Page 102 of Holy Sinner

“Alexia,” Jax rumbles.

“The stylist?” I ask, because this doesn’t fit with the puzzle I’m trying to fit together in my mind. “What does Alexia have to do with anything?”

“She’s my girlfriend,” Jax says with a wink. “She’ll say any fucking thing I want.”

“Well, not anything. That’s an exaggeration. Don’t you think?”

My knees go weak and I have to grab onto the edge of the freezer. The metal inside burns and my skin sticks to it. I don’t move my hand, I let it sit. I let that pain come into me and I grab ahold of it.

“It’s not. You love me.”

I hear footsteps behind me and Alana swears. “Who the fuck is this?”

“Alexia,” I say and turn to look at her. I rip my hand away from the freezer. “How could you do this?”

The stylist that I considered my friend rolls her eyes at me and waves a hand. “I love him, he’s right. You know what love does to a person. Look at you with your men.”

“That’s different.”

Alexia cocks an eyebrow. “Is it really, Kit? Or is it only different because you’re rich and you can cut your family off? Is that what makes it so different? You get to live your dream life while everyone kisses your ass and you let Jax take the burden of caring for your family?”

I don’t understand what she’s talking about. “I don’t have a family.”

“That’s exactly what he said you would say. People like you are disgusting.”

“You killed an innocent girl and I’m the disgusting one? Fuck you, you psycho!” I start for her but Jax stops me.

“Ah, ah, ah, make one wrong move on her and I’ll paint the ceiling with your friend's head.”

I stop and nod at him. “Fine, but what the fuck is going on here? You’re killing people. You have us hostage. What is this for?”

I take the puzzle pieces apart and put them back together. It doesn’t make sense, no matter how I turn them. Nothing makes sense. The chaos is enough to make me feel like I’m losing my grip on reality. Like I’m in a fever dream.

Oh my god, am I dreaming?

Cold from the freezer wafts over me and as I wiggle my fingers, the burn of the icy metal pulses there. No, it’s not a dream. I’m awake. This is really happening.

“Why are you doing this?”

Scott shakes his head at me like I’m an idiot for not understanding what’s happening. “For your mother, Kit. We’re doing it for your mother. You’ve been a very bad fucking girl.”

Chapter Forty-Five

RAFE

The run up the hill was easy enough. Grant tosses me his keys to unlock the doors while he paces behind me. When I let myself into the house, it’s empty. We both slip inside and shut the door quietly. A normal person would call out to Kit but this isn’t normal. We can hear a movie playing in the next room, a slasher from the sound of it. A woman screams before dramatic music crescendos but when we look into the room there’s no one there. Rumpled blankets and two half empty glasses of wine tell the story that Kit and Alana were here but where the fuck are they now?

Grant taps me on the shoulder. “Panic room? He asks.

It’s a good guess. That is where we told Kit to go if she needed it but something feels off. “If she did, she would have called us.” We clear the first floor of rooms and when there’s no sign of Kit, I know where she went.

“Outside. It’s the only place. Let’s go.”

Grant doesn’t say a word. He just looks out at the deck with a nod and falls into step with me as I head straight for the door. The only way off the deck is taking the stairs that lead down to the backyard. Those stairs are slick in the rain and it’s hard not to think I’ll come to the bottom and find Kit’s crumpled body there.

What if she fell? What if that’s why she and Alana are not here? Maybe Jax and Scott took them to the hospital. It’s about an hour away. It would explain the house and why there’s no one here but when we get to the bottom of the stairs there’s no body or sign of Kit.

There is a light in the distance, though. I squint and raise a hand to try and clear the rain from my eyes. It’s the building the generator is in. The door is open and light spills out into the dark.

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