Ben (The Sherwood)

Heath sat beside me. He took out his phone. “Is this really the time to make a call?” I asked.

He shot me a look and put his finger to his lips. “I need you,” he said when somebody answered on the other end. “Yeah, I got troubles.” I waited while Heath listened. Then he said, “Thanks man.” He pocketed the phone after hanging up the call.

“Who was that?”

“Don’t worry about it. The less you know the better.”

“Arrest him,” Matt said again after the other deputies climbed in their vehicles and left our home.

Hawk pulled out his phone. “I can’t Matt.”

“Why not?”

“I received this.”

He handed Matt his phone and he watched what I assumed was a video. He stormed past me and Heath sitting on the steps. We got up and followed him. Everyone else was following us.

“What the fuck is this?” He bellowed at Lilah. The ladies were cleaning up in the kitchen.

Whatever it was, horrified Lilah. “I didn’t know.”

“Know what?” Matt shouted. “That you were videotaped enjoying being treated like the whore that you are?”

“Matthew,” our mother scolded him. “Your son is listening.”

“I’ll take him outside with me,” Walker declared. “Suddenly I don’t want to be in this room.”

I didn’t know if he meant because of Lilah and the video or the because of Matt’s behavior.

“Lilah, I lost my barn, part of my crops. I could have lost my son.” He was still shouting in her face.

She was shaking her head. Tears streaming down her face. Her body trembled. Somehow, whatever Matt saw in that video I don’t think it was quite what it appeared to be. Disa didn’t either.

She handed me Asia and stepped around Matt. She wrapped her arms around Lilah and that was her undoing. Her knees buckled, and she went straight to the floor of my mother’s kitchen. She scratched her nails across the hardwood floor and sobbed unintelligible things. My heart ached for her. The sounds coming from the phone repeated over and over for all of us to hear.

“Stop,” she screamed.

Rachel yanked the phone out of Matt’s hands and snapped at him, “What is wrong with you?”

“I just want an explanation.”

He dropped onto the floor in front of her. He lifted her, so she was facing him. I had never seen someone so devastated. “That wasn’t me,” she sobbed. “It was who I had to be to survive him.”

Then she threw herself i

nto Matthew’s arms. He didn’t know what to do at first. Mom cleared the kitchen except for me, Disa, Matthew and Lilah. She sat on a kitchen chair. I stood rooted to the spot watching my brother try not to hold Lilah and losing the battle.

His arms went around her finally. “I’m sorry,” he whispered as he stroked her hair.

She shook her head no. “I don’t deserve your apology,” she responded. He rocked her, neither of them saying anything.

Disa got to her feet and came to me. She buried her face in my chest and I held her close with Asia between us. Her hand resting against my daughter’s butt.

Matthew pushed Lilah back. He gripped her biceps. “Lilah if you aren’t a threat to him because of the kidnapping charge why does he want you so badly?” He asked.

She swallowed hard. Her eyes never left Matthew’s face. “He took me to the house that you referred to.” She wiped her hand across her face. An elder followed him there.”

“Which elder?” Mom asked.