Page 26 of The Sinners Gambit

She groans and falls back into her pillow. “You and fucking Quinn would get along great.”

“I’m glad you had someone there for you.”

“At least you weren’t staring at me.” She looks toward the TV. “Is thatGilmore Girls?”

“Yeah. Some of the best episodes in my opinion. I was always a Team Jess guy,” I say.

“I mean, clearly. He was Luke 2.0 and always meant to be endgame. They shoulda ended up together during the Yale years when he returned and knocked some sense into her stupid ass.”

“My thoughts exactly,” I say and pause before I ask, “Do you want to talk about your nightmare?”

“No!” she spits out and then starts gnawing at her bottom lip. My God, I want to be that lip right now. After some contemplative facial expressions she adds, “How did you start watching this show? It’s not a show I’d expect a serial-killer-turned-stalker-slash-kidnapper to watch . . .”

“My mom. It was our thing. Every weekend we would spend Sunday watching the latest episode.” A smile tugs at my lips at the memories. “We liked to think that even though we had money like the Gilmores, we were more like Rory and Lorelei. Humble and the best of friends.”

Naomi raises an eyebrow at me. “You and humble aren’t even on the same planet, let alone zip code.”

“Ha! Maybe not anymore. But I was a much different person back then.”

“Me too,” she whispers sadly.

“How about we just watch the show for a bit until you’re ready to go back to sleep?”

She looks at me with apprehension as she fidgets with her necklace. “Okay,” she says out loud, but it’s barely audible. Naomi coughs, finding her voice and gumption. “But only for a few minutes . . . I need the distraction.”

I turn on the audio and let the sounds of the Gilmore girls fill the room. We watch about two and a half episodes before she starts to yawn.

“I think maybe it’s time to call it a night,” I say as I pause the episode.

Naomi yawns again. “I think you’re right. Thank you for staying with me.”

“Glad to be of service, firecracker.” I power off the TV and place the remote back. “I hope you’re able to rest without nightmares now.”

She stares at me for a long, hard moment before saying, “The nightmares will never fully go away until I know my mom can rest in peace. Bad night,Killer.” And with that last sentence she turns her back to me—dismissing me.

I know how important the bond between a parent and their child is. There wasn’t much to go on surrounding her mother’s death. I didn’t look that hard into it, focusing more on her more recent history, but I think now’s the time. When I had those non-stop nightmares, they only went away when I got justice.

I walk out of her room to go to my own, making sure that my phone alerts are on in case she has another nightmare. As I walk away, I wonder how impossible it’ll be to get justice for Naomi. But for now, I’m so relaxed knowing I’ll be crashing as soon as I get to my room.

Chapter 14

Naomi

IfeeluneasyafterKillianleaves my room. But it isn’t from the disgust I should feel toward him. No, it’s from the shame of finding comfort in him being here. He gave me exactly what I needed, the solace of not being alone along with the peace of the mundane.

When I noticed that the feeling of comfort was morphing into being hyper-aware of his closeness to me, I knew I had to end the night. Him being inches away, even while being respectful of me needing a mental break, was overwhelming. Episode after episode, he didn’t say a word or even turn to look at me. All I got from Killian was exactly what he promised—being there only as long as I needed before being ready to go back to sleep. I pretended to yawn after two and a half episodes and said goodnight. It brings a smile to my lips that we have this whole silly “bad night” thing going.

The lights are off and it’s quiet, but my heart’s racing from all of my conflicting thoughts of what Ishouldfeel and what I actually do. I just stare up at the ceiling begging for sleep to come. When it doesn’t, I decide it may be the best time to explore the place without interruption. I give it at least forty-five minutes before I tip-toe outside my door—wanting to give Killian enough time to go to his room and fall asleep.

“It’d be nice if I had a flashlight,” I whisper to myself. Thankfully, unlike my room, the hallways have windows so the moon is illuminating the space.

I’m hopeful that if I remain quiet I can go undetected for now. I know Killian has cameras all over his home, but there’s no way he checks them constantly. Though he likely has them set for motion alerts, I hope he sleeps deeply enough that the notifications don’t wake him. I know my wailing did earlier.

I look in each empty room—there are several. I find most of them empty or with sheets covering minimal furniture. It seems like such a waste of space for two adults to live in such an insanely large compound. Like a moth to a flame, my feet start taking me back to the library. I’m not sure what I’m looking for. Something more to help me take down Killian, hopefully some irrefutable proof. Maybe something to help formulate a plan now that I’m here.

That whole murder-during-sex idea from before sounds really good.But I’ll need a weapon of some kind to pull that off.Maybe there’s a letter opener in the study.

I crack my neck. My God I need to fucking get laid or orgasm or something. These intrusive thoughts and ideas are killing me.

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