Page 19 of Sinful Lord

Shit. At a time like this, I almost wish I had gone to Italy first, just to feel some sun. I’ve heard it’s warm in the southern islands during this time of the year.

But if I had done that, I definitely would have run into some of the Kilpatricks. Maybe even Roz and Gabriel too.

My dull heart begins to ache at the thought of my sister and brother. It’s hard to admit, even to myself, but I miss them.

Hell, everything I’m doing now; everything I’ve done to get here, it’s for them. It’s to get back to them. Only I’m making sure it’s on my terms. Because even if they don’t see it, those two are trapped.

That’s what happens when you marry the enemy, after all. When you fall in love with them.

That’s not going to happen to me. Melina is my key out of this lonely hole I’ve dug myself into. And that’s it. No matter how alluring I find her, how fascinating, she’s only a means to an end.

I’m going to use her to get what I want. And I’m going to have fun along the way.

She just has to come home from work first.

But the longer I wait, the less that seems like it’s going to happen.

Frustration starts to set in as I pull out my phone. She’s late. I’m going to find out why.

With a few clicks, I pull up the live camera feed from outside the bar she works at. It’s quiet. Clearly after closing time. I rewind.

Melina doesn’t appear as I get closer and closer to the end of her shift. She doesn’t walk out of that alleyway or burst through the front doors.

My fingers tighten around her panties.

“What’s happening, little dove?” I quietly wonder.

The longer I search without finding her, the more I begin to doubt myself.

I’ve always found pride in my ability to plan ahead, to be two steps ahead of everyone else, but it feels like, lately, I’ve been falling behind.

First, it was with my sister. I practically gave Roz away, because I thought it would be for the best, and maybe it was, but at the time, not even I could see through the blackness of complete solitude that shrouded my future.

Turns out, there was nothing to see.

Life is empty without family. And mine has been taken from me.

I won’t let the same happen with Melina.

With quickening fingers, I pull up the feeds of all the cameras on all the streets near Melina’s bar. I furiously rewind and fast-forward, searching for any clues as to where my pretty little chess piece has disappeared to.

That’s when I see it.

An unmarked black van. It screeches around a nearby corner, blasting out of a blind spot, before disappearing into another.

I pause the video and check the time on the corner of the screen.

That happened about an hour before Melina’s shift was supposed to end, while I was setting up the cameras in this dump.

Melina’s panties shift beneath my clenching fist.

She’s in that van. I know it.

Someone has gotten to her first.

Fuck. That. Shit.

Rage explodes behind my chilled skin. The chair crashes into the wall as I stand up and follow the van’s path on my phone, swiping through camera feeds like a madman.