Page 12 of Sinful Chains

I’d barely refocused on my screen when my phone buzzed again. It wasn’t a text this time, though.

Mama

A pit formed in my stomach as I picked up. “Hey, Mama.”

“Hi, sweetheart,” she said, her voice thin and reedy. She sounded tired. She always sounded tired now. “I just wanted to check in.”

Which meant she really wanted to talk about Revere.

I sat back in my chair, rubbing my temple. “How are you feeling?”

She sighed. “Rough week, to be honest.”

“What happened?”

“I just keep thinking,” she said, her voice breaking. “Why? Why didn't they just take the car and let him go? Why'd they have to shoot him?”

I closed my eyes, feeling a headache coming on. “I don’t know, Mama. Nobody knows why criminals do what they do.”

Guilt twisted sharply in my chest. I could never tell her the truth, but I also couldn’t let her live the rest of her life in the dark.It would eat at her every day until I losther, too.

That'sifI even had the whole story. Cruz had told me what happened, but part of me still wondered how deep it all went. They liked to protect me from things, so it wouldn't have surprised me to learn he held back on some of the gritty details.

“I know you miss him,” I said softly. “I miss him, too. But you can’t dwell on it like this. It’s not healthy.”

“That’s what your daddy says.”

“How’s he doing?” I asked, not sure I wanted the answer.

“A little better than me,” Mama admitted. “Every day is a struggle. That’s all I can say.”

“I know.”

We let the silence linger between us before we said our I-love-yous and goodbyes, her voice raw with grief and exhaustion by the time she hung up. I sat there, frozen, staring at my cluttered desk. Cluttered like my mind. I felt her pain acutely, molding itself to mine, spreading through my body like a virus. Only there was no remedy that I could see. Not even knowing the truth.

Still, I wanted to know. Ineededto know. What happened that night? Why did they do it? Did they…enjoyit?

A disturbing realization settled over me.

This wasn’t just grief anymore. It wasn’t even anger.

It was curiosity.

The thought was deeply unsettling.

I shuddered at the vision in my head, of my men in some dark, abandoned building with guns and a mission, rolling through like a SWAT team, barking commands at each other through their headsets. I imagined their pulses racing, adrenaline coursing through them as they hunted their prey. I saw them with the power of life and death in their hands, and lord help me, something about it was sosexy.

But then I pictured my brother next to them, and it was like a splash of ice cold water dousing the pleasure center of my brain.

He died on their mission. I needed to know how. And why.

A knock at my door jolted me back to the present.

Storm stood in my doorway, leaning against the frame, his overwhelming presence filling the small space. His cologne entered ahead of him, lingering in the air, dark and rich, wrapping around me like an unspoken invitation. The sharp lines of his perfectly tailored gray suit sculpted his masculine frame. His eyes locked onto mine, hungry and searching.

Seeing him there at my door looking so delicious was like wish fulfillment for me. I'd been working on the same campus as him for years, but when Revere was alive, Storm never made a point to visit me. All of the Omegas kept a safe distance from me, in fact. Now, three of them had me in a chokehold.

“We need to talk.” His deep baritone caressed my eardrums, making me shiver. “Can I come in?”

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