Calder suspected he was trying to keep his father’s attention off Rebecca. It seemed to work, at least for now.
“I was hoping to get you to come home before your sister found a way to escape again and managed to rope you into all of this. I did it to protect you. The church is your legacy.”
Robby scoffed. “Then why did you send some man to my apartment to kill me?”
Jeb Shaw laughed. “Oh, that wasn’t me either. Tell him, Rebecca. Tell him how you selfishly sent a dying man to break into your brother’s home and sent him to his death.”
Robby’s gaze widened as he turned on his sister so Calder could no longer see his expression. “What? You sent that man after me? Why? What did I ever do to you?”
Rebecca started to cry, waving her hands as if she could erase it all. “It wasn’t like that. I was trapped here. Samuel was starvin’ me. He kept me tied up in here for two weeks. The only person I saw other than him was Dennis. He was new. He was dyin’. He came here hopin’ for salvation, forgiveness for the things he’d done when he was leadin’ a life of crime in Boston. He knew he’d made a mistake almost immediately. We talked when he’d bring me water twice a day and let me use the bathroom. After two weeks, he said he’d help. He’s the one who got me the burner phone, and he’s the one who agreed to get you a message. He tried to talk to you that night, the night you got arrested at the club, but he couldn’t get anywhere near you and when he did, you just blew him off. He wasn’t tryin’ to kill you when he broke in…he was just tryin’ to deliver a message…from me.”
“I killed him,” Robby mumbled. “I killed an innocent man.”
“He was already dead,” Rebecca cried. “He had pulmonary hypertension. It was fatal.”
“Is that supposed to make it okay?” Robby snapped, back heaving.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I just needed help. Father’s just tryin’ to turn you against me. Ask him why he didn’t seem at all shocked that Samuel was stockpiling weapons. Ask him. Where do you think he got the money?”
Robby whipped his head towards his father. “Why? Why would you help him after you worked so hard to distance yourself from him? Jesus, you gave him one of your children just to keep the church's precious name. Why would you bankroll his psychotic break?”
Jeb scoffed. “Why do you think? I only needed him to keep believing in this ridiculous notion of creating God’s army long enough for him to amass enough evidence on the property to make sure he and this ridiculous hippie commune were taken out for good. Hell, why do you think the ATF already knew about this place? I’m the one who told them he was a danger. Once he was behind bars and this whole little band of sycophants disbanded, Magnus Dei would no longer live in the shadows and people would stop calling us a cult.”
“So, you set him up? Did you know he planned to kill everybody?” Robby asked.
“Okay, I confess, that was not part of the plan, but it honestly couldn’t have worked out any better. With no survivors left, this place will become nothing more than an urban legend, a footnote in the history books. Just another failed cult.”
“What about all of us?” Robby asked, voice shaking. “You can’t force us to drink poison and nobody is going to believe Samuel blew his own head off with a different caliber gun after shooting himself in the stomach.”
Robby put both hands on his hips, and that’s when Calder saw it. A gun. Robby had a gun in his waistband. Calder’s stomach lurched as a million scenarios played out in his head. Robby hated guns. He hated them. He’d said so. He hated violence and hitting people. If Robby went for the gun and his father shot him, that would be it. Game over. But Calder didn’t have a clean shot. He locked eyes with Linc from across the barn, but he shook his head. Rebecca and Robby had inadvertently turned themselves into human shields. If he could only get one of them to step out of the way.
“Well since nobody will ever know I was here, I don’t really care what they imagine the scenario is. I helped Samuel create this place. I know where every tunnel lies. I have been moving in and out of the compound unseen for months, and once I take care of you four, I’ll use the tunnels to slip back out, and nobody will ever even know I was here.”
Calder could feel the tension building, like a wire about to snap. He did the only thing he could think of. He stepped out of the darkness. “That’s not entirely true,” he said.
Jeb swung the gun at Calder. Robby’s eyes went round, and he lunged for Calder, screaming, “No!”
Calder didn’t even have time to say anything. He saw the flash of the muzzle, and then Robby was falling forward into Calder’s arms, a look of surprise on his face that caused Calder’s heart to stop. Two more rounds rang through the barn, and then Jeb fell to the floor, but Calder didn’t care. He was only looking at Robby. Calder fell to the ground cradling Robby, holding his hand to the wound on the right side of his chest. “Don’t you fucking die on me, angel. You hear me?”
Robby smiled, his pupils blown wide. “It’s okay. It doesn’t even really hurt much.”
Those words sent ice water rushing through Calder’s veins. He whipped his shirt off and stuffed it over the wound. “Call the paramedics!” he shouted. “I don’t care if they have to get a fucking chopper out here!”
The two children were crying, and Rebecca was standing with her hands over her mouth, watching her brother bleed out. “Oh, God. Please help him.”
From somewhere off in the distance, he heard Linc say, “Connolly, there’s an emergency kit in my bag. Go get it and get back here immediately. Webster, get a medevac team and the cops out herenow.”
Calder just sat there, helpless as Robby gazed up at him with this hazy sort of smile, like they were staring at each other on their wedding day instead of what was actually happening, which was Calder watching the life drain from Robby’s eyes. “Stay with me, angel. You hear me? We’ve got plans. A whole life together. Don’t you dare fucking close your eyes, just keep looking at me, okay?” Robby nodded, but his skin was chalk white, even his lips. “Don’t die on me, angel. I love you. I’ll give you anything you want. A ring. A kidney? A house full of kids and rescue animals. Anything.” He looked over at Linc. “Where the fuck is the ambulance!” Connolly returned, and suddenly, they were trying to pull Robby from his arms. “No, stop.”
“Get him!” Linc shouted, and Connolly grabbed Calder while Webster and Linc pulled Robby’s shirt away. Calder almost vomited at the size of the wound in Robby’s shoulder. The bullet had blown through muscle and tissue like paper.
Linc opened a small kit and grabbed something that looked like a syringe. He grimaced as he looked at Robby. “I’m not gonna lie, kid. This is gonna hurt like a bitch.” He shoved something into the wound and Robby screamed like Linc was ripping his soul from his body. Calder fought to get free but Connolly was a tank compared to Calder. Connolly held him back as Linc slapped a dressing over the wound. “That should stop the bleeding until they can evacuate him to the hospital.”
As soon as Linc stood, Connolly released Calder and he scooped Robby carefully into his lap. His eyes were wet and blood flecked his snowy white skin but he just smiled. “You promise?” he whispered.
“What?” Calder asked.
Robby gazed up at him, his breathing labored. “The kids, the animals…the ring. You promise?”
