Page 87 of Sinners Atone
I cock a brow. “Your husband can’t climb a ladder?”
“He can, he just doesn’t know I’ve bought more lights. Oh, and I’ve been hanging out with Penny, Rafe’s new employee. I think he’s a bit obsessed with her, but he won’t admit it. Anyway, she taught me how to card count, so don’t worry about beating him up, actually; I’m going to shake him down for all he’s got instead.”
A smirk lifts my lips. Penelope Price—she’s my new neighbor and definitely my brother’s new obsession. I’m getting sick of hearing about the girl andfromthe girl. She’s been using the hotline as a diary for fucking years.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.” Rory shoves her cell screen under my nose. I stop, tug off my aviators, and squint to figure out what I’m looking at. “Is that a dog?”
“Uh-huh, it’s Maggie. Look at her little curls!”
“I’ve only been gone three days. When did you get a dog?”
“Well, she’s not technically mine yet. She’s a Christmas gift from Angelo. She’s been staying at the outhouse with the housekeeper, but I sniffed her out.” She grins up at me, then her face falls when her eyes touch the welt on my cheek. She cocks her head and studies me like she’s seeing me for the first time. I fucking hate when she does that; it always brings a lump to mythroat. At least she never asks questions. Guess that’s why I can tolerate her more than I do most people.
We reach the door to the lounge, but before I can slide it open, something glints up at me from the shoe rack.
Pink. Sparkly. A heel so high it’d make a stripper jealous.
My gaze narrows. “Who’s here?”
“The usual. Angelo, Rafe, Dan…” She follows my glare. “Oh, and Wren.”
Her name lights up the bruises on my back and tightens a noose around my neck.
The last time I saw her was days ago, strung up and indecent in my garage. My shot at the light was like a camera flash, burning my last glimpse of her into my retinas. She was all bikini body and Bambi eyes, and I couldn’t get the image out of my fucking head even if I blew my brains out. I see it in the dark. Behind every blink.
And now she’s here. The irony isn’t lost on me: I can’t escape the girl, even in the middle of the fucking ocean.
I drag my knuckles over my mouth to hide my grimace. Rory’s gone back to the subject of her new dog, showing me a whole camera’s worth of pink tongues, floppy ears, and tiny paws. I nod in all the right places, but I’m barely listening. Too busy straining my ears for any sign ofHeron the other side of the door. Like her fairylike laugh, or worse, the damp, heavy pants that grazed my nose as my hand considered exploring the curve of her bare hip.
Fucking Denis. Though he made good on our pact and cracked me around the head with a pool cue, he didn’t hit hard enough to shake her out of it.
Rory’s moved on to showing me videos. When her phone speaker crackles with the sound of her cooing behind the camera, I make my excuses, plus a promise not to tell my brotherabout her snooping, and take the long way round to the sky lounge.
If I weren’t already on edge, stepping inside the lounge shoves me closer to it.
Nineties hip-hop thumps out of the surround-sound speakers. Empty beer bottles litter the coffee table, and behind it, are my idiot brothers sitting side by side on the sofa, controllers in hand.
“You drive like your wife,” Rafe muses, not taking his eyes off his mushroom-shaped avatar on the screen.
Angelo’s dinosaur thing skids around a bend, knocking the mushroom off the road. “One more comment about my wife, and I’ll shove this controller up your ass sideways.”
“According to your wife, ass play is moreyourthing?—”
As Angelo’s fist clenches, I snatch up a beer bottle and hurl it at the television. It was either that or throw it at their fucking heads.
The screen shatters the Mario Kart track into a thousand pieces, and both pairs of eyes slide up to me.
“Well, that was a bit dramatic,” Rafe tuts, tossing the controller on the couch beside him. “You got Bud Light all over my rug too.”
I let out an acidic hiss. “Where are your men?”
Rafe shrugs. “Probably hiding from you after you shot out Leo’s kneecap last week.”
Angelo smirks. “What did Leo do?”
“Looked at him too long, apparently.”
