by Sosie Frost
There was nothing blasphemous about Glory. “I got lucky.”
Marius nodded. “She’s good for you, V.”
Quint blushed, though he’d never admit it. “All you had to say was that you were interested. I would’ve backed off.”
Didn’t mean to laugh, but it was easier now that I had her. “Kid, you never stood a chance.”
“I didn’t get to turn on the charm.”
Rem raised his eyebrows. “Never turned anyone on either.”
Quint took the challenge. “Twenty bucks says I go home with a stripper tonight.”
“Why don’t you find your own house before you bring home strippers?” Julian asked.
Tidus came to his rescue. “Garage is open. I call the barn.”
“Deal,” Quint said.
The song shifted, and a new woman twerked onto the stage—a bony brunette covered in tattoos. I figured my family would drop the subject surrounded by naked women and beer. Should’ve known Julian better though. He’d started acting more like a big brother, less like a broken, bitter son of a bitch now that he had the farm, a wife, and a baby.
“Surprised you’d go for a woman like Glory,” Julian said.
“Why’s that?” I asked
“She’s…” Julian sipped his beer. “Tough.”
Marius agreed. “The kind of woman who wears her heels like weapons.”
“Where do I find one of those?” Tidus sighed.
“Ain’t gonna find one in the gutter,” Julian said.
Tidus snickered. “You and your standards.”
Rem studied me, picking his words carefully. “She’s got a bit of…baggage.”
That was the polite word Butterpond had invented. Baggage.
Wasn’t Glory’s fault her ex-boyfriend was the scum of the Earth, but it hadn’t stopped the gossip from spreading, like she feared.
Glory was abused. Lulu’s father is dangerous. Sherriff Samson kept that man in the drunk tank overnight.
The whispers passing around the rehearsals destroyed her, though she’d never admit it. She had too much pride to acknowledge the gossip, but not nearly enough confidence to realize it was all trash.
The woman believed she wasn’t good enough for me because of her past, her profession, her choices.
It was one of the few times she was wrong.
“The heart wants what the heart wants,” I said.
Julian finished his beer before he posed the question. “And what does yours want now?”
Easy. “Peace.”
“And you think this woman can give it to you?”
“Yes.”
Julian didn’t let the topic drop, even as my brothers shifted uneasily across the table. “And what exactly is this peace you want? Do you want things to go back to the way they were?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
Marius frowned. “Hell no.”
That surprised me. “You lost your leg.”
“Yeah, that was a bitch.” He rapped on the prosthetic with his knuckles, actually acknowledging its existence nowadays. “But the injury shipped me home. I met Gretchen. Got a kid on the way.”
Julian tapped the table. “And what would’ve happened if I hadn’t broken my back on that field? If I’d have kept playing football?” The thought actually disturbed him. “Wouldn’t have met Micah. Wouldn’t have my son. We would’ve lost the farm.”
Rem jumped in too. “Yeah. If I hadn’t returned to Butterpond, I wouldn’t have saved my nieces…wouldn’t have rekindled things with Cassi. Wouldn’t have offered her a good, wholesome, happy life.” He pointed at us. “Which I intend to do. Fuck it. I’ll put it in writing now.”
Julian ignored him. “Shit happens for a reason. You taught us that.”
So I had. “Thinking I was mistaken. We can’t begin to understand why things happen.”
Tidus ordered another beer from a passing waitress. “We’re not supposed to understand it. You also taught me that.”
“Since when do you ever listen to my sermons?”
“Since I realized it was an excellent way to win an argument with you.”
Just what Jesus would have wanted.
“I don’t know what you guys want,” I said. “You wanted me to get out of the basement. I did. You wanted me back at the church. I joined the pageant. You wanted me to live again. I met Glory. You wanted me to come out tonight. Here I am. Drinking beer. Watching a perfect stranger take off her clothes. What else do you want from me?”
Julian shrugged. “Wouldn’t mind if you were happy.”
“Glory makes me happy.”
“Does she…or does she just dull the pain?”
“Isn’t that what happiness is?”
Depended on who I asked. Julian, Marius, and Rem didn’t agree. Quint and Tidus both grinned.
“Let me know if you find it,” Tidus said. “Waking up miserable is getting worse than the morning’s hangovers.”
The music changed again, transitioning into a sensual, heavy beat that silenced the conversation. The lights went dark as the woman slowly, methodically strutted onto the stage. Her silhouette teased the men in the audience with an hourglass figure strapped into a sexy corset. Her dark curves kissed the shadows, commanding absolute, rapt attention.
She snapped her fingers high in the air. The music softened, and her throaty voice called over the crowd.
“I heard we have a bachelor party tonight?” She hummed a laugh that chilled my core. “Who is the dumb son of a bitch who had the audacity to fall in love? Let’s see if I can’t change his mind…”
My heart thudded.
No. Even God wasn’t that cruel.
The stage burst with light as the music threaded a pulsing, intoxicating beat.
Glory stalked the stage, confident and beautiful.
And topless.
The corset bared her breasts for the world to see, exposing her dark nipples and glinting the light from the naughty piercings. Her hair flowed over her shoulders and down her back, thick, wild, and tinted a deep crimson that only showed in the spotlight.
Quint’s beer spilled. Julian’s mouth fell open. Marius swore. Rem averted his eyes.
Tidus smacked the table with a hand. “That’s how I know Glory!”
And there was my angel, trapped in this hell.
“Uh, V…” Julian held his hand over his eyes and stared only at the table. “Did you…know about this?”
Marius also had the decency to look away. “Christ, is that why Gretchen has Lulu tonight? She told me she wanted to practice for our baby on a real kid instead of Ambrose.”
I had no idea.
What the hell was Glory doing?
She hadn’t told me she was dancing tonight. The lie stung. At least the part about her cast removal was true. So much for staying in the city to shop for the pageant.
My stomach rolled. She had mentioned dancing in exchange for lights.
Was she dancing for the pageant?
Quint didn’t trust himself. He turned completely in his seat and stared at the bar. “I don’t think I should be watching this.”
Tidus enjoyed the view. “That’s my boy, V. You have some damned fine tastes.”
Rem chugged his beer and began to sweat. “Hey, if it’s all the same to you guys…I think I’ll skip this lap dance.”
A new jealousy raged inside me. A completely illogical, selfish desire.
I’d met her on the stage. Chosen her from the stage.
But I never wanted her to step foot on a stage again.
I stood. “This doesn’t leave the family. It can’t spread to Butterpond.”
Tidus didn’t move. “See? Isn’t this better than a basement?”
The music thudded as Glory took a twirl around the golden pole in the center of the stage, still searching for the mystery bachelor she’d expected to entertain. A man called to her, shouting her name over the music.
I pointed my brothers to the door. “Get out. We’re done here.”
>
We didn’t have a chance to leave.
With a shattering crash, Glory tumbled onto the stage. She swore, and the lights suddenly came up, blinding everyone in the club.
Her panicked cry echoed over the seats.
“Let me go!”
She kicked, struggling against a thick hand gripping her ankle. A sharp kick to her attacker’s chest sent him sprawling, but he dragged her with him to the ground.
Andre.
Glory faked the venom in her voice, but the tremble revealed her fear. “Get the hell off of me!”
I rushed forward as a glint of steel glistened in his hand. My brothers shouted too, each of them diving for another section of the stage. Andre wasn’t alone. Two other men swore as my brothers rammed into them. Tidus swung, knocking one into the stage. Marius took out the other, slamming him against a table.
I had no time. I launched at Andre with a quick jab to his ear. It wasn’t a smooth hit, but it shocked him, aggravating the bruise still painted over his broken nose.
Didn’t matter.
The bastard was so coked up on whatever flooded his system, he couldn’t feel the pain. We fell to the floor, upsetting the tables. Glass mugs shattered around us.
Andre grabbed for the largest piece.
“Varius?” Glory staggered backwards, covering her breasts with her hand. “Varius, look out!”
I knew how to defend myself. I grabbed his wrist, slamming it against the floor to dislodge the glass. Julian kicked it away, and Quint jumped over the monster’s legs to hold him down. He was always a dirty fighter. Preferred the knees.
I knelt over the bastard, reared back, and punched.
The crack was sinful.
Satisfying.
But sinful.
“No!” Glory shouted, shoved aside by a bouncer. “Don’t fight him!”
Too late. Two oversized bouncers knocked tables and chairs from their path. They launched at Tidus and Marius, tangled in a flurry of fists and kicks with Andre’s gang. Tidus slammed through a table. Marius took an elbow to the side. A wayward jab crashed into Julian’s back, right where he’d broken it so many years ago. He swore, nearly collapsing to his knees.
But Glory moved faster. She dove in front of the bouncers and pointed to Andre.
“Who the hell let him in here?” Even bare-breasted and covered in glitter, the woman demanded respect. “I gave you his picture, told you to keep him out!”
One of the bouncers shrugged. “Sorry Miss Glory. Must’ve slipped passed the doorman.”
The DJ popped the mic, calling over the chaos. “Got the cops on their way.”
“Fuck.” Glory stared at me, eyes wide. “V, you can’t be here!”
I could say the same for her. “Glory—”
“You can’t get arrested! You’re the goddamned minister. What the Hell will the church think?”
Julian struggled to his feet, limping over as the bouncers pinned down Andre’s men and my brothers. “She’s right. Get the hell out of here.”
Tidus spat blood and possibly a tooth. He shoved away the bouncers, but they were right to clock his head to keep him on his knees. “We’re the assholes who get in trouble. Not you. You get caught, and the pageant is screwed.”
Since when did he care about the pageant?
Glory had been attacked. I wasn’t going anywhere.
But she had other plans.
Glory hopped off the stage and tossed the money stashed in her corset at the bouncers. A half dozen fifties fluttered to the ground.
“You never saw this man,” she said. “You fucked up once already, don’t piss me off any more.”
She didn’t wait for their answer. Her nails dug into my arm, and she tugged me, begged me, to follow her.
For the first time, tears glistened in her eyes.
She’d destroy me without a word.
I followed her through the rear of the club, past a darkened, smoky dressing room hardly large enough to fit the other three women applying their makeup. She buzzed through the hall and funneled me into a corridor leading to an emergency exit.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” Her words strained, panicked and terrified. “What the hell were you thinking?”
I stared at this woman—black corset strapped over her curves, four-inch heels, hair teased, make-up dark.
I hardly recognized her.
“Rem’s bachelor party.” My jaw tensed. “Why are you here?”
“I’m dancing.”
“Why?”
“The lights?” Glory pointed towards the stage. “I owed the engineer a favor. Said he’d do the pageant for even cheaper if I danced. I had no idea Andre would show up. No idea you idiots would be here either.”
That didn’t make it right. “You didn’t tell me.”
“You didn’t tell me you were going to a strip club either.” She groaned. “Why, V? You’re going to ruin everything.”
For years, my temper had run cold. Dormant.
Took only a splash of skin and a kick to the gut to flare it to life.
“Ruin what?” I asked. “Your dance? Looks like you were doing just fine up there on your own.”
Glory covered her breasts with her arm. No idea why she’d hide from me.
Like I hadn’t seen her before. Like I hadn’t memorized and worshiped every last inch of her.
She was in my thoughts, my dreams, my every waking obsession.
She had nothing to hide from me.
But she did.
First her ex.
Then her dancing.
And now her body.
“This isn’t about me,” she hissed. “It’s about you, V. It’s always about you. Who you are. What would happen when people found out. You can’t be seen here.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because you’re a minister.”
A bitter, acrid taste built in my mouth. The profanity tasted worse. “Fuck, Glory, when are you going to listen to me? I’m not a minister anymore.”
Glory stared at me, but for the first time, I doubted who she saw. Her gaze studied someone before her, but it wasn’t me. Wasn’t who I actually was, who I’d become after so many months of darkness, torment, and rage.
She saw the man she wanted—the one she hoped would pull her from the stage, into his arms, and cleanse every last demon from his soul in the warmth of her kiss.
She had one hell of an imagination.
The man she wanted had potential, a future. He was someone she might have depended on, respected…
Loved.
I wasn’t that man.
I’d never be that man again.
And I’d thought she knew that. Thought she understood that.
How long had we both been lying to each other?
“You are lost, Varius Payne,” she whispered. “But I know who you really are.”
“Glory—”
She shoved me through the emergency exit and killed the alarm with a quick tug of the wire over her head. Her words didn’t soften, but the tears dried.
Christ, she didn’t even trust me enough to cry.
“You might not realize it…but I am doing everything I can to protect you from making the worst decision of your life.”
“What decision?” I demanded.
“Falling in love with me.”
“For Christ’s sake—”
“I don’t know why you hate yourself so much, V, and I don’t know why you refuse to see the truth about the past, but I swear to God, I won’t let you destroy yourself anymore. I’m going to fix you, even if it means losing everything.”
I tried to push inside, to reach my brothers still at the mercy of the bouncers and the wailing police sirens in the distance.
“Glory, listen to me,” I said. “I can’t let them get arrested.”
“Too damned bad.” She refused to move. “Because any one of them would kick your ass outside too. If you had any respect for yourself, your brothers, or your church, then you would
get the fuck out of here now. Go home. Don’t look back until you’re in the parish house.” She swallowed. “And get a checkbook because I don’t have nearly enough in my thong to pay for their bail.”
I gritted my teeth. “What are you doing, Glory?”
“You said I was responsible for your salvation.” Her voice broke. “That makes me responsible for your sins too. And I won’t let you use them to destroy yourself anymore.”
She forced me outside and slammed the door. The latch clicked.
I pounded against the metal, but Glory refused to open it.
She’d left me alone in the darkness, forced to face the man I’d become, the man I had been, and the man I could be.
And the revelation nearly brought me to my knees.
I hated them all.
16
Glory
The dress rehearsal for the pageant went…perfectly.
It was a goddamned Christmas miracle.
And the worst thing that could have befallen Butterpond Community Church.
The cast knew their lines. The crew remembered their marks. The Nativity was sober, the choir singing—and eating. Even splurged on a couple pizzas.
One week before Christmas, and they either got into the spirit or were possessed by a pissed off Holy Ghost determined to set the record straight. It was like they’d learned to sing, dance, and act overnight. They’d agreed on the ending, and the grand finale delighted the cast with a burst of colorful fireworks and pyrotechnics.
The entire crew took the stage, joining in song as if they actually wished the audience a Merry Christmas to all and a good night to those who thought their parking would be validated.
It was brilliant.
They were brilliant.
Lulu danced in my lap, clapping. Her giggle echoed through the chapel as the cast went silent, awaiting my final assessment.
“Again!” Lulu demanded. “Again!”
Fantastic. I’d finally found something other than Frozen to entertain Lulu, and it was the world’s longest Christmas pageant. I checked my stopwatch. The show was even running on time.
What the hell was going on?
How did this pageant go so right?
More importantly, where had I gone wrong?
I stood, hauling Lulu onto my hip. Couldn’t believe I uttered the words. “Great job, everyone. You all did…fantastic.”
