Unleashing Sin - A. M. Wilson Page 0,74

locations that look familiar to you, that’d be helpful.”

“I’m in.” She leans down and presses a chaste kiss against my mouth. “Thank you.”

She turns to Elias.

“So much. Thank you both.”

Elias scrubs a hand down his face. “We can’t promise anything except we’ll do the best we can. If anything looks bad, goes bad, we won’t attempt this again.” He pins me with a glare. “Yeah, I’m speaking for both of us because I know you’d go half-cocked to get her anything she wanted.”

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I wouldn’t…” Shelby trails off, looking at Elias with a pained expression.

He softens his tone. “I know you wouldn’t. But this asshole here seems to have little regard for his own safety and his life where this is concerned. This time I’m putting my foot down. We’ve got one shot. There are no redo’s.”

I look at Shelby, who’s watching Elias with almost regret, and I don’t even have to question it. He’s right in that I’d do anything for her, but getting myself killed won’t do her any favors. Not until she’s healed and finds her family. Not until she leaves me to be the hollowed shell I came from. Only then, when she’s safe from me and my destruction, will I keep going back. I won’t stop until the blood of every man in that operation is on my hands.

Chapter Eighteen

Shelby

The paper in my hand is official. Today, I become Shelby Sinclair. Alex, Elias, and their friend Richard attended my witness hearing today to grant my request for a name change. I was nervous all morning, but the worst part of the day was writing my past down on a piece of paper.

Clara Diane Smith

When I woke up in the bedroom at Elias’s house what seems like forever ago, I couldn’t remember who I was. Truly. The two years of drugs, injury, and trauma clouded my brain for a long time. Slowly, the pieces came together, and I remembered. I remembered my name, my mother, and my auntie. I remembered who I was supposed to be. But the name given to me at my birth no longer fit the woman I’d become. Sweet, naïve Clara died the day I was taken and given my first high.

I didn’t want to be her anymore, either. She didn’t know my resilience or fire. She didn’t have to fight to survive.

She wasn’t me.

With Alex, Elias, and Richard as a witness to my identity and circumstance, the judge agreed to seal the order. An extra precaution to protect who I am in case anyone comes looking for me. One I didn’t think about myself but am grateful to have in place. We spent the afternoon in various offices filling out forms. With a new driver’s license, birth certificate, and social security card filed, I can work toward my independence. I could get a real job or go to college. The possibilities opened because of today are endless.

“What are you thinking about, blossom?”

The paper in my hand comes back into focus at his voice. I look up as Alex exits the kitchen and rounds the front of the couch. I drop the paper to the coffee table.

“I want to look up my mom.”

The words fly out from someplace deep inside me, a culmination of today’s thoughts and realizations spit out like I’m attempting to eradicate them.

A careful mask slips over Alex’s rugged, beautiful face. “Oh.” He turns and snags his keys from the coffee table with such force I inspect the wood for gouges. “Let’s go.”

“What?”

He shakes his keys aggressively. “Time to get you home.”

And just like that, old Alex, no—Sin—is back. The difference now is I recognize it for what it is. His own means of self-preservation.

“Please don’t do this,” I beg softly, unsure how to break through to him.

He yanks his black leather jacket from its place draped over a dining room chair and shoves his arms through. “Knew this day would come,” he mutters to himself before turning to look me in the eye. The grief on his face is utterly raw and heartbreaking. Open for me to see. “Let’s go.”

“I didn’t mean right this instant.”

“Better to get it over sooner than later.”

What really tears me to pieces is his voice. No yelling or anger. Only quiet, barely controlled anguish.

“I’m staying here, Alex. I just want to let her know I’m okay and that I’m taken care of,” I reason gently.

“Yeah? For how long? How much longer will you stay here with me