The Priest (The Original Sinners #9) - Tiffany Reisz Page 0,17

shoot at Nico, and I see you running to stop the bullet. Sometimes you take it. Sometimes it hits Nico and I see him fall…and you hold him while he bleeds.”

Nico. King’s son. Nora’s other lover.

Her hands went to her heart. “Oh, God, Kingsley.”

“Last night was the worst one yet.”

“What happened?”

Kingsley didn’t answer at first. Nora braced herself and when Kingsley finally did speak, it was in a whisper, as if he were afraid to hear his own words.

“Juliette lost the baby.”

Nora blinked tears from her eyes. She dipped her head and kissed the back of his neck.

“Just bad dreams,” she said. “You’re about to have your third child. It’s a lot to handle. Of course you’re having anxiety dreams. That’s all it is.”

He looked up at her. His eyes were bright, almost feverish. Something in his eyes scared her. Something in his eyes she didn’t want to see.

“You know your past. I know mine. Do we have any right to be as happy as we are?”

“I don’t know if we have a right,” she said. “I don’t know if anyone has a right to be as happy as we are.”

“You never worry it’ll catch up with us?”

“What?” she asked, her brow furrowed.

“Our sins? S?ren’s finally caught up with him. We’re next, aren’t we?”

She wanted to laugh, to laugh away his fears. This was irrational. Superstitious nonsense. She knew it. And yet, his words chilled her.

“You sound very Catholic right now,” she said.

“Tell me it’s sleep deprivation.”

“It’s just sleep deprivation,” she said and prayed that was all. “You did sleep in a chair last night.”

“I slept in the chair because I couldn’t bear to leave Juliette alone and unprotected in the room, but I was afraid to sleep next to her in case I had the dream again and started thrashing around. What if I hurt her in my sleep? I would never forgive myself if I hurt her or the baby.”

“You want me to sleep with her tonight in your bed? She won’t be alone, and you can sleep in another room?” Nora asked.

“I can’t ask you to do that. You’ve given us too much of your time already. You have your own life.”

“One night won’t kill me. It’s worth it if you can get some sleep.”

“Would you?”

“If Juliette agrees. You know I love sleeping with beautiful women.”

Kingsley sat up but Nora didn’t stop rubbing. She pulled his earlobes gently and he exhaled with relief.

“It’s the great bait and switch,” he said. “You want something your entire life and you know that you won’t be truly happy until you have it. And then you have it and you can’t be truly happy because you’re now terrified of losing it. It’s enough to drive a man mad. I can’t lose Juliette. I can’t. I can’t lose my children. I can’t lose you or Nico or—”

“S?ren?”

Kingsley glanced up at her before lowering his head again. Ah. So that was the problem. With S?ren gone on his impromptu road trip, Kingsley was quickly losing his mind.

Nora ran her fingers through his hair again, soothing him with her touch as best she could. Times like this she felt woefully inadequate. She might have the magic fingers but she didn’t have any magic words.

“He just needed some time to himself, I’m sure. He’ll be back.”

“Unless he gets hit by a truck and is dying in a ditch right now.”

“Kingsley. Now you’re just being pathetic.”

“What if he joined the Hells Angels?” Kingsley asked. “They’re not nice people.”

“Our pacifist pretentious priest did not join the Hells Angels,” Nora said. “He rides a Ducati, not a Harley.”

“They could force him to trade it in. He could come home covered in tattoos and dying of hepatitis.”

“That’s it. I’m leaving.” Nora tried to pull away. Kingsley grabbed her by the arm to stop her.

“Don’t go,” Kingsley said. “Do the thing again.”

He rolled forward and put his head on her stomach again. Nora did the thing.

When Kingsley finally calmed down, Nora went to Juliette and told her about Kingsley’s nightmares. Juliette politely declined Nora’s offer to sleep with her—if she couldn’t sleep with Kingsley she would sleep alone—but she graciously agreed to sleep with the baby monitor in the room so Kingsley could hear her right next door. Kingsley agreed to the compromise. Nora kissed them both goodnight and started to head out. He stopped her at the front door.

“He won’t hurt himself, will he?” Kingsley asked. She was glad he kept his head down when he asked that question