Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
At the first shop, Sin convinced her to buy a pair of jeans and a fitted long-sleeved shirt.
It wasn't extreme, but it was much more revealing than she was used to.
Rissa put on a good show while they were in the store, smiling at the right moments with her head up the entire time.
The clerk barely noticed, too busy watching the news.
But then, as soon as they left, she was back to looking at the ground.
Thankfully, she kept his pace and wasn't even breathing hard.
Not that he was walking fast—not with his angel acting like she'd break down and cry at any minute.
Yet unlike his other clients, Sin knew he could rely on her to do what had to be done.
When they stepped into the pharmacy, she was right beside him, the smile in place.
The clerk looked shocked at the amount of medication he purchased, but the system had a prescription authorizing him for five months' worth of a much higher dose than he usually took.
Sin had to fight the urge to look at Rissa when he heard that.
The card cleared without even a hiccup, and they left with enough medication for his entire complex.
It was one less thing to worry about. Now, he had to get her some real clothing.
"Riss? You need at least three outfits. We're getting those, then heading home."
"Where is home going to be?"
He sighed. "For now, my apartment in the lower south. It's not much, but it's safe and quiet. Since you're supposedly inside OutLink right now, I think we can risk it until we can get to Davis's place."
Her face never left the ground. "How long will I have to stay in your apartment?"
"I'm honestly not sure," he admitted. "It'll be nice to have company, though."
She licked at her lips, a gesture he'd never been able to see before. "Does that mean you'll stay with me?"
"Yes," Sin promised. "I live there too, so you won't be alone."
"Ok."
In the end, she bought five outfits. Sin stood in the store holding a bag filled with his armor and all the medication, approving or rejecting her choices.
At first, she tried to get nothing but large, baggy dresses.
Those, he refused. Even the clerk sided with him, encouraging her to try more flattering attire.
Finally, she settled on a few things that were incredibly sexy and a lot of things that were simply functional—but still pretty damned sexy.
When the clerk rang up the items, Sin couldn't help but look over the selection of bras and panties, wishing he'd gotten to see her model those.
But shopping hadn't lifted her mood. As soon as they returned to the street, her head was back down and she said nothing.
He'd expected her to be at least a little excited about no longer being caged by OutLink.
He didn't think she'd known Caleb well enough to be this upset by his death, but it wasn't as if she had experience with the harsh realities of the world.
He just hoped she wouldn't fall into a depression he couldn't help lift.
She'd been through more tonight than the poor thing had ever experienced in her entire life. It had to be hard.
That was why he kept his silence. If she didn't want to talk, he'd give her the space to grieve.
It was the least he could do after everything she'd done for him.
When they finally reached his building, she glanced up but said nothing.
It was late enough his neighbors were all inside, most likely glued to the news.
That left nothing but empty halls and dim lights waiting for them.
Sin pressed his hand to his door panel, watched the light turn green, then slid it open. "Home sweet home," he said. "It's yours for as long as you want."
She stepped inside and paused, turning slowly. "This is just yours?"
"Yeah. Whose did you think it was?" Because this was the same place she'd been after the last attack.
And his apartment wasn't huge. It consisted of a long room that served as both his bedroom and living area. The kitchen was little more than a tiny alcove with the necessary appliances. A door at the front led to a moderately-sized bathroom. The entire thing was less than seven hundred square feet.
"It's amazing," she said. "I can't imagine so much space, so I assumed all of you lived here, but this is all yours?"
He laughed and led her further in. "Yes, this is all ours. It's small, Riss. Most places are at least twice this size, but priests don't make a lot of money. The other priests you met live in this same complex, in apartments about the same size."
Once the door was closed, he pulled his armor from the first bag and dropped it on the floor.
Kneeling beside it, he quickly removed the guns, knives, and everything that had been stored in the pockets, setting the items on a crate that served as his coffee table.
When he reached the pocket on his arm, he paused. A gold chain fell into his hand.
Debating for only a moment, he held it up for her. "This, I believe, is for you."
She reached out for the chain, letting him drop it into her palm. When she still refused to look at him, he held up a finger and bundled his armor before shoving it into the cleaning chute.
"This is not the Legion's symbol," she pointed out.
"No, it's ours. Benedict made those for us, and I know I was going to give you my old one, but I think this is even better."
"The eye is open and the wings are bent."
"Broken," he corrected. "We're meant to see, not fly."
"Knowledge, not power," she realized.
Nodding, he pushed himself to his feet. "Can I put it on you?" he asked, moving to stand just behind her shoulder. "If you'd rather I don't touch you, that's ok, but I'd be honored."
"You don't mind?" Her voice sounded timid.
"Not at all." He took the chain and guided it around her neck. When she made no move to lift her hair, he pinched the ends in one hand and exposed her neck with the other before locking the clasp. "Rissa," he asked, still standing behind her, "are you going to be ok?"
"I just don't want to disturb you," she said.
He realized her hands were clenched before her, and every muscle in her body was tense. "Why would you disturb me? You're my angel, and probably the best one I've ever had."
She turned to him quickly and reached up for her head, lifting her hair away. "Because these don't go away!"
He chuckled and grabbed her hand, pulling it back down. "Yeah, I've figured that out. I've seen a data port before, Princess."
"Not on someone like me." When she tried to turn away from him again, he stopped her.
"Wait, is that what this is about?" He gaped at her in astonishment as the pieces finally began to fit together. "I thought you were upset about me killing those guys, or Caleb dying, or maybe even because of the bombings today."
She shrugged, the gesture tiny, almost like she hoped he wouldn't see. "But you're safe, and you're really the only person I know. I just don't want to make you hate me."
Which meant one thing. "You're worried about not having a veil?" He still couldn't wrap his mind around that. "After everything that just happened, your big problem is that a fucking beautiful woman doesn't have a veil to hide behind?"
"I'm not beautiful," she whispered.
"When was the last time you saw your own reflection?" He pushed out a laugh. "Dear God, Rissa. There's a damned mirror in the bathroom."
"I've seen it."
"Then what the hell do you have to complain about?
I'm the fucking priest here!" He laughed again, then started putting his things away.
"Princess, I cannot lie to you. Trust me when I say looking at you walking around my home will not be something that disgusts me.
My problems will be a little different."
"What problems?" she asked innocently.
He didn't answer until he was on the other side of the room, storing his knives in the small shelving unit.
"It's called temptation. Just a few hours ago, I had this girl tell me she thought about kissing me.
Then, I finally get to see her face, and my first thought was it would be kinda nice to kiss her back.
" Next, he began refilling the magazines for his weapons.
"So, the problem isn't that I don't want to look at you, Rissa. It's that I do, ok?"
"And that's bad?" she asked.
He headed toward his bed, setting the rail guns beside his chair before placing the pair of gauss pistols on the bedside table. "It is for a priest." He looked at her with a smile. "I need to grab a shower. You going to be ok alone while I get some of this dust and mud off me?"
She finally smiled. "There is some blood and brains in your hair too."
"Fuck," he groaned. "And you let me go shopping like this? Check the news while I get this off, would ya?"
She made an affirmative noise, so he stepped into the bathroom, grabbed the hem of his shirt, and pulled it over his head.
Using that, he wiped at his ponytail, hoping to get some of the blood off before yanking the elastic loose.
Sin tossed the shirt in the laundry, grabbed a towel, and did his best to get the last of their assailants out of his hair.
With the hot water streaming across his body, Sin scrubbed, thinking about the girl sitting in his living room.
He'd assumed she'd be completely helpless, but she wasn't. How many times had they been followed and she'd done everything he asked?
When he'd shot those six men in the alley, she'd been the one to save him.
Now, after everything that had just happened tonight, the most gentle woman he'd ever met in his life was more worried about what he'd think of her face than she was the body count piling up in the city?
It proved she was amazing. The problem was that she was beautiful.
He'd always thought her eyes were gorgeous, but now that he could see her face?
Rissa had a mouth that begged for a man.
He grabbed a little more soap and reached lower.
Her body was petite and dainty, but somewhere in the last few weeks, she'd filled in a bit.
Most likely from the hours they'd spent together where she could actually move.
Hours he'd been locked away with a fucking angel and completely unaware of it.
He thought over each one, how she'd watched him for so long, those amazing lips so close the entire time.
With a long sigh, he finished and rinsed the last of the soap from his body, knowing his night wasn't close to being done.
Pulling on a clean pair of jeans, he walked back into the main room, the hot steam losing to the cool dry air.
Rissa sat on the couch, flicking through the channels on the holoscreen.
"This is so slow. How do you..." She paused as she looked up. Her eyes moved across his bare chest and she smiled. "How do you stand it?"
"Never knew it was slow." He grabbed a shirt from a drawer beneath the bed and pulled it on. "You find anything about what happened tonight?"
The tip of her pink tongue darted out to moisten her lips, and his eyes followed it. Before he could curse himself for a fool, she lifted those stormy eyes of hers up to trap his.
"Six bombs went off in New Cincinnati tonight," she told him, and then began listing them off.
"The Stabiltrol manufacturing plant. SiSec's cybernetic distribution center.
VeriSys-Global. The downtown fire department, which also damaged the police station beside it.
The central hub train station which we were at.
" Then she pulled in a deep breath and dropped her eyes back to the screen.
"And OutLink. The entire Enclave is gone. "
His ass dropped onto his couch. "Fuck."