Unleashing Sin - A. M. Wilson Page 0,1

The three of us sprint for the door, leaving my very dead father behind. I trip twice and nearly turn back for the body, but Elias throws himself behind me, pushing me forward, and that snaps me out of it.

My father is gone. I can’t change that. But there’s no way in hell I’m letting my best friend put himself between a bullet and me. That pulls my head out of my ass.

***

Three Hours Later…

The mouthful of scotch slides down my throat in a glide so smooth that it’s like drinkin’ fuckin’ water. And after what happened today, my body’s so numb that it tastes like fuckin’ water too.

My ass sits in the dark on a stool behind the bar at Sinclair’s—a place that feels about as home as a foreign country—and I now own it. A bar. What a joke. Included in my new inheritance is a boat, a second motorcycle, a six-bed-four-bath house on the river, and a sum of money so large, my eyes blurred the numbers together before I could calculate the total.

Richard didn’t waste any time handing me a copy of the will my father made him promise just this morning to give me.

What good is it going to do me?

Nothing, that’s what. What good are money and a bunch of big flashy toys when I have no one of importance? When the only person I’ve ever cared about is missing—dammit.

Dead.

She’s fuckin’ dead.

Two and a half long years of denying it aren’t going to change that fact. Two and a half years of searching for her aren’t going to bring her back. Hope is nothin’ but a waste of the air in my lungs and the blood in my veins.

I like facts. The cold, hard, indisputable truth that the second those forty-eight hours passed, she was dead.

Another shot of scotch goes down the hatch as the image of those large, deep-set brown eyes so much like my own pop into my head. I can’t look into a mirror without remembering what her laughing eyes looked like staring back at me. Molly was half my heart, my entire world, and my only sister. And I let her down.

Because of me, she wound up dead.

And now I’ve dropped the ball again.

The door to Sinclair’s glances off the wall behind it as someone storms through, but I can’t bring myself to see who it is. Sure as shit know who it isn’t. It ain’t Molly. It ain’t one of the guys. Could be the goddamned president, but my ass isn’t moving from where I’ve parked it. Not until I finish toasting every last one of my friends who’ve put their life in my hands, and I’ve let them down.

“Thank God, Sin. I’ve been looking all over for one of you. Where is everyone? I can’t get ahold of Nicolai.” Genna’s worry-tinged voice trails off as she waits for my answer.

Thanks for the reminder, I think with utter self-loathing and toss back another shot, but not before giving a short salute with my glass to the wall of bottles. My eyes refuse to make contact with hers as I pour another.

“Sin,” Genna starts carefully. “Where’s Nicolai? Where are Richard and Elias? Why are you here alone?”

My fists clench, and my gut churns with hatred. This shit is on me. “Richard is filling out paperwork. Elias went home.”

I can see it even though I’m trying my damnedest not to. Her eyes widen, and her face visibly pales. Genna knows I’m not the type to fuck around.

“And …ˮ She swallows hard. “And Nicolai?”

Jesus. Fuck.

“He’s dead.”

“No,” she whispers.

“Genna. Goddammit …”

“No. That’s not possible. I just talked to him a few hours ago.”

“Sit down,” I order curtly. “Richard should be here shortly.”

My tone is clipped, and my body tense, not a muscle firing to move from the stool. She and I don’t get along. Never have. I don’t think many people could stand their father fucking the best friend of their dead sister, let alone proposing to the bitch. The only thing he did right after that was attempting to help me with this operation, but look how far that got him? Dead. Just like everyone else who puts their trust in my hands.

“This isn’t how this was supposed to go,” I mumble.

“You think?” she screeches. “You just told me Nicolai is dead! How can he be dead? Wh-what happened? He said it was safe. He said you guys were just going to get information. Why him?”

Good fucking question.

“Wait for Richard. I’m going