I doubted it.
Rafe was nowhere to be found when I turned around, and I decided he’d have to catch up as I made my way out of the church.
However, when I rounded the corner of the building and started walking down the path that led to the house that the church allowed their pastor and his family to live in, I found Rafe standing next to the front door, arms and legs crossed as he leaned against a pillar.
“What the fuck?”
Rafe grinned.
“He’s fucking someone all right.”
I winced.
“Who?”
Rafe shrugged. “Tall brunette with gold highlights. Older.”
I knew instantly who it was.
“Goddammit.”
I knew exactly who Rafe was talking about, and I’d managed to avoid her since I’d gotten out of prison. It hadn’t been easy.
“Pretty sure you’re not supposed to take the Lord’s name in vain on church grounds.”
I laughed humorlessly at that.
“The Lord already knows that I’m a sinner,” I told him bluntly. “And I don’t plan on asking for forgiveness seeing as I’d do it again over and over if I ever had the chance or the need to do it again.”
Rafe shrugged, then levered himself off the pillar using just the strength in his legs.
“Want me to knock?”
I laughed and shook my head. “Knock?”
Then I pounded on the door before walking right in.
Stupid pastor thought he was invincible. He’d never locked it, which I’d found out one other time when I had to confront him when it came to my mother.
“Oh, mommy?” I bellowed. “Pastor Hanes! You have a visitor!”
It didn’t take long for both of them to arrive—thankfully clothed.
“Tate?” My mother said in confusion.
She looked like shit. Too old for her age of fifty-nine, but apparently the pastor still dug that. Her makeup was smeared, her lips swollen and bruised from what I could only assume was them kissing.
The thought of them doing anything at all turned my stomach, but I was here for Hanes. I’d be dealing with him despite the awkward situation.
“Get out of my house, sinner!” Hanes bellowed the moment he hit the doorway, still buttoning the collar of his white dress shirt.
Stupid mother fucker. Always with the white. God, he made me sick.
“I’m not going anywhere until we discuss the fact that you’re assaulting your daughter. Breaking and entering into her home,” I said.
The pastor’s face never changed. No surprise. No guilt. No nothing.
“I don’t know what you speak of,” he lied straight faced. “But if you don’t get out of my house, I’ll be charging you with breaking and entering.”
I smiled then, showing a row of straight white teeth.
“Yeah?” I grinned. “I’ll leave, but only after you hear this one thing first.”
Pastor Hanes didn’t say anything.
“You touch her, or I even think that you’re thinking about touching her, again, and I’ll end you.”
“Is that a threat?” Pastor Hanes’ voice rose.
I shrugged. “Take it as whatever you want to take it as, just know that if you touch her again, you’ll have me to deal with.”
“You have no right to tell me how to raise my daughter.”
I laughed at that. “Your daughter is well past grown. Trust me on this.”
I walked out before he could reply, again finding that Rafe was gone.
He also hadn’t caught back up by the time that I got to the truck, and I contemplated leaving him.
After five more minutes, I started the truck, thinking that maybe he’d wanted me to leave him.
But after another thirty seconds of waiting, I found him rounding the corner of the church again, walking slowly toward me.
When he got in, I rose my brows at him in question.
“Had some questions of my own,” he muttered. “Placed a bug, too.”
I frowned. “You just happened to have one of those in your pocket?”
He nodded, and I had no response to that.
This man was a whole lot more than what he seemed, and only left me with more questions than answers.
My phone rang before I could ask them, and I looked at the readout and contemplated answering it.
In the end, I knew that I wouldn’t ignore it.
“Hello?” I answered the phone as I drove.
“Um, Tate?”
My happy mood soured.
“Rosemary,” I said carefully. “How are you?”
“I need to tell you something.”
My brows furrowed.
I scratched my head. “I can’t do it today, Rose,” I told her. “I have a few things I need to take care of, and I’m ready to be home. I can meet you tomorrow, though.”
Rosemary immediately agreed. “Okay.”
Which was odd for her. Rosemary was an arguer. I always told her that she should try out for the debate team. She never liked hearing the word ‘no’ and she always argued, just because she could.
I should’ve known then that I wasn’t going to like what she had to say, but chose to take the agreement for the boon it was.
And I shouldn’t.
“Where do you want to meet tomorrow?” I asked. “Lunchtime okay?”
“Yes,” she agreed again. “That’s perfect. Can you meet me at Bord’s?”
I didn’t want to go anywhere near that place, not even a little bit.
“I don’t want to meet you there,” I told her bluntly. “I really don’t want to have anything to do with that place, or Ariya’s parents.”
Bord’s was Ariya’s parents’—well, father and step mother—diner, bar, and grill.
I loved their food. What I didn’t love was the company.
“Please?”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Fine. Twelve?”
“Eleven. Less people.”
I should’ve asked why less people mattered, but I didn’t. I let it go, knowing that she’d keep arguing if I didn’t agree.
“Fine,” I grunted. “Bye.”
I didn’t wait for the reply, just hung up, and kept driving.
“Who’s Rosemary?” Rafe asked.
I sighed.
“Ex’s sister,” I told him. “Why did you happen to have a bug in your pants that you could conveniently plant in the pastor’s house, and why did you volunteer to come with me?”
Rafe grinned.
“You’re not the only one with problems around here,” he told me. “Plus, I figured I’d do you a favor so I could collect my own later on.”
That I believed.
“Whatever,” I said, pulling the truck into traffic. “You want me to take you back to the office before I head home, or do you have somewhere else in mind?”
“You can drop me off at the diner,” he told me. “I’ll find a ride back from there.”
I did as he asked, trying not to think about anything that had to do with Pastor Hanes, and that included Hennessy and my mother.
By the time I arrived at the diner, I’d very nearly managed to clear my head completely, only to get pissed all over again to see Hennessy walking down the sidewalk away from the gas station toward her car once again.
She had those same taquitos as the day before, and I found myself pissed off at the way her hair was a jagged mess along the length of her shoulders.
I’d enjoyed the hell out of running my fingers through it when she’d fucked me. Now I’d barely have anything to hold onto the next time I took her to bed.