To the Ends of the Earth (Stripped 5)

My brother’s voice is grave. “I’m here to save you, sister.”

Chapter Twenty

Alex drags me toward the exit, but there’s already a crowd gathered. The doors slam open as paramedics wheel a stretcher inside. My brother makes a growling sound, before dragging me the other way. The only door left leads into a locker room.

He uses a loose pipe throw the metal handle to lock us inside.

“Alex,” I say, my voice shaking. “What are you doing?”

“I told you,” he says, pulling something around my wrists. “I’m saving you.”

“You’re kidnapping me.”

He laughs shortly. “Kidnapping. One of the milder crimes I’ve been accused of.”

“Leader Allen turned you into a monster.”

“Leader Allen was the monster,” he snaps.

My mouth closes. I hadn’t realized he knew that. “He was.”

“He deserved to die. I should have killed him.”

“Alex…if you think that, then why have you been searching for me?”

“To get you away from those…those heathens! Do you think they’re any better, sister? They’ll rape you and throw you away. I saw the way he kept you, never letting you out of his sight. Like some pet.”

Like a little bird he had caged.

Except Luca had every chance to hurt me. Instead he wanted to heal me. “So you’re going to keep me in this locker room forever?”

“Better here than with him,” he snaps.

“He doesn’t hurt me.”

A makes a rough sound. “You sin with him. Tell me I’m wrong.”

I realize Alex is like me—broken by our past, unable to shake the chains. We know that Leader Allen was wrong, but we can’t forget all the lessons. “It isn’t a sin.”

And in that moment, I know it’s true. Love can’t be a sin.

My brother snarls. “I killed him so he couldn’t touch you again.”

I’m stricken. Is he dead? “You’re sick.”

He paces away from me. “Sick. Sick. Sick. That’s what he called me. Sick.”

I blink, confused. Alex was always the perfect soldier for Leader Allen. That’s what he called them—soldiers. His spiritual army. “Who called you sick?”

“Leader Allen. And he was right. I’m disgusting.”

I wriggle my fingers behind my back, but the rope is tight. I can’t break free. “Why are you disgusting?”

“For what I want.” His eyes plead with me. “For what I still want. I can’t get away from it. The sin. The pleasure.”

I swallow past the knot in my throat. “Alex. Leader Allen hurt me. He…” My eyes close against the truth, but the darkness only makes it more real. “He touched me.” I open my eyes again, seeing the same shame reflected back at me. “Did he hurt you

too?”