Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
And Brose. Another hallucination. He’s not real. None of this is real.
The helicopter lands and the men who came with it all spring into action, opening the door so Amon and a couple of other guys can come in to escort Shep and I out. They’re serious too. This is not a joke because they’ve got those rifles at high ready.
Neither Shep nor I put up any kind of fight. I’m sure he’s lost in his own thoughts, just like I am. Fake? he’s asking himself. How could it be fake? I saw it!
I saw too.
But I also think I was a secret agent for some global shadow government, so…
This actually makes me laugh as I hop down the steps of the copter. Which Collin hears, so he’s giving me a look of concern as his men zip-tie my hands behind my back and start pushing me in the direction of the church.
I could put up a fight. I could maybe escape and call the police, or Jim Bob, and report an attempted kidnapping. But it wouldn’t matter. Since when does my brother live by the same set of laws as the rest of us? And anyway, where the hell else am I gonna go? Would Jim Bob Baptist even recognize me? Would anyone in Disciple care? Do I even have parents? Are they alive? Where are they?
It’s early morning and the air is crisp and cool. I don’t say anything as Shep and I are encouraged to walk towards the church. I just put my head down and look at my feet.
We go inside, go downstairs, and then I pause at the door as Amon comes forward to key the lock. He opens the door, refusing to meet my gaze. Can I blame him? I’m Collin’s crazy sister. When I go though, his eyes lift up to find mine. And I can see it. The mean inside him that he hides so well with that charming and handsome exterior.
But I did, after all, try and kill his best friend. So I guess I get it.
I enter the little prison and walk down the corridor, then stop in front of the cell I was in last night. Collin comes up behind me. “I’m sorry, Olive. I really am. But it’s for your own good until we figure things out.”
I just let out a breath as the glass door slides open, then walk into my cell without saying a word. I mean, what am I gonna say? There’s nothing to say.
I turn, expecting Collin to back out and close the door, but instead he waves Shep into my cell. Of course, he and I were both in here before, but I felt certain, now that they know he’s crazy too, that we’d be locked up separately.
Collin’s reading my mind because he shakes his head and frowns at me. “I love you, Olive. I don’t want you to be hurtin’. I’m not doin’ this to punish you. We’re gonna get you help. We’re gonna fix this. But until we do, this is how everyone stays safe.”
Then, as Shep enters, he backs out. Closing the door on both of us as he continues to look me in the eye.
I turn away first, and when I turn back, he’s already exiting the little prison.
So I turn to Shep and find him looking back at me. I’m just about to open my mouth and try for a joke to lighten the mood, but the main door comes swingin’ back open and Lowyn McBride appears, hands full of blankets and pillows.
She smiles at me. And just for a moment, I’m a little girl again. Of course, Lowyn and I were never friends. I was nothing more than her boyfriend’s annoying little sister. But she was always nice to me. After Collin killed my kidnapper slash father that New Years Eve, we never really talked again though. It was just over. Everything was just over.
“Hey,” she says through the glass. “Collin texted me while you all were riding back on the helicopter and told me to get you a little care package ready.” She holds up her armful of pillows and blankets with a smile. “Collin’s filling up the air mattress.”
“Air mattress?” I ask, my eyebrows nearly up to the ceiling.
“I’m pretty sure that concrete cot over there is meant for bad people, not little sisters. You’re only in here because we’re worried about you, Olive. You know that, right?”
I don’t get a chance to confirm or deny because the door opens again and this time it’s Collin pushing a blow-up mattress through it. Someone in the control room opens the cell door, and Lowyn steps forward with her arms out.
Which makes me open mine in return. I take the blankets from her and step back as Collin shoves the mattress through the door.