Page 77 of Perfect Sin
“Get dressed,” he counters.
Raven throws a pillow across the room, hitting her brother square in the face. Her aim is dead on as always. “You know you don’t have to make up for all the years you didn’t get to annoy me all at once, don’t you?”
He rubs his chin, pretending to think. “I’m not sure I agree. It seems pestering you is my new favorite pastime. Seriously, though, get up, I’ve got news.”
Lucien shows himself out and mercifully closes the door behind him. I know he wants us to join him immediately, but I’m sure everyone will appreciate it if I take a shower first.
I give Raven a look, planning to invite her to join me, but she catches on to my thoughts before I’m able to voice them. She playfully shoves me in the chest. “Go shower. I’m going to join them in the living room and wait for you. If I don’t, we’ll never leave this room and we might starve to death.”
I reach for her. “I can’t imagine a better way to go, can you?”
“Go, you smell like sex. I’ll make you a sandwich while you shower,” she offers.
My stomach grumbles in agreement. “You really are the perfect wife.”
“I know.” She smirks. “I doubt he’ll tell me anything until you’re out there, and I want to know what he’s up to.”
That manages to light a fire under me. Lucien likes to think he’s the brains of the operation, but I’ve always worked quietly in the background keeping him from his more inventive ideas.
I race through getting clean, getting in the shower before the water is even warm. It has the added benefit of killing the hard-on I seem to always have when I wake up next to Raven.
When I join them in the living room, Raven hands me a plate loaded with food. I inhale half of it before the taste even registers.
“Worked up quite an appetite last night, huh?” Ted jokes.
“Ugh, let’s not talk about him screwing my sister, please,” Lucien whines.
“You were just talking to us about it just a few minutes ago,” I remind him.
“It was a mistake, and I’ve already got heartburn. Besides, we’ve got business to discuss.”
I set my plate down on the coffee table, the gnawing hunger temporarily abated. “Lay it out for us then.”
“Gerrick called. He’s made contact with a major trafficker. Len Jones runs a modeling scam in eastern Europe and southeast Asia. He’s one of Damien’s largest suppliers.”
Raven gags. “Can we find other words? Suppliers? We’re talking about women who are trying to find a better life and instead ending up in hell. The least we could do is talk about them like they’re people.”
I take her hand. The love I have for her swells inside me. Her words hit me straight in the heart, because I too have been a product to Damien Blackthorne, longing for the day someone looked at me and saw a person.
Lucien nods. “You’re right. The point is, he wants to talk to us about what his plan is.”
“When do we meet with him?” I ask.
He and Ted exchange a look. “Now? I told him to come over.”
I open my mouth to rip him a new asshole. He knows I don’t want Raven around people like Gerrick, when it can be helped, and I particularly don’t want him in our home.
Lucien raises his hand halting me from speaking. “I know, okay? I don’t want him here either, but I also don’t like bringing my sister to his club, and there’s nowhere else for us to meet in private. Holbrook is on his way as well. We are going to have some decisions to make and not a lot of time to do it.”
He’s not wrong about the lack of time available to us. A few minutes later, Holbrook knocks on the front door before letting himself in.
He takes his suit coat off and hangs it over the back of one of the barstools. He rolls and cuffs his shirt sleeves, glaring at Lucien and I the entire time.
“I forget you are both young kids most of the time. Meeting with a secretive crime lord who sells women is dumb, but taking Raven to meet with him is the most fucking stupid thing I’ve ever heard. You’ve both gotten into some messed up shit, but this is by far the most insane thing I could imagine the two of you doing,” he scolds.
“You’re here now,” Lucien sulks.
“I’m going to have to put you all in protective custody. Do you know how much he could get selling Raven?” Holbrook continues to berate us.