Sinners Anonymous (Sinners Anonymous, #1)

by Somme Sketcher

“Perfect. Now, take three steps to the left.” My cheeks grow hot, and everyone’s laughter gets louder, like he’s telling a joke and I’m the only idiot who doesn’t realize I’m the punchline. With a huff, I take one step back so I’m behind Vittoria’s seat, then take three deliberate steps to the left. “Happy?” But if Angelo replies, I don’t hear it. There’s a glint in his right hand. Then the bang is too loud. The smell of gunpowder too strong, and the taste of blood splatter on my lips too tangy. The bullet enters Max right between the eyes and exits out the back of his skull, taking half his brain with it. His head hits the table with a heavy thud, his blood turning the lace tablecloth crimson.

You’re shitting me, right? You take down a lackey at Big Al’s Sunday lunch, follow it up with some bullshit excuse about the Russians, and you’re not going to tell us why?” I huff out a lungful of stale air and drag a knuckle through my beard. Truth is, I don’t know why the fuck I did it. And the reason I think I did it is utterly fucking insane. Her.

No, he just let it go. And now I realize why. He’s tricked Aurora into believing the preserve is his territory, and he’s dangling it over her head as an excuse to get between her legs.

And for the first time since we met, I see her smile. I think I like it when she smiles.

“You can’t respect him that much. I saw you key his car.” “When?” he asks, without missing a beat. “On Wednesday, when you dropped me off.” “Wednesday…” he murmurs, scratching his jaw as he pretends to think. “You mean the day you kissed him in front of me? ”

He keyed his uncle’s car because of that kiss.

“Aurora.” I come to a reluctant stop and tilt my head to the sky. “I don’t care what Alberto says. Wear your hair curly.”

“No. I just thought it’d be nice to have a base that isn’t under Dante’s roof—” “No. You won’t leave her here, not with him.” I spin on my heel to face him. “What? Who?” He doesn’t move a muscle. “Uncle Al’s fiancee. You can’t take your eyes off her. Staring at her like a lion spotting his prey in the bush. I know you better than you know yourself. You flew in to the Coast because you’re haunted by some unfinished business there. You’re a smart man, so whatever you came back for you’d have figured it in a weekend and flown back to London the first chance you got, if that’s what you wanted to do.” His eyes focus on me. “But it’s not. You saw her, and you decided to stay.” He rakes a hand through his hair, still staring ahead. “You just don’t know it yet.”

“When you realize you’re moving back, let me know.” His jaw ticks. “Because when you steal Uncle Alberto’s girl, I promise you, you’re going to need a fucking army.”

“Why? Did you miss me?” “Yes.” Her answer comes quick and thick. It’s followed by the most adorable little laugh. Coming to a halt to meet the gate, I drop my head against the backrest and close my eyes. “Don’t test me today, Aurora. I’ve spent nine years resisting temptation. You’re making it very hard for me to get to a decade.”

“Because seeing you in your engagement dress is hard enough. But seeing you in your wedding dress?” A growl vibrates deep within me. I tighten my grip. “That’ll be fucking torture.”

But that’s the thing about lines in the sand. Eventually, they wash away, and you can’t remember where you drew them.

“You’re wearing sunglasses too,” I snap back, jerking my chin up to his mirrored Aviators. “What’s your excuse?” “How else am I meant to check out your ass without getting caught?”

“Okay, tell me a sin, Angelo.” “I killed my father.” My blood turns to ice. I blink. Shake my head. But nothing thaws me from the shock. “I thought he died from a bleed on the brain?” “He did. I shot him in the head and then his brain bled.” “But why?” I hiss, emotion clawing at my throat. “He was the one that ordered the hit on my mama.

“So help me God, if you take another step, I will not be responsible for what I’ll do.”

Angelo Visconti isn’t a knight in shining armor, he’s a monster in an Armani suit.

“What should I have done instead, Angelo? Left with you?” “Yes.” “For what? To bare my ass to you? Treat you to a show of me touching myself?” I thump my head against the window and grit my teeth. “And then what? Go back to Alberto and face an even bigger beating?” The car skids to a sudden halt, the tires screeching against the slick road. I lurch forward, the seat belt cutting into my neck. When I whip around to ask Angelo what the hell he’s playing at, he’s pinning me with a dangerous glare. “Say that again.”

“Get back in the car, Rory.” “Angelo—” “Get back in the fucking car.”

“He doesn’t recognize me outside of the forest, Angelo. That’s why it can’t be knocked down, and that’s why we can’t leave. What my father and I have, it doesn’t exist outside of it.”

“Rory?” His thumb pad carves a trail over my jawline. It stops at the corner of my mouth, but I turn my head to catch it between my lips. He lets out a soft moan, watching me, eyes half-lidded with lust, as I slowly lick it. “Yes?” Danger sparking in his eyes, he pushes his thumb further into my mouth, and with wetness pooling between my thighs, I open my mouth wider to take him all in. “Out of all my sins, you’re my favorite.”

“Oops,” he drawls indifferently, without looking at me. “I think I just dropped my car keys.” His shoulder brushes against mine as he passes. I feel his hot breath in my ear. “Hopefully they aren’t found by a runaway bride.”

“I swear to God, Rory. You better know how to fly, because if you fall, I’m coming with you.”

“Yeah. A capo needs a wife. Guess I choose you.”

Angelo greets his brother with a stern expression. “Look after my girl for me.” “Yes, boss.” His gaze shifts to mine. “Come here.” Swallowing, I take a step toward the car and wrap my hands over the window frame. He rakes a hand through his hair. “When I come back, you better have taken that fucking dress off, or I’m going to rip it off with my teeth.”

“Shame.” I turn. “What is?” “I was looking forward to listening to your call. I never could stand uncle Alberto.”

“Fuck, baby. I’ve waited too fucking long for this.”

stick by what I said,” he mutters. “And what was that?” I rasp back, sinking into the warmth of the bath. “You’re worth starting a war for.”

“I have killed every man on this coast that has touched you inappropriately. From Max to my own fucking uncle. These kids are next, and if anybody besides me puts so much of a finger on you from now on, they’ll be killed too.”

“Shut up, Rory. He left his entire life in England and came back to Devil’s Dip for you. He’s so in love with you that it makes me sick.” “She’s right, I am.”

“You have ten seconds to get on my bed before I lose my shit.”

“Not just regular happy. I mean really fucking happy,” he growls into my mouth, palming my ass to pull me on top of him. “Can’t stop fucking smiling, don’t want to go to sleep because reality is better than your dreams kind of happy. I want to make you so damn happy that you shit sunshine and piss rainbows and people think you’re as high as a kite when you walk into a room.” He nips my lower lip in mild frustration, and his fingers dig deep into the back of my thighs as he slides me up to his groin. “If you want to be mine, I’ll make you that happy, Rory.”