Tears stung her eyelids but she refused to give in to the urge to cry. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of knowing they had the power to make her crumble. She was just grateful that for the time being, at least, they were leaving her alone as they made their preparations to move out. They were expecting retaliation from Isaac and the other DSS members, but she wasn't about to tell them that Isaac had no idea where she was. If they were focused on a nonexistent threat, then that meant they wouldn't be as focused on her. Yet.
Even as grief consumed her at what she'd done, that she'd left Isaac to think the worst of her, she knew she'd done the right thing the moment she'd caught sight of her temporary prison. What appeared to be dozens of armed men patrolled the grounds and inside the building. This was nothing like the cult. This property had barbed wire along the gated wall, there were multiple televisions in every room they'd passed showing other areas, and all the men spoke into tiny devices that appeared to go to speakers in their ears. And this was only a temporary holding place! Wherever they were taking her was even more heavily fortified, according to the maniac who'd informed her that she was his property now and that the sooner she accepted it, the better things would go for her.
Even as grief stricken as she felt for the things she'd so briefly enjoyed that were now forever gone, she knew she'd done the right thing. Isaac and his men were no match for the heavily armed guards who patrolled her temporary prison. They were outnumbered, and the only result if they attempted a rescue would be their slaughter. Jenna would never survive if people who'd been nothing but kind and protective toward her had been repaid by death.
It had taken her years to escape the elders, and these men were far better prepared to keep her a prisoner. She knew she would never be free again, but at least she had the memory of a few stolen days to lose herself in when before, she'd known nothing but what the cult had chosen her to know.
Even now she closed her eyes and sought the solace of the beautiful memories she'd made. The new and amazing world she'd discovered. The kindness shown to her by the wives of the DSS members and how by watching them she'd realized that what she'd shared, albeit briefly, with Isaac had been so very special.
Kissing. Different kinds of kisses. Lips pressed to her head by someone who actually cared about what happened to her. And then the kisses to her lips by someone who wanted her. Her.
Remembering Isaac's kisses, how very many different kinds he'd shown her in such a short time, was simply too much, and she finally lost control over her battle to keep her tears at bay. They trailed down her bruised cheek, and she realized that not all men were like the elders and the evil men who dealt in drugs and death who'd bought her from the cult like she was nothing more than an object.
Men like Isaac, like the men he worked with, had revealed a whole new understanding of men and relationships and how very wrong all of the examples were that she'd been witness to in the past. Her heart ached for the loss of something as beautiful as what she'd been given during those days. For the briefest of moments, regret stole over her, but she shoved it forcefully away, knowing it had no room in her mind or her heart. The men hunting her had been so very close to the safe house. If she hadn't left when she did, they would have come for her and the result would have been a massacre.
No, she'd never be free again and she'd never again experience the love Isaac had so selflessly shown her, but she would survive the loss because as long as she wasn't free, Isaac and all those associated with him would be alive and safe. For that, she could take whatever her captor had planned.
Isaac waited impatiently, cloaked in darkness outside the heavily fortified old factory that looked as though it had been renovated on the inside while keeping the run-down vacant look on the exterior. He and the others were waiting for Shadow to do what he did best and do recon so they could see exactly what they were up against and hopefully get a bead on Jenna's exact location.
From the moment Ramie had roused enough to give them more specific information, Isaac had been paralyzed with fear. The fucking bastard who'd purchased Jenna from the cult had quite the history of buying and selling things. Namely drugs. He'd eluded conviction for years because anyone agreeing to testify against him mysteriously disappeared or turned up murdered in a gruesome manner, a clear message to anyone else who thought to try to take down the vicious drug lord.
He'd nicknamed himself Jesus, spouting that he was the son of God. How appropriate that he'd gone shopping at a fucking cult for immortality and lucked on to the real thing. Someone who could keep him alive indefinitely. Until the day Jenna died. Knowing that only heartened Isaac a little. Jesus, or Jaysus as he was called by law enforcement and the numerous special tasks forces that had spent years trying to put him behind bars, would protect Jenna as fiercely as he would kill anyone who tried to take her away from him. Because if Jenna died-or managed to escape-then Jaysus was well and truly fucked, and right now Isaac was in a mood to fuck up every single man who had anything to do with his angel's capture.