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“Wales?” Winston slammed his fist on the coffee table that night. “He’s taking Dee to Wales?”
“That’s what Rena says.” Lydia paced across Winston’s hardwood floor, barefoot in the oversized T-shirt she wore around the house.
“God, why did you go over there? I told you to stay away.”
“If I hadn’t gone we wouldn’t have known his plans.” She sobbed, hyperventilating. “We can’t let him take my...my sister.”
“It’s okay.” He hopped over to her and hugged her. “Don’t cry. I’m not letting Jonathan take Dee anywhere. If I got to kidnap Dee, I will.”
“How did this happen?” She put her arms around him. “I’m so scared.”
“I’ll talk to Shauna.” He looked her in the eyes. “I’ll see if she knows anything.”
She sighed, sitting on the couch.
He called Shauna and asked if he could come over and she agreed. “Okay, see you in a few minutes.” He put his phone up and got his keys off the table. “I’ll be back in a little while.”
Lydia stretched out on the couch.
“Do me a favor and stay the hell away from Jonathan. I mean it. That guy’s a creep.”
She fixed the pillow under her head. “He tried to seduce me.”
Winston scoffed, rolling his eyes. “What did you expect?”
“Rena said if Jonathan takes Dee we’ll never see her again.” She raised her head. “That’s what he’s wanted all this time.”
“He’s not taking Dee anywhere.” Winston headed out the living room. “I promise you that.”
****
“He’s got a new compound in Wales.” Shauna poured a cup of coffee in her kitchen that connected to her living room of sun-yellow walls and blue furniture.
“Sure you don’t want cinnamon coffee?” She sipped from her mug wearing a low-cut, lace robe that Winston believed she’d worn to entice him.
“When is Jonathan going to Wales?”
“I don’t know.” She sashayed into the living room and sat on the blue sectional beside him. “Oops.” She glanced at her chest, fixing the white lace. “I’m hanging out, huh?”
“You hang out a lot.” He exhaled. “Or is it just when I’m around?”
She smirked, tightening the ribbon around her waist.
“You have no idea when he’s planning this trip?”
“It’s not a trip.” She crossed her long legs. “He’s moving everyone there when the compound is finished.”
“Fuck.” Winston turned his body toward her, wiggling his foot. “I can’t let that happen.”
She stirred her coffee with the tiny spoon, a frown crossing her lips. “He wants to make Deidra Head Mistress. He knows you’re planning to get her back.”
“Damn right.” Winston chewed his bottom lip. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting Jonathan take her to Wales.”
“He loves Wales because it makes him feel closer to his dad.” She shrugged. “He says whenever he goes there it’s like his dad is still alive and he loved his dad very much.”
“Have you seen the other compound?”
“Yes, he’s taken me a few times. You think his compound in Broadville Port is big, you should see the one in Wales.” She whistled. “Jonathan calls the new one his ‘paradise away from the world’.”
He studied her as she sipped. “How long have you known Jonathan?”
She looked at the ceiling, batting. “I met him when I was twenty so it’s been about sixteen years.”
“That’s a long time.”
She held a boastful smile. “I was the first member of The Circle.”
Winston propped his elbow on the back of the couch. “How did you meet?”
“I needed rescuing, and he was there.” She curled her legs underneath her. “My husband was very abusive.”
“You were married?”
She nodded. “Right after high school when we were eighteen because I got pregnant.”
Winston gaped.
“I have a daughter.” She lowered her eyes, sniffing. “Yeah, she’s a grown woman now. Boy, time passes fast. She lives in Philly with my family. My parents raised her. Things were horrible with my husband. He was wild and drank like every other young man who refuses to grow up. Couldn’t keep a job. We struggled. My husband suggested we move here when we were twenty.”
“Why Maryland?”
“He has family here in Baltimore and they claimed they would help us out and help him get a job but he slipped more into drinking and after that nothing else mattered to him. I wanted to go back to Philly, but he got possessive and controlling.” She flexed her toes covered in red nail polish. “I fell out with my family because of him. I was just a shell with no self-esteem and no confidence. Only the thought of my daughter kept me going.”
“Can’t imagine you without confidence.” He scratched over his goatee. “You have more in your pinky finger than some people have in their whole body.”
“You can credit that to Jonathan. We met at this plant convention he was speaking at.” Her face brightened. “I love plants and flowers. That’s something we have in common.” She blushed. “I’d never met someone so brilliant and commanding. He has this aura about him that stops you in your tracks and...” She touched her bosom. “He was the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen.” She snickered at Winston. “One of the most gorgeous, anyway.”
“Sounds like you hit it off.”
“He was as drawn to me as I was to him. We become friends and, I confided in him about my husband.”
“And, he used that to lure you away because you were vulnerable.” Winston straightened up. “I can guess the rest of the story.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Didn’t he have plans to start The Circle before you came along?”
“Well, yes but—”
“He recruited you, Shauna. Like he does every woman.”
“No, he cared about me.”
“He planned to hook someone that day, and you were it.”
“You’re making me sound like a naïve child.”
“He focused in on your vulnerabilities and made you think he was your savior or the only one who understood you. That’s what cult leaders do. He took advantage of the situation.”
“Jonathan loved me. Our relationship was different from him with the other women.”
“Is that why you’re here alone? What does Jonathan have to do to lose your loyalty?”
She cut her eyes from him, taking a sip from her cup.