Page 115 of Breaking the Sinner

Gen had mentioned it offhandedly a few weeks ago, which sent Cobra into a spiral thinking about how he could surprise her. It was the sort of thing he’d never done before—and had purposefully shied away from. But Gen deserved shit like this. And it was one more chance for Cobra to show her that he was serious about this. About them.

Not to say that they didn’t have their rough patches. Cobra’s demons liked to make a guest appearance every once in a while. And Gen, too, suffered from crippling doubts—wondering if she really would go to hell, whether she’d see her family again, maybe she should pack up and go home. Those demons and doubts never lasted long, though. Together, they were able to beat them back. Keep their chins up. Focus on the good shit on the horizon.

He’d reached out to Sophie, who’d become something of a good friend since Gen returned from Europe. They shared a ruthless sort of humor together—jabs and ribs, but lined with respect. Withfriendship.Together they’d planned a dinner for Gen, something intimate and upscale and full of balloons with puppies printed on them. Everyone at Holt Body was invited. Even Levi, the new guy, who’d at first pissed Cobra off with all his hotshot grandstanding, but now was basically his permanent workout buddy at the gym. And the big night was tonight. Excitement thrummed through him, prompting a silly smile even as he met with his training clients that morning.

Gen was blissfully unaware, and each second that ticked closer to the big party made him exponentially more scared that someone might slip a detail and spoil the surprise. He’d never thrown a surprise party. And really, this was some fun shit. Maybe more fun for him organizing it than it would end up being for Gen.

The end of the day drew near. Cobra practically burst out of his skin wanting to take Gen “to the library” as he’d promised. She loved weeknight visits to the library maybe more than sex. No, that wasn’t true—she loved sex more than anything else. Almost as much as she loved him.

Cobra headed for the reception area to wait for Gen to show up so they could head out together, but she was already there, flanked by Travis and Lex and Levi. He held up a hand to high-five Travis as he joined the small group. “Sup, fam?”

“Hey. Just the guy I was looking for.” Travis squeezed Cobra’s shoulder, eyes crinkled around the edges behind those black frames he always wore now. It took balls to go from MMA stardom to wearing those glasses on the daily, but if anyone could pull it off, it was Trav.

And yeah. He called him Trav now.

“Here I am. In the flesh. Better than fantasy.” He shot Gen a knowing smirk.

“Cobra, I’ve got an offer for you.”

The looks on everyone’s faces told Cobra that this was a surprise. Something that maybe they all knew about. Gen rolled her lips inward, excitement shimmering on her face.

“Okay. Should I accept now? I trust you. I bet it’s good.”

Travis laughed, searching out his gaze. “It’s pretty damn good.” He paused, wetting his bottom lip. “You know we’re going live with the new Holt Body app soon.”

Cobra nodded. The next phase of Holt Body Fitness taking over the world. Maybe that’s why Travis wore the glasses so much these days. All that time spent figuring out his new workout app that linked users with Holt Body trainers and feedback.

“All of the trainers available on the app are going to have their own profile. But I don’t want this to be run-of-the-mill profile stuff.” He crossed his arms, a wide smile curling his lips. “I want you to draw the avatars.”

Cobra blinked, his gazes shifting from between them all, wearing the same shit-eating grins.

“Are you serious?” was all he could say.

Travis nodded, then finally Lex spoke. “Dude, we’ve seen your drawings since you started sketching at work. They’re out of this world good.”

“You’re like Picasso,” Levi cracked while he tugged his now-famous light brown tresses back into a ponytail. The man swung his mane around the gym like he was in a Pantene commercial. “Hey, did you hear about the artist who died while he was finishing his masterpiece?”

Travis and Lex and Cobra shared a glance. In almost no time at all, Levi had become known for his super-corny jokes.

“What?” Gen asked, eyes lighting up.

“He had a brush stroke of genius,” Levi finished. Lex sighed tersely, while Travis shook his head.

“That one was lamer than the others,” Cobra said, biting back a laugh.

“So what do you think, Picasso? You’ll get full illustration credit,” Travis went on. “And the appropriate pay to match, of course.”

His mouth parted. The words still refused to gel. But at least he had the good sense to blurt, “Uh…yeah.”

Gen clapped her hands together, jumping up and down. Travis offered his hand, and Cobra shook it.

“This is gonna be so badass,” Travis said.

Cobra turned his incredulous gaze toward Gen. “So why the welcoming committee for a business proposal?”

“We wanted to see how fucking shocked you’d be,” Lex said, slapping Cobra on the back. “And this was gold. Shoulda taken a picture.”

Travis and Lex pushed Cobra around playfully, while disbelief still made heavy steps through his body. Hired for a drawing gig? Fucking unreal. It had started a few months back—Cobra doing quick sketches of his coworkers, just for shits and giggles, which escalated into more interest, more requests.

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