Page 40 of Perfect Sin

I strike the second guy in the throat, and he goes down as easily as Lucien’s target. The other four put up more of a fight. They’re all big fuckers, built like linebackers. It takes Ford a few more seconds to drop a guy, but he doesn’t just incapacitate him, he knocks him out cold.

Shane gets his arms around the neck of a bald-headed fucker with flame tattoos on his skull. He struggles, but his efforts are sluggish as the oxygen is cut off from his brain. When he passes out, Shane drops him. His head thuds off the ground.

That leaves one guy left. He manages a hit to my gut, which pisses me off more than anything. Lucien pulls his gun and aims it at him.

“Jesse has my sister down there, so unless you want your brains splattered against the wall, get out of my fucking way.”

Wisely, he backs away from us. “I didn’t know.” He doesn’t look back at his friends as he leaves.

We rush down the stairs only to encounter a locked door.

“Kick it down,” Lucien barks.

I bang on the door. “It’s steel. Who puts a reinforced steel door on a game room?”

“A predator who needs a place that’s secure, that’s who,” Ford says.

“There’s a tool shed out back. I’m going to go see if they have something to take off the hinges or cut through it,” Shane says.

“Hurry,” I urge him.

12

Separation Anxiety

Raven

It all happensin slow motion. Tessa smirks at me, then she and her friend push between Sin and I. Kyle doesn’t waste a second once I’m not holding on to Sin’s hand anymore. He grabs my arm and drags me through the party.

“Let go of me,” I shout and throw an elbow into his gut.

He puts his free hand on my mouth. Jesse takes my other arm, and together they move me quickly through the house. We move down the stairs at the back of the house, and Jesse uses a key to unlock a heavy looking door.

Once it’s open, Kyle shoves me inside. I fall to the ground, bruising both of my knees. Scrambling away, I back into the corner and rise to my feet.

There’s a bar in the corner, and Jesse starts mixing drinks. I know better than to trust anything he hands me, so when he offers I decline.

“C’mon, one drink,” Jesse presses, and tries to offer me the drink again.

“I’m not stupid. No way am I drinking something either of you offer.”

“You got married,” Kyle states. “I have to say, I’m disappointed.”

“What do you expect to happen here? That you’d threaten me with releasing that video and I’d come crawling back to you?”

He shrugs. “It worked before.”

“You don’t love me, Kyle. Why would you want to force me to be with you? What are you getting out of this?”

“I’ve got my reasons. And I’ve got a confession to make. I already knew you were married.” He strolls over to the bar and collects a manilla folder.

“I figured you knew, seeing as how you were watching news footage of me.”

“I mean, I knew before it was reported on the news. What is important is correcting that mistake. You need to sign these,” he says and thrusts the folder at me.

I flip it open and scan through the papers. “Annulment papers? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not signing those.”

“You don’t belong to him. The sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.”

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