David Kelleher stood on his porch and sipped at his honey whiskey. The sun was setting over the mountain, the sky streaked with purple and red. The kind of sky his mother would have called heaven sent, and gone on to talk about how lucky they were to live in the mountains of Idaho.

He liked them much better without her here. His father, too. The day they died was his emancipation, the start of something better and his own kingdom atop the hill. It was good they were gone. When they were alive, they’d spent their meager earnings from the farm on flying to private therapist appointments for their son’s delusions of grandeur.

Stupid people.

He tossed back the rest of his drink, the cloyingly sweet liquor what he considered to be Bacchus’ nectar of the gods.

His birthright to drink it up.

In his mind’s eye he could see Cassidy as she tried to drink it down, the image colliding with an equally appealing fantasy of her giving him oral sex. He liked the new girl—even more than Julianne—and that was saying something.

The thought of his betrayer made him sneer.

Fucking reporter.

He’d worked tirelessly to build The Community into what it was today, poised on the verge of mass adoption, and that bitch had nearly ruined everything. Thank goodness for the tip he’d received that warned him of her true identity before it was too late to stop her from exposing Longwood Ranch and his followers.

He needed her to disappear. It had been a difficult order to give, his desire for the woman and his need to punish her warring in his mind until good sense had finally prevailed.

Now Julianne was dead, but Cassidy was very much alive. She certainly seemed like an honest soul, but hadn’t Julianne seemed like one, too?

Touching her at dinner had gotten him hard, the soft firmness of her thigh and the uncomfortable way she tossed her hair. He smiled. She’d been flustered, and he liked his women flustered when he took them to bed. Too willing and it sucked some of the fun from the experience. He needed that uncertainty in order to have something to conquer. A branch to bend, an arm to twist backwards.

He thought back to her reaction when he asked if she’d been with a man. She’d been shocked, certainly. But he didn’t think he’d be so lucky as for her to actually be a virgin. In this day and age, people had no sense of sexual morals, no reason to hold off pleasure today for a greater pleasure tomorrow. The idea of saving yourself for your future husband was considered antiquated and unnecessary.

Not for long.

The Community was going to change all that.

Longwood Ranch was its own little world, a sample of the larger society, proving his ideals could survive on a grand scale if given the chance. Like a seed sown in ready soil, his community would flourish in the wider world. He needed only to till that soil and destroy the weeds that currently covered the earth with sinners and non-believers so his doctrine could take root.

Then there would be virgins for any righteous husband, ripe for the picking.

Or breaking, as the case may be.

Thomas walked onto the porch, Lucas on his heels.

“What have you learned about Cassidy?” David asked.

Lucas looked to Thomas before speaking, continuing only after the other man gave a nod. “Cassidy Lane is a schoolteacher from Richmond, Virginia. She’s never been married. Her parents are deceased and she’s an only child.”

So she’d been telling the truth. He grinned as he walked to a table and poured himself more honey whiskey. “Gentlemen, I believe I have found the woman I will marry.”

“Perhaps in time,” said Thomas.

David spun to face him at the blatant insubordination. “I decide when. Not you, and you not entitled to an opinion in this matter. Unless of course God has been whispering in your ear without telling me?”

Thomas looked suddenly pale. “Of course not, Brother David. Only you have the ear of the Lord.”

“That's right.” He turned to Lucas. “Good work, man.”

“Thank you, Brother David.”

David looked back to Thomas, defying the other man to contradict his next words. “I will have her before we take down Seattle.”

Thomas’s eyes registered no emotion. “As you wish, Brother David.”

“Good. How is the training going?”

“Very well, sir. The men have truly taken to the assault rifles. They believe they are for hunting.”

“They are lambs who must become bulls. First we teach them the skills, then we plant the desire to proselytize. Only when I say so will the transformation begin.”

“As you wish,” said Thomas.

“Brother David?” asked Lucas, his brows knitted together. “Should we pray for the people of Seattle, that they may find conversion before it is too late?”

The earnest expression in Lucas’s eyes filled David with pity for this man who thought anyone was worth saving. “No, Brother Lucas. It is already too late for them.”

He finished his drink and slammed the glass down. “I have courting to do, gentlemen.” He turned on his heel. Cassidy no longer wished to go for a walk with him, but that was no deterrent to his plan.

She would accompany him. She would walk anywhere he wished to walk, and she would like it.