Page 1 of The Bane of a Sinner
Prologue
Present day in Deadwood, South Dakota...
I slowly opened my swollen eye as the door creaked open. I stiffened, wincing at the pain that shot through my body. The room spun as I tried to sit up, my breath coming in short, sharp gasps. I could feel the weight of his gaze on me as he stood in the doorway, his face a mask of concern. Descending the stairs, he walked over to me and shook his head.
“Phone call,” he said, handing me a cell phone through the bars. “You have five minutes.”
Taking it, I grimaced as I held the phone to my ear, breathing through the pain.
“What?”
“Jesus fuck, you sound like shit.”
I growled.
“Yeah, okay.” He sighed. “No more jokes. Gonna need you to hold out a few days more. Can you do it?”
“Yeah,” I said before coughing, then spitting blood on the floor at my feet.
“I wish you would have just let me kill her—” he started, but I cut him off.
“I need to know,” I whispered, my voice hoarse and raw. “Call back when you know for sure,” I added, before handing him back the phone.
I didn’t want to talk anymore.
He hesitated, and I could see the conflict playing out on his face as he took it from me and disconnected the line. He went to say something, but I turned my back on him and carefully layback down on the cot, trying my best not to jar my ribs that I knew were broken.
He sighed and turned to leave.
As the door closed behind him, I allowed myself to relax and close my eyes. What little energy I had mustered quickly disappeared. As I lay there and stared at the ceiling, my mind raced with one fucking question: How in the hell could I have been so wrong?
PART ONE
There are three sides to every story.
His side, her side
... and the truth.
Chapter One
Diana
September 2002, NYU Freshman Dorm...
“I don’t like this,” my father said, looking around my new home for the next four years as my mom helped me make my bed. “She’s too close.”
“She will be fine, Lucas.” My mom sighed. “Diana is a smart girl. She knows the rules. She won’t do anything stupid.”
“Mom’s right, Dad,” I said, walking over to the hulking man who stubbornly refused to look at me. “Dad, please understand. I love you. I love you all, I really do, but I can’t take a piss in Texas without one of the club brothers breathing down my neck. The brothers watch me twenty-four seven. They’ve run off every boy I’ve ever liked.”
“They weren’t good enough.”
Rolling my eyes, I groaned. “I’m allowed to have a life, Dad.”
“Not this damn close to them, you’re not!” my father roared. Mom rushed over, wrapping her arms around the larger-than-life man who’d been my protector, my confidant, my hero my entire life.
“Lucas. We agreed. It was NYU in New York or Berkeley in California. You said NYU would be safer with everything currently going on. Now go give your daughter a hug goodbye.”
