Page 36 of Sweet Sin

“Thanks. I’ll go with you.”

“You know how to shoot a pistol, Vannah?”

“Are you kidding me? You don’t grow up in my family and not learn how to handle a weapon. I can shoot a nine millimeter and a twenty-two. I’m pretty good with a shotgun too.”

“Good.”

One less thing I have to worry about. “You have a piece?”

“At my place. It’s in a safe under my bed.”

“All right. We’ll need to get it. You need to keep it on you.”

She sighs. “I moved here to get away from all this.”

“Oh, sweetheart, you can’t outrun your past. I wish you could, but you can’t.”

She finishes in the shower, steps out, and I wrap a dry towel around her dripping body. She takes another and squeezes the water out of her hair.

“I wish I had some clean clothes.”

“We’re going to your place tomorrow. We’ll get you some. Then I think it’s best if you stay here with me.”

She nods and then slams her hand against her mouth. “Oh God…”

“What?”

“I just thought of something.” Her voice shakes. “I bet they looked at my place first.”

Fuck.

She’s right.

“We need to go,” I say. “Now.”

12

SAVANNAH

Darkness has completely fallen by the time we get to my place.

It’s trashed.

My heart drops as I take what’s left of my beautiful living room.

It’s a disheveled nightmare.

The couch and chairs are overturned, cushions ripped open, and my magazines and candles strewn across the floor. The TV screen has been smashed, and it leaves a trail of broken glass and electronic pieces I don’t recognize. My bookshelves are empty, their contents scattered and torn apart. Pages and pages of my beloved classics…ruined.

Robotically, I walk past the travesty and into the kitchen.

Cabinets are flung open, and canned goods have been flung at the walls, leaving dents. My dishes are smashed, leaving porcelain fragments on the tile floor. The refrigerator door hangs ajar, but since I still haven’t been grocery shopping, nothing but a quart of milk was inside. The milk has been poured over the floor.

Falcon says nothing. Simply rubs my back, but nothing will ease the tension between my shoulders.

“Do I dare look in my bedroom?” I ask.

“Up to you.”

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