by Lee Wardlow
Jace or Jacey was an explosives expert in the military in Heath’s platoon. She now worked for herself making great money imploding buildings. She was as damn scary as he was as she talked about blowing up old buildings.
I took Disa’s hand in mine. I looked up, towards the heavens and I thanked Jesus, God, Mary and the Holy Ghost for giving me a normal woman with no baggage. She couldn’t help it if she had a stalker who I think had given up on her. He just wanted Lilah back.
I glanced at Lilah who was deep in conversation with Justin. I didn’t see the video that Matt had. I had heard her voice though. Anyone hearing what I had heard would assume she was enjoying what was happening to her.
Anyone seeing her scarred body as my woman had would know the truth. She was terrified of Ron Parson. She was doing what she needed to do to get by and get out alive.
I felt sorry for her. She was broken. You could see it in her eyes. They were empty and dull until they lit up when she was around my nephew Justin. He touched something inside her that was frozen and afraid. She let him in when she kept the rest of us out.
Merci sat on the other side of Disa. She kept looking at the door. I assumed looking for Seth who was already at the pub. He had been spending a lot of time at Matt’s with him and Justin. He went from there to the pub everyday by four p.m. when he didn’t have to be at Mom’s to watch over them.
Disa leaned over and whispered something to Merci who looked disappointed at what she had been told. Then she resumed eating. Lilah and Merci had gone from being prisoners of Ron Parson to prisoners at my brother’s cabin in the woods. There was little to do there.
I wondered how they were doing.
Heath’s conversation with Matt and AJ caught my attention. They were planning their next move. “Haven’t you hurt Parson enough?” I asked.
AJ shook his head no. “He has to know that he can’t strike us ever again like he did. Do you know what he lost in that explosion?” AJ asked.
“Justin, would you like to go into the living room with me and watch cartoons?” Lilah asked him. She was right, my young nephew shouldn’t be hearing this conversation. He trusted her. My brother’s eyes watched as she rose and took his son’s hand guiding him from the room.
I wanted to go with them. I didn’t want to know the criminal activity of Ron Parson. I had been trying to separate myself from him and kept getting pulled back into his web.
Before I could respond, AJ told me what I didn’t need to know.
One million dollars in heroin. Five hundred thousand in pot. An estimated three million in cash that he was waiting to clean. It was dirty money that he will have to repay, or Ron will have more trouble than the Hatfield’s raining down on him.
“How do you know this?” I asked.
“I know,” Heath responded. “He uses the children of the compound to carry drugs to the outside. No one suspects the children. They meet a target make the drop, go to the five and dime store and buy some candy. Then they return to the compound nobody is wiser.”
I shook my head and gazed at Disa. She didn’t know this. “He never asked me to take anything for him, anywhere.” She looked at Merci.
“I didn’t either.”
“What else do you know?” I asked looking to my brother to enlighten me on Ron Parson’s other acts since he and Heath had gotten started.
“The other Elders didn’t mind the money laundering. They don’t like the drugs coming in and out of the compound. They don’t like the children being used. They definitely wouldn’t mind Elder Ron disappearing or getting killed.”
I frowned. “Heath, you can’t.”
“Why not?” He asked. He was squinting at me. One finger tapped on the table. Had he gone so far into the dark that murdering a man meant nothing to him. This wasn’t war. This was murder.
I looked at Disa. Was I the crazy one?
“AJ? Matt?” I was seeking their input as some voice of reason besides my own.
“Ron has to be stopped,” Matt said.
“But not by us,” I informed him. “We aren’t criminals. What the hell has happened to you guys? Have you all turned into crazy, bitter assholes?”
Matt wouldn’t look at me. AJ was glaring at me and Heath met my gaze head on with a stone-cold stare. They were crazy fuckers. I was convinced of it now.
“You cannot do this,” I declared. “It is illegal to murder a man no matter what he has done. It is also immoral.” I threw in the granddad card. “We had a role model in our grandfather who set a standard of how we should live our lives. I for one regret not living up to that standard until now. Now, when he cannot see me trying to be a good man.”
Matt leaned his elbows on the table. “A lot of good it did me,” he said.
“Matt,” I shook my head sadly. “Man, you lost a wife. There is a difference between losing your woman and killing a man. Killing a man…you lose more than your heart, you lose your soul.”
He shoved away from the table. “I’m going to the living room with Justin.”
“And Lilah,” I reminded him. He flipped me off, the bastard.
I looked at the other two assholes sitting at the end of the table. “Well?”
“Well what?” AJ asked.
“Did nothing I said make any difference to you?”
I wanted them to say that it had. I wanted them to say that they wouldn’t go after Ron Parson. I wanted them to let Hawk deal with this man. I wanted him off the street more than anyone but not this way.
“We’ll think about it,” AJ replied after exchanging glances with Heath, but I knew he was patronizing me.
I pushed back from the table. “I’m done eating. I don’t want to be around any of you.”
I carried my plate to the kitchen and rinsed it. I was putting it in the dishwasher when she approached. I knew she was there. I could always feel her before she got too close. I glanced over my shoulder right before she laid her hand on my back. Then I turned and grabbed her in my arms.
The need to hold onto her was intense. I could feel things slipping away. They couldn’t understand. I still had to appear in court to get permanent sole custody of Asia. I didn’t need any trouble right now. They had me on pins and needles with this shit.
I closed my eyes and soaked up her peace. That’s how she had always made me feel. One week from tomorrow she would be my wife. One step at a time, things were going my way. I couldn’t let my brothers screw things up for me.
“Ben.” I opened my eyes. Matt stood in the doorway to my kitchen. “I know you’re worried…”
“You don’t understand, Matt. I have everything to lose, not just Disa. I could lose Asia too.”
He glanced down at the ground. Then up at me. “I’ll curb our plans until after your court date. Hopefully Hawk will come up with something before then.”
I hoped so too. I wanted this to be handled in a legal way.
Chapter 23
On my wedding day I was nervous. I’ll be honest. Not because I was marrying Disa but because I wanted it to go off without a hitch. My brothers had been good. We had no retaliation from Ron Parson. His silence was scary, so I expected something to happen today.
My brothers and I were at the church. Since Disa got a new dress she decided my brothers and I could wear jeans, a lavender shirt she picked out and vests. She liked the more casual look. We had purple boutonniere’s that Rachel pinned on us.
All my brothers were standing up with me. Elijah was my best man even though he had Matt be his. I was barely speaking to him at the time of his wedding to Jen, so I couldn’t blame him for choosing Matt.
Disa was having Danni as her Matron of Honor with a few girls from the pub. Jenny, Daisy, her sister and Lilah as attendants. Heath had broken down and agreed the girls could come to the wedding. She needed her sister to be there with her. He had a heart after all.
He had a guest too. Jacey Lee. She came with him.
I stood in the front of the church with Pastor Canfield waiting on Dis
a to make her way down the aisle. She was walking herself to me. She felt that was best and I agreed.
We cut out the part about who gives this woman to this man. She was freely giving herself to me. There was no one to ask.
The doors opened. I was still on pins and needles praying to Jesus as we stood inside his house that just because I was a lousy Christian, I needed this one thing. To make it through today without any bloodshed.
She looked so beautiful. She amazed me. I didn’t think it was possible for Disa to look more stunning, but she did. Her dress was simple with sheer layers over layers that clung to her curvy figure and hung from her slender shoulders by two thin straps. A veil was clipped to her hair and hung over her face, obscuring it slightly but I could still see how beautiful she was.
She approached carrying lavender roses with a bunch of other stuff. I’m a guy I didn’t recognize anything else, but her bouquet was pretty like her.
She stopped before me and placed her hand in mine. A show of trust. A show of giving herself over to me. She was mine forever after today.
The pastor began the service. Honestly, I didn’t hear a thing until he asked, twice for me to repeat my vows. I did without taking my eyes from her face.
“I take you to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part.” I squeezed her hands and Disa smiled at me.
“Disa, it’s your turn,” Pastor Canfield informed her.
“I take you, Ben to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better for worse, for richer, for poorer,” Disa’s tears choked her words. She had to collect herself. She cleared her throat. “Where was I?” She asked. Her nerves were getting the best of her.
“Poorer,” I informed her.
The crowd laughed at us.
“In sickness and in health,” she declared. “To love and to cherish until death do us part.” She mumbled under her breath that I had better not leave her first. I grinned at her.
We turned slightly back to Pastor Canfield. “Do you have rings?”
I did. I had given them to a special person to hold for me. “Justin, do you have the rings?” I asked. My mother was holding him. He was supposed to be the ring bearer, but he got last minute nerves and didn’t want to walk down the aisle.
“Benjamin, you gave a three-year-old your rings?” Rachel scolded me. He slipped off her lap and came to me. I squatted down to his level and he dug into his pocket and took out two rings. He placed them in my hand then he hugged me.
“See, I didn’t woose them,” he informed me.
“I knew you wouldn’t,” I replied.
I gave them to Pastor Canfield who prayed over them before handing me Disa’s ring to place on her finger. We had decided not to use traditional vows when placing our rings on each other’s fingers.
I slid the ring to her first knuckle and repeated what I had been rehearsing for two weeks, in the shower, sitting on the toilet and driving home and to work.
“Disa, I place this ring on your finger as a symbol of our bond that cannot be broken. When you need to know the depth of my love for you,” I slipped the ring the rest of the way on her finger, “you only have to look into my heart and you’ll see it there.”
A tear rolled down her cheek.
She took my ring from Pastor Canfield. Then Disa took my hand in hers and repeated the same vows while she slipped the ring on my finger. When she was done, she lifted my hand to her lips and kissed the top of it.
That undid me. I felt the emotion wash over me and tears flowed without shame down my face.
“By the power vested in me by the state of Ohio, and the Lord above, I now pronounce you man and wife.” Pastor Canfield smiled at us. “Ben, you can kiss your bride.”
I lifted Disa’s veil and cupped her face in my hands. I wanted to take my time. This was our first kiss as man and wife. I heard Rachel’s sniffle and I smiled at Disa then brushed my lips across hers before I told her how much I loved her.
“I love you too,” she responded, her eyes locked with mine.
I felt a sense of relief. We were married. Nothing had happened. Now to Ike’s to celebrate.
**
Seth cooked for us. A fine meal of prime rib and chicken. Sautéed asparagus. Spicy diced potatoes and creamed corn. It was a meal that was made with me in mind. Seth had made all my favorites. Our cake was made by Danni and Mom and looked like a professional had done it. They were dabbling in cake decorating and doing a fine job of it for novices if our cake was any indication.
It was two layers with purple flowers spilling down one side mixed in with green leaves surrounding the flowers. A couple stood on top of the cake. A dark, haired groom and a blonde bride stood forehead to forehead. It was a beautiful cake. The fact that Disa loved everything was all I needed.
After dinner, she tossed her bouquet and Daisy caught it. AJ groaned. It wasn’t that he was worried about being her groom because she had brought her resident with her as her date. I think he was worried that the resident was going to get the girl.
Then it was my turn to remove her garter belt. I knelt in front of Disa as she perched on a chair. Her cheeks were flushed pink. I didn’t want to embarrass her any further, so I gently lifted her skirt to her knees and slid the blue garter down her leg.
“My something blue,” she whispered. She held out her wrist. “Something new from your Mom and Dad.” I looked at her bracelet that was a gift from my parents. It was lovely. Purple Amethyst stones encircled her slender right wrist. “Something borrowed.” She showed me her pearl earrings and I recognized them as my mother’s favorite pearl earrings. “I’ve been touching them every hour since she put them in my ears to be sure I didn’t lose them. Your grandmother gave them to her when she married your dad.”
I smiled at her. I was still on my knees listening to her. She leaned in because she was talking so softly to me. “The something old I can’t show you right now, but I will later. It is a pin that your grandfather gave to your grandmother. It is beautiful, Ben. It’s pinned to my bra. Your Mom asked me to keep it for Asia and any other children we have. She wants each of the brides in our family to wear it,” she explained. “Traditions are important.”
“They are,” I agreed. I knew which pin Rachel had given her. “Is the pin with the white lilacs on it?” I asked her.
She sat back in the chair a little and stared at me for a moment. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.”
White lilac to my grandfather always reminded him of my grandmother. Lilacs were a symbol of first love. White a symbol of purity and innocence. When he and my grandmother were married at seventeen they knew no other loves. They spent a lifetime loving each other. When she died four years before he did, she took his heart with her.
I rose to my feet and extended my hand to Disa. “When my Grammy left my Granddad after over sixty years of marriage, she took his heart with her. He loved only her. Disa, I will only ever love you,” I told her.
She inhaled softly. She was trying not to cry. Disa stood on tiptoe and I leaned down so that she could kiss me. “And I will only love you, Ben,” she told me.
Although I had slept with many women, she had only been with me. From this day forward, we would only be together. I hoped Granddad was watching over me today. I could almost feel him smiling on me with Grammy by his side.
I held Disa’s hand and turned my back to the single men standing behind me waiting for me to toss the garter. Lucky for AJ, the resident didn’t catch it. Seth did though. Our mother wasn’t sure of his interest in Merci Riley. I wasn’t sure of her either. Not because she wasn’t a good person but because she had been through a lot. She had been confined to the compound. She hadn’t lived life yet. I didn’t know how she would react to being free. I didn’t want my brother to get his heart broken.
Disa tugged me to the bar. We were toasting each other n
ext. I had no words to tell this woman how I felt about her. She wasn’t much of a drinker. So, we wrapped our glasses around each other’s and sipped from the Champaign flutes. My brothers jeered us. They thought we were lame. She chuckled at them. I didn’t care.
Then we cut the cake. I wasn’t about to smear it in Disa’s face. She didn’t smear it in mine either. Unlike Jenny who had it all over Elijah by the time they were done.
Next, we moved to our first dance. I held her against me and moved her around the dance floor. There was no disco ball this time. The normal lighting of Ike’s glowed over our heads as we swayed together for our first dance as man and wife.
Then we were done. We could relax. She talked with the girls and I huddled with my brothers for a while. I just really wanted to take her home. I wanted to make love to Disa as my wife.
Matt, Heath and AJ were talking about what they had learned about Ron Parson. I listened attentively, wishing this was all behind us. I wanted to talk about anything but him on my wedding day.
He wasn’t Jasmine’s father. That man did live where Belle Johnson did right now. Ron was a high school sweetheart who lived at the compound. He left the Babylon First Church of God when Belle married Disa’s uncle, pregnant with Jasmine by another man. She had broken his heart and left him with an obsession for blondes.
“What?”
“Lilah is one of the few women he took that was dark haired, but her eyes are the same as Belle’s, Disa’s and Merci’s,” AJ explained. “Her eyes drew him in and doomed her to become his own personal sex slave.”
Matt walked away with that comment. I saw him stop and talk to Dad. “He likes her,” I stated.
“You think?” Heath said as if I were stupid.
“Women are nothing but trouble,” AJ declared staring at Daisy dancing with her resident.
“Says the man who can’t stop watching his woman dance with another man.”
“Doesn’t appear to me that she’s his,” Elijah informed Heath and nodded at AJ.
