Judging Judas (Tarnished Saints Series Book 3) (18 page)

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“J.D. are you ready?” called out Laney, clutching her coffee mug and staring aimlessly out the window.

“He’s not coming, so what does it matter?”
came her daughter’s muffled reply from the bedroom.

Laney was starting to believe that herself. After Judas hadn’t come home last night, she was starting to feel that same abandonment she’d felt the day Judas got cold feet and left her at the altar. She didn’t want to live through the hell of losing him again. She loved him, and wanted to live with him and J.D. as one
big happy family.

She blew on her coffee and
took a sip, almost burning herself as she jerked her head upward quickly when she heard a car coming down the gravel road. She peered through the dust of the speeding car and realized it was the squad.

“Thank God,” she whispered, letting out a sigh. “J.D. your father is here and it’s already late. Get out here now before I come in there and haul you out myself.”
Laney didn’t want another argument between any of them. She just wanted this day to start without a hitch. “J.D.” she shouted again.

“Chill out, Mom, I’m here, though I don’t even know why I agreed to this.”

Laney turned around and about spilled her coffee when she saw J.D. standing there in a pair of tight little shorts and a flimsy tank top that didn’t even cover her stomach. She had flip-flops on her feet and it was obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra. And by the way she’d grown up-top from being pregnant, it looked a bit obscene.

“Oh no, you’re not,” said Laney putting down her coffee and ushering her daughter back to the bedroom.

“Oh good, so I’m not going?” J.D. asked in her cocky manner.

“That’s not what I mean
t. I mean you are not going to embarrass your father like this. I won’t allow it.” Laney pulled a long sundress from the closet that was made for a pregnant woman and threw it onto the bed. “You’ll wear this,” she said.

“I hate that dress, it’s pink!” J.D. said with a crinkle to her nose.

“You dyed part of your hair pink so you obviously don’t hate the color that much.” Laney ripped open a dresser drawer looking for undergarments. “Where’s all your things?” she asked when she found none.

“I didn’t have time to unpack. I don’t know where anything is.”

“Well, you’re not going anywhere without a bra.”

“Good. I’ll stay home then.” J.D. plopped down
on the bed and grabbed her MP3 player and headphones and started listening to music.

Laney rummaged through a few open boxes and found a
maternity bra as well as a pair of flat, comfortable slip-on shoes and threw them on the bed with the dress. She turned quickly as she heard the front door slam and then their bedroom door afterwards.

“Judas,” she said under her breath. Then she turned back to J.D. pulling the headphones from her ears. “Get dressed now!” she told her. “And if you give your father any trouble at all today, you’ll have to deal with me personally.”

She rushed out of the room and to their bedroom, reaching for the knob and then stopping. What if Judas was still angry with them? What if he said he didn’t want to be married to her after all? She grabbed her crystal hanging from the chain around her neck, and took a deep breath. Then she rushed back and grabbed her coffee mug before raising her chin and bravely entering the room.

“Judas,” she said, her heart beating frantically as she saw the back of him standing next to the bed. Stark naked. He turned and she got the full frontal view and her thoughts suddenly roamed to making love with him once again.

“Look, I don’t have time to talk. I’m already late for my meeting and I need to take a two minute shower.”

“Did you want some coffee?” she held it out to him and his eyes flitted from the coffee mug up to her face. His eyes became softer as something else became harder.

“It’s not coffee I want right now, nor do I have time for any of it, but thanks.” He opened he closet and pulled out a fresh uniform, grabbed some underwear and socks and headed for the door.

“J.D.’s out there,” she reminded him. “You may want to cover up.”

“Oh, that’s right. Guess I’m not thinking clearly this morning.” He stopped at the door and turned to look at her. “So . . . I was serious about her coming with me. I hope she’s ready.”

“She will be,” said Laney with a nod of her head.

“Good.” He held his clothes around his naked body and made a beeline for the shower.

Ten minutes later, Judas headed out the door with Laney and J.D. right behind him.

“Pick up the pace,” Judas told his daughter, noticing the way she was dragging along sl
owly. “The meeting starts in ten minutes,” he said, glancing at his watch. “And since it takes at least twenty minutes to get to Paw Paw, it looks like I’m going to have to use my lights and siren again in order to get there in time.”

“We’re using the lights and siren?” asked J.D., the announce
ment making her move faster. “Can I work the siren?” she asked anxiously, getting into the squad before he even made it inside.

“Judas?” came Laney’s voice, and he looked up to see the concern on her face. “Try not to kill each other today, ok?”

She looked so forlorn that he wanted to just walk back to her and gather her into his arms and kiss her and make amends. But he was still sore about the tattoo on her bottom end, not to mention he had no time for any of this right now.

He just gave a slight nod of his head and got into the squad and slammed the door.

“Put on your seatbelt,” he said to his daughter in a low voice, snapping his into place. He started the engine and was backing out when he glanced over and noticed she had her damned headphones on and hadn’t heard him. He hit the breaks and she jerked and looked over to him. He reached out and took them from her ears, letting them hang around her neck. “I said put on your seatbelt.”

“It doesn’t fit,” she complained. “I’m too fat.”

He reached over and did it for her, adjusting it to the right size. His hand grazed her belly and he felt the baby kick. He pulled away quickly, staring at her stomach.

“Did you feel it kick?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said, amazed by the whole thing.

“He wants to get out. Try
over here, you can feel a foot.” She grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach, and when it kicked again, they both laughed. He pulled his hand away, thinking how good it felt to actually be conversing with his daughter.

“How do you know it’s a he?” Judas turned back and hit the gas and barreled down the long, half-mile gravel driveway that led to the road. He glanced up to the rear-view mirror and saw Laney standing on the porch just watching them go.

“I don’t know for sure,” she said. “But I just have a feeling it’s a boy.”

“D
idn’t you have an ultrasound?” He glanced over to her in question.

“No. I was going to, but then all the shit hit the fan with Spyder dying and us moving and all.”

Judas felt a surge of satisfaction by the fact his daughter hadn’t called Spyder, father. Maybe they were making progress after all.

“When’s the last time you went to the doctor for a visit?” he asked.

“Not for awhile.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“Well, I don’t have a doctor anymore since we moved.”

“Then we’ll find you one today and I’ll take you in for a checkup after we finish up with the meeting.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Really,” he answered.

“But Mom said we were going to go find one later this week.”

“Well, I know how busy she is, so we’ll just take some pressure off of her and do it ourselves, ok? I’ll call her later and le
t her know what we’re doing.”

She paused for a moment and at first he didn’t think she’d agree. Judas wasn’t even sure why he offered when he really k
new nothing about pregnant women and babies. But he did have a friend in Paw Paw who said his wife raved about a doctor she used when she was pregnant, and the doctor’s office was right there at the hospital that was only a stone’s throw from where they were going to be anyway.

“Ok,” she said, snapping her gum. “Now can I work the siren?”

“Here’s the switch for the siren and here’s the one for the lights,” he showed her on the console. “Go for it.”

She looked up and raised her chin and just nodded. “You know, maybe you’re not so bad after all.”

Judas just smiled, feeling as if this wasn’t going to be such a bad day now. But little did he know just how wrong he was going to be.

Chapter 17

It had been two days since Judas and J.D. had spent the day together, and Laney still had no idea what really happened. All she knew was that when they’d returned home that night, Judas had chained smoked and paced a lot and said he didn’t know how anyone could live with a hormonal, pregnant teenage daughter.

J.D. had sneered a lot and said having a cop for a father was any girl’s nightmare. And she’d also said she wanted to put a siren on their car.

The only definite thing she’d gotten out of either of them was that their new doctor was a lady named Dr. Adelaide Blickensderfer, and Laney wasn’t even sure if they were just joking about her name or not.

Dr. Bee, as they’d called her, sounded like a quack to Laney as the woman supposedly took care of everything from a kid’s runny nose to delivering babies to – of all things
, even acting as some sort of veterinarian and taking care of everyone’s farm animals too. Laney just guessed this is the way it was in small towns though it seemed absurd to her. And the doctor supposedly told them that J.D. was further along in her pregnancy than they’d thought. Actually, the baby was due in two weeks, and Laney knew they had a lot to do before it arrived.

Besides
fixing up a nursery in J.D.’s room, they needed a lot of things for the baby that they didn’t have. Laney wished now she hadn’t gotten rid of all the baby paraphernalia she’d had when her daughter was born.

She placed a price tag on an old rocking chair
in the front of the store, looking up to see Candace walking over from the restaurant with two paper cups in a cardboard carrier and a bag in her other hand.

“Good morning, Laney,” she said with a smile. “It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

“They say it’s supposed to be near eighty degrees today,” said Laney, greeting her new friend.

“I brought some coffee and breakfast. Do you have a minute?”

“Of course,” she said. “Want to enjoy it right out here?” Laney pointed to the café table and chairs she had set up on the sidewalk that was for sale. “Maybe if someone sees us using the things, I’ll be able to sell something already.”

“Sales not going well?” asked Candace, placing the things on the table and pulling up a seat.

“Dismal,” said Laney, opening the bag and peering inside. “What’s this?” She pulled out something that looked like a cross between birdseed and sand and shaped into a bar.

“I knew you liked to eat healthy and I decided it would be a good idea to offer a healthy choice or two on our menu at the restaurant.”

“So you invented this just for me?”

“Actually, Levi made
it. He is a great chef and ever since we were a part of
Sliced
, that food competition show where they make things out of odd ingredients, he’s been whipping up all sorts of new, weird things. He calls this one The Flock.”

“I can see why. It looks like only a bird would eat it,” she said, holding it up to inspect it.

“That sounds like something Judas would say,” remarked Candace with a giggle. “Try it.”

She took a bite and it was heaven. “This is great,” she said. “You should think about marketing these things and selling them in the grocery stores.”

“Don’t even mention it to Levi. He’s got enough on his plate just trying to juggle owning a restaurant and being mayor at the same time.”

“I know how it is,” she said, taking a sip of coffee. “Judas has been so bu
sy with work lately that we’ve barely had time to talk. And when he gets home he always seems like he’s got somewhere to go or something to do. It’s like he thinks he’s still a bachelor or something. But he needs to realize he’s a married man with a family and can’t just up and disappear all the time.”

“Speaking of disappearing, Levi told me that every time Judas has given J.D. a community service job to do in the last two days she’s disappeared and he’s found her hanging out wit
h Charolette Burnham.”

“Yes
, and that is bothering Judas to no end. He really doesn’t like Charolette and doesn’t want Laney hanging around with her.”

“And how do you feel about it?” Candace took a bite of a birdseed bar and caught the crumbs in her hand.

Laney grabbed the crystal around her neck and fingered it while she spoke. “I feel that J.D. is old enough to choose her own friends and the more we tell her to keep away from Charolette the more she’ll do just the opposite.”