The Sinner (The St. Clair Brothers 1)

Going by Calloway’s glare, I swore, if he could, he would've doused me in gasoline and cheerfully lit the match, then celebrated around my burning pyre.

“Yeah.”

I had to see, if only to rub salt in the wounds. I plucked the device from Calloway’s Sasquatch paw before he could stop me.

I looked down and squinted. “Uh, I have no idea what I'm looking at,” I admitted. The picture was black and white and fuzzy all over, kinda like the TV from Poltergeist when it sucked the little girl into it.

“Dude,” Franzie, a second line defensemen, squished in next to me. “You can’t see the baby? It’s right there.” His finger thrust into my field of vision and tapped on the screen. “Right. There.”

Squinting further, I tried to see what Franzie saw and came up empty. “All I see is static. You got a better picture?”

Calloway reached for the phone, but I was faster. I dodged his attempt to snatch it and, just to be an asshole, flicked to the next photo. The grin fell off my face so fast I was surprised it didn’t land on my shoes. A picture of a familiar blonde haired, brown-eyed woman, smiling from ear to ear, filled the screen.

My cackle cut short and every last drop of blood in my body drained from my face. My eye began its Riverdance and everything went out of focus. Calloway grabbed his phone with a snarl. Good thing, too, because my hands shook as hard as an eight point five earthquake, and with my disastrous history regarding all things electronic, I would've dropped it. I didn't even care when Calloway proceeded to curse me up one side and down the other for having the gall to steal his phone and invade his privacy and blah, blah, blah.

No. I was too busy going down in a fiery explosion. I was Alderaan, and that picture was the Death Star, its laser beam obliterating everything I thought I knew, turning it into an asteroid field.

“Sebby. Hey, what’s going on?” When I didn't respond, Ev grabbed my shoulders and gave me a shake. I snapped out of the daze and glanced around to discover everyone in the room staring at me. Including Calloway.

He didn’t know. He didn’t know about me and Kylie.

If he did, no doubt I would have been kissing Calloway’s knuckles weeks ago. He would've swung first and asked questions later, beating me to a pulp while shouting words from George Carlin’s list.

I staggered back and clutched my chest. Maudit! Calloway’s… sister! Kylie was Sasquatch’s sister? Kylie… Calloway? The enormity of the revelation made my knees buckle and a choking panic crept up my throat.

“I-I have to get out of here.” I shrugged Evvy’s hands off and ran.

Twitch, twitch, twitch.

Yeah, my eye was probably going to twitch for the rest of my life, up to and including the moment they lowered the coffin six feet under.

“Seb!”

I ignored Ev and kept going until I stood next to my truck, feet spread, torso bent in half, and hands braced on my thighs as I sucked in the cold winter air. Not because I was winded. Because I didn’t want to pass out from shock.

“Seb?”

Christ on a motherfucking cracker! Why can’t everyone mind their own fucking business?

Literally, nobody gave two shits about me, ever, until the minute I wanted to fuck off and be alone. Then a bunch of over concerned busybodies popped out of the woodwork to go all Dr. Phil on my ass.

Twitch, twitch, twitch.

Amanda called my name again. I stood up straight and pressed both thumbs against my spasming eye.

“Mandy, not now,” I growled.

God, I was such a miserable twat.

“Well, don’t get all overexcited on my behalf,” she snapped.

I dug for my keys so I could get the hell out of there and process the cargo jet full of shit that decided to use my brain as a runway. Amanda walked over, heels clicking on the pavement, and my anxiety shot higher than a junkie with a needle hanging from his arm. I wrapped my fingers around the key ring and exhaled. Talk to Amanda and get it over with as fast as possible.

After that, I had no fucking clue.

Alcohol? Leap off a tall bridge? Alcohol then leap off a tall bridge?

“You know,” Amanda huffed. “You’re the one who came to me to ask if we could be friends, and against my better judgment I decided to give you a chance.” I clenched my fist and the sharp bite of the keys dug into the meat of my palm. The pain kept me focused on Amanda instead of what I just learned. “Do you treat all your friends this way, Seb? Because if so, scratch me off what has to be the shortest list in the history of ever.”