Conrad, Kelly - Rogue Preacher (Siren Publishing Ménage and More ManLove) (12 page)

“I don’t think he performs all those miracles. I think he plants them in the audience and pays them for pretending to be healed.”

“How about the baby the lady brought in to him?”

Mr. Pendergrass frowned, and looked over at Russ. “Baby? I don’t remember any baby.”

“A woman brought in her baby to be healed. The baby happened to have a high temperature. The doctor that accompanied her said he had the measles. Sunset prayed over the child, and he was healed. His temperature immediately began to cool, the rash disappeared, and he stopped crying. The doctor and the woman, and many of those in the audience knew the woman, and knew her baby was sick. How do you think Sunset managed to get the baby to cooperate?”

“I don’t know, but you can be sure he managed it somehow. He is, after all, a genius.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do this, Mr. Pendergrass. I believe Sunset Carson is a great preacher, and every one of you is just jealous of his success.”

With a shrewd sneer on his face, Pendergrass leaned over, and pushed something forward until it was right in front of Russ.

“What’s this?”

“It’s the fee for your services.”

Russ’s eyes widened. He didn’t know how much money was there, but it was a stack of bills so high it made him dizzy. When he reached out, took the stack in his hands, and flipped through it, he had only one thing to say. “I’ll leave on the six o’clock train.”

As Russ made his way home to pack, he knew it was an impossible assignment. Sunset Carson was the most dynamic preacher he’d ever heard, and he knew it wasn’t going to be easy to find any dirt on him. For some reason this situation triggered something he had learned in Sunday school as a kid. He seemed to remember another man the authorities tried to get rid of by ridiculing him, beating him, and then hanging him on a cross. The miracles that came out of that obscurity changed the world.

Ridiculous.
Sunset Carson might be good, but he certainly wasn’t the Son of God.

Now, as his gaze shifted toward the notebook with its red-hot, scribbled message, he knew he couldn’t let Sunset read the article as he had promised. It was an empty promise, anyway. He’d never intended for Sunset to read it. He knew he would simply slip out of town, submit it to the Full Gospel Association, and wait to hear the explosion. A frown appeared on his face when he thought of how Sunset’s life would be ruined.

So what?
Why should I care?

Sunset Carson had done wrong, and now he would pay for it. He could only imagine how his name would be dragged through the mud—of how they would accuse him, spit on him, and even kick him. While considering this, he was reminded of the sermon where Sunset invited the people to do that very thing to the Bible. Who knew it would be his name that the people would trample upon?

* * * *

Later, he stood at the stage depot and bought a ticket to Dallas, where he could catch a train that would take him back to Boston.

“That’ll be five dollars.”

Russ pulled the bill from his wallet and gave it to the clerk when he heard a loud, bellowing voice in the distance. When he looked around, he noticed the streets were vacant. “Where is everyone?” he asked the clerk.

“Everyone’s over at the revival tent. Sunset Carson’s in town preachin’. I’m goin’ over there myself when I get off duty.”

“I see,” Russ replied.

“The stagecoach ain’t due for another couple of hours yet. You might wanna go down there and hear him. He’s real good. Ain’t never seen nothin’ like it. That’s one man that’s got the devil by the horns and is on a first name basis with God.”

“Do you mind if I put my luggage behind your desk there until I leave?”

“Oh, sure. Just hand it over.”

After he got his luggage taken care of, Russ slowly walked toward the tent and looked in. Through the parting in the tent he could see Sunset Carson standing behind his pulpit shaking his head, his unruly hair flinging from side to side as he preached about angels.

“Every one of you has an angel!” he bellowed out. “And that angel ain’t gonna let you out of his sight. There’s Gabriel…by the way, he told me to call him Gabe.”

The crowd laughed at his little joke, but many of them had no doubt that he was telling the truth. Others shouted out their
amens
and
glory hallelujahs
as he continued.

“Some of them angels even glitter,” he said to one man as he jumped down off the platform. “You know why?”

“No, sir. Why is that, preacher?”

Sunset’s movements were sheer poetry as he lifted his arm upward toward the sky in a smooth, flowing motion, and then looked back down at the man with a blissful smile on his face. “The light of God is always shining on them. You see there’s all kinds of angels up there. The big ones like, uh…Gabe…and Michael…excuse me, Mike…”

Laughter.

“…are called archangels.” He turned to another man. “Do you know about archangels, sir?”

“No, sir, I sure don’t.”

“Get your Bible out, it’s all in there.” Sunset moved away from the man, whirled around and shouted, “
Why should a son of fire bow down before a son of clay?
Since none of us were there, one theory is that these are the words Satan said to God when he was required to accept God’s plan of salvation and Jesus’s appointment as the Savior of the world. This resulted in a war! A war in which the archangels fought against the dragon, casting both him and one third of the rebel angels out upon the earth.” He looked from one to the other. “Interesting? Yes, it is. Someday I’ll tell you about it.”

By this time Russ wasn’t listening to the sermon. He had stepped into the tent opening where he could follow Sunset’s movements from one person to another. He talked to them as if he was their best friend, and you could tell they were hanging on to his every word. A rough-lookin’ man like Sunset appealed to Russ. Russ had always been concerned about his looks. His hair had to be just right, and his clothes spotless, but a man like Sunset Carson brought out a side of Russ that made his cock stand up and gasp.

He wanted Sunset.

Especially now that he knew Carson was the same kind he was.

He could only imagine what it would be like to be held in his arms and kissed by his deliciously strong, but gentle, lips. In his mind, he saw him and Sunset on a bed somewhere with their naked bodies touching, pressing, and clinging together. He must have had his eyes closed when he felt someone nudge him. He opened them and saw the clerk standing beside him. “The stage is here, Mr. Maddox. You might want to head back down to the station.”

“Well, thank you, but I find I’m going to be delayed. Is this ticket good anytime? I think I might have to take the next one.”

“Oh, sure. Tomorrow’s stage leaves at ten and then two.”

“Yes,” he said. “Thank you.”

Later, he heard the rattle of the stagecoach as it passed, and looked over at Sunset. As he watched the charismatic man on the platform, he knew he had captured the attention of everyone there with his bold movements and daring words. With those words, he lured every one of them into his velvet web of religion with his music and pulpit antics that he boldly displayed. There was nothing small about Sunset Carson. Every move he made was smooth, almost as if it were choreographed. He preached loud, sung at the top of his lungs, and defied the devil at every turn. He got the people so worked up, he had no doubt that many had walked down that aisle more than once.

Although Russell Maddox was impressed, he wasn’t moved by Sunset’s words. He had something else in mind—seducing the great Sunset Carson.

Chapter Twelve

After the service, Sunset was standing in a circle of admirers, and looked up to see Russell Maddox, the reporter, watching him from a few feet away. After the crowd finally left, Sunset went over to Russell. “Good evening, Mr. Maddox. I assume you’re through writing your article. If so, I’d like to read it if you have it with you.”

With hesitancy in his speech, Russ said, “The article’s been written, but I don’t think you should read it.”

“Why?” Sunset asked.

“Well, it’s…to be honest, you wouldn’t like it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Look, Sunset, I have a few things to tell you. To begin with, I’m…I’m not really here to write an article on you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the Full Gospel Association.”

Sunset cocked his head curiously. “I’m afraid I don’t follow you.”

“They’re trying to stop you, Sunset. To close your mouth for all time. They want you to stop preaching. They hired me to dig up some dirt on you.”

“So that’s what you’ve been doing creeping around like you have. Digging up dirt. I won’t bother to tell you what I think of people like you. Some stupid little article—”

“You mean
exposé,
don’t you?”

Suddenly, Sunset’s friendly eyes became cold—as if a storm had suddenly filled the summer sky with lightning. “You can go back to the Association and tell them it didn’t work. I’ll continue preaching as long as the people…and God…want me to.”

“They’re playin’ dirty, Sunset. They sent me here to find some dirt on you, and I found plenty.”

“And just what is it that you think you know, Mr. Russell?”

“For one thing, I know about Vince Michaels and Chick Mason.”

Sunset gave a slight shrug. “Friends.”

“Yeah? Why would a man make friends with the man who killed his wife?”

“Simple. Ever heard of forgiveness?”

“Yeah? Well, that’s a lot of forgiveness.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean sleeping with him, Sunset. How do you justify that?”

“I won’t even try, Mr. Maddox. My relationships are my business, and not yours or the Association’s. They want dirt on my preaching, not my private life.”

“Hell, Sunset. They don’t care where I find the dirt. All they want is to smear your name so nobody will listen to you when you say
good morning
. They’re callin’ you a false prophet, for God’s sake.”

“And what do you think? You’ve been in several of my services. Do you think I’m a false prophet?”

“I told them what I think, and they don’t care. They don’t care what anybody thinks. All they want is you out of the ministry.”

“You didn’t answer my question, Mr. Russell. What do you think?”

“All right. I admit that you’re a fine preacher. I just can’t grasp why you would sleep with the man who killed your wife. I also don’t understand why a preacher of the gospel can get up there night after night and call everyone in the congregation a sinner when he himself is the biggest sinner of all.”

“Who better to preach about sin than a sinner?”

“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”

“I wish I did. Only God—”

“You know these people think you’re God, don’t you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Mr. Maddox.”

“Another thing. Why does a good, God-fearing man such as yourself rob these people night after night when you and I both know they can hardly feed themselves?”

“They’re contributing to the furtherance of the gospel. God will reward them.”

“Try again, Sunset. We both know that their money buys whiskey, pays lovers…”

Sunset’s face suddenly became frozen in fear. “Where did you…how did you find out about…that?”

“You’re a famous man, Sunset, and I’m a writer. I don’t need interviews to get the information I need. It’s available to anyone who will pay for it. It just so happens a lot of young men were willing to spill everything for a price. I might have been out a little money digging up the dirt on you, but I’ll make it back, plus a lot more when…
if
this information goes back to the Association. Since it’s too good a story to let lie, I’m thinking of having it printed up in a little publication known as
Penny Dreadful
, as well.”

“Penny Dreadful? That rag?”

“By the way, I found out from a young man named Clay that Vince Michaels was one of your so-called
boys
.” Russell watched as Sunset become more and more uncomfortable. “Quite a twisted little tale we have here, wouldn’t you say? It seems that Vince was also the man who killed your wife. He’s a known outlaw, Sunset. It couldn’t be that you hired him to get rid of your wife, could it? Maybe that’s why you’re providing him a hideout beneath your own revival tent.”

Sunset blew up. “Why you bastard, how dare you stand there and talk to me that way. I loved my wife and would still be married to her if she were alive. I went crazy after she died. I searched for…”

“You searched for, and found, the killer in a saloon in Rogue’s Canyon.”

“I didn’t know who he was. I found out after…”

“After sleeping with him? How convenient.” He walked up to Sunset, stopped right in front of him, and the two shared deadly stares. “Very twisted, indeed,” Russ said.

Suddenly weak, Sunset sat down, wondering how he was going to get out of this, and finally looked up at Russ. “How do you know anyone will believe such a wild tale?”