Page 6 of Breaking the Sinner

And then she was off. Running toward the gym door like a raccoon caught in the trash. Cobra gaped after her, then swung to look at the photographer.

“Well, I guess that’s a wrap,” he said, bending his wrist back to support his camera near his face. “I don’t know what just happened there, but it’ll be interesting.”

He shooed Cobra away, who stumbled toward the door Gen had disappeared out of. Every part of him wanted to follow that awkward pixie to wherever she’d flitted off to…but clearly she wasn’t the girl he thought she was.

Something was seriously off about her.

So why did he want to know more?

Cobra milled around the gym for another minute as the rest of the pairings were made for individual shots. Blinding smiles temporarily sidetracked him. The perfect bodies that needed no alterations or photoshopping.

These people looked like they’d stumbled off the set ofThe Hills.

But the longer he lingered without purpose, the more the truth settled in. This wasn’t his scene. These weren’t his people. Nobody here needed him or even cared. He checked his phone—almost five. Time to head home. Or somewhere. The after-party flitted through his mind, reminding him of the decision.

A few years ago, he wouldn’t have been caught dead hanging out with any of these people.

But maybe this was part of the new Cobra. Scratch that—not new. Just slightly more stable. The Cobra who actually had an extra fifty bucks this month to do...whateverwith.

His roommates were jealous. Kept calling him Bougie. As if being able to afford produce for once could erase the lifetime of shit he’d grown up in.

Might as well call him a magic mushroom.

Cobra drifted through the halls of the gym. The whole place still felt weird, like an extended dream he had yet to wake up from. He technically belonged here, and it didn’t smell like piss. If his stepdad, Patrick, was still around, he would have shit a brick.

This was the sort of thing his stepdad had always pushed him to achieve. Not that his mom had ever given a damn. She was still kicking, and probably would have laughed in his face about his job.A weight room attendant? Why don’t you have a real job?He could hear her voice as if she were back in front of him and screaming so hard that spit flew, even though the bitch had been locked up for over ten years.

Seemed like he’d never be able to get rid of her insults. The way she could tear him down faster than anyone else.

Cobra changed in the locker room, replacing his hot pants with black board shorts. He wiped off as much of the body paint as he could, then tugged on his black T-shirt. He’d leave the hair for now.

Because somewhere in between the photo shoot and the locker room, he’d made up his mind.

He’d go to the damn after-party. That was what this new job represented, after all. Testing the waters of something else. Anything else.

Dipping his toe in long enough to see if it was bathwater or too choppy to stay.

Chapter 3

Cobra nursed his second beer of the night. Everyone around him had reached their fourth or fifth shot, but he didn’t want to party like that tonight.

This wasn’t his part of town; these weren’t his people. He needed to keep his cool, in case anything went down.

These freaking coworkers of his acted like they’d never been drunk before. Or maybe it was just Red. Her high-pitched laugh ricocheted down the bar. He’d been trying to sit as close to her as possible without tipping her off.

She was magnetic, but she didn’t mean to be. That confused him. Something about her read like an alien. She basically required a translator.

Lex came up and squeezed his neck from behind. He could smell the tang of Jameson when Lex spoke. “You having fun?”

“Yeah, man.” Cobra shrugged off his hand. Red snorted two seats down, slapping her palm against the bar. Her laugh was infectious. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t look away.

“All right. Just making sure.” Lex squeezed the rounded edge of the bar.

Cobra studied the condensation on his beer bottle. “I almost didn’t come tonight.”

“Why’s that?”

Cobra shrugged. Lex was the only one he could open up to. He knew where Cobra came from. What was normal for him. The two of them shared the bond of underground fighting. All the snapped bones and bloody faces. They knew what painful grit looked like. “Still getting used to things around here, you know?”

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