Judging Judas (Tarnished Saints Series Book 3) (25 page)

Judas finished up writing a parking ticket and slipped it under the windshield wipers of a jeep that was double parked. He happened to look up and saw a crazy-looking van with a big spider painted on it stopping in front of the bandstand. And when a half-dozen questionable looking guys got out and started hauling out speakers and amps, he knew exactly who they were.

Then he saw Laney holding onto J.D.’s hand as they both walked across the street towards them. He knew he should probably just let them handle this, but his fatherly instinct made him want to protect his daughter, so he followed them over toward the van.

“Hey, wait for me,” he said, catching up to Laney and J.D.

“What are you doing here?” asked J.D. with terror in her eyes.

“Judas, why don’t you just wait for us back at the antique shop?” suggested Laney.

“No. I would like to meet this boy, and I need to tell J.D. that I’m sorry. You should be able to marry whoever you want and I won’t force you.”

“Do you really mean that?” asked J.D. looking at him through hooded eyes. She looked so tired and her ankles seemed swollen. He also thought her baby bulge seemed lower than yesterday but he couldn’t be sure.

“I do mean that,” said Judas. “I’m gong to let you decide.”

“Good,” she said and smiled slightly. “Because I think I’m going to marry Salvador after all.”

Before Judas had the chance to respond
, one of the guys in the band shouted out to them. “Laney, good to see you.”

Then one of the younger guys who was probably a roadie came walking
over with a long-haired creepy-looking guy about ten years older than him and they stopped right in front of them.

“Hi, Mrs. Campbell
,” said the roadie. “Hi, J.D.”

“
Hi Eric. And it’s Mrs. Taylor now,” Laney corrected him, her eyes glancing quickly over to Judas. “And this is Sheriff Taylor, my husband.” She reached out and touched Judas on the arm.

“I’m
J.D.’s father,” Judas added, getting a dirty look from J.D. and a scolding one from Laney.

“Ni
ce to meet you,” said Eric with a nod and headed back to unload. That left the long-haired creep with the gauged ear plugs making big holes in his ears standing there.

“J.D., you’re pregnant,” he said with a smile.

“I am,” she said, rubbing her belly and then glancing over to Judas. “Salvador, this is Judas,” she said.

“I heard. T
he sheriff and also your father.” He held out a hand to shake with Judas. Judas shook his hand and just gave him a menacing stare.

“Wow, you didn’t say anything on t
he phone about being pregnant.” Salvador turned his focus back to J.D. “So when’s your baby due?”

“Any day now,” sa
id J.D. in a shaky voice. “Sal, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“And there’s somethi
ng I need to tell you, too.” Salvador turned and held out his hand and helped a very pregnant woman out of the van. “J.D. meet my wife, Brittany. She’s having a baby any day now as well.”

“Your wife?” said Judas and Laney together.

“Yeah, isn’t it great?” he asked. “I married her as soon as I found out I was going to be a father. So, are you married too?” he asked J.D.

“No,” she said, and Judas just cringed, waiting for J.D. to di
vulge her secret in front of the man and his new pregnant wife. This wasn’t a good thing and could only cause more trouble than it was worth. He knew he had to help his daughter any way he could.

“So who is the father?” asked Salvador
. “Anyone we know?” He reached over and kissed his wife on the cheek.

“The father is . . .
,” J.D. looked over to Judas with tears in her eyes and before she could tell him, Judas spoke out.

“He’s away in the army,” said Judas. “An old friend of the family. I’m sure you don’t know him.”

Laney just stared at him in disbelief, but J.D. smiled and nodded her head in gratitude.

“Well, good luck on the baby and all, and nice meeting you Sheriff Taylor, but I n
eed to help the guys set up the equipment.” Salvador put his arm around his wife and walked away.

“Of course, go ahead,” said Judas
to the guy’s back, and walked closer to his wife and daughter.

“Why did you say that?” asked Laney as soon as
the band members were out of earshot.

Judas looked down to J
.D. and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Because I didn’t think my daughter deserved the embarrassment that would have caused her. And I also wanted to give her some time to decide if she really wanted to tell him he was the father or not.”

“You mean you’re not going to make me tell him?” asked J.D.

“I’m going to let you make that decision,” said Judas.

“It would a
ffect a lot of people right now if they knew,” Laney added.

“That could have been me married to him ri
ght now,” said J.D. watching Salvador unload a guitar and his wife running a hand over his back.

“And if it was, you’d be married to him with another woman about to have his baby as well,” Judas pointed out. “It looks to me like the gu
y gets around faster than the flu.”

“Judas is right,” said Laney. “Maybe this is all for the better.”

“No, it’s not,” said J.D. watching the father of her baby and just shaking her head and rubbing her belly. “Because I think I’m actually in love with Salvador after all.”

Chapter 24

Later that night was the first time all day that Judas actually had a chance to talk with Laney privately. Her shop was closed for the evening and the festivities were coming to a
n end. The band had played and though it wasn’t the type of music that Judas enjoyed, the townspeople didn’t complain and the teenagers seemed to love them.

“Where’s J.D.?” asked Judas, coming to get Lane
y to go for a walk.

“She’s been crying all day,” said Laney. “I don’t know why she’s
suddenly decided she loves Salvador, but she wants to tell him about the baby.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea
, with his pregnant wife here?” Judas heard a noisy car and looked over toward the beer garden that was still very crowded. He saw the band members drinking and becoming rowdy and thought he’d better go over to make sure things didn’t get out of hand. So he strolled with Laney down the tree-laden street, nodding to the shopkeepers all pulling in their wares for the evening.

“I’m surprised to hear you say that
, after you were so adamant she get married.” Laney walked by his side, nodding to the butcher’s wife as the woman watered the colorful flowers that sat in large pots up and down the sidewalk in front of every store.

“Well, you talked some sense into me today,” Judas admitted. “I realized that I was doing the same thing to her that my father did to me. I don
’t want to live that way. I care about J.D. very much, but I won’t make her get married.”

“But now she wants to,” Laney pointed out.

“Yeah, and the man’s already married. I swear nothing is ever easy with that girl.”

Judas heard shouting and looked up to
see a long-haired guy with ripped jeans and no shirt getting out of a rusty old car and waving his fists in the air.

“What’s going on?” asked Laney.

“I don’t know, but you’d better wait here,” Judas told her, holding out his arm, warning her to stay back.

“Judas, that’s J.D. over there in the beer garden and it l
ooks like she’s talking to Salvador,” said Laney raising her chin and trying to focus as the sun had set and it was becoming dark quickly. “And that crazy man who just got out of the car looks a lot like Salvador’s friend. Actually, they were always fighting about girls. The last I saw him, he and Salvador had a bad fight and hated each other.”

“Damn,” he said, realizing the crazed man in the car wa
s targeting his anger toward Salvador, and J.D. could be in danger.

Judas took off at a run, and heard Laney right behind him. He didn’t stop til he go
t almost up to them, then drew his gun when he realized the crazed man had a gun pointed right toward Salvador.

“Everyone back away,” Judas called out to the crowd who started to run in the opposi
te direction frantically. “Drop your gun or I’ll shoot,” he called out to the attacker.

“This son of a bitch stole my girl
, Brittany, and got her knocked up,” shouted the man who seemed drunk or maybe high on drugs. “I’m going to kill him for what he did.”

“No!” shouted J.D. “Don’t kill him, cuz he’s
also the father of my baby.”

“I am?” Salvador
looked to her in surprise.

“J.D. step away from him now!” Judas shouted, but the girl didn’t budge.

“You bastard,” shouted the angered man. “I’ll not only kill you but your bitch and unborn child as well.”

“No!” screamed Laney, rushing forward, and getting in the way of Judas maki
ng a clean shot. He heard gunfire, and grabbed Laney and threw her to the side, raising his gun and firing, but only managing to shoot the guy in the leg since he was on the move.

“Officer requesting assistance,” Judas said into the radio on his shoulder, raising his gun and walking as he talked. “Fight in progress and civilian has a gun and shots have been fired.”

He heard J.D. cry out and drop to her knees at the prone body of Salvador. Since the perpetrator was now hidden behind the front end of his car, Judas ran to J.D. with his gun drawn, horror flashing through his mind when he cleared the car and saw the man standing and raising his gun to fire at his daughter.

“Nooooo!” Judas shouted, diving through the air to block J.D.’s body from the bullet and
at the same time firing back at the attacker.

Time seemed to stand still
as he dove, fired, and at the same time felt the searing burn of a bullet piercing his own flesh as his body came crashing down. He looked up with his head spinning to see the dead bastard on the ground. The gun fell from Judas’s hand and he saw blood gushing from his own chest.

He heard Laney scream out his name and saw her running in slow motion across the parking lot toward him. Then he realized he’d fallen atop J.D. and she was crying.

“Are you alright?” he managed to say, pulling his body off of her and looking up into her tear-filled eyes. Salvador’s dead body lay next to them, and there was lots of blood and also what looked like a puddle of water on the ground around him. “Jaydee, darling, are you . . . all . . . right?” he asked again, feeling himself losing consciousness fast.

“I am
,” she shouted, looking at his chest with terrified eyes. He felt the life force draining from his body and the blood spurting out from him. He was relieved he’d blocked the bullet from his daughter and saved her life. Then as his eyes closed he heard her say words he never thought he’d hear.

“Don’
t die, Daddy. Please,” she cried, “Daddy, don’t die.”

Judas knew now that if he died, it would be with a smile on his face at hearing his little girl call him Daddy for the first – and maybe the last time in his life.

Chapter 25

Laney held J.D.’s hand in the birthing room of the hospital, tears in her eyes not knowing if Judas was going to pull through or not. Judas and J.D. had both been rushed by ambulance to the hospital in Watervliet just a couple minutes from town. When Judas knocked J.D. to the ground, her water had broke and she went into labor.

“Breathe,” Laney told her daughter, trying to take the same advice for herself.
She gripped her crystal hanging around her neck in her other hand tightly. Everything had happened so fast that Laney was still in shock.

She kept trying to push the terrible
images out of her mind but it wasn’t working. She’d watched in horror as Salvador was shot dead right at her daughter’s feet and then the attacker meant to kill J.D. as well. She knew now she never should have rushed toward her, but her motherly instincts kicked in and she reacted without thinking.

But if she hadn’t, Judas w
ould have been able to shoot the attacker dead with his first shot and no one else would have been hurt. But instead, Judas had pushed her to safety and dove in front of a bullet that probably would have taken J.D. and her baby’s life.

“How is Dad? Is he going to be all right?” J.D. asked, cringing in pain as she tried desperately to push the baby from her body.

“Don’t worry, he’s going to be fine,” she told her, hoping it was true. But by the amount of blood on his chest and the way he looked when the ambulance took him away, she wasn’t sure if he’d pull through. He wasn’t even conscious so she could say her final goodbye.

“Mom, don’t lie to me,” said J.D.

“You’ve got to push,” Doctor Blickensderfer told her. “The baby is stuck in the birth canal.”

“J.D. I don’t know if he’ll be all right or not, but right now we can’t think abou
t that. Take a breath, just relax,” she told her daughter, taking off her necklace and shoving the crystal into J.D.’s hand.