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 f**k 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?”