The Supplicant by Michelle Marquis

Chapter One
    "I had an affair, but it's over now," Dennis Peoples said.
    Sindiswa Miller, or Sin to her friends and enemies alike, stood in the kitchen with a cup of steaming coffee in her hand. It was all she could do not to chuck it in the face of her longtime thug of a boyfriend, Dennis. "You had an affair," she said in a flat monotone. It annoyed her even more that she wasn't more shocked than she was.
    Dennis nodded. "But it's over. It's been over for a month."
    "I see."
    "It was a stupid thing to do, and I'm very sorry, Sin."
    "So the hell am I," she said. Sin lowered the cup of coffee to the kitchen counter so she wouldn't do something she'd later regret. Or not. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but this isn't the first time you've . . . slipped up."
    Dennis hung his head and rubbed the back of his neck.
    "No, baby. But I swear to you, Sin. There won't be any more!
    I'm done with other women. I've made up my mind. All I want is you."
    "Is that right? Well now, isn't that touching?"
    "Why you bein' so cold? Yell at me, scream, do something," he pleaded.
    "No," Sin said with an exasperated sigh. "I'm done being upset over you and your bullshit. In fact, I'm totally done with you , Dennis. You're like a little boy I have to feed, clothe, and watch out for all the time, and I'm just sick up to here with 6

    The Supplicant
    by Michelle Marquis
    it," she said, raising her right hand up to eye level. "This ends right here. I want you out."
    Dennis stared at her with his mouth agape. "You're throwing me out ?"
    "You don't work; you don't clean house; so frankly I'm not sure what you do with your time all day," she said, watching Dennis's face grow slack with worry. "Except that you always seem to find time to hang with your no-good friends and screw around. Now that's stuff you do have plenty of time for.
    Well you can write your blues songs and hook up with all the women you want in your own place." She dumped the coffee into the sink and grabbed her jacket with the highway patrol emblem on the sleeves. "When I come back off duty in the morning, Dennis, I expect you and your stuff will be gone."
    Dennis rushed forward and was just about to grab her arm when she gave him a venomous stare. It was her best no-nonsense cop stare, and it always worked, especially on Dennis.
    "Sin, baby, you can't mean that," he groaned. "We've been together a damn long time."
    "Too long. I should have had my damn head examined,"
    she said, heading for the door. "Good-bye, Dennis."
    "But, Sin, I love you, man. Can't we work this out?"
    Sin opened the front door and stared at Dennis. "You should have thought of that when you were dipping your wick in every willing female you could find. No, there is no way to work this out. I'm done with you. You've been sucking the happiness out of my life for the past two years, and frankly, I'm over you."
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    The Supplicant
    by Michelle Marquis
    She turned to leave, then had another thought. Sin turned back around. "And don't take anything out of this house that you didn't bring into it, or I'll bring you up on theft charges.
    You hear me, Dennis?"
    Then, satisfied she'd put the fear of God in her boyfriend, Officer Sin Miller climbed into her squad car. She keyed the radio with her thumb. "Dispatch, this is Officer Miller. I'm ten-eight."
    "Ten-four, Officer Miller," replied the dispatcher. "You're ten-eight at ten-o-three p.m."
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    8

    The Supplicant
    by Michelle Marquis

Chapter Two
    The primer grey pickup raced past Sin's squad car so fast that it rocked the whole vehicle. Sin, who was parked on the side of the road finishing up a report on a speeder, looked up from her laptop and squinted to see the license plate.
    Unfortunately, it was too late. They were already almost gone, the pickup's taillights fading in the distance.
    Sin closed the laptop and hit the police lights. She glanced in her rearview mirror to make sure the road was clear. To her amazement, yet another car was barreling up