Page 73 of Fearless Sinner

Cillian pulls out of me and the stern look on his face is different from what it was before.

That hard exterior he first came in with has shifted, revealing the tender side he showed me the other night.

He plants his hands on either side of me and stares at me, looking like he’s trying to see deep inside my soul.

“What’s going on, baby? Why are you here?” His voice is soft and soothing. Instead of the tight grip he held my face with, he caresses the skin there. No one would believe he’s the same guy who charged in moments ago, threatening to destroy Marcus.

I gaze at him and realize I’ve reached my breaking point. No more lies.

“My mother. She’s dying. She needs a new heart. I don’t have the money for the surgery.”

Hearing the words outside my head drags out the tears I’ve been holding back, and I cry.

I do the thing I didn’t want to do and break down in his arms.

Cupping the back of my head, Cillian pulls me in closer to hold me while I cry from the depths of my soul.

Chapter Twenty

Cillian

Chloe is asleep in my bed now.

I got her to tell me everything that’s happening with her mother.

When I relieved her of the debt I didn’t know she still needed the loan.

I knew the restaurant still had debts, which I thought they might be able to take care of now that Harlan wasn’t stealing money.

That was the extent of the problems I thought Chloe’s mother had. I never imagined she needed live-saving surgery.

Chloe was so worked up and upset that it wasn’t until we reached my place that she told me what was happening.

I placed her in a bath and cleaned her off from that fucking dive, then we lay together as she opened up to me.

Minutes later she was asleep.

I’m outside now on the terrace. I needed to smoke a roll-up and get some air to help me wrap my head around everything that happened tonight.

Weeks ago I was in a void of nothingness, now it’s like everything has downloaded on me at once. But I’m mostly thinking about Chloe.

I wish she’d come to me. I wish she’d told me what was going on. But I know why she didn’t.

She doesn’t know me and I just relieved her of the debt.

Still, it grates on my nerves that she was going to sell her soul to Marcus.

That lecherous motherfucker is one of those people you don’t want to cross.

Chloe would never have gotten whatever she thought she signed up for.

Marcus would have used her up until there was nothing left of her. And that’s worst-case scenario. There are whispers of him having links to the flesh trade.

No one in the Creed or our alliance deals with that, so they don’t deal with him.

I saw the way he looked at Chloe. He was probably going to sell her, then I’d never see her again.

I felt like I should have killed him just for looking at her in that piece-of-shit getup he put her in. God knows what he would have had her doing tonight. There are sex clubs, and then there are establishments like his that fuck you up for life.

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