Page 16 of Sin

Knowing how on edge I am, he gets right down to business. “I found two maids who worked for your parents who are willing to testify that they witnessed Gideon being abusive toward your mother.”

I nod. “That’s good, right. Outside corroboration is good.”

“It is,” he agrees. “Even better is that one of your mother’s sorority sisters provided a letter Amelia wrote her, confiding some of her fears about your father’s suspicious behavior. In it, she mentioned a blood test she took because she suspected she had been drugged. If we can get our hands on that blood test, I think I can go to my ex-partner and get him to officially open the case.”

“We’re going to nail the bastard.”

“Sin,” Oliver sighs, “I’ve told you over and over again that?—”

“I know. I know. Don’t get my hopes up,” I repeat the advice he’s told me over and over again since I came to him with my mom’s journal and told him my father killed my mother.

“The best thing you could do for the sake of the case is to bring in your mother’s journal to me today. If I had the actual diary entries and not just the electronic copies of them, Hirsh might agree to open the case immediately.”

I shake my head. “Not until Cassidy turns eighteen and is out from under Gideon’s jurisdiction. As soon as my father knows he’s under investigation, he’ll know that I’m behind it.” I take a sip of my own coffee. “That’s okay. I can handle him gunningfor me, but when he’s attacked, my father lashes out. If he can’t get to me, Cassidy will be his first target. He already threatened to send him to a school that has some serious conversion camp vibes. I don’t want to know what he’d try to do to him once he’s cornered.”

“By waiting, you’re taking a chance, kid.”

“What does it matter if I wait another three months? There’s no statute of limitations on murder.”

“It’s an election year. District Attorney Cisneros is running against a conservative.” Oliver takes a sip of his coffee. “If Carlyle wins, he’s definitely not going to want to prosecute a sixteen-year-old murder case against a local evangelical celebrity. It totally goes against his base.”

“Looks like I’m writing a huge-ass check to Cisneros’ campaign, then.”

“Even if Cisneros wins, it’s not a lock,” Oliver says, running his hand over his shaved head like he’d forgotten he lost a bet with his ex-partner and had to cut his wavy dark hair in forfeit. “It’s going to be an uphill battle to bring this case to trial and then get a conviction. I just want you to be prepared for that.”

“Fuck being prepared,” I say, bringing my fist down at the table. I ignore the stares of the people sitting around us. “My father getting away with murder will never be an acceptable option for me.”

“Look, Sin, I want to see your father get what’s coming to him, too, but I need to be sure you don’t do anything stupid if things don’t go your way.”

I think of all the ways I’ve thought about administering my own personal justice to my father, and a smile of longing breaks across my face. From Oliver’s reaction to it, I don’t think it’s reassuring him. “Ollie,” I lean forward, truly curious about his answer, “are you worried that being a murderer might just be a family trait?”

Instead of meeting Cassidy at the Student Union, I go to his last class. It must be over because students are bolting out the door. Cassidy isn’t one of them, so I walk into the lab, immediately spotting him looking into a microscope as a handsome older man in a lab coat stares moonily at him.

I stroll over and both of them look up at me, startled. “Did Cassidy misbehave?” I ask, pointedly staring at the professor’s hand resting low on Cassidy’s back, just waiting to creep down farther. “Is that why he’s being held late after class?”

The professor lets out a too-loud laugh in response. “Nothing like that,” he says, finally stepping away, taking his offending hand with him. “I became excited at finally having a student who didn’t sleep through my class and wanted to show him some advanced material.”

Advanced material, my ass.

Clueless, Cassidy looks at me with excitement. “He was showing me how mRNA technology actually works at a microbiology level.”

I can’t help but grin at how excited Cassidy is. He’s definitely my sexy bio nerd. Obviously, his professor thinks so too. I give him a dirty glare that clearly statesI knowyou have more than mentorship on your mind.

He gathers himself up to his full height and, with his most haughty tone, introduces himself. “Professor McNaught,” he says, extending his hand. “And you are?”

I ignore McNaught’s hand and instead place mine on Cassidy’s back. “The guy that’s gonna be picking up Cassidy here after every class.” I guide us out the door. “And the one taking him home.”

We walk outside of the science building, and Cassidy turns to me. “Are you going to scare all my professors?”

“Only the ones who are trying to fuck you.”

“He’s my professor,” Cassidy says, shock in his voice. “He wasn’t trying to do that.”

So damned innocent. I wonder how he fails to know how attractive he is, and how many guys and girls want him, including his stepbrother standing right next to him.

“Agree to disagree,” I tell him, just as our ride home pulls up.

He does a double take. “You got a limo to drive us home?”

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