Page 54 of In the Light of Sin

I pushed myself off the bed, forcing myself to look away from her. If I looked at her any longer, I would fuck her until her bed broke from the weight of us. “We got shit to do.” I regained my control, getting off the bed and tucking myself back in my pants. I wasn’t looking at her anymore, but I could feel her pouting. Prez’s threat resurfaced as the lust that clouded my mind faded. I wouldn’t tell her about it. She had enough to deal with.

“What stuff?” She relented as I heard her get off the bed, grab her shirt from off the ground, and reach for the white bra with the sun pattern before I snatched it up, putting it in my pocket. “Sarge!”

“You can put it on later,” was my reasoning, but not the truth. “Need to see if your sister left somethin’ we can use behind.”

Her happy expression sobered, but she didn’t fight me on it as we left her childhood bedroom, the room getting colder from the broken window. I shut the door when she walked out. In case someone decided to come in from the window, I could hear the creaky door open before they reached us.

“It looks the same,” she commented, pausing in the living room. She pandered over to the old upholstery couch. It had burn marks all over it, dusty from the smoke it’d collected over the years. “Jordyn and I would put on a ballet for my parents in here. They’d make snacks and bought us tutus to perform in. We did it every Friday night.”

By the faraway look in her eyes, I knew she was locked in memories of the past. I didn’t know what to say, so I just let her continue. “I had to look at Jordyn and copy her back then. I was stubborn and didn’t want to wear my hearing aids. I didn’t understand what they were for. I hated the way they looked and felt. I was just trying to be normal like my sister and hated the fact that I wasn’t.”

I didn’t say anything. I just watched as she walked into the trashed kitchen. Used needles, bottles, and food strewed on the floor and counters. My fingers twitched at seeing such a messy place, but I had more important things to focus on.

She walked up the stairs, the hallway a bridge to a single room on the other end of the hall. “My parents put mine and Jordyn’s room on the bottom floor for safety reasons. It would be easier to escape than if our rooms were on the top floor.” It also made it easier for someone to break in and kidnap one of them without their parents suspecting a thing. She walked over to a closet. It looked like one of those miscellaneous closets people threw shit in and forgot about. She opened the wooden door, face lighting up as she grabbed a box. “Here’s proof that me and Jordyn actually cared about each other.”

Curious, I walked over to her as she began to dig in the box, pulling out a picture and handing it to me. They couldn’t have been more than thirteen, Jordyn dressed in a volleyball uniform and Joslyn in jeans, a bright shirt, and a sweater. Her hair was down. I knew she liked her hair because it hid her hearing aids.

She pulled out something that looked like a book, but it was too thin to be one. She looked at it so longingly, making me curious about what was inside of it. I saw the embroidered Diamond Ridge High School on the front. “Your diploma?”

“Jordyn’s,” she answered after a brief pause. She hunched in on herself slightly, which was fuckin’ weird. I knew emotions were high for her, but she’s been fine talkin’ bout her past up until now.

“Yours in there, too?” No answer. She wouldn’t look at me, but she stared at the binder, seemingly ashamed. “Joslyn?”

“I don’t have one,” she confessed, embarrassment lingering in her voice. “I dropped out of high school when I was sixteen.”

I wasn’t expecting that. She said she was taking classes. I assumed they were college courses. “I thought you were taking classes.”

“I am. Just GED classes.” She put the diploma on the ground next to her before digging back into the box. “I was really lost after… everything that happened.” She was careful to skirt around whatever happened, putting me on edge. “I’ve always loved flowers. I gardened with my mom. She told me I had a natural green thumb, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it again when she died.” I stood by her, not saying anything. “I was walking by Poppy Oaks one day, saw a hiring sign, and took a chance. I had no education, no work experience, and Claudia took a chance on me.”

Ever since Joslyn and the others found out the truth of Law’s double life, he’s been bringing his wife, Claudia, around more. The true definition of opposites attract is Law and his feisty wife. Always had to get the last word in and was loud as fuck.

Oakley acted nothing like her. Thank God for that. We already have a lot of loudmouths in the club. Any more, and that would be the grounds for murder.

“Claudia encouraged me to get my GED. And during that time, she paid me under the table. She took a chance on me. She’d let me run Poppy Oaks, but I don’t have the proper documents.” The sad hint in her voice disappeared as she talked about her future. “Been working on that goal ever since. Someone gave me a chance they didn’t have to, and I won’t let them down.”

Guess I had to relent on Claudia, knowing what she did for Joslyn. She could’ve told her to fuck off like anyone else probably would’ve, but she gave my girl a chance.

“It’s always been my dream to walk across the stage and hear my name called.” She reached up, tapping the things I knew she hated. “But these… I’ll never be able to fulfill that dream of mine.”

Fucking hated that I couldn’t do a damn thing to make that dream of hers come true.

“Sarge?” Her voice was shaky, immediately putting me on high alert. “Aren’t these the same blueprints Nyla found at Leela’s house?”

“Let me see.” I bent down, snatching the blueprints out of her hands so fast they almost ripped. There was nothing about a door. It looked like a whole expansion. I flipped it over.

Chasm. Est. 2002

The fuck did that mean?

“Move.” I nudged her out of the way, picking up a piece of paper. My cell phone rang, pressing the answer button when I fished it out of my pocket. “What?”

“Get out of there.”

He was the last person I wanted to hear from, but the urgency in his voice pushed my anger at him in the back of my mind. “What happened?”

“Sent Husk and V after you as a precaution. Got some members hiding in the woods with guns. They got them first, but no tellin’ if they got more on their way.”I stood up, ignoring Joslyn’s worried expression, and grabbed her slender wrist, pulling her up with me.“Did you find anything?”

“Some blueprints.” I began to pull Joslyn towards the front door, her confusion with me telling her nothing as I dragged her out of the house, written on her pretty face. “Says Chasm, Est. 2002.”

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