Page 38 of A Sin So Pure

“Okay. Yeah. Agreed.” Her footsteps quicken to keep pace with me.

“Right now. I’m going to kill Jamison.”

Once I’m out the front door, I hop down the last two steps and make a beeline for the car. The boxy black Cadillac idles at the curb, white-rimmed wheels waiting to deliver me to my vengeance.

“Woah, woah, woah.” Josie manages to get in front of me, raising her hands as if she can placate me with a gesture. “Why do you think it’s him? This could have been a burglary gone wrong.”

“We both know that it wasn’t.”

“Sure. But we need to think before taking action,” she says. “Preferably, in a rational way. Why do you think it’s Jamison?”

I toss the note at her. She catches it before it can fall to the pavement.

“Because he said this to me yesterday. Bastard was probably pissed I knocked him on his ass after he tried to cheat me.”

“Okay, I can buy that. But what about the rest of it?”

“Rest of what? We go and we off him. Thatisthe rest of it.”

“Nora,” she deadpans.

“Josie,”I mock.

“If Jamison did this, then he knows about that night.”

“All the more reason to kill him and be done with it.”

“You’re not listening,” she growls. “How does he even know about what happened to your parents? Why would he taunt you with reminders of that? Especially for something as small as last night’s slight.”

“Because he’s an asshole trying to make a point? Men have done worse for less,” I snap, trying to push past her. But Josie shoves me back with more strength than you’d think she’d have, given her slim stature.

“Stop being dense and think!”

Her voice is full of frustration, but her tone does its job, making me pause. The world, which was blurred around me, only showing me the one directive, comes back into focus. My head swivels, taking in the empty street around us.

“Okay,” I say. I take a deep breath. “Okay.”

I’m sorry.I project the thought from my mind, knowing Josie will hear it, and will feel the sincerity in it.Can we finish this in the car?

She doesn’t answer, just opens the passenger side door and sits on the front bench.

I round the car, popping into the driver’s seat. It roars to life when I turn the ignition key, the engine vibrating the entire vehicle. I put it in gear, and we sit in silence until we’ve driventhrough the portal and are back in the safety of Anwynn’s streets.

“Anyone who was there that night is long dead. I made sure of that years ago. Outside of Pride himself, of course,” I say, turning down a one-way street that leads us back to our apartment building.

“You’repositive?” Josie asks, her brows furrowed as she stares out the window.

“You’ve scraped my memories over and over again yourself—did I miss anyone?”

Josie lets out a sigh. “No.”

“So, unless Pride told someone, which hewouldn’t,” I say. “Then there’s only one answer to your question.”

She fills in the blanks. “He’s working for a Virtue.”

“Not just any Virtue.”

Josie stares at me, but I keep my attention on the road. “You really think Patience is pulling the strings?”

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