Page 28 of Where Sinners Repent

She shrugs, turning her attention back to her drink. “Doesn’t matter anyway. They’ll find it eventually, and ruin that one too.”

If I had in me, I might’ve felt bad for her. But I don’t have it in me.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask her about her brother. Isaac and Ethan. From what I know, the fuckers are little delinquents. Petty criminals who work for the Wraiths, doing drug deals and manning the bars of their shitty establishments. What are they doing harassing their little sister? Not that I can talk...

I can and will find those answers myself. So, I sit here in silence.

And the girl is more than happy to fill it.

She scoffs, shaking her head. “What do they want? With me? Fucking hell, I don’t even exist to them. Not unless they needed a tattoo, back when I did them in my room. Or their shitty friends. I don’t fucking exist.” She swallows, her teeth baring. “Jacob wanted things. Everything. And my fucking brothers never batted an eye.

A coldness seeps into me. The man with the caved-in face. A long line of charges on his record, including sexual assault and domestic violence.

If he wasn’t torn apart limb from limb and thrown into the harbour already, I would have killed him myself.

And what I have to offer would make a baseball bat to the face seem like a tropical vacation.

“Oh well,” she smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Perks of being a Kavanagh, I guess.”

“Maybe you should kill them,” I murmur.

My voice seems to make her jump. I don’t really blame her. I hardly use it.

Her lips twist mischievously, as if she thinks I’m joking. I’m not.

“I think one murder is enough for me,” she says.

One murder.

I wonder what she’d do if she found out how many lives I’ve taken. Would she run for the hills screaming? She should.

“I can do it for you,” I say simply.

Her smile falters, eyes flickering between mine. Searching for a joke she won’t find.

“You’re scary,” she whispers, but something sparks in her gaze. “It’s kind of hot.”

The urge to roll my eyes hits me, and it throws me off. Never, not once, in my entire life have I ever rolled my eyes.

It reminds me...

“Roxanne,” I murmur.

Her eyes harden. “I told you before, it’s Roxy,” she bites out.

No, you didn’t, I want to say, before the realisation that she probably has. Just not to me.

“Roxy,” I correct. “You and I will not have sex again.”

Kaleb might be a sick man, but he’s a smart one. And he was right when he told me that I’d kill her. My momentary lapse of control today in the destroyed studio proves it.

And I’d rather not have to explain to Maddy why her best friend is bleeding out in my bed.

One dark brow rises.

“Is that so?”

All I give her is a dip of my chin. I’ve said what I needed to say.