Revere (Sigma Sin #4)

Chapter 1

I WON’T TELL IF YOU DON’T

PATIENCE

My family spoiled me growing up.

Private jets. Designer purses. Staff on hand to bring me anything and everything I could ever want.

As I sit in the overcrowded airport, preparing to get on an even more crowded plane, I’m reminded of why I’ve continued to put up with my parents’ bullshit for so long. One of the perks of coming from the richest family in Bristal is that I’ve been born and raised with luxury and space.

If only that didn’t come at such a steep price.

Amassing money and power like my family has through the generations requires a certain amount of soul grating. Offerings at altars without knowing exactly how deep the cost will run. Nothing is too sacred to risk when you’re a Lancaster. Certainly not family. Much less love.

My parents always saw my brother and me as tools. As another way to build the bricks of their empire. The older Alex and I got, the more that was expected of us until he ended up in a psychiatric ward, and I ended up here. Alone.

I spent years taking bites of the apple, hoping someday I’d find Eden. I should have known, deep down, paradise is a pretty picture painted over a tainted landscape.

At least now I’ve got out. Or I’m trying to.

My parents cut me off when I accepted this summer internship program in LA. It was the final straw after they barely allowed me to enroll in college two years ago.

God forbid a girl have dreams that extend past the man in her life. In my mother’s eyes, a woman’s brain is put to better use pulling the strings in the family, while her husband works his way up the political food chain, than chasing a career of her own.

I refuse to be that—to be her.

I’ll never accept being some rich, influential asshole’s trophy wife.

The line snakes tighter, and I’m thankful Kole upgraded our tickets to first class.

There’s slightly more room than there is in the primary boarding line, even if we’re cramped in a corner.

At least, on the plane, I’ll only be sharing a row with one other person, limiting the number of witnesses when I inevitably have a panic attack at takeoff.

I’ve never been good at flying, and it got worse after my father took Alex and me to New York when we were in high school. The plane hit turbulence, and when it dipped, I swore we were plummeting. Just thinking about it, I feel that empty whoosh in my stomach.

The line moves again, and someone pushes past, sending me flying against the man in front of me.

“Sorry,” I grumble.

It’s not the man’s fault I ran into him, so I try not to let my mood bleed into my tone. But I’ve never been good at faking anything for the sake of others.

Something Mom chastised me for any chance she got.

She meant to soften me under enough pressure. But like the disappointment I’ve always been to her, her expectations only sharpened my tongue.

The man I slammed into turns with a forced smile. Annoyance washes his expression until he catches my gaze, and his eyes linger. They sweep down, roaming too brazenly for my liking, so I tug at my long-sleeve shirt, which is too warm for the middle of summer.

No matter how many layers I wear, it never feels like enough. And even if this man can’t see through them, it feels like he does.

“Don’t worry about it.” His grin lifts the mole above his lip.

His smile isn’t kind; it’s predatory in a way that’s familiar after being raised in a shark tank. Men looking at what they shouldn’t. Seeing women as pawns in their games. Or worse, disposable and useless.

I turn away before the urge to rake my freshly manicured nails across his face becomes too strong. But all that does is put me face-to-face with my best friend, cradled in the arms of a man who represents everything that has gone wrong in my life.

Kole Christiansen.

The moment my roommate started dating a member of Sigma House, I should have known things were about to go to hell.

I’m not naive. I knew attending Briar Academy would put me on the same grounds as Sigma House. The fraternity my father helps run, and the one that sent Alex to a psychiatric ward when he failed an initiation trial. But I did my best to live in a bubble and avoid them.

I ignored the Sigma House members wandering campus, and they ignored me. Occasionally, my roommate Mila would have a fling with one of them, but she’d keep it to the frat house.

I was surviving.

It wasn’t until Violet started dating Kole that things started going downhill.

Walls began to close in.

One by one, my roommates started to fall. First Violet, then our other roommate, Teal, who married the House President, Declan. Now, everywhere I look, there are signs of Sigma House lurking. Or, as the students on campus like to call them, Sigma Sin.

It's fitting, considering it’s what they represent.

The end of all good.

All hope.

All purity.

What they did to my brother is proof of that.

As a child, I begged Alex not to follow in our father’s footsteps, but he didn’t listen. He chose the House like all male legacies do, promising he’d still be there for me through thick and thin. That nothing would change.

It was a lie.

Looking up, I meet Kole’s gaze, and I’m surprised he doesn’t immediately break it.

He doesn’t like anyone besides Violet, and it’s rare that he interacts with anyone else when she’s around.

But for that split second, he watches me, and I watch him.

And I try to understand how she sees any good in him.

I’m the first one to look away when a chill ices my spine.

“The line’s moving again,” Violet says, tucking her black hair behind her ear.

I turn to see she’s right. They’re finally letting us onto a new plane. We’ve been stuck at the airport for hours after our original flight had mechanical issues, and I’ve been getting close to ditching this plan entirely and going back to the dorm.

“Finally,” I mumble, drawing the attention of the man in front of me again.

When he smiles at me this time, I take a step back.

There’s something about his eyes that reminds me of one too many moments growing up.

Kole must sense something because he shifts him and Violet, putting himself between the man and me. Violet’s eyebrows scrunch in confusion, but he doesn’t explain as his hold on her waist tightens.

“I’m going to sleep for a week when we get there. This last bit of school was rough.” Violet sighs.

“At least you breezed through your finals. I barely passed my last statistics test.” Math has never been my strongest subject, and I’ve been too distracted by my brother these past few months to focus on schoolwork.

“I don’t think this internship will be much easier.” Violet frowns.

“It’ll be fine.” I shrug because at least it isn’t math. “Besides, we get to learn from the best.”

The best being Professor Gray, the most brilliant mind in modern criminal psychology. He’s helped federal agents catch several of the most notorious serial killers in recent years, and his methods are a work of brilliance.

Professor Gray is prolific in his field.

But strangely, he’s also extremely private.

When I searched him online, I wanted to learn more about him as a person so I would know what I’m walking into this summer.

But there’s not one picture. Nothing referencing his personal life.

If it wasn’t for his name being mentioned in textbooks, agency reports, and hundreds of arrest warrants, I’d almost think he doesn’t really exist.

The line moves again, and this time, we don’t immediately slow down.

We board the plane, and I breathe a sigh of relief as I turn left into the first-class cabin and space opens up.

I scan the rows for my seat and find it near the middle of the section. But just as I reach it, someone yells behind me, and that’s all the warning I get before a kid runs past, knocking into me as he bolts down the aisle with his mother chasing him.

His little elbow catches me perfectly on the back of my knee, and my legs buckle, sending me sideways into a seat.

A very occupied seat.

Thankfully, the person catches me before I fall completely backward. And when I try to immediately stand, he holds me on his lap to avoid me running into the mother, who is running down the aisle after her child with a train of flight attendants on her heels.

“Thanks.” I sigh, still catching my breath as I finally turn to the man whose lap I’m currently occupying.

My eyes meet his, and my thoughts vaporize.

He steals every last atom of air in the plane.

He’s at least fifteen years older than me, but he wears his age well.

Every line of his chiseled jaw is sharp and defined.

His rich chestnut hair is cropped close on the sides but longer on top and perfectly swept off his forehead.

His stubble is at least a few days old, adding the perfect edge to his otherwise gorgeous face. And those eyes.

They’re as green as an emerald with the faintest ring of gold at the edge.

“Don’t worry about it.” His voice is smooth as honey.

It sticks to my senses like his apple spice cologne clings to my lungs.

His hand shifts on my thigh, and I realize just how close his fingers twitch between my legs.

How his warmth lights my skin on fire.

I really should stand. Or, at the very least, stop staring. But the mom, kid, and flight attendants are walking by again, forcing me to stay put in the man’s lap.

I swear he’s solid muscle beneath his suit. Nothing like the college boys back at home.

“I think you’re in my seat.” I say something—anything—to stop thinking about how hot my blood is running.

His expression lights, and the tilt of his mouth is as dangerous as it is beautiful. There’s no recovering from that kind of smirk. It sketches itself in my mind.

“I think you’re the one in my seat.” He glances down at where I’m sitting on his lap.

“Oh, right.” I try to push myself to standing, but I’m uncoordinated and my feet don’t touch the ground, so I’m wiggling on him.

Thankfully, the man plants his large palm on my lower back and helps me up.

My head spins as I find my feet, and I roll my shoulders back and smooth my shirt to gather my composure.

“Better?” he asks.

“Much.” I spin to face him. “But you’re still in my seat. I think you’re supposed to be at the window.”

He hums, looking at the empty seat beside him. “I’d prefer the aisle if you don’t mind.”

“It’s not that.”

“You don’t like the window?”

“I—” I bite my lip, glancing at it. “I do. I like being able to see where I am. What’s up. What’s down.”

My stomach drops as I think of the plane taking a dive. The endless free fall. The complete loss of control.

“Then what’s the problem?” His question snaps me out of that thought.

“They’re assigned seats.” I cross my arms over my chest. “I think we’re supposed to stick to the ones we booked.”

His smile grows as he stands, and I’m pretty sure he was crafted by the devil to tempt me because as he rises, my neck cranes to continue meeting his gaze. He towers over me with a gleam in his eyes that has my whole body prickling.

The man steps into the aisle, forcing me back a step. Until there’s nowhere else to go as he dips his mouth low to my ear.

“I promise I won’t tell if you don’t.” He waves his hand to the window seat, motioning me to get in.

Swallowing hard, I’m tempted to argue. But that would require me to form words, and I’m pretty sure he stole them straight from my tongue with one look. So I slip into the seat, settling into the one by the window, and I try not to let him see I’m some lovestruck girl.

I’m never like this with guys back at college.

Then again, the guys back at college are nothing like him.

He drops into his seat, and I scrunch as close to the window as I can to keep a gap between us. It’s pointless because he doesn’t bother doing the same. His arm claims the armrest, and his knees are spread wide, tiptoeing over that line that defines his space and mine.

He’s everywhere.

Looking past him, I see Violet and Kole settling across the aisle.

She widens her eyes and looks from the man at my side to me, trying to convey some silent message.

Or maybe she’s trying to ask what just happened, seeing as I was all over this man just moments ago.

I can still feel the fire burning in my cheeks.

Violet mouths something, and my eyebrows pinch.

“What?” I mouth back, but it draws the attention of the man between us, so she turns back to Kole.

“Everything okay?” the man asks.

“Yes.” My voice squeaks, so I clear my throat. “Everything’s fine.”

“Good.” He doesn’t break gazes.

“I’m Patience.” I force a tight smile.

He didn’t ask, but he won’t stop staring at me, so I feel compelled to say something to break the tension.

“Jacob.”

“Okay.”

Okay?

What is wrong with me?

I turn back to the window and avoid continuing the conversation. Maybe I’ll pretend to sleep, or I’ll pull out my headphones and listen to music. Because if I have to sit beside Jacob for the next hour and a half, it’s going to be a very long flight.