Page 69 of Dark Side of the Cloth (The Righteous 1)
“Then…what? Why?” Yasmine paused, collecting her thoughts. “You were cutting that guy up like some slab of meat hanging at the butchers.”
“That man is not a good man. I don’t kill innocents, Yasmine. My mission is to find and provide the appropriate punishment to sinners of all kinds, but I mostly target abusers, rapists, and serial killers. Especially those that target the vulnerable: children, women, and elderly. They are the worst kind of predator.”
She stared at the side of his face, the hard set of his jaw, and knew he was serious.
A priest that hunted people?
Her mind was reeling.
“Mission for who? Are you still in the service?”
“No and yes. It’s complicated. The organization I’m part of has a mission that I follow.”
Yasmine’s mind was racing as she thought about all their interactions over the last year, especially their recent intimacy, when a thought suddenly occurred to her.
“Wait a minute, are you even a priest?”
For the briefest of moments, she saw guilt in his eyes, but then it was gone, masked by a blank stare. “No, I’m not.”
“Oh, my God!” She smacked her hand to her forehead. “I’m a fool. I’m such an idiot. How did I not see this?” She covered her eyes as humiliation took the place of fear.
“Yasmine, you saw what I wanted you to see, just how the rest of the town sees what I want them to see.”
“All those people that come to you for advice and to bare their souls, you take advantage of them. How is that not a sin?”
“I give them exactly what they need and exactly what any real priest can offer. Comfort for those mourning, forgiveness when they ask, answers in time of need, and punishment when it’s deserved. What more can a priest offer?”
“It’s not the same thing!”
“Why not? Because I didn’t have some other man in a long robe say I’m worthy? I have seen more death, tasted true forgiveness, and understand the pain of loss better than any one of those so-called representations of God. Something that doesn’t even exist. Trust me, Yasmine, if there was a God, I should’ve seen him by now.”
When he looked at her this time, all she saw was pain. Something terrible had happened to him. His pain mirrored her own, and although she didn’t want to be affected by it, it gripped her heart in a vice.
She sighed softly. “Was Father O’Sullivan ever a real person?”
“Yes, but I killed him.”
Yasmine gasped, her mouth falling open at his easy admission.
“He wasn’t a good man.” Dean stopped her objection before it started. “He was committing fraud, cheating innocent people out of thousands, and that was before he forced impressionable young people in the church to perform sexual acts, Yasmine. I told you I don’t kill the innocent. That’s not my mission.”
“Aren’t I considered a sinner?” she asked quietly. “I mean, after all, I thought I was actively corrupting a priest.”
Yasmine crossed her arms. There were too many emotions to wade through. She didn’t even know where to start—fear at what he would do to her when he was done with this man, humiliation for not seeing what was so plain before her eyes, anger over being so easily duped, and betrayal. The last one hurt the most. It felt like he’d taken advantage of her feelings. She’d felt so terrible for loving him, for taking advantage of him, and all the while, it was he taking advantage of her.
Dean stopped walking, and her pulse thumped loudly in her ears as she waited to hear her verdict.
“I’m pretty sure I was a huge participant in your fall from grace, or did I imagine that?” Yasmine averted his gaze. “And who did our sin hurt? A fictional God? No, our sin gave us comfort and pleasure in a moment that we both needed.”
“Was any of last night real?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Was last night just part of a larger plan, or did you simply get too horny pretending to be something you’re not?” she mumbled. Her heart ironically hurt with the idea that his feelings could be fake. “Did you use me, Dean?”
“Yasmine.” He said her name with authority, just as he had last night. She felt powerless not to obey. She looked into those hazel orbs that looked so dark in the forest. “My plan was never to be found out, to continue pretending to be a priest and do my sworn duty. Sleeping with you most certainly was not the plan and is a major complication.”
Her eyebrow raised. “I’m a complication?”
