God of Monsters (Juniper Unraveling #4) - Keri Lake Page 0,12
man, by the time I see him again. Blinking hard fails to hold back the tears welling in my eyes. “Take care of Momma, okay?”
“I’m going to miss you.” His voice is muffled by his face buried in the crook of my neck.
Jack offers a sympathetic smile, and reaches in to pry Grant away from me. “I’ll see what I can do to reduce your time, Thalia. In the meantime, behave. I can’t help you, if you get on Mother Chilson’s bad side.”
“I think it’s safe to say I’m already on her bad side.”
“Well, do what you must to get on her good side.”
Brows winged up, I try to imagine what the hell it’d take to accomplish such a task. “You’re asking me to kiss ass?”
“Exactly.” Jack tugs the hem of Grant’s shirt, urging him off the back of the truck. “C’mon, son. Unless you want to join her at the convent.”
Grant snaps his attention to me and back to Jack. “Can I?”
“No. C’mon.”
“Take care of him, Jack. Please.”
“You don’t have to ask me to do that, Thalia. You know I will.” As my brother climbs off the back of the truck, Jack rests his hand on Grant’s shoulder.
“My mother?”
“Try to understand, Thalia. This isn’t easy on her.”
“Yes. Of course. She has her reputation to think about. How selfish of me to think about my loss of freedom right now.”
“You know, as well as I do, what this means for her.”
He’s right. She’ll be treated like a leper until I’ve served my time. What have I done?
“Please take care of her, too.”
“You have my word. Take care of yourself. And stay out of trouble.”
“I will.”
With a nod, he lowers the flap, and at a thump on the back of the truck, the vehicle lurches into motion.
Gaze glued to my fidgeting hands, I try to imagine my life from this day forward. The fierce devotion to bible studies. The punishments that I’m certain will be inflicted more frequently than necessary, until I’ve atoned for my actions. The wrath of Mother Chilson.
“’S’at your wedding dress?” The voice of the girl sitting across from me breaks my thoughts, and I stare down at the white dress that’s now covered in mud from having hidden out in the woods for most of the night.
“No.”
“Was gonna say. Kinda bland for the big day, you know?”
My mother worked with a seamstress to design the dress she’d always dreamed I’d wear during my ordination. And here I sat in its tatters. I lift a piece of the chiffon that’s stained with drops of the pastor’s blood.
“You’re one of those Daughters, or whatever the hell the churchy people call them?”
Frowning, I shake my head.
“So, what’d you do to get sent off to the penguin farm?”
Her comment brings a smile to my face, much as I don’t feel like smiling, at all. “I knocked the pastor out with a candlestick.”
She sits forward and snorts an ungracious sound. “You’re shitting me.”
With a reluctant chuckle, I shake my head.
“Here, I thought you were some sweet, wholesome type. So, that soldier ...” She jerks her head toward the back of the truck, as if Jack is still standing there. “He’s your dad?”
My dad. I try to push thoughts of him away, for fear of crying in front of this girl, and shake my head.
“Your boyfriend?”
The mere suggestion of that makes me frown, and the repulsion must be obvious, because she immediately shrugs.
“Guy just seemed to be worried about you. Like … more than the average Legion soldier.”
“Friend of the family.” Not that any of this is her business, but her conversation is a much needed distraction from the maelstrom of thoughts spinning in my head. “Why are you here?”
“Adultery. Whoring myself to a married man.” With a scoff, she rolls her shoulders back, chin high. “Too bad I wasn’t one of the Chosen, or fucking an older man would just be God’s work. Bunch of hypocritical assholes.”
The thought stirs the unrest in my gut. Despite the consequences, there’s a reason I did what I did.
“Wish I would’ve snuck a cigarette in. It’s a long fucking drive to the convent.”
“You’ve been there before.” It’s not a question, and the smile that creases her eyes tells me I’m right.
“This ain’t my first rodeo. First time earned me two months in the convent. Got a soldier off during his R-and-R. Little rubbing action, is all.”
“They sent you away for two months because of that?”
“He was married, too. Thirty years older than me.”