The Priest (The Original Sinners #9) - Tiffany Reisz Page 0,107

helping out a rapist,” Cyrus said when he and Nora were back in his car. “One thing to not ask questions when someone comes knocking on your door. Another thing to know the answers and not tell anyone.”

Nora said nothing. She seemed lost in her own thoughts.

Cyrus hated to leave her there, lost and alone. “Nora? You okay?”

“Just wondering,” she said. “What I would have done?”

“If he’d gotten through to you?”

She nodded.

“You wouldn’t have really castrated the man, would you?” Cyrus asked. “Please say ‘no.’”

“No,” she said. “I don’t know how. I could find out how. I know someone who did it—don’t ask.”

She must have seen his mouth starting to open to ask that very question.

“I’ve left permanent scars on male clients. I’ve done branding, scarification. I once nailed a guy’s testicles—”

“Stop right there.”

“Sorry,” she said. “But actual castration? That’s major surgery. I could have killed him. But if he’d called me, I would have talked to him,” Nora said. “Tried to get him to talk to me. But it wouldn’t have worked, would it?”

“Why not?”

“This whole time, I thought he was one of us,” she said. “Kinky. But he wasn’t calling me for kink. He wanted surgery no doctor would perform—without a good reason anyway. What surgeon would castrate a healthy man for no medical reason whatsoever?”

“None in this country,” Cyrus said. “Not if they want to keep their license. Doctors are mandatory reporters, too. If a patient says, ‘Cut my balls off or I’m going to rape my neighbor tomorrow,’ somebody’s gonna make a phone call about that.”

“Right,” Nora said. She took a long deep breath, a long slow exhale. “Right.”

The car was silent except for Christian Scott playing through the speakers, low and sad and slow.

“Wait,” Nora said, turning to look at him. “You said rape his neighbor. Do you think that’s what he was planning?”

“Just a guess,” Cyrus said. “He was at that house on Annunciation, right? And the car was parked a few blocks away, like, I don’t know, like he was planning a getaway? And remember what was in the bag?”

“Rope,” Nora said. “Handcuffs and lube.”

“Rape supplies,” Cyrus said. “Kidnapping supplies. Somebody was supposed to get into his car. That’s why they had his keys. That’s why it was parked a few blocks away.”

“The Butterfly?” Nora asked.

“Gotta be her, whoever she is.”

The Butterfly. Not his mistress…his victim.

Father Ike had given her his keys. She must have thought they were going on a trip somewhere. Then he doesn’t show up at the car when he was supposed to…”

She pressed her hands to her face, breathed hard. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

He knew what she was thinking. “I’m trying not to think it. He and Paulina were friends.” It was unbearable to imagine his Paulina alone with a man who would—

No. Cyrus wouldn’t go there until he had to.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” she said.

Cyrus didn’t know what to do. He wanted to take her hand, squeeze it, tell her he was sorry. But he didn’t know quite how to do that yet, with any woman who wasn’t Paulina.

“I did what you dared me to do,” Cyrus said. Nora turned her head, looked at him, eyes wide.

“You did?”

He nodded. “Worked, too. I shouldn’t tell you that.”

“You should always tell me things like that. Did she enjoy herself?”

“Yeah. Loudly.”

“Good woman. Good man.” She held out her fist. He bumped it if only to make her smile again.

“Back before Paulina, when I was with a girl and we’d had a good date and we were back at her place…if we were fooling around and she said ‘no’ to going any further, I’d say that was fine and then I’d immediately get up to leave. I wasn’t mean about it. I played it cool like, ‘I get it. You’re tired. I’ll let you sleep.’ She’d be upset I was leaving so she’d give in so I’d stay. I thought I had game,” Cyrus said. “Now I know I was manipulating them. I’ve never told anyone that.”

He went on. “With Paulina, it was nothing like that. It was good. Good for her. I was just honest, and if she’d said ‘no’ I would have stayed and held her all night and been happy to do it. I just wish I knew it could be like that twenty years ago.”

“If I told you all the shitty things I’ve done to people,” Nora said, “we’d be here all night.”

“You’ve been putting it on the line all week to help