Wife Number Seven (The Compound, #1)(9)

My doll.

Oh no.

He’d report me. I’d be in so much trouble.

Dread swept over me, causing my heart to pound, and Winnie gasped. But Porter was calm. Within seconds, he’d hopped off the forklift and had retrieved the small doll, then placed it in my hand. A sweet, nonthreatening smile wreathed his face.

He nodded his head toward me. “There you go.”

Stunned at his kindness, I had looked up at him and breathed out, “Thanks.”

“Brinley,” Winnie had snapped, yanking me away by the elbow. “We need to go. Now!”

? ? ?

I’d never forgotten that day.

But this Porter was different. His skin tone was gray and sickly. The whites of his blue eyes were red, so bloodshot he looked as if he hadn’t slept in weeks. His hair was tucked under a beanie cap despite the warm summer weather.

I said his name again. I had to. I needed him to know that despite his departure from our compound, from our world, I knew exactly who he was.

“Porter . . . Porter Hammond.”

H closed his eyes, as if he were trying to block out any memory of that name or of someone who might remember him from his childhood in the compound. When he opened them again, the anger in his eyes was alarming. I didn’t know those eyes. They looked possessed.

“Fucking drop it,” he said through clenched teeth and I gasped, shocked by his choice of words.

What had happened to him? My grip loosened unintentionally and he managed to rip the bag from my hands.

And then he ran. Fast.

Suddenly, I remembered the two things in that bag that could not be lost.

I couldn’t let Burt down . . . or Rebecca. And I needed those pills.

Within seconds, I had climbed to my feet and was chasing after the boy I had known for years, one who would never have stolen from others. A boy who was once kind and forgiving. I ran as fast I could, but the gap between us grew larger until the boy faded away.

I couldn’t catch him.

He was gone.


Chapter 5

“What do you mean? How did that happen?” Aspen stood with her hands hooked on her narrow hips, a look of disgust twisting her pale face.

“I was distracted and he snatched it away.”

“Are you all right?” Rebecca asked, her fingers grazing my elbow.

I couldn’t look her in the eye. She had no idea that I’d let her down, that I’d lost the note from Burt. Even though I was hesitant to help him, he’d trusted me the moment I put that envelope in my purse. If Rebecca didn’t respond, he’d assume her silence was a message, a decision of some sort. He wouldn’t know the truth.

I couldn’t let that happen. They’d been through enough already.

“I think I bruised my bottom,” I replied, “but I’ll be fine. I’m just afraid of what Leandra will say.”

“She won’t be pleased, that’s for sure,” Aspen said, pursing her lips together. “How much money did you lose?”

“Twenty-five dollars.”

Both women sighed. With eight wives and twenty-nine children to support now that Rebecca and her boys had joined our family, money was tight in our household. Lehi worked a minimum of fifty hours per week on construction projects both in and outside of the compound. I didn’t want to add to his exhaustion or work load.

“She’ll ground me, won’t she?” I asked, starting to panic. If Leandra didn’t allow me to leave the compound, I’d never get my purse from Porter, or be able to visit the clinic each month. I’d be pregnant by fall.

No, no, no, no, no!

It was happening again. My chest tightened, my cheeks turned hot, and the room spun in circles. Another panic attack.

“Brinley?”

I knew Rebecca was standing next to me, but her voice sounded as if she were whispering to me from the end of a long, narrow tunnel. I was slipping away.

“Come on,” Aspen said, wrapping an arm around my waist. “Shh, breathe. You’re safe. You’re all right.”

But I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t settle down. I knew I wasn’t all right.

“What’s going on?” a shrill voice demanded.

Leandra walked in with Gloria in tow, the second wife. In my head, I referred to Gloria as “the shadow” because she was constantly in Leandra’s wake. She didn’t say much, but I knew not to cross her. Her loyalty to Leandra and Lehi was paramount to her, even above her own five children.

Aspen glanced up. “Something awful happened today. Brinley was robbed.”

“Robbed? Oh sweet Lord above, are you all right, girl?” Leandra moved to my other side and slipped her arm around my waist to keep me upright.

I hated when she called me “girl.” It was just another assertion of her superiority as the first wife. Aspen and I were both called “girl” on occasion, and I knew it grated on Aspen’s nerves as much as it did on mine.

But that was the least of my worries. I was having a hard enough time focusing on the wallpaper of the kitchen, just trying to breathe, rather than worry about what Leandra had called me.

“She’ll be all right,” Aspen said. “It wasn’t her fault. The man had a gun.”

My heart twisted a little tighter inside my chest. Aspen had lied! She never lied.

And I was the cause of it.