Deadly Sins by Lora Leigh Read Free Book Online Page A

left of it was the memories and the nightmares.
    Blood raced through his veins, pounded through his heart, and adrenaline poured into his system as rage began to eat at his senses.
    The sound of her agony penetrated the darkness. He could hear Rafer curse ahead of him, the sound of his voice broken, enraged. Logan couldn’t hear Crowe, but then he and Rafer never heard Crowe. Their cousin was as silent as the night itself, bearing down and promising death.
    Twelve-year-old memories surged through Logan’s sleeping mind, bathing the night in a bloody hue. Time seemed to be locked in slow motion as blood spilled from the deep, gashing wound the monster had sliced into Jaymi’s side.
    She wasn’t crying, though. Instead, she was looking over Rafer’s shoulder, whispering, “Tye’s come for me, Rafe. He’s here. Tye’s here.”
    Her deceased husband.
    In her pain and fear it was the man she had cherished above all others whom she had conjured up to take her from the reality she was suffering.
    Rafer was screaming as he fought to hold the wound closed, to push her blood back inside her body, begging her to hold on.
    Begging her not to leave him.
    After all, who else would ever accept him as she had? Who else would look beyond the ravages of the cousins’ past and see more than three cursed young men?
    As Logan crashed through the night after Crowe and the serial killer who had made Jaymi his sixth victim, he could feel the sorrow, the grief, and the horrifying knowledge of what this night could bring creeping through him.
    Each of the six women who had been killed throughout the summer had been tied to the cousins. Each of them had either slept with one of them or was sleeping with one of them at the time of her death.
    Logan had lost two past lovers, Crowe had lost three, and now Rafer had lost the woman who had helped him find a measure of peace in the past year.
    As Logan reached Crowe, crouched in the dirt next to a mountain trail, his cousin’s hands and face stained with blood, he drew to a stop. Chest heaving for breath, failure thick in his senses, he watched the tears that welled in Crowe’s eyes as he lifted them to him.
    “Damn. Damn. He got away.” Crowe’s breaths heaved as harshly as Logan’s now while his voice filled with pain. “Fuck him. Damn him, he got away.”
    Logan stared at his cousin’s hands as he turned them up. They both stared at the blood before Crowe lifted his face to Logan, a tight, savage smile contorting his expression. “He’s carrying my fucking knife buried in his gut,” Crowe snarled. “He won’t live much longer.”
    Jagged blade, sharp and deadly, Crowe’s knife was meant to kill, and he had ensured that it had served its purpose.
    They were too young for this, was a hazy thought. Yet here they were, and there was no escaping.
    “Jaymi’s dead.” Logan helped him to his feet as Crowe staggered, his gaze bleak as he leaned heavily against Logan for precious minutes.
    Grief tore at Crowe’s voice as well. “Fuck. Logan, we’re all screwed tonight.”
    They hadn’t been fast enough. They hadn’t saved Jaymi, and now they would be lucky if they could save themselves.
    As they entered the clearing to see their youngest cousin, Rafer, rocking Jaymi in his arms, his tears falling into her hair, Logan knew that night could well end up being the last night of their freedom. If not of their lives.
    Logan watched solemnly as Rafer leaned his head further against Jaymi’s and continued to rock her.
    Tall, broad, Rafer dwarfed the much smaller woman. She looked far too petite, too delicate, in his arms. And much too still.
    Too still because the cousins had failed to protect her.
    Rafer had sworn to his best friend, Jaymi’s deceased husband, that if anything ever happened, then he would protect Jaymi with his own life. That he would watch out for her. That he would care for her.
    Yet the cousins hadn’t been able to save her from a madman.
    Logan stared at Rafer’s