Free Bounty (Walk the Right Road) by Lorhainne Eckhart Page B

too. Great, she’d hit a nerve. But what the hell was up with him? She thought he was her friend, after all, but speaking to Green instead of her about coming back was such a backstabbing betrayal. She couldn’t look at him, and she slid out of her chair, crossed her arms, and gestured to Zac.
    “The Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, the FLDS, is where we should start,” he began. “The groups are in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and just across the Idaho border in Canada. These are the hardcore ones. There are other spinoff groups in other states, but they’re not FLDS. The original Latter Day Saints under Joseph Smith split off, and many different sects, or churches, shall we say, were formed, some teaching that Joseph Smith was not a prophet and the book of Mormon was not scripture. These included a sect opposing plural marriage, but some of these sects are now defunct. Then there are the Latter Day Saints, the largest group in Salt Lake being organized under Brigham Young. For those of you not up on the different sects of every religion, these are referred to as Mormons. Each of these sects, like most religions out there, claims to be the true successor.” Zac had everyone’s attention, and Diane couldn’t grasp the wealth of knowledge he had.
    “Geez, well, aren’t you a wealth of information on these nutcases,” Green said, and Diane grabbed her top drawer and yanked it open, knocking Green in the thigh. “Hey, what the hell, Diane?” Green snapped as he jumped back, rubbing where the sharp corner had poked him.
    “Sorry.” She reached in the drawer and lifted out a pencil. “Needed this.” She slammed the drawer shut and grabbed a pad of paper. Normally she’d have felt bad, but Green was such an asshole, and he didn’t get these people. She was furious at him for judging them. Even though, in her own mind, she had serious issues, she didn’t feel he had the right to have an opinion.
    “Basically, different sects broke off, following different leaders and teachings. There’s also the Reorganized Church, headquartered in Missouri, and the Bickertonite Church, based in Pennsylvania. Do you want me to go into the different teachings?” Zac asked.
    Diane was thankful he hadn’t looked at her. He was taking all the heat from her, and even Sam was frowning, considering, wondering. Diane’s throat was scratchy and dry, and she had to force herself to swallow, as her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears that she could feel the blood pulsing through her arms and chest. To make it worse, her underarms were dripping. Zac had come in prepared, but did he know what was taught, how each sect interpreted those teachings, how they were led and controlled?
    She knew the teachings of her community well because they were still branded in her brain from nightly prayers, the entire family on their knees. Her father, who had led the prayers, was the only one to talk to God. Women were only allowed a spiritual connection through their fathers or husbands, but it was the prophet who controlled the community, deciding who married whom and when a wife was to be given away. Men requested marriages through the prophet and awaited his approval, so staying in the prophet’s good graces was the men’s top priority.
    Later, a different teaching was passed on to her by her true father, Jack Larsen, over and over: No one can talk to God for you. Only you can interpret the message you receive, and no one can ever tell you what to believe. One night, she’d asked Jack how she would ever get to heaven now, asking which heaven it would be. He’d stared at her with such confusion and asked her to explain her question, so she told him about the three levels of heaven: the celestial, the natural, and the spiritual, the top being the state where man becomes God and goes with his wives to create their own world. She explained that if a man ever doubted the prophet and his visions, he would lose everything, his house, his