Page 12 of Sinners Reunion

Once we’ve gotten her away from the water, I turn to face the boat so that I won’t be tempted to see how pretty her face might be. I am a man who enjoys beautiful things, but this is one beautiful thing I want no part of. Let someone else enjoy her.

“Have you changed your mind about the sloth?” Jim asks.

“Have you changed your mind about that dreadful smoking jacket?” she fires back, drugged but still sharp as a tack. “You look like Temu Hugh Hefner, bro. At least wear some underwear. I can hear your saggy balls slapping against your chicken thighs.”

Jim grabs the chair and starts rocking her toward the water.

“Steady, old man,” I say as I right the girl before she tips into the lake. The chair lands with a thud, the woman’s back facing me. “Let cooler heads prevail. If you drown her, she’ll never tell you where that sloth is.”

“Then you deal with her and her snide little mouth. I’m washing my hands!”

He goes to stomp away, and the tie comes loose from his robe. The fabric billows open, exposing his manhood to the woodland creatures, and a peal of slow-motion laughter burbles out of the drugged girl. I look down and see the tail of the robe’s belt in her hands, which are tied behind her and facing me. She must have grabbed it when he was busy trying to hoist her into the lake.

“This one’s a regular velociraptor,” I say with a smirk. “Clever girl.”

“Jurassic Park references? You’re fucking lame. What are you, forty-something?”

I smirk and place my hands on the back of the chair. “Oh, an ageist, are we? Have something against the old guard? Let’s not forget that you understood the reference.”

“God, your accent is⁠—"

“Sexy? I know. Hear it all the time.”

“I was about to say it’s grating on my last nerve,” she mutters, “but okay, Captain Cocksure.”

Now that draws a laugh out of me. “I’ll have you know it’s far worse than you feared. I’m well into my fifties.”

“Yeah, sorry. I don’t go for dudes who get the senior discount,” she says.

“I’m not a senior, but that’s just as well. I don’t fancy a woman who⁠—”

“Ugh, please stop talking.”

I grip the chair and spin it around so that she can finally see exactly what this old man looks like. I don’t look down at her, though. Not yet. I give her a moment to take it all in as I gaze at the boat. My arms fold over my chest; I’m a damn dream in this suit. The tailor said so himself.

When I’ve given her just enough of my side profile, I turn my head and look down at her.

My heart stops.

Her jaw falls open.

Years tick backward, and I’m confronted with a history I’ve taken great pains to avoid repeating—both for my sake and hers. How is she here now?

I can’t stop the momentary sprig of joy from blooming in my gut and digging its root system deeper. I’ll inject myself with poison to claw the feelings out of me if I have to, but for this moment, I allow myself to smile and say two words to the woman I left five years ago.

“My beauty.”

Chapter Four

Josie

Sedatives have done a number on my muscles, but I still find the strength to raise my leg and drive it right into his nuts. Now it’s my turn to smile down at him as he drops to his knees and turns five shades of red.

“Don’t ever call me that again, King,” I say, and I only wish I sounded more polished. If they inject me with any more of that shit, I’m liable to incur permanent brain damage.

He grits his teeth and looks up at me. “I take it back, then.”

“I bet you do. You always take it back, don’t you?”