‘Six weeks ago,’ Zoya said without a trace of sarcasm.
Six weeks ago, when all the Eden shit had been resurrected after Daisy tore a locket from the throat of a serial killer.
‘Fair enough, dochka maya.’ Irina sat next to Karl. ‘So, what steps are required to . . .’ She lifted her brows. ‘Take the motherfucker down?’
‘Love you, Mom,’ Zoya said, her cheeks dimpling again. ‘You are badass.’
‘Don’t push your luck, Zoya,’ Irina warned, her own cheeks growing rosy with undisguised pleasure at her daughter’s compliment.
Mercy dabbed at her eyes. ‘My mother was badass, too. She was . . . brave. I mean, even to pick up and go to Eden at the beginning was brave. She was nineteen and scared with two kids to feed. She made a choice that should have been a good one, but it wasn’t and she did her best to save us.’
Gideon had gone dangerously still, his eyes glittering with tears of his own. ‘I want Ephraim to pay,’ he growled. ‘If that’s life behind bars, so be it, but I want his life over. And then, we go after that prick DJ Belmont.’
‘He killed our mother,’ Mercy told the rest of the family. ‘And I guess I need to tell you about how that happened.’
‘You don’t have to tell us anything,’ Karl said gruffly, one arm around Irina’s shoulders, holding her to him as if she were the most precious thing in his life. Which she was, and that made Mercy so damn happy.
It also made Mercy want the same. And that nearly had her freezing with fear, but she breathed through it. Someday. Someday she’d have a lover, know that she had his unconditional support. It might even be Rafe. But for now she just let herself . . . belong.
Farrah caught her eye and gave her a knowing smile. ‘Took you long enough,’ she muttered.
Zoya bumped shoulders with Mercy. ‘You’re stuck with us, Mercy. Like it or not.’
Mercy liked it. She liked it a lot. There was strength here, free, easy, and available for the taking. The sharing. It was there with the Romeros, too. Just as free and easy. And she’d taken strength from them, from all of them. But this was different. And the reason why was like a bolt of lightning.
The difference was Rafe. And that was something she’d need to consider a lot further.
For now she took some of their strength. ‘So. Let’s start with the main characters in this tale of the dark side.’
Fifteen
Granite Bay, California
Sunday, 16 April, 7.50 P.M.
Rafe slid his hand over Mercy’s thigh under the table, giving her a supportive squeeze. ‘You don’t need to do this.’
Mercy slipped her hand into his, holding on for dear life. ‘Yes, I do. It’s time.’ She squared her shoulders because this wasn’t going to be easy. ‘I don’t remember anything before Eden,’ she started. ‘Gideon does, a little, but from my earliest memories my mama was called Rhoda. Her real name was Selena. Selena Reynolds. She told me that right before she died.’
‘Then we will get justice for Selena Reynolds,’ Rafe said softly. ‘And for you and for all the others that they abused. I promise.’
‘Thank you.’ She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them to see the same determination on each of the faces around the table. ‘My mother was married to a man named Amos when we first arrived.’
‘Married the very next day,’ Gideon said. ‘She was told that it was against the laws of Eden that a woman be unmarried. It presented too much temptation to the men of the compound. But she got lucky, because Amos was a good man.’
Mercy nodded. ‘I think he honestly believed in the Eden principles – you know, purity of living, back to the basics, nature’s way, and all that. He believed in God and the Bible. Sometimes he didn’t agree with the Founding Elders, but he was never disrespectful. He told me once that no one place and no one person or group was perfect. That what we did when no one was watching was the true mark of a person. Amos was kind. Even after Gideon left and Amos was punished by Ephraim taking Mama for his own wife, he was kind. He missed her, of course, but he promised her that he’d take care of me and he did. He woke me up in the morning, traded furniture with the ladies for chores like making my clothes, darning our socks, things he couldn’t do himself.’ She found herself smiling. ‘Although he tried. He was really bad at it.’ She sighed. ‘When I was almost twelve, he came home after building houses all day, so angry. Angrier than I’d ever seen him.’ She looked at Gideon. ‘He cried that day, because he’d just been told that Ephraim was going to marry me.’
André blinked. ‘When you were twelve?’
Mercy had forgotten that he didn’t know about Eden. ‘Yes. Girls married at twelve. A lot of the men waited until the girls were older to . . . you know.’ She aimed a sideways glance at Zoya, who patted her shoulder, sympathy in her brown eyes.
‘They waited to consummate the marriage,’ Zoya said. ‘I get it. But Ephraim didn’t wait.’
It wasn’t a question, and was phrased so matter-of-factly that it helped Mercy go on. ‘No. He didn’t. He had a number of other wives, so it could have been worse for me, but it was bad enough. And that everyone knew that he was a brute and did nothing to stop him made it worse. They were all complicit.’
‘Even Amos,’ Gideon gritted.
‘Even Amos,’ Mercy agreed. ‘Anyway, I’d made Ephraim angry one day and he . . . well, it was enough to spur Mama to action. She was desperate and made a deal with DJ Belmont. He went into town every week or so to trade for supplies.’ She didn’t have to elaborate on the nature of the deal. She could see that everyone understood. ‘DJ was twenty-one at the time. He’d inherited the responsibility for supply runs when his father died.’
Gideon looked down at the table with a sigh. ‘When our mother smuggled me out, it was with DJ’s father, Waylon. I don’t know why Waylon let me live. It’s . . . haunted me for years.’
Daisy sucked in a harsh breath. ‘You will not feel guilty that he spared you,’ she hissed. ‘Whatever the reason.’
Gideon’s smile was sad. ‘Yeah. I’ll send the memo to my conscience.’ He half turned in his chair, pulling Daisy to him. ‘But thank you.’ He kissed her hair, then looked around the table. ‘The night my mother smuggled me out, I’d just accidentally killed Ephraim’s brother, Edward. We didn’t know they were brothers at the time. We thought they were friends. Ephraim came after me with a small mob.’ He swallowed hard. ‘They attacked me and I stabbed Ephraim’s eye out in self-defense. That was what pushed Mama to get me out. I didn’t know that Waylon died soon after I left.’