GODDESS OF THE MOON (A Diana Racine Psychic Suspense) (59 page)

“Is
this what you’re looking for?”

Seth swung around. “Edward.”

Slater eased from behind the plane, holding the door key in the air. Steel
stood beside him
, glaring at Lucier with a triumphant sneer. Dried meringue stuck to the side of Steel’s face, and handcuffs hung from one swollen, bruised wrist. In the other hand he clutched a gun, point
ed at Lucier.

“
Gimme
my
gun,” Steel said.
“Slow and easy.
Fingertips.”

Lucier pulled the gun from his waistband with his thumb and index finger. He thought briefly of getting off a shot
, but he’d be dead before he got the chance, and he didn’t want to
risk
anyone else getting hurt
from a stray bullet
.

“
Put it on the ground and slide it to me
,” Steel said.

Lucier did
what Steel said
.
He
wouldn’t need much of an excuse to shoot.
Bide your time, Ernie.
Mountain Man
won’t do anything without an order, and right now, the boss is too busy to give directions.

“
You
, Seth
?
”
Slater said. “I’m disappointed.”

Seth glanced at Lucier with an almost imperceptible shrug. “Let me fly these people out of here, Edward. You know what will happen to them if they remain. Do you really want to be responsible for the deaths of innocent people?”

Slater snorted. “Since when have you grown a conscience?”

“This isn’t how it
was
supposed to
be
. We
give life
not take it.”

“You still don’t
understand
, do you, lover
boy? This is bigger than the loss of a few innocent people, as you call them. We’re creating an alternate universe, and nothing you do can stop us.”

Soft whimpering broke the tension in the hangar. Seth turned to the sound. So did everyone else. Phillip cowered at Maia’s
side
, clutching the
hem
of her shorts
. He
shook
violently
as he stared at
Slater
. Pee ran down his leg forming a puddle under his shoes
.

Seth
rotated
slowly from
his son
to Slater.
A creased deepened between his brows, and his mouth hung open for a long minute as realization struck.
“You?”

Slater’s face reddened.
“I didn’t hurt him
.
I was teaching him
―”

Seth didn’t wait for an explanation.
H
e lunged for Slater’s throat with the speed of a
striking cobra
.
“You perverted
―
”

Steel
shifted his
vengeful
focus
from
Lucier
to
the commotion
for a split second, but t
hat’s all the time Lucier needed. He barreled in low,
head-
butting Steel’s midsection with an upward thrust.
Steel grunted and
lost his footing, but righted himself and held on to
the gun.

“Not again
,
boy
,”
Steel sneered
. “Not again.”

Lucier
had
heard the demeaning word
before, sloughed
it
off as meaningless because
it was
.
T
he thought of letting down the people who counted on him bothered him
more
.
The fate of the kids in the compound.
The starry-eyed women too damaged to know they were being used.
Maia, Anat, and their children.
And Diana, whose determination never to give in would seal her destiny if he couldn’t save her.

He marshaled all his strength against a
n adversary
with nothing to lose and whose humiliation fueled his anger. Now victory depended o
n which man wanted to win more.

Lucier
knew the big man hurt. He
favored his arm
,
and his
wrist looked like an eggplant. Lucier wanted to make him hurt more.
Lucier
grab
bed
hold of the
hand
cuff
and yanked it so hard, Steel
wailed in pain. Lucier
locked onto
Steel’s
gun
hand
, pushing it
to point at
the hangar’s ceiling.
More twisting a
nd squeezing.
Harder and tighter.

In spite of his
obvious
pain, Steel
fought with the
determination
of a feral animal and
maneuvered
the gun
barrel
toward Lucier.

I can’t let him win.

A mythical strength, the kind
that empowers those faced with do
-
or
-
die situations,
surge
d into Lucier’s body
. H
e
forced
the gun
from Steel’s grip
at the same time he twisted
the cuff high on
his
back.
The unmistakable
snap
of bone
caused Steel to
discharge
an unearthly shriek.
Lucier landed a forceful
strike
to
Steel
’s knee,
and
Mountain Man
hit the ground,
writhing in pain. Lucier
stomped down
on Steel’s wrist
, then immediately
scooped up
the nearest gun.
T
he big man’s
previous wail sound
ed
like a whimper
in comparison
to what he was letting go now
.
Lucier socked him under the jaw
with the butt of the gun
to silence him
,
then
hustled
to
retrieve
the
other
gun
, sticking it back into his waistband
.

He’d been so involved in his own
battle
,
he hadn’t noticed the
quiet
inside the hangar. Seth
Crane
kne
lt
in front of Slater, his
hands
en
circling Slater’s neck, squeezing and jerking the limp body in a fitful rage.

Lucier, breathing heavily,
staggered
to
Crane and put a hand on his shoulder. Crane went still. He turned to Lucier as if he’d come out of a trance.
Slater’s
eyes stared lifelessly, but Lucier
put his finger to the side of his throat
anyway
. He couldn’t find a pulse. “He’s dead
, Seth
.”

Crane fell back on his haunches.
“I’ve never harmed a soul in my life
.
Never even cussed at anyone
.
N
ow I’ve
murdered a man
.” He raised his
tear-filled eyes
to Lucier. “I kept thinking about what he must have done to my son, and I couldn’t stop squeezing.”

Lucier helped him up. He wanted to say
killing Slater
was self-defense, but it wasn’t.
T
emporary insanity
seemed a better justification.
Lucier
thought if Slater had molested one of his children,
he
would have reacted the same way, without a thread of guilt. “Come on. Let’s
find
the others and get out of here. We’ll bring the authorities back
. T
hey can take over.”

He took Crane’s arm, and t
hey walked out of the hangar into the breaking dawn to a sight that changed everything.
For the worse.
Two men stood like military sentries pointing guns at them; another gunman held Diana and the
rest
at bay.

“Looks like we missed all the fun,” Phillip Crane said.
“Better late than never.”

Silas Compton stood with a twisted smile distorting his lips.
“We underestimated you, Ernie
.”

“
Not for
the first time,
Silas
.”

T
he
Long-
A
waited Reading

D
iana stared down the barrel of the gun, wondering if she and
Lucier
would survive
―i
f any of them would survive.
One guard relieved Lucier of both guns.

“Shut up, Silas.
You
underestimated him, not me.” Crane stepped forward and glared at Compton, the disdain in his voice palpable. “If you
’d
followed my instructions,
the lieutenant
would
be dead now instead of Edward
―
the only person other than a true Crane who understood our mission
.
N
ow he’s dead, murdered
”
―
h
e glare
d
at
Seth
with eyes as cold
an
d
icy
as an Arctic wind
―
“
by my son.” He strode to stand before Seth. “
My
grandfather
chose
Brother Osiris to help me create what you almost destroyed. Obviously, he was more of a Crane than you.”

Diana felt a wave of empathy for Seth. In the space of a few hours, his entire world had turned upside down.
He’d realized his child
, maybe more than one,
had been violated, and n
ow his own father
declared
him
un
worthy
of
the Crane name. Would Seth cave in the face of his father’s accusations? How deep was his indoctrination?

Seth’s
cheeks
turned scarlet.
“Did
your g
randfather teach hi
m to molest my children, Father?
Molest others
too
, I presume. Or didn’t you know about that?”

“Edward wouldn’t do that,” Crane said. “He loved those children.”

“He sure as hell did,
”
Maia
said, “but not the way you mean.”
She held Phillip, his trembling arms wrapped around her
, shorts showing the result of his fear
. The other two children clung to her side. “No wonder this child is so withdrawn. Your
grand
father’s hand-picked
messiah was a twisted pervert.”

Slater’s reluctance to touch Diana now made sense. He’d lost not only his God as a result of his calamity, he’d lost his soul. She wondered if the young Edward, the one who answered to a higher calling,
had
ever participated in a tortured dialogue with his darker self. The question would forever remain unanswered.

“
H
ow many others need help like my son
?
” Maia
asked
. She
pulled
her olde
r
son
closer
. “You can’t stop us from leaving here, Phillip.
” She turned to Silas.
“
Tell him, Father.”

“Silas tells me nothing,” Crane snapped. “He’ll do what I say.”

Compton’s
eyes narrowed for a brief moment. Diana thought he was going to stand up for himself, but he lowered his head in
obvious
humiliation
.
O
nly two people held sway over Silas Compton
―
Phillip Crane and Selene.