Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) by Karen Rose

            “Get your fucking hands off him!” Hayley yelled. “He’s telling the truth. I saw the computer in the healer’s office at the last site. Stop! You’re going to kill him!”

            “Brother Joshua.” It was Isaac, their mother’s husband. “You cannot kill this boy. If he has erred, it’s Pastor’s responsibility to decide his sentence.”

            Sentence? The hope that had speared Hayley’s heart died. Isaac wasn’t going to help them. Why would he? She was sure their mother had told him all kinds of lies about them.

            “Pastor left me in charge,” Joshua said in an ominous tone.

            “Not to pass judgment.” Isaac stepped up to Joshua and forcibly removed his hand from Graham’s face. Then stared at him.

            In challenge, Hayley realized. Isaac wasn’t doing the right thing. He was vying for control.

            Still, it was an intervention, and none too soon, because Graham was wheezing and coughing. Joshua would have killed him while she watched. The rage that had been on a constant simmer since they’d been dragged to this hell erupted.

            “Do none of you care that your Pastor had a computer?” Hayley yelled. “Like you’re pretending not to care that he went to a hospital when he let your loved ones die?”

            The gathering crowd went silent for several long beats before the murmurs resumed. But this time they seemed to be agreeing. With that last statement, anyway.

            “My baby died,” one woman said loudly, even though her husband tried to shut her up.

            “My wife died,” a man said. “She was thirty-five. She might have lived if Pastor had allowed me to take her to a hospital, but he refused, no matter how I begged.”

            “And we can discuss that,” Joshua said in his booming voice, trying to regain control. “For now, this boy has brought contraband into our community.”

            Graham pushed himself to stand at his full height. “Dude,” he said, his voice hoarse from coughing, “I don’t even have my phone. It was the size of a deck of cards and you confiscated it. Where would I have hidden a computer, for God’s sake?” He staggered when the back of Joshua’s hand connected with his mouth. Blood dripped from Graham’s lip.

            Joshua was breathing hard. “You will not take the name of our Lord God in vain.”

            “Fuck you,” Hayley growled and struggled to get up.

            Rebecca pushed her back down with ease. “You are a whore,” she hissed in Hayley’s ear. “If you don’t shut up, I’ll cut this baby from your body and make your brother watch.”

            “Lady, you’d better take your hands off me.” Hayley was calm now.

            “Or what?” Rebecca murmured.

            Hayley ground her teeth impotently. Because Rebecca was right. She had no power here.

            Graham wiped the blood from his mouth. “I repeat. Where would I have hidden a computer? And a set of solar panels? And a satellite dish? You’re out of your fucking minds!”

            Joshua’s fist made a crunching sound as it struck Graham’s jaw. “Be silent!” he roared. “If our healer possessed these things before you arrived, how is it that no one has seen them?”

            Graham went down and Hayley tried to crawl to him, only for Rebecca to yank her back.

            A single voice cut through the noise. “I have.”

            Again, silence reigned, the only sounds Graham’s muted groans and Joshua’s panting breaths. One of the oldest members pushed her way through to stand next to Joshua. Her nose wrinkled in distaste at Graham’s smell, but she squared her shoulders to glare up at Joshua.

            Joshua was a big man and this old woman was tiny. Her name was Sister Judith and she led the quilters. Hayley had never spoken with her in the weeks that she’d been here. Joshua turned his attention to the old woman, giving her a death glare that didn’t seem to frighten her.

            From the corner of Hayley’s eye, she saw Tamar skirt the crowd to get to Graham, dropping to her knees to help him. Tamar gave Hayley a reassuring nod. Graham was okay.