“Of course,” Rafe bit out. “How did a reporter get this story so fast? I’ve googled Mercy and I never saw anything like this.” He stopped abruptly when he realized what he’d revealed. “I googled her to find ways to help her,” he said weakly.

Sasha squeezed his shoulder. “I did, too. I needed to know if she was okay after she left here. I was afraid she’d try to . . . you know.”

“Hurt herself?” Karl asked. “That worried me, too. That’s why I wanted to tell her as a group, to make sure she knew she had us on her side. I didn’t think that through. You tried to tell me, Farrah. I should have listened.”

Farrah reached over and patted his knee. “Probably you should have, but that you all have her back is something she’ll appreciate when she’s able.”

Rafe hoped so. “Back to my question. How did this reporter get the story so fast?”

Karl opened his eyes on a sigh. “The reporter said he’d been working the story for six weeks, since her name came up as having escaped the serial killer. He figured there was more to the story, especially after he got his hands on the hospital surveillance video that showed Mercy leaving with the killer and not fighting back.”

“Like she did tonight,” Sasha said grimly. “Someone at the airport got the whole thing with Burton on video and posted it. She’s as expressionless as a statue, docile as a lamb. If you didn’t know the truth, you’d think she wanted to go with him.”

Rafe’s churning stomach turned inside out and he had to swallow the bile that rose to burn his throat. “Fucking hell.” He leaned into Sasha wearily. “Has anyone connected her to Eden?”

Both the FBI and SacPD had kept the existence of the Eden cult from the press, and it hadn’t been mentioned in the interview with the killer’s other escapee. They’d released a photo of the locket as a lure to other Eden survivors, hoping to get more information before making their investigation public. Eden moved its location whenever someone escaped its walls, in case the victim told law enforcement where to find them. Making the investigation public would only prompt the cult leadership to hide yet again, so it was still a secret. Or at least Rafe prayed it was.

Mercy had been through enough without that spotlight. It would be a media frenzy for sure.

“Not as far as we could see,” Karl said. “The one good thing about that idiot Prescott’s video is that it can be used to explain her lack of affect when she faces stress. If she wants to make any statement at all, she can speak of the lingering effects of the roofie incident. She doesn’t need to mention Eden at all.”

Rafe hoped his father was right. Addressing the facts in a practical fashion might smooth Mercy’s way. At least a little. But his gut thought differently. “This is going to devastate her.”