Page 90 of Sin With Me

“Kate, I need you to know that I never meant to hurtyou.”

His lowered voice curled off his tongue and teased my ears as if he himself licked me there. I felt goosebumps pepper my arms. Why was it he making it so difficult to remain upset withhim?

“Hurt me? Jesus Fath… Cameron, I told you my sins! I trusted you with my deepest thoughts. I trusted you with mylife.”

“And you stillcan.”

“You gotta do better than that, Cam.”

I finally managed to peel myself away from him and crossed my arms over my chest.

“All right. Just have a seat, please.”

I followed his gaze to a stool by the kitchen counter and took my seat. Leaving without answers wasn’t an option anyway, so I was glad he’d stopped me. I rested my folded arms on the kitchen counter. The pristine space was decorated in predominantly gray and white, just like the bedroom. Sharp lines cut the edges of the furniture in the open living and dining areas. Each space complemented another as the sun shone through the floor to ceiling windows. We were near the ocean on one of the lower floors, though looking out at the park across the street didn’t give me the feeling of being highup.

Cameron poured me a cup of coffee and passed it to me before taking a seat across the counter. “I came to Pace to find Aaron Cortez before he found me. I knew it was his home town, and I was hoping that searching through the parish documents would give me some clues.”

“Why is he looking foryou?”

“We were in the middle of a deal, and it didn’t go well. Aaron Cortez thinks I double-crossed him. Not only that, he thinks I’m responsible for blowing up millions of dollars worth of narcotics.”

I lowered my head to the counter with despair, and a memory my blowing up a truck full of narcotics flashed through my mind. It looked like we had a common enemy.

“I’m still the same man you know, Kate, and I do care about you – alot.”

I lifted my head. “Care about me? You fucked me while pretending to be a priest!”

He cringed. “Look, I’m not going to argue with you. I made a mistake that night. I took advantage of you, and I’m sorry.”

“Stopthat!”

“What?”

“Stop talking like that night was just a night in the past and meant nothing because to me… Argh… I can’t even think right now. If you’re not a priest, then who areyou?”

“I get paid to find people. Different kinds of people. At least, that’s what I used to do. They used to refer to me as a bounty hunter, but that part of my life is over now. As long as Cortez is out to get me and my family, I won’t be able to do that job well again.”

“Whynot?”

“Just like you, I’m on the run, Kate. I can’t do my job while hiding out, and the past six months just proved to me that working as a bounty hunter might not be my dream job anyway.”

As hypocritical as it might have sounded, the past eight months of my life were beginning to feel like one big lie. “What are you going to do if you find Aaron?” I said in frustration. “I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with. There’s no way you can win against him. And if you know the Cortez family, you know you’re not dealing with just one asshole, you’re dealing with them all: his father, his sons, uncle, and cousins. There’s just noway.”

“I know that. You think I wanted to double-cross them? I didn’t. I wasn’t making the deal for myself. I was doing it to protect my family. And I sure as hell am not one to take a back seat and wait for inevitable death. I had to do something. Going back to the beginning, which was Pace, was the best option.”

“And who gave you the brilliant idea to be a priest?”

“Kate, I’m warningyou.”

“What are you going to do, Father? Ask me to confess how much I hateyou?”

He winced, the pain of my words striking him right in the chest.

“Father John would have given you access to those documents if you had only asked.”

“I didn’t know that when I came to Pace, Kate, and I sure as hell couldn’t take the chance of having no access to the information.”

A knock sounded, and both our gazes flew to the front door. Cameron let out a frustrated breath.

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