Page 116 of Sinful King

His eyes were contemplative.

What a waste of space.

He didn’t even want revenge on my family foreal. That was clear the minute he walked in here and sat down instead of airing this bitch out like I would’ve.

“Furthermore,” my partner-in-crime for the day started, pushing away her empty plate. “How is it that you’ve been using him to steal from us, while he’s been actively stealing from you?”

I could see the wheels turning now.

Hooked ‘em.

“You got money and merchandise missing, don’t you?” I asked, smiling in his direction when he frowned like what I said couldn’t be true. “Oh, I see. You ain’t even keeping track of your own shit, but worried about me and mine. Guess who has it now and is planning to run once he gets the chance?”

At this point, we were playing with Landell’s life from all angles. He would never get out of New York alive anyway.

I just wanted to have a little fun first.

THIRTY-TWO

blair

I touchedthe base of my neck and flinched, the realization I’d forgotten to put my necklace back on almost knocking the wind out of me.

Not wearing it for a day had been fine but now it felt weird, making me a little antsy.

“What’s up with you?” Finnegan asked, glancing at me with a frown on his face. “You leave something we need to go back for?”

I shook my head.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be sure not to forget it next time.”

He hummed and I looked out the window, watching the city disappear as we made our way to Woodstock where their aunt lived. The two and a half hour drive gave me time to sit with myself and contemplate my next moves.

There was Esi. Fuck if I knew how to deal with her and now that she was ghost I wasn’t sure what to make of it. None of this was like usual.

And then there was my dad, who was probably plotting on my life now that I’d knocked him from the pulpit.

“Your thoughts are suffocating us, B,” Finn said, drawing my attention away from the road to him. “Liam can’t even focus on driving properly.”

I flicked my gaze to the man in question and sure enough he had his eyes on me through the rear view. But ultimately looked away to focus on driving us safely.

Finn had pegged the situation wrong.

Liam was observing me because he knew Esi was on my mind.

Clearly they’d done something before she left and now he was invested. Truthfully, so was I. The more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t just kill Esi.

I eyed the text that’d come through from Jaslyn before opening my mouth to address his weird behavior since she left.

Have you seen this?

I frowned and clicked the article link she’d dropped.

Does Manhattan have another serial rapist on the loose?The headline read, throwing me for a fucking loop.

I scrolled the article from what looked to be a true crime blog. The author seemed heavily invested in getting the word out, while condemning the police for not putting the pieces together sooner.

There were police reports attached and my fingers started to shake as I clicked through them one by one, reading the recounts of women who had to be hoping their bravery would pay off.

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