Darkness at the Edge of Town (Iris Ballard #2)(53)

Paul and Helen stared at me as if I’d just killed their puppy, and the rest exchanged disbelieving glances. “Y-You lied to us?” Helen asked. “Why?”



“My brother,” I said with a sigh. “I was just looking for my brother.”

“Oh, now you care about him?” Megan spewed.

“Bu-But you didn’t have to lie,” Helen said.

“Okay, then where’s The Apex?” I countered. “Tell me.”

I scanned everyone, stopping on Helen. Megan stepped in front of her. “We’re not telling you a damn thing.”

“Exactly,” I said. I surveyed the whole group again, this time stopping on Paul. I smiled sadly. “I am sorry I lied to you all. I am. You all seem like very good people. I didn’t mean to hurt you any more than you’ve already been hurt.” Paul stared down at the floor. “Let me just get my purse and I’ll leave.”

The group parted as I walked to my chair and collected my purse. Thank God I already had the fork with Helen’s fingerprints on it. I just wished I’d had a gun as well. A small part of me expected at least one of them to attack me. I could sense the hostility in the air, but they only glared. Thank God. I stopped by the front door, trying to catch Helen’s eyes, but she kept them down. “Please take care of yourselves. And each other. I am sorry.”

“Get the fuck out,” Megan said with a sneer.

“Sorry.”

With my head hung, I walked out of The Temple back into the hot, humid evening. I sighed as I continued down the path. “Goddamn it.” I had no idea what I was going to do next. I couldn’t think. I still felt all their disappointment, their anger, their sadness at my betrayal, as if I’d absorbed them through my skin. I was more upset about that than the fact that I’d blown my cover. I hurt them, especially Helen and Paul. I may have pretended to be a cold-hearted bitch in general—okay, sometimes more than pretended—but as I did my walk of shame to my car, my soul hurt a little. A lot.



I reached my car and unlocked it when I heard, “Hey! Wait!”

I spun around and found Megan running toward me. My first instinct was to check her hands for weapons, and thankfully I didn’t find any. She just wore a smirk and narrowed eyes. I still remained on my physical guard. A catfight was possible. Megan stopped a few feet away and folded her arms across her chest. “You’re pretty good, you know that? You barely set off my bullshit radar. I can usually sniff out a bullshitter and user within a minute.”

“As can I,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Nice to see you clothed this time.”

“Is it really? I saw the gleam in your eye. You were tempted.”

“You are excellent at your job,” I conceded with a smirk. “I respect your skills. I do. If you used your mind nearly as much as your body, you might have gotten farther in life than whoring yourself for some second-rate David Koresh wannabe.”

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” she said with a sneer.

“Right, darling. Just keep telling yourself that. I’m sure you desperately wanted to sleep with every man and apparently some of the women who walked through that door because you were attracted to them all. It had nothing to do with the fact that Mathias told you to be nice to the new recruits to keep them coming back. You are aware that’s what you were doing and why, right?”



She just glared at me, seething, nostrils flaring. “If you’re so smart, then how did you not know a serial killer was coming to kill your husband? You know, the husband you cheated on?”

I rolled my eyes. As if I hadn’t heard that one already. “It is too fucking hot out here to keep trading insults for hours. You came out here for a reason. Can we get to it?”

She sized me up, her chin jutting out in defiance. “Why are you here? Really?”

“I told you. I just came to make sure my brother was okay. To see him. To talk to him. To make sure he knows what he’s doing and the consequences of his decisions. That is it.”

“And you’re here all on your own?”

“I’m not here as part of some FBI sting, no.”

“You’d have to tell me if you were,” she said.

That was a myth perpetuated by the movies, one nobody in law enforcement wants to snuff out for this very reason. “I’m not. As far as I know, the FBI and local law enforcement don’t give two shits about your little cult. Of course, that can change at any time. Like say I don’t get to see my brother or God forbid something happens to either one of us? Although I have to ask myself, why all the secrecy and concern if your group has nothing to hide?” Megan’s scowl grew. I sighed. “Look, I have been on the road for weeks. I haven’t seen my dog or my home in all that time. I have a book to write, and I’m staying with my mother, which is as enjoyable as you can imagine. I want to go home. But I can’t do that until I physically see my brother and make sure your group is really what he wants. Facilitate that and you will never see or hear from me again, because quite frankly, you and your little group are beneath my attention,” I lied. “I see my brother, I leave. Simple as that. But tell your guru I am not a patient woman, and I do have the FBI on speed dial.” I pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, wrote down my cell number, and handed it to her. She went to take it, but I held on and caught her eyes. “You are better than this. You all are.”