Page 179 of Sinful Like Us
Among the security team, Beckett is known to be somewhat reasonable, mostly calm and dedicated to his craft—but I’m staring at a twenty-one-year-old who’s so fucking frayed at the seams. I question how many times a day he spends ensuring every thread is hidden, every fucking stitch sewn.
I want to protect him.
I want to protect her.
He glances at Jane. “Sis, you’re not really going to go through with this?”
“I am.”
Sickness burns my throat. I blink infrequently, almost not at all.
Charlie sits on the edge of a red floral couch. He pours cocaine on a glass coffee table and uses a black credit card to separate the powder in lines.
Beckett looks haunted. He pushes away from the windowsill but he stops short of the table. He turns on me. “You’re really going to let Jane snort cocaine?”
I don’t answer. My pulse is in my ears. Ever since my PTSD crept outside of a nightmare, I worry I might meet it again.
Not today, I pray.
“Seriously?” Beckett shakes his head. “What kind of boyfriend are you?”
“One who knows how important this is,” I say with severity. “You’re theonly onein this room who can stop her.”
“Bullshit.”
I glare, and my anger bursts. “If you want her to stop, just fucking tell her!”
Tell her, goddammit.
“You tell her!” Beckett points at Jane.
“I can’t!” I shout. “You’re theonly one.”
His face contorts. “No. I’m getting Moffy.” He heads to the door.
I side-step to block his exit, and I stare down at him. “Maximoff already knows.”
His eyes darken. “There’s no way.”
Jane sinks down to her knees in front of the table. “Well, technically Moffy thinks you’d never let me do this.”
Maximoff believes in him.
Farrow doesn’t. I don’t, and I feel like 9 out of 10 outcomes involve Jane using drugs in this room. If we repeated this ten times, I only see Beckett choosing his sister and brotheronce.
Is this that one time?
I doubt it.
Charlie went a darker route when we planned this, and he said,“We might need to call in Moffy to join us.”
“No,”Farrow and Jane said.
But the reality is that Maximoff is sober. He has the family history of addiction, and Charlie thinks that forcing Maximoff to use drugs could push Beckett to quit more than them.
Maximoff agreed.
He’s waiting in the hall.
