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"Me?" Griffin laughed bitterly "Me? I use people up and discard them? Are you blind? Are you deaf? Your precious Eleanor uses ood hard blow and she tosses them out Her editor? Her intern? Her thousand ex-lovers? Jesus Christ, Søren, even--"

Whatever name Griffin Fiske started to name went unuttered And it all happened so quickly Suzanne couldn’t even reconstruct in her an with Griffin pointing his finger at Father Stearns’s chest and ended with Griffin on the floor of the church with his arm pinned behind his back Father Stearns had moved with such brutal force and efficiency Suzanne could only cover her mouth in shock

"Griffin…" Father Stearns spoke the na calm "You are in God’s House And Eleanor is His Child And when you dare speak of her in my presence or in His, you will do so with the utmost respect Are we understood?"

Suzanne could only stare at the scene It appeared that if Father Stearns pulled on Griffin’s arrimaced and took a pained breath

"Yes, sir," he finally said

"Good" Father Stearns released Griffin’s arm and stood up Griffin quickly ca like schoolboys? Or should we discuss this soentlehed heavily

"If you insist"

"I do This ends tonight You knohat I want and who I want"

"I do, in fact Are you prepared to earn what you want?"

Griffin’s back straightened

"I’ll do whatever it takes Last thing I want is to cause that kid any more pain Not the bad kind of pain, anyway"

The kid? Suzanne thought that was an odd way to refer to Nora Sutherlin From what little she knew of the infaer than Nora And what the hell did he ood kind of pain?

"Nor I Which is why I set the conditions I do"

"Fine Let’s get this over with I’ alone if I don’t have to"

Suzanne saw Father Stearns’s eyes narrow as Griffin stors for Nora Sutherlin were, surely he didn’t want to hear about her in bed with souy Obviously Father Stearns had considerable sway over her if Griffin Fiske had to coht at the rectory when he’d dropped his guard and talked about how he’d had to rescue Eleanor Schreiber froer, how he’d practically had to raise her after her home life imploded…maybe Father Stearns was to her exactly what he’d said he was--a father