Free Through a Glass, Darkly (Assassins of Youth MC #1) by Layla Wolfe Page A

scripture I hear and read. Why would a god give us intelligence and then expect us to ignore it? That’s like building us eyes to see and telling us not to look at the buttes in Zion National Park. Every way I look at this Orson Ream thing, it makes me nauseous. The things we choose to love, the people we choose to respond to, Gideon, that’s the highest mirror image of who we are. Allred’s taking this away from Vonda. Away from me!”
    She was preaching to the choir. When I’d prospected first for Papa Ewey, I’d bristled at a lot of his commands. I still found it hard to work underneath anyone or take orders—one reason why I’d been so tweaked about being sent out here with Breakiron. Maybe it was Mahalia’s influence, but suddenly I felt that there had been a divine purpose behind all of that. I could never have Chelsea, but being hot for her had maybe been a long, arduous path that had led me straight to Mahalia Warrior. I couldn’t help her in any immediate sense, but I had an idea.
    “Look. Being stressed isn’t good for you. It just gets in your way, makes you unable to function. There are pills for that, you know.”
    She sniffed. “I’ve heard of them, but of course we’re not allowed any of that. I was never stressed until Field died. And I’ll tell you. That was no damned construction accident. But that’s all I’ll say about that.”
    “I can get you some pills. Antianxiety medication. The gal who’s with our Prez, well, she takes them. She can get her hands on some. It does truly sound like you’re dangerously stressed, and I hate to see you this way.”
    She forced a smile. “You’re very kind. Did you know that?”
    “No.” It was true. “Kind” was not a word anyone had ever said about me. Rude, belligerent, selfish, thoughtless—sure. All of the above. But never kind.
    “Well, you are. Kind. I would give you my business cell number, but Allred…”
    “He checks the bill.”
    “Yes. I have certain numbers I’m allowed to call.”
    “Must be hard to do business that way.”
    “It is. The list gets longer by the day, but I’m afraid you wouldn’t be on it. Unless I could come up with some other reason I need to call a gold mine.”
    “I’ll get another burner. Tell him it’s a new supplier or whatever it is you do. Another charity you want to donate to.”
    “All right.” The fear was evident in her eyes as she pulled a pen and little notebook from her purse and wrote down her number. Dingo wandered over and said,
    “Miss Warrior? Nice to see you again.” To me, he said, “Miss Warrior is one of the women kind enough to bring me food at the school.”
    “Jonah Garff, of course. Please sit.” She didn’t seem embarrassed to be seen handing me her phone number. “And what are you doing on the laptop over there? Universes, galaxies?”
    “Oh, it’s very exciting. Satellites. You know, like what runs your cell phone. It is amazing! Mr. Fortunati has been kind enough to let me use his laptop. I may have left the compound, but I’ve kept up on my reading.”
    “I’ll buy him his own laptop once I get down to St. George,” I said.
    “Well, that’s very generous of Mr. Fortunati. You know, Jonah. I’ve always wondered. Astrophysics explains how stars came to be. Then Darwin tells how the human eye came to be. But no one explains why a starry sky renders us mute with awe, or why our minds burn to comprehend what is not required by our body.”
    Dingo nodded eagerly. “Yes, like why are we so amazed by nature? Our body doesn’t need our appreciation of a distant galaxy to function.”
    “Exactly!” cried Mahalia, and it seemed as though she might be cheering up. “I can sit there amazed for half an hour watching my bird feeder, and even forget to eat myself. I’m awestruck by beauty in all forms, whether it’s an animal, a flower—”
    “Or a beautiful man,” said Dingo, gesturing to encompass my entire form.
    Mahalia giggled uneasily. Dingo made her so