Page 24 of Sin Like the Devil

“You hear her name?” Xander asks in a loud exhale.

“Yeah. Ripley.”

He hesitates before his voice changes, almost like he’s speaking around a smile. “So she’s here, then. And the little toy has found a backbone.”

“Ripley ran off here to hide after she fed us to the wolves!” Lennox explodes.

They lapse into loaded silence, though I can hear someone cracking their knuckles. I like to think I’m a patient guy—I have to be to simply communicate these days—but being left out of non-verbal conversations drives me fucking insane.

“Still waiting for my debriefing.” I clear my throat pointedly.

My bed protests beneath the weight of someone sitting down. By the sounds of the groaning springs, it’s Lennox’s over-muscled frame. I’m surprised the bed supports him.

“Ripley Bennet was a patient in Priory Lane before you arrived.” He speaks in a clipped tone.

“So what? You guys fucked her?”

Xander tsks. “It’s hardly something so juvenile.”

That’s not an outright denial. Seems like Lennox isn’t the only one keeping secrets.

“Is that a yes?” I push.

“Why do you care?” Lennox fires back.

Mouth clicking shut, I shrug it off. “Just want to know what we’re dealing with.”

“Trust me, Raine. Stay far away from Ripley,” Lennox warns. “She’s psycho with a capital P, and not in a cute way.”

She smelled pretty damn cute to me.

“We earned our place in Priory Lane through brute force.” Xander states matter-of-factly. “But the contraband lines that flowed through the institute once belonged to someone else.”

“Someone else?” I repeat. “Her?”

“No.”

The question of who hangs between us. I caught on quick when I arrived in Priory Lane, realising Lennox and Xander were the fucking kingpins of the institute.

“We did what we had to do to survive. Plain and simple,” Lennox justifies. “Not everyone sees it that way.”

Several pieces of the puzzle simultaneously click together. Whatever you wanted—smack, booze, blades—they could get it for you. It’s how we met in the first place.

I was on my fifth stint in rehab after showing up to a scheduled gig too incoherent to remember my own name. The ultimatum came from my manager... Get clean, or my career in the music industry would be over.

After rehab failed, he dangled this golden lifeline instead. That same day, I walked straight into Priory Lane’s arms. It seemed like a sweet deal to escape more rehab and appease the bastard profiting off the one thing that makes my life worth living.

My violin.

Of course, I didn’t get clean. Lennox refused to sell to me at first. But when I made it pretty clear that I’d find a way to get high with or without their help, Xander was the one who caved. At least that way they could keep an eye on me.

“What did you do to her?”

“Ripley?” Lennox scoffs. “Not a damn thing.”

“No, asshole. Her friend. Whoever the hell she accused you of hurting.”

Lennox hesitates before answering. “Absolutely nothing. She did it to herself.”

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