Deceived (Free Indeed Book 2), page 6
“So what’s up with that place anyway? Free Indeed.” Cara asked. She was so antsy right now, she’d even settle for conversation with Mr. Stoic over there. Plus, any additional information he could give her on what she was up against would only help her in the long run.
“They’re a group of people that feel led by their God to live a separated lifestyle away from worldly influences.” Still no eye contact, but at least he was talking to her, so that was good. Away from worldly influences...what a horrible way to live. Not to mention boring. She happened to love her worldly influences just fine. In fact, she insisted on being around them as much as possible.
“Their God?” She asked him to try and keep the conversation flowing, “So you’re not a card-carrying member here?”
Other than another grunt which escaped his lips, all she got in reply was a shrug of his shoulders.
Cara tried again, “So if you’re not religiously motivated, then you’re what...in it for the money?”
“Why? Is this where you tell me you’ll double my offer if I look the other way and let you escape?” Jake smirked as he kept flicking through her phone while he spoke. “And just what can Cara Elliott, WVU computer science major offer me? You got a lot of money left over after all of those steep tuition fees?”
Indignation covered her face as she crossed her arms over her chest, “You’d be surprised. For your information, my parents happened to leave me a very nice sum of money. So you just name the amount your precious patriarch Gideon is paying you, and I’ll make it worth your while.”
Jake finally stopped messing with her phone, his fingers suspended above the screen. The man looked up somewhat surprised and met her gaze. “Both of your parents are dead?”
“Well, yes,” she stammered. His question and change of topic threw her off and momentarily defused her anger.
A look of compassion swept across his face. “I’m sorry. Is Gideon all you have left for family?”
“I’d hardly call that sorry excuse for a man family. We never got along the entire time he was married to my mom.” An unhappy laugh escaped her lips, “Actually never got along is a generous way to put it...technically we hated each other. He’s like the Gaston to my Belle. The Kylo Ren to my Rey. The Humperdinck to my Buttercup.”
Jake laughed at her nerdy over-emphasis. “Then why follow him here?” he asked curiously. “Why not just write him off and never see him again?”
“My mom was murdered,” Cara whispered quietly. “Just before she was—was killed, she had discovered some of Brian—I mean Gideon’s secrets. She had pictures and other things hidden in her personal safe. I also found out she had just filed for divorce from him. I’m not sure if she had him served with the papers yet, but she definitely had them all drawn up and ready to go. It just seemed all too convenient having my mom murdered just at that moment. I needed to find out if what she found out about him was true.”
“You think Gideon had something to do with your mom’s death?” Jake asked softly.
“I’m afraid he may have. And I need to find out for sure because that would make her whole murder a thousand times worse. And if he had anything to do with it, he needs to pay! My mom deserves that.”
Jake studied her for a moment, just taking in what she had said without comment. At least he wasn’t ridiculing her for trying to be her own detective and quite frankly, failing miserably. Not only did she lose her evidence, but she got captured and might not make it out of this alive. If that wasn’t the definition of failing miserably, she didn’t know what was.
Finally, his attention turned back to that blasted phone, and he fiddled around for a couple of seconds. When he had found what he was looking for, he stood up and walked across the wood-planked floor, taking a seat right next to her. He shoved the phone under her nose so she could see one of the photos from her gallery.
“Is this why you came here looking for Brian Landers?” The picture in front of her was the one she had taken of Brian’s driver’s license that was in her mom’s safe. “Because he had ID and went by that name?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. No point in denying that. Besides he had proof of it right in front of him anyway.
He used his thumb to flick through the other licenses she had taken photos of. “And these? He had all of these other IDs with his photo?”
“Licenses, even social security cards. My mom must have found them somewhere because she had photos of them all in a file on my stepdad.”
“Hmm,” Jake murmured.
“That’s why I was confused when you told me that other man was Brian Landers. He certainly wasn’t the Brian Landers I knew.”
“He actually is Brian Landers.” Jake gestured with his hand at the phone, “All of these names: Joseph, Frank, Philip...they’re all the names of men who live here in Free Indeed.”
Cara snapped her fingers as realization dawned on her, “One of the things I saw on Gideon’s computer before I swiped it was a spreadsheet full of personal information. It was full of names, socials, birthdates, licenses, mother’s maiden names, everything important.” She paused for a moment to look at Jake, “If he has access to all of the personal information for everyone that lives here, he would have almost unlimited identity theft access. And if he has a way to make fake IDs, he could get away with almost anything because everyone would blame the crime on one of his followers.”
“And his people would willingly turn over all of that information to him when they join the community,” Jake surmised thoughtfully. “They all tend to trust Gideon unfailingly in all things. He is their Patriarch after all.”
“Did Gideon start this place?” Cara asked out of genuine curiosity. Somehow that didn’t seem to fit. Gideon was conniving and devious, but starting up an entire religious community—that just seemed like way too much work for him. He was never a hard worker. He was more of a let other people do the hard work for him type of guy.
“No. It was actually founded by his father in law. Gideon came along several years after it was started and wound up marrying the man’s daughter. When the old man died, he named Gideon as his successor.”
“Well that’s convenient,” Cara muttered under her breath. “What happened to his wife?”
“All of this was before I came here mind you, but the word is that she had an accident and fell down the stairs. Broke her neck instantly.”
Cara’s eyes flashed in interest at his words. So Gideon had two dead wives now. Very interesting.
“It happened shortly after Abby was born...the little girl you met in the sanctuary. So that’d be about five years ago,” he continued.
“Wow.”
At Jake’s raised eyebrow in question to her comment, she continued, “My mom and Gideon celebrated their five year wedding anniversary a couple of months ago. They had dated for at least a year prior to that. So that means he was already married to another woman when he started seeing my mom. He may have even been married to both of them at the same time. What an absolute dick!” Disgust laced her tone at the thought.
Jake grunted again. Since he didn’t expound any more than that, she wasn’t sure if it was in agreement or disagreement with her comment. Either way, she definitely got the impression Jake wasn’t a groupie of Gideon’s Hellfire and Brimstone Club. And that made her feel just a little bit better about her situation. Not a lot, mind you, but just a tad.
“Why do you put up with him? Why do what he says?” There went those firm, broad shoulders with another shrug instead of a real response.
“Back to my original point. Despite what you think, I can pay you.”
“I don’t want your money,” he said simply before returning his attention right back to her phone.
“Well, what do you want then?” Now she was getting exasperated. Couldn’t the man just look her in the eye and tell her what was running through that annoying man-brain of his?
“Maybe I just like to take beautiful, pain in the ass women for rides in my car,” he replied with a smirk.
Cara stared at his little half grin as his words penetrated her brain. He literally just insulted and complimented her in the same sentence. Jackass. If he thought that sexy little smile of his would smooth his words over, then he was mistaken. She crossed her arms over her chest and glowered at him defiantly. His amused smirk got even bigger before his attention once again dropped to her phone.
Annoyed, worried, and starting to get bored out of her mind, Cara twisted on the couch so she could relax and lie back while tossing her legs up to dangle them over the arm of the couch.
“Well, I know why I put up with him.” If he wasn’t going to participate in a conversation with her, then she’d just have to have a conversation with herself. “Because I love my mom, and for some strange reason that defies common sense, she loved that bastard. So I kept the peace with him so my mom would be happy. However, the only time I was happy in that house when either when he wasn’t there or when I was pissing him off. Kind of like when I hacked his computer.”
Despite her best effort to keep it in, a small snicker escaped that soon turned into full out laughter. “The look on his face was so priceless! He looked like he wanted to murder me. Which is probably in very bad taste to joke about considering he actually would do it—but still, it was funny.”
“You really shouldn’t piss Gideon off,” finally the man put his two cents in. “He’s a very dangerous man, especially when he doesn’t get what he wants.”
“Well screw him. I intend to see that he gets what he deserves. Which, by the way, is technically your job, Deputy Badass. If you agree that he’s such a douche involved in illegal crap, why don’t you do anything about it?”
“Because I didn’t have the technological know-how to get into his computer myself.” Brows furrowed his penetrating eyes stared intently at her, “And then one day before I get the chance, a pesky little interloper comes along and wipes his hard drive clean.” He slapped his hand against the side of the couch for what she considered was really unneeded emphasis.
Cara just rolled her eyes at him. God, she got the point already. Ok, so she screwed up. She freely admitted that at this point.
Jake leaned forward until he invaded her personal space. He literally got within inches of her face and was so close she could smell his aftershave. Speaking of...yummy! Woodsy, masculine, and all consumingly sexy.
“Gone.”
The abrupt word broke her out of her reverie. Wait, what? What was he talking about again? Bad Cara. She needed to focus on her situation, not her too sexy for his own good captor. Blinking her eyes, she forced her focus back on the man sitting next to her as he continued talking.
“All of the proof needed to put him away for the rest of his life...and you deleted it.”
Oh yeah, that’s what he was talking about. He was insulting her again...the douchebag. “Don’t you use that tone with me, Deputy Badass,” Cara butt in indignantly. “I’m not a complete dumbass. I’ll have you know I did make a copy first.”
A glint lit up Jake’s eyes that if she wasn’t mistaken, looked almost hopeful, “That’s great! Where is it?”
“You’re crazy if you think I’m just going to tell you that. I can’t turn over the only thing I have that I might be able to use for leverage. Let’s just say there is a backup, and if you or whoever you work for want it, then you need to get me safely away from here.”
“Despite what you think, I don’t actually want any harm to come to you. Wouldn’t it have been nice if someone had warned you to stay away? Oh wait—I did. But of course, you’re too busy being Nancy Drew to give a crap what anyone else says.”
Cara bristled with anger at his tone, “Well excuse me for just trying to find out what was up with all the secrets and lies in my mom’s final hours.”
“Oh really, and what exactly did you learn, Cara?” Jake shouted back. “Did you learn anything that will actually help you in your quest to bring down your stepdad? What proof do you have? Anything? Or is it all just speculation at this point?”
“I know enough to realize Dickhead Brian is up to something majorly illegal.” Cara suddenly went silent for a moment as she pondered what she just said. “Old habits die hard. I guess I should call him Dickhead Gideon now,” she murmured. “Since he’s obviously not the real Brian Landers.”
A snort sounded from Jake’s direction at her comment, “Actually, you better not settle on an official name yet until you figure out which ones are aliases and which one is actually correct.”
Cara turned to look over at him, “Do you know his real name?”
“Possibly,” was all he replied.
She raised one eyebrow at him and said, “It’s not nice to keep a girl in suspense, Deputy Badass.”
Jake laughed, “While my ego appreciates the choice of nickname, I think it might be better if you just called me Jake.”
“Whatever, Lord Badassdom.”
Jake just rolled his eyes at her in response. She wasn’t sure if that was an annoyed response though or more of an I find you kind of amusing type of eye roll. After all, he should find her amusing. She was an amusing type of girl.
And then he went back to tinkering on her phone, which meant she was back to being bored and waiting for her stupid stepdad to show up. A sigh of annoyance burst from her lips as she sank back into the lumpy, uncomfortable couch.
As she tried to make herself more comfortable, Jake’s head snapped up and turned toward the front door. Without a word, he stood up and made his way to the window. Pushing one of the curtains aside, he looked out.
“What is it?” Cara asked when she saw him visibly stiffen.
“Gideon and Paul are here.” He let the curtain drop back to its position as he turned back to face her. “Look, just don’t make any more trouble, ok? Just answer his questions and tell him what he wants to know. And for God’s sake, don’t aggravate him any more than you already have.”
A huff of exasperation escaped her lips at his words. It wasn’t like she deliberately tried to upset her stepdad. They were just mortal enemies who forever rubbed each other the wrong way.
On second thought, ok so maybe she did do everything in her power to piss him off. But in her defense, it was like the only way to get any type of retaliatory dig against him. He spent all his time kissing up to and blindsiding her mom when she knew he was just a jerk all along. The only way she felt like she could get back at him was the subtle, and ok, most of the time not so subtle digs.
Today though, for her own self-preservation she would try her hardest not to upset the man. And not because Deputy Badass told her to either. Nope, she was doing this because it was her best chance to stay alive right now.
Chapter 7
Jake released his grip on the curtain and let it slowly drift back down to cover the filthy windowpane. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make out too much of Gideon’s mood through the heavily tinted car windows, but from what he could tell, the Patriarch did not look happy.
Well shit, Jake thought to himself. Whatever was about to barge through the front door didn’t look good. Most likely that meant Gideon didn’t have his information backed up anywhere, and Cara screwed him over good. Damn that little minx! She was just too smart for her own good, and this time she pissed off the wrong man.
Tossing a glance over one shoulder, he took in Cara sitting as demurely as she could on the couch. Her hands were clasped in her lap, and her long sexy legs were crossed at the heel giving her the appearance of a fancy lady. If it weren’t for the glaring whiteness of her knuckles from where she clenched her hands so tightly, he may have thought she was calm as could be. Good for her. She had spunk, that was for sure. Despite the fact that she was being a pain in the ass and getting in the way of his investigation, he had to admire her for her determination and chutzpah. He only hoped it didn’t get her killed.
His long legs covered the distance to the couch in just a few strides. Big brown apprehensive eyes stared up at him when he stopped. The sound of two car doors slamming shut outside made her flinch. With a sigh of resignation, Jake lowered himself into a crouch to put himself more on her eye level. He didn’t want to freak her out any more than she already was. But dammit, he needed her to listen to him if she was going to make it through this alive.
“So, I realize you’re a stubborn little thing who’s not really Gideon’s biggest fan,” her snort of agreement interrupted his speech. “But I need you to rein all of that in and just focus on not being a pain in the ass to your stepdad right now. He’s on edge, and right now anything can set him off.”
Her eyes flashed in his direction as she shot him a glare. After a momentary stare down, the glare turned into an eye roll, and she huffed in exasperation before slouching down into the couch in what he hoped was a sign of submission. Actually, that was probably way too generous based off of what he knew about her in the short time they were together. Maybe it was more of a sign of acceptance. Either way, he’d take it.
Footsteps thudded onto the front porch just before the door swung open with a tired creak and the two men entered the cabin. Gideon walked a couple of steps into the living room before stopping directly in front of the couch where they were sitting. The patriarch stared down at Cara, lording over her with his much larger bulk. Arms crossed against his chest, he glowered down at the woman in front of him.
“Have you had time to think about what you’ve done?”
Jake felt Cara bristle in anger next to him at the man’s tone. God, the man was such a dick. She wasn’t some five-year-old child who stole cookies from the jar when no one was looking. Cara was a grown woman, and even he felt insulted for her in the way Gideon was bearing down on her.
“Why yes, Brian, I have.”
Oh boy, Jake thought at the snarkiness creeping into her voice, this wasn’t going to be good.
“I’ve been praying and meditating since we arrived and after having a heartfelt, lengthy conversation with the Big Guy,” her pointer finger rose and pointed toward the roof, “He told me He forgives me for my subterfuge because He thinks you’re an uber-douche too.”
