Page 16 of Sinful

“You’ve met my father?”

Trudeau’s upper lip curled, ever so slightly. “Of course I have.”

My mind flashed back to the media smear campaign and public furor against the Covenant that my father had used his money and connections to stir up after my mother’s murder. That, along with the number of times Trudeau and his associates were dragged into police or FBI interviews, meant he’d probably encountered my father on more than one occasion.

“Right,” I muttered. I placed a hand on my forehead and faked a yawn. “Oof, that hike took it out of me. I’m exhausted.”

A gleam appeared in Trudeau’s eyes. My ploy had worked. He thought the truth tea was finally taking effect.

“I’m sure you’ll feel better in a while. You just need to sit back and relax. Drink some more tea and eat some more pie,” he said, nodding toward my plate and cup.

I smothered another fake yawn with one hand and nodded. “Gladly.”

“Anyway, back to the subject of your father…” Trudeau trailed off and narrowed his eyes at me. “Is that why you’re here? To lay more blame upon our feet for what happened to your mother? Just like he did?”

“Not at all.” I lifted a conciliatory palm. “I’m not like that.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I swear.”

A cold, mirthless smile curved up Trudeau’s lips. “You can swear all you want, to whichever false god you want, but I wasn’t born yesterday,” he said. “I know exactly what you outsiders say about us. That we’re cultists. Sorcerers. Baby-killers. Cannibals. We commune with the Devil.”

“Well, is any of that true?” I asked, cocking my head.

“We’re called the Covenant, Sebastian.” His cold smile stretched wider. “Not the Coven.”

“With all due respect, Mr. Trudeau, that doesn’t really answer the question, does it?”

A glimmer of amusement appeared in his eyes. “I suppose that’s true,” he said. “The answer is no. We aren’t a cult, and we don’t kill babies or eat people. We certainly don’t commune with the Devil. But even before what happened to your mother, we were always the scapegoats in this area. Whenever a child went missing in a nearby town, we were blamed. But it was never us. We don’t harm children, and we certainly don’t abduct them.”

I noticed he specifically said the Covenant didn’t harm or abduct children. He didn’t say anything about adults.

“Now,” he went on, leaning back again. “Tell me. If you aren’t here to stir up trouble with more false accusations about Miranda, whatareyou doing here?”

As he spoke the word ‘false’, something flickered in his eyes; a hint of knowing. I knew then and there that I was right about him. The bastard knewexactlywhat happened to my mother, but he wouldn’t admit it unless his hand was forced.

I intended to do just that, very soon.

For now…patience.

I inhaled deeply, psyching myself up for the lies I was about to tell. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to spill such utter fucking bullshit, given how much I wanted to leap across this table and tear Trudeau’s throat out, but it needed to be done if my plan was to succeed.

“I know this will sound strange to you, so I ask that you hear me out,” I began. “I believe you’re innocent, and I want to prove it once and for all.”

Trudeau stared at me, naked shock flickering in his eyes. Then he tipped his head back and let out several hollow barks of laughter. “Oh, my,” he said, shaking his head. “I wasn’t expecting to hear that.”

“It’s not a joke.”

He straightened up again, and the faux mirth disappeared from his cold blue eyes. “My associates and I have stood accused of that crime for twenty years. We were never charged, of course, but public sentiment has always found us guilty anyway,” he said. “Your father was our biggest accuser, for obvious reasons. Now you expect me to believe you come here with good intentions? To prove our innocence? You must think I’m a very stupid, naïve man. You outsiders always do.”

“I don’t think that at all.”

“Please, have some more tea.” He waved a hand at my cup, clearly believing I hadn’t ingested enough of his truth serum.“Then you can explain your reasoning to me. I’m sure it will provide me with a good laugh, if nothing else.”

I took a big gulp of tea and rubbed my forehead again, blinking rapidly to make it appear as if I were struggling to keep my eyes open from the drowsiness I was meant to be experiencing right now.

“As I said, I knew it would sound strange to you at first,” I said. “But my mother’s murder has haunted me for decades. I’ll be blunt—I used to believe you were responsible, and I hated you for it. But over the years, I’ve realized a lot doesn’t add up about that theory.”

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