The Sinner (Notorious 1)

“What was that?” he asked from the sheets of his bed.

Goodbye? A mistake? Yep to both of those things. And to a million smaller things I couldn’t name.

So, I didn’t answer him. I turned to leave and he grabbed my hand, his thumb pressed against my palm in a way I felt under every inch of my skin.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

And I got the hell out of there.

SAVANNAH

Monday morning, I climbed the stone steps to the Bonne Terre Library and unlocked its heavy wooden doors. Inside, the cool, still air smelled like books, wood cleaner and damp from the basement that had never dried out from Hurricane Katrina.

“Lucy!” I said with my best Desi impression, “I’m home.”

I got to work, occupying myself with the piles of tasks that had accumulated in my absence. But even with the work, Matt was there. Lingering in the corners of my mind. My body was still sending off sparks. Every time I crossed my legs I felt the tug in my clit. The emptiness of my body.

And that thank you. Man, that really got to me.

He was different. Changed. He might not be able to see it, but I felt it last night—the way he’d let himself be touched. Loved, even.

I wished, stupidly, that his letting go of his grief and guilt might mean something for me.

Like he’d stick around.

But he wouldn’t. No one ever did.

By noon, the air conditioner was battling the humidity that pressed down from outside and the summer school kids were at the computers.

Including Garrett and Owen.

Looking at them, my blood literally boiled. Two weeks since the first break-in and there they were, as if nothing had ever happened. I had to drink a big glass of cold water to stop myself from incinerating.

I reconsidered my thoughts of revenge—maybe that letter to their parents? But it didn’t seem like enough. Nothing seemed like enough.

“Hot one today, huh?” Janice, my assistant, asked. We stood at the sink, Janice filling up the WeightWatchers water bottle she kept at her desk—along with the Fannie May sampler box she didn’t think anyone knew about. Balance, she always said and I liked that about her.

“Hey,” I turned sideways and rested my hip against the counter. “So what’s happening with the love triangle out there?”

“Well.” Janice nearly shook with sudden excitement. “I caught Garrett and The Cheerleader kissing down by the drinking fountains.”

“Does Owen know?”

“Not at all.” Janice shook her head, her eyes twinkling.

I, as I had since the moment I’d hired Janice, felt like hugging the woman.

“Why?” Janice asked. “You suddenly interested in the love lives of summer school students?”

I shrugged, heading to the front desk and the stacks of mail I needed to go through. “No reason.”

But Matt’s words hummed through my bloodstream.

Guilt deserves to be punished.

While I was convinced the adage no longer applied to Matt, it sure as hell applied to the two kids smirking at me over their computer screens.

I shrugged off the chains I kept around those O’Neill impulses and when I finally saw Owen’s girlfriend head for the bathroom, Garrett not far behind her, I strolled up to Owen.

“I need to do some maintenance on that computer,” I said. “Why don’t you take a bathroom break?”

“Whatever,” he said and took off for the stairs. And, I could only hope, a very ugly surprise.

I smirked.

“Savannah?” Janice said from the front desk, holding the phone. “It’s a man named Matt for you. He says he can’t find Katie.”

MATT

“Did you check in the tree?” Savannah demanded as she came charging through the door. I’d expected her to come running, but the anger was a surprise. The woman from last night was gone like she’d never been. And maybe that was the secret to Savannah. The parts of her she let me see were so separate from each other they were like different people.

“Of course,” I said. “When the water balloons didn’t come at noon that was the first place I checked.”

“Where’s Margot?” she snapped and threw her purse down on the kitchen counter. She was back in her prison warden outfit, all straight lines and buttons, but her hair was loose, pulled away from her face with a headband. A variation on her theme.

Her beauty and all those buttons totally wrecked me.

I coughed and stepped behind the counter so she wouldn’t notice my totally inappropriate erection.

“Right here,” Margot said, stepping into the kitchen wearing her robe.

“Good lord, Margot,” Savannah said. “It’s past noon and you’re just getting up?”

“So it would seem.” Margot’s eyes twinkled as she crossed to the coffeepot.

“Where have you been?”

“Anthony took me to New Orleans for the weekend. I got home late last night.” She filled a china teacup with coffee and sipped it black. “What’s got you in an uproar this morning?”

“Katie’s gone,” I said.

Margot blinked and turned to Savannah. “Gone?”