Pointing at the problem again, Ginny was determined to steer Pastor Dean from the truth about the Wests. “Am I right?”
He unhappily gave up. “Yes, you’re right. If you continue at this pace, you’ll be tutoring me in a couple of weeks.”
“I doubt that.” She didn’t believe him, but it did give her the spark of confidence that she desperately needed.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to stop coming to church.”
“No, Pastor, I won’t. I promise I’ll be here every Sunday. Rain or shine.”
“The sun is always shining when I give a sermon; you just have to look to find it.”
Ginny stared at the pastor pitifully. “Pastor, your sermons are good,” she said, trying hard not to hurt his feelings but wanting to be truthful in God’s house, “but they aren’t that good.”
* * *
Ginny placed the wet umbrellas in the stand beside the front door of the church as the Wests went ahead of her to take a seat, since Pastor Dean’s sermon had already begun.
Seeing the Wests were sitting at the end of a pew that had no seats left, she was relieved. She hadn’t wanted to sit next to them anyway. Looking at the back of the heads of the parishioners, Ginny searched for one, wanting to avoid the same pew as the sheriff. Not seeing him, she found a seat in a pew that wasn’t full.
Sitting down, she was opening her Bible when someone edged into the pew she was on. She glanced up but only saw the woman’s back. Concentrating on finding the correct page, she didn’t look up when the woman sat down next to her.
“Excuse me. Could you scoot over? He wants to sit down.”
Ginny lifted her eyes to slowly double take, recognizing it was Trudy staring back at her. As she scooted over to make room, she then turned and saw the sheriff waiting to sit down. Scooting over farther toward Trudy, she wanted to hug her and burst into tears. However, a small shake of Trudy’s head stopped her.
Ginny bit her lip to hold back her tears as the sheriff sat down next to her. Thanking him with her eyes before glancing back to Trudy, she was afraid she would disappear in the brief time she had looked away.
Her sister placed her hand down on the pew next to her thigh with her palm raised. Ginny looked directly at the pastor as he gave his sermon with tears in her eyes, as she laid her hand down on Trudy’s.
At her next tutoring session, she was going to have to take back what she told the pastor. She had seen the sun through the rain during his sermon.
Chapter Seventeen
Gavin rolled over to look at the clock, seeing it was 3:04 in the morning. Groaning that he was awake and wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, he blamed himself for going to bed so early. That was when his senses went on alert, hearing the creak of the floorboards outside his door.
He knew it wasn’t Mrs. Langley since her hip problem made it difficult to navigate the steps. Besides, she had a cleaner to help keep the second floor orderly, and no cleaning service was coming up the stairs in the middle of the night.
“Fuck.” Cursing to himself for leaving his gun in the car, he jumped out of bed and grabbed his cell phone as he rushed the door.
He didn’t make it before it flew open.
He was stunned for a split second at the two men standing in the doorway, recognizing who they were with the hall light illuminating their features. That split second cost him.
Memphis was there, but that wasn’t what had him taking that second. It was the man beside him. Vincent Bedford, Mrs. Langley’s son-in-law. Had something happened to her and she called him to help her? Instead of reacting immediately, Gavin waited to see what they wanted, not initially realizing they were threats to his safety.
When Vincent’s hand reached out to turn the light on, he realized his second mistake too late; weaponless he should have used the darkness to his advantage. If a recruit in the club had made the same mistake, he would have fucked him up into the next day.
Using his thumb without looking down at his hand, he hoped neither man noticed the action as he braced himself for what the men would do next.
“Memphis—” Gavin began, trying to find a way of talking the brother out whatever plan he had conspired with Vincent, though he could tell it was going to be a useless endeavor.
“I would keep the fuck quiet if you don’t want that old bitch dead.” Memphis jerked his head toward Vincent. “Give him your phone.” The man he called brother raised the gun in his hand, showing he was serious, but Gavin had no intention of giving up the phone pressing nine, then one, one. It might take time for the dispatcher to find where the call originated, but it provided a small chance of survival, which was looking slimmer with the gun Memphis had trained on him.