CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX Luke

Tate dropped me off a half-mile from the gates of the ranch on Sunday afternoon. We'd spent the morning cooking delicious food while he drank coffee. He asked if I planned on drinking coffee if we lived together someday. All my brain heard was the ‘living together' part. After some teasing, I took a sip of his black coffee, my nose scrunched up after swallowing.

"Nope!" I'd stated.

"There are creamers that make it taste better."

"Nope," I'd repeated.

Tate came around the kitchen island, wrapping his arms around me from behind. "Is this what being with you will be like?"

Here again, all I'd heard was the ‘being with you' part.

I stood on the side of the road and watched Tate and his flashy car disappear into the distance. He said he wished I didn't have to leave, and I said I wished I could stay. The sad reality was I had a family on the ranch who needed me. Disappearing one day to never return, which I'd often considered, just wasn't possible. David needed me now more than ever, and Ma depended on me to help with David. Honestly, I was stuck.

I tried not to dwell on how Tate and I could be together full time. Besides, not knowing if he felt like I did, I wasn't sure how one knew they were ready for marriage. On the ranch, Franklin decided who married after a proper courtship, and if he deemed the pairing settled, then you didn't have options not to marry. The truth was that I wanted to marry Tate. I just hadn't quite figured out how that would happen.

I'd turned eighteen nearly two years prior and Franklin still hadn't given any indication of who, or when, I was to marry. I'd heard the murmurs and rumors from others, but nothing concrete. In fact, whenever the idea of me courting a particular girl and her family came up, he ignored the requests.

I wasn't na?ve to the fact that a few families had expressed the desire for me to marry into their households. One reason was that I figured the girl may have inquired with her father or the father knew what an asset I was as a worker. Either way, Franklin said nothing.

The last thing I needed now was an order to marry. The fact that I showed no interest in any girl on the ranch solved most of the problem, but I knew there was no way I could fly under the radar much longer.

The entire community was in the main hall when I entered an open gate from the road below. Today was Sunday, and the requirement was all-day worship. I wasn't sure if Ma had asked of my whereabouts, but I assumed she wouldn't inquire, considering if there was an issue, she'd want to protect me.

The dorm was quiet when I walked down the hall to our room. Most rooms were open, a requirement when unoccupied in case leadership wanted to perform a surprise visit for stuff we weren't supposed to have. Most violations were the possession of books or magazines from outside the community, electronic devices, or, surprisingly, even alcohol.

When I came around the corner to our room, I found three council members standing outside the door. My mother and David were inside crying. As soon as Ma saw me standing outside the door, she burst from the room and into my arms.

"We're being evicted, Luke," she cried, sobbing and going limp in my arms.

"It's all your fault, Luke," David said, joining us in the hall. "Franklin came around last night, and you weren't here."

An excuse about why I was gone wouldn't work at this point. The rules were the rules. There was no reason to be outside the gates past eight in the evening, even if you worked late at one of our businesses. A special approval was provided only by Franklin in unusual circumstances. Like a rooster on the ranch, my taking the risk to court Tate had come home to roost on my first attempt. I was cooked.

"What's going on, Brother John?" I asked, holding on to Ma while David scowled at me and leaned against a wall.

"What's going on is you didn't come home last night," David sassed. "Now they're moving us to one of the shacks."

The shacks were what we called the old, one-room buildings that the original members lived in until the dorms were built before I was born. There was no running water or electricity in them. Some were so dilapidated that a cow could walk straight through one.

"Quiet, David!" I barked, turning my attention to Brother John, who had ignored my first attempt at an answer. "Why are we being thrown out?"

"Franklin's orders," he said. Brother John was a friend and a mentor, so I didn't blame him. "I'm sorry, Brother Luke, but I don't have a choice in the matter."

I moved Ma to the wall beside David. "Neither of you move," I instructed. "I'll fix this."

I ran down the hall as fast as I could go, heading straight for the main hall. Bursting through the double doors, I glared around the room, searching for Franklin. He wasn't on stage like he normally would be during worship, so I ran to his open office door and found him sitting behind his desk.

"Well, look who it is," he bellowed, making sure the other room could hear him. The folks in the main hall became dead silent.

"Why are you removing my family from the dorms?" I asked, doing my best to stay calm and collected. Causing Franklin to get upset was never a good idea. "Punish me if you must but leave Ma and David out of this."

"You're right," he began, a sneer on his face like he'd eaten a thistle plant. "Your mother and David weren't gone all night, son, but you are a reflection of your family, and your ma is a poor example for us all. First, we have you doing whatever it is you're doing, and then we have young David skipping out on his responsibilities. So, you tell me now, son. What should I do?"

I stepped into his office, and approached his desk slowly, rage bubbling just beneath the surface. Franklin lifted an eyebrow and glanced at my angry fists. He sat upright, possibly remembering our last meet and greet in the barn.

"What you'll do is move me to the shacks, but you'll leave my family right where they are, Franklin," I hissed, using his first name and leaning over his desk. A collective gasp came from the large room behind me at hearing my blasphemy. "Or I will come around this desk and remind you why you'll listen to me."

"Is that so, you despicable homosexual" he growled, standing up and trying to intimidate me. "I have it through the grapevine that you've been cavorting with one of the town folks, boy. Doing unspeakable homosexual things. Maybe you should remember that I have my snitches in the outside world. And apparently, you've rattled someone's cage out there who isn't too happy with our lovelorn little Luke."

His words burned. Hearing the word homosexual used against me was one thing, but in front of the entire community? And who knew about me and Tate, besides me and Tate?

I lowered my voice to a whisper. "You're one to talk," I spat back at him. "At least I'm not raping boys."

His eyes quickly shot behind me, worried my words had traveled. Apparently, they hadn't, because he once again sat in his chair like he hadn't a care in the world.

"You're just angry because you're aging out, son," he hissed. "But guess what? Your little brother hasn't."

I flew across the desk and had my hands around his neck faster than he could move, lifting all three hundred pounds of him out of his chair and shoving him against the wall. His beady eyes stared at me, emotionless, like he knew something I didn't.

"I will kill you. You understand me?" I raged.

No sooner than I spoke the words, five men appeared from nowhere and pulled me away while Franklin clutched at his neck, coughing and pointing at me. "Remove Brother Luke," he croaked. "Isolation for ninety-six hours and then he can rot in the shacks with the rest of his family."

I lunged for him, to no avail, flailing my arms unsuccessfully and kicking my legs toward him. "You better do more than that!" I yelled, being dragged out of his office. "I'll find you, Franklin, and then I'll kill you! You hear me?"

Franklin waited until I'd been cleared from his office before stepping into the main room. All eyes were on me after they'd witnessed the scene that had just unfolded in broad daylight.

"You heard him, dear brothers and sisters. He said he'll kill me," he announced.

"And I will!" I hollered, renewing my efforts to do it right then and there by struggling to get to him.

Solitary confinement was a reinforced room in the basement of the same building. This wouldn't be my first stay there. David had been caught with a hand-held video game a year ago, and I took the blame to save him from the experience.

My brothers—friends, really—dragged me into the room and dumped my exhausted body in a heap on the floor. None of them spoke or looked at me. They knew the rules. Question Franklin's actions and suffer yourself. And when one person suffered, their entire family suffered. None of them would take that kind of risk today.

I had an anger boiling in me that nothing could fix. My loved ones were all I had in this world. My job was to keep them safe and now I'd put their lives at risk because I thought I was in love with a man. I'd told Tate I'd take those risks, but now there was no way I could do that.

My family had to come first. I wouldn't speak to Tate again.