The Church (The Cloister Trilogy 3)

“So you can jump me?” I’ve never seen her control herself like this. It’s like she has a leash and she just pulled a hair too far. Now she’s been jerked back to her owner, scolded, and made to fall in line.

“No, you little fool. So we can talk.” She leans back, the picture of ease.

I edge up and pull my chair a few more feet from the desk, then sit. “About what?”

“Sadly, our darling First Lady—” I don’t miss the venom in the words “—is busy in Montgomery and can’t spend any more time on your training. Instead, I’m in charge of readying you for your marriage to Senator Roberts.”

“I’ll kill him.” I keep my tone even, stark.

She tsks. “I’m afraid you don’t understand how important this assignment is to the Prophet and to Heavenly. It’s come to our attention that, after pulling a few strings, he’s up for a seat on the Ways and Means Committee, which—”

“I don’t care if he’s running for president, if I get the chance, I’ll kill him before I let him hurt me or anyone else ever again.” I mean every word, and I think she knows it.

She keeps her tone even, continuing doggedly. “As I was saying, that seat would give him a broad amount of control over state funding. Projects that Heavenly would like a piece of, ways to funnel money into our godly coffers instead of to the heathens. All this is a high priority for the Prophet. Now, despite my efforts to talk Evan into a more appropriate bride, he’s focused on you despite your diseased mind and body. So I have to do what I can with you. First, we’re going to have to re-tread ground on obedience. You’re sorely lacking in that area.”

“You aren’t listening to me.” I lean forward, returning her stone glare with my own. “I will never marry him. I will fight and scratch and claw and do everything I have to do to end him.”

“Oh, I’ve been listening. So has the Prophet. When I showed him your little tirade in the bathroom at the Cathedral, he was most displeased. But he’s also a problem solver.”

“I think you meant to say ‘also a psychopath.’”

“Funny you mention that.” She smiles, then reaches for the remote.

With the click of a button, the center screen goes dark, then flickers back to life. It’s set on night vision, the scene in odd greens and shiny silver. But I don’t miss the details. The woman strapped to the table, the shiny drop of water on her forehead. My stomach drops, my hands go clammy, and I think I might vomit.

Grace sets the remote down with a hard thunk. “I think you’ll cooperate. Won’t you?”

I can’t look at her, can’t tear my eyes away from the pitch black room in the Rectory where my mother is bound and suffering. “You can’t do this.”

“It’s already done,” she simpers.

“Someone will find out. They’ll look for her. They’ll know you took—”

“An addict?” She smiles, smug and full. “Who would miss a junkie? Maybe her dealer. Maybe the guys she blows for cash. But no one that matters. No one who would report her as missing. She’s trash. Like mother, like daughter. I bet they won’t even notice she’s gone for weeks. Why would they?” She stands and moves around behind me. “If she wound up in the landfill or dead in the gutter, people would think ‘she had it coming.’ Even her own daughter abandoned her.” Her words slither in my ear. “If you don’t bother to tell her the truth or even keep up with where she’s living or what’s she’s doing, why would anyone else?”

“Shut up.” I blink through my tears but can’t look away from the screen. Mom’s arms are drawn out beside her, tied down just as I was. The drip flashes through the dark at the same interval, and I can feel the water drilling into my skull right along with hers. It broke me, but my mother is already shattered. What will this do to her? “Let her go.”

“You don’t give the orders around here, freak.”

“I’ll do what you want. Just let her go.”

“Oh, the time for bargaining has passed.” She circles back around to her desk and grabs the remote. “You will do as you’re told when you’re told. If you do, your mother will remain in the Rectory. Unharmed.”

“Unharmed?” My voice rises on the tide of panic. “You call that unharmed?”

“I call that uncomfortable.” She clicks the remote and the screen changes to a room with a handful of men sitting around playing cards. “I call this true punishment. These guards are off duty at the moment, but one call from me will have them on their way to the Rectory. I figure it would only take one or two to hold her down while they take turns. Then again, she’s so thin now from the addiction, they probably wouldn’t have to work at it. Maybe she’d beg them to do it as long as they promised her a hit.”