Entangled (Free Indeed Book 1) (2 page)

“
A
llie
?” An unsure voice slowly woke her from her restless slumber. Allie rolled over in her bed, each movement an agony and remembrance of the night before. She turned to see who called her and saw her younger brother and two younger sisters standing in her bedroom doorway. “Father said to tell you he wants his breakfast now.” He looked so sad when he said it, like he didn’t want to be the one to wake her up but had no choice.

“Ok Jonathan, I’ll take care of it.” Allie calmly replied trying to set his mind at ease with a small smile. A look of concern passed across his face and from the pity in his eyes, she knew he had heard their father beating her last night. Definitely not a new occurrence in their household, but it was always one they could all relate to. Allie gave them a reassuring nod and gestured for them to leave the room.

She slowly pulled herself out of bed as they closed the door shut behind them. Everything hurt. Allie walked over to the dresser mirror and eased up her shirt. Dark blue and purple bruises covered her left side and front. It took her a couple of attempts, but she managed to get the shirt off with a painful moan. As swiftly as she could manage, Allie changed into her clothes for the day and then left the room to go downstairs.

Allie threw together breakfast as quickly as she could, and got everything out to the table where her family was waiting. She knew that the faster her father ate, the faster he would leave the house to go about his daily business. For once, things seemed to go her way. Gideon briskly shoveled down his plate of food, and then he got up and left the house without a word.

At last, she felt like she could breathe again. Every time she moved or flinched, even when she breathed, her entire body hurt. But even though pain coursed through her veins, she wouldn't let herself cry. She was afraid that once she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop. On top of that, the fact that she knew her father was meeting with the men of the fellowship and announcing her and Paul’s courtship just made everything worse. She couldn’t marry that man. She just couldn’t. When he looked at her, it just felt like it was the face of
evil
staring at her. His face, his voice, everything about him just made her skin crawl.

But there was no way for her to get out of it. All the women of her faith were supposed to be meek and submissive, always bending to the will and authority of the man over them. To try and fight it, would only mean being beaten again. But at the same time, she just couldn’t become a puppet for her father to continue to use and control in this manner.

A sigh of frustration escaped her lips as she started clearing the table and bringing the dishes to the sink. “Evie, could you start washing these please, while I get the little guys dressed?”

“Of course, Allie.” Her fifteen year old sister replied, “I’ll take care of everything down here, don’t worry about it. Why don’t you just lay down after the kiddos are good to go?”

Allie engulfed her sister in a grateful hug and pressed a kiss to her forehead, “I love you, sis.” Evie smiled up at her and then waved her hands toward the stairs, shooing her out of the room.

The walk upstairs was painful, but Allie slowly trudged her way into the bedroom occupied by her two youngest sisters, Jemima and Abigale. They were already busy playing with their dolls on the floor. Allie just stood in the doorway for a moment, watching them play happily. They were the youngest in the family. Between them and Evie, there were the two boys, Jonathan who was fourteen, and Jacob who was ten. Caleb was the closest to her in age at seventeen; he’d probably be married any day now. Heck, technically Evie could be married off any day now too, and that thought just scared her to death. The only thing that had saved Allie from an early marriage was the fact that their mother had died while giving birth to Abby. Since she was the oldest, her father had her assume the role of “mother” to the rest of the children. Apparently, Allie had received courtship offers as early as fifteen years old, but her father kept turning them all down saying it was God’s will to keep her in the home.

An idea started to form, as she continued to watch them play. She would need to leave. With her super short courtship pending, it would need to be as soon as possible. Tonight even, if she could. Leaving would actually kill two birds with one stone. For herself, it would get her safely away from creepy Paul and her impending marriage imprisonment. But her leaving would also put Evie in charge of the children since she was the next oldest girl. Their father would have no choice but to take her off her community’s marriage mart as well, just like he had with Allie. God knows, her father didn’t want to care and feed the other children. Evie would be free as long as there were little ones in the house, and that would give Allie time. Time to get free of this place and hopefully, set up somewhere. And then maybe, if it was safe, she could send for them to come stay with her. The thought of leaving her siblings hurt her heart, but she knew it would be the best plan for all of them. Now if she could just make it work.

Allie stepped the rest of the way into the room and made her way over to their closet, “Time to get dressed, guys.” She had plans to make and needed to get started.

Allie finished getting Jemmy and Abby ready for the day and then went in search of her brothers to make sure they didn’t need anything. Satisfied that they were all at least temporarily taken care of, and knowing that Evie was taking care of the rest of the chores downstairs, Allie made her way back to the bedroom she shared with Evie. She grabbed a small messenger bag and quickly packed it, just taking what was absolutely necessary. A couple of changes of clothes, toiletries, a brush, her purse, and lastly she added her driver’s license and birth certificate that she had pulled from the filing cabinet downstairs.

Even though Free Indeed wasn’t big on government intervention and oversight, they did make sure everyone was recorded legally at birth, and that they applied for their driver’s license as soon as possible. Two things she was very grateful for since she knew they would be necessary if she were to have any hope of surviving in the outside world.

After swiftly zipping the bag closed, she stood to her feet and placed it in the back corner of her closet, covering it with blankets. Now at least she’d be ready to leave when the opportunity presented itself. Satisfied that she had a plan in place, Allie then made her way downstairs to see if Evie needed any help with anything.

* * *

B
ag clutched in hand
, Allie cautiously made her way down the hallway making sure to stay close to the walls to hopefully keep the old floorboards from creaking. All the kids had been asleep for hours, and now her father had finally gone to bed. She’d had to wait to make sure he was soundly asleep, but it was now or never. She needed to have time to get far enough away by morning when they found out she was missing, which knowing her father, would be as soon as his stomach started grumbling for breakfast.

But she still had one stop to make before she was able to leave. Safely making it to the bottom of the stairs, Allie crept into the kitchen and stealthily made her way to the connecting hallway that led to the sanctuary. She knew her father kept large amounts of cash in his office. As the patriarch of their group, he oversaw all of the tithes and offerings that were given by the members. Most of it was deposited into a bank in town, but she knew he always kept some locked in his desk drawer for emergencies. As guilty as stealing made her feel, she kept justifying it knowing that this was as good of an emergency as anything.

Allie strode into her father’s office and around his desk. She crouched down to pull open the drawer. It was locked. That made sense, she supposed. As trusting as they tended to be of each other, one couldn’t be
too
trusting. She looked around and spotted a steel letter opener on top of the desk. Snatching it up, she quickly used it to pry open the drawer. Allie pulled the drawer open and leaned forward to look inside. To her surprise, the drawer was filled with stack after stack of bills. Way more than she had expected.

A low whistle escaped her lips. Even knowing that every single member of their community had to give a tithe percentage, along with a weekly offering to their fellowship, she still didn’t know her father had
this
much money. Allie grabbed a couple of the stacks and thrust them into her bag. She wouldn’t take everything, just enough to get her out of Free Indeed and hopefully far enough away that they’d give up trying to find her.

As she grabbed the drawer to push it back in, she noticed something from the back sparkling as the moonlight hit it. Her hand reached in almost of its own accord to grasp the shiny item and pulled it forward for a better look. It was her mother’s silver, heart-shaped locket! Probably the most special thing she had owned, her mother had worn it every single day for as long as she was alive. It contained a picture of her three boys on the left, and one of her three girls on the right. It was sad that she never got the chance to add Abby to the girls photo since she had died giving birth to her.

Allie clutched the necklace in her fist tightly and held it to her chest. She missed her mother so much! Many times over the years Allie had wondered what had happened to her mother’s locket after she had died, and had even asked her father about it, but he had just gruffly put her off and told her it was lost. Now that she finally held it in her hands, she knew she’d never be able to leave this last little piece of her mother behind. Without a second thought, Allie flicked open the clasp and locked the chain around her neck. Screw her father! He had lied to her, beat her, and basically sold her off. She was done.

Allie stood back up to her feet and made her way back out of the office to the door leading outside. So far so good. All she needed to do was make it through the surrounding woods into town, and get to the bus station without anyone stopping her. Then she could be free from this place. Oh the irony of needing to be free of Free Indeed. Allie took a deep breath and opened the door that led to her freedom. She could do this. She had to.

T
he car sputtered weakly
to its last and final stop. It was officially dead. Allie had purchased the old clunker from someone who had it displayed on the side of the road at her last bus stop. After taking the bus all the way to Denver, she had purchased the car with some of the cash she had taken and then continued to drive west. Sleeping when she could in the back of her car, and then driving the rest of the day, she was making good time. She knew the car was a piece of crap and wouldn’t last long, so she made a deal with herself. Once the car died, the closest city she came to, that’s where she was going to settle down and live. So it was as if it was left to fate. With a sigh of reluctant acceptance, she climbed out of the car and grabbed her bag. She shuffled it over her shoulder and started walking in the direction she had been driving.

After trudging along for a mile or so, she finally came to a street sign that stated:
Serenity - 15 Miles
. Knowing she had crossed the border into Oregon a while back, she whispered, “Serenity, Oregon...sounds like as good a place to live as any.” Allie shifted her bag to the other shoulder to give the weary one a break and continued to walk to what she hoped would soon become her new home.

As she continued to walk toward town, she heard the sound of a vehicle speeding up behind her. Her head jerked as she darted a quick glance over her shoulder to see a shiny, red convertible barreling toward her. It was coming so fast, Allie barely had time to jump to the side of the road to avoid being hit. Despite the fact that it was a two lane interstate, the car had deliberately driven down the lane she was walking alongside.

“Get out of the way, you moron!” A snotty feminine voice wafted clearly from inside the vehicle since the top was down. Without even slowing down, the car sped on its way.

Wow, well that was rude. It wasn’t like Allie had tried to wave down the car and beg for a ride, she had just been trying to make her way down the road, for pete’s sake. The lady could have just passed on by like she’d never even seen her, but no—she had to almost run her over and then yell at her.

At least the woman was an honest snob. Back at Free Indeed, it was more like an almost subtle snobbery to your face, with a swift and silent stab to the back when you weren’t expecting it. For people who said they loved God, and tried their hardest to be like Him, deep down they were truly horrible human beings. If God was like the people at Free Indeed, or even if he just approved of them, then Allie no longer wanted anything to do with Him either. And while on the one hand that realization was very freeing, on the other it still made her sad. She had spent her entire life looking up to, praying to, and worshipping God. Taught that His way was best and that He was the only way to find true happiness.

She tried. She had tried so hard to be the perfect little angel that everyone in her fellowship expected her to be. All it had gotten her was a dead mother, a father who beat her, critical members who always thought they were better than everyone else, and a forced-on-her fiance who terrified her. And then every Sunday her father would stand up in church and preach how pleased God was with their group for their holy, godly living. Allie wanted no more of any of it. Going forward, she was going to make her own decisions and come to her own realizations about things.

Allie heard another vehicle come rumbling up the road behind her. This time, it was coming up much slower than the last one, so she had plenty of time to step onto the dirt along the side of the road to ensure the vehicle had enough room to pass. But instead of just passing by, it pulled up parallel to where she was walking, and the big red truck slowed down to match her pace.

The passenger side window rolled down, and a deep voice shouted from the driver’s seat, “Hey there, need some help?”

Not ready to trust anyone with her safety but herself, she cast a quick sideways glance into the cab of the truck and just simply stated, “No thank you.”

Instead of driving off, the man continued to pace her and kept speaking, “Thought you might belong to that abandoned car a ways back. Just wanted to make sure you were ok?”

“I’m fine, thank you for your concern.” Allie gave a little nod and just kept walking forward like abandoning her car to walk into town was an everyday occurrence. Hopefully, he would eventually get the point that she didn’t want company. But no, he just kept pace with her slow two to three mile per hour walk. Finally, she stopped and turned to look at him in exasperation, “Is there something you want?”

“Just want to make sure you safely get where you’re going.”

“So you’re just going to escort me into town in your truck?”

“Unless you want to get in, which would certainly make it a lot faster.” He smiled over at her again.

His smile shouldn’t be legal. It was unfairly gorgeous. The type that made Allie want to forget every cautious safeguard she had in place, and jump in his truck to drive off into...she didn’t even care where. And that was so not like her so much it pissed her off. Allie tossed her hair over her shoulder and replied as haughtily as she could, “Please just go away. I’m quite enjoying my walk. Alone. And you’re ruining it.”

* * *

J
ason Connors laughed
to himself in his truck. The little spitfire looked pissed enough to stomp his favorite Stetson into the dirt, and it just amused him all the more. She was such a cute little thing, lugging that bag over her shoulder and strutting down their almost deserted stretch of interstate. She was obviously trying to be independent, but he couldn’t just leave her out there. It was going to be dark soon, and it wouldn’t be safe for her to be walking around on her own. He could understand her being cautious around strange men, but on the other hand, it really looked like she needed help.

“Where ya headed?” He tried again.

He watched as her cute little nose twitched in annoyance that he hadn’t left yet, and smiled. Damn, if that just didn’t make her even more adorable. “My momma would tan my hide if I left a lady out on her own with night coming on.”

Finally, she stopped and turned those big blue eyes on him again. They were so blue he could clearly see them from the driver’s side of his truck. They glared at him as she replied, “Well my momma would tan my hide if I got in a truck with a serial killer. So why don’t you just drive along and find someone else to save.” Then in an even more adorable fashion, she made a shooing motion with her hands as if that would hurry him along his way.

His roguish grin grew even bigger across his face. “Can’t do that ma’am. If you insist on being foolhardy and struttin’ your cute little ass down the way, then I’m just gonna have to accompany you, driving...” he glanced down at his speedometer, “a whoppin’ three miles an hour.”

A very unladylike snort escaped her lips as she turned her focus back on the road and just kept walking. Ok, if she wanted to play it that way, he’d just do as he said and pace alongside her. He reached over to his dash and turned the radio up blaring country music into the evening air. Jason glanced over to check her out again just in time to see her roll her eyes at him. He had to press his lips together tightly to keep from laughing. God knows, that would probably piss her off even more than she already was.

Since he was driving so slow, his attention didn’t necessarily have to be on the road, so he turned it on her instead and took a moment to check her out. She really was a little thing, probably would barely reach his shoulders. Of course, he was more on the tall side with his six foot two height, so most people weren’t even close to his height anyway. She was very pretty, with a pixie face that was adorable even pinched in frustration. He wondered how much prettier she’d even be if a smile actually graced that puckered up face of hers.

Hideous clothes though. Her baggy shirt covered way too much and tented any chance of making out any curves. Same thing with that fugly skirt that covered her down to her ankles. Oh well, that hair more than made up for it. Full, hazel, and streaked with blonde. It fell a couple of inches past her shoulders and every time he got her to look over at him, her hair would toss back and forth, and the highlights would shimmer in the setting sun.

Overall, he liked what he saw. A lot.

He turned the music back down, “Excuse me, ma’am?”

“What now?” She practically hissed back.

It was the highlight of his long day to see her all riled up. Just to tick her off even more, he continued, “I don’t suppose you could speed up?” Her head swung around eyes wide with disbelief, “Just sayin’, if you could manage to pull off a nice five mph, it’d be greatly appreciated.”

At that, she totally stopped and dropped her bag to the ground, then turned to face him fully with her hands on her hips, “Will you just
go!
Gah, why are you being so annoying!”

“You’re not going to get rid of me till I know you’re in a safe place, so you may as well just climb on up.”

The girl just stared at him for a long moment with seemingly a dozen different emotions swirling around her incredibly expressive face. Finally, the little angel stomped her foot in frustration, reached down and grabbed her bag, and to his surprise marched up to his truck and opened the door to climb inside. She plopped herself down on his seat staring straight ahead with her arms crossed and muttered, “I’m waiting.”

He tried as hard as he could to stop from laughing. Not wanting to piss the lady off now that she finally got in the truck, he turned his attention back toward the road in front of him and drove on. “Where to?”

“Serenity.”

“You live in Serenity?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, odd. I live in Serenity, and I don’t recall seeing you around before.”

“Well I’m moving there,” she retorted with that little upturned nose of hers. “What are you, the welcome committee? If so, I’ll have you know you suck at your job.”

Jason smiled, “Sure, why not. And I’ll try to do better going forward. How bout I pick you up first thing in the morning and give you a tour of our quaint, little town?”

“No thank you.”

“Where are you staying,” Jason continued.

“Well, I—I don’t really have a place lined up yet.” She stammered, “But I will.”

There went that stubborn backbone of hers again.

He drove off the interstate and into the city limits. It wasn’t too big of a town, so the drive down Main Street didn’t take long before he pulled up and parked in front of their local diner.

“Why are we stopping here?” She looked around trying to take in as much of her surroundings as possible.

Jason pointed to the sign above them that stated
BB-Dub’s Diner
and simply replied, “Dinner.”

“I’m not hungry.” she stated just as her stomach betrayed her and let out a loud rumble of disagreement.

Unable to stop himself this time, Jason let out a big laugh. “Little Bit, get your ass out of the truck and into a booth inside. As a bonus, if you can do it without throwing a pissy fit, I’ll put in a good word for you with Annie,” he leaned forward conspiratorially and continued, “a kind, sweet lady who not only runs the diner but also has an apartment upstairs for rent.”

Ah, finally something got her attention. She swung her head over to look at him. The hopeful look on her face let him know he had her right where he wanted her, “You
do
need a place to stay, right?” He reminded her, “Since you’re just now moving here and all?”

“Fine.” She spit it out like agreeing with him was the most distasteful thing she could possibly do, “But only because it’s getting late, and I don’t know where else to find a place to stay.” She made a point of clarifying right before she pushed open her door and jumped from the truck. She grabbed that beat up bag of hers and made her way to the front door of the diner, walking inside without a backward glance.

Jason just shook his head and followed right after her. He walked inside just in time to hear the owner, Annie, shout across the room at them, “Go ahead and sit anywhere darlin’. I’ll be right with you.”

He reached out and snagged his beautiful hitchhiker by the elbow, nudging her forward into a booth, and then sat directly across from her. “So what’s your name?” He asked.

“I really don’t think that’s going to be any of your concern considering after you introduce me to this Annie, we’re never going to see each other again.”

“Ok, have it your way then,” he replied with a little wink, before turning his attention to Annie who was bustling up to take their order. “Annie,” he smiled, “this here is Little Bit. She’s new to town, and looking for a place to stay. Do you still have the studio upstairs for rent?”

“Well hey there Jason, how’s my favorite rancher?” Annie walked up with a big, beaming smile as always. She was a special woman and tended to look after him as one of her own boys. After giving him an affectionate, little pat on the shoulder, she turned her attention to their visitor, “Hi there sweetie, my name’s Annie. Any friend of Jason’s is a friend of mine. When did you want to move in?”

“Um, tonight, if I could?” The cute little thing bit her bottom lip, and for the first time since he saw her strutting down the road, she showed a measure of uncertainty.