The Montana Cahills

She still looked worried. “You don’t know Jonas. He’ll be furious that I went to the law. He’ll also deny everything.”

“We’ll see about that.” He went around the truck and slid behind the wheel. As he started the engine, he looked over at her and saw how anxious she was. “Lola, the man has taken our daughter, right?” She nodded. “Then I don’t give a damn how furious he is, okay?”

“You don’t know how he is.”

“No, but I’m going to find out. Don’t worry. I’m going to get to the bottom of this, one way or the other.”

She looked scared, but said, “I trust you with my life. And Grace’s.”

Grace. Their child. He still couldn’t imagine them having a baby together—let alone that some cult leader had her and refused to give her up to her own mother.

Common sense told him there had to be more to the story—and that’s what worried him as he drove to the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Cahill would sort it out, he told himself. As he’d said, he liked and trusted Flint. Going up to the compound with the levelheaded sheriff made the most sense.

Because if what Lola was telling him was true, they weren’t leaving there without Grace.

* * *

SHERIFF FLINT CAHILL was a nice-looking man with thick dark hair and gray eyes. He ushered them right into his office, offered them a chair and something to drink. They took chairs, but declined a beverage.

“So what is this about?” the sheriff asked after they were all seated, the office door closed behind them.

Colt could see that Lola liked the sheriff from the moment she met him. There was something about him that exuded confidence, as well as honesty and integrity. She told him everything she had Colt. When she finished, though, Colt couldn’t tell from Flint’s expression what he was thinking.

The sheriff looked at him, his gray eyes narrowing. “I’m assuming you wouldn’t have brought Ms. Dayton here if you didn’t believe her story.”

“I know this is unusual.” He glanced over at her. Her scrapes and scratches were healing, and she looked good in the clothes they’d bought her. Still, he saw that she kept rubbing her hand on her thighs as if not believing she was back in denim.

At the store, he’d wanted to buy her more clothing, but she’d insisted she didn’t need more than a couple pairs of jeans, two shirts, several undergarments and hiking shoes and socks. She’d promised to pay him back once she could get to her own money. Jonas had taken her purse with her cash and credit cards. Her money was in a California bank account. Once she had Grace, she said she would see about getting money wired up to her so she could pay him back.

Colt wasn’t about to take her money, but he hadn’t argued. The one thing he’d learned quickly about Lola was that she didn’t expect or want anything from him—except help getting her baby from Jonas. That, she’d said, would be more than enough since it could get them both killed.

At the time, he’d thought she was exaggerating. Now he wasn’t so sure.

“I believe her,” Colt told the sheriff. “What do you know about The Society of Lasting Serenity?”

“Just that they were California based but moved up here about five years ago. They keep to themselves. I believe their numbers have dropped some. Probably our Montana winters.”

“You’re having trouble believing that Jonas Emanuel would steal Lola’s child,” Colt said.

Flint sighed. “No offense but, yes, I am.” He turned to Lola. “You say your only connection to the group was through your parents before their deaths and your return to the States?”

“Yes, they became involved after I left for college. I thought it was a passing phase, a sign of them not being able to accept their only child had left the nest.”

“You never visited them at the California compound?” the sheriff asked.

“No, I got a teaching job right out of college in the Virgin Islands.”

Flint frowned. “You didn’t visit your parents before you left?”

Lola looked away. “By then we were...estranged. I didn’t agree with some of the things they were being taught in what I felt was a fringe cult.”

“So why would your parents promise you to Jonas Emanuel?” the sheriff asked.

She let out a bitter laugh. “To save me. My mother believed that I needed Jonas’s teaching. Otherwise, I was doomed to live a wasted life chasing foolish dreams and, of course, ending up with the wrong man.”

“They wanted you to marry Jonas.” Flint frowned. “Isn’t he a little old for you?”

“He’s fifty-two. I’m thirty-two. So it’s not unheard-of.”

The sheriff looked over at Colt, who was going to be thirty-three soon. Young for a major in the Army, he knew.

“I doubt my parents took age into consideration,” Lola said. “One of the teachings at the SLS is that everyone is ageless. My parents, like the other members, were brainwashed.”

“So you went to the compound after you were notified that your parents had died,” the sheriff said.

“I questioned them both dying especially since earlier I’d received a letter from my father saying he wanted out but was having a hard time convincing my mother to leave SLS,” she said. “Also I wanted to have them buried together in California, next to my older sister, who was stillborn. My parents were both in their forties when they had me. By then, they didn’t believe they would ever conceive again.”

“So you had their bodies—”

“Jonas refused to release them. He said they would be buried as they had wished—on the side of the mountain at the compound. I went up there determined to find out how it was that they had died within hours of each other. I also wanted to make him understand that I would get a lawyer if I had to—or go to the authorities.”

“That’s when you learned that you’d been promised to him?” the sheriff asked.

“Yes, as ridiculous as it sounds. When I refused, I was held there against my will until I managed to get away. I’d stolen aboard a van driven by two of the sisters, as they call them. That’s when I met Colt.”

“Why didn’t you go to the police then?” Flint asked.

“I planned to the next morning. I’d gone into the back of the hotel when I saw one of the sisters coming in the front. I ducked down a hallway and literally collided with Colt. I asked for his help and he sneaked me up to his room.”

The sheriff looked at Colt. “And the two of you hit it off. She didn’t tell you what she was running from?”

“No, but it was clear she was scared. I thought it was an old boyfriend.”

Flint nodded and looked to Lola again. “You didn’t trust him enough to ask for his help the next morning?”

“I didn’t want to involve him. By then I knew what Jonas was capable of. This flock does whatever he tells them. The few who disobey are punished. One woman brought me extra food. I heard her being beaten the next morning by her own so-called sisters. When I had my daughter, they took her away almost at once. I could hear her crying, but I didn’t get to see her again. The women would come in and take my breast milk, but they said she was now Jonas’s child. He called her his angel. I knew I had only one choice. Escape and try to find Colt. I couldn’t fight Jonas and his followers alone. And Jonas made it clear. The only way I could see my baby and be with her was if I married him and gave my life to The Society of Lasting Serenity.”

Flint pushed back his chair and rose to his feet. “I think it’s time I visited the compound and met this Jonas Emanuel.”

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