Preacher - Madison Faye Page 0,47
if Delilah would like to know who you are?”
I’m smart enough to keep my mouth the fuck closed after that one, but Paul’s lips curl up at the corners.
“Or maybe, she already does?” He glares at me, his smile thin and cold. “She spends a lot of time with you, doesn’t she, Gabriel?”
I still say nothing, and his look hardens.
“Bible study, right, Gabriel?” he hisses. “Teaching her the scripture, are you? Or are you just putting your filthy fucking hands on my sister?”
“Calm down,” I growl. I start to move towards him, because to say Paul seems unhinged right now is a fucking understatement, and I want to get him down and before he does something insane.
He barks out a laugh. “Calm down? Calm down?” He starts to laugh before he reaches behind him and yanks his hand back out.
Ahh, fuck.
Yeah, this time he’s holding a gun.
“Paul, listen to me,” I growl. “You need to calm down before you—”
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he says coldly, cutting me off. “You’re going to help me with the rest of that money I need.”
“And how on earth would I do that. You want me to pass the offering plate for, what, the other two million you need to hit your goal on that land deal in Costa Rica?”
His eyes harden dangerously, but he smiles.
“I need you to marry me, Gabriel.”
I arch a brow. “Well you could take me someplace nice first and ask like a gentleman, Paul, I mean really.”
He stares at me. “Is everything a fucking joke to you?” he growls lowly. “I mean you need to marry me to my fiancée, Lizzie.”
I make a face and whistle lowly. “Hey, Paul? The gun you’re pointing at me aside, I need to do you a favor and save you a whole lot of shit later. You really shouldn’t marry Lizzie.”
He grins, and he starts to laugh. “Actually marry her? Jesus Christ, Gabriel, no. No fucking way. Lizzie Purcell is trash, but her family is beyond rich, and I promised to cut her on a small percent if she helps me, since she just found out she’s being written out of her dad’s will.”
I frown. “What exactly am I helping you with?”
“You’re marrying us. If we’re married before that new will goes into effect, I can basically help myself to her dad’s money in her trust fund.”
I shake my head. “Paul, you’re doing a shell game, right?”
He frowns.
“The con,” I sigh. “The game you’re playing, it’s called a shell game. You’re putting everything through a trust so you look legit, and then bullshit companies owned by you suck it dry.”
“Yeah, and?”
I wince. “Well, if you’re married, the fund dissolves, and the donations go back from whence they came.”
You fucking idiot, I manage to refrain from saying out loud.
Paul starts to laugh. “No shit, Gabriel. That’s why you’re marrying us. Because you’re a bullshit fake preacher, but everyone thinks you’re the real deal. It means the town clerk will push it through, and I’ll get joint access to her accounts. And then the trust stays right where it is because we’re not really married, since you’re a phony piece of shit.”
I say nothing, and I just look at him.
He grins triumphantly.
“You’re going to help me, Gabriel. Or I tell this whole goddamn town what you are. And it won’t hurt you, I know that, asshole,” he sneers. “You’ll just do what you always do and leave and never come back.”
His smile widens.
“But it’ll kill Delilah. Twice—once when you leave, and then when the whole town hates her for harboring and abetting you, knowing full well that you were a con man.”
My mouth stays shut, and my eyes hold his as he chuckles and waves the gun at me.
“I don’t care what you’re doing with my sister, Gabriel. I mean, my dad might, and he’s probably legitimately going to kill you when he finds out. But before then, you help me, and you might have a shot of making the Mexican border before he runs you off the road. So what do you say, asshole?”
“You’re making a mistake,” I growl thinly.
He shakes his head. “Get my fucking money, Gabriel. Or I’ll nail you to a fucking cross.”
Chapter Fourteen
Delilah
“Well, someone was up late!”
I look up from my lunch in horror, my face draining of color. But my mother is just smiling at me in her usual way, and I take a shaky breath. I force a smile to my own face, and shrug.
“Oh, yeah, kinda went