Page 64 of Saint's Sinner

Sinn had the fire going by the time they finished arranging the mattress and sleeping bags inside, and soon joined them in the sprawl of soft material while they waited for the Dutch oven containing their dinner to heat up. Saint waited for them to get settled before finally sharing what had been on his mind all day.

“Guys, I’ve been doing some thinking about the whole living arrangement back at the house and it isn’t working. I hate seeing my brother and Kat look so heartsick over Teddy and as much as I’d like to choke the little bastard for being the cause of all this, he’s hurting too and I can’t help but feel like us getting our own place might be just the fix that’s needed to get things headed in the right direction,” Saint explained.

“You think they can patch things up?”

“Sixteen years is a long time to just toss in the trash like a wasted paper towel,” Saint said. “I know people do it all the time but I dunno, without us there I can see Teddy settling back down and behaving himself again.”

“Yeah, because he’ll have finally gotten his way when it comes to me,” Sinn muttered.

“You may have a point there,” Saint said. “And it doesn’t sit right with me after he sat on that license plate number when he knew Keegan could have traced it with ease, but you’ve already made him pay for that.”

“True enough.”

“For the record, I’m not looking to move us out just for them, it’s for us too. The vibe is toxic whenever you two are within ten feet of each other.”

“If he’d just get his head out of his ass,” Night grumbled.

“Let. It. Go.” Saint ordered. “There’s nothing more that can be done to him than what’s already been done. Sinn extracted his pound of flesh, which means you keep your hands off him, understood?”

“Yeah.”

“Good enough,” Saint said. “Now, Wreck told me there is a place a few doors up from him. If you want I’ll call the real estate agent and we can take a peek. The neighbors will probably gnash their teeth and complainhere goes the neighborhoodbut they’ll just have to deal with it or move. Bellamy and Cody pretty much live there now so we won’t lack for our kind of company.”

“Fine, set it up,” Sinn snarled. “I hate being the cause of anyone’s misery, even Teddy’s.”

“Uh-uh, nope, let’s get one thing straight. Teddy is the cause of everything that’s happened to him and some of what’s been going on with that Scout kid too. If he’s going to keep hanging around, or heaven forbid, prospect, then he’s going to have to find himself another mentor because Teddy is fast tracking that kid right out the door.”

“I feel bad for him,” Night admitted. “He scoured the bar until it reeked of bleach which we all know was Teddy’s doing. He wanted to drive me out of there and make it so you couldn’t take two steps inside the door. I’m sure he never considered theeffect it would have on others when he told Scout to clean the place that way.”

“I’m betting Teddy was the one who gave him the recipe for that punch he mixed up on club night too,” Sinn said.

“At this point Bellamy has zero patience for his mistakes,” Night said. “You should have heard him cuss Scout out in the kitchen the other night.”

“You know why, don’t ya,” Saint asked.

“Nope,” Night said.

“That kid went and plopped his ass in Wreck’s lap the other night and asked if he’d like to go on a wild ride with him.”

“Damn, that takes balls,” Sinn said. “Did Cody see.”

“Tried to yank him up offa Wreck but that little son of a bitch packs a mean left hook. He knocked Cody flat, then acted all butthurt when Wreck called him a troublemaker. That kid has a mouth on him. He said trouble was just another word for fun and that when it came to making trouble he only made the best kind. I think he was going for lewd with the move he tried to pull off to punctuate it, because he wrapped his leg around one of the support beams like it was a stripper pole and started to spin, but the whole thing fell flat when Cody shoved him. Scout wound up knocking a pitcher of beer into Rabbit’s lap, and Cassidy slipped in what spilled on the floor and wound up sprawled across a table. The kid is on permanent cleanup duty alongside Teddy and not allowed in the place until after it’s closed.”

“He’s lucky Rabbit didn’t gut him,” Night said.

Sinn chuckled at that. “No bull.”

“He couldn’t leave it at that, either and went right back after Cody until Creature snatched him up and dumped him outside. Little shit was leaning against the wall waiting for Cody to come out so they could finish fighting once the place shut down. Wreck finally just saidlet ‘em brawlwhich didn’t turn out the best for my nephew,” Saint admitted.

“Now that’s balls,” Sinn said.

“Yeah seriously. Whoever taught that Scout kid to scrap was serious about making sure he could defend himself,” Saint said. “Cody is going to be bruised up for a while and as long as he’s hurting, Wreck and Bellamy are going to be gunning for that kid’s blood.”

“It’s a good thing they don’t stay on grounds anymore then.”

“Exactly,” Saint replied. “And I’m hoping it proves to be just as good a thing for us. Here, check this out. I was able to pull up a listing for the house Wreck was telling me about, or at least, I think it’s the right house. It’s the right street anyway. Looks like there’s another one up the block from this one. Maybe we should look at ‘em both.”

“I think I’ll leave the looking to those of you with working eyes if you don’t mind,” Sinn said.

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