“I ran from the people inside the church.”
For a second, Jake just sat there staring at her like she’d told him the world was flat.
Running from God was one thing. Jake had known folks who drank themselves stupid and called it sin.
But running from the church itself?
That was a different storm.
Jake kept his voice calm, the same voice he used with horses that had been mistreated—soft, steady, patient.
“You can tell me,” he said. “No one else is here.”
Elise stared at her hands. They were shaking.
She took a breath that didn’t quite make it all the way down.
“Back at the mission in Dodge City,” she said, “things… were not holy anymore.”
Something cold settled in Jake’s stomach.
That mission was supposed to be a place people trusted. A place mothers sent their children when they needed help. A place men dropped coins into when they wanted to feel decent.
Elise looked up, eyes shining with truth she didn’t want to hold.
“There’s a man there,” she whispered. “A man everyone respects. But he is not who they think he is.”
Jake didn’t interrupt. He didn’t rush her. He let her words come the way they needed to.
She swallowed hard.
“He’s using the mission for money,” she said. “For things no one should ever hide behind a cross.”
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