Page 60 of Perfect Sin

“Fuck off, Ford. I consider you a friend, but now isn’t a time for us to have a heart to heart.”

“You’re coming from the bar. Did you already hook up with someone?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? I mean, if I fuck up bad enough you can be there waiting with an available shoulder.”

Ford shoves me against the side of his truck and pounds his fist on the hood. “There is something fucking wrong with you. You get that, don’t you? You have too many enemies to start fighting your friends, Sin.”

Gravel crunches behind the truck as Lucien pulls up behind us. “You found him,” he says to Ford when he steps out of the car.

“He’s not in a good mood.”

“It’s not getting better with you two hens talking about me like I’m not standing right here,” I snap.

Lucien ignores me. “I’ve got him from here. Will you go and keep an eye on my sister?”

I scoff. “That’ll make it better. Make sure he gets more time alone with my wife. That’ll fix everything.”

“Quit being a whiny bitch. We’ve got something to check out, and you can trust Ford,” Lucien says and opens the passenger door.

Grabbing hold of the door, I pause before getting in. “See, that’s the thing, I don’t trust anyone.”

Lucien doesn’t say anything as he peels out onto the road. I can tell he’s agitated by the way he drums his thumb against the steering wheel. The tapping combined with the rhythmic whirring of the tires rolling across the asphalt grates on my nerves. I turn on the radio, and the local rock station blasts from the speakers.

After a few blocks he turns down the radio. “It isn’t like you not to ask for details.”

“I don’t recall ever having to ask, or having a choice for that matter.”

“Well, it’s time you put those days behind you. You’ve got choices now, Sin. Don’t make the wrong ones.”

“What are you trying to say, Luce?”

“I’ve heard what people have been saying all day. I know you. Pushing her away isn’t going to save her. She’d be married off to some old man, or dead, if it weren’t for you.”

I turn to face the window. “You’d have saved her.”

Out of my peripheral vision I see him shake his head and squeeze the wheel until his knuckles are white. “I’m not you. I’d have tried, sure, but we both know I would have caved to Damien. I hate that about myself, but it’s still true.”

“She’s safe now. I should let her go. Ford can give her a normal life.”

“Fuck normal. Raven isn’t built for normal. She’s one of us, and that won’t change even if you push her away. Do you think my father will let her go?”

No, not now that he’s seen her worth. There are so many different ways he could use her. She’s proven her value time and again, and it’s more than her beauty he’s taken notice of now. With some grooming, he may decide to use her like he plans to use Lucien.

Of course there’s still the very real possibility his plans for her still have more to do with what’s between her legs than between her ears. Virgin or not, a beautiful woman like my wife still fetches a high price on the black market. Damien is sociopathic enough to sell his own daughter.

Lucien and Ford both expect me to push Raven away. My previous actions don’t give them any reason to think otherwise, but the truth is I can’t walk away from her. That doesn’t mean she isn’t going to wake up one day and realize she would be better off without me. That day will kill me, but I won’t blame her.

Lucien pulls into a parking garage downtown. We’re surrounded by glittering glass, steel, and concrete. He turns off the ignition and faces me. “We’re here.”

I look around and see row after row of luxury vehicles. “Where is here?”

“The Dark Room. Ted and I followed the money from Fallen Angel, with the help of Holbrook, and found where Martin Gerrick set up again.”

“Another strip club? This neighborhood doesn’t seem like the right setting for that sort of thing.”

“Not exactly. He’s upgraded his business model to a full on sex club. I never should have left those girls there.”

“Any luck tracking down who Gerrick really is? If it’s Damien, we can’t risk pissing him off.”

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