Page 76 of The Hitman's Prince

I had one missed call from my father…from the night before.

Caspian sat down beside me on the bed and I called my father back. He answered on the third ring.

“It’s about time you called me back,” he answered.

“My phone died,” I lied.

“Busy with your flock, then?” he asked, mocking.

I looked at Caspian and told my father the truth, “Yes.”

“You weren’t at the church last night.”

“No.” I paused and swallowed. Upstairs, a door slammed.

“Where were you?”

“There’s a man I’ve been seeing,” I said.

“You’re supposed to be apriest, Jacob.”

“That’s just pretend, and he…it’s fine. He doesn’t know who I am. He just thinks he’s a man who gets to take a priest to bed now and then.”

The lie was bitter, but unavoidable.

“More than once.”

“Yes,” I rasped.

“Has Angelini come to offer any confessions since his attempted murder?”

I thought about the first night Vince and Orion walked into the church together, the way the marble floor felt against my knees and the leather felt against my back. If I closed my eyes, I could still taste the salt of Vince’s cum on my tongue.

“Yes.”

“Did you offer him absolution?”

I scoffed. “I’m supposed to be a priest, of course I did.”

“And since then?”

“I’ve seen him.”

“I’m sure you have.”

The silence between us was deafening. The echo of Orion’s shoes grew louder as he searched us out by the sound of my voice. When he appeared in the doorway to the bedroom, he was fully dressed. Black slacks, black shoes, a white button-up, always rolled up to his forearms, his black leather shoulder holster secure around his back. His face was still wrecked, but his hair was brushed, and I imagined his mouth would have tasted like spearmint.

“I was just returning your missed call,” I said into the receiver. “Have there been any updates I need to know about?”

“Nothing that concerns you, Jacob.” It was a lie. The opposite from what Daren had said on the phone. “But maybe I’ll attend your next mass and see if you offer me the same penance you were kind enough to give that bastard mafia prince.”

Chapter 57

Caspian

In the doorway, Orion looked positively murderous.

But hot.