Sin and Sacrifice (24 page)

“
You expect me to believe
that?” Evelyn tamped down the surge of hope that flared in her
chest. He was lying again, softening her up so he could more easily
extract information out of her.

“
Yes, I do,” he said. He
crossed his arms over his chest and widened the stance of feet to
balance his weight between them.

Evelyn didn't see it as an
intimidating gesture but one that allowed him to stay mobile and
agile if she decided to bolt.

“
Well, I'm sorry if I
can't just take you at your word. Not after all this.”

“
This would go a lot
easier if you'd just tell me what they wanted with you and your
friends, or your sisters, to begin with.”

“
I don't know.”

“
Now who's
lying?”

Evelyn gusted out an
exasperated breath and traded glares with him. He looked so
masculine standing there with
that
expression on his face. One that asked her to
trust him. It made her irritable. The whole situation scared her
half to death.

“
I'm not going to tell you
anymore than I told your comrades. Which was nothing.” She'd
slipped and called the girls her sisters which was bad enough.
Evelyn couldn't figure out why he hadn't called in back up yet or
strapped her down for more torture. He was trying to coax it out of
her using the connection they had between them.

“
Why do you sound so
seasoned when you say that? Like this is something you've done
before?”

Startled at his quiet
insight, she glanced away from his eyes.

“
Mhm,” he muttered, as if
that gesture clued him in that he was correct.

Damn him.

“
Why can't you all just
let us live? Why can't you let it go, finally, and just move on?”
she asked in return.

He frowned in obvious
frustration. “Let what go? What did they want with you?”

“
I'm not telling you
anything.” She felt the walls of her will tremble. Rhett kept
battering at her defenses and she had no where to go to escape
him.

“
This isn't just about us.
There's something more here, something deeper. Your trust issues
aren't solely because I lied to you.”

“
You're very astute,
Rhett,” she said, deciding not to argue what was plain to see. “I
just can't believe that you don't know what's going on though. Not
when you're wearing that tattoo.”

“
So you know that we're
Templars.”

She shuddered at the word
coming out of his mouth. He'd just admitted to being her enemy. How
could she have been so stupid? So blind? She said nothing, breaking
the stare between them. Evelyn couldn't look at him. Looking at
him, with the warm feeling that wanted to blossom out through her
system at his presence, did not work in her favor keeping him at
arm's length.

“
How
did you know? No one outside the immediate families know
besides the Church and a few people very high up in the American
Government. It's a carefully guarded fact that we exist,” he
said.

“
I just do. And I know
that you all do horrible things, which I don't need to tell you
considering what you are and how you found me. What I also can't
believe is that the Church condones this.” Her disgust couldn't be
more thorough or complete.

“
We don't always do
horrible things. I can see how you'd think so though if all the
experience you've had with them is what went on in that basement. I
can also tell you that the Church absolutely does
not
condone that kind of
behavior.”

“
You killed
Galiana--”

“
Don't generalize,
Evelyn.
I
didn't
kill her. And I don't know why the other Templars did, either. One
more time—I can't help you unless you tell me what's going
on.”

“
I don't believe you and I
certainly don't trust you, so all we're going to do here is keep
going in circles.” She hated how sincere he sounded. Hated the
level look in his eyes when she glanced up from the floor. Could he
be that good of a liar?
Of course. Look
how long he deceived you about being an agent.
The devil on her shoulder kept whispering dark tidings,
keeping her barriers from crumbling.

Rhett yanked the other
chair back and sat down, stretching his long legs out. Hooking his
ankles, he crossed his arms over his chest. For all the world, he
looked like he was settling in for a long wait.

“
Then we're going to sit
here and talk about it until you trust me. Because I'm not letting
you out of my sight until we've figured this out.”

“
You can't keep me
here--”

“
Watch me.”

He might have spoken
quietly, but Evelyn didn't mistake that he meant every word. In the
short time she'd known him, she'd discovered that when he set his
mind to something he usually saw it through to the end.
Exasperated, she realized that she wasn't quite as on edge as she'd
been when she first saw him. He was already wearing her down,
trying to get under her skin.

She hated that it was
working despite the fear and caution that clanged like hazard
warnings in her mind.

“
We're at an impasse,
Rhett. I don't need to tell you anything because you already know
it, and I'm sure it's just another way to make me feel better so
that when you ask where the girls are--”

“
Genevieve is dead,
Evelyn.” His voice took a grave turn and his expression showed
sympathy for the ugly news he had to deliver.

She froze in place and
stared at his eyes. There were no lies, no deception, to read
there.

Genevieve. Dead.

Denial kicked in. She
wanted to call him out for using such an underhanded tactic, but
instinct told her as well as his demeanor that he wasn't lying.
Galiana and now Genevieve.

A sob stuck in her throat
and she turned away from him, burying her face in her palms. He'd
effectively stripped her of her ability to function. She couldn't
retaliate or shout or do anything but catch hot tears on her
fingertips and try to remember to breathe. Evelyn was aware that
Rhett was the one who'd comforted her last time when she'd broken
down about a sister; this time he kept his distance, like he knew
it would be too much to impose himself upon her while the wound was
so fresh.

“
How?” she finally managed
to whisper.

“
They tortured her and cut
out her heart. They found her hanging from a beam by her wrists.”
Rhett did not sugar coat the horror. He laid it out plainly, with a
dark edge to the words. “And if you don't let me help you, they'll
eventually find you and do the same thing to you.”

The fight had been sucked
out of her. Distantly she wondered if he'd planned it this way.
Grief made anger easier to grab onto. She whirled on him, cheeks
flushed and tear stained, one hand raising to point an accusing
finger.

“
And you're here to make
me feel helpless and hopeless so that I'll tell you where it is.
Obviously my sisters didn't give it up, so now you'll use a
different brand of torture to force my hand.” She didn't realize
she was shouting until her voice echoed back at her through the
enormous warehouse.

Rhett watched with a look
of controlled compassion, but did not get up to soothe her as he'd
done before. Even now, with her heart in her throat, he left all
that space between them.

“
So you have something
they want? A disc, an object? What the hell do you know or have
that they want so bad? I only brought you here so that you and I
can get on the same page again, Evelyn, because I'm not the enemy.
I'll keep on saying it until you believe me, even if we have to sit
here for three days.” He spread his hands and crossed them over his
chest again.

Evelyn wanted to throttle
him and throw herself into his arms at the same time. He was
swaying her, she could feel it, making her doubt all the things
she'd believed for so long. Lowering her hand, she hugged her arms
around her middle. They stared each other down; Rhett's gaze was
deep, unrelenting. As serious as she'd ever seen him. She couldn't
detect any weapons on him, saw no holster or the gleam of a gun.
Nothing.

Could he be telling her the
truth? Could he really not know what the other Templars had done,
or why they wanted her? She couldn't decide if confessing all her
secrets to him was self preservation or giving in, and she hated
that, too.

Taking a steadying breath,
she said, “They want us, Rhett, because we're the last survivors
from the Garden of Eden. The last daughters of Eve.”

Chapter Ten

As the sun started sinking
lower in the sky, the rays through the windows grew duskier, less
potent. Evelyn had no trouble seeing Rhett's eyes as the gloom
deepened.

He narrowed them.
Suspicious or disbelieving. She didn't have to wonder long
which.

“
You're kidding
me.”

“
Listen, you wanted the
truth. I tried to tell you that you wouldn't believe me.” Pacing a
few feet in a small area in front of him, she held eye contact the
whole time.

He sat forward with a
frown, staring hard at her. “How exactly is it that you're still
alive? I'm sorry, but that's about as far fetched as anything I've
ever heard. I need some kind of proof.”

A hollow, derisive laugh
preceded her answer. Not directed at him per se, but at the fact
she and her sisters had been hunted for so long and now one of the
Templars themselves didn't believe she was who she said she
was.

The irony of
ironies.

“
I could take you to the
Garden, but that's forbidden. If you knew the stories and the
legends, then you'd recognize this,” she said. Evelyn closed the
distance and exposed her wrist, turning it over so he could see the
soft underside and the two pin pricks of black that resembled a
snakebite.

Rhett looked confused and
blank.

It surprised her. He seemed
too genuinely perplexed to be faking it.

“
That could just be a mark
from an old wound or something,” he said, cupping his hands between
the parted stretch of his knees. He looked up at her from under the
ridge of his brows.

Evelyn didn't know whether
to laugh or scream. Could she really be here, just learned of
another sister's death, having to
prove
what she was to a
Knight?

“
If I was lying, why would
the Templars be going to such great lengths?”

“
Hell if I know.” Rhett
shoved up out of the chair, dragging a hand through his hair. “All
right, so let's go with it. You and your sisters are from the
Garden of Eden. They want you because....”

“
Because they want to know
where the Garden is. They want us to take them there, even if it's
forbidden. And because they think we're evil. One of them said they
thought this mark was made by the serpent, that we're spreading his
work through the world.
Actually,
it was put there as a reminder,” she
said.

“
A reminder of
what?”

“
Not to make the same
mistakes as our parents. We ate from the Tree of Knowledge and Life
and promised to go forth and do good in the world. And we have, all
of us. We've honored our agreement down to the last
sister.”

“
Adam and Eve were your
parents.” The question rolled out rhetorical. Rhett propped his
hands on his hips and paced, clearly struggling to believe it. “But
why are your sisters so different then? I mean, Genevieve, Minna?
They're not even the same race as you and Alexandra and
Galiana.”

“
You have to remember who
made them, Rhett. Our brothers and sisters looked like people from
all walks of life. Why shouldn't they? Adam and Eve were the first
humans on the earth. Is it such a stretch to believe they wouldn't
produce diverse offspring?” she asked, smearing another tear from
her cheek. Talking about all the siblings she'd lost kept the
emotion raw.

He grunted, finally looking
away from her eyes to the floor. His expression deepened, brows
sinking low. The sole of his boots hissed on the concrete with
every step he took.

Evelyn saw the moment Rhett
went from a disbeliever to an almost-believer.

“
All right, well, we can
talk about all that later on,” he said, glancing up when he came to
a stop behind the chair. “Do you trust me enough to work with me
yet, Evelyn? I'll tell you another thing that might make you feel a
little better. Christian and Dracht are my brothers. I told you I
had two of them. Dragar is our father.”

Evelyn shouldn't have been
as surprised as she was right then. She knew the Templars were
generational, the duty passed down from fathers to sons for
centuries.

“
And I can tell you that
none of them know any more than I do about what's going on. The men
who tortured you? They're Templars but they've gone rogue or
something. I'm not sure yet. The fact that none of us knew what
they were up to says this whole thing is a lot bigger than you or I
know.” Coming around the chair, he approached her slowly, like he
thought she might bolt.