Bound by Sin: The Beginning of a Prophecy (Prophecy #3) by Stevie J. Cole Read Free Book Online Page B

me. “It hurts to realize all you’ve known has been ripped from you.” There was pain behind his words, and I knew he understood how I felt. His grip on me tightened; grabbing my chin, he forced my head up. He moved the hair from in front of my face and dabbed the tears from my cheeks. “I’m the cause of this and you’ll be angry at me – at moments you may very well hate me – but eventually you’ll have to forgive me.”
    Reaching underneath my legs, he rose , bringing me with him. Gavin walked over to the bed and sat down. He scooted up toward the headboard and adjusted me in his lap. There I sat, curled up against his body, his hands stroking through my hair, his chin resting on the top of my head while I wept for the death of the person I once was – I mourned for life, tried to cope with the haunting secrets that few people knew of. In that moment, in that room, in the arms of the most beautiful deception I’d ever known, I died.

Constance
    Chapter Seven
    September 16, 2014
    The knock on my door made me jump. I’d been crying for hours, sitting and listening to the same gut wrenching song over and over. Stopping at the door, I rubbed the tears from my face. I looked down and saw black smears all over my fingertips from the mascara I’d forgotten to wash off the day before and realized I didn’t give a damn about what I looked like. I sucked back the snot and slid the chain from the latch.
    Jared’s chin drew back to his neck and his eyes widened. He was obviously shocked by my appearance. Flinging the door open, I turned and plopped back down on my couch as I knocked the collection of wadded up tissues into the floor.
    “Well, what the fuck did you expec t me to look like?” I huffed.
    Jared quietly shut the door. His hand rubbed over the back of his head and I felt the thud from his boot kicking the side of my couch.
    Letting out a long breath, he grasped for something appropriate to say. “Sorry, Constance. Don’t know what to do – I’m really bad at things like this. Never lost anyone I care about before.”
    I picked at a loose string on m y jeans and fought back tears. I was so damn angry and all I wanted to do was scream. Snatching the string free, I twirled it around my finger and watched the skin bulging around it turn a deep red.
    Jared sat down next to me and ran his hand along my thigh. His fingers tighten ed around my leg and he shook it gently. “So, what happened? Do they know? She was the one with you the night I met you, right? The brunette?”
    The casual way he was asking me about her, “the brunette,” enraged me. Did the puffy circles underneath my eyes not tell him she was more than just a damn brunette? My teeth gritted against each other and I huffed out, “Yeah, the brunette – the girl that was my best friend – that girl… just some damn brunette!”
    His face crinkled into a scowl and he moved his hand off my thigh. “Sorry, I – I just don’t know her.”
    I grabbed the remote and muted my stereo. Leaning my face down into my palms, I couldn’t stop myself from crying again. I couldn’t handle the emotion, the fucking unanswered questions, the emptiness my heart felt. “I just – I don’t even know. I feel like everything is falling apart. Brooke, Ashley –” I paused and brought my eyes to his. “And then Brooke’s boyfriend’s car was found all burnt up. What if it’s a serial killer? What if I’m next?”
    Jared’s eyes narrowed into black slits. His chest puffed out and he asked me, “What’s his name?”
    I sucked back some more tears, rubbing my hand under my nose to wipe the moisture away. “Gavin – Hunter. He was a doctor at the hospital she worked at.”
    Jared fell silent. Staring into his eyes, I noticed his pupils constrict. It almost looked like there was a flicker of excitement that briefly crossed his face. His eyes shifted down to his hands and he fidgeted with his thumb ring, spinning it around on his thick