“Fuck,” Rev muttered one more time as the preacher, pastor, whatever, stepped up to the open driver’s side window.
At least Rev hadn’t closed the windows and locked the doors.
Reilly had no idea how long it had been since Rev had last been home, but the gray-haired man in the crisp clerical collar didn’t have any problem recognizing him. But then, Rev did have a face that was hard to forget.
“Brother Michael. It’s been far too long.” Not a friendly greeting, but actually quite icy. An unexpected tone from someone she figured was a church leader.
“Not long enough,” was Rev’s grumbling answer.
Shit.
Without any kind of reaction to Rev’s insult, the man glanced past him to her frozen in the passenger seat. He pointed a stiff, plastic smile in her direction that was nowhere near genuine but only because it was expected. “I see you brought your wife.”
What? “I’m—” Her words were interrupted when Rev’s hand shot out and clamped on her knee. He squeezed it almost to the point of pain.
“Yes, my wife decided to accompany me in this trying time.”
She blinked. Say what? Why was he speaking like that? Like he had a stick up his ass and wasn’t a carefree biker who dropped his pants and whipped out his dick every time the wind changed direction.
The man turned his gray eyes back to Rev. Reilly noticed the way his cold, narrowed gaze slid from the barbell piercings in Rev’s right ear to the hoop in his nostril and then over to the barbells in his left ear before coming back to settle on Rev’s face with an expression that looked like he’d just sucked on a lemon. Or a whole orchard full of lemons.
“It’s a dark time for our congregation, Brother Michael. Your father is such a pillar of our community. A leader to look up to. A perfect example of a God-fearing man whose life’s work is to serve the Lord. His loss will leave a gaping hole that may not be possible to fill.”
Rev’s fingers twitched painfully on her knee. She grabbed it and gave it a little squeeze of her own so he wouldn’t unintentionally pop off her kneecap in his simmering rage.
Reilly didn’t know whether to laugh or throw up at that description of Rev’s father. Even with the little she knew so far, she could guess that was all a bunch of bullshit. To say that to the man’s son was even more insulting. Obviously, it was said with a purpose.
The purpose wasn’t to console Rev, it was to make a damn point. A very sharp one jabbed in Rev’s chest.
“You receive his deathbed confession yet?”
The man made a sharp tsk-tsk sound. “Brother Michael, you know our order doesn’t do last rites or take confessions. A man’s sins are solely between him and God. No one else.”
“How ‘bout their victims?”
The creases at the corners of the pastor’s mouth deepened when it became tight and his shoulders stiffened. “Your father has always been an upstanding member of our order. Since you lost your way and left our community, he’s also become an elder who is revered and respected.”
“‘Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not.’”
Reilly’s eyes went wide as she stared in shock at the back of Rev’s dark blond head since he still faced the preacher. Or pastor. Or whatever the fuck the man was.
Did the cursing, pot-smoking, fuck-anyone-with-boobs biker just quote some sort of scripture?
She ran those words over again in her mind and realized what he said held the same meaning as “none so blind as those who do not see.” But for some reason he did not choose that simple and effective reminder, he recited that particular passage for a reason.
These two were verbally sparring with backhanded insults.
Maybe Rev was more complex than she ever thought.
She slid her gaze from him back to the clergy’s face. The older man no longer hid his now very unfriendly and unwelcoming expression. The religious leader no longer hid his disdain at Rev’s presence.
Reilly wasn’t liking this. Not at all. Something was very, very wrong. Had they stepped into some Stephen King or M. Night Shyamalan movie? Were things only going to get worse from here?
“Did you only come home to make trouble, Michael? Have you not outgrown that stage in your life and become a man? Or are you still a stubborn, petulant child who did nothing but create problems for your parents and steal your sister’s innocence?”
Rev’s whole body jerked, then his chest inflated so slowly that Reilly tightened her hand over the one he still had pinned to her knee so he wouldn’t swing at a man wearing a clerical collar.
Though, maybe she should let him. The condescending asshole deserved it.
When he tried to tug it free, she put her other hand on top and put her weight into it, too. “Don’t,” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear.
He didn’t even bother to glance at her but turned his face enough so she could see his jaw working and a muscle jumping in his cheek.
He needed to start the truck and they needed to get the hell out of there. Whatever this was, it was not going to get any better. She’d seen these types of movies, they never ended well.
Finally, Rev managed, “Not here to be judged by you or anyone else.”
“How about God?”
“Only here to say my final goodbye.”
“Did they ask you to come?”
“Brother Matthew did.”
“Then Brother Matthew made a mistake,” was the last thing the man said before turning and going to one of the dark sedans. Rev, with his nostrils flared and his lips now an angry slash, tracked his movement.
He breathed slowly, deeply and steadily like he was trying not to blow a gasket as he watched the sedan carrying the pastor drive away.
“Time to go,” she whispered.
With a single nod, he shoved open the driver’s door, yanking his hand from her knee.
“That’s not what I meant.”
He stood just outside the Bronco and ducked enough to look inside at her. “You stay in the truck. Doubt I’m gonna be long.” He slammed the door shut.
Oh no. No. He was not going in there alone.
She scrambled to open her door and climb out of the raised four-by-four. She almost twisted her ankle in her heeled boots as she jumped down, but she caught her balance and hurried after him. Only almost face-planting once along the way.
She caught up to him at the porch. “Think about this, Rev.”
“Nothin’ to think about.”
She stood at the bottom of the steps and sighed, watching him take determined steps to the front door. She expected him to pound on it, but he didn’t, he just turned the knob and flung the door open, going inside.
“Shit,” she muttered and jogged up the steps, across the porch and into the house before he could slam the door in her face.
She caught the door and closed it behind her, then turned and froze.
Yes, she knew only too well how these types of movies ended.
With desperation, destruction and, ultimately, death.
He felt her presence at his back. He heard her shallow breathing. “Go back outside.”
“No, I’m not letting you do this by yourself.”
She was so fucking stubborn and always had to wedge herself where she didn’t belong.