Read Ultimate Sins for Free Online Page A

follicle of hair to be found in the house he had lived in for more than four years.
    Amory had become an indelible part of the county as director of social services. He had been seen as kind, compassionate, and generous. Yet, he was made of the same brutal cloth her father had been cut from.
    â€œYou don’t seem overly upset that Daddy Dearest is gone, Amelia.” Powerful arms folded across a broad chest, stretching the material of the black T-shirt he wore over the hardened muscles beneath.
    Amelia could only shake her head as she fought past the trepidation rising inside her. “It doesn’t seem real,” she finally answered, terrified to believe in it. “For so long I prayed—”
    Another hard shake of her head and she cut the thought off.
    She hadn’t meant to say that. She hadn’t meant to reveal so much.
    And of course Crowe had no intention of letting it go.
    His eyes narrowed, long, thick lashes lowering over his gaze as he paced closer to her, his arms dropping from his chest, his hard body tense, as though prepared to defend himself every second of his life.
    â€œPrayed for what, fairy-girl?” The jeering reminder of the nickname he had given her so long ago jarred her senses.
    Once, he’d whispered the pet name with arousal thickening his voice. The rasping cadence had been a part of memories guaranteed to leave her aching with longing, even now.
    â€œTo be free of him.” Forcing back what she’d nearly said, she shoved her hands into the hidden pockets of the dark-gold broom skirt she wore as she hunched her shoulders against the chill building beneath her flesh.
    â€œYou knew who he was.” He made the accusation suddenly with knowing silkiness.
    Amelia shook her head desperately, her hands immediately leaving the comforting warmth of the pockets to bury into the sides of her hair as she clenched in the strands. Fighting her fear had always been the worst part. She was such a coward, and always so terrified that her own actions would result in a friend’s persecution, arrest, or, even worse, Crowe’s imprisonment.
    â€œI didn’t know!” she cried out, feeling the heat of his body as her eyes jerked open to the sight of his chest far too close to her.
    Immediately her hands were against the softness of his shirt, desperate to push him back, to force back her own aching needs and the dark fears she couldn’t rid herself of.
    Or the shadowed rage building inside her.
    â€œThen why pray for your freedom?” Broad, callused fingers wrapped around her arms, the warmth of them sinking through the cashmere material of her sweater.
    â€œBecause he was desperate to destroy you.” She had to escape his touch. “I had to pretend you didn’t matter. That none of you mattered. That no one mattered. I had to search for evidence against you.” Tears filled her eyes. “I had to lie through my teeth and make it sound convincing whenever I asked if the Callahans could be part of those atrocious deaths while he pretended to defend you.” Her voice broke as agony rushed from the dark, once hidden depths of her soul where she had pushed it so many years ago. “I had to hate you just to be able to save you. And God help me, yes, I just wanted to be free of it.”
    She had sacrificed everything she was, everything she had ever wanted to be, to save him. To ensure her father couldn’t destroy him.
    â€œYou knew he was the Slasher,” he repeated, slicing deeper into her soul.
    â€œYou know that isn’t true.” A sob escaped her lips as she pulled back from him, tried to pull back from the heat searing into her flesh. “If I had known in time, I would have warned you.”
    Had she suspected? Was that where the fear had come from for all those years? That terrifying knowledge that something dark filled the soul of the man she was supposed to call father.
    Crowe released her, but rather than