Page 40 of Holy Sinner

I hop up from the ground and make for the closet. “Do you think someone can stand on that?” I ask while I pull the closet door open and check inside of it.

“What the hell are you doing? And let’s rewind it back to you saying Kit is spooked.”

“I’m making sure we aren’t being spied on,” I tell him, kicking the closet door shut and heading towards the bathroom. It’s the biggest room in the cabin and even has a sauna, so it’s going to take some time to make sure there’s nothing in here. “They could have bugged this place before we ever got here.”

Rafe swears and looks around the room with a glare before he stomps after me and makes for the freestanding soaking tub in the middle of the room. “I’ll check the tub. You get the sauna. Now, start talking.”

“I’m checking the sauna because I was going to check it already, just to be clear.”

“For fuck’s sake, Grant.”

“Fine.” I pause and listen to make sure Kit didn’t walk back in from the evening yoga class she ran off to with a few of the other crew members. I don’t want her to hear what I’m going to tell Rafe. There’s nothing but silence, so I start talking while I open the sauna door and head in to start my once over.

“First off, she tried to kill Jasmine. Second, she thought I didn’t know about it.”

“Really, she did?” Rafe sounds proud. I get it. I’m proud of her, too.

“Yeah, I followed her and saw her in action. She’s pretty good and definitely paid attention to the self defense we taught her. She dropped Jasmine like a pro.”

“That’s my shy girl.” Rafe’s voice echoes. I don’t need to check to know that he’s probably ass up, face down in the tub right now. I step onto the small bench and check the corners of the sauna.

“She told me she did it but doesn’t know I saw. Thinks she had a secret from us.”

“That’s cute.”

“I know. Didn’t have the heart to tell her I knew already.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” Rafe sounds normal again. I drag my fingers along the top of the sauna and even give the side a few slaps of my palm but nothing shakes loose.

I hop down from the bench and exit the sauna. “It’s clear,” I tell Rafe as I enter the bathroom. The asshole is standing there with his hands on his hips looking ticked.

“Why didn’t you tell me she tried to off Jasmine?”

“Didn’t have time.” Rafe raises an eyebrow and I know why. We’ve had plenty of alone time together since I caught Kit trying to filet Jasmine. I sigh and my hands go to my hips in a mirror of his pose. “I didn’t think it was important. Jasmine needed to be put in her place and Kit did it. No big deal.”

“If it’s not a big deal, why are you bringing it up now?”

“Because I know that’s not why she’s freaking out right now. She was having a goddamn panic attack out on the deck today and she pretended it was about Jasmine, but it wasn’t.” I move towards the towel closet and Rafe heads to the vanity in the corner of the room.

He pulls open a drawer and starts inspecting it. “What do you think it was about?”

“I don’t know,” I admit as I shove the towels to the side with more force than necessary. I don’t like that Kit is hiding something from me. I like it even less that I don’t know what it is. There’s nothing she does that I don’t know about. That’s the way it is. The way it should be.

“I think it’s got something to do with that photo.”

Rafe knows the one I’m talking about. He has to. If he doesn’t, then he really is the dumb shit I told Kit he was earlier.

“The one where she’s young?” he asks and I sweep more towels aside.

“That's the one. I thought it had something to do with that fucker I took care of before we left but she knows he’s gone and she’s still not at ease. Can’t be him.”

When I looked at the photos of Kit, that one photo stood out to me. It was so different from the rest, hardly in focus for anyone random to see much but I knew it was Kit. Whoever took that photo is scary enough to have Kit worried they’ll show back up. Not even our move to the middle of nowhere has her relaxed.

“So you think she’s worried whoever took that photo is coming after her now?”

I close the door and lean against it to watch Rafe get under the vanity to check the underside of it. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking she’s in her head about. I also think she used her little stunt with Jasmine as a way to throw me off the scent, so she doesn’t have to talk about that photo.”

My girl thinks she’s smart but she hasn’t been lying as long as I have. She’s not seasoned enough to pull it off when it counts.

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