Charles and Philip Barnett have settled down to raise their children, but their domesticity is disrupted when Philip's nephew Steve is delivered to their doorstep early one morning after being beaten senseless by his homophobic father.<br><br>So the family grows, but of course, that's the easy part. A rabidly fundamentalist sheriff and a gay-bashing incident leave Steve and his new boyfriend in legal hot water and at the mercy of the deputies' harassment, and Charles must once again take up the fight for justice for his loved ones.

Triumph

Before Marie and I could begin a conversation, Charles said, “I just got a phone call from Detective Howard here in Atlanta. Frank was arrested in Monroe about half an hour ago, and because of the nature of the case, he won’t be allowed to post bail until he’s arraigned on Monday.”


“Marie,” Charles said, “does your husband have any contacts in the police or courts down there that he could use to defeat the system?”


“Are you going to divorce him?” Charles said.


“In that case, you ought to arrange to clean out any joint bank accounts first thing Monday morning.”


“I’m way ahead of you there. I don’t know if Philip has told you, but our brother Julien, who I was visiting in Alexandria, is a lawyer. He’ll be at our bank first thing Monday morning with a power of attorney to take care of that little matter. He’s also going to drain the company bank account down to zero.”


Chapter 8