Page 56 of Sin

I shrug. “Knowledge is power. The most interesting, and possibly game-changing, info I found in my research came when I accidentally ran across a reporter who has written several series of articles documenting the Reivers and their crime sprees. His name is Evan Kelly, and he ties your father to the Reivers’ criminal activities several times in his articles. He’s even written two articles about the Citadel. Maybe you should talk to him.”

The relaxed, post-blowjob Sin disappears, and I can see his instant wariness at the idea. I get it. He’s been on a one-man mission to seek justice for his mother since he was a child. Having help in this fight is going to take some getting used to. I may be able to coax him into accepting my support, but bringing some firebrand journalist he’s unfamiliar with into the mix might take him a while to get on board with.

“You don’t have to do anything right now. Just read his articles and see if you’d be comfortable talking to him.”

He thinks it over for a long moment. “I can do that,” he says, resting back against his bed frame.

Sin’s phone buzzes on the bureau. The name on the screen reads Mercer. Sin ignores it. “Aren’t you going to check his message?” I ask.

“It can wait,” he says, obviously trying to keep from triggering my insecurities over his and Mercer’s friendship. “He’s probably just texting to tell me he’s back in town.”

“You two have known each other for a long time,” I comment neutrally.

“Pretty much all our lives.”

“Does he know about what happened to your mother?”

He shakes his head. “You’re the only one besides Oliver and his ex-partner, Hirsh, that I ever told about what my father did to my mother.” He looks away from me. “They don’t know about thecorrections,though. I never told them about any of his punishments.”

I abandon my research once again and crawl back into his arms. I’d never realized how isolated Sin has been in carrying this burden. “I’m glad you trusted me enough to share that with me.” He doesn’t respond, just clutches me tightly against him.

“You never told Mercer about your father?”

“I never had to,” he tells me. “One of the things that kept us bonded is our shared daddy issues.”

“Was he as bad as your father?”

Sin flashes me a bitter grin. “His father may not have murdered his mother, but Aiden Saint was never the definition of a good father.” Sin shakes his head. “Before he died, the bastard managed to screw up Mercer up almost as badly as my father did me.”

“It’s good you had each other.”

He shrugs. “We’ve always understood what the other was going through, and understood that we didn’t have to spend all our time talking out our trauma.”

“You never talked about it with him?”

“I was too busy plotting my father’s downfall, and Mercer paints his angst out.” He smiles again, but this time, fondness replaces the bitterness. Mercer always seemed to sense whenI was at my breaking point, though. He’d show up when my father was at his most sadistic, or he’d make his dad arrange for me to come to his house for the weekend. Gideon has always had a hard-on for the elite and wealthy, and you don’t get more pedigreed than the Saints, so he always let me go.”

His gaze is far off as if lost to his memories. “I don’t know if I would have survived without those mental breaks from Gideon.”

In that instant, I realize how I can really help Sin through his quest for justice. Of course, I’ll continue to research and aid in any way I can, but my focus needs to be on helping Sin realize he doesn’t have to deal with his father by himself anymore. Besides me and the private investigator he hired, Mercer Saint should be right by Sin’s side in this battle.

It means pushing my jealousy of Mercer aside. Mercer is important to Sin, and I think he needs him to be a part of his support system in getting through the grueling process of bringing Gideon to trial.

As long as Mercer accepts that I’m the one in Sin’s bed now and I’m not going anywhere, then it’s time to move on.

This morning, I saw how dangerous a man Gideon Brandt truly is. I want all the people I can surround Sin with to help protect him from his father.

“I think you need to share your plans with him,” I tell Sin abruptly, “and I think you should do it right now.”

Chapter 34

Sin

When Cassidy first tells me about his research, I’m touched by his fervor to help me, but when he mentions the reporter and follows up by telling me I should share my story with Mercer, I almost feel like it’s an attack.

I told Cassidy my story. Wasn’t that enough for him?I’d been the one who’d plotted my father’s downfall all these years. Put the basics of the case against him together, and hired Oliver to provide the investigative chops I couldn’t. Now Cassidy is trying to take over everything with research and reporters and deciding who I should share what Gideon did to my mother with. What he did to me.

My first reaction is to lash out at him in a way I know will make him back off. After all, it’s a dance I know the steps to by heart. He gets too close, and I hurt him to keep him away. A glib, careless remark about the blow job he gave me this morning, or a crude allusion to Mercer’s and my past together ought to do the trick. It’s worked so many times before.

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