Page 64 of Sin

“Your brother is fine,” she immediately assures me. I take a deep breath of relief before bothering to correct her. “Stepbrother.”

“As I said, Cassidy is fine, but I did want to speak to you about something disturbing.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The manufacturer of Cassidy’s malfunctioning inhalers contacted me. They were concerned about the multiple failures of their product and did a thorough investigation into the cause. They determined that all of them had been tampered with, and it had occurred after the medicine left the pharmacy.”

I had forgotten about the inhalers. I’d let my emotions distract me from the fact that my father is a killer, and it looks like he’d set his sights on a new target.

I tell Dr. Chaudhary to let the manufacturer know that they will be contacted by a Detective Hirsh and the inhalers will need to be turned over to him.

While I’m still talking to the doctor, I shoot off a text to Mercer asking him to keep an eye on Cassidy today and to give him a ride to the hotel when Cassidy’s done with his exams. He responds with a whipped cream emoji and then seconds later a thumbs up.

Next, I call Oliver and Hirsh and tell them about the inhalers. I let them both know that I’m speeding things up. That my father is going down today.

I call Evan Kelly, the journalist that Cassidy recommended to me, after a month of reading his articles. He’s an excellent, hard-hitting journalist, and after our initial meeting, which had some unexpected surprises, I agreed to give him an exclusiveinterview as long as he agreed to wait to publish it until I made my post.

He answers after one ring, and I tell him about the inhalers and let him know that he’s free to print the story as soon as I make my post.

“Let me reach out to a guy I know,” he offers. “He can ferret out information as to what your father’s game plan was in targeting Cassidy.”

“I already have a private investigator,” I tell him.

“Not like this guy,” Evan argues. “Eli is the ultimate super-hacker with a hard-on for hate crimes. He was invaluable in taking down the Reivers, and with your father’s connection, I’m sure he has a hard drive or two filled with information about him that might reveal his motivations.”

I thank Evan and hang up. There is only one thing left to do. I pick a place in the suite that has good lighting and position my phone, and hit record.

I look into the camera. “I’ve been promising y’all the truth for a while now. Well, the wait is over. I’m here to defend my father against the crimes he’s been accused of in the media. The misdemeanors and third-degree felonies he’s been accused of are all inaccurate.” I pause for dramatic tension. “ The truth is the crimes he’s committed are much worse and include manslaughter. I’m posting here today to tell you my father, the Reverend Gideon Brandt, killed my mother.”

Chapter 40

Cassidy

“What’s up?” Mercer Saint asks as I almost run into him as I’m exiting my classroom after my last final exam of the semester.

“Sin had something come up and asked me to give you a ride to your hotel,” he explains.

“Thank you for going out of your way,” I tell him and mean it. Mercer and I have actually become bona fide friends in the last few months. I’ve become truly fond of the wildly talented artist. “Maybe we all can have dinner tonight,” I suggest, having come to really enjoy the nights the four of us have gotten together and hung out.

“If by ‘all’ you mean to include Devlin, then good luck with that,” Mercer says with an obviously false, careless tone. “He’s gone. I haven’t seen him for a week, and I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again.”

I reach out to put my hand on his shoulder, knowing that Devlin’s absence is affecting him more than he is willing to admit, when my phone rings. It’s my mother calling. “Give me one second,” I tell Mercer, and hit answer.

“Cassidy,” my mother says, using her little-girl voice that usually means she needs something from me. “I need you to come home. I need your help.”

“Mom, is something wrong?”

“No, honey, I just need to talk to my baby boy.” I hear Gideon’s voice in the background. “I have to go, honey, but come home now. I really need to see you.”

“What’s wrong?” Mercer asks, noting my distress at the call.

“I’m not sure, but I think I should go see her just to be sure she’s okay.” I know Sin wouldn’t want me to go to the house alone, but surely, he wouldn’t mind if Mercer is with me. I turn to Mercer. “Would you mind if we made a detour before you take me back to the hotel?”

Mercer pulls up to the security gates. Oddly, no one is manning it and the gates are open. Since the intense media scrutiny after the Digger Mcree scandal hit, there have been three guards on at all times.

Mercer shrugs and drives through. “Just park in front of the house,” I direct him. “This is going to be a short visit. I just need to make sure my mother is all right, and then we can go.”

“Let me just text Sin about our little detour and tell him I’m gonna be the plus one at the romantic dinner he has planned for you tonight. I’ll meet you in there in a minute.”

---