Page 24 of Secret Sins

Closing his eyes, he said, "Not technically, but it would be disingenuous to pretend that makes me the good guy."

"What did you do, then?" My throat felt as dry as the desert. He'd tried to tell me he wasn't innocent, but I'd only half believed him.

"Ran whatever they gave me from point A to point B. Envelopes of cash, probably, maybe hit orders." His eyes were full of remorse when he opened them. "Without question, I delivered their packages in exchange for money."

Blowing out a breath, I tried to take in the information. "Is that why you were in prison?"

His gaze narrowed.

"You dropped the name Storm Cove the other day, and I looked it up."

His leg bounced, and Heidi left me to focus on him. Whining, she nudged her nose into his fist until he relaxed enough to pet her. "That isn't why."

"You weren't caught running illegal shit for the mafia?" I frowned. Why the fuck else would they have locked him up? What had he done that was worse than that? What could I accept from the man who was mostly a stranger? In my home, alone with me and two animals, one of which would take his side in any instance. My heart thumped louder in my ears than Heidi's tail on my wooden floors.

Scrubbing his hands over the dog's back, Van took a minute before responding. "I was in a filthy back alley one night, same as usual. That was my territory; the rougher, the better. People don't exist in places like that. They're there, of course, but they've been overlooked for so long."

"Easy targets." I could picture it, even coming from a small town with a relatively low crime rate.

He nodded. "I had just delivered, so I was empty-handed. For the best, honestly, or it would have added to my charges."

I watched him rub his palms over his jeans. He didn't go on, and I didn't want to rush him. "Do you want something to drink?"

"Um, water, please."

Heidi followed me into the kitchen, and Charlie rushed into the bedroom to hide. Bringing two bottles of water back to the couch, I sat and handed one over. Van drank deeply, the way his throat worked mesmerizing me. Everything about the way he looked made me want to reach out and touch. He'd shaved recently, but a five o'clock shadow peeked through. His hair grew over his ears, short sideburns accentuating good cheekbones.

Could it be true that he was the villain in my story?

"You're staring, Bailey."

Quickly dropping my gaze, I laughed breathlessly. "Can't help it."

"It figures I would find the most beautiful woman in the world on the other side of the country." Setting his water on the coffee table, he added, "While I'm trying to keep my head down and stay alive."

"If you weren't caught with anything that could incriminate who you worked for, why are they after you?"

"To answer that, I have to go back to why I was arrested." It seemed he lost himself in the memories as he gazed over my shoulder, and his sentences came out choppy as he confessed his sins. "There was a man and a woman. Leaning up against the bricks. I walked on by. But he . . . she started screaming, and I couldn't . . ."

Fuck. Resting my hand on his leg, I gave him silent comfort.

"I stopped him. It wasn't just instinct; it was deeper than that. I'd seen enough nasty shit in my lifetime, watched my sister suffer and eventually overcome. I couldn't walk away."

Tears formed in my eyes, and I blinked rapidly. A savior and a villain, both sides of the same coin. Yin and yang. Black and white, and a multitude of grays in between.

"The problem was that I didn't stop. I could have pulled him off and told her to run, but I simply saw red. In my mind, I equated a random fucker with my sister's attacker. Street patrol heard the screaming; heard the woman trying to stop me." He snorted. "She was more concerned about the beating I gave the asshole instead of thanking me for saving her."

I'd begun circling my fingers over the top of his thigh as the story unfolded. "What happened to him?"

"I put him in a coma. They said he died twice on the way to the hospital."

Holy shit. "Is it his family that's after you?"

"No." His leg began bouncing again, and I moved my hand to my lap. "The years I spent in prison were absolute hell. I know it's the point, essentially, to show you it's better on the outside. Going in, I was a cocky motherfucker."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Charlie peek around my bedroom door. His long green eyes blinked slowly, surveying the scene. Heidi's tail rapped softly on the rug, and I thought to myself it could always be like this.

Except I was beginning to see why it couldn't.