Page 11 of Breaking the Sinner

Get an hombre, once you Internet search what it is again

Have butt sex?????

Have sex in front of someone else??????

Start learning French

Get new CUTE clothes that aren’t hand-me-downs from Amara’s Aunt Vicky

Become a CUTE dog owner!!! Coordinating leashes with outfits. Seasonal photo shoot optional.

Own two dogs

Own three dogs

Make a dog calendar with photos of my own dog(s)

The list filled the entire sheet of notebook paper, as well as the back side. Cobra’s hand immediately went to his pocket. This shit was too weird. He wanted to take a picture…so he could study it.

Maybe help her out with some of the items on the list.

Something that sounded like a rustle tipped him off, so he snapped a picture of each side before he could think better of it and tossed the paper back where he found it. He let himself out of Red’s room, mind swirling with questions and curiosity, every cell of his body alive like he’d touched water near a current. Before he reached the front door, Amara’s words came back to him.

Aspirin before bed was out, but he could at least grab the water.

Cobra didn’t bother searching for a light switch in the kitchen, just groped through cabinets in the dim half-light of the hallway until he found a glass. He tapped his foot as he filled it with water, resisting the urge to look around. Absorb these surroundings. See what regular places were like. She probably lived with a roommate or maybe a sibling. The place reeked of comfort, stability. Made his skin crawl.

Bunch of regular ass people in here.

But Red…

Maybe she wasn’t as regular as he thought.

“What are you doing in here?”

The fierce hiss made him freeze. That wasn’t Gen’s voice. He set the glass down, raising his hands as if the submission might help things. A girl with a black bob peered at him from around the corner of the hallway. Her glare could have turned him to stone.

“I brought Red—Gen home.”

“Oh, yeah?” He could practically see the invisible knife she raised. “Well, if you already helped her out, then get out of here.”

“I wanted to take her a glass of water,” Cobra said. If this had been any apartment on the block where he lived, he’d be shot by now.

“I’ll do it. You just leave.”

Cobra didn’t need to hear it a third time. He took off for the door, feet pounding as he raced down the hallway and out the apartment building.

As he white-knuckled the steering wheel, driving back to his shitty apartment in his underwhelming neighborhood, he could see what tonight’s entry on his list would look like.Help a girl who is light years out of your league.

Cobra gnawed on his bottom lip as he drove, unsure if the prickles in his gut were regret…or excitement.

Chapter 4

Missed a half-morning of work.A new entry for the list.

Gen frowned, pinching the bridge of her nose. Alcohol radiated from her like green squigglies coming out of a cartoon stink bog. Coming to work four hours late wasn’t very graceful, but then again, when she’d called in, Travis didn’t sound surprised, either.

The headache that had plagued her all morning had reduced to a mere throb finally. Four aspirin helped, as well as a glass of water. But the Holt gym was too bright. She squinted as she pushed into the main hallway. Thank God she wasn’t a front desk girl. How could people interact with the public with a hangover like this? The thought of an extended conversation made her sweat.

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