Read Online The Furies by Mark Alpert - Free Book Online Page B

“That’s what made it easy for the kid to remember the number.”
    As Van turned his bike around and gunned the engine, Agent Larson unfolded the paper. The plate number was written in pencil: IVY4EVR

FIVE
    The first thing Ariel did in the car was prepare her dose of herbal medicine. While John drove across North Philly toward the Roosevelt Expressway, she mixed the crushed leaves and powders in a half-full bottle of Poland Spring water she’d found in the backseat. He watched her in the rearview mirror as she raised the bottle to her lips and drank the concoction. She made a face, closing her eyes and twisting her mouth in disgust, but she downed the whole thing. Then she looked at him in the mirror.
    â€œI owe you an explanation,” she said. “But I’m afraid you won’t like it.”
    She got right to the point, as always. John liked her directness. It was one of the first things he’d noticed about her. And now it convinced him to give her the benefit of the doubt, even though she’d led him into a shitload of trouble, He should’ve been fuming at Ariel—he was on the run because of this girl, his apartment had been trashed—but he couldn’t get angry at her. Despite everything that had happened, he sensed she was innocent. “Give it a shot,” he said. “Go ahead and try me.”
    Ariel shifted to a more comfortable position, stretching her injured legs across the backseat. “Meeting you in the bar last night wasn’t an accident. I chose you two months ago. Then I came up with a plan for introducing myself to you.”
    â€œChose me? For what?”
    â€œTo father my child. I want to have a child.”
    John was so startled, he almost missed the on-ramp for the expressway. The Kia fishtailed as he made the turn. “What?” he shouted. “Father your—?”
    â€œLet me explain. The truth is, I’m not from Connecticut. Not even close. I come from an isolated community in northern Michigan, a place called Haven. You know about the Amish communities? Or the Mennonites?”
    He stared at her in the rearview mirror. “You’re Amish?”
    â€œNo, no. We’re not a Christian community. But like the Amish, we have different customs from the rest of the society. And we have very strict rules. Most important, we’re not allowed to marry and have children in the usual way. When a woman in our community wants to have a child, she has to seek permission from our Council of Elders.”
    John was thoroughly confused. “Elders?”
    â€œThey’re our leaders. If they give the woman permission, she has to go outside our community to find her paramour, which is our name for the man she chooses. But she can’t stay with the man after he impregnates her. She has to come back to Haven to raise the child. She can never see the father again.”
    He heard what she said but didn’t understand a word of it. His hands trembled as he steered the car onto the expressway, which luckily wasn’t too busy at that hour. He was more afraid now than he’d been during the shootout last night. “A cult? Is that what you’re talking about? You belong to a cult?”
    Ariel shook her head. “I wouldn’t use that term. Yes, we operate in secrecy, but really we’re a family. A very large extended family.”
    John remembered her bodyguards, the brawny guys with auburn crew cuts. When he saw them in the bar for the first time he’d assumed they were her brothers. “Hal and Richard, they were part of this family, too?”
    â€œThey were my cousins.” She bit her lower lip. “Their job was to keep me safe during my encounter with you. They gave their lives to protect me.”
    It was a real struggle just to keep the Kia in its lane. John wanted to stop the car on the side of the highway, but instead he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “So you planned