Judging Judas (Tarnished Saints Series Book 3) (20 page)

“We all stayed away too long,” said Zeb. “Thomas was the only one with any kind of commitment out of all of us.”

“Well, that’s all going to change soon,” said Judas, thinking more about his own daughter and her attitude than his brothers.

* * *

Laney sat near the front of the church, helping Candace and Levi watch over all the kids. They were very well behaved in her opinion, even the little ones. But her own daughter was another issue.

“J.D.
, spit out the gum,” said Laney, holding out her hand.

J.D. rolled her eyes as usual and leaned over and spit it into her hand and Laney wrapped it in a tissue and stuck it in her purse.

“I don’t see why I have to be here when Judas isn’t even here,” the girl complained.

“Your fath
er has a lot of duties being sheriff,” she whispered, but J.D. didn’t buy it.

“Hah!” she said a little louder than she should have, getting the attention of everyone in church. “Like shooting guns? Wish I could have gone.”

“What’s going on?” Judas slid into the pew next to Laney.

“Yo
u actually came to church?” asked J.D., and Laney found herself thinking the same thing.

“Of
course, did you think I was going to miss it?”

“Yeah, just like you’ll mis
s my baby shower,” grumbled the girl, looking the other way.

“Judas, maybe you should come to the shower,” Laney whispered. “I think it would mean so much to her.”

“It’s for girls. And babies. Why would I want to come?” He settled himself on the wooden bench and looked around the room.

“Because she’s you daughter and it would mean a lot to her?” Laney whispered back.

“There’ll be so many people there that J.D. won’t know if I’m there or not anyway.”

Just then Pete came down the
aisle dressed in a simple white robe tied with a cord around his waist. There were several young children serving as altar servers. The mass dragged on and J.D. became fidgety, fanning herself with the prayer book and rubbing her belly. But when Pete started with the sermon and told the story of how Judas betrayed Jesus, she looked up, interested.

“If I’d have known he was going to tell this story, I never would have come,” Judas whispered to her.

“Shhh,” Laney whispered. “J.D. is actually paying attention, let’s not distract her.”

The sermon continued with Pete telling about the apostle Matthias who filled Judas’s spot after Judas killed himself in guilt for betraying Jesus. Judas wondered if possibly J.D. was thinking about her other father, or maybe wishing he would kill himself the way that Judas did in the Bible. Either way, he didn’t like either of the thoughts.

Before he knew it, mass was over and everyone was gathered on the steps of the church talkin
g. All the kids were around J.D. who was sitting on the church steps showing them her new ankle bracelet. Judas had decided to leave the monitor on her ankle even when she wasn’t at work to make her think he was watching her everywhere she went even though he had the damned thing turned off right now.

While Charolette and the McGill
brothers were right there at her side, the rest of the congregation seemed to pull away

“Everyone, please join us at the restaurant for J.D.’s baby shower now,” called out Candace, and Judas could see by the looks on some of the people’s faces that they were not at all interested in attending.

He spotted Mabel gossiping to Valerie Wolf who was head of the school board and Eleanor Winston the proprietor of Winston’s Mercantile, as well as some of the other women of the town. He moseyed over to lend an ear to their conversation.

“I can’t believe they think we’re going to attend a baby shower for the criminal who stole my purse,” said Mabel.

“And she’s wearing that house-arrest ankle bracelet so you know she’s dangerous,” added Eleanor.

“And yet she walks the streets free as a bird just because she’s the sheriff’s daughter.” Mabel sniffed and threw her nose in the air.

“Ladies, I’m sure we’ll be seeing you all at the shower?” Judas asked, walking into the middle of the small group.

“I’m not going to be able to make i
t,” said Eleanor, walking away quickly.

“Sorry, I have to help my husb
and paint the house,” said Valerie, leaving as well.

“Pearl
?” Judas looked over to Gus Kramer’s wife who was so quiet he hadn’t even known she was there at first. Gus had been Thomas’s best friend for years and even his best man at his wedding the first time he’d married Angel. “I’m sure you and your daughter Maryanne will be there. After all, Thomas is coming back this afternoon and he and Angel will expect to see you at the shower.”

“Well, I suppose so,” she said, not at all sounding like she wanted to be there.

The women all excused themselves but Judas pulled Mabel aside to talk to her privately. “Mabel,” he said. “I heard what you and the other ladies were saying.”

“Well, it’s true,” she snorted. “No one in the entire town wants anything to do with your pregnant daughter.”

“Give her a chance,” he said. “You need to get to know her.”

“I’ve already had the opportunity when she stole my purse. I’m sorry Judas but I’m not coming.”

“Do it for me, and for my new wife, will you, please?”

“And what will you do for me in return? Take those goats off the roof?”

“Well, I don’t know about that, but I’m sure we can think of something else.”

“Of course
you won’t remove the goats. It’s because your brother is the mayor and if someone in town is related to one of the Taylors then they can do whatever they want and not bat an eye that there’ll be consequences.”

“That’s not true,” he objected though he knew it was.

“Then take the goats off the roof and I’ll get the rest of the town to come to the shower with me.”

Judas considered doing just that because he didn’t want Laney and J.D. disappointed when no one showed up for the baby shower. But then he thought of his relationship with Levi and how he’d been trying desperately to make amends ever since Levi got released from prison. He couldn’t jeopardize the small amount of progress they’d made lately. And he didn’t need to make secret deals to beg people to come to his daughter’s shower.

“Forget it, Mrs. Durnsby,” he said. “I don’t need your kind at my family functions so just forget I even mentioned it.”

He stormed away, and was stopped by Laney.

“What was that all about?” asked Laney. “Is something the matter?”

“No, nothing that I can’t handle,” he said, giving her a peck on the cheek.

“All right, well, I guess I’ll see you later then because I need to get to the shower.”

“Ok, I’ll see you there in a bit.”

“You will?” she asked looking at him suspiciously. “I thought you were going to the shooting range with Zeb.”

“Well, plans have changed. I have a stop or two to make and then I’ll see you and J.D. at the shower. Now go on and have fun.”

As soon as she walked away he headed straight for his brothers who were still talking on the steps to the church.

“Hey Judas, I was just telling Pete that hi
s sermons are a hell of a lot better than Pa’s dry ones,” said Zeb.

“I remember always thinking I couldn’t wait til they were over,” admitted Pete.

“Yeah, well you should have snuck out of he church the way Judas and Levi always used to, right Judas?” Zeb looked over and chuckled.

“Guys, I’ve got a problem I need some help with,” said Judas.

“It sounds serious,” said Pete, “what is it?”

“I just found out that
nobody in town is planning on going to the shower.”

“Wow, Levi and Candace have been working all day on preparing the food.” Zeb shook his head. “They’ll be really disappointed.”

“Not only them, think how my wife and especially my daughter is going to feel.”

“What can we do?” asked Pete.

“Well, we need a crowd,” Judas told them. “So Pete, make sure to bring all the kids over to the shower as soon as possible.”

“Kids at a baby shower?” asked Zeb.

“We can’t be picky. We need bodies,” Judas explained. “Zeb, what time does Thomas’s flight get in?”

Zeb looked at his watch and squin
ted. “Not for another hour and a half, why?”

“Becau
se we’re going to need that time to do a little shopping.”

“Shopping?” asked Zeb. “I thought you wanted to go
work out and then head to the shooting range.”

“Not anymore. Now bring that big wad of cash with you and lets get going. And I hope you have some kind of idea what the hell to buy for a baby shower, cuz I am clueless.”

Chapter 19

Laney paced back and forth and glanced out the picture window of Margery’s Diner once again watching for the guests to come. The food was already getting cold and Candace was trying to entertain the kids by playing with the balloons with them.

J.D. sat with her feet up on a chair
and eating cake with her fingers while Charolette sat next to her filing her nails and talking a mile a minute. Maryanne Kramer sat across from them looking miserable as she was not really friends with either of them. And her mother, Pearl Kramer lingered back by the food table, taking a second helping of punch.

There were a few presents next to the ones that Laney and Candace had placed there, but the whole thing was pathetic.

“I wonder where everyone is?” Candace walked up to join her.

“Not here,” said Laney. “Candace, why are all the kids here?”

“I don’t know. I guess Pete just got tired of watching them so he brought them by.”

Laney remembered seeing Judas talking to him and Zeb earlier and also overhearing some sort of unpleasant conversation he’d been having with Mabel and some of the other women of the town.

“I think there’s more to this than we realize. Where is Pete? I want to talk to him.”

“He and Levi just installed
the new big screen TV in the back of the restaurant, though I don’t really think we need it. That’s more of a bar thing than for a restaurant in my opinion. And I think they’re watching baseball or something, I’m not really sure.” Candace pointed with her head and Laney couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed them there. She realized her mind must have been more preoccupied than she thought.

“I’ll get to the bottom of this.” Laney
made her way past the tables of food and the few guests that were there and to the back of the room where Pete and Levi were cheering at the screen, leaning back on chairs with their feet up on the benches.

“Pete?” s
he said, but they were so involved in the game that they didn’t hear her. She picked up the controller and clicked it off.

“What are you doing?” asked Levi, frantically grab
bing for the controller. “Turn it back on.”

“Not until I find out why Pete brought the kids here.”

“To watch the game, obviously,” said Levi reaching for the controller, but Laney held it up high.

“Pete? Is that true?” She knew a minister wouldn’t lie, so she just waited for his answer.

“Well, once I got here and realized I could watch Levi’s new TV, it was true,” he answered.

“Did Judas have something to do with this?”

Both the guys just looked the other way.

“We can sit here all day waiting if you want, but I’ll bet the game is getting exciting about now, don’t you think?”

“Just tell her already or we’ll miss the whole thing,” complained Levi.

“Judas won’t like it,” said Pete in a low voice.

“And neither will he like me calling him in the middle of whatever it is he’s doing to ask him about it,” she rallied.

“Oh, all right, I promised to bring all the kids here to make it look crowded,” admitted Pete.

“Why would you need to that?” she asked, then looked around the empty room getting her answer. “He knew no one was coming, didn’t he?”

“He said Mabel and the other women don’t . . . really like J.D. and refused to come,” Pete continued.

“All right, are you happy now?” asked Levi, reaching for the controller.

She held it out to him then snatched it back at the last minute. “So where is Judas? What’s he doing that’s so important he can’t show up for his own daughter’s shower when he knows the place will be empty? J.D. is going to be so upset by all this.”

“He went shopping with Zeb, but that’s all I know,” said Pete.

“All right, now give me the controller,” said Levi taking it from her hand. The
TV was back on and they were complaining cuz they’d just missed something that men considered important, though Laney knew it really wasn’t. What was important was that J.D. didn’t feel like everyone hated her. Laney’s heart went out to her and she faked a smile and walked up to the tiny pile of presents sitting on the floor.