Kindle Edition
Category:
Young Adult/Teen
Type: Fiction
Copyright: June 25, 2013
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
When her family's mountain cabin is raided by ATF and FBI agents, a teenage girl learns her father kidnapped her when she was a toddler, that the woman she has called Mom isn't her real mother. When her real mother comes to take her home, she wonders if the relationship is real or if this a government ploy to get evidence against her father.
At sixteen, Kindra Johnson lives with her parents and thirteen-month-old brother in a Colorado mountain cabin. Home-schooled, she wants to experience a wider world, but her parents, members of a survival group, won't even take her to a mall. Her quiet life is shattered when ATF and FBI agents raid her home, killing her mother, arresting her father, and ripping her brother from her arms.
She is thrust into the wider world she had wished for when she learns that the life she led was a lie, that her father kidnapped her when she was a toddler.
Kindra's birth mother takes her home to Kansas. Even as she tries to adjust, she is filled with doubts. Is the family who has taken her in really hers or is this an FBI trick to get her to betray her father? Will she ever see her brother again and be able to fulfill the promise she made to watch over him and keep him safe?
Excerpt
Footsteps echoed in the hallway and stopped just outside the room. My stomach cramped. Agent Epperson was probably standing out there thinking of ways to make me say my father was a white supremacist and a traitor to his country, but I never would. God, country, family: they were everything to him. He only wanted to protect the rights of everyone and keep invaders from taking over and destroying what the founding fathers had made.
As the door opened, I steeled myself for more questions. This time, I was ready. This time I would tell Agent Epperson—or anyone else who questioned me—that the Constitution said people had the right to bear arms. My father hadn't broken any laws and he hadn't killed anyone, not like they had, surrounding my home and killing my mother. I had been numb with shock yesterday, but today I had a lot to say, and I wasn't going to let anyone bully me.
Agent Epperson entered the room, looking much the same as the day before. She had changed from a light gray suit to a dark blue one. Every strand of her short red hair was in place, and her mouth was set in a determined line. My father had often talked about government men. It turned out there were also government women, and they were just as ruthless as the men. I reminded myself of my vow to stand up to Agent Epperson and braced for another round of questioning.
"Get your shoes on," Agent Epperson ordered. "Your mother's here to see you."
Fury boiled up in me. "You murdered my mother." I gulped and air lodged in my chest. The image of my mother's bullet-ridden body on the ground and the photographer snapping pictures flooded my mind. I choked and coughed. When my throat finally cleared, I stared into the agent's eyes, fighting to keep my emotions in check, but I couldn't stop my voice from shaking. "Mom's last words were that she'd watch out for Michael and me from heaven. And you can't stop her." I wiped away tears, angry for letting this woman get to me. "Mom's spirit is with me now, helping me, and I'll never say anything bad about my parents, so you may as well give up."
Agent Epperson nodded, her lips forming a tight, smirking smile. "It turns out those wonderful parents of yours lied to you your whole life. The woman in my office, Margo Jorgenson, says she's your mother, and she has the paperwork to prove it."
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