Page 94 of Holy Sinner

There’s a flash of lightning and Alana pouts and dashes over to the windows overlooking the long driveway up from the highway. “You don’t think we should invite the boys up?” she asks, gesturing with her wine cup.

“The boys being?”

“Jax and Scott. My boys, of course.”

“I think they’re fine,” I say but she doesn’t look convinced. If Grant and Rafe don’t show up soon she’s going to wander out in the rain to get Jax and Scott. The bodyguards are down by the front gate. There’s a code to enter the gate if you aren’t buzzed in via the intercom in the kitchen. There’s a camera too, so that you can see who you’re buzzing in. You can look out the gate camera at any time from there.

Alana has definitely stopped a few times to try and get a look at Jax and Scott in their SUV parked by the gate.

“Are you sure? I bet they’re lonely. It has to be cold in that car.”

“I heard a rumor they’re ex special ops, I think they can take a rainstorm,” I lie. I haven’t heard that rumor but it's enough to get Alana’s head away from inviting the men up. Grant would lose it and Rafe would have a fit if they found the men in my space. It’s not that they don’t trust me, it’s that they don’t trust anyone with me but them. A warm glow settles in my chest that isn’t from the wine. I can’t help but feel warm and fuzzy towards the men I love, thinking about how they don’t trust anyone else to keep me safe.

Today, I kept them safe. It was my turn to make the world right and keep the ugly from them. God, I hope they aren’t mad. I didn’t think when I said what I said to Dottie Bee. I didn’t even think before, it just all spilled out like the wine Alana spills when she turns too fast from the window.

She giggles. “Oops.”

“It’s all good,” I tell her and grab a kitchen towel to wipe up the wine. I’m still on my knees cleaning the spill when Alana speaks.

“So how are you doing now that the witch is dead?”

I freeze mid-wipe and look up at her. “I don’t know,” I tell her honestly. It’s true. I don’t really know how to feel now that Dottie’s dead. That’s mostly because I don’t know how Rafe and Grant will take the news. I’m going to have to tell them the truth about who I am. About what happened to Mark and now Dottie. I go back to wiping the red wine off the hardwood and Alana walks the length of the windows.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

I don’t know how many people will see it her way if they ever found out the truth. So far no one has come looking and Alana is sticking to her pledge to be my alibi.

“I know,” I say softly.

I finish wiping up the wine and join Alana in the living room. She’s put on a horror movie and part of me wants to tell her this isn’t the best movie for us to watch but I don’t, because it does fit with the thunderstorm going on outside. It’s easier to focus on the woman running from the killer than really think about what happened today.

I told Dottie Bee to kill herself.

Now she’s dead.

Holy fucking shit.

I sip my wine and stare at the screen while another perky co-ed gets done in by the masked villain. Alana brings out a couple of blankets from the cedar chest beside the couch and tosses one on me.

“I need more wine,” she says and hustles into the kitchen for more. I can’t help but smile when I watch her come back into the living room with the bottle.

“Top up?” She holds the bottle out to my glass and I’m tempted but I don’t.

“I’m good.”

“More for moi,” she says and starts to pour wine into her glass when there’s a boom of thunder so loud that it shakes the windows and floor.

I sit up when the lights flicker and go out. Rafe texted me about a generator earlier so I don’t panic when Alana lets out a shriek.

“I know where the generator is. Don’t worry.” I get up from the couch and it’s only because of the moon that I’m able to see anything.

“It’s round back, at the bottom of the stairs,” I tell her and Alana groans.

“You mean down the death stairs?”

“The one and only.”

“Goddammit.”

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