Page 1 of Sinners Reunion

Chapter One

King

Rain pelts the rear windshield, and the deep rumble of thunder vibrates the car’s interior. I sit in the back, encased in leather. Supple texture glides beneath my fingertips, and I settle a little further into the seat.

The driver turns off the main path and pulls onto a less traveled street. We cut through side roads until he guides us between walls of towering palms and tropical foliage. The car stops at a gate, and the back window lowers with a nearly silent whir.

Another cloud booms overhead as I flash my credentials to the security guard seated in the tiny white booth. He nods through the rain glare, presses a button, and the gates ease open and allow us inside.

After winding past a small walking area for the residents of this Florida establishment, the driver pulls the car to a stop at the building’s side entrance. I won’t call it a secret entrance, as this entire place is a secret now.

Once a home for the aging and infirm, Jim has turned it into more of a VIP retreat for the dying. In exchange for spending your final days in the lap of absolute luxury, his scientists get to run their experiments.

Well, on all but one of the residents.

I slide out of the car and walk toward the entrance, where I let myself inside with my key card. The driver knows to wait for my return. Gary has become one of our most trusted Cattle-turned-staff, and he often ferries me around when he isn’t busy helping Jim.

I guess it’s more fitting to call him a Sinner now, though he hasn’t taken a kill since his grand moment at Quinn and Aven’s wedding. We’ve tried to bring him along on hunts, but he hasn’t taken up the offer yet. We hope this road trip is just the push he needs to really get him into the hobby.

Before the road trip can begin, however, I have to visit a dying woman.

Orderlies nod as I pass. A nurse helps an elderly man back to his room. The walls, the floors, and the ceilings gleam a bright white. Voices carry from small rooms and cracks beneath doors. Doctors and scientists discuss findings and treatment options. All is right and all is well, even at this late hour.

I push my card into a slot to take the elevator to the VIP suite on the top floor.

Quiet greets me as I step into a dark hallway. Jim wanted somewhere more private for Bennett to visit his mother, and this is where she’s been ever since. She was moved to this floor shortly after its completion.

The door opens with a quiet whoosh as I enter her bedchamber. I don’t know her on a personal level, but Bennett has taught me a great deal. He speaks of her often. Jim and I hope this road trip will soften the blow of what comes next for that boy. Because death is on its way.

I step closer to the bed. She lies with her head on the most expensive pillows Jim could find. Can she feel them? I don’t know. She hasn’t spoken a coherent sentence in weeks. She hasn’t opened her eyes in days.

The door clicks shut behind me, and I turn to find Bennett entering the room with a cup of coffee in his hand.

“So . . . you’re here, then,” he says, his voice barely a whisper.

“I’m here,” I say.

He nods and sips the coffee. As he steps closer, we look at his mother as if she’s already dead before us, lying in a coffin.

“She’s just as beautiful as she was thirty years ago.” I brush a stray gray curl from her forehead.

Bennett scoffs and shuffles his feet. “You didn’t know her thirty years ago.”

“No, but that picture over there looks as if it were taken about that time.” I nod toward the framed image on the nightstand. In it, she’s a much younger version of herself. A much brighter version.

“Oh.”

I lean forward to adjust the nasal cannula, and Bennett gasps.

“You aren’t doing it with me standing here, are you?” he asks.

I move the plastic tube, seating it further inside her nose to provide more oxygen. “No. I won’t do it while you’re present if that’s not what you wish.”

He relaxes. “I thought I’d want to be here, but I don’t think I can.”

“That’s okay. She won’t be alone at the end.” I turn and place a hand on his arm. “Do you want to wait until after the trip?”

He shakes his head and stares into his cup. “She’s stuck in there. I want to set her free.”