by Lee Wardlow
“Really?” He declared. “She comes to church every Sunday?” He eyed Danni waiting for her response.
“She does,” Danni answered although she was hesitant about it. I shook my head. I knew what was coming next. She shouldn’t have given him that information.
“I think I might start coming to church after all,” he said almost happily. I scrubbed my hands over my face. My family was all kinds of messed up and I wanted to bring more kids into this mess. Maybe Matt had the right idea. Done with one.
Then I glanced at the woman sitting next to me. She wanted a baby too. I leaned back and kissed her cheek. “Welcome to the Hatfield family,” I told her.
She snuggled into my side and laid her head on my shoulder. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Mom greeted Daisy. AJ frowned at her when she chose to ignore him and said hello to me and Disa. When she walked by us, AJ informed us, “I wonder if Mr. Perfect would like to know that Daisy warmed my bed the night of Disa and Ben’s party.”
“AJ,” Mom snapped at him. “You are not too old for me whoop. Keep trying my patience.”
He chuckled beneath his breath but managed to shut up for a while. I glanced at him and his eyes met mine. “What?” He asked.
“Seriously?” I whispered.
“Yep, she did.” He nodded like he was proud of himself.
“You need help,” I told him.
Then Pastor Canfield got in the pulpit and I was reminded why I never went to church. Danni and I both had to elbow AJ to keep him from snoring. Disa sniggered. Mom glared at him once again. Then outside the church where Pastor Canfield greeted everyone and shook hands, I realized that his sense of humor was not lost.
“AJ glad to see nothing has changed. My sermons still put you to sleep.” He pumped my brother’s hand. His much smaller one looked funny in AJ’s hand.
His thin wiry body was so much smaller in comparison to my large brother. His thinning hair was blowing around in the breeze on this cool day. He shoved his glasses up his nose and AJ had the grace to appear embarrassed.
“Sorry, Pastor. Didn’t sleep well last night,” he mumbled.
“Then get a good night’s rest next Saturday and join us again.”
He watched Daisy slip past us and he nodded. “I think I will, Pastor.”
Chapter 21
When we arrived at Mom’s house I thought we had entered an alternative reality where Dad did the cooking which never happened. Then Merci ran to Disa and held her close. I glanced at Heath.
“Do you think this is a good idea?”
Heath handed me Asia. I was distracted for a moment by my daughter. I had missed her. I kissed her cheek and snuggled her into my chest. I held her tight, loving her scent and her warmth. “I love you, baby girl.”
“Ben, they can’t stay locked up forever and I do know a few things. I drove around back, Dad opened the cellar doors and the girls entered there where no one could see them.”
That didn’t make me feel better but Disa was happy, so I was happy for her but scared at the same time. This is what Ron wanted. Heath was crazy enough to enjoy this game of cat and mouse with him. Not me.
Dad leaned over and kissed our mother. “How was church, love?” He asked her.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Which part do you want to know first? The part where Matt and AJ had guns drawn on Ron when I arrived at the church? Or the part where AJ took the Lord’s name in vain in church?” She was in a mood. The only thing was that Dad couldn’t take his belt to us now.
He tried not to laugh. “Why was AJ in church?”
She frowned at him. “That is your only question?”
He shrugged. “First Elijah starts going with Jenny.”
“Actually, Walker started going with me,” Danni interrupted Dad. Walker took India and headed to the living room.
“I’m going to watch television with Matt and Justin before I lose my man card for trying to save my soul,” he declared. Then he disappeared with his daughter.
“Now Ben is going with Disa soon you’ll be expecting me to go,” Dad said.
“It wouldn’t hurt.” She breezed by him and headed to the kitchen. Her domain where she controlled everything.
Our father looked at us, his sons. “You have betrayed me, boys. One by one, you bastards.” Then he turned and headed up the stairs, stomping his feet on every tread until he reached the top.
When he disappeared at the top of the stairs, we burst out laughing. Soon, Rachel would have Dad at Sunday services and the walls would come crumbling down.
The Hatfield men hadn’t been inside that church in over ten years except Seth. Rachel made him go with her until she kicked him out of the house last year for what he was doing with Jameson.
“I’m going to help your mother finish brunch,” Disa declared.
“Me too.” Danni followed her to the kitchen.
“I’m going to watch…” I didn’t get further than that.
“No, you’re not. We need to talk to you.”
Heath grabbed my arm and pulled me back. Suddenly Matt appeared, and we headed to the dining room. When Dad came down the stairs, he took care of all the kids and Elijah and Walker joined us too.
“You can’t get me into trouble,” Walker warned Matt.
“I’m not sure you should be here,” he said. “I don’t want you to ever get in trouble where you might end up back in prison.”
“Then leave,” Danni said. We hadn’t realized she was standing in the door. “Walker, please.”
My sister had tears in her eyes. “He’s given enough for family, his own. Let him have peace.”
He held out his arm to her and she slid into his embrace. “I promise. I won’t get into trouble.” He kissed her temple. “I’m pregnant again, you guys. You better not hurt him.”
My brother, Matt groaned. “She just had a baby, man.”
“She wanted another one,” Walker informed him.
Matt rolled his eyes.
So maybe if Disa was pregnant it would be all right except my children would have different mothers. That made a difference. I sighed.
They all looked at me.
“What is this?” I asked.
“He made a bold move,” Heath declared. “Cornering you in public, at the church.”
I nodded. Ron Parsons was getting desperate, I thought. I wondered if my brothers thought so too.
Lilah came into the dining room and sat down next to Matt. He leaned back in his chair and looked at her. She twisted her fingers together. “I don’t want to put your family in danger. It’s me he wants, isn’t it?” She asked. She refused to look at anyone.
Her lashes hid some beautiful eyes tortured by a man who claimed to love God. A man of God wouldn’t do the things that he had done to her.
Matt slid his arm around her shoulders. She froze for a second. Then she settled into his embrace. “Maybe I should go somewhere but I have no money.”
“Where would you go?” My sister’s voice was filled with compassion and concern. She and Jenny were competing for bringing home the most injured and needy animals. Jenny tried to keep them, and Danni tried to find homes for them because she had an allergy to pet hair. The two women had the biggest hearts of anyone I knew but the woman leaning in the doorway. Disa was listening now too.
“I don’t know I just feel like I need to get far away from here to protect your family,” Lilah said. Then Rachel slipped in behind Disa and sat at the head of the table usually reserved for my father.
“Lilah, you have no family but us. We aren’t letting Ron Parson run you away. If he catches you, he’ll kill you. You’re safer with Heath.”
“But…” She couldn’t get any further with what she was going to say. Rachel cut her off with a hand in the air.
“No buts. We’re all good. I don’t know what you boys are planning.” She glanced around the room. I don’t want to know. Just don’t get killed. I’m supposed to die before you.” She sniffed
then she got out of the seat where she sat. “Come on ladies. The food won’t finish preparing itself.”
Lilah slipped out of Matt’s arms and followed Mom. Disa gazed at me for several seconds then she turned and went to the kitchen too. Danni was the last to go.
She stood at the doorway and gazed at Walker for a moment, then she looked at us. Her brothers. “If you cause me to lose him, I will never forgive you.” With that, she turned and went to the kitchen.
I ran my hands over my face and through my hair. “Now what?” I asked. “Ron Parson is getting desperate.”
“He is,” Matt agreed. “Desperate men make mistakes. Let him keep stewing.”
I didn’t like that plan. I wanted Ron finished and off the streets of Sherwood. I was getting married in two weeks. Two weeks after that my court date was scheduled, and Asia was officially, solely mine. Sixty days since Jasmine had left her in Elijah’s home. Sixty days since she had begged me in a letter to be her father. That was the easiest decision I had ever made besides marrying Disa.
**
The chatter around the dining room table during brunch was all about my wedding in two weeks. Disa told Mom and Danni that she would just wear the dress that she wore last night. She loved the gray, layered, chiffon dress. I knew nothing about what she was speaking. I continued to eat.
“Disa, you need a dress,” my mother argued with her. “A girl only gets married once in her life.”
I was a man and I knew that.
She gave in knowing she didn’t stand a chance with my mother. Then I turned my head. Disa turned hers too. She had heard it. Slowly my brothers heard the sound too. A pop. Then another. The sound got closer and closer to the house.
“Get on the floor,” Dad shouted. We were all under the table.
That is when I knew what that sound was. An automatic rifle was firing on the house. A sickly sound that was terrifying. Disa’s eyes met mine. “Asia and the other babies are in the living room on the floor.”
“Stay here.”
I crawled out from under the table to the entrance of the dining room. The long hall from the entrance to the kitchen ran the length of the house. Across the hall, was the living room where the three babies were on the backs lying helplessly. Crying now because of the loud sound of gunfire.
“AJ come with me,” Heath shouted.
Elijah had joined me on our knees at the entrance to the room. His son was lying by my daughter. We both looked over our shoulder then at the babies once again. Walker Wild’s child was in that room too. His daughter was his heart and soul. Not that he didn’t love our children too.
He leapt over us, dodging bullets that were bouncing in the hallway. He grabbed all three babies and headed to the kitchen with them. Elijah and I sat back on our asses. “They’re safe,” Elijah informed Jenny.
She was sobbing into her hands. Mom comforted her. Dad was on his phone talking to Hawk. “This is war, Hawk. Arrest that son-of-a-bitch or I will let AJ and Heath have him.”
I blinked at Elijah and he dropped his chin to his chest.
Then I heard the explosion of gunfire over our heads. The automatic weapon that was firing on the house stopped. Elijah and I looked at each other, then at Dad.
“Get your ass over here, Hawk. AJ or Heath has taken out the shooter.” Dad rose from the floor and laid his phone on the table. My eyes met his and I knew that he was troubled by this turn of events.
We got to our feet and Disa climbed out from beneath the table. “Get Asia for me, would you?”
She nodded and headed to the kitchen where Walker had my daughter safe and sound.
I followed Dad and my other brothers out to the lawn where the shooter laid dead not more than three feet from the front porch. It wasn’t the man from the church this morning, but he was dressed like him. He wasn’t a member of the Babylon First Church of God.
Heath flew through the door letting it slam shut in AJ’s face. “Thanks,” AJ shouted at him. Then he came out too.
He squatted beside the dead man and looked him over then he showed us a wrist tattoo hidden by his long sleeves. “Who has their phone on them?” He asked.
Matt handed Heath his. He snapped a photo of it. Couldn’t it be just a tattoo? Why did he think it was of importance? I didn’t ask questions. I just wanted to know what had happened to our sleepy little town of Sherwood, Ohio.
Hawk’s police cruiser roared down the driveway followed by a few deputy sheriffs in their police cruisers. Hawk wasn’t in uniform when he got out of his car that was leading the pack of cops. Heath rose and stepped back from the dead body on our front parent’s front lawn.
“Tainting evidence, Heath?” Hawk asked, strolling up the front porch like it was any other Sunday at the Hatfield house.
“Checking for a pulse,” he responded with a casualness that surprised me but then again it was Heath. We didn’t know what he had seen overseas because he didn’t talk about it. He refused to. “Thought I might have to do CPR but it’s too late.”
Hawk snorted. He didn’t believe Heath for a second. Lucky for us Heath didn’t remove anything from the dead man’s body. I stepped back to the porch steps and sat down on the first one, watching in disbelief as this scene unfolded.
I rested my crossed arms on my knees and watched as the deputies collected evidence, bullets mainly. Took a thousand pictures of the dead man. I heard them say no one would ever identify him. How many do you really need? Then the coroner took him away.
Heath sat beside me. He took out his phone. “Is this really the time to make a call?” I asked.
He shot me a look and put his finger to his lips. “I need you,” he said when somebody answered on the other end. “Yeah, I got troubles.” I waited while Heath listened. Then he said, “Thanks man.” He pocketed the phone after hanging up the call.
“Who was that?”
“Don’t worry about it. The less you know the better.”
“Arrest him,” Matt said again after the other deputies climbed in their vehicles and left our home.
Hawk pulled out his phone. “I can’t Matt.”
“Why not?”
“I received this.”
He handed Matt his phone and he watched what I assumed was a video. He stormed past me and Heath sitting on the steps. We got up and followed him. Everyone else was following us.
“What the fuck is this?” He bellowed at Lilah. The ladies were cleaning up in the kitchen.
Whatever it was, horrified Lilah. “I didn’t know.”
“Know what?” Matt shouted. “That you were videotaped enjoying being treated like the whore that you are?”
“Matthew,” our mother scolded him. “Your son is listening.”
“I’ll take him outside with me,” Walker declared. “Suddenly I don’t want to be in this room.”
I didn’t know if he meant because of Lilah and the video or the because of Matt’s behavior.
“Lilah, I lost my barn, part of my crops. I could have lost my son.” He was still shouting in her face.
She was shaking her head. Tears streaming down her face. Her body trembled. Somehow, whatever Matt saw in that video I don’t think it was quite what it appeared to be. Disa didn’t either.
She handed me Asia and stepped around Matt. She wrapped her arms around Lilah and that was her undoing. Her knees buckled, and she went straight to the floor of my mother’s kitchen. She scratched her nails across the hardwood floor and sobbed unintelligible things. My heart ached for her. The sounds coming from the phone repeated over and over for all of us to hear.
“Stop,” she screamed.
Rachel yanked the phone out of Matt’s hands and snapped at him, “What is wrong with you?”
“I just want an explanation.”
He dropped onto the floor in front of her. He lifted her, so she was facing him. I had never seen someone so devastated. “That wasn’t me,” she sobbed. “It was who I had to be to survive him.”
Then she threw herself i
nto Matthew’s arms. He didn’t know what to do at first. Mom cleared the kitchen except for me, Disa, Matthew and Lilah. She sat on a kitchen chair. I stood rooted to the spot watching my brother try not to hold Lilah and losing the battle.
His arms went around her finally. “I’m sorry,” he whispered as he stroked her hair.
She shook her head no. “I don’t deserve your apology,” she responded. He rocked her, neither of them saying anything.
Disa got to her feet and came to me. She buried her face in my chest and I held her close with Asia between us. Her hand resting against my daughter’s butt.
Matthew pushed Lilah back. He gripped her biceps. “Lilah if you aren’t a threat to him because of the kidnapping charge why does he want you so badly?” He asked.
She swallowed hard. Her eyes never left Matthew’s face. “He took me to the house that you referred to.” She wiped her hand across her face. An elder followed him there.”
“Which elder?” Mom asked.
“Elder William Cobb.”
“The man who disappeared last December,” Mom stated, and Lilah nodded.
“He had discovered that Ron was stealing from the church too. He followed him. He accused him of killing both Disa and Merci’s parents. He was so smug when he said that he did.” Lilah’s eyes traveled up to me and Disa. “I’m sorry,” she said to Disa.
I comforted my woman. I didn’t know what else to do.
Mom got up and called for Dad. He came into the kitchen and sat where she did. “Lilah start at the beginning and tell your story. Simon needs to hear it,” Mom said.
Matt sat beside her and I wondered if he had been hanging out at Heath’s with her. There was a connection between them. A something that being male I didn’t dissect. A flicker. A spark.
I listened to the words and couldn’t believe the number of cover ups Ron Parson had been doing. The embezzlement. The death of Disa and Merci’s parents. Elder William Cobb’s murder.
“I heard it all. That is why he wants me back,” she told Mom and Dad. “The compound is terrified. The children are no longer going to public school. They are home schooled for fear that they will tell something they shouldn’t.”
