Judging Judas (Tarnished Saints Series Book 3) (7 page)

“That’s because she’s not more than a child herself,” Laney said just above a whisper.

“I’ll give her one chance. But if she screws up, she’s going behind bars. I don’t care if she’s my daughter or pregnant or not. She needs to be disciplined before she’s a parent, or there’ll be no hope for our grandchild to grow up with any morals.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat at hearing him say
our grandchild
. Everything was happening so fast, and her head was spinning right now.

“I think it’s a good idea,” she said. “The part about seeing what’s it like to raise kids, not the part about putting her in jail.”

“I’ve told her that she has to serve 200 hours of community service, and it starts with watching over the kids tonight at the rehearsal dinner.”

“All the kids?” she asked, feeling anxious just by the thought. “And what rehearsal dinner?”

“Thomas and Angel are getting remarried tomorrow. Then they leave on their honeymoon to the Caribbean. While my brother Pete is here for a few days, he can help out, but they really have no one to watch them since Candace and Levi have been so busy at the restaurant and I’ve got to work.”

“Well, I can help,” she said with a smile and once again tried to exit the car.

“No, Laney,” he said. “You can’t. Not if you want her to learn anything at all about responsibility and the effort it’s going to take to raise just one baby. Or were you planning on raising her child for her?”

It was exactly what she
was planning on doing. But now after Judas’s little speech, she realized he was right. She had no choice but to go along with the plan.

“Will she be staying here too?” asked Laney. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, as a couple of the boys seem to be almost her age.”

“Don’t worry, Thomas’s boys would never try anything with her.”

“They’re not the ones I’m worried about.”

“They’re her cousins, for God’s sake, Laney.”

“
Does she know that? Judas, did you already tell her that you’re her father?”

“No. Not yet. But
either way, I don’t want her staying her overnight, because she probably wouldn’t be able to have her own room anyway. And though I want her taking care of the kids, my brother Pete will be here too because an adult has to be here in case CPS comes by.”

“Child Protection Services?” she asked, not understanding any of this.

“It’s a long story having to do with my brother Thomas, but just trust me on this one.”

“But Judas – we don’t even have a place to stay yet. I was hoping to stay at the Bed a
nd Breakfast, but it’s obviously no longer here.”

“Well, I had an idea on that too.” He scratched the side of his neck and looked the other way.

“Oh good. If you know of somewhere for us to live, I’d be ever so thankful.”

“Maybe not
so thankful, when I tell you where.”

“What does that mean?”

“Laney, my parents have both passed away.”

“I’m so sorry, Judas.”

“I didn’t tell you that to get your pity.” He held his jaw set firm and stared out the front window of the car.

“Oh. So are you saying they had a house
we can stay in?”

“
No,” he answered, watching all the kids as he spoke. “The house we grew up in had to be sold when Ma went into the home with Alzheimer’s. Someone else lives there now.”

“So is there a cabin we can stay in then? Does your family still rent them out?”

“They do,” he said. “And yes, there is.”

“Wonderful, I can’t wait to see it.”

“Actually, the tourists have them all booked right now, all except one. It is a two bedroom, and it’s small, but still comfortable.”

“That’ll be more than enough space. Actually, one bedroom would have been fine
, but this is better as now J.D. can have her own room for her and the baby.”

“It’s not that simple, Laney. You see, my father left each of his sons a lake lot and cabin in the will.”

“Oh, so do you own it then?”

“Not yet. But that’s going to be up to you if I do or not.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, but she had no time to respond because one of the boys ran up and pulled open the driver’s side door.

“Come on, Uncle Judas, aren’t you ever getting out of the car?” asked a young boy with red hair and freckles.

“I’ll be there in a minute, Zeke. Now go on,” Judas told him with a wave of his hand, and Zeke ran off away from the car.

“Judas, we need to tell J.D. that you’re her father,” said
Laney with her heart beating rapidly now.

“We?
I figured that was something you needed to tell her.”

“But I already did – sort of,” she said, looking down, knowing she’d been very vague and only given J.D. his first name.
“Well, maybe not, I guess.”

“Then let’s go tell her now, shall we?”

Her throat seemed so dry all of a sudden and she wet her lips with her tongue. She was so nervous to tell J.D. about Judas, and the way he was staring at her made her heart beat even faster.

“Well, what do you say, Laney? All the kids are headed this way now.”

She looked out the front window and saw a whole slew of kids running toward them. And J.D. and the men as well as Candace and another woman she didn’t know, were right behind them. “In front of all these people?” she asked.

“Would you rather take her inside and we do it in private? Either way is fine by me.”

“Well, maybe,” she said, realizing that she’d already told Levi and Candace and was sure by now the adults all knew what was going on anyway. She put her hand on the door handle, then chickened out and pulled back. “So what was it you were going to say before?” she asked.

“You know you’re stalling, Laney. But just so it’s not a surprise to you in front of everyone, I was going to suggest we get married and then we’ll both have a place to li
ve. You see, my father set up his will so we each had to marry within one year after both my parents passed on in order to get our inheritance.”

“What?” She wasn’t sure whether to be happy he suggested they marry, or upset because it sounded as if he was only doing it out of greed. She just shook her head, wondering if he felt anything at all for her after all these years. “I . . . I don’t know about that,” she said, staring out the front window.

He reached over and took her hands in his, and she turned slowly to face him.

“It’s what’s best for J.D.,” he told her. “She needs the disciplining of both parents if she’s going to make any kind of a good mother to that baby.”

Her head told her to say no, and to just spit in his face for even suggesting it without a caring word or any type of emotion. She felt the heat of his hands against hers, and longed for his gentle caress, as well as to be in his strong embrace. Don’t do it, her subconscious warned her. He was a selfish person who only thought of himself. He wasn’t the type of man she wanted in her life right now.

“Well?” he asked, staring at her as she saw another
one of the kids reaching for the door handle. “Will you marry me, Laney? For J.D.’s sake.”

“For J.D.,” she repeated blindly, wanting to shout at him and shake him all at the same time. She couldn’t do this. It was crazy. She wouldn’t do it, and that’s all there was to it.

“Yes, I’ll marry you,” she heard herself answer, not even sure the voice came from her mouth. And then the car door was pulled open and lots of little hands were reaching in and dragging her out. She looked up and saw J.D. chomping on her gum and sneering at Judas.

“What the hell
are you doing with him?” the girl asked. “Mom, I really can’t stand cops and especially not this one.”

Laney knew she was about to do one of the hardest things in her life. Because as soon as she told J.D. that Judas was her father
, the girl was probably going to scream. And once she heard they were getting married and would all live together under one small roof, she was afraid to even guess what J.D. would do with that.

“
Oh God, what did I just agree to?” Laney mumbled to herself and forced a smile.

Chapter 7

Judas hurried out of the car and up to Laney’s side as everyone approached. He heard what J.D. had just said about him and although he wanted nothing more than to cuff her and throw her back in the car, he knew that Lan
ey was going to have to address the issue.

“Gee,
do you think this is a good time to tell her?” he asked, leaning over and speaking softly into Laney’s ear. He noticed her clutching that damned crystal around her neck and breathing very deeply.

“Don’t try to be funny,
” she whispered back and then looked over to her daughter. “J.D. you need to stop with the attitude already.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my attitude,” the girl said, crossing her arms over her big stomach.

“Hi, Uncle Judas! Thomas’s youngest boy, six-year-old Eli, ran up and jumped into Judas’s arms. Judas caught him and spun him around before putting him back on the ground.

“Slow down there, Slugger,” he said.

“Did he say Judas?” asked J.D. with a horrified look on her face.

“That’s right,” Judas broke in, no longer willing to wait for Laney to tell her. “I’m the Judas your mother came to town to find. I’m your father.”

“NO!” screamed J.D., turning and running toward the house.

“Now you’ve done it,” said Laney in a low voice. “Couldn’t you just wait and let me tell her?”

“You had seventeen years to do that, sweetie, I was only helping move it along,” he replied.

Laney
took off after her daughter, and everyone else just stood there with open mouths.

“So you’ve got a
kid,” said Thomas, finally breaking the silence.

“Yeah,” Judas answered. “Are you as surprised as me?”

“Not really.” Thomas looked over to J.D. arguing with Laney. “Actually Levi already told me.”

“Levi? How the hell did he know?”

“I guess Laney told him about it when she asked him to help convince you not to arrest her daughter.”

“Why am I not surprised
that Levi didn’t even mention it to me? But I am surprised Laney went and asked him for help behind my back.” Judas wasn’t happy by Laney’s actions, but then again, he couldn’t really blame her since she was only trying to protect her child.

“So you’re J.D.’s dad
?” asked Jake, one of Thomas’s nine-year-old twins.

“And you’re
also going to be a grandfather,” pointed out fourteen-year-old Sam, walking over to join them, limping because of his bad leg.

“Boys, get
in the car,” Thomas told his sons. “It’s time to go to the rehearsal dinner.”

All six of his boys followed his orders without question, running and jumping into the SUV. If o
nly Judas could have that kind of control over his daughter. He was an officer of the law and also had only one child, so why was this so hard?”

“Can I ride with Val and Vance?” asked Thomas’s daughter, Gabby.

“Sure you can, sweetie,” said Candace, collecting up her twins and also Gabby and taking them to her own car.

“I’ll ride with them too,” said Angel
hurrying from the house with her purse in her hand. “And we’d better hurry, honey,” she told Thomas. “Levi has gone to so much trouble with the dinner that he’ll be mad if we get to the restaurant late.”

“All right, let’s go then.” Thomas stopped and looked back to Judas, standing there with their brother Pete. “I’ve got room for one more. Pete, did you want to ride with me?”

“I’ll give him a ride,” Judas interrupted. “I need to talk to him about something before we get there.”

“All right, see you there then.” Thomas got in the SUV and took off with Candace’s car following them.

“So having a little trouble with the new daughter?” asked Pete with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“That’s an understatement,” Judas answered, looking back to the house where J.D. and Laney were talking. Laney had her hand on her crystal and J.D. had her hands up in the air waving
them around wildly. “I don’t know how this is going to work out, Pete, but Laney agreed to the marriage.”

“Really?” he looked surprised. “Well good for you.”

“They don’t have anywhere to stay, so we’re going to need to use the cabin I’m going to inherit, right away.”

“
Well, you’ll have to talk to Thomas about that since he’s the one managing them and also executor of the will. So tell me, what is it you’re really trying to say, brother?”

“I guess
. . . I’m asking if you can possibly marry Laney and me. As soon as possible.”

“Well, I don’t have a problem with it.” He looked back over t
o the women who were now shouting at each other again. “But somehow I don’t think everyone will feel the same way.”