Page 36 of Please Save Me

My heart skipped a beat as Dale’s voice cut through me like a frozen blade. I fought a shiver as I forced myself closer to him.

Act natural.

“I’m not late.” I was proud of how steady my voice was despite the nerves coursing through me. “Service ain’t started yet.”

The smile Dale wore like a uniform widened. His perfectly straight but slightly yellowed teeth were on full display. The dim lighting cast an eerie shadow across his face. Not like he needed help to creep me out.

“My son is supposed to be here before the first light of dawn. It’syourduty to the church.” Dale’s saccharine tone almost masked what he was actually saying.

He wanted to know where the fuck I was.

I shrugged as I started to head to my office. “I had things to do. I got a family now.”

“Family? Is that what they call a group ofsinnersliving under one roof?” Dale's steps echoed behind me.

I chose not to pay him any attention. He just wanted a reaction.

Everything in my office was coated in a layer of dust. Before my mission trip in France, I'd come by once a week to clean the place up. But with helping Mason adapt to our house and also the fact that I wasactuallypreparing for a real live baby, church wasn’t my priority right now.

There was a copy of the Old Testament on the corner of my desk, and I pulled it closed. It wasn't like I was going to actuallyreadthe Bible, so it didn't matter which one I grabbed. I just needed an excuse to not listen to Dale.

The wheels in my high-back chair sounded against the floor as I sat down. Dale took the chair on the other side of my desk, and I fought the slimy feeling crawling down my spine.

“You know, I was forty when I rescued you,” he started.

“Rescueis areal strong word.”

Something in my comment ignited a spark behind his swampy eyes.

“Cameron, I saved you.” His words oozed with the charisma that left others inclined to take his word as gospel. “You were a poor farm boy, the oldest of what… Twelve children?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I glowered at him. My chest constricted as I let out one long, hot breath.

“There’s no way your family would have been able to give you half the life that I have.” He continued before standing. “You’ve traveled the world, been to college, and changed the lives of so many people.”

Dale’s shadow cut through the technicolored patterns the stained glass left on the floor as he paced in front of me. Years ago, his words were enough to make me listen, but now?

“And I’ve ended the lives of twelve women who did nothing wrong.” My voice was low and raw.

Sure, I wasn’t the one who actually killed them. But, if those girls never got involved with me, they’d still be alive.

All I could imagine was Mason ending up the same way as the others. Worse than that, I envisioned another life where Juniper or Rosie ended up on the teaching end of the Sons of Christ’s sermons. I couldn’t imagine the anguish I put Dale’s victim’s families through, nor did I want to.

Dale’s smile grew so wide that I feared his lips would split. “Those women weren’t fit to bear the second coming. They were sinners–”

“They were just girls.” My chair squealed as I stood. My hands slammed on the desk, filling the room like thunder before a storm. “The only wrong they did was gettin’ mixed up with me!”

Dale flinched as I stepped near him. I wondered if he knew that I could hurt him or how badly I wanted to. A lesser man would have snapped his neck a long time ago, but I wasn’t sure I could live with the guilt.

But, as I came toe-to-toe with him, his confidence returned.

“If you had better taste in women, maybe they would have lived.” He shrugged.

And that’s when Isnapped. I snatched Dale up by the starched collar of his shirt and lifted him to my eye level. It was one thing to insult me. God knew I deserved it. But, the women I loved were literal angels.

Dale’s legs dangled as I debated slamming him against the bookshelf and beating the shit out of him, and my hands shook with white-hot rage.

“Go ahead, hit me,” he challenged. “Show me I picked the right prophet.”

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