Skye Kennedy snuck toward the master bedroom, drawn by Gabriel’s harsh voice and the ominous feeling she couldn’t ignore. She peeked through the ajar door and stared, horrified by the anger blazing in his eyes. Gabriel held Lucy trembling in front of him, his hands fisted in her linen shift dress, his body bent toward her as she leaned away, his face an inch from hers.
Skye didn’t recognize who Gabriel had become.
The boy she grew up with had turned into a very dangerous man.
Poor Lucy. She couldn’t get away. Not that she tried. Fear held her wide-eyed and docile.
Lucy’s fear echoed through Skye.
“What will my bride think if you bring that bastard into this world?”
Rage and disgust filled Gabriel’s unbelievable words. They stopped Skye’s heart.
If she wasn’t mistaken, in this case, “bride” referred to her.
Skye didn’t like being told what to do, which is why she’d never agree to be his wife.
But several of the other Sunrise young ladies couldn’t wait to marry the men Gabriel—in an unprecedented dictate—handpicked for them. They thought it an honor to marry into his inner circle of tried-and-true, trusted friends.
Believers in his new vision for Sunrise.
She didn’t believe in Gabriel’s new direction. It led them down a dangerous road. And if the rest of the Sunrise Fellowship community outside Gabriel’s circle of friends knew what he was doing behind their backs, they’d cast him out once and for all.
But for the sake of the community and all they believed in, Skye worked in the shadows to find a way to take down Gabriel without him turning the tables on her for going against him.
Right now, she feared she’d taken too long to oust him, and Gabriel was about to do something else to prove how far he’d strayed from their ideals.
Tears streamed down Lucy’s pale face. “I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
Skye had no idea, nor did she care, that Gabriel had been sleeping with Lucy.
Gabriel pulled Lucy even closer, their noses nearly touching. “Who did you tell?”
Lucy patted Gabriel’s chest with one shaking hand, trying to soothe him, but nothing, not even the child she carried, seemed to calm Gabriel’s ire. “No one. Just you. Please, Gabriel, he’s your son.”
“Skye will give me strong sons. She’s the only one worthy to be my wife.”
He’d always had a thing for her. She avoided him when possible. When that didn’t work, she tried to be kind like she’d been taught, but careful about how much attention or interest she showed Gabriel.
She didn’t want to give him the wrong idea.
Not that he cared what she wanted either way.
“She will stand beside me. Not you.”
Never. Not going to happen.
A desperate plea filled Lucy’s eyes. “But you said I was chosen.”
Gabriel sneered at her. “You were. To serve me. And you’ve served your purpose.”
So cruel.
He was one of those people who thought everyone loved him and you were lucky to be his friend even when he was unkind.
He held himself in high regard, thinking himself better than everyone else.
Tonight he proved to be far lower than the worst of them.
“You will not have this baby.”
“I won’t give him up,” Lucy wailed.
Gabriel shook her. “You’ll do as you’re told!”
Lucy’s gaze dropped and she shook her head. “You can’t make me.” Her defiance set Gabriel off.
He shook her again, making her head snap back and forth like a rag doll’s. “You will!”
“No!” she shouted right in his face.
He shoved Lucy to the floor and kicked her right in the stomach, sending her body sliding across the hardwood toward the dresser. “Why are you trying to ruin everything?”
Skye pressed her hand over her mouth to cover her shocked gasp.
Lucy screeched, then let loose an agonizing wail.
In a blind rage, Gabriel kicked her again, then stomped his big booted foot right into her thigh as she tucked her legs to her chest to protect herself from further harm.
Too late.
Lucy’s piercing scream echoed in Skye’s ears.
Bright red blood spread and saturated Lucy’s white dress.
Gabriel stood over her, his breath heaving in and out with the fury still tightening his muscles and etched in his face.
Lucy stared up at him, her teary eyes wide and wild. “Why?”
Gabriel gave no answer for his horrendous behavior. If he felt any remorse for his child and what he’d done, it didn’t show.
Lucy clawed at the material, dragging it up her thighs, and stared as blood spread and pooled on the floor between her legs. She clutched her belly. “No!” Pain etched lines on her distraught face.
Skye wanted to rage. She wanted to help Lucy, but fear locked her in place, witness to the horrifying tragedy. Stuck in this terrible nightmare, her mind couldn’t make her body move.
Lucy stared up at Gabriel, her eyes huge and filled with grief and blame and unimaginable sadness. “Y-you k-killed him.”
Gabriel stared down at Lucy. “He was never meant to be.” Those flat words left Skye cold.
He squatted next to Lucy. Skye hoped he’d finally help her. But no, he gripped her jaw tightly in his fingers and glared at her. “My son will be born to my wife, not some whore.”
How had so much malice corrupted his heart?
Shame washed over Lucy’s face, but she retaliated. “Skye w-won’t have you. When she f-finds out . . . you plan to m-make her . . . m-marry y-you . . . tomorrow, she . . . she’ll . . . re-refuse you.”
That truth narrowed Gabriel’s eyes and filled them with renewed fury. He released Lucy’s face and backhanded her, splitting her lip and sending her sprawling on her back. Her head cracked against the floor and her tear-drenched eyes fluttered.
Gabriel pointed his finger in Lucy’s face. “No one refuses me. I am the supreme leader of Sunrise.”
No, he’s not!
There was no such thing here. They worked in cooperation with each other.
But Gabriel wanted to be treated like some patriarch. He demanded people’s respect, but hadn’t earned it through his words or actions.
Tonight, he’d proven he’d lost all reason.
Lucy’s head rolled to the side and her eyes locked with Skye’s through the crack in the door. “Love is free.” Lucy’s breath slowed. “Love is kind.” Lucy sucked in a shaky breath as the blood pool between her legs grew wider and she looked up at Gabriel. “You will never have love, because y-you’re cruel.” Air whistled as she inhaled. Then Lucy exhaled, “Ruunnn,” though barely a sound left her lips.
Lucy bled out and didn’t breathe again.
Skye watched the soul disappear from Lucy’s beautiful hazel eyes. Her heart broke and her mind reeled. She should have done something. Anything to stop this.
But her brain found some reason and whispered the disturbing truth: Get out of here before you’re Gabriel’s next victim.
He couldn’t be reasoned with or deterred from his deadly path.
Ever since his dad died two years ago, he’d changed. Grief gave way to acceptance of his leadership role at Sunrise Fellowship and morphed his childish selfishness and tendency to push the limits into destructive subterfuge.
He lashed out at those who didn’t go along.
Anyone who questioned or defied him suffered his punishing disapproval, fury-fueled tantrums, and petty retribution.
What had once been a peaceful community of people living a quiet, simple, self-sustaining life had become corrupted by power and greed. In one short year, Gabriel had tainted their community-first home, built on cooperation and the farm everyone worked to sustain them.
She took Lucy’s last request to heart, found that her frozen limbs loosened with her resolve to do what she’d been planning for the last few weeks. She backed away on silent feet, and though she didn’t run, she left the man who stared down at the young lady he’d used like she was nothing. The man who in cold blood killed his child and an eighteen-year-old girl and talked as if he ruled the good people who lived their lives in peace at Sunrise.
She tiptoed down the hallway to the home office she’d worked in since she was fourteen, when Gabriel’s father noticed her aptitude for math. He taught her accounting and gave her a purpose greater than the farm chores she’d performed her whole life.
She didn’t bother to go to the phone and call the police. Gabriel’s corruption had spread to them as well and it disheartened her to know she couldn’t turn to the authorities for help. Which left her only one option: run. There had to be someone outside their community and town who could help her stop Gabriel and what was coming.
The threat of discovery made her heart thrash, but she tried to stay focused, fought the fear, and did what needed to be done. Otherwise she’d never be able to take Gabriel down.
She went to the rug in front of the sofa, folded it back, and pushed it away. She pressed her shaking hand on one of the boards and the secret panel popped loose, revealing the safe embedded in concrete. She spun the dial, her trembling fingers barely working. She didn’t know how much time she had before Gabriel left Lucy and called for his trusted “guards” to help him cover up his crime. Every beat of her heart amped her anxiety as she twisted the dial to each number, gripped the handle, turned it, and lifted the door open. She didn’t sort through folders and envelopes, just pulled everything out.
For a split second she stared at the stacks of cash, disgusted by how Gabriel earned them. She thought about the other women he was hurting and the people who’d get hurt if he carried out the plans she’d spent weeks uncovering.
She hadn’t stopped him from killing Lucy, but she would find a way to stop him from hurting anyone else.
She wasn’t a thief. She believed they were all better off when they worked together and shared the rewards with everyone.
But if she was going to get away, she needed help.
She snatched one of the thick packets of cash and stashed it in her cargo pants pocket.
As she’d uncovered Gabriel’s illicit activities and the threat of being caught meddling in his affairs drew ever closer, she’d feared she’d have to run, but she never thought it would happen like this.
There was no time to cover her tracks. She stuffed the files and papers into the messenger bag hanging on the back of Gabriel’s desk chair, pulled the strap over her head and across her body, stared at the picture on the desk, and wished the man she’d admired had been a better father. If he’d disciplined instead of spoiled and coddled, maybe Gabriel would have turned out to be a better man.
With little to no consequences ever imposed on him, Gabriel had become entitled. Now he wanted to be some “Supreme Leader.”
She rolled her eyes at the absurdity of it.
Ironic when Sunrise taught cooperation and equality for all.
No one person, not even Gabriel, dictated their lives. His ego had grown to astronomical proportions. Lucy paid the price for his belief that he could say and do whatever he wanted without repercussions.
Skye planned to teach him a lesson he should have learned long ago.
But to do that, she needed to get out of here before Gabriel discovered what she knew, what she’d done, and came after her.
Even with the police on his side, Gabriel would not get away with Lucy’s murder. She’d find a way. And she knew someone who could hopefully help her. And the others.
Infused with fear and desperation, she ran from the office for the front door and snuck out with barely a click when the door closed behind her. She leaped down the porch stairs and hit the gravel path leading back to the great hall and other cabins. She wanted to follow Lucy’s command, but she kept her head and walked like she had not a care in the world when she had million thoughts and fears circling her mind.
She didn’t want to alert any of the guards who patrolled the property. No one but her questioned why they needed them. Did everyone think someone was out to steal their bumper crop of apples?
No. Gabriel hid something much more valuable and dangerous on the property.
If he discovered what she’d done with it, she’d suffer the same fate as Lucy.
If Gabriel succeeded with his campaign to brainwash everyone into thinking his way would bring them unimaginable prosperity, she feared for everyone’s safety.
What she saw for Sunrise’s future frightened her.
What used to be home, a simple life on this thriving farm, now felt like corruption of everything she’d been taught to believe in and trust.
Gabriel had always pushed the boundaries. His father had tried to reel him in with reason and appealing to his better nature.
Too bad Gabriel didn’t have one.
Now, no one even tried to steer Gabriel away from the dangerous path his compass pointed him down.
No one dared.
So she’d have to be the one to put up the roadblocks and stop him before he reached the point of no return and more innocent people got hurt.
She arrived at the cabin where Gabriel had ordered the young women who were to be married off tomorrow to gather for their last night as bachelorettes. She had been told to join them and enjoy the treats Gabriel had arranged for the ladies before their morning weddings and the reception brunch.
She wondered how Gabriel planned to get her to walk down the aisle.
Didn’t matter now. She wouldn’t be there.
Neither would the other women. She hoped. They deserved to make up their own minds about whether or not they really wanted to marry Gabriel’s men—his guard, as she thought of them.