Page 18 of Sinners Reunion

“Will you stop calling me Captain Cocksure?”

“No.”

“Then I’m afraid we’ve reached an impasse, my beauty.” I close the door behind me, but I can’t lock up without the special device Jim gave me. The factory locks don’t work.

I grumble and climb back into the RV. When I return, Blayne is already sauntering closer. Like a hound on a trail, his Roman nose is aimed right for Josie.

I lock the camper and push past the two of them, heading straight for Jim as they stop to chat. Eve and Cat are close behind him, and Kindra is headed their way as well.

The gaggle of women can handle her for this side quest, and if she wants to drag Blayne along like a love-starved teenage boy, she can be my guest. It won’t get him anywhere.

I’ll be sure of that.

“What sort of deal did you strike?” I ask Jim when I reach him standing outside his tour bus.

“You don’t even bother to ask how the trip has been so far. How rude.” Jim dusts the front of his dustless suit jacket. “She agreed to give me the sloth’s location at the end of the journey if I allowed her to stick around for the road trip. And take her shopping on my dime. That’s all.”

“So not even the sloth. Just its location?” My eyebrow rises.

“Details, details.” His hands flutter. “I’m working on it.”

I pull the RV keys from my pocket and force them into his hand. “I’ll have a driver pick me up and take me to the airport. Gary can take over my rig. It’s been fun, Jim.”

He grips my arm before I can walk away. “You can’t be serious. This has been years in the making!”

“Lower your blasted voice,” I whisper, looking around to be sure no one heard him. “The hunt for Daddy Carter has been years in the making, not the Josie sideshow. The moment they stop believing that is the moment I really will walk away.”

“So you were just bluffing, eh?” Mischief gleams in his eyes. “No plans to abandon the trip?”

“No, it isn’t a bluff. You’ll leave this parking lot with one less person, so make a choice.”

Jim stomps his feet. “This isn’t fair. I want that sloth!”

“And I want a conclusion to this nightmare,” I nearly shout. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

“Can’t you just deal with a little wrench in the works?”

“A wrench?” I motion behind me. “This is more like throwing a toaster into my bathtub, Jim. You’re killing me in horrific ways.”

Jim looks past me and offers a solemn nod. “Yes, I can see how that would get under your skin.”

I turn in time to see Josie brushing Blayne’s curls off his forehead. The curl doesn’t budge. She gives him a flirty smile, and he returns it.

Jim isn’t so far off, though. I want her far away from me so that I’m safe from her, but I want her far from Blayne too. I can think of a particular cliff in Dover that I’d love to show him.

“Did you still need to stop by CVS for yeast-infection cream?” I yell toward the budding love scene. “It might help with all that unladylike scratching!”

The girls take a step away from her, and I turn back to Jim.

“On second thought, maybe it won’t be so bad after all. We’ll likely kill each other within the next ten miles, but hey, the sloth, right?” I start toward the mall.

Jim hurries to keep up with me. “Come on, King. It won’t be so bad. We have our first event tomorrow, and I’m sure she’ll fit right in.”

Yes. That’s what I’m afraid of. That she’ll fit in so well that I won’t ever excise her from our little group again. I’ll be forced to watch her make the rounds and fuck every member of our band of merry men. Maybe the women too. Who knows what she’s picked up a penchant for in five years.

For my sanity, that cannot happen. I can’t have her, but I can’t watch someone else have her, either.

As I reach the mall doors, I turn to go inside. Josie and the girls bring up the rear of the group, with Blayne slithering behind them like a snake. He watches her with a longing in his eyes that is all too familiar.