Page 125 of At Her Will

“I don’t belong to you, Tisha. I your family, but I don’t belong to you. My path is my own, and it lies with her. And here. The two things aren’t wrong together, or with God. When my Mistress smiles at me, I feel God's smile in that too. Sometimes a Goddess's. So I know Veracity Morgan is part of that path right now, and maybe for forever. I surely hope so.”

He reached for her throat, and she shrank back. Her fear hurt him, but he didn’t stop. Gently, he removed the gold necklace she wore, with its ruby pendant. Then came the earrings. Three rings, including the big diamond she’d bought last year, when the house Teena Joy had lived in, where Rev had grown up, had been sold.

He’d always known that Teena Joy left him the house. So deep in his grief over her loss, he hadn’t cared when they told him that her will said to sell the house and give the proceeds to the church. He was fine with them getting the money. He’d signed whatever documents they wanted.

At the time, he told himself Witford had seen how hard it was for him to be in the house without her, and had given him an out.

He shouldn’t have let the lie stand, even if the motive had been pure like that. Which it hadn’t been. All this time, he’d seen the warning signs, told himself they’d find their way back to truth, but he should have held them accountable sooner for turning their backs on that truth. If he had, maybe they wouldn’t have gone so far down this road.

When Veracity’s bruised face came back into his mind, her limp body against his in the water, he twisted around to set Tisha’s jewelry down on the pew seat. He took his time with it, arranging the necklace around the earrings and rings, until he was calm enough to face her again.

Then he pulled on memories, let them take over his mind, so that when he finally found the strength to give her a faint, sad smile, it startled and cut her at the same time. Tears spilled down her cheeks.

“There she is. The aunt who'd stop when she was cleaning the church with Teena Joy and listen to me sing. She'd sing with me, too, because I wanted her to. We all get lost. Teena Joy told me that, plenty of times. I’ve found my path, the one that works for me, and it may go different places, but I've chosen it, and I want it, and I feel the Lord's power in that choice. I feel His happiness and smile. I want you to feel His smile again, too. But the only way back to that is through some hard things. Through repentance. You have wronged her, and wronged God.”

Her mouth thinned, but his hand was on hers, tight again. ‘Never be so sure you're right that you fail to listen, care, connect and understand.’ Your sister taught me that. Maybe things be interfering with your hearing and seeing. If you accept the consequences for your actions, you the family I know, that I have loved all my life.”

He rose, and gazed at her, then at Witford and the other two men. “If you don’t, if you run from it, if you lie, I will speak truth, and it will go harder on you, and not just because the law will punish you for deception and violence. Your souls will get even sicker.”

Witford stared at the floor, fear and anger coming off of him. His mind wasn’t on what he’d done, but what he’d lost. Which meant his thoughts were turning to how he could change that, the devil pulling him his way. Maybe somewhere in there, theWitford that Rev had once known better was digging in his heels, trying not to go down that road, but the energy in the room said the battle was starting to turn in an ugly direction.

Rev could feel it, not just from Witford, but from Simon and Tyson. It was like an uneasy ocean current, the kind that caused seasickness. Back and forth, back and forth. Up, down. Up, down. They were ex-convicts who would face an even stiffer prison sentence for the violence they’d done today, and they were thinking about that.

Rev squared himself in the aisle. Whatever came was meant to come. When Witford lifted his gaze, Rev met it.

“What’s it gonna be, Witford? You can kill me to save your mortal life, but it’ll cost you your soul.”

“Witford,” Simon said, a hard note to his voice. Witford tore his gaze from Rev and looked toward him. “You know it’s got to be done.”

Tisha looked up. “No,” she said. “Rev…Rev is right. We’re lost. We need to?—”

“Shut up,” Simon told her. “It’s because of you that we did this shit.”

Rev looked at Simon’s hands. And then he thought of Veracity’s face.

Simon read his look and answered it. “You want a piece of me, you sanctimonious asshole? Mouthing off about God while your cousin handles all the work around here?”

Rev stepped toward him. A creak and thud stopped him, the sound of the nave doors opening and falling shut again. When he turned, he saw Lawrence, Mick and Tiger standing in front of them. As their intent gazes evaluated the situation, they spread out, shoulder to shoulder.

“You okay here, Rev?” Lawrence asked. “Thought you might need some backup.”

“The cops are on their way.” Tiger’s cold blue gaze, as predatory looking as his name, landed on Simon and Tyson. “You can try to make a break for it, but we’ll just drag you out into the parking lot and beat the shit out of you. Your chances are better with the cops.”

Witford had deflated at their appearance, and Tyson did the same. Simon held out the longest, but when Tiger shifted forward with a “give me an excuse” look, he muttered a curse and sat down on the transept steps.

“Fuck you,” he said. But he said it with his head down and shoulders hunched.

Rev drew a deep breath. That desire to take Simon up on his challenge was still there. He wanted to yank him up and make him fight. He wanted blood, tears and fear in threefold measure to what Veracity had endured.

Her faith believed that the harm they did would be visited on them threefold. But like his own faith, it didn’t say inflicting that punishment was the right or job of the one who most wanted to do it.

Deliberately, he moved his gaze to the cross and all it represented. He couldn’t feel it the way he wished right now, because everything was so locked down. Facing what his cousin and aunt had done, all of it, and what had happened to Veracity, what role Rev had and hadn’t played in that…it was all too much.

“Rev?”

He turned toward Tisha. Her voice was low and timid. “What will happen to the church?”

“I don’t know.” He didn’t know anything right now. Except that he didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be with Veracity.

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