King's Justice: The Knights of Breton Court, Volume 2 Read Online Free PDF Page B

struck me as a missionary man. Lady G don't give it up easy, so it must get lonely. Maybe I can help."
      Scenes like this normally amused Wayne. King was a visionary type. It wasn't as if he considered himself above other people, he just wasn't as much a man of the people as he liked to believe he was. He was so caught up in how things ought to be, the behavior of people often left him confused. So whenever he was confronted with a situation he couldn't talk or punch his way out of, he was left with an awkwardness with belied his level cool. However, the sight of Rhianna hurt both of their hearts. The daily reality they had to relearn was that not everyone could or wanted to be saved.
      "Come on now, sister. You better than this."
      "I'm just open about what I do. Those other girls do dirt, too, they just like to hide it."
      King had a reputation for being largely indifferent to women. Most blamed his break-up with his baby's momma and his subsequent estrangement from his daughter, Nakia. Yet, despite his protestations and the various walls he'd built around himself, Lady G got under his skin and invaded his heart like a hostile takeover. She held his interest and attention in a way few women had. And part of him feared that in the sharing of this tiny part of himself, he had done something dangerous. Which he had, for her. Lady G. King was drawn to her and she to him. He decided to risk loving Lady G, then and always.
      "Come on, man," Wayne said, "let's get inside."
      The Church of the Brethren was a victim of a spate of local fires. Fire investigators suspected drug addicts illegally squatting. Without the necessary insurance to rebuild, the standalone building was left as little more than a warehouse lot. Burn marks scored the edges of the sallow, off-white façade. Sheets of plywood – with the date of its condemnation spray-painted across it – served as the door. The stain glass windows above the doors remained intact. Off-white and yellow painted wood mixed with brick which had been equally painted, marred by scorch marks.
      "I heard what you did down at Badon Hill," Wayne said.
      "What'd I do?" King pulled at the rear door, the nails of the board pulling free with ease.
      "Brought down another gang trying to get a stranglehold in the neighborhood."
      "Man, I haven't done half the stuff they say I've done," King said.
      "That's how legends get born."
      "That's how fools get dead."
      "If that's the case, we in the right place."
      The inside of the building had been gutted, the stripped, water-damaged walls and seared columns stood revealed like charred bones. The remains of a soot-covered choir loft split down the middle before toppled pews which couldn't be salvaged. Black rocks scattered across the floor, like fossilized cockroaches. A giant cable spool commanded the center of the room.
      "No chairs?" Wayne asked.
      "No coffee and donuts either. We ain't going to be here that long, so I figured we could stand. I just thought it was important that we met."
      "A symbol, good and round. You think like a king." Merle scratched his thigh, abating the itch of whatever had crawled on him during the night. The old man had his back to them though he seemed to appear out of nowhere. Unlike King's leather jacket, Merle wore a long black raincoat whose lining had been removed. A tall man, but the coat hung loosely on him, like a scarecrow lost within a blanket. A cap made of aluminum foil crowned his head. He stroked tufts of his scraggily reddish beard as he searched about the room as if he had whispered something.
      "Each of us has a role to play," King continued, unperturbed.
      "What's his? Minister of Drunken Crazy Talk?" Wayne asked.
      "Hand holder. Life guider. Purpose pointer. Gift shaper," Merle said.
      "Ass painer."
      "Hold up. Here come the others," King said.
      King didn't need to even turn to know Lady G had come into the room. His heart knew and