Deadly Sins (a Damnation Trilogy Prequel)

Chapter 1

Jade Danvers walked through the Creston library book stacks, feigning interest in the titles before her while really scanning the faces of everyone she could see. There was one face in particular that she was supposed to be looking for, but she couldn't help but find her eyes straying to another. The high, chiseled cheekbones, the long dark eyelashes framing the almost equally dark brown eyes...

"Focus Jade."

"Stay out of my head."

"I wouldn't need to be in it if you focused."

"You wouldn't know I wasn't focused if you weren't already in my head, Seth."

"Just focus."

"Whatever." Jade sighed aloud at her brother's mental intrusion and she saw the boy she was watching smile from his seat at a table.

"Do you need help with something?" Jade turned to the voice next to her and saw the person she was supposed to be keeping a look our for. The dark hair and eyes she remembered clearly from her laptop screen; the face identical to that of Gregory Foster.

"I hope so," Jade smiled. "Are you Christian Foster?"

"Um, yeah," he answered, clearly caught off guard. "Do I know you?"

"Sorry, but no. I'm Jade Michaelson," Jade lied expertly. "I'm kind of just passing through town with my family. We run this website where we bring to light different cases, in the different states we visit, that don't seem to be going anywhere. My brother's used to be detectives back home, but now they work as these sort of free agent private investigator types and help close the cases we report on."

"Really?" Christian asked skeptically, his body visibly tensing.

"Yeah," Jade said, noticing the early resistance. "Our website is called Urban Mysteries. We decide which cases fit our criteria and need to be looked into the most and then we set out to that town."

"I don't see how I can help you with that," Christian said stiffly, turning away from Jade. He walked to the end of the bookshelf where he left a cart full of books to be put back and grabbed a few without looking.

"Well, we're here about the disappearances," Jade went on, following after him. "We want to help solve them."

"There's nothing to solve," Christian responded flatly, walking to another aisle. "All the guys that went missing abused their girlfriends beforehand. None of them were kidnapped. They committed a crime didn't want to face the consequences for it, and ran. You're not going to find them here because none of them are here."

"You don't really believe that," Jade said, just getting the sense of it from his mind. He didn't want his twin brother to be gone, no matter what he did.

"I believe you think I'm gullible enough to buy into your lie," Christian said, stopping to face her. "Because that's what you're feeding me right now; a lie. You and your family don't solve anything and you don't past about it online."

"Look, you don't want to believe me then that's fine," Jade said. "But we are trying to help."

"Then go help someone who wants it, because I don't," he replied.

"Jade, drop it for now. We have others to talk to."

"Just answer something for me," Jade said, ignoring the order. "And then I promise I'll leave you alone." Christian eyed her suspiciously before letting out a sigh and nodding. "Don't you think it's a little weird that nine guys in the past two months have done a complete twist into psycho territory, to beat their girlfriends and then disappear? I mean, they didn't take anything with them so, how are they capable of disappearing without a trace? Doesn't that bother you even a little bit? Did your brother ever seem like the type to do that?"