A Religious Experience

April turned and looked into Toni's eyes; she saw the sadness and decided to take a chance. "Are you happy here? Do you want to leave?"

Toni couldn't believe the question. Was this a test? Was this woman sent by McMasters or worse, Reverend Holland, to trap her?

For the past two weeks, since arriving at McMasters' compound, everything was falling apart; the only thing holding Toni together was the need to get Jason away from these people. But – how? They watched them constantly. She didn't have access to a phone; when she tried her cell phone yesterday, the battery was dead. She burned her relationship with her husband, John, by stealing away with his son. How could she have been so stupid? John had loved her and she threw it away by listening to that snake, Holland.

Ever since Toni arrived at the compound, from the very first night, she was used by McMasters, his two guards and two other faceless men who showed up one evening.

Those years as a cocaine addict, which she had fought so hard to forget, came flooding back to her as she was taken night after night. She fucked men back then to get her next line of coke or the occasional syringe of heroin; men who shoved their filthy cocks inside her mouth, cunt and ass. At least back then, after they were finished with her, she could disappear inside the euphoria of the cocaine and heroin. Now, in McMasters compound, she couldn't do anything but lay down and cry as their cum ran out of her.

She could no longer pretend she was receiving the 'holy sacrament', as Holland would say. Not since she read the email two days ago when she was cleaning the Reverend's office. Like so many older folks, McMasters had a habit of printing out his emails and reading them on paper; old habits die hard. Toni saw the email from Holland to McMasters in the trash can; she read it and realized what evil men these were.

Holland's email asked how McMasters was enjoying the great piece of ass he had sent him. He thanked McMasters for the woman McMasters had sent to Texas in return. Reading Holland's foul, filthy language of the sex and how he mocked both women's naivety - believing in the 'sacrament' - was too much for Toni to bare. Toni knew she had to leave, she just didn't know how she could make it happen.

And here now was a woman asking her if she wanted to leave. Was this her savior? Toni decided she had to take the chance. "Please get us out of here."

Just as April replied, "Then come with me" she saw the look of terror on Toni's face. April turned to see McMasters and Sheffield running out of the back of the house toward them. "Don't worry."

Both men were almost out of breath as they reached the trio in the garden. April didn't waste the opportunity; she hit Sheffield in the throat with enough force to stun, but not kill him; and before he could react, April kicked his knee, buckling it under him. April reached down and removed the revolver Sheffield kept in his back holster, then used two zip ties hidden inside her boots to secure his hands and legs. She turned to see McMasters just coming out of the shock of seeing the big man go down. Not thinking the old man to be much of a threat, April still thought it best to immobilize him, so she gave him a quick kick to the knee. McMasters' knee bent backwards, it would eventually require an artificial knee if he was ever to walk again, he howled in pain as he writhed on the ground.

"C'mon, now let's go." April grabbed Jason's hand. With luck they'd get out of here before Caleb Roberts, the second guard, knew what was happening. They had just reached the house when Roberts came running out the patio door with a gun in his hand. Roberts didn't have much time to evaluate the situation. His eyes went from the garden where Sheffield and McMasters were on the ground before looking to his left where the two women and the child were standing. Before he could focus on the threat, McMasters did exactly the wrong thing at exactly the right moment; he screamed out, "ROBERTS!"

Four years ago, when he first left the service, Roberts may have been able to neutralize the threat to his left, but for the past four years Caleb Roberts has been eating and drinking too much, exercising too little and fucking too often. Therefore, Roberts couldn't swing the gun around and take out April before April bashed him in the skull with Sheffield's handgun. It wasn't a timid tap to the skull, it was hard enough to knock him out. April picked up Robert's gun and once again grabbed Jason's hand, pulling him through the house and out the front door with Toni following.

The keys to the Escape were still in the center console. April started the car and sped down the driveway, turning right toward the river. Within ten minutes she crossed the bridge into Pennsylvania. Ten minutes later, April was knocking on Hank's motel room door.

Chapter Nine – The Reunion

It takes a lot to surprise Henry Price; the man has seen and done some extraordinary things in his lifetime. But Hank stood in the doorway, staring at the trio – April, Toni and Jason – for a half minute before ushering them into his motel room.

April was the first to speak, "I'll fill you in a bit later. Is Karin still here?"

Karin was in her own room working on her laptop when she got the call to come to Hank's room.

April watched Karin's expression. There was no way this would end so fast and with such outstanding results.

"What? How?"

April answered, "Why don't we let Mrs. Beck and Jason use your room to get cleaned up while I fill you in?"

With Toni and Jason out of the room, April gave Karin and Hank a report on how she was able to locate and extricate the Becks from McMasters and his two guards. Both Hank and Karin were impressed; Karin shook her head.

"I feel kind of worthless here."

April looked at her friend, "Nonsense; if you and Hank weren't here to back me up, I wouldn't have taken such a chance going in. Just knowing you two were here helped me take the risk."

Neither Karin or Hank believed April. This was the same woman who went undercover in much more dangerous places than Frenchtown, New Jersey; but they didn't argue.

Hank called Tom Beck to give him the good news. He made plans to drive Toni and Jason to Stamford where the family would be reunited at Sarah's mother's home. Sarah's mother was now in a nursing home; for the past week John, Tom and Sarah were fixing up the house to place it on the market. The money from the sale would pay the nursing home expenses for at least a few years.

Hank called Agent Nolan next and made plans to meet him in Stamford the next day.

As soon as Toni and Jason were ready, they got in the car with Hank and April to make the two-hour drive to Stamford. Jason was anxious to see his father and kept asking how long it would take to see "Dad". Karin took the second car and drove back to New York. There wasn't any reason for her to attend either the reunion of the meet up with Nolan in Stamford and there was plenty to do back in the office.

During the drive, April did her best to keep Toni calm; who was justifiably apprehensive about seeing her husband again. How would John react? She had burned so many bridges.

John, Tom and Sarah were waiting on the front porch. As soon as the car pulled into the drive, Jason was out of his seatbelt and running to his father. Tom came over and shook Hank's hand; for a second Sarah thought Tom might actually give his former adjutant a hug.

Being the nurturer she is and knowing that it would be awkward between Toni and John, Sarah went to Toni and gave her a hug, welcoming her. Toni broke out in tears at her mother-in-law's act of kindness. John was carrying Jason in his arms and came over to Toni. He gave her a hug and whispered, "Not now; we'll talk later. I'm just glad you and Jason are safe."

April was introduced to the Beck family before they all went into the house to have dinner. At the table, Hank related how April had rescued Toni and Jason. Jason was excited to tell his version of the morning's events and how April had single-handedly subdued three men, one of which was waving a gun around before being knocked out.

The party talked about other things besides the rescue; but kept away from the elephant in the room. No one knew how to broach the subject; Toni and John were sitting across from each other at the large dining room table, not next to each other as always been their habit. After a couple hours, Hank and April left to find a hotel nearby, refusing Sarah's invitation to stay in one of the guest rooms. They made plans to come back the next day; Agent Nolan was expected for the first interviews of April and Toni.

As soon as Hank and April left, John and Toni put Jason to bed, then made their way to the den to have the first of many conversations. They stared at each other for at least a minute before John decided to unload what he'd been thinking since getting the call this morning that his family was safe.

"Trust is the thing, Toni. Even if I could forgive you for screwing those assholes Holland and McMasters; how could I forgive you for taking Jason from me?"

Toni couldn't answer John's question; but she knew she had to set the record straight if there was any chance of their reconciliation. "John, there were others; others beside the two reverends. Both Holland and McMasters had other men use me. I'm sorry, John. At first, I convinced myself when I was with Holland that it had something to do with God. But; as soon as I landed at the farm, I knew I was just being used. Then I found an email from Holland to McMasters that confirmed what a naïve, stupid ex-junkie I've been. I was just one more whore to them. I'm sorry." Toni broke down and cried.

John wrapped his arms around Toni, burning inside at the new revelation. If taking Toni back home was a difficult decision before, now it seemed impossible. Somehow Holland would pay for this. Sure, Toni was an idiot for falling into Holland's web; but Holland took advantage of a damaged soul for his own carnal pleasures. "What makes a man become so evil?" John thought to himself as he held his weeping wife.

They sat for another hour, Toni interrupting whatever was being discussed to apologize until Toni was too exhausted to stay awake. Toni went into Jason's room to sleep in that bed. John in the room where he'd been sleeping since arriving in Stamford with his father over a week ago. Tomorrow, he'd call his office; tell his boss that his family was safe and ask if he could extend his leave of absence another week to at least get Jason home. He knew his boss would give him the extension; he was a family man who treated his employees with kindness and John was one of his most efficient coders.

John sat up in bed that night; tomorrow would be an interesting day. The FBI would be here to interview Toni. John would like to ask the agent a few questions; if the agent was open to answering them, maybe he could settle the disturbing self-doubts of manhood John was experiencing. Did he do something wrong when Toni first came under Holland's control? Was John lacking in some way that Toni so easily succumbed to Holland? These questions kept John up for at least another hour before he fell asleep.

The next morning Nolan showed up at the house accompanied by another agent. The two agents interviewed Toni for three hours before spending another hour with April. With Toni present, they did ask some questions of Jason; so far no one had suggested the boy had been molested; and the interviews confirmed it.

Both FBI agents seemed pleased with the information they gathered during the interviews; but said they'd probably have follow-up questions later.

John was able to spend some time with Agent Nolan; trying get answers to the questions that kept him up last night. Nolan's answers helped; telling John how Holland was a master manipulator of women, especially women that were overcoming grief or similar trauma.

"Predators like Holland know exactly what to say and when to say it. They don't seem to have a conscious; it's hard to understand, but it's the reason why our job is so emotionally grueling; but also rewarding. Every time I put one of these bastards away, I think it's maybe one less future victim. It's why I get up in the morning. If it helps, I doubt you did anything to make it happen and there was little you could have done – legally – to prevent it."

When Toni and John talked the next day, it was obvious the schism between them had grown too wide. There wasn't any way John would be able to get past the heartache of Toni's betrayal. Before the week was over, each had a new future direction. Toni agreed, John would retain custody of Jason, with the understanding that Toni would be allowed occasional visits. Toni spoke to her half-sister in California, who agreed to let Toni come and stay with her for a while.

It would be years before John understood and recovered from the trauma. Sarah, his siblings, Jason, and yes, the new relationship with his father, would help get him to a place where he could be happy again; almost as happy as those first ten years loving Toni.

One thing still bothered John, why should Reverend Holland be able to live his life unscathed while leaving a trail of broken souls behind. Once more, John turned to his father for counsel. A few months after the rescue, John spoke with his father; his father was a warrior, John had always been a quiet, peaceful boy and man. Did his father think less of him for being who he was? Did his father have different expectations of him?

"Dad, I feel I should do something to make Holland pay for destroying my family. If not for me, at least for Toni."

"John, I can understand what you're saying. But you need to take care of Jason now; he's going to need you with him, not sitting in some prison. Would you let me handle this for you?"

John agreed; although it was difficult to let it go. But; what his father said made sense; Jason was now his top priority.

For his part, Tom was glad his son allowed him to take care of this unfinished business. Tom was the kind of man who could take care of Holland. His son wasn't a coward, but John wasn't someone who could take a man's life, even an evil man's, without regret. Thank goodness, Tom thought, there's room in this world for both types of men.

Chapter Ten – It's Not Revenge, It's the Reckoning

Tom Beck and Hank Price made the decision not to wait until the Feds moved against Holland.

Tom and Hank lay motionless in the short alfalfa five-hundred yards from the small lake. It was a beautiful day; no wind, seventy-five degrees, the sun rising in the east behind them. Through the spotting scope, Hank could clearly see the Reverend Holland indulging in his habit of skinny-dipping on a warm morning. Two naked women were sitting on towels nearby.

Tom and Hank were alert despite the fact they had spent the night reaching this position; five hours moving slowly past tripwires and security cameras. Dogs probably would have presented a bigger challenge; but Holland had an irrational fear of dogs, any dogs. Therefore, he used stationary methods to keep any nosey law enforcement at bay.

Neither Tom nor Hank were there for revenge. No; this was something different, this was a reckoning for the number of women and families ruined in the past, as well as to prevent those that would be ruined in the future.

Now, it was a matter of patience. When Holland came out of the water up onto the man-made beach, they were in a perfect position to take the shot. The two men earlier disagreed which would take the shot; but it didn't matter, either could take this shot and hit the target at this range. It was finally agreed Tom would take the shot with his elk rifle, a Remington 700 in .30-06. A session at the firing range confirmed the rifle and ammunition were in perfect synch and any target up to a thousand yards was well within Tom's range.

As expected, Holland walked out of the water and signaled for one of the two women on the beach to bring him a towel. Holland stood there, his hands on his hips, standing like some sultan waiting for one of his harem girls to towel him off. Tom would have smiled; but that would have affected his breathing. One breath in and a half breath out, steady, his finger placing the right amount of pressure on the trigger. The bullet twisted two and one-half turns through the twenty-six inches of the rifle barrel on the way to its target.

Five-hundred yards later, the bullet hit exactly where Tom intended. As the bullet entered the Reverend's forehead, it expanded and left the back of Holland's head much larger than when it went in. Both men confirmed the results; Tom through the scope of his rifle, Hank through the spotting scope. They donned their ski masks and followed the path laid out earlier through the field of trip-wire to the vehicle waiting in the woods past the ranch's boundary. Only when they were in the truck, heading south to Dallas, did they take the time to look at each other and smile.

Two years later McMasters would be sitting in Marion Federal Penitentiary along with four other ministers and a dozen hangers-on after the Feds finally raided the remaining five 'churches' across the country. It was a messy affair, lots of conversations about First Amendment rights; but when the entire story was written, a Pulitzer Prize winning piece in the Dallas Morning News, people began to understand this was less about religious freedom and more about human trafficking, sexual exploitation and the two suspected murders that were never proven because the bodies were never recovered.

Epilogue

A month after returning from Texas, Hank came into Karin's office.

"I have a proposition I'd like to run by you."

Karin looked up from her terminal. "The answer is 'yes'."

Hank hated when she did this. "What do you mean, 'yes'? I haven't asked you yet."

"You're going to ask me if we can hire April. The answer is 'yes'."

Although Hank received the answer he was hoping for; it still bugged him when Karin did this – anticipating him. He had spent a lot of time putting together the justification for hiring the former FBI agent.

As much as Hank hated it, Karin loved staying one step ahead of Hank. It made her feel good that she could read the man.

"Hank, I think hiring April is great a great idea. Have you talked to her about it?"

"I brought it up without making any promises. She's interested. She'd like to settle down in one town again and you know how much she loves New York."

Karin smiled, she knew April was already living with Hank.

"Well then, it's time I share what I've been thinking. I'd like to take at least two years off. Bill started his new job; the hours will be long for a while. Anthony is starting high school next year; Hannah has two years to go before she goes to college. I'd like to spend those two years being a full-time wife and mom. Something I've never had a chance to do."

"Won't you go crazy? The only time you've ever spent more than two weeks away from police and detective work since you were a rookie cop was during maternity leave and when you were recovering from getting shot and getting the new leg. Even then you were so involved in the physical therapy you treated it like a full-time job."

"I'd like to try; and you can always call me from time to time. I could do research or whatever; but no field work for a while. OK?"

"Karin; I think it's a great idea. When do you start this sabbatical?"

"I've been getting everything ready. When can April start?"

"Yesterday."

Just then, Bill Roland walked into Karin's office.

"Did you ask him?"

"Yes."

"What do you think Hank; can you handle this for a couple years and give Karin the time away?"