my sister.
Jillian gasped and fell forward where I ran to hug her trembling body.
“Shh, it’s okay now,” I promised her. “No one will hurt you now.”
Randolph snorted, lowering his gun.
“This isn’t over, Jackson. We’ll be back for the Danzer sisters.”
“If you or anyone else from your commune step one foot on this property, I will shoot you dead. That is a certifiable promise,” Harding told him.
Randolph’s face turned pale but he managed to keep a sarcastic smile on his face.
“You’ll see,” he said in a mocking tone but he hurried out of the cabin, gun in tow.
“You can’t just let him go!” I bawled, holding onto my sister who stared around the room in shock. “Sir will be here within the hour!”
“No he won’t,” Aaron promised, stepping forward to extend a hand to Jillian. “The authorities should be on their way to the Community as we speak. Denton Crowe is not coming near either one of you again.”
Jillian looked at me but I was just as perplexed. To my surprise, she did take Aaron’s hand, however.
My brow furrowed in confusion.
“Why are the police going there? On what grounds?”
“Didn’t you hear what he said? He admitted to kidnapping and holding you both hostage under Crowe’s orders.”
“But how will the police know that?” I demanded crossly. I was beginning to feel like a pawn in a game.
“Because I called Aaron through my pocket when Randolph arrived and he called 9-1-1 and kept them on speaker phone. They heard everything and it was being recorded,” Harding explained, stepping to my side.
He hugged me close and I relaxed into his huge frame as I reached for my sister’s hand.
“So that’s it?” Jillian muttered, her blue eyes shocked and dazed. “We are free of him?”
I wasn’t sure I believed it myself but Harding had never given me any cause to doubt him.
Now was no different.
“Maybe I’ll find something for Jillian to eat,” Aaron suggested. “While you two find some clothes before the police arrive.”
I gasped aloud, looking down at my naked body in shock but when I met Harding’s eyes, he only laughed.
