Judging Judas (Tarnished Saints Series Book 3) (6 page)

“That’s the last of it,” said the mover man, holding out a clipboard for her to sign. She signed it and slipped him a hefty tip, and looked at the mess in her shop as the man walked out the door.

When she’d found this building listed online, she knew this was where she needed to be. And since the bank had owned it as well as the antiques that were still inside, she now owned twice the inventory she expected to have.

She had hoped to use the small attic room upstairs for her and J.D. to live in, and turn it into a studio apartment, but now it was too chock full of inventory to even think of doing that.
And she had hoped to have enough room to instruct classes where people could come to learn to meditate too, but that didn’t look as if it would happen unless she could sell some furniture first.

She’d have to go see if the Ainsley’s Bed and Breakfast was still there and if she could get
a room for her and J.D. while she was working on fixing up her place. Too bad there wasn’t a hotel in town, because that would really help about now.

L
oud windchimes reverberated through the room – the sound of her phone’s new ring tone that was supposed to calm her and put her mind at ease. But instead, it only made her stomach flutter.

“Hello?” she said,
after clicking on the button to talk, surprised to hear Judas’s voice instead of the deputy’s on the other end.

“Laney, you might want to get down here right away.”

“Of course. I was just waiting for you to return and since I had a shipment, I figured –”

“J.D
.’s gone.”

“Gone
? What are you talking about? She was locked in the holding cell when I left.”

“Well, she’s no longer here.
”

“So she e
scaped? What are you saying? It’s not like she’d fit out the bathroom window being eight months pregnant.” Laney grabbed her crystal hanging from around her neck and took a deep cleansing breath. Then she slowly released it, trying to keep from worrying since worry was a negative emotion. And she’d learned through the years that to focus on what you didn’t want would only manifest it. So instead, she pictured her daughter smiling and safe.

“We’ll talk when you get here.
Now hurry up. No, wait. You don’t drive fast enough. I’ll be right there to get you.”

“Judas, the police station is a block from here, I’ll just walk.”

“No. Stay there. I’ll come to you. There’s something I want to talk to you about without anyone else around.”

“Fine,” she said, clicking the phone off and shoving it back into her purse. She walked to the large picture window at the front of her shop and saw Judas coming out of the police station, getting into his car and actually driving over. She just shook her head and grabbed her purse, locking the front door and waiting for him at the curb.

The squad car stopped and he got out quickly and walked around the car to meet her.

“Judas, did you really have to drive? It’
s so close I probably could have spit farther.”

He opened the door and just nodded. “Get in.”

“Where are we going? Shouldn’t we be talking about J.D? And tell me, how does a seventeen-year-old escape from a police station?”

“Get in,” he said again, and this time laid his hand on her elbow and guided her into the car. It felt good to be touched by him again. Really good, and she found herself holding her breath as she settled onto the front seat of the police car and waited for him to join her.

Once inside the car, she just looked at him, waiting for him to tell her what was going on. “You don’t seem too worried that one of your prisoners has escaped,” she finally said to break the silence.

“
Neither do you seem worried that your daughter is missing.”

“I choose not to worry,” she said, putting a hand on her crystal. “Although it’s not easy with a daughter like J.D.”

“Put on your seat belt,” he said, putting the car into drive yet keeping his foot on the brake.

“To go a block? And since wh
en do you care, since you refused to put it on when we were in the middle of a chase?”

“I didn’
t consider driving twenty miles per hour a chase. Now are you going to do it or do I have to do it myself?”

She l
eft out an exasperated sigh, and before she had a chance to do it, he’d leaned over and was reaching for her seat belt.

“Now I know where your daughter gets her stubbornness,” he mumbled
into her ear.

“Our daughter,” she corrected him, but he didn’t respond. He
grabbed for the shoulder harness and when he did, his arm accidentally rubbed up against her breasts. She gasped as he then pulled it around her and buckled it, his fingers brushing against her waist as he pulled the slack tighter.

His body was close to hers and she could
smell the enticing scent of his musky cologne. She could also see the slight stubble of whiskers covering his face. He had a strong, straight nose and bushy brows. His eyes were dark as a midnight sky and looked dangerous yet sexy at the same time. And his mouth was so close that she couldn’t stop thinking about all the kisses they’d shared so many years ago, and wanting to do it once again.

“Well
, even though you’re not worried, I thought I’d tell you,” he said, his eyes glancing down at her lips for a split second before he straightened back up, cleared his throat and looked out the front window. “Our daughter is safe.”

Laney’s heart beat furiously when she realized he’d said
our
daughter. Did this mean he wasn’t going to hate her after all? That he would accept the fact he was a father? And most of all, that he wouldn’t convict his own daughter?

“Where are you taking me?” she asked.

“I’m taking you to J.D.” He pulled out and drove away from town, and toward Thunder Lake.

“I thought you said she escaped. So do you know where she went?”

“I never said she escaped. I said she was gone. I’ve moved her from the jail for now until I can decide what to do with her.”

“So where is she?”

“You’ll see. In the meantime I think we need to have a little talk.”

“I agree,” she said. “Judas, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about J.D. years ago.”

“Why didn’t you?” He was keeping his calm composure and she wondered if it was just part of his training or if he was ready to make amends. “Why did you keep the fact from me that you were pregnant with my child? After all, that is the true reason my father insisted we get married wasn’t it? Because you were pregnant?”

“Now Silver, don’t be mad at me,” she said, seeing his eyes turn a
shade darker.

“I told yo
u not to call me that. I don’t like that name.”

“Why not?” she asked him. “
You used to. And I’m curious as to why your parents gave you that middle name to begin with.”

“It doesn’t matter.
Now stop stalling. So, did you know you were pregnant, and is that why our parents were forcing us to marry?”

“Yes,” she said,
looking down to her lap but feeling the sense of relief lighten the load from her shoulders. “I knew, but they forced me not to say anything. I wanted to tell you – honest I did, but both my parents as well as yours didn’t want the embarrassment of gossip of a sixteen-year-old girl getting knocked up by the minister’s son. So instead they just used the excuse that they’d found out we’d made love – and more than once.”

“Damn it, Laney, why didn’t you say something to me?” His fist hit the dashboard and all the cop devices attached to it shook. He had a temper on him and she didn’t like to see this side of him at all.

“I was going to, Judas. Right after the wedding. But then you went and ruined everything by leaving me standing at the altar and taking off for god-knows-where. Why don’t you tell me what all that was about?”

“You have no idea what
I was going through,” he ground out.

“Then why don’t you tell me?”

“Why should I? After all, I didn’t see you coming after me.”

“I didn’t know where you went. And the next thing I knew, my father said we were moving
, and we were gone from Sweet Water within a week. What was I supposed to do?”

“What
did
you do?” he demanded to know. “You obviously had no qualms in marrying someone else, did you?”

“No, Judas, that’s not how it was.”

“Then how was it, Laney? Why don’t you tell me?”

“I loved you
, Judas. More than anything. I wanted you and only you, but you didn’t want me.”

He was quiet for a minute
, then turned down a backwoods road. She wanted him to say something. Anything. Perhaps that he wanted her too. Or that he loved her then and still did now. But there was only silence between them. After a little while she continued to speak.

“I ran away as soon as we moved,” she told him. “I hated my parents for what they’d done and
I hooked up with a travelling band. I ended up going down the wrong road, just like J.D. is now. I lived with one of the band members for six months, traveling on the road and then after J.D. was born, Spyder and I decided to get married.”

“
Spider?” He shook his head and made a face. “And I thought my name was bad.”

“His real name was Stanley
but no one ever called him that.”

“I can see why. So, tell me.
Did you ever tell . . . Stanley, it wasn’t his child?” She noticed the way he couldn’t call her late husband Spyder.

“Not at first,” she said. “But it was only because I was too frightened that he’d leave me and I’d have no way to raise a child on my own.
Then one day he admitted to me that he’d had a vasectomy long before I knew him.”

“So he knew all along.”

“He did,” she said with a nod of her head. “But he felt sorry for me, being so young and all. He was a good guy and married me anyway because he said every baby needs a father, and that he’d regretted his decision about the vasectomy after all. He took a liking to J.D. and brought her everywhere. But when he started getting heavily into drugs, I knew I had to get her away from him or she’d end up going down the wrong path. After all, she’d already gotten tattoos and body piercings against my will, but her father –” Judas’s eyes shot toward her quickly and she realized her mistake. “I mean, Spyder allowed it. But she was already a teen and had a mind of her own, and as you can see by the size of her belly – I was too late to guide her. She’d slept with one of the roadies who just up and left afterwards.”

“So she ended up like you
after all, didn’t she? Did anyone even tell the roadie that he’s going to be a father?”

“No,” she admitted. “We didn’t, but hopefully some day – when J.D.’s ready, we’ll hunt him down together and tell him.”

“So I’m not the only one who keeps making the same mistakes,” he said, and she really didn’t like that comment at all.

“I’m trying to fix my mistakes, Judas, but you’re not making it easy.”

He pulled up to what she thought was the Ainsley’s Bed and Breakfast, but the sign out front was gone and there were a lot of kids running around, mostly boys. And then she saw J.D. sitting on the front porch with Candace and a couple of men she didn’t recognize, though by the looks of them, she guessed they were Judas’s brothers.

“J.D! You let her go,
” she said happily, reaching for the door handle, but was stopped by Judas’s hand on her arm.

“Not exactly, Laney. You see, while Mrs. Durnsby was kind enough
not to file charges since everything stolen was returned to her, J.D.’s still not off the hook for stealing my car.”

“So . . . what are you saying? Is she going to have to go to court and be tried or what?”

“Maybe. We’ll see. Since I’m sheriff, and this is a small town that no one really cares about, I more or less am the law here now.”

“That’s great. Then let her go.”

“And if I do . . . what’s going to prevent her from doing something worse next time? Possibly rob a grocery store, maybe even kill someone.” He let go of her arm and stared at her intently. So intently that she knew exactly how serious this whole matter was.

“She’d never kill anyone, Judas. How could you even think that about your own daughter?”

“I’m a cop, Laney. It’s in my nature to suspect everyone of wrongdoing no matter who they are. And though she’s my daughter, you have to realize I don’t even know her.”

“Well, so what’s your plan then? And why are we here?”

“This is my brother Thomas’s house,” he told her. “He has six boys of his own and a girl through his marriage to Angel.”

She looked at all the kids running around and shouting and playing and being very noisy.

“I see more than one girl here,” she said. “And though they don’t stand still for a moment I think I count more than seven kids.”

“You’re right. I asked Candace, who
m you’ve already met, to bring their twins over as well. I want J.D. to be around kids and understand what it’s like to raise a child. I can tell she has no idea just what she’s gotten herself into.”