Laying of Hands by Patricia Evans

Author:Patricia Evans [Evans, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapphire Books Publishing
Published: 2021-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

“Jesus Christ.”

Kate’s voice was hoarse as she and Adel went out to the deck and leaned on the railing, drawing in the cool night air as if they’d just escaped the desert. Kate raked a hand through her hair then walked over to a small table by the sliding glass doors. She returned with a box of menthol American Spirits and handed one to Adel, flicking a chrome lighter under the end of it.

“You didn’t even ask me if I smoke.” Adel looked up at the crescent moon hanging in the black night sky and exhaled the sheer gray smoke, watching it rise like a makeshift temple around them then dissipate into the darkness.

“Yeah, well.” Kate closed her eyes as she inhaled, the tip of her cigarette blazing red and orange as the paper sizzled into ash. “Who doesn’t smoke after something like that?”

Kate turned around to face the golden light in the house and leaned back on her elbows against the railing. “What are you telling your editor about this place?”

“Not much so far. He knows something’s up with Valley of Rubies, which is why he wanted to do an exposé on it, but I don’t think he’s really expecting anything more salacious than polygamy yet.”

“Yeah, I think we passed that point about fifty miles back.” Kate flicked her ash over the balcony and turned back to Adel. “If you tell him something now, though, or write about this shit at all, it could tank the investigation and we’d lose our chance to get these girls out of there.”

The wind picked up the edges of Adel’s hair and she tucked it behind her ear as she nodded. “I know.”

“This was your big break, though, right?”

Adel arched an eyebrow and looked back as Hannah opened the sliding glass door behind them. “How did you know that?”

“My sister works for the Chicago Tribune, and she had an assignment like this dropped in her lap when she was in her twenties. No one was willing to put their name on it but my badass sister. It turned out she was right; it made her career.”

Hannah stepped out onto the deck, shutting the slider behind her with one hand and zipping up her fleece with the other. She walked up and took the cigarette out of Kate’s hand, drawing a long puff before she handed it back. She exhaled toward the moon and rubbed her forehead with the tips of her fingers for a moment before she looked up.

“Can someone tell me what the fuck a ‘Purity Ball’ is? Because clearly, something really bad happened to Audrey’s sister there. Just the name of that thing gives me the creeps.”

“I don’t know much about it.” Adel zipped up her jacket against the wind picking up over the water. “But it’s some sort of ceremony where girls as young as eight or nine promise to remain ‘pure’ until marriage, which is not even the weird part, believe it or not. According to a friend of

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