She sat on the edge of the bed. “You’re saying that tomorrow is my decision? Then give me my options.”
I sat back and ran my hands over my face. My normal scruff had grown longer and softer. “Number one, we say good-bye to each other and you’re taken to someplace safe. I’m leaning toward that option, by the way.” I didn’t know how far I was leaning that way, but her being safe outweighed the alternative.
She nodded. “You want to say good-bye?”
“No, Sara, I want you safe.”
“And option number two?” she asked.
“Number two, we go back to the Northern Light and resume our lives.”
“Option two means that you get to continue your assignment and keep working to bring down Father Gabriel?”
I nodded.
“What happens to Father Gabriel if I choose option one?”
“Well, right now he’s at the Eastern Light.”
“In that huge-ass mansion in Bloomfield Hills?”
“Jesus, you know about that too? Don’t tell me Richards took you there.”
“No! He didn’t even know that I knew about it.” She shrugged. “I guess he did know I knew about the house. I remember him being with me when I looked it up on Google Earth, but the way I figured it out had to do with a trail of ownership. I deduced that Father Gabriel was really Gabriel Clark, son of Marcel Clarkson.”
I stared in amazement as she recounted the accurate information. No doubt The Light had taken her before she could expose them. More accurately, Richards had handed her over before she could expose The Light. As she finished speaking, she asked, “So what happens to Father Gabriel?”
“If you choose option one, the FBI will move as soon as it can. They want their raids coordinated. If neither of us returns to the Northern Light, those in control will undoubtedly get suspicious. I don’t know the particulars. There’s a lot I’m still learning, but I suspect the Commission on each campus has a plan in case of discovery.”
“What kind of plan?”
“Like I said, I don’t know.”
Sara stood and paced, the blanket falling from her shoulder, revealing the satin strap of her white bra. “A plan, like Jones’s Kool-Aid?”
“It’s not your concern. You didn’t ask for any of this.”
“What about all the followers? What about our friends, the women who didn’t ask to be there? What about the children?”
I shook my head. “That’s not how this works. I can’t pick and choose. I can hope the raids happen before the Commissions figure it out. I mean, they all have to be timed perfectly.”
“But you said you don’t know it all. Why can’t you go back without me?”
“Because I can’t explain your disappearance. If I show up without you, they’ll go after you. That’s why you can’t go back to your life. You have to go into witness protection.”
“What? Wait! That’s what you mean by me being safe? No way. No fucking way.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose as I fought the urge to bring attention to her insolent tone and vulgar language. “Excuse me?”
“I said no.”
Standing, I towered over her petite frame. “I’m not risking your safety. Besides, what if you’re . . .” I motioned toward her midsection.
“Then you’re going to send me away to have a new identity, like two aren’t enough? And you’re never going to see me or our baby again?”
“What the hell? Ten hours ago you were trying to call Richards. Would you have let him raise my kid?”
She crossed her arms over her breasts. “Ten hours ago I thought you were some whacked-out Light fanatic who’d kidnapped and assaulted me. And with that profile, hell yes, I wanted to get away from you.”
“Light fanatic?” I asked with a hint of amusement.
She snickered. “Besides, I’m not pregnant.”
“What? I thought you said it was too early?”
“It is, officially. I mean I don’t know. So we shouldn’t base anything off the unknown. Talk to me about what we do know.” Before I could answer, she continued, “Let me start. If I don’t go back with you, the FBI will raid all three campuses . . . today? Father Gabriel is in the big-ass mansion, which is probably one of the worst places to catch him, and if the raids aren’t perfectly timed, there’s the chance of Kool-Aid?”
I shrugged. “No confirmation on Kool-Aid.”
“If I go back, we continue to live as we did. We continue to gather evidence to bring down Father Gabriel, otherwise known as Garrison Clarkson, and The Light. And we give the FBI more time to coordinate the raids.”
“No.”
“No?”
“There’s no we. There’s me. The FBI can’t ask a civilian to enter into an investigation.”