“I don’t give a shit about Paradise.”

Crews laughed.

“The Good Book says God made man in his own image. Look around, Malcolm, and see what we’ve made of the world. Take a good look. What does that tell you about the nature of God?” Rakkim was right in Crews’s face, made him take a step back. “I didn’t bring you the coin so you could buy your way into heaven. You and I are here to tear down the whole shit-house, set it ablaze, and not look back.”

Crews stared at him in the twilight, finally nodded. “Yes…I think you and I have a lot to talk about.” He started up the path. “Come on, I want to show you something.”

Rakkim followed him until they reached the top of the hill. In the distance he saw a small barn made of rough-cut logs and branches. Light leaked through gaps in the walls and roof. A cross was daubed on the door in red paint. The wind was even stronger here, their clothes flapping. He shivered.

“The devil has a thousand names,” said Crews, voice rising, “but the name he takes the most pride in is Prince of Lies, because he is such a convincing fraud. Even God himself was fooled by Satan once, so what hope do we have to tell what’s truth and what’s false?” He ran a fingernail down Rakkim’s cheek. “Fortunately, God gave us a way to know.” He waved toward the ragged church. “Let’s go to meeting, pilgrim.”

Chapter 31

“You look beautiful,” said the Colonel, speaking around the lump in his throat.

“Oh, you’re just saying that.” Baby pirouetted, the wedding dress swirling around her in a corona of white lace. “Doesn’t seem right for a girl to only get to wear her wedding dress that one time.”

“You…you can wear it as often as you like. You look more beautiful now than the day I married you, and I didn’t think that was possible.”

She spun faster and faster, laughing now, giddy, the dress lifting higher, exposing her long legs, faster, until she lost her balance. She would have fallen if the Colonel hadn’t caught her. “My hero.” She nuzzled his neck, kissed him, still laughing.

The Colonel kissed her back, gently at first, then deeper as her heat filled him.

Baby fanned herself with her hand. Pulled away from him. “Colonel, suh, you have an erection! What will my daddy say?”

The Colonel reached for her, face flushed, but she darted away.

“I bet it’s a big ol’ purple screamer, isn’t it? I heard stories about you.”

The Colonel touched a button on the wall, maximized the privacy windows. He could see the last of the sunset, but the sentry posted outside could hear and see nothing inside.

“I know what you’re up to, you nasty man.” Baby wagged a finger at him. “You’re gonna try and put that big ol’ thing inside of me.”

“Baby, please…” Her games made the Colonel uneasy. All the variations, the sheer joy of her play was intoxicating, but he worried that she needed the games to hold her interest. “Baby-”

“Today’s my wedding day and I can do anything I want.” She lay back on the sofa, lifted her skirt, and the rustle of silk sounded like a roaring fire. “Oh, damnit, I forgot my panties.” One hand crept down, lightly stroked her smooth pussy. “What am I ever going to do? Johnny’s going to be so mad.” Her fingers traced their way up her inner thighs. “He thinks…” She gasped. “He thinks I’m a little bit of a whore. You don’t think…” Another gasp. “You don’t think I’m a whore, do you, mister?”

“No.” The Colonel smiled, started unbuttoning his jacket. “No, ma’am, I don’t think you’re a whore at all.”

She watched him from the sofa, back arched, the wedding dress bunched around her waist. “Johnny, he’s a big boy, got muscles on top of his muscles, but I think he’s scared…” Her fingers flew back and forth. “Scared of my…little…pink…pussy.”

The Colonel tossed his jacket onto a chair. “I suspect that Johnny feels like he’s the luckiest man in the world.”

“I hope so, because I love him…love him to death.” The moist sound of her fingers filled the quiet room. “That’s why…why I’m so worried about what he’ll do…when he finds out I’m not wearing panties. He’s got a terrible temper.”

Thunder rolled off the mountain, shook the house. The Colonel lowered the lights as rain patted the roof, gently at first, then harder. The sentry hunkered down, head lowered. “Rain on your wedding day…that’s a good sign.” He tore open the Velcro snaps of his shirt as he stared at her.

“You have to help me, mister,” she cooed.

The Colonel laid his shirt on top of his jacket. “Anything.”

“Anything for the bride to be.”

“Anything for the bride to be,” he repeated.

She beckoned him closer, her finger moving with the lightest touch. “Johnny…he’s gonna put a whipping on me if he catches me without panties. He’s not like you, mister. You like a dirty girl, I can tell, but Johnny, he’s just full of rules.”

The Colonel knelt in front of her. “Maybe marrying Johnny is a mistake. A…dirty girl like you deserves to be with someone who appreciates her.”

“I wish I could, I dearly wish I could.” She ground her hips. “Johnny, though…his family owns everything in our little town. The mill. The grocery store. The bank. If I don’t marry Johnny…his family’s going to fore-close on my daddy’s farm. So you can…see…my problem.”

The Colonel couldn’t see anything else but her. “I…I’d be happy to help.”

She grabbed his head, slowly moved him closer. “I want you to paint panties on me, mister.”

The Colonel looked up at her.

“With your tongue, mister. I want you to paint panties on me with your tongue.” She pulled his face into her, groaned as his tongue gently probed her softness, teased her. “Anything for the bride to be, that’s what you said,” she hissed through gritted teeth.

The Colonel pressed her thighs apart, circled her with the very tip of his tongue as she worked against him, and he thought of other intimacies, other women…all gone now. Even the memories of them fading like photographs left in the sun. There was only Baby. She twisted against him, tore at his hair, but he held himself back…just enough. He always knew when to charge and when to retreat.

She cried out, laughing as her wedding dress floated down over his head.

The Colonel stood up, wiped his mouth. “What time is the wedding?”

“I got to be at Gethsemane Baptist in two hours.”

The Colonel unzipped his trousers, let them fall around his ankles. “Plenty of time.”

Baby clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide. “Well, look at you. That’s positively fierce, mister.” She gnawed on the hem of her dress. “I don’t rightly know if I can handle something like that.”

The Colonel settled down on her, the wedding dress crinkling around them. He entered her slowly, entered in one long, liquid movement, and she rocked with him, her heat boiling away any doubts. Any thoughts. She held him close as he drove deeper and deeper, whispering in his ear, urging him on, working with him, the two of them panting, fighting for breath as the rain beat on the roof.

It was dark when they awoke, the Colonel’s communicator buzzing.

“Don’t,” said Baby, reaching for him. “Let it be.”

The Colonel put the communicator to his ear, listened for a moment, and started getting dressed.

“Zachary?” Her wedding dress rustled against the sheets, the top unbuttoned, her breasts peeking out. “You’re no fun,” she pouted as he hurried into his pants.

“Moseby called, darling.” The Colonel pulled on his shirt, his expression eager as a schoolboy’s. “He’s found something at the bottom of the tunnel.”

Baby examined her nails.

“You want to come look? Moseby sounded-”

“No, thank you, Colonel. I’m just going to lie here and pleasure myself thinking of other men.”

The Colonel laughed, grabbed his rain slicker off the peg, and started for the door.