Page 147 of Sinners Reunion

I don’t turn around when he says my actual name. I look at Josie. Whatever happens next, I have to save her. I’ll face what’s behind me after that.

The bullhorn drops from my hand and clatters to the dock, and Blayne tosses the gun into the water. It sinks out of sight.

“What’s the matter? Nothing more to say now?” He looks past me, toward shore. “That’s right, boys! Come and get him! King is your very own Daddy Carter!”

Shouts ring out behind me. I still don’t turn around, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to.

Blayne turns his cruel eyes back on me, the device raised to his lips to make sure everyone hears. “But there’s one more thing, Daddy Carter. You don’t just have to choose between saving your lover and your friend. You also have to try to save me.”

He wiggles his foot, and it clicks. I was wrong. He attached an anchor to his foot as well. And he calls Ice Pick an idiot?

I cock my head to the side and almost have to laugh.

“You’re wondering why I’m such a tough choice, huh?” Blayne moves the bullhorn so that he can laugh. “You still haven’t figured it out?”

I fold my arms over my bare chest and wait for the punchline.

“I’ll make it simple for you, King or Carter or whatever the fuck you want to be called. It sure isn’t Dad, huh?” He looks me in the eye, and then he says the one thing I never anticipated. “You’ll have to choose between saving your lover, your friend . . . or your son. I’m the fifth Carter sibling.”

Chapter Forty-Seven

Josie

King’s fists clench harder. I can’t read his face from this distance, but there’s no way he believes this bullshit. For starters, they look nothing alike. Then there’s the whole fact that he acts nothing like the rest of the Carter siblings. They’re amazing people, and Blayne sucks fat, hairy balls.

I really hope King doesn’t fall for this shit.

Splashing sounds reach me from far away, and I look toward the shore. Aven and Bennett are charging into the water, pushing the boat in front of them. Jim rushes into the water to stop them, suit and all. He said he wouldn’t stand in the way. King told me that. But he’s standing. He’s trying to save his brother.

Tears fill my eyes, but before they can fall, thunder pounds in the distance, and the first drops of rain patter onto my cheeks.

I said I’d never lose him in the rain again.

“Looks like we’re running out of time, and you don’t look convinced,” Blayne bellows at King, “so I’ll make it quick. My mother was in a car accident a few years ago. Afterward, she told anyone who would listen that her memory had been erased and that I was the result of a government experiment. They locked her up, and she died of complications from the car accident six months later.”

I look up at him. “How the fuck is that King’s fault?”

Blayne strikes me, and I rock sideways and fall into the water. My arms grip the dock at the last second, and I hold myself above the waterline. Large, wet splinters dig into my fingertips, but I don’t let go. I can’t.

“Hang on, Josie,” Ice Pick says. He leans forward to grip my hands, but Blayne gives him a kick and sends him into the water.

“No!” I scream.

My hands nearly release the dock to reach for him, but I can’t help him. I want to, but I can’t. I’d just drag both of us down even faster.

“King, please save him!” I scream, but he can’t hear me over the sound of the wind picking up.

I glance behind me, but I don’t see him on the floating platform anymore. I’m too low in the water to see over the platform, so I don’t know if Aven and Bennett are on their way to finish him off or if Jim’s still holding them at bay.

Ice Pick surfaces to my right. He treads water the best he can with an anchor trying to pull him down. There must be an underwater current, because something is guiding him away from the dock instead of bringing him closer. He bobs underwater again.

Searing pain shoots through my hands, and I realize Blayne is stomping on my fingers as I turn my attention back to him. He grossly underestimates my determination to not only live but to outlive his stupid ass.

My poor fingers are no match for those gnarly toes, though, and I have to let go. Heaven help any woman who gets under the covers with those bear claws. I’m pretty sure I almost lost a finger.

My legs kick beneath me, and I reach for the dock, but I’m already sinking. It’s futile to fight against what’s happening. I try to make my arms and legs do what I’ve seen others do, but I get nowhere. No closer to the surface. No closer to air.

Another splash breaks the water to my left, and through the sparkling sunlight, I make out Blayne bobbing back to the surface as he fights the anchor around his leg. The water is too murky to see Ice Pick. Or any sort of salvation.