Desert Guardian Read Online Free

talk about it. To come up with a concrete plan, I'll need to
know more about your brother, your relationship with him, and his relationship
with his father."  
    Not so fast ,
she thought, and reached up to flip on the dome light. She had some interrogating
of her own to do first.
    "What?"
    "I
want a better look at you," she said, studying his profile. "I'm not
so sure I should hire you. You could be an axe murderer for all I know."
    He
arched an eyebrow. "What does an axe murderer look like?"
    "Give
me a minute and I'll tell you." This was the first chance she'd had to
study him up close. When they’d first met, she'd been so surprised by his
sudden appearance that she hadn't paid much attention to how he looked except
to notice he was big and intimidating, which had immediately put her on the
defensive. While he’d used the caveman approach to carry her off, she could
tell he was all muscle and sinew, a good six feet and a few inches of it. Now
that she saw his face in the light, he no longer looked so scary. His thick
brows were dark and expressive, accenting the deep gray of his eyes. He had
prominent cheekbones and a small bump on the bridge of his nose that told her
it had been broken once.
    As
she watched him, Sam's full lips tilted up in a sly grin. She felt herself
blush.
    "Do
I pass inspection?"
    She
gave him an unladylike snort. "The jury's still out. I'll let you know."
    He
switched off the dome light. "I hope you understand the seriousness of
your brother's situation." His voice had lost its conversational tone, and
the new chilly undercurrents made her tense, reminding her he was still a
stranger. "Let me emphasize that involvement with a cult is not an easy
life. And cults aren't always religious. They can start from almost anything,
any belief, any event. Look at terrorists. That's a great example of how far a
cult can go."
    She'd
never thought of it like that. "How many cults are there?"
    "Hundreds.
Possibly thousands when you consider the spin-off groups, the multilevel
marketing groups, the therapy groups, and the self-help gurus who can make you
thinner, happier, sexier, wealthier, and anything else you can dream up. Cults
are all about power and control." His lip curled in disgust. "Even
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris have a cult following. There are kids all over
the country who admire the killers for having stood up for themselves. They
aspire to follow in their heroes' footsteps."
    Columbine .
Why anyone would ever want to repeat that tragedy was beyond her.
    She
had never considered Star Mother a power-based sort of group. The people at the
camp were so docile, not pushy at all. "Are you sure Star Mother's
followers are as bad as you make them out to be?"
    "Don't
underestimate these people," he said, his baritone voice taking on the
gruffness of a drill sergeant. "I know a fair amount about Star Mother,
and they're not a peaceful group working to create a united world of love and
understanding."
    She
searched his face to see if he was kidding. He tossed her a sardonic look
before adding, "I know because I used to be one of them."
    She
couldn't help but gasp at this interesting piece of news. An ex-cultist who
kidnapped cultists. Who'd have thought.
    "Hard
to believe, huh?" He chuckled. "My association with those freaks wasn't
by choice, believe me. When my father died, my mother was depressed and easy
prey for the cult's leaders, who eagerly accepted my father's life insurance
payout in exchange for taking us in."
    Kelly
was a glutton for gossip, and he'd found the perfect ploy to distract her from
her single-minded goal of rescuing Jake. "How old were you when this
happened?"
    "Ten."
    "So
when did you get out?"
    "When
I turned sixteen." His voice had lowered an octave, grown even huskier.
This was obviously painful territory for him.
    "Did
someone rescue you, like you'll do for Jake?" She was determined not to
let him forget his promise.
    Sam
peered at her sideways, the corner of his mouth lifted in