Bad Company (Seven Deadly Sins #1) ✅ Completed

Chapter Fifteen: Inside the Showroom

Celeste watched as the Crawford boy stepped inside her showroom. He looked so much like his daddy at that age it was almost a crying shame his momma hadn’t lived long enough to see it.

Almost.

Kim Crawford had been one of the very few souls she’d collected for Asher that was older than their agreed upon arrangement. But seeing as how she bought the sin when she was still seventeen (and still technically Kim Evans), he’d allowed it. That girl had had it bad for Justin Crawford. But Justin was wild, he wasn’t about to settle down with a plain girl like Kim. Everyone knew it. Even Kim herself had known. It was the reason she’d come to the shop in the first place.

Like so many other young fools, she believed Celeste could give her something to make Justin fall in love with her. She really was a stupid girl. No potions or magic could create love…lust though, was an entirely different story. But she hadn’t wanted Lust. No. Not little Miss Perfect. She’d wanted head-over-heels love. The kind of love people wrote bad songs about. She’d dismissed the girl as the fool she was and told her not to come back until she’d gotten that idiot head of hers out of the damn clouds.

Then came the summer her little Angela came to visit - though there wasn't much little about her then. The second Justin Crawford saw her great niece, the town’s most eligible bad boy was struck hard and fast. He’d follow behind her like the tail on the back of a dog. Angela had developed early and was used to all that attention from boys – but something about Justin seemed to call to her. Any time Celeste let her off work, she was off and running with that Crawford boy on that loud motorcycle of his.

But Celeste knew people better than they knew themselves. The second Kim Evans spotted the love of her life following Angela like a lovesick puppy, she was back over at the shop just as quick as you please.

Celeste smiled at the memory. It had been so easy then. The girl wanted Justin all to herself sure, but that wasn’t all. This time when she came into the shop, she made it clear she wanted everything: Justin, money, a family, a house…and she didn’t want to share any of it with anybody. She bought greed that very day.

And she’d gotten everything she wanted. Celeste had sent Angela packing, after having a few choice words with her. She’d warned the girl to leave Justin Crawford be, otherwise he’d be joining her collection. Kim for her part had been too much of a dimwit to specify how long she wanted to keep her perfect little life with Justin. By the time she'd figured it out, they were married and her baby boy was already walking.

The second she’d gotten sick and been diagnosed with a terminal disease she was in her shop crying her eyes out, begging for more time. She would’ve had better luck getting tears out of a rock.

Now she watched Kim’s son as he made his way towards her. Kim’s blood ran through his veins, but it was his daddy’s blood that drew him to Eliza. It was always the same with those Crawford boys. They always wanted women they couldn’t have.

Some generations were smarter than others, but some were more susceptible to her particular wares. Justin’s father had resisted and Justin himself had never once stepped even as much as a toe inside her shop, but Kim Evans’s blood ran inside her son’s veins.

And that meant he’d come here to shop. Celeste waved him closer and started talking, satisfied as he hung onto every single word of her sales pitch.    

~~ ~

It was like watching a movie play out without the sound. I couldn’t hear what Celeste was saying to Chase only that she showed him something white and small, that easily fit in his pocket. He nodded once and shoved whatever she’d given him into one of his cargo pockets. Then Aunt Celeste leaned in close and kissed him on the lips.