Beyond the Pine (15 page)

Asher

It’s unseasonably hot for mid-October and by the time they call for lunch, my body is drenched in sweat.

I set down my wheelbarrow and remove my gloves, following the rest of the men to the small picnic table that had been set up God knows how many years ago at the end of the field where we’ve spent the morning.

A group of young girls begin setting out jugs of water and homemade loaves of bread. Near the other end, there are fresh vegetables and apples, but after a few days out here, if I so much as see another carrot, I’ll lose my fuckin’ mind.

I grab my bread, an apple and fill a cup of water, draining it twice before I step to the side. I find an isolated spot over near the edge of the small gathering and take a knee, my mind lost on my conversation the night before with Riley.

I’d known from the first time I met him there was something off about the Reverend, but even me, Mr. Pessimistic himself never would have predicted he’s been plotting to kill his fucking
wife
.

And that warning Rachel gave Riley? I know she’d told me they’d been close once, but I couldn’t wrap my head around why she’d chosen her to speak to instead of Rebecca.

In my eyes, Riley was all woman, but in the eyes of this place, she was little more than a girl, someone to mold and shape to their will. Even working with the Reverend, she wasn’t in an influential enough position with these people to force any hands.

Replaying the whole thing over in my mind for what has to be the hundredth time, I decide there has to be more to it. There has to be something Rachel knows, something she’d intended on sharing with Riley that she never had the chance to.

Whatever it is, I know one thing for sure; I won’t let it bring any harm toward Riley.

I know this is her home. I know it’s the only place, the only life she’s ever known. Regardless of how scared she might be, how unsure she might feel, leaving the only place she’s ever known isn’t something she’s going to want.

If it comes between her safety and her comfort, though, I won’t hesitate for a second.

I promised her I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her, I promised her I’d keep her safe and I meant it. More than I’ve ever meant anything else in my life.

Hopefully, it won’t ever come to that.

Although I don’t trust him, for Riley’s sake, I’m hoping this whole thing with Rachel and the Reverend is just one big misunderstanding. I don’t know how that could be, but I’d hope for a blood red sky if it meant keeping Riley’s heart intact.

My mind’s still running a million miles a minute when I hear the heavy shuffle of work boots behind me, pulling my attention from both my thoughts and the last bites of my lunch simultaneously.

“Good ‘ta see ya up and ‘round,” a gruff voice says as I rise to my feet.

I turn to see an older man, the shade from his large hat falling over us both as he closes the distance. He smiles a crooked, broken smile, the warmth there tainted with suspicion. There’s something familiar about the man, but nothing inside me can place him. Chuckling at my curious expression, he pats me on my shoulder, the weight of it surprising me for such a thin frame.

“Didn’t reckon we’d be seein’ you again,” he continues, releasing a sigh. “Ain’t of’n we find ‘em out beyond that tree line mangled up like you, boy.”

It’s then that I understand, the shadow of his hat taking me back to the day of my accident, the day I first saw Riley.

He’s alive. Probably wishes he was dead, though.

His words echo in my mind and finally, I give him a nod of recognition.

“Sorry, most of that day’s a little fuzzy,” I admit, taking his proffered hand and giving it a shake. “Ephriam, right?”

“Yep,” he nods, picking at something between his teeth with a sprig of hay before spitting off to the side.

“Thanks for your help.”

“’Course,” he nods. “How’re you feelin’?”

“Better,” I tell him, glancing out among the field, for the first time memories of that day coursing through my mind. Riley said they’d found me near a field, that the elders had brought me right back up here and laid me out, calling her over. I’ve been out here every day this week and never known this was the place. “Hmm... I didn’t realize...”

“What’s that?”

“Oh, nothin’,” I shake my head clear, glancing back over at him. “I just... I didn’t realize I was so close to where I’d been found.”

“Oh yeah,” he nods, gesturing with a tilt of his head. “Right o’er there.”

“I guess I always thought I’d been found a little closer to the entrance of the farm.”

“The entrance?” he repeats, his eyes narrowing in confusion as he considers my words.

“Yessir,” I nod, looking back out into the field, trying to get a better grip on my surroundings before I shrug. “Come to think of it, I’m not even sure where the entrance is...”

“I reckon that’s ‘cause there ain’t one, brother,” Ephriam chuckles, patting my shoulder again roughly as the bell rings, signaling the end to our break.

“Wait...” I start, stepping in front of him to stop him from leaving, my disbelief pushing a chuckle through my lips. “What do you mean there’s not an entrance?”

“What I mean is, every man, woman and child within these trees, we’re born here, we die here... we don’t really get a whole lot of seekers out in these parts.”

“Is that right?” I ask, trying desperately to hide my nerves.

“Sure is,” he nods. “Everything we need? It’s all right here, brother. Ain’t no reason in havin’ an entrance to a place if you ain’t invitin’ people in, I reckon.”

“Yeah,” I nod, holding in a sigh as I plaster on a nervous smile. “Yeah, I guess you’d be right.”

Ain’t no reason in havin’ an entrance?

Then it only stands to reason there’s also no way out.

Riley

By the time I make it home that evening, I’m a jumbled mess of nerves. The Reverend, like most days, didn’t leave his desk, so I still had the file on Rachel tucked inside my worn bag.

I was on my porch when Asher made his way down the orange, dirt road toward Josiah’s house. His eyes meet mine as he passes and in them, I see the silent question of whether or not my plan for the day was a success. Quickly, I shake my head, keeping my head tilted toward my Bible as I hold his gaze. He disappears into the house, pulling a low sigh from my worried chest.

There’s something off about him today, something more than nerves from our discussion last night. When he reappears only a few minutes later, water pail in hand, I watch him as he moves passed my porch once more, this time towards the well.

His eyes stay straight ahead for as long as he can bear before he risks a glance my way.

“Tonight,” he whispers, his voice low and gravelly. “We need to talk.”

Giving him an indiscernible nod, I replace my eyes to the words in front of me, worry winding into my stomach in ways it rarely has before.

I could tell something was wrong the moment I saw him, something hiding in his gaze I didn’t recognize. After seeing his eyes, though, what I hadn’t seen before was much clearer.

His eyes were holding fear.

Until this moment, I’d been convinced Asher wasn’t afraid of anything.

I’m not sure what’s happened, but if it was capable of scaring him, then I know it can’t be good.

Asher

All afternoon, all I could think about was talking to Riley, telling her what Ephriam said in the field earlier. I wanted to warn her, talk to her about a plan in case the worst happened. However, by the time I made my way to her small cabin that night, saw her innocent face as she stared up at me in concern, I couldn’t do it.

This compound is all she’s ever known, the only place she’s ever called home. If I have to rip her away from it to save her, I will, but putting the fear of God into her over my own paranoia?

That, I’m not so sure about.

Instead of turning her already fragile world upside down, I decided the best thing I could do is set up a backup plan, just in case. In all my years, there’s never been a situation I couldn’t get out of. More often than not, that had been my downfall. This time, it might just be the only thing that will save us both.

As autumn gave way to winter, we continued this path. counting the minutes each day until we could be together, simultaneously cursing the same time we knew was dwindling far too fast.

Finding a way to be together wasn’t the only thing that changed over those weeks. When we weren’t feeding our cravings, we lay wrapped in each other, desperate for one more kiss, one more breath, one more day...

I’d be lying if I said we weren’t worried about the threat that lie right beyond the haven of our cabins, but it was hard not to let this swallow us. What’s more is neither of us wanted that.

We
wanted
consumption.

We
craved
addiction.

We were willing to risk total devastation as long as it meant having these silent, secret moments that no one could ever steal away from us.

Simply put, Riley and I were falling…

Plummeting into the only light that mattered anymore to either of us.

Both of us knew the end to this would destroy us in ways we’d never come back from, but we didn’t want to come back.

Riley had said it best that day in the stables.

If this world intended to condemn us to an existence we hadn’t chosen, we’d embrace the one we craved while we could.

Riley

Tomorrow is Sunday and from the small window behind my bed, I can see the stars beginning to fade away with the morning.

Although I know I should be sleeping, the dreamy state I find in his arms is worth my impending exhaustion.

A deep hum comes from within his chest, his fingertips tracing the skin over my arm as we lie in the darkness, illuminated only by the moonlight dancing across my bedroom. I’m memorizing the lines over his hard chest, the ink splayed over his skin when I release a sigh. Hearing it, he breaks the silence, his gruff, deep voice warming me.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” I shake my head against him, causing him to tilt my chin upward, find his disapproving gaze.

“You’re full of shit, sugar,” he says bluntly, chuckling when my cheeks heat with a blush.

“I just... I just wish all this could be real,” I whisper longingly as I burrow back into his chest. “I wish it could be more than a fantasy, a game of pretend.”

“Who’s pretending?” he asks.

“Asher,” I start, hating the heartbreak coursing through me as I look up at him again, meeting his eyes. “You know this...
we
can never truly be. Bad as we both might not want it to be our truth, it is. Regardless of everything else, you know I can’t disobey the Reverend. I don’t have a choice, I have to marry Tobias.”

He stares down into my eyes for a long moment before releasing me and sitting up with a heavy sigh, shaking his head as he glances back over his shoulder.

“I don’t fuckin’ get you, Riley,” he admits, resting his elbows on his knees, raking his hands over his face in frustration. “If you know you don’t want me, why are we even doing this to ourselves?”

His words immediately sting, making me sit up beside him, the back of the sheet pooling around my waist as I touch my hand to his forearm.

“Don’t want you?” I ask. “Asher, how can you even say that?”

“What else could it be?” he asks, pulling himself from my bed and turning to face me as he reaches for his jeans, pulling them up. “You keep saying you’re stuck here, that it isn’t what you want...”

“You know that’s true,” I tell him, wrapping the sheet around my body and standing to block him from leaving the room, returning next door.

A moment ago, everything had been perfect. A moment ago, we’d been lost in the fairytale we’d both so desperately needed. How could everything have shifted so quickly?

I stare up at him, begging him silently to stay. He searches my eyes for a moment before slowly shaking his head, releasing the deep sigh hiding within his chest.

“Riley, if it’s true, then how are you okay committing to a lifetime of lying next him when you’re alone with me right now?” he husks, bending to taste my lips with his tongue as he slips his hand beneath the sheet, tracing the still damp folds between my thighs. “How are you okay taking his name when you’ve already given me everything else?”

“Asher...” I rasp, passion and obligation at war within me.

“No matter what you’ve told them, no matter what you’ve told yourself,” he breathes against my jaw, the feel of his hot breath on my skin sending waves over me, causing my eyes to flutter shut in arousal. “You and I both know you won’t ever truly belong to him, sugar. How could you when I’ve already made you mine?”

I’m about to answer, to say what, I’ve not a clue. He’s right on so many counts, but I hate that he thinks I’d ever choose anyone but him if given the choice.

I’m about to say as much when he takes my lips, kissing me so deeply he steals my breath. Before the daze has even lifted, he pulls his shirt over his head and steps around me, leaving my room.

“I gotta go,” he calls behind him quietly.

“Asher...”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, sugar.”

In the next breath, he’s gone.