Page 32 of My Beautiful Sin

“So, are you going to make me guess what this is all about?” Lamar asks. “Or are you going to dive in?”

“I thought I would stall until we had food. And possibly lots of alcohol.”

Lamar chuckles. Then he settles himself on one of the barstools across from where Brandy is bustling like someone who needs to stay in motion in order to prevent the apocalypse. I hop onto the stool next to him and try not to fidget.

“All right,” I say, but then don’t know how to continue. There’s too much to tell him and I don’t have any idea where to begin. Finally, I decide that the only way to go forward is to start with the worst and work backwards.

I’m about to do that when I realize that’s a stupid approach and starting with the worst would just freak Lamar out. So, I tell him about how Alex disappeared the night Uncle Peter died, which is something he already knew, and I figure it’s a good way to ease him into the story.

“You know all that, of course. How he left and broke my heart.”

“Which is one of the reasons that I’ve always thought Alex was a bastard. And now that I know he’s Devlin, it all sort of fits together.”

I almost snap out a defense of Devlin, but then I notice the slight curve of his mouth. He’s teasing me to make this easier, and that simple knowledge lifts a huge weight from my shoulder.

“Right. Okay. Well, the reason that he had to disappear is that he’s really Alejandro Lopez. Do you know who that is?” It’s a foolish question, because I can already see the answer in Lamar’s eyes.

“Devlin Saint is The Wolf’s son?”

I nod. “And after Uncle Peter was killed, he ran. That’s when he joined the military.” I don’t say that Devlin’s the one who pulled the trigger. Not yet.

In the kitchen area, Brandy is practically buzzing with anticipation, as nervous as I am about what Lamar’s ultimate reaction will be.

Right now, he’s calm, his expression pensive, as if he’s fitting the puzzle pieces together. “So, he became Devlin Saint in order to hide from his father?”

“Yeah. And after his father died, he inherited everything that the government couldn’t take. He also inherited a lot of money from his mother. His mom’s family wasn’t dirty, so he used that money to live on, and he put everything he inherited from his dad into the foundation.”

“He wanted to make the bad money good.”

“Exactly,” I say, thrilled that he got there before I pointed it out.

“And you didn’t know any of this?”

“Back then? No. All I knew was that my boyfriend disappeared.”

“What about when you came back? Had you learned about Devlin then?”

I shake my head. “Not at all. You know exactly why I came back. Because Chief Randall told me that the guy who confessed to Uncle Peter’s murder couldn’t have done it. And that lifted the veil on the fact that Uncle Peter was somehow tied to The Wolf.”

“So when did you learn that Devlin was Alex? I mean, you also came to write a profile on Saint and his foundation. I know you, remember? You would have done your research before. Seen pictures of him.”

“True enough. But he doesn’t look like Alex anymore. He had some surgery, he changed his hair, he wears contacts to change the color of his eyes. And apparently the scar—”

I frown, since I still don’t know exactly how he got the scar. Just that he was at the wrong end of a knife. “I’m assuming it was from his time in the military.”

Lamar nods. “Okay. Go on. Does he know who really killed Uncle Peter?”

Across the bar, Brandy chokes on her sip of water, then holds up a hand in apology.

I keep my focus on Lamar and take a deep breath. “The truth is … well, the truth is that Uncle Peter was stealing from The Wolf just like we thought. And—and so The Wolf arranged it. Uncle Peter’s death, I mean.”

“Right. That much, I knew.”

I nod, then glance at Brandy before drawing in a breath as I turn my attention back to Lamar. Can I do this? Can I really burden him with this knowledge? If I don’t tell him, will it taint our friendship?

More importantly, what will it do to him—a cop—if I do?

Lamar’s brow furrows. “You’re telling me that Devlin knows who The Wolf hired.”