Page 70 of Holy Sinner

Rafe wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me against him. “I’m only sweet for you.”

“And Grant,” I remind him. I hear him grumble but he doesn’t disagree, so I take it as a win.

“You are both sickeningly delightful and romantic and I’m inspired enough to put a RomCom on. Is there any wine in this joint? Since we’re not going in the bedroom and have to stick together because there’s a lunatic on the loose. I’m really into the slumber party vibes in the living room.”

“You’re just rolling with this?” Rafe asks while Alana starts digging blankets and pillows out from the living room closet.

“Listen, on a scale of 1-10 this isn’t the most fucked up situation I’ve been in, but we won’t get into that right now.” Alana chugs half of her water and sets it on the coffee table. “What do you think about a tent? I mean, I think it could be really chic in here with these high ceilings but we’d have to figure out how to get up there.”

I settle onto the sofa, content to let Alana salvage the night. There’s no keeping my best friend down. The world can feel like a horror movie but Alana is going to make it fit her.

“I’m not climbing up there,” Rafe is saying to Alana while she tries to plead her case that it’s absolutely necessary to have sheets artfully draped from the ceiling for aesthetics, when there’s a knock at the door. We all pause because it’s not the knock we expect.

Grant and Rafe have their own knocks. It was agreed on that if the men left they’d give us their knocks to signal it was them. Nobody else is to get entry. Grant’s is two quick nods before a pause and three more and Rafe’s is the reverse. This is just a regular-shmegular knock and that’s not right.

“Who the fuck is that?” I ask.

“Dunno, but you two get in that back corner. Do it now.” Rafe points to the corner behind the sofa. Alana and I get into the corner as fast as we can and when I press close to my friend I feel her tremble.

I hug her to me. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

Alana gives me a thin smile. “Yeah, of course. I know that.” She’s lying. She’s worried.

The knives that Grant and Rafe got me are strapped to my sides under my shirt and I know how to use them. It’s one thing for someone to threaten me but I refuse to let Alana be scared. “It will be. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” I promise her. And it’s the truth, I won’t. I would die before I let anything happen to Alana. Her fear is the thing that makes me furious. The same anger that burned bright in me when I went after Jasmine is alive and coursing through my body when I move to stand in front of her. I’ve been trained and I can handle myself in a fight. The photos and Jane’s disappearance have me rattled but I can stand up to whatever is on the other side of that door if I need to.

“Open the door,” I tell Rafe and he gives me an appraising look.

“That’s my shy girl,” he says. With his back to us we both see him undo the holster for the knife at his back.

“Oh my god, he’s going to fuck someone up,” Alana whispers but Rafe hears her.

“Not just me. Kit’s going to fuck them up, too. She’s fierce, stay with her if shit goes sideways.” My hand tenses at my side and I feel the hard cold line of the knives I’m wearing. They’re light enough that I’ll be able to move fast. If I’m fast enough, I’ll be able to drop whoever makes it past Rafe. I don’t want to think about why that would happen.

There’s only one reason anyone would get past Rafe. My heart ratchets in my throat when he steps closer to the door. A floorboard creaks when he turns the door handle and opens the door. In the end, our preparation is for nothing.

“Rafe, hello. How are you tonight?”

I can’t see the speaker from where I’m standing but I recognize them. It’s Holly. She’s hard to hear over the roar of the storm. It’s only gotten worse from the sounds of it. Moisture and cold rush in from the open door.

“Who the fuck are they?” Rafe says and I tense up immediately. Who’s with Holly that I can’t see?

“They’re here to help. We need it after what happened in the past twenty-four hours. Can we come in? It’s not exactly a sunny day, Rafe.”

I can read Rafe like the back of my hand. He doesn’t want to let them in but he knows he has to. It’s not like we can just tell the assistant director to fuck off and for the time being we’re stuck here. Rita is working on a new place, a rental with a location that the men have been vague about even when I pressed them on it. They’re in sync with what they’re letting me know right now. That’s not a great sign, I know that.

Rafe steps aside and a drenched Holly walks in and a second later two men enter after her. They look like they stepped out of an advertisement for extreme sports, chopping wood or protein powder. They’re clean cut, but rugged in a way that screams they’re tough.

“Fuck me running,” Alana whispers and I feel her relax. She always was a sucker for a pretty face. “They’re gorgeous.”

“Alana,” I whisper back and elbow her.

“What? I’m just saying that if serial killers look like that then fine. I volunteer.”

“There are no serial killers here,” I lie but Alana doesn’t reply, she just lets out a little sigh and keeps staring at the men in front of us. She’s not wrong, they are gorgeous. They’re both over six feet tall and muscular, with bodies that look like they were honed in the military or some death-defying job, not the gym. One of the men is blonde with blue eyes and an affable smile he sends my way and the other is dark-haired with brown eyes and a frosty disposition. Sharp jawlines and broad shoulders round out their looks as they take their place behind Holly when she enters the room and takes a seat in the armchair across from us.

“What the fuck is going on here? Who are they?” Rafe shuts the door and leans against it. He looks relaxed, which I think is only possible because of his acting skills. If not for them, he’d be seriously scary. I lick my lips and watch Holly and the new men closely. They’re dressed in matching black clothing, black pants, shirt, boots and raincoats. The whole outfit gives them a special agent look.

“These are Kit’s new bodyguards,” Holly says. “Jax and Scott.”

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