Page 14 of Saint's Sinner

“Getting kidnapped? It sucked! I thought the whole fuckin’ thing was real right up until Gramps showed up.”

“Naa, not that,” Dougie said. “I meant umm…the whole going blind thing. They keep changing the prescription on my glasses, making it stronger and stronger. Even then I get headaches from having to squint and everything gets grainy around the edges. My peripherals are shot. They’re probably going to yank my license the next time I go to the DMV.”

It was the last thing he expected and as pissed as he was about being here, it saddened him to learn that his brother was now dealing with the same shit that had been making Sinn’s life hell for years.

“It’s not going to be an easy adjustment,” Sinn said. “Some days I get up and for the first few hours things are clear enough that I don’t have to glide my fingertips over the surface of everything just to navigate. Everything after that is like slogging through sludgy gray fog. By the time the shadows are big enough to work out what something is, I’ve probably run into it.”

“Dumped my bike last week,’ Dougie said. “Took a turn too tight and landed in a drainage ditch.”

“What lie did you tell Pops?”

“That I got run off the road by a semi.”

‘Yeah, and what did he say to that?”

“Cursed about how they needed their own roads and had no respect for anyone driving beside them. Ranted about how many guys he’s known who’ve gotten wrecked by them, and how many people they’ve killed, the usual.”

“So, he bought it.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think Gramps did,” Dougie admitted. “He’s been shooting me the side eye every time we’re in the same room. I caught him checking out my bike too. Not sure what he was doing but I intend to go over every inch of it before I ride again. If I remember right, he put a GoPro on yours.”

“Yeah, that’s how he knew about my last three wrecks,” Sinn admitted. “You better hope he was just installing it, not looking to pull it so he could go through the footage.”

“Fuck!”

“I’m not gonna let them chain me up in that office,” Dougie growled. “It’s bad enough I let them convince me to take those goddamned online courses so I could learn finance. I don’t want that to be all I do.”

“Someone had to learn how to make the dirty money clean and you know Gramps would never allow an outsider to do it,” Sinn pointed out. “You were the only one of us who made it through high school without a record, it was a no brainer that you’d be the one to get that assignment.”

“Fuckin’ hated all that fuckin’ math!”

“As long as Gramps is living, you’ll find yourself doing plenty more things you’ll hate.”

“I wish he’d let you patch over.”

“Why?”

“To set a precedence.”

“Wrong precedence. If he ever did allow me to do it, it would just prove I was finally too much of a liability to keep on wearing the colors he created.”

“So, I’ve just got to show that I’d be more of a liability than you are.”

“You already are more of a liability,” Sinn pointed out. “You know where the money comes from, you know where it goes through to get scrubbed. Not only are you a target for other clubs, you’d be the first one the feds looked to turn.”

“I’d never flip on my family.”

“Not saying you would,” Sinn replied. “I’m telling you the facts of your situation and that the best way out of it all the way around isn’t to hide what’s going on with your vision, it’s to tell them. Trust me when I say your days of being trapped in the office would be over with, but they’ll take your keys the same way they take that desk, and then where will you be?”

“In the same hell as you I’m guessing.”

“Or worse. I’ve got someone out there looking for me. You’ve got no one. You’d better help yourself while you still can, or you’ll learn just how lonely a position that can be.”

He could hear Dougie’s breathing grow heavy and a little harsh as they sat in silence. Sinn tilted his face towards the window to feel the warmth of the sun against his skin. He’d have given anything to be out there riding beneath it, even if it meant riding bitch.

“There is someone,” Dougie said, pitching his voice so low even Sinn’s exceptionally honed hearing almost missed it.

“Who?”

---