Page 112 of In the Light of Sin

My eyes never left the door, waiting for Joslyn to show up. It gutted me that I couldn’t take her to work today. I had some shit to do with V and getting Douglas’ corroding body into the furnace to become nothing but mixed ashes that were scraped and thrown away like trash. I dug my useless phone out of my pocket. My screen saver was a selfie she took of herself while she was working on the garden in the backyard of our cabin. She had dirt smudged on her face, her blond hair in a long fishtail braid with a daisy tucked behind her ear, giving the camera a smile that rivaled the sun.

Could look at that pretty smile of hers all day, but it didn’t stop the way my gut sank when I saw the time. It was two hours after she promised she would be here. How had I lost that much track of time? I was enjoying the way her monster died excruciatingly, thrown into an oven with the knives I hoped burned worse than the Hell I knew he was suffering in.

But where the fuck was she?

I tapped on my phone to my tracking app. I told her that if she was going out on her own, I wanted to know her location at all times. A tracker in her car and a tracker in her phone. She rolled her eyes and told me I was overprotective, and maybe I was, but I wasn’t taking any chances when it came to my too-trusting girl. My eyes widened, seeing where she was, and I walked over to the counter as Jordyn pushed her empty glass away from her, it falling on the side as I slammed my hand against the wooden counter.

“She’s at your parents’ house.” I closed out of the app, dialing her number and praying she had her hearing aids in. They were Bluetooth and connected to her phone. “The fuck would she be doin’ there?”

“How am I supposed to know?” She sneered, swirling in her stool to face me. “I haven’t talked to her since—”

“Since you threw the fact you slept with her rapist and left her alone knowin’ your fucked up friends were out lookin’ for her?” I leaned in close, barely containing my rage as her face fell, paling with each truthful word spewed from my lips. “She told me.”

“I fucked up.” I snorted at her attempt to sound apologetic. “Look—“

“Don’t want to fuckin’ hear it.” If this bitch tried to talk to me, there’s no telling on if I’d snap that neck of hers. The only reason I wasn’t acting on it was Hex’s threat of not doing Joslyn’s surgery, which lingered heavily in my mind. She wanted that surgery, and I wouldn’t fuck that up for her.

“I want to be there for my sister.” There she goes with the waterworks that had me rolling my eyes. Her tears were pathetic. She’s been treating Joslyn like she didn’t mean anything, and now she wanted something to do with her? I didn’t fucking believe her. “I know my word means shit, but I want to change.”

“I don’t give a flyin’ fuck what you want!” I snapped at her, hatred for her fueling me. Everything Joslyn’s told me Jordyn did to her because of misguided resentment, she was lucky I didn’t fucking kill her. I’ve killed for Joslyn for less, and if Jordyn was anyone other than her sister, I promise you that she’d be in the unmarked grave I dug for her my fucking self where no one would find her, not that anyone would look for this bitch. “Joslyn may not mean anything to you, but she meanseverythingto me.”

“She meant a lot to me, too,” she whispered softly in the past tense. Jordyn used to be her protector. Now she was her tormentor. “I want to get that back with her.”

“If you think I’m gonna let you anywhere near her, think again.” She’s not answering. I was growing more panicked by the second as I re-dialed her number. I needed her voice to simmer the temper that her sister was flaring inside of me. It rang.

And rang.

And rang.

No answer. I pulled the phone away from my ear, growling impatiently as I pushed off the counter and to the front doors of the clubhouse.

“I’m goin’ to your folks’ place,” I grumbled, walking away without turning back.

“Wait!” She called after me, and I paused. “Maybe you should take someone with you. They have that place guarded day and night now.”

“Whatever,” I scoffed but was worried what she was saying was the truth, and Joslyn was there unguarded with who fucking knows.

Her stool scraped against the floor, footsteps following me. “Let me come with you–”

“The only time I want to see you is your casket lowering to the ground. And that’s just to make sure you’re dead and you can’t hurt Joslyn ever again.” I cut her off, eyes narrowed into small slits. She stopped in her tracks, throat swallowing her nerves. Fuck, Vic put me in charge of watching her. I always followed an order from Prez, but not this time. Hopefully he’d come in here and see her by herself and do me a favor. I looked away from her. “Ya know, the only reason she was at that party with a wire was to save you. If I was her? I would’ve let you rot in that shallow grave with the rest of ‘em.”

I left her with the truth that everything Joslyn did was for her.

But now everything Joslyn did was for me.

* * *

Something wasn’t right.

My tires screeched and pushed along the gravel road, my nostrils burning as something smelled hot. The closer I got to Joslyn’s parents, the warmer it was getting. I revved my engine from time to time so she could hear or feel the vibration of my modded engine and know it was me and not some asshole.

But as I passed the lining of the trees, I forgot I was driving a motorcycle. I lost my balance, leaning to the left and toppling over, my eyes unable to look away from my biggest fear right in front of me.

The house was engulfed in flames.

My breathing was rapid, and my pupils dilated as I heard the cracks of the fire that went high into the sky. I couldn’t breathe. My mind was blank as I began to tremble so hard the rocks underneath my hand were embedding into my skin, but I couldn’t feel the physical pain. I could only focus on the blaze happening in front of me. My skin began to heat, sweat pooling on my forehead and palms.

Fire is what scarred me.

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