Page 150 of Sinful Sacrifice

“You don’t think that’ll look suspicious?”

“Not if we do it right.”

“Start talking.”

“I have three strategies.” She pulls a notebook from her bag and opens it.

I slam my hand on it. “First things first. You don’t note your plans to kill someone.”

She jerks the notepad out from under my hold. “I didn’t note my plans to kill anyone.” She rolls her eyes. “In here is a suspense novel I’m writing.”

I tug the notepad away from her hold, slide it to myself, and open the flashlight on my phone to read it better. She has plans written in fictional format with a character named Billy dying in different ways.

“I’ll obviously throw that away once we agree on the cause of death,” she inputs.

My eyes shift to her cousin. “Does he know of your plan?”

“He’s helping us.”

I huff out. “I’ve seen him with your father. He can’t be trusted.”

“We’re the two people you can trust. Nobody hates my father more than we do.”

“Text Kian and tell him to come over here.”

She roughly pulls her phone from her bag, unlocks it, and types. I keep my eyes on Kian as he quickly pulls his from his pocket, checks the text, and then shoves it back in while standing.

Riona scoots over in the booth as Kian sits next to her.

I down my drink. “So, Riona wants Cernach to die because he killed her lover. What’s your story?”

Kian is a redheaded, pale-skinned man, and my guess is, he’s around the same age as Pippa. I’m also assuming he’s Pippa’s cousin as well. Like I told Riona, I’ve seen him around Cernach a few times, but he’s never stood out or said anything.

He relaxes in the booth and waves his hand in the air, stopping the server. He orders a round for him and Riona, and I decline another drink.

After the server delivers their drinks, they make themselves comfortable and provide me a tell-all of how much their generation really hates Cernach’s guts. They give me a rundown that could be an entire Netflix series of all the fucked-up shit he’s done.

Odhrán is Kian’s father, who beat his mother, Sheila—Cernach’s youngest sister—until she could no longer handle it anymore and committed suicide. Sheila had begged Cernach to let her divorce Odhrán, but Cernach refused since he was his underboss.

As each word of his story leaves Kian’s mouth with disdain, his face gets redder and his tone sharper. He wipes his hand across his jaw and continues with more reasons, driving the point home that he’s goddamn serious. He’s ready for Cernach and his father to die.

His best friend was Riona’s lover, who his father and Cernach murdered. They made Riona sit back and watch as they beat him to a bloody pulp and then cut off his head. Cernach did a good job of hiding what he’d done because he knew if anyone found out Riona had been with another man, no one would marry her. By the time he finishes that story, I understand why they want Cernach to suffer.

Kian raises his glass in a cheers gesture. “What do you say, Damien? Do you hate Cernach enough to help us kill him?”

Even though I’ve been game to kill Cernach for as long as I can remember, I allow a few seconds to pass before answering them.

“We’ll come up with a plan,” I say. “When the time comes, I’ll decide if it’s strong enough that we can get away with it. If we make even one mistake, we die. And no offense, but I’ll let you go down with the ship.”

Kian rubs his forehead.

I see Riona visibly gulp.

I know I won’t fuck up.

If anything happens, it’ll be from their carelessness.

“If we do this, we do it smart.” I rip a page from Riona’s notebook. “You burn this shit and act like the dutiful daughter. I don’t want to see you slip once.” I ball up the sheet in my hand and point toward Kian with it. “And you become closer to Cernach. Kiss his fucking ass. Make him think you have more loyalty to him than your own goddamn dick. Do you hear me?”

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