Page 112 of Holy Sinner

I sigh and shake my head as I look my mother over. She looks frail and old with the ropes and chains around her. Thunder gently rolls and the water falling around us patters softly on the river flowing by. It’s calm, serene and idyllic. If I had to pick the setting for my last moments this wouldn’t be a bad way to go.

“Kit, no. No-I’m your mother. Kit, please,” my mother pleads. “I did everything for you. I always did. Even getting rid of Mark. That was all for you.” She’s begging me. I never bothered begging her because I knew it wouldn’t save me from her cruelty. I wonder why she begs me now.

“Are you sure?” Grant asks me. He’s on the right of me and Rafe is on my left.

“We can see to her, shy girl.”

I look up at the men who love me and give them a reassuring smile. “I’m sure. I want to do this.”

They fall silent and step back. It’s only my mother and I now.

“Kit, don’t do-”

“Goodbye, mother.” The bracelet on my wrist sparkles in the moonlight when I shove her off the dock and into the river. She screams and I hardly even hear the splash of her body hitting the water. I step to the edge of the dock and when I look into the dark swirling water there’s no sign that my mother was ever there.

Perfect.

Chapter Fifty-Two

KIT

Convincing people that Jax and Scott were working on their own was easy. My mother didn’t have friends she confided in and she’d cut us off from family long ago. Like I predicted, there was no one to miss Noreen Salazar. Alana and I were witnesses to what Grant and Rafe had to do to keep us safe, even if the bodies of Scott and Jax showed my men had been enthusiastic, Grant more so than Rafe. There wasn’t much anyone could say against the deaths of two murderers that had stalked me and tried to kill us all. Things had gone quiet after that. Or, as quiet as anything could really be, everything considered.

So much death in such a concentrated area had made the news. That attention had brought eyes to By The Way, with some people even calling it cursed. That had only made the fans of my book all the more rabid to help the movie succeed.

It released two weeks ago at the top of the box office. There’s no movie bigger than By The Way right now. Grant and Rafe have offers coming from a couple of dramas and Grant landed another romance role. This one is a drama. I think I heard of Jasmine going to Italy for an indie film but I haven’t seen or heard of her since the premiere. The success is sweet but it could also be because I’m not looking over my shoulder anymore. There’s no reason to be scared that my mother is going to pop up or that the ghost of my past is going to take everything away from me. Nothing can touch me. Not anymore.

“Hey.” I smile when Rafe wraps his arms around me and pulls me against him. “Been looking for you.”

“I needed some fresh air.”

Rafe tips his head back and looks up at the stairs above us. “I can see that.” He smooths his hand through my hair and kisses my neck. After By The Way premiered we came to Connecticut, back to the home I love so much. We’ve been here for two weeks and everything has been so blissfully normal. We’re in my garden now.

I smile and lean my head back on Rafe’s shoulder. It’s a beautiful crisp autumn night and there’s a sweet cool breeze that makes me shiver. It’s not too cold for us to be outside the way we are but in a month it will be. Rafe and I watch the stars for a minute before there’s a soft footfall behind us.

“You going to stand there or come over here?” Rafe asks.

“Enjoying the view is all.”

I look over Rafe’s shoulder to see Grant walking towards us carrying a blanket. He’s shirtless and moonlight slides over his body the way I want to. He drapes the blanket around Rafe and I when he reaches us.

“What about you?” I ask.

“I’m fine.”

We’re all quiet and it’s in that quiet that the secret I carried around feels like it’s finally bubbled up to the top. I didn’t bring up Mark to either of them after we got rid of my mother, I wanted to tell them but filming was moving so fast. No time ever felt like the right time and then I thought it would be easier when we were alone again.

We’re alone now.

“I killed someone.”

Rafe is the first to speak. “We know.”

“Kind of hard to miss it with your mom going on about it.”

I bite my lip. “You know?”

Grant clears his throat and looks at me. “The second we were free of the cops I looked it up. Mark Dixon, huh?”

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