Sinner by Minx Hardbringer, Natasha Tanner Read Free Book Online Page A

winces. "Oh, that's intense."
    "Easy, now. That stuff will knock you on your butt if you're not used to it." I say, and she puts her glass down.
    "There's diet soda in the fridge," Becks says absently. "I'll get us a few." She gets up and gets the drinks quickly.
    "I was a stuntman," I tell her and pour another two fingers of whiskey in my glass. "I had a legitimate career for a while. "
    "What happened?" Lilith asks as she attempts another draw of her bourbon. God her face is adorable when she scrunches up her nose at the burn of the alcohol. She's so good and pure. I'm a mess, and I've dragged her into this crap. I have to find a way to make it up to her. That's if she ever forgives me for lying to her. But, I had to lie, right? For Sophie...
    "Adam?" Becks says and reaches over with a toe to nudge me. The alcohol is taking it's toll on me.
    "Oh sorry. Spaced out for a second. Yeah, so I worked as a stuntman in Hollywood for a few years. I didn't start out as a stuntman. At first, I swept the floor and emptied the garbage. After a while, I got hired on to help build sets and break them down when the studio was done with them. That's how I landed the stuntman job." I say and pour myself another drink. I shouldn't drown my inadequacies in booze, but it's too late now.
    "Set builder to stuntman is an impressive jump," Lilith says and gives me a crooked smile. She's enjoying my story, so I go on.
    "I was on a crew with a dude named Terry. One of his relatives was a big wig at a major studio. He was such a screw-up, though, that the only job he could get was as a set builder. Even with his Uncle's name, nobody would touch him. He'd had a few parts in some pretty major movies, but he was a drunk and a lecher. Enough starlets cried foul of the way he treated him, and he was out. Beautiful face beats dumb, drunken relative I guess."
    "Go on." Becks encouraged. She loves this story.
    "So, one day we're deconstructing a cityscape facade, and Terry is drunk as usual. I don't know what he did, but the whole thing started to fall down on me.  I was as good as dead, but my adrenaline kicked in, and I rolled, jumped, and parkour my way out of the way just in time. I did a lot of messing around jumping on and off stuff as a child. Parkour is what the cool kids call it now. I just called it a free way to have fun and give Mrs. Morgan a heart attack. Mrs. Morgan was my foster mom."
    "Adam," Becks warned. I was getting too close to home, and I had to bring the story back around to work. I looked at Lilith, and she caught the warning in Becks' tone, but she didn't say anything.
    "Anyway, the whole place erupted in applause. Some big time stunt man saw the whole thing, and he took me under his wing. I have no idea why because I became his competition eventually, but sometimes good people just save your life." I say and smile at Lil.
    "So, what happened? Why are you here?" She asks and takes the last gulp of her whiskey. She must have a buzz because she barely flinches.
    "I worked my way up for a few years. Nick, the veteran stuntman, taught me increasingly complicated stunts until I was one of the most sought after stuntmen in the business. Then one day, it all came crashing down. Literally." I say and try and choke back the emotion boiling up in my throat. That day was the day that changed everything for the worse. It was the catalyst that leads to Sophie being a hostage right now.
    "You don't have to go on," Lilith says in a whisper. She doesn't want me to be upset.
    "It's okay. I was doing a stunt for a movie about a vampire-hunting priest. I had to do a dive into a flaming pool of water. Nobody knows what happened for sure, but Nick thinks someone cut part way through one of my wires. When I jumped off the platform, the cable snapped. I would have been okay since I was jumping into water, but the other wire kept me from flattening out my body. It didn't slow my fall enough, though. I hit the bottom of the pool head first. I was in a coma