Messiahs by Matt Rogers (bookstand for reading txt) 📕

through a mental image of what he’d seen in the supply closet, focused on what wasn’t there, and said, ‘Looking for a dustpan and brush. You know where I can find them?’

Dane watched him closely.

Scouring for any hint of deception.

King wasn’t fazed.

He couldn’t allow himself to be.

Dane said, ‘They should be in that closet.’

Were they there? King thought. Did I miss them?

He stuck to his guns. Retreat was surrender. Surrender was death.

King said, ‘I looked. They’re not there.’

‘Check again.’

King rolled his eyes and reached for the handle.

Dane smirked. ‘I’m messing with you. You’re off the clock.’

’The workday’s not over.’

‘You’re right,’ Dane said. ‘But you’re still off the clock. You’ve earned it.’

King nodded his satisfaction. ‘Appreciate it. What’s planned for tonight?’

‘I’ve got dinner with your friend,’ Dane said. ‘That should be interesting. After that, we’ll talk business.’

‘Not before?’

‘You’re in the clear. You’re the man for the job. Will … he’s a wild card. I want to sort him out before I move ahead.’

‘What’s Maeve’s opinion?’

‘Why?’

King held up his palms in an attempt to disarm. ‘That wasn’t supposed to be an insult. I’ve insulted you enough and you’ve held strong. In my book that makes you an ally. I hope you understand it was never personal. I was just … wondering if she had input in this decision.’

‘No,’ Dane answered bluntly. ‘Not for this. She’s in charge of the narrative, I’m in charge of protecting us.’

‘“The narrative”?’

Dane winked. ‘Our little secret. Don’t spoil it for your friend. I’m going to indoctrinate him tonight.’

King found that hard to believe.

Slater wouldn’t buy the philosophy of Mother Libertas for a second.

Dane didn’t move, like he was calmly playing the waiting game, like he knew…

King didn’t have a choice.

To save face, he had to act like he didn’t have a care in the world.

He walked out of the building, past Dane, leaving the man alone in the bunkhouse.

66

Dane waited until King was out of sight, then sauntered down the corridor.

He came to the supply closet and paused in front of it.

Reached out, twisted the handle, and slowly opened the door.

Grayson’s blank glassy eyes stared up at him. His mouth was agape, and a trickle of blood ran from the corner. A switchblade was shoved up to the hilt into the left side of his chest. It would have killed him in seconds, plunging straight into his heart.

What the fuck? Dane thought.

The kid was new. They’d gone to great lengths to make sure he assimilated well. His nosy sister had been making too much noise in Gillette, so they’d sent Brandon and Addison to silence her. Grayson had been a disciple with strong potential, easily exploitable, buying into every word that came out of Maeve’s mouth.

And now this.

Why?

Dane realised raising the alarm would be unwise. He’d already harboured suspicions about the newcomers, but he hadn’t had the chance to pry deeply yet. Tonight was his chance. Isolate Will, the more unhinged of the pair, and get the truth out of him. That wouldn’t happen if he turned this into a war. There were questions that still needed answering — namely, how had Jason silently killed this man a minute after the service had concluded? — and if they were experienced combatants, he didn’t want to lose a dozen disciples to the pair before the sheer numbers overwhelmed them. Casualties weren’t something they could afford right now. Each man and woman here was an important building block of the foundation.

Dane stared at the body a moment longer.

This was something different. This was a new level of skill. Something he hadn’t seen in the flesh before. Whoever had trained Jason … they’d been undeniably brilliant.

And who has those sorts of resources?

He had a call to make.

So for now…

Sleep well, Grayson.

Dane closed the door on the corpse.

67

Dane found Maeve in the sacristy behind the church’s altar.

It was the same room she’d converted Grayson in only a week earlier. That felt like an eternity ago. Dane realised his mistake: expanding too quickly. They’d done zero proper background research on the new arrivals, their attention consumed by how perfectly Jason and Will fit the description of who they needed.

But perhaps that’s what the newcomers had been going for all along.

Maeve looked up from her desk. ‘What is it?’

Dane expunged all memory of the body in the supply closet from his mind, then scolded himself for his idiocy.

She can’t read your mind.

But she was looking at him with a dark glint in her eye.

‘What is it, baby?’

He said, ‘I’m going to test Will. At dinner.’

She raised an eyebrow. ‘You think that’s the way to go?’

‘He’s unstable, unhinged, angry at everyone. But any obstacle can become an advantage. It’s all a matter of the right perspective. We’re chipping away at Jason, and he’s already close to being on board, but it’s a smooth slope for him. His head’s screwed on right. With Will, it’s going to be zero to a hundred. I want to turn it up to a hundred.’

Maeve nodded. ‘Very well.’

‘And I’m going to call Connor.’

‘Why?’

‘I need a deeper background check on them before we trust them fully.’

‘A background check from Connor?’ Maeve said, perplexed. She put her elbows on the desk so she could lean forward and stare into his eyes. ‘What do you know that I don’t?’

‘Nothing.’

‘You’re lying.’

‘I’m not,’ he insisted. ‘But I get that vibe from them. You read the report that came back from the hospital. You saw what they did to those boys in Gillette. That’s not normal. Ordinary veterans don’t do that. I think they’re a cut above.’

‘There’s a big gap between soldiers and Connor’s world,’ Maeve said. ‘They’d have to be several cuts above.’

Dane remembered the knife buried in Grayson’s chest, the smile on the corpse’s face. ‘I think they are.’

Maeve shrugged. ‘Suit yourself. But I trust my intuition. I’m telling you they’re clean.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I sense it in the earth. Mother speaks to me.’

He looked at her.

She was dead serious.

And she was ready to put up a fight if he mocked