Page 58 of Sin With Me

Chapter15

Cameron

Thirty-some yearsago

“Daddy?Were there dinosaurs on the ark?” I asked.

Still kneeling in the pew, my father turned toward me with a stern look and put his index finger to his lips. I’d interrupted him praying again, but I had so many questions that I couldn’t possibly remember them all or keep them in myhead.

Leo at preschool said that dinosaurs didn’t exist. I knew that was a lie because I’d seen their skeletons in museums – which Leo said were also fake. He also said that if dinosaurs were real, they would have been saved on theark.

My father resumed his prayer, and I swung my feet back and forth, patiently waiting. I wasn’t tall enough to reach the floor just yet, but I could touch the kneeler with my tiptoes. And if I stood on it, I looked like a third grader at least.

When my father was done praying, he sat down beside me and put his arm around me. I liked it when he didthat.

“Dinosaurs on the ark, youask?”

My eyes openedwide.

“They say the dinosaurs all died before the ark was built, and that’s why Noah couldn’t take any withhim.”

And now my mouth dropped open. My father knew everything.

“How do youknow?”

“Because I pray.” He answered in the same way I’d heard him answer before.

“Really, Daddy?”

“Yes. God has all the answers. We may not hear them all the time, but he hears us. And if we have a question, He’ll guide you in life to help you seek the answers.”

“You should ask God why Mommy is upset withyou.”

“Is she? Hmm, maybe I should ask Him so. In the meantime, I love you. Both your mom and Ido.”

It made me feel all nice and warm on the inside when my parents told me they loved me. Despite their fights, they always hugged me and my brothers.

“What do you say to God?” I asked.

“You know your prayers, son.”

“But when I want to say other stuff.”

“Then you talk to Him as if He were sitting beside you, the way I am, listening.”

“And He’ll listen?”

“Always.”

Presentday

I kneltin front of the cross and lowered myhead.

He’ll always listen.

“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s been…” I took a deep breath, then released it. “It’s been a long time since my last confession.”

To be honest… actually, I couldn’t remember the last time I was honest with myself. So much had happened in the past few months that I could barely remember my mission: to find Aaron Cortez before he found me. To set up a trap for one of the most powerful cartel operations in the country and to find the woman who’d stolen my father’s heart. The more I dug through the papers in the attic and spoke to Father John, the more evidence I found of Kate’s mother’s involvement with the Cortez family, and that scared me; though if Father John wasn’t aware of Kate, maybe the Cortezes weren’t either. Maybe that’s why her mother had never returned. She’d already lost one child in Pace, and my gut told me that she didn’t want to lose another.

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