Page 24 of Sire
“I’m down an assistant in the infant room.”
“Again?”
“It’s that stomach bug,” she answers. “It’s going through everyone, and I need one staff per five infants, and we have two for twelve.”
“I’ll do it,” Wren chirps. “I’m CPR trained. Even did a Red Cross babysitting class years back.”
Ms. Davis darts her eyes from me to Wren. I make the introductions, but she’s too stressed to question Wren’s origin. She just worries, “Thank you, dear. You’re sweet to offer, but I need licensed providers.”
Wren’s shoulders fall, and we have a line of parents in their cars looking pissed off. Childcare is the biggest source of revenue for the church, and I wouldn’t wish angry moms on hell’s demons.
“Just for today, let her help,” I suggest. “I can vouch for her until we can find someone by tomorrow.”
Playfully, Ms. Davis backhands my arm. “You and the rules, Pastor Rutledge. You sure do like to bend them.”
I wink. “Just as long as we don’t break God’s rules, we’re good.”
I leave Wren in the capable hands of Ms. Davis while I assist the teachers with the older kids as they settle into their rooms for the day.
Then, I duck into the chapel and meet with our Music Director. We review the run-of-show for my Sunday sermon while I tune my guitar and practice a few songs before heading to my office to answer emails.
While drafting my sermon, I’m tempted to check on Wren, but it would insult her. She’s an adult. She’s made it this far on her own. But how?
ONE
Outside
It’s Axel’s text. We use numbers on phones, not names. I walk outside to find him and Nash, number two, leaning against the iron fence outside the chapel.
Axel smirks. “Heard you have a new roommate.”
Nash mirrors him. “Heard she only wantedyou.”
I scowl. “And you heard she’s nineteen and won’t tell us how she wound up in Palm Beach. But she says it’s not safe for her to go home, wherever that is, and I want to know who the fuck kidnapped her.”
I’m getting aggravated. I know my family and I can protect Wren from anyone.
Anyone, except the one in our family who’s the most vicious man I know, and why did he point me in the direction of Wren?
“There’s a golf tournament in Hilton Head in three months,” I tell them. “Somehow, it’s connected to Palm Beach.”
“What’s your source?”
Axel always asks. He’s a lawyer. He’s also my brother, who trusts me, though he shouldn’t. He’s the reason for the broken heart on my face, the brother I betrayed.
This wicked game I play with our father is eating my soul alive.
“A parishioner,” I answer. “She has a sister in Hilton Head,cleaning rental properties, and that’s how they’re running the girls. Through men, staying in rentals, under the guise of golf tournaments.”
It’s not a total lie. I did get that intel last month, but now, thanks to the Devil, I know they’re connected.
“Claude Owen Turner the Third.” Nash nods. “Hilton Head was his ring until he was busted along with that piece-of-shit Senator Gentry Evans, and now Turner’s son has taken over. The Queen told me she heard about him through a source at the club.”
The Queen is our mother, Nadine Faye.
The club is the exclusive sex club she owns north of town.
And we, her sons, the kings, honor her by hunting down men like our father.
