Claire

It was time to fess up everything. “Please just keep driving. Can we go to your house until I figure out what to do?”

“No, ma’am. I ain’t moving this truck another centimeter until you tell me why you lied to me.”

She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying not to visibly shake.

“I took my sisters and brother away from my parents because where we lived was unfit for the children. I was the only one who remembered what life was like before they moved us in with these…people.”

Devin needed her to clarify. “Wait, back up. Are you saying your parents joined a cult?”

She nodded. “They started out as a group of quasi-militia, friends who collected guns and swapped conspiracy theories online. Then before long it got real. My parents moved us in with their friends. They were a bunch of weirdos who wanted to live like the Amish except for that whole passive resistance thing.

“They wanted to build an armory to fend off the government, for whatever reason, so they bought a farm and built a house on some land in rural Ohio. When I was thirteen, I started asking lots of questions, and then I found out what was really going on. They said I was pledged in marriage, and that in order to keep the community going, I was going to marry their leader, Mister Benjamin, as soon as I turned 18. Until then I was to remain home with no contact with other males. I was only allowed to go on chaperoned dates with this man I was pledged to. I wanted none of it. They said, as a female I shouldn’t ask questions. I kept pushing back and I was punished. They made me go to work handling the pigs. That’s where they sent the “unholy” girls. The ones who wouldn’t allow themselves to be groomed for marriage but who weren’t old enough to be kicked out of the community.

“Needless to say, I never made it to college. That was a lie, and I’m sorry. I wanted to leave the compound, but my mom kept having more babies. I think somehow she knew this would get me to stay. But because I worked outside with animals, with little supervision, I was able to do odd jobs around the area for the Amish folks. I think they felt sorry for me and would make up things for me to do.

“I wasn’t sure if I could get the authorities involved. It didn’t feel like they were doing anything technically illegal. I suspected the leader, Mister Benjamin, was bilking people out of their savings, because he had the nicest accommodations of anyone. Everyone pretended not to notice.

“So I kept my head down and saved up until I had enough to buy a crummy car, and then one day I gassed it up and woke the kids up in the middle of the night and we drove away. Then we stopped here. I don’t know why. And I’m sorry I lied to you. I didn’t want you to be caught up in the drama, if they found us.”

“Well now it looks like I am caught up in it,” Devin said. She couldn’t tell if he was angry. But he was frighteningly calm.

“Are you mad?”

He shook his head and looked out the window at nothing. “I’m sad. I’m disappointed. Next time you want to lie about where you’re from, maybe don’t tell a story about your parents being dead, especially not to a person whose parents actually are dead. I’m sorry your parents are kind of dumb and in a cult, but it’s far from being dead.”

Then it looked like Devin’s truck was headed back up her street. “Where are we going?”

“Back to your house. We’re going to talk to your parents.”

Claire folded her hands in her lap. “I thought you might say that.”

“Two things. One, after we deal with them, I’m going to need time to think,” he said.

Tears fell down her cheeks and dampened her coat.

“And the second thing, hand me your phone.”

* * *

“Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.”

Devin stayed in the truck with the engine running to protect the sleeping kids.

God, he must hate me right now.

“Jillian, what in the world were you thinking?”

Claire had played this scenario over so many times in her head. She thought she knew exactly what she would say. She thought she would be ready to bolt again. But she had been so preoccupied with her new life, she had let things get in the way of being vigilant.

“I…I’m sorry, Mom. I had to. You know why.”

Dad spoke this time. “Jillian, changing your name like that? Taking your grandmother’s name? It was like an extra slap in the face. It took us a while, but you knew he would hire people to find you. He’s not stupid.”

Claire squared her shoulders at her father’s words. “No, he’s not. The problem is, you are, Dad. You were supposed to protect us and take care of us. How could you allow that man to take your money? How could you watch them treat your daughter that way?”

“Honey,” her Mom began.

“Mom, I don’t want to hear it. You know we had to get out of there. You wanted to leave, too, but you wouldn’t. I didn’t want to separate you, but I had to do something. I was the only one of sound mind who could. In fact, I’m shocked he even let you all leave the compound to come here.”

Her mother huffed as she looked her oldest daughter up and down. Her eyes haughtily took in the short dress, the sparkly costume jewelry and the brooch on her coat. “I see you’ve still got my mother’s whorish jewelry.”

“Grandma Claire was the only happy thing that ever happened to me in my life, until I left and came here. These kids are not safe with you as long as you’re still on the compound. And you know it. It’s craziness.”

Just then another car door closed. Claire hadn’t seen the black town car parked two doors down. Walking toward her, with a huge burly man who could only be a bodyguard, was the man himself. Mister Benjamin.

Here was the man who started it all. The one she was supposed to marry and had caused her to be effectively shunned by the community.

“Don’t. Come. Another. Step. Closer.”

“Jillian.” The man with dyed black hair and deep dimples may have, at one time, charmed the adults in the small gatherings in the isolated countryside. But to Claire, he was always the devil. “It’s so good to see you again. We missed you. The girls all miss you and your sense of humor.”

He wasn’t listening to her. He was, in fact, coming closer.

“Get back in your car and go home. I will call the police.”

He held up his hands and stepped closer. “You’re not going to call the police. Because you kidnapped underage children and transported them across state lines. Your parents and I should be calling the authorities on you.”

She laughed. “So why didn’t you? Do you think maybe it had something to do with the fact that you are scamming people out of their life savings and you don’t want any authorities peeking into your business?”

“That’s a very creative story, Jillian.”

Behind her, Devin stepped out of the truck. Then she heard her mother gasp and saw her father raise a protective arm to shield his wife. “Claire, get in the truck. Now,” Devin said.

She turned and saw Devin. He had the calm, cool and collected but deadly fucking serious face of a father lion facing off a pack of hyenas. He wasn’t angry, but he wasn’t having it. The shotgun propped up nonchalantly against his shoulder didn’t hurt, either.

Claire listened. She hopped into the truck and locked the doors. Thankfully the kids were still asleep in the back. Good lord, what had they done all evening that got them so tired out, she wondered. She would have to remember to thank Maggie and Jackson for whatever it was.

Catching sight of the shotgun, Mister Benjamin finally stopped his approach toward the truck.

But he didn’t stop talking. Of course. He never stopped fucking talking.

“It’s amusing to me you come at me with guns. Our little community came together to leave violence behind. We came together to live apart from violence, to protect ourselves from the outside world. And see what happens? The moment one of our sheep gets lost, she gets mixed up with the violence of the world in a matter of weeks.”

She heard Devin say, though it was muffled inside the truck, “You’re a real smooth talker, old man. Especially with your thug protecting you. Are you gonna tell me that dude isn’t carrying? That you and your whack job friends aren’t all about to shoot me right now?”

Benjamin got another condescending look on his face and started to speak, but then soon realized he was being drowned out by the sound of thunder and blinded by lightning.

Claire looked around, but it wasn’t thunder or lightning. It was about a dozen or more motorcycles approaching.

“What the…”

Obviously, all three sleepy kids in the back seat were awake now.

May said, “What’s going on? Where are we? Who are they? Are we being robbed?”

“Cool! Motorcycles!” Stan said.

Layla was upset. “Oh shit, it’s Mad Max time and I don’t even have my supplies put together.”

Claire turned around and explained to the kids exactly what was happening. That their mom and dad had shown up to take them home. And that she and Devin had made some new friends who were coming to help keep them away if the kids didn’t want to go with their parents.

Layla shook her head. “No way I’m going back there.”

Stan simply started to shake and cry, and then wriggled out of his car seat and crawled into Claire’s lap.

She looked at the middle sister, May. “It’s up to you if you want to go with them. You don’t have to decide now. We can tell them to go away and we can handle this through the police if you want.”

May looked thoughtful. Then she said, “I want to talk to Mom and Dad.”

Moments later, everyone was out of the truck. Claire found the one called Brick and the bikers cleared a path for May.

May walked across the pavement to confront her parents. They spoke for a moment. There were tears. There were hugs. They were out there a long time. But ultimately, Claire’s parents got back into their car and drove away. Not wanting to lose sight of his members, Benjamin got back into his car with his bodyguard and followed them.

The bikers stayed put. Claire put her arms around May and asked what she decided.

Through tears, she said, “I told them I want them to come live with us when they leave Benjamin.”

Claire squeezed her sister. “You are a brave little girl, do you know that?”

She nodded and put her arms around Claire’s waist as they watched the taillights fade away.