Golden Trail

by Ashley, Kristen

  “So nice to meet you and so nice to have you and your Mom back at church.” Sharon turned to his sons. “They used to come here all the time, a long time ago, I remember. Or,” she paused, “at least, your Grandma did before she moved away to Florida.” Her eyes went to Vera. “We sure missed your weekly contributions, I can tell you that.” Then her antennae, obviously always active and working overdrive, dinged, her head suddenly jerked and her eyes focused on someone. “Oh! There’s Gray Lacey,” she announced and everyone turned to look where she was looking. “His offering has been light the last two weeks. He usually gives a hundred dollars and now he’s only giving fifty. This is probably because his wife Donna has been hitting the wine or, I should say,” she paused again to lean in, her eyes never leaving her target, and confided, “hitting it more than usual. I need to go speak to him.” She turned back to them explaining, “Fifty dollars is fifty dollars and a member of this flock shouldn’t be spending that fifty dollars on booze.”

  Then she bustled away as they all watched her.

  Layne’s arm gave Rocky a squeeze and her eyes came to him.

  “Definitely the church needs a new office lady,” he murmured.

  “She’s harmless,” Rocky replied.

  “I think, sweetcheeks, weekly offerings are confidential and I also think that it’s not a law not to gossip but it is a commandment and we’re standin’ in a building where God pays a fair amount of attention.” Rocky pressed her lips together but her eyes were dancing and she didn’t reply so Layne went on. “Probably coulda asked her for the personnel file and she would have handed it over.”

  He heard Rocky’s quiet giggle then they all heard, “Rocky!” and Layne turned to see Josie Judd bearing down on them.

  “Hey Josie,” Rocky smiled, moving out of Layne’s arm to give her friend a hug and get one in return.

  When they stepped away from each other, Josie’s eyes surveyed the group and went back to Rocky.

  “Jeez, you’re a miracle worker, honey,” Josie noted. “I left Chip in his underpants on the couch counting down the minutes to when he can crack open a beer and the kids are all still in bed doin’ their zombie act which they only do on Sunday mornings or on days when they have tests at school. How’d you get these boys all dressed up and to church?”

  Layne looked at his sons. Jasper was wearing a pair of chinos and a blue shirt under the leather jacket his Mom bought him last Christmas and Tripp was wearing the same except his shirt was maroon and he had a navy sweater pulled over it. Layne was wearing another suit and shirt that he’d never worn before that Melody had given him.

  “Um…” Rocky mumbled and Josie waved her hand between them and kept talking.

  “You can share your secrets without an audience and with a bottle of wine,” she stated. “And also when we sit down and talk about the bachelor auction. I had a gab with her and Heidi’s in. Did you talk to Feb and Vi?”

  “Bachelor auction?” Layne asked.

  Rocky ignored him and answered Josie, “I had a word with Vi yesterday, she’s in and she said she’d talk with Feb, Cheryl and Jackie.”

  “Bachelor auction?” Layne repeated.

  “This is going to be so fun!” Josie exclaimed. “I love it!”

  Layne claimed Rocky with an arm around her shoulders again, turned her into his side, dipped his head and asked yet again, “Sweetcheeks, bachelor auction?”

  “We’re doing a bachelor auction for Meghan Reilly,” Josie answered before Rocky could and Layne looked at her. “Gettin’ all the single boys at the police department and fire station to volunteer. Havin’ a fancy dinner, a band, a casino and sellin’ stuff in silent auctions. Rocky called me yesterday, it was her idea and it’ll be a hoot.”

  “Cool!” Tripp entered the conversation.

  “You should invite kids. I could talk to some of the football team, they’d go up for auction,” Jasper put in.

  Josie swung to him and clapped her hands. “What a great idea! The more the merrier.”

  “What’s this?” Vera asked and Layne looked to his mother.

  “Meghan Reilly, she’s sick and can’t afford her medication,” Josie answered. “Things are not good, she’s gettin’ behind and Rocky does charity gigs, usually it’s for hospitals and clinics and stuff but this time she’s doin’ it just for Meghan.”

  Vera’s eyes hit Rocky but before she could say more, Tripp butted in.

  “You go up for auction, Jas, you better get Keira to save up her allowance,” Tripp advised Jasper.

  “My woman’ll take care of me, Tripp-o-matic,” Jasper returned arrogantly and Layne’s eyes rolled to the ceiling.

  “You could go up for sale too, Dad,” Tripp went on and Layne’s eyes rolled back to his boy. “You’d get top dollar.”

  “Think I’m off the market, Pal,” Layne said quietly and felt Rocky’s body go tight before it relaxed against his side just as Josie’s eyes shot to him and a huge smile spread on her face.

  “Yeah, Dad, but you aren’t actually off the market and Roc’s loaded. I reckon she’d pay a whack for you,” Tripp went on and every pair of eyes in their huddle turned to him, including Rocky’s.

  Fuck, but he was not going up for auction. Firstly, because Rocky wasn’t loaded, she had a nest egg but she didn’t need to be depleting it bidding on him and secondly, because he was not going up for auction.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” he muttered, Josie giggled softly, Vera gave him a stare and Rocky looked down at her shoes, that fall of hair that wasn’t tied back in the ponytail at the nape of her neck not succeeding in hiding her smile.

  Vera saved him by announcing, “We should probably find a pew.”

  “Good idea,” Rocky murmured and looked at Josie. “Sit with us?”

  “You bet,” Josie replied and they all moved into the sanctuary.

  They were there approximately thirty seconds when Rocky and Layne spied him at the same time.

  He was at the front of the church, wearing about the same outfit as Jasper except he had dark blue pants. Even so, it was plain to see it wasn’t the same quality. Both Layne’s boys cared about their appearance and their clothes, it was essential to the high school experience and Jasper, mostly, but Tripp also, had a role amongst their peers to lead the pack of high school cool. Layne knew exactly how expensive their clothes were since he’d paid for them.

  The man at the front of the church’s clothes were of lower quality but that was a deception, something Rutledge had not yet learned. Layne knew this was a deception because the man at the front of the church had more shit in his hair than Tripp and a haircut that he didn’t get at a barber. He also had a tan that wasn’t from the sun or from an olive skin tone. It was October in Indiana and unless someone was fresh from vacation, no one had a tan.

  And he was extremely good-looking, out of a magazine good-looking and he had an easy, very white smile that he was shining on the flock of girls surrounding him.

  Bleached teeth, carefully crafted tanning bed tan and a fifty dollar haircut.

  Definitely not a Youth Minister.

  “Excuse me,” Rocky murmured and slid away from him before he could catch her.

  She wasn’t three strutting strides away before Layne ordered a simple, “Tripp.”

  “On it,” Tripp muttered and moved to follow Rocky.

  Rocky strutted naturally but Layne watched and learned something new about his woman. When she meant business, her strut changed, it became subtly more suggestive and a fuckuva lot more watchable. She captured TJ Gaines’s attention ten pews from the front and she kept it. He had teenaged girls hanging on his every word and practically hanging off his every limb, but, for Gaines, they’d vanished. Gaines was watching Rocky and even standing at the front of a church, his look was openly carnal.

  Nope, definitely not a Youth Minister.

  Rocky rounded the front, hips swaying, ass swinging, and didn’t even glance at him but smiled brightly at someone in the second pew bac
k. She stopped and greeted an old woman Layne didn’t know, going so far as to put a knee to the vacant front pew to lean in, take the old woman’s hand and have a chat. This also meant that tight skirt, which Layne had noticed had a slit up the back, stretched across her hips, thighs and an ass which was now pointed straight out.

  Gaines’s eyes locked on her ass and his look kept the carnal but added hungry.

  Fuck.

  Rocky just hit his radar with a big, fucking ping.

  “Shit, Dad, she’s good,” Jasper muttered from beside him.

  Layne felt his jaw tighten and he held himself back as Rocky’s attention was caught by a couple of the girls, as she knew it would be, she squeezed the old lady’s hand and turned to the girls and Gaines. He saw her head move around as she greeted Gaines’s entourage and then, even though her back was to Layne, he knew the second her eyes met Gaines’s because he arranged his features to hide the hunger but they didn’t change to kindly Youth Minister. Instead, they changed to blatant interest, an interest she was meant to see, read and, Gaines hoped, act on.

  Layne tensed to move when Gaines held out his hand and Rocky’s lifted hers to take it but Layne stopped when Tripp did his thing.

  He’d been talking to one of the girls but the minute Rocky’s hand touched Gaines’s, Tripp didn’t hesitate. He turned toward Layne and called, “Okay Dad, we’re comin’!” even though Layne hadn’t said a word.

  Then Tripp leaned in, grabbed Rocky’s hand, said a few words to Gaines and the girls around him, turned and tugged Rocky behind him as he led the way back to Layne, Jasper, Vera and Josie, dragging Rocky behind him.

  Layne grinned as his son and his woman moved. Tripp grinned back. Rocky didn’t grin. Rocky looked displeased.

  Tripp didn’t let Rocky’s hand go until Layne’s arm slid around her shoulders, he pulled her front to his and tipped his chin up at Tripp who stepped away.

  Then he dipped his chin down to look at Rocky.

  “Not fair,” she whispered before he could speak, “reinforcements.”

  “Baby,” he replied on a smile.

  “We should sit,” Vera announced abruptly, Rocky’s head turned to her, Layne let Rocky go with a sigh and they all slid into the pew.

  Without telling his son to do it, Jasper worked with Layne to engineer the seating arrangement to pin Rocky between them so that Tripp went in first, then Vera, then Jas, then Rocky, then Layne and finally Josie.

  The service started and they did a lot of standing, sitting and singing, though Layne didn’t sing. While people’s eyes were to their hymnbooks, Layne’s eyes were locked on Gaines who was sitting in a pew, three rows back and to the side and he had a very pretty, very young blonde girl on one side and a very pretty, very young, redhead on his other side. His entire pew was taken with girls, some pretty, some not-so-pretty but all of them were young. Layne guessed freshman, at most sophomores.

  Two seconds after the sermon started, Rocky turned into him and her lips went to his ear.

  “He’s not right,” she whispered.

  “I know, baby,” he whispered back.

  “He’s really not right.” She kept whispering.

  Layne turned his head to her, her lips went away from his ear but he put his face close to hers, held her eyes and whispered back, “Baby, I know.”

  She gazed at him a second, worry open in her eyes then she nodded and turned to face the front.

  Layne glanced back at Gaines and his followers and he felt his gut squeeze.

  Then he made a decision.

  He leaned in front of Rocky, caught Jasper’s attention and Jasper leaned in front of Rocky too.

  “You just went active duty,” Layne murmured, Jasper’s eyes sliced across the church to the third pew then back to Layne.

  “Gotcha,” he returned quietly and sat back.

  Layne sat back too then glanced at Rocky and saw she was smiling.

  * * * * *

  After the sermon, Layne walked back into the vestibule holding Rocky’s hand and they stopped when one of his mother’s friends called her name and Vera broke off to greet her.

  Five seconds later, Layne felt Rocky’s hand squeeze his tightly, he looked down at her to see her eyes directed across the vestibule and his eyes followed hers.

  Gaines was again tending his flock but the very pretty, very young redhead was close to him and had a hand resting on his chest. She couldn’t be more than fourteen but she rested her hand on his chest the way Rocky would rest hers on Layne’s.

  Layne’s stomach roiled.

  This wasn’t about God, Jesus and religion. It also wasn’t about drugs. This was what he’d suspected it was, but hoped it wasn’t. It was about something else, something far worse than drugs.

  But what Layne didn’t get was that the guy wasn’t hiding it. It was like he had carte blanche to cultivate his underage harem right in the vestibule of the church. And, if he was into young girls, how could he also be so blatantly into Rocky?

  Layne scanned the crowd and he saw some adults had their eyes on the group, their manner watchful and uncomfortable. Parents who had concerns but who were not stepping in.

  Layne looked back at Gaines whose hand was dropping from doing something around the redhead’s ear.

  Dedication.

  Those girls were devoted not to their faith in Jesus but to their worship of TJ Gaines. These parents had had words and the girls had gone teenaged girl berserk. The parents were either lazy and didn’t want the headache of dealing with pissed off teenaged girls in the throes of a very sick crush or they had nothing to go on but speculation they really hoped wasn’t accurate.

  In the ‘burg, it was undoubtedly the latter.

  Layne looked at his sons. “Jas, Tripp, shut that shit down,” he growled and both his boys nodded and wove through the crowd.

  “Layne?” Rocky called on a whisper and Layne looked down at her.

  “New plan, sweetcheeks,” he replied.

  “That would be?” she prompted.

  “Steppin’ it up,” Layne returned.

  “Stepping it up?” she asked and he bent to her.

  “That man needs competition,” he whispered.

  “I thought you said he wouldn’t like anyone, even high school boys, cutting into his action.”

  “He won’t,” Layne stated.

  “So?”

  “So, I’m hopin’ that he’ll act to defend his territory and fuck up or he’ll realize he’s blown and get outta town.”

  “I thought you wanted to take him down,” Rocky noted.

  “I did. Don’t like the idea of him movin’ on to other prey but, right now, seein’ that shit with my own eyes, I don’t like that his prey are my people. We can’t take him down, I want him outta the ‘burg.”

  She stared up at him a second before she gave him the dimple and moved closer.

  When she got close, she tipped her head way back and whispered, “You probably shouldn’t say the f-word in a church, Layne.”

  “Think God’s got bigger concerns in his house than me droppin’ the f-bomb, sweetcheeks.”

  The dimple depressed deeper, her hand lifted to curl her fingers around his neck and she got up on her toes to touch her mouth to his.

  “Uh…” they heard Josie mumble from close and both of them turned their heads to her, “you wanna let me in on what you two are whispering about?”

  “Not really,” Layne replied and Rocky giggled.

  “We’re just discussing what we’re going to have for dinner,” Rocky lied.

  “Right,” Josie returned, her eyes sharp and intelligent. “You two have been on Code Red Alert since you entered the sanctuary.” Her eyes locked on Layne. “What gives?”

  Before he could answer, or in this case not answer, Rocky suddenly called, “Harry!” Then her head swung to Josie and she said, “I’ll call you later, honey, okay?” And before Josie could answer or Layne could get his eyes on what had her attention, she moved away from him and towar
d Harrison Rutledge.

  Layne’s body locked as he watched Rocky greet Rutledge by putting her hand on his shoulder and kissing his cheek.

  Considering Layne spent a fair amount of time following Rutledge, he knew that Rutledge rarely missed Sunday church. He’d never understood why a man who wasn’t smart enough to hide he was on the take went to church but he suspected it was precisely that, an effort to hide he was on the take.

  He’d forgotten about Rutledge but Rocky hadn’t.

  She knew he’d be there.

  Shit, she’d orchestrated one helluva a play. Two birds with one stone.

  “Excuse me,” Layne muttered to Josie and followed Rocky.

  “You’d so do me a favor if you could help out,” he heard Rocky saying as he got close and Rutledge’s eyes moved to him and went wary.

  “Rutledge,” Layne greeted as he hit them and he slid an arm around Rocky’s waist, pulling her away from Rutledge and tucking her into his side.

  “Tanner,” Rutledge greeted back.

  Rocky looked up at Layne. “I’ve asked him to go up for auction. He’d be perfect!” She looked back at Rutledge and lied, “The women will be at each other’s throats for you.”

  Harrison Rutledge wasn’t exactly ugly but at 5’10” with light brown hair that was quickly thinning and a gut that was equally quickly forming, he wasn’t exactly calendar man material either.

  “I don’t know, Rocky,” Rutledge muttered.

  “Oh you have to do it,” Rocky urged. “Layne won’t because he’s with me, Colt is taken and we need as many hot guys as we can get.”

  “Have you talked to Mike?” Rutledge asked.

  “He’s on my list!” Rocky answered enthusiastically, Rutledge looked unconvinced and she leaned forward, grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Just think about it, Harry,” she asked and dropped his hand but tilted her head. “For me?”

  Rutledge stared at her, smiled and said, “All right, Rocky, I’ll think about it.”

  She clapped her hands and cried, “Great!” before looking at Layne and saying, “Isn’t that great, sweetheart?”

  “Yeah, baby, great,” Layne muttered to her and looked at Rutledge. “It’d help out a lot, man. Sean would be grateful.”