Page 30 of Sinners’ Appetite

I wake to a loud knock at the cabin door.

Nikki doesn’t move an inch as I slide my legs off the bed and walk over to the door.

“Morning,” Dean says with an excited look in his eyes.

“I forgot to set an alarm last night. Just gimme a few minutes and I’ll be right out.”

“No rush. I put coffee on, if you need some.”

“Fuck yes. I’ll take a coffee for sure.”

“Do you want me to wake Jeremy up and ask if if he wants to go?”

I nod my head. “Sure.”

As soon as I close the door and turn to face the bed, I see Nikki slowly sit up, rubbing her eyes.

“Are you leaving now?” she asks.

“In a few minutes. Dean’s heading over to ask Jeremy if he wants to come along today.”

“I hope he says yes. He needs a break.”

A few minutes later, another knock sounds at the door. This time, when I open it, Sammi and Jeremy are standing there.

“Sammi would like to hop into bed with your girlfriend,” Jeremy chuckles.

Sammi skips past me and runs over to the bed, hopping in beside Nikki. “You boys have fun. I need some bestie cuddles anyway,” she says, snuggling under the covers.

“Look at how cute you two are!” I snicker before Jeremy and I head out the door.

“They’ll be safe here alone, hey?” Jeremy asks as we make our way to Dean’s cabin.

“Yeah. There’s nobody out this way for miles,” I assure him. “Also, there’s a gun in every cabin. Above the door.”

“Sammi doesn’t know how to shoot a gun,” he says.

“I’m sure they could figure it out.”

The smell of coffee wafts past my nose as I step into the cabin, making my craving for caffeine even worse.

I head straight for the coffee maker and pour myself a cup as Dean comes around the corner. “Should we make ourselves some lunch?” he asks.

“Probably,” I say, taking a sip of my coffee.

“How long are we going to be out?” Jeremy asks.

“Just a few hours. I won’t keep you away from your girls for too long.” He laughs.

“They’ll be fine,” I say, trying to ease his mind.

Dean makes up a few sandwiches and gathers some bottles of water from the fridge, placing them into a bag. “We should get going though. The sun will get too hot soon.”

We take off out of the cabin and head down to the boat landing that’s near the beach area. His boat normally sits not far off from the shoreline for the majority of the summer, so it’s fairly easy to push into the water.

Once we get it in, we all hop inside and drop our phones into a waterproof bag. Just as I zip the top, my phone starts to ring. I pull it back out and smile when I see Nikki’s name on the screen.

“Awe, is someone missing me already?” I tease.

“No…I mean, yes but—we wanted to know if we can grab a coffee from Dean’s cabin.”

Dean nods his head. “Tell them to help themselves to anything in the fridge too.”

“Dean says you can. He says to help yourself to the food too.”

“Thank you!” she says. “When are you guys coming back?”

“In a few hours. We won’t be gone long. Make sure you take one of the guns with you if you wander away from the cabins.”

“Guns? But—I don’t even know how to shoot one of those.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

“We’ll just stay on the beach until you get back.”

“Will I get the pleasure of seeing you swim naked today?”

“I dunno, but Sammi sure will,” she giggles.

“It wouldn’t be the first time!” Sammi pipes up in the background.

“You two behave yourselves,” I warn. “No stealing my girlfriend, Sammi.”

“I can’t promise anything,” she laughs.

“See you soon…” I reply, ending the call and placing my phone back into the bag.

“Those two are trouble together.” I sigh as Dean starts the boat engine and gets us further out into the water.

“So—tell me. How did you all meet?” Dean asks.

“I’m his landlord for the space he rented downtown,” Jeremy says.

“Well, it’s a little more complicated than that,” I grin.

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Details guys. Give me details.” Dean laughs, steering the boat to the right.

“I invited him to my place for some drinks and…” Jeremy stops mid-sentence and flashes me a smirk.

“I offered to take Nikki into the sauna and when shit got too hot and heavy, we came back out to find Sammi and Jeremy fucking like rabbits by the hot tub. So we stayed and watched.”

Deans eyes widen. “I feel like there’s more to that.”

“Nikki’s a fan of watching those two fuck. Let’s just put it that way,” I chuckle.

“What’s the story behind their injuries?” Dean asks.

“Nikki and Sammi had a run in with someone from Nikki’s past. He took them because he figured they had something to do with his brother’s disappearance,” I explain. “But it was me they should have been looking for. I killed his brother the night I first met Nikki.”

“Fuck. What a mess, hey?”

“One of the men that was part of their abduction is still running free. That’s why we’re here. I have to go back and track him down. Alone.”

“Does Nikki know that?” Dean asks.

I shake my head. “Not yet. I’m not heading back for another week or so.”

“I don’t think she’s going to take it as well as you think she is,” Jeremy voices.

“I have no other choice. He needs to be stopped. God only knows how many more women he’s sold.”

“They were going to sell Nikki and Sammi?” Dean gasps.

“We got there in time, but it was a close call.”

Dean shakes his head and reaches for the bag that has the water and food in it, pulling out a bottle of water and chugging it back.

For the next two hours, we avoid talking about our own drama and reminisce on the last few years since I saw Dean last.

We head back to shore, which takes us a good hour to circle back around, and when we finally get close enough to see the shoreline, I see Sammi and Nikki’s heads popping out of the water.

Knowing she doesn’t have a bikini, my only assumption is that she’s actually completely naked.

When they both see the boat coming in, they start to wave. Of course, we wave back and anchor the boat to the wharf, leaving it there for now since we plan to go back out in the next few days.