Page 97 of Breaking the Sinner

Her face creased with confusion. “You would never hurt me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Well, I don’t care then.” Gen straightened her back. “I haven’t gambled in my entire life. Why not start now?”

Her confidence grated on him. It was time to leave.

“And what they say in there doesn’t have anything to do with who you really are,” she went on.

Murmurs from the dining room reached him. Probably talking about how sinful and unclean he was. “Don’t you fucking see? I already get looked at like this enough in my life. It’s how the whole fucking world sees me.”

“But you’re not like they think,” she insisted.

“At some point you need to accept that it’s true,” Cobra said, gripping her arms. “I’m worthless. I’m not worth you, or your time, or any of this bullshit you keep trying to convince me of. We had fun. But you know what? Maybe time’s up now.”

Gen stiffened, her normally bright green eyes going dull. Suspicious. “What are you trying to say?”

“Accept what you’ve known about me all along. Leave me to fucking rot, okay? Maybe I really am the devil. The tattoos prove it.” He scoffed, turning to his things by the couch. He stuffed the shorts and shirt he’d slept in into his bag.

“You’re being ridiculous,” she whispered.

“Actually, you are.” He stood, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. “These people treat you like you’re some murderer needing forgiveness. And you take it.”

“And you treat yourself like you’re a murderer, when it was really just your mom,” Gen said, so quietly that he almost didn’t hear her.

He gritted his teeth. Her words hit him like knives but didn’t lodge deep enough to bleed out, or even hurt. “Stop it. You coming with or not?”

“You wait,” she said, pointing at him. “We’re not done here yet.”

“That’s what you think.” He jerked his chin toward the other side of the house. “You got five minutes.”

Her lips thinned, hands finding her hips. A power pose. One that he hadn’t seen her use before. “Take back what you said. About us being done.”

“I won’t.”

Her throat bobbed, and the power pose wilted a little. Her bottom lip trembled. “I don’t understand.”

“Gen, we agreed. We fuckingagreed.We said three months, and guess what? That’s in two weeks. So, in the interest of moving this along a little quicker, let’s just call it early. You and me. It’s over. I came here, met your folks like you wanted, and they reminded me of something even you managed to make me forget about. Are we done now? I gotta fucking go.”

Tears filled her eyes, and he hated the ping of regret that shuddered through him.

“But I don’t—” she began.

“Five minutes,” he said again, anxiety churning inside him. He brushed past her, heading for the front door.

“Wait for me,” she said again. He stormed down the hallway. Alarm be damned. He tried the door and it unlatched on the first try. No beeping or sirens. Thank God. Or Thank Beelzebub. Whoever he was supposed to acknowledge. The fresh fall air was a relief, and he took a deep breath as he headed toward the car.

Sycamore and cottonwood trees towered overhead as he scuffed out to his car. At least he’d gotten a few bites in before starting the long drive home. He unlocked the door and slid into the front seat quickly, pressing his head against the back of the seat.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

Fuck this and fuck them and fuck him.

What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

His own words came back to him.Let’s call it early.He’d put a voice to the deep-seated reason that still existed inside of him. The last dregs of it that hadn’t been enchanted and consumed by Gen. They needed to end it. Time was almost up, the terms they agreed on, and it needed to end now or else Cobra would lose his shit and who knew what came after that?

He squeezed the steering wheel so hard he worried it might snap off. He twisted his head, peeking through the sliver of window that included the front door.

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