Page 103 of The Sinner: James

“Everything good in paradise?” Lex grumps, checking his phone.

“Yup.”

He raises his eyes.

“Fuck you, James,” he says flatly as I flash a smile. “You’re beaming like a Christmas tree. How the hell does she look if you’re like that?”

“She purrs like a kitten.”

“So what was that all about?”

Biting the inside of my cheek, I slide into my seat, crushing a smile.

“She missed me.”

“You mean your cock.”

“You’re jealous.”

“Of course I am,” he says, looking back at the screen, his lips drawn into a smile.

I wait for him to look up again, but his focus remains on his phone, his expression changing.

“Listen... We might have a problem,” he says, seriously this time.

“What do you mean?” I ask in a different voice as well.

“One of the votes is gone. Alderman.”

He tips his gaze up.

“He had a massive stroke,” he says. “Chances are he’s not gonna make it.”

“I thought we had enough votes.”

He looks at the screen again.

“Yeah… I thought so too, but now it’s down to one. And it’s not someone on our list. It’s a woman who could go either way, but generally, women vote against projects like this. The only other person we can turn to is, um…” He pauses and raises his gaze. “You’re not gonna like this,” he says, looking straight into my eyes.

He pauses for a moment.

“It’s Rain’s father.”

“We’ll find someone else,” I say, quickly shooting down the idea. “I’m sure we can get the votes we need some other way. The mayor is on our side… This will do a lot of good to a lot of people.”

Lex tosses his phone on the table.

“You don’t have to sell me on this, man. I know all that, but that’s not how these things work. It could all crumble at the last moment if we don’t have the votes. And you know we can’t afford it.”

I run my hand through my hair before rubbing the back of my neck.

“I don’t need him,” I say dryly.

“Let’s hope not.”

“I don’t,” I deadpan.

He studies my face as I slowly sway my head from side to side and slip a cigarette into the corner of my mouth.

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