Before Sin Read online

  “Where the fuck is Noah?”

  Oskar groaned. “Hell of a time for the boss to take a shit. He’s going to be pissed when he finds out something went down and he didn’t know about it.”

  Crude but honest. You could always count on Oskar to tell it like it is.

  “Her location hasn’t moved. What’s our plan?”

  By the time we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, we’d gone over our plan. I’d also hacked Lucia’s messages and gone back to earlier in the evening to get the room number the party was supposed to be in. This would be less messy if we could avoid involving hotel personnel, but if we had to, we would.

  Neither of us batted an eye as we strolled through the hotel lobby and took the elevator up to the eighth floor. We moved slowly but quickly down to room 828.

  “Look, the door is open.” Oskar nodded at the door, which was slightly ajar. He drew his weapon, and I followed suit.

  Whatever was waiting for us behind this door, we were ready.

  At his signal, I pushed the door open and swept into the room, moving my gun back and forth while scanning for threats. I paused at the destruction in the room. There were balloons all over the place, open liquor bottles, margarita glasses and what looked like…

  “Are those dildos?” Oskar asked. He looked disgusted but also kind of impressed. “These chicks have some explaining to do.”

  Muffled sounds from the next room had us both spinning toward the bathroom door. I pointed two fingers in that direction to let Oskar know that I would go first so he could cover me.

  But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I pushed open the door.

  JJ, Lucia, and two other women I didn’t know were all clustered in the bathroom with their hands tied with rope. Correction, Lucia was restrained with a pair of pink fuzzy handcuffs.

  The two women I didn’t know were huddled in the bathtub. Meanwhile, JJ was standing in front of Lucia, awkwardly messing with her cleavage.

  Oskar appeared at my elbow, and I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head.

  “It’s never been this vivid in my dreams before,” he muttered.

  JJ winked. “You’d better not let my future hubby hear you say that big boy. Or Noah.”

  “What the hell is going on here?”

  I finally found my voice. Because I’m not going to pretend the sight of JJ doing whatever she was doing to Lucia’s breasts didn’t affect me.

  “I was trying to hide the cell phone back in Lu’s massive baby bazookas, okay? I thought the crazy stripper was coming back, and we didn’t want him to know we’d managed to hide a cell phone.”

  Oskar just continued staring. “Nothing you just said makes any sense, and I don’t even care.”

  Now that the apparent danger was past, JJ walked over and elbowed him in the gut. “Stop staring, you hornball, and untie me!”

  The sound of a door opening behind us caught all of our attention.

  “He must be coming back,” JJ whispered.

  Oskar turned, his gun at the ready, just as a shirtless guy rounded the corner. His skin glistened with oil and… was that glitter? When he caught sight of us, he skidded to a stop.

  “Oh shit.” He spun on his heel and raced off.

  None of us moved. Finally, JJ smacked Oskar on the shoulder with her still-bound hands. “Go after him!”

  He groaned. “Seriously. I have to chase the oily half-naked dude?” But he ran off, the sound of his footsteps fading as he left the room.

  Once he was gone, I turned to look at the others.

  “Start talking."

  4

  Oskar

  “Scheisse.”

  This was not how I was supposed to start my night. I was supposed to spend my night between the legs of that redhead I’d met at JJ and Jonas’s rehearsal dinner. What was her name again? Angel? Alice? Alexa? Some A-sounding name.

  Honestly, all the American girl names tended to sound the same. All I knew was she had just the kind of tits I liked, and I knew just how to shut her up. That woman could talk. Apparently, some guy had stood her up at the reception and she’d been pretty pissed off about it. That’s when I moved in for the kill. The problem was I’d been looking at her from the back when I made my move. I just didn’t realize quite how much she would talk. Again, I knew how to fix that.

  But instead, I was chasing this twat, as the Brit would say. And honestly, he was slipperier than you would think. Granted, it must be all that baby oil.

  I saw him around the corner, headed toward the elevator bank. I forced my legs to crank harder. How was this my life? Instead of pussy, I was chasing after an oiled-up male stripper. Something was very wrong with this equation. I needed to reevaluate my life choices.

  I was wearing the wrong shoes for this. Jonas had been going on and on about how I needed to upgrade my wardrobe. I liked clothes fine. But these Italian loafers he’d recommended pinched my feet. The slap, slap, slap, echoing sound reverberated in the hotel hallways. There was one thing to be said for JJ; she liked nice shit. She and Jonas were well-suited for each other. The hotel was cream of the crop with marble floors, which meant slipping and sliding as I ran, which meant I caught up to the elevator just as Slippery Stan scooted into the rapidly closing doors.

  “Scheisse.”

  I saw he was headed down. I didn’t slow my momentum, shoving my body through the fire door to the stairs. I took them two at a time and said, “Fuck it!” and jumped the whole railing to avoid a drunken couple sloppily making out in the stairwell.

  This was supposed to be easy. Now I was fucking running around a Manhattan hotel in a pair of Brioni wing tips and a shirt that, let’s face it, was probably too tight for my muscles. But whatever, the girls had called, so we’d come to the rescue. And now I was chasing a stripper who’d stolen their wallets, IDs, cash, and phones. I could give a shit about the wallets. Hell, as a former thief myself, I had nothing but respect for those that needed to make the occasional lift or two. What I did have a problem with was him having their IDs on file, and their phones. The phones could be wiped remotely, but from what Mathias said, we didn’t need any preteen hacker getting ahold of them and trying to find out whose they were. None of that shit would end well.

  I bounded down the eight flights of stairs and rounded the corner just in time to see Slippery Stan heading to the casino. Of course he would. In hot pursuit of him, I barely slowed down to check out the sexy blonde who winked at me as I ran by her.

  I made a mental note, come back to that one, but at the moment, Stan was the problem. Up ahead, he made a sharp left toward the restaurant and the kitchen, and I followed suit. After several minutes of running through irritated diners and a harried kitchen staff, I finally caught up to him trying to hop on to a motorcycle in the back alley. I planted both hands on his shoulders, but they slid right off. “Son of a bitch.”

  I had no choice, honestly, I really didn’t. So I hooked my hand into the back of his pants and yanked.

  Of course, he went flying backward. He yelped and then groaned. “What the fuck?”

  “What the fuck is, you stole some things from some friends of mine. I would very much like them back.”

  He tried to sit up, but I availed him of that notion immediately with a quick jab to the nose. Predictably, he howled.

  “Fuck! Jesus, it was a simple lift. You don’t have to rough me up.”

  I couldn’t pick the guy up by his shirt. And honestly, I preferred not to have any more skin to skin contact with him. Who knew where the hell he’d been? So instead, I planted my knee on his chest and leaned into it.

  “Shit. Sorry. Sorry.”

  I held my hand out. “Phones, wallets.”

  “Oh come on. Those four were in the casino flashing cash, tipping waiters all night. They could stand to lose a few hundred.”

  I scowled down at him. “Wallets, phones,” I repeated.

  He pulled the phones out of his pockets, and he inclined his head tow
ard the stash bag he dropped by the bike. “Wallets are in there.”

  I checked the phones briefly. Two were Android phones. Lucia had managed to retain her phone so there should be only one that was Blake Security issue, belonging to JJ. Mathias had imprinted a logo on the very bottom of the phone cases for quick identification in the unlikely scenario of something like this happening. Without taking too much pressure off the guy, I reached back for the bag he’d tossed and double checked to make sure that their IDs were in there. I shoved the phones in to join them. “You need a new gig. You’re not good at this one.”

  “Fuck you. How was I supposed to know they had friends in the mob, or whatever the hell you guys are?”

  “I’m telling you, this is not a good idea. You’re lucky you ended up with me, because I’m just going to let you go. If you’d been caught by the other one, who knows what he would have done to you. So you should count yourself lucky.”

  “You’re letting me go?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve been where you are. You need a better scheme though. This one doesn’t pay you enough. You should never have to run from a mark. You can give one up, or you can walk away even. But running away all oily and shirtless, it’s just sad.”

  “Yeah what do you know about it?”

  I eased up the pressure and then unfolded my legs from my crouch. “More than you do, because this was too close a call for a few hundred bucks. If you’re going to make a play, make a big play. But don’t use women. Go after the big dogs and know who your target is. If I see you around those two ever again, I’ll let their husbands deal with you. Or even better, the kid upstairs. He’s more vicious than the rest of us.” With the phones and wallets in hand, I headed back inside through the kitchens, up to the restaurant. I looked for the blonde I had seen by the entrance, but I didn’t find her again. Oh, that was too bad.

  Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t he have a date with Amber? Yes. Yes I did. But there was no reason I couldn’t enjoy both. Besides, I got bored easily. There was no way someone like me was ever going to get tied down. There was one woman who’d interested me enough to make me think about it, and I’d fucked that up. She was long gone, and much safer for it. Freedom was better. Being single was better. No one got hurt by what I did. And no one got hurt by who I was. I knew better than to ever bring anyone into that shit again.

  When I got back to the hotel room, Mathias was giving the girls the evil side-eye. The other two women were gone, so Matthias must have sent them home. When I walked in, he glanced over at me. “You got our guy?”

  I shrugged. “Let’s just say he escaped. But I have the phones and the IDs, that’s what’s really important.”

  He scowled at me. “You let him go?”

  “Easy does it. I know wet work boys. You tend to like to slice and dice, and hide the bodies and shit, but there’s really no need for that all the time. The guy was just a pickpocket, a scammer, a con artist. I warned him against ever coming back. I told him I’d kill him and all that good jazz. And then I threatened to sic Noah and Jonas on him. He’s harmless.”

  The kid didn’t look entirely appeased. But his frown decreased slightly. I turned my attention back to the girls. “Now, which one of you had the bright idea of hiring a stripper? And before you jump in, Lucia, trying to cover for JJ, I think all of us know exactly who would hire a stripper.”

  JJ threw up her hands. “Oh my God. You guys always give me the bum end of the shaft.”

  Lucia’s eyes went wide, and her mouth hung open as she glared at JJ. “That’s because you told me to.”

  JJ shrugged. “That is beside the point. The point is we were both sitting here handcuffed. So that sort of just sucked. Besides,” she sighed. “Jonas is going to kill us.”

  Lucia nodded. “I get the feeling that we’re going to be under house arrest for a very long time.”

  I laughed. “Something tells me you two will find a way to get out of your current predicament. In the meantime, these belong to you.” I handed over the bag and crossed my arms. The truth was I didn’t know just how much trouble they’d be in. Both Noah and Jonas would likely flip out, more about their safety than the stripper thing. There’d be a lot of shouting and yelling, and then the two couples would likely just retire to their rooms. And there wasn’t enough sound insulation in place to drown out the moans.

  I, for one, had zero intention of staying at the penthouse that night.

  5

  Matthias

  Normally, I wouldn’t get so much satisfaction out of watching Noah and Jonas chew out their wives, but after the events of the night, it was a fitting end.

  Oskar leaned against the doorway into the living room eating an apple. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying the show as well. I hadn’t told Noah that he’d let the guy go; there was nothing to be gained from that. But I suspected the boss couldn’t have been any more pissed-off than he was currently, anyway.

  “Reckless. Irresponsible. This is not just your life anymore, Lulu. It’s about Isabella. It’s about our family.”

  With every word, Lucia looked more and more despondent. Even JJ looked uncharacteristically cowed as she sat next to her best friend on the couch, listening quietly. Jonas hadn’t added much other than to give his wife-to-be several disappointed looks.

  Honestly, with the way Noah was laying it on so thick, he didn’t need to add anything.

  “It’s all my fault,” JJ finally spoke up. “Don’t be mad at Lucia. She just wanted me to have a great bachelorette party. We thought it would be fun.”

  Because I could see Noah’s head about to explode at the concept of hiring a naked unknown guy as “fun,” I stood up, drawing their attention.

  “We have security protocols in place for a reason. The next time you want to hire someone, just send me the name so I can run a background check. It doesn’t take long, and then we have an idea of who we’re dealing with.”

  JJ seemed to have gotten her spunk back in the last few moments because she lifted her chin defiantly. “Ask you to run a background check on our potential stripper? Yeah, no thanks. How long do you think it would take before these two would have shut it down? The whole point was for this to be our last hurrah before we’re boring old married ladies locked up here away from the world.”

  Quiet descended.

  JJ pursed her lips. “Okay, maybe I didn’t mean to say it quite like that.”

  Oskar took another loud bite, the crunch breaking up the silence. “If you girls wanted a stripper, you could have just asked me.” He moved his hips in an exaggerated hip thrust. “I don’t mind shaking my moneymaker for some dollar bills.”

  Lucia snorted out a laugh, and Noah turned to look at her incredulously. She pointed at Oskar. “Oh come on, that’s funny.”

  Noah’s lips twitched slightly. “It would be funny for about two seconds before I took him out.”

  We all laughed. And just like that, things were back to normal. Or as normal as they ever got around this place. Noah took a seat on the couch next to Lucia and she rested her head on his shoulder. JJ straddled Jonas on the chair, and before long they were attacking each other’s faces in their usual kind of inappropriate PDA. Oskar wandered back to the kitchen, probably already on the hunt for what else he could scrounge up to eat.

  And I was left alone in the midst of it all; on the outskirts, but still a part of things. Just the way I liked it.

  Knowing they wouldn’t miss me, I stood and made my way back down the hallway to my room. I sighed as soon as I crossed the threshold. Another day, another crisis averted. Once I took my seat at my desk, I did my usual checks to be sure everything looked good and everyone was safe. A quick check on everyone’s trackers showed all Blake Security personnel accounted for and where they were scheduled to be. Nothing unusual on the cameras.

  It was all good.

  Happy for now that the people I cared for were as safe as I could make them, I stood and yanked my shirt over my head. A shower and a lit
tle time to read before bed were the perfect way to end this day. It wasn’t the life I’d ever expected to have, but it was better than I deserved. Those people out there were my family now. A strange, disjointed, insult-throwing, loud family, but all mine.

  6

  Ten years ago…

  I peered around the grate. Becca was back. She looked like she’d gained a kilo or two, so wherever she’d been, they were feeding her better, but her eyes were dead and flat.

  What the hell was she doing here? The Family had sold her a few weeks ago. She was only nine, but still, they sold her to someone. Some sick ponce had come to pick her up. My skin crawled thinking about it.

  That was the reason my mother had insisted on nurturing my love of all things tech; so that I could avoid having those dead eyes. My stealing stuff and taking it apart had been a problem for her, but she’d let me. It made me useful in other ways. If Becca was back, did that mean the buyer hadn’t liked her? What had gone wrong?

  Up top, I could see Colin holding her tight, shaking her, and my hands curled into fists. I wanted to go up there and beat Colin for touching her. Becca was only a little kid. She didn’t deserve that. And then I saw him – Father. I couldn’t explain it, but my mother had always told me to stay out of the way, stay hidden, and don’t draw attention. She told me that I didn’t want the attention of Father.

  The older man bent in front of the little girl with the stringy brown hair. He was asking her something. She didn’t even respond. No reaction, no emotion, nothing.

  Oh yeah, I knew that look well. Father and Colin stepped aside to talk privately. And the girl turned her head, our eyes meeting for just a moment. I wanted to say something, mouth some words to her to offer some comfort. Anything. But what could I really say?

  Your life is over? This is the hell we all live in?