Page 104 of Sin

Lewis smirked as he set the papers down on the table. “That was too easy.”

“You gonna do your bet or are you resigning yourself to the consequence already?” Jinx asked with a smirk, nudging the ketchup bottle over.

“I already did the bet,” Lewis said, taking a swig of his beer. He grinned at London. “Where’s your wallet?”

London reached into his jean’s pocket, his lips curled in amusement. “It’s not there.”

Lewis’s grin only widened as he down the rest of his beer. “Are you sure? Maybe check your jacket?”

Rolling his eyes, London grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and pulled out his wallet from one of the pockets.

The ketchup bottle started moving then, and I looked over to find a string of nanobots pushing it toward Jinx. “Drink up,” Lewis crooned.

Jinx groaned as he swiped the bottle off the table. “Dammit. I forgot you could do that.”

I leaned around London to gape at Lewis. “You have that much control over them?”

He shrugged. “For small bursts. I can’t control them easily like this for long, but it’s a nifty trick I like to do sometimes.”

We cheered Jinx on as he removed the lid to the ketchup, and several people from other tables glanced over to see what the commotion was. Jinx plugged his nose and then proceeded to chug.

I almost gagged, especially when some of the ketchup squeezed down his chin and fell to the table in a wet glop.

Just as he was about halfway through the bottle, the waitress came over, holding the check. “Can I get y’all anything else or—” She stopped talking abruptly when she spotted what Jinx was doing, and she watched in mild horror as he downed the rest of the bottle. “Uh, is there anything else you need?”

“Just the check, please,” London said, handing over a card from his wallet. Then he added, “And maybe some water to wash down that ketchup?”

She nodded, looking a little sick as she watched Jinx wipe his face with tablecloth he’d removed from the table earlier for his magic trick. “Sure… I’ll bring some right away.”

Blade clapped Jinx on the back when he shivered and grimaced, like he couldn’t get the aftertaste of the ketchup off his tongue. “Woof,” she said, somehow sounding sympathetic.

Lewis shook his head at Jinx. “Dude, I don’t know if I’m impressed or disgusted right now.”

“I’m both,” Mare said.

A buzzing distracted the table, and London fished out his phone from his pocket. He answered the call immediately. “Yes?”

His hand left my cock, making me both frustrated and relieved. While I willed it to soften, I tried to eavesdrop on London’s phone call. No matter how hard I tried though, I couldn’t hear what was being said on the other line, but it had London straightening. The team sobered almost immediately, watching and waiting as London spoke to the person in clipped, short responses. When he hung up, he sighed in disappointment. “Looks like Jinx’s haircut will have to wait.” He frowned, as if displeased with the words he’d just said. Clearing his throat, he met the concerned gazes of the team. “They’ve found another body.”

Chapter Twenty-One

And how is business for making animal carcass decor?

After arriving at the murder scene and finding lab worker Sloane Montgomery’s body brutalized similarly to the others, London had stormed back to the van, his fury cresting.

We spent the night going over everything and deciding what we were going to do next. Lucas wasn’t anywhere to be found, but he’d left another note.

You’re going to need to try harder if you want to find me, it had said.

London apparently decided we needed to try a new tactic then.

Instead of looking for Lucas this time, London used his powers to track down one of the random remaining lab workers named Keith.

He’d located him only an hour outside of Mercy Heights. The house, we’d discovered, wasn’t registered in Keith’s name, but an older gentleman whom we still hadn’t determined the connection to Keith. It was why no one had yet to find Keith because we didn’t know how he’d come to be there.

We traveled back toward the capitol, leaving the computer tracking programs to alert us if they caught wind of any unusual activity on the map. But Lucas must have been lying low because there was nothing the entire trip to Keith’s hideout.

We’d called the police in the area and asked them to perform a wellness check, and they’d gotten back to us stating they’d managed to speak with Keith and all seemed well.

---