Page 4 of Greed
Their brother Tony fought the sin of Gluttony and was an actor. He wouldn’t be home. Whatever Parker needed to say, he was safe doing it there. No need to enter Griffin’s place.
Parker cast an assessing eye over Griffin. “You ditched your brother in the middle of a mission.”
Griffin bit the inside of his cheek. There were two ways this could go. He could lie outright and come up with an excuse, or simply state the fact that he left because of the needs of his sin. One response would tilt him toward greed, one would keep him neutral––or worse, edge him more into the light. Yet another decision to make when he was already exhausted.
Parker must have seen Griffin’s gaze twitch toward his wrist because he shook his head disparagingly and lifted the stack of papers.
“For fuck’s sake, Griff. I know you think you have this balance thing sorted, but you don’t. We each need to find our mate, else we’re going to end up our sin incarnate and become the monsters the Syndicate intended. Is that what you want?” His tone was painfully loud in the small hallway, and Griffin winced.
“You know it’s not.”
Finding a life partner who embodied their sin’s opposing virtue would supposedly release them from the burden of their sin, unlock special abilities, and leave them free to fight crime and make whatever decisions they wanted without consulting the tattoo. Without their mate, they would forever be prisoners to the destiny forced upon them at birth––purify half the world of sin, no matter the deadly consequences. To prevent that, Griffin would rather trust the predictability of science than some woo-woo unquantifiablefated matetheory. Just because Evan had found his mate, didn’t mean the rest of them would. They had all searched for decades and come up dry. That was all the evidence he needed to stick to his timing protocol.
“Well,” Parker continued, “while you’ve been obsessively managing your sin, the rest of us have come up with a plan to hasten the search for our mates. We just need your help to finish it.”
“I don’t need a mate when I’m handling this fine on my own.”
Parker burst out laughing. It was a deep roar that tipped his head back to display perfect white teeth, and it shook the hallway. When he finished, he wiped tears from his eyes with a forearm.
“That’s a good one. Handling it on your own.” Then his expression deadpanned. “There’s more to it than keeping your goddamned tattoo in equal parts.”
“But there’s not,” Griffin argued. “You told me all we needed was to make sure the marking stayed equal parts black and white and we’d be fine. It’s worked for years for me and I taught you all how to balance each act of sin with an equally quantifiable act of virtue. It’s not my fault none of you have listened and are in danger of falling.”
Griffin needed no reminder of the consequences of ignoring his balance. The blood on his hands visited him nightly in his dreams.
Parker narrowed his eyes. “That tattoo was only ever meant to be a Bandaid solution to the problem. Not a fix. Without your mate, you won’t get special abilities.”
“Don’t need them. I win all my battles without them.”
“Your pride is making my stomach hurt. It will be your downfall, Griffin.”
He shrugged. Didn’t care.
Parker kept at him. “You can’t have children until you find your mate. You’re shooting blanks. Or did you forget that? Or don’t you care?”
“I don’t think people like us should bring children into the world.”
“Yeah, well the rest of us do, because what’s the point if we’re not fighting to make a world where it’s safe for our children?”
“You need something, or can I get out of my gear?”
“Evan was almost captured by the police.”
A beat of silence.
Griffin lowered his gaze.
“And that’s not the only thing. Someone turned up and executed two of the perps.”
“What?” Griffin’s gaze snapped back to Parker’s.
“That’s right. While you were nursing your sin, someone––we don’t know who––turned up and put a bullet in the center of each head while Evan was checking on the guy you secured. He didn’t get a good look at the shooter, but the only reason either of them were left alive was because they heard the cop sirens as they arrived at the shop. Evan was lucky to get out, no thanks to you.”
Griffin didn’t know what to say.
“If you had stayed, Griffin, two people might be alive, and the world might not blame the Deadly Seven for murder.”
“Why would they blame us?”
