Branded (Sinners, #1)

He looks around again, unsure.

“All right, I’m ready,” I say.

So he begins. “First things first. Always be aware of your surroundings. Don’t walk anywhere alone. If you must, carry something sharp between your knuckles if you can find something. Avoid dark places—that’s a given. Use common sense and always trust your gut.” He circles around me as he speaks. “I’m guessing you’re not in the best physical condition, right?” he asks, but it’s more of a statement.

“Most definitely not.”

“Well, we’re going to whip you into shape. You don’t stand a chance if you can’t run or punch correctly, so let’s begin with that.”

Next thing I know, I’m doing push-ups. I can barely bang out twenty when he yells at me to go faster. He makes me sprint back and forth between the rooms, throw a mix of punches, and do more push-ups. I was sore before, but now I know I’ll be an invalid.

Two hours later, I’ve had enough. I’m throwing up in the bathroom when he says, “That’s enough for today. You’re tough. I’ll give you that. I’m willing to bet you’ll have this down in no time.”

“Thanks,” I mumble before I heave again. My freaking stomach.

I can almost hear the smile in his voice. “Don’t be ashamed. Believe me, at some point we’ve all had our heads in the toilet bowl. Although, I prefer to puke in a trash can myself. There was this one time the water splashed back in my face. And that’s probably one of the nastiest things that’s ever happened to me.” Then he takes up his post outside our rooms in the hallway.

I stumble to Cole’s bed and lie down. Every muscle, including the tiniest ones I didn’t know existed, hurt. Should I keep this from Cole? The answer is I can’t.

I’ve never been a liar, but I’ve had plenty of experience around them. My stepfather was the prime example. He lied all the time. He lied to all of us when he married my mother and we moved to High Society. At first, it was all rose-colored glass and then he smashed it. He showered my mom with flowers and cards. He bought us ice cream and took us to school. But he did it all just to win her heart, and when he did, everything changed. He began feeding her pills to the point she was barely coherent half of the day, and when she was, she was angry… angry at me. His hypocritical behavior, and my mother’s inability to distinguish the truth, drove my brother away. I resigned myself to never, ever be a liar.

The thoughts make me antsy, but when I try to get up, every muscle screams. I sit in a huff, knowing walking off my anxiety won’t work right now.

At last, Zeus bounds into the room, making his entrance with lots of wet kisses. Cole speaks in whispers to Bruno in the hallway for a minute before he comes in.

“Hey, babe. Heard you had an interesting day.” He smirks at me.

Did he just call me babe? “Uh, yeah. I figured it wouldn’t hurt if Bruno taught me some basic self-defense. I hope you’re not angry with me.”

He pauses in the doorway, thinking. “I guess I don’t have a choice, do I? I’m betting if I said no, you’d do it anyway. And knowing Bruno, he’d teach you.”

That’s it? That was easy. “So you’re okay with it?” I want to jump up and down, but my body won’t allow me to move.

He can’t hide his surprise. “You’re that excited about learning self-defense? Just don’t use any of it on me, because you wouldn’t win and I don’t want to be the one responsible for putting your ass back on bed rest,” he says. He laughs, takes my chin in his hand, and tilts up my head. “Please be careful. Just because you know a few things doesn’t make you invincible. Plus, I’ll still do everything in my power to protect you,” he says. “Which reminds me, we still need to talk,” he says. I raise my face to his. “Now don’t freak out. I’m going to ask you some basic questions about your past, and if you’re uncomfortable, we’ll stop.”

My entire past makes me uncomfortable. “What do you want to know?” I ask, already moving away from him toward the chair.

“What did your father do for a living?”

I cock my head to the left. That’s not the question I expected. “My father, well, he was a humanitarian. An extremely wealthy one, but you’d never know it. He cared deeply about people, including the sinners. He thought the system was unjust and was fairly vocal about it. While he had some wonderful supporters, he also had a boatload of enemies. He never discussed his actual line of work with me, and I was too young and naive to think much about it,” I say. “Why do you care about my father?”

“I’m trying to put all the pieces together,” he says. He shrugs as he pulls off his shirt and throws on a black T-shirt. He begins making something for dinner, and the smells are intoxicating. My stomach rumbles.

“Are you hungry?” he asks as he puts something on the plates.

Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki's books