Daddy directed me to the left side of the aisle and sat me down on the last pew in the back, then planted a kiss on my forehead. His brown eyes gleamed fiercely. “You’re safe here.”
I nodded.
Daddy headed toward the vestibule doors, but one opened, and he stilled. Perry made his way into the sanctuary and my guts went into freefall. He didn’t belong here—Daddy and Perry didn’t belong in the same space together.
Perry didn’t acknowledge Daddy beyond a curt nod, and then his attention settled on me. “You’re coming home,” he said, pointing at me.
Daddy’s hands curled into fists at his sides and his shoulders went rigid.
“No,” I said before Daddy could get involved. I liked that he protected me, but I needed to do this. I stood and my knees felt like putty, but I managed to stay upright, resting my hand on the back of the cool wooden pew. “No, I won’t. I don’t want to go with you.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Perry shook his head and gave me a look like I was the dumbest person alive, and my heart hurt. No, he wasn’t my Daddy anymore, but I’d tried so hard to make him happy, once upon a time. I’d given it my best shot and then some, and nothing ever made him treat me right.
After all the therapy sessions and long talks with Gian, I knew it wasn’t me who was the problem, though the knowledge didn’t make the pain sting less.
Perry took a few steps toward me, but Daddy put himself between us. “Leave now,” Daddy said quietly.
Perry tilted his head. “I don’t know what that boy has said to you, but he’s mine. You’re stepping into a couple’s argument. Since when does the church get into the business of gay men?” He tried out a laugh.
Daddy didn’t smile back, only cleared his throat. “Maybe you misunderstood me. Leave. Now.”
“Father—”
“He’s not going anywhere with you,” Daddy hissed.
Perry took a few steps back, and then a nasty expression crossed his face that made me want to throw up. “Oh.” He glanced over Daddy’s shoulder at me and snorted. “Oh, I get it.” The smile he flashed Daddy was closer to the expressions I was familiar with from living with him. “You’ve been using him after he ran off from me.”
I gaped. “You locked me out of the house!” It didn’t matter anymore, but I hated all the lies. They were the worst. “You told me to leave or you would call the cops!”
Perry shrugged. “And now I want you back. It’s harder to find good boys than I remembered, and I might’ve been too hasty.”
Daddy growled. “You were the one who trained Phoenix.”
“Yes. Was he good for you?” Perry sent me a gloating smile. “I broke him in well, but he always needed a firm hand to keep him in line. I can consider your time with him a donation to a good cause. I have no idea how you do it.” The laugh that rang around the nave was rude.
More pain rocketed through me, the type that lived deep in my bones. “I never did anything except what you told me.”
“There he is, talking back,” Perry said, waving a hand at me. “I hope you kept him in line, Father, or he’ll behellto rebreak, but I’ll do it if I have to.”
Perry started toward me again.
Daddy pushed him. “You’re not taking him anywhere.” I’d never heard Daddy sound that way, and the hair on the back of my arms stood up. “I’m telling you to leave. Now.” He ground out the last word.
Perry bared his teeth but pulled out his wallet and waved it around. “I get it. I realized he wasn’t going to be as easy to replace as I’d thought after I sent him off. How much?” He raised his eyebrows. “I mean, you know a few things about me, I know a few things about you... but I’m a businessman. I’m happy to pay whatever you laid out to keep him breathing while he was out of my house, plus some for your trouble.”
Daddy’s fists shook at his sides, and I stepped closer to rest my hand between his shoulder blades. He was a block of marble. “You want to pay me for being humane?” he asked softly.
Perry winked. “How much?”
Daddy darted forward, and I gasped at the crunch of his fist clobbering Perry’s face, but I couldn’t say I was sorry to see it.
18
GIAN
Angerlike I hadn’t felt since before my accident pulsed in my temples and all sense of reality went out the window. I didn’t care that I was a priest who’d taken an oath to our Savior, I was driven by the need to protect Phoenix first and foremost. So, when my fist met Perry’s cheek, I wasn’t surprised, but I didn’t stop—and that was a shock. Not when he flopped on his back, not when blood splattered across the wooden floor of the church as I continued to batter his face with my fists, and not when I heard the crunch of his skull as I picked him up and flung him against the corner of a pew.
He went limp where I held his shirt in my fist, and Phoenix gasped behind me. It took too long for the anger to recede, and when it did, panic replaced it. Perry didn’t move, and I knew before I touched my fingers to his pulse that it was over.
