Page 66 of Sin

There’s a massive crash and the sound of twisting metal as the Land Rover makes it halfway into the great room before the back end catches on the supporting beam and comes to a halt. My airbag deploys, but I’m ready for it, pulling a hunting knife out of my console and cutting myself out of it and the seat belt with a few, sure strokes of the blade.

A hazy mist fills the air as the small fire in the engine and the gas from the punctured airbag fill the room. I bring up my henley over my mouth so I can breathe, and look for Cassidy and Mercer through the haze.

I rush toward them, but just as I’m about to reach them, I see Gideon pinned under the back tires of the Land Rover. Ikneel down and am disappointed he’s still breathing. The hand holding the knife I’d used to slash the airbags moves to Gideon’s neck. It would be so easy. I bet I could even make it look like an injury he received in the crash. The tip of the blade digs into his skin. He killed my mother. He tortured me every day of my young life. I’m not sure what state Mercer and Cassidy are in because of him. He deserves to die. My hand moves to finally end him.

And then I see a vision of Cassidy smiling at me and giggling at some teasing remark I made. Would he smile that same way at me if I went through with this? Would his voice carry the same absolute certainty when he said he loved me?

Killing him isn’t worth that cost. He isn’t worth it. I throw the knife across the room and get up to find Cassidy.

Chapter 42

Cassidy

The nurse doesn’t like Sin. She just threw up her arms and huffed out of my room. It’s unusual for anyone to be able to resist Sin’s charms, but so far, she’s a holdout. She disapproved when he had my favorite cheeseburger delivered to my hospital room, and then when he crawled into my bed and wouldn’t let me go.

“You’re making his blood pressure go up,” she bitched at him, but she wasn’t able to budge him. Which is fine by me. For a while there today, I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel his arms around me again, so being tightly clasped in them feels pretty damned healing to me.

The pulmonologist said I could probably go home the day after tomorrow, which works out. Neither Sin or I want to go too far from Mercer, who was critical for a while. He had to have surgery, and isn’t expected to be out of the ICU for a few days.

Devlin somehow has managed full access to him despite hospital rules of spousal visitations only in the ICU. I can’t wait for him to regain consciousness so I can tell him how sorry I am that my request for a detour turned into him getting shot.

“I’m going so going to punish you when I’m sure you’re healthy again,” Sin whispers in my ear and then bites gently on my lobe.

“Punish?”

“Yes. For going back to the house.” He kisses me. “For scaring the fuck out of me.” He kisses me again. “For not having your asthma inhaler at all times.”

I start to object, pleading exceptional circumstances, but he’s not having it. “You need to carry it with you at all times. Even when you’re being held at gunpoint by a psychotic relative.” His hands reach beneath my hospital gown and give my bare ass a slap that sends a thrill through me, even though I’m thoroughly exhausted and not up for anything other than a little sensual foreshadowing. “You’re so going to pay,” he promises with a glint in his eyes.

After that, we drift for a while. Finally, not able to hold back any longer I tell him about what I witnessed today. “I saw you,” I confess.

He freezes. “I saw you come close to punishing your father for what he did to you and your mother, but then I saw you change your mind and throw the knife across the room.”

“I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t slit his throat if the knife were still in my hand,” he shares. “Not after what he did to you.”

“At least the list of new crimes will help put him behind bars for the rest of his life.” It turns out the tampered asthma inhalers were a botched plan; Gideon had to collect on a sizable life insurance policy he had taken out in my name. With his conservancy about to run out, he was trying to replace some of the money he’d stolen from the trust Sin’s mother had set up for him. I shift in his arms so I can get closer. “That means you’re free.”

“Free to love you.” He clutches me tightly. “Free to have a life with you.”

“A life?” I question.

“A long one,” he confirms, and there in the hospital room, late into the night, we spin dreams of our future together.

Epilogue

Epilogue Sin

Two Years Later

Cassidy meets me outside the coffee shop that I texted him the address to. His eyes are bright and his cheeks are pink from walking in the brisk New York weather. I hand him his mocha coffee and then use my gloved hands to warm his face. “How did it go?”

“I think it went well.” He bites his lip, even though I know there’s no reason for him to be nervous. He had his interview with Columbia today, and with his flawless transcript, stratospherically high MCAT scores, and his Albert Schweitzer like demeanor, medical schools, including Columbia are going to be competing for his attendance.

I tell him just that, and I lean down to rescue his abused lip, and kiss him, not caring we are on a busy city street, and the kiss quickly turns passionate. If this city is gonna be our new home, it’s gonna have to get used to some serious PDA.

We refuse to be self-conscious on any level. We refuse to hide that we’re gay and in a loving, sensual relationship, and we refuse to be ashamed that we were once stepbrothers. The media had a field day with us for a while, but the scandal has mostly died out.

When I’m convinced I’ve thoroughly distracted Cassidy from his nerves, I pull back. “Come on,” I say, grabbing his hand. “I have something I want to show you.”

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