Guilty As Sin (Sin Trilogy#2)

Lincoln hasn’t come back . . .

Another thing that didn’t matter. Because Riscoffs and Gables can never be together.

All I wanted was to stop thinking about all of it. I wanted to stay in my haze, but it was fading before I was ready to deal with the real world again.

My fingers gripped the pen, and I stared down at the lined paper.

Maybe I could find some oblivion if I could get it all out. Maybe then these emotions haunting me would live on paper in a song and not in my head. Then I could go back to feeling nothing.

My hand started to move as if of its own accord.



* * *



Regret. Pain. Shredded soul.



* * *



RICKY READ the words out loud from beside me. “That’s a good girl. Get it out. It’ll heal you.”



My hand kept moving, and I wrote through the tears that started to fall.



* * *



I hate you for doing this to me. I hate even more that I can’t hate you anymore.



* * *



“THAT’S FUCKING GOLD, BABE,” Ricky whispered, and I hunched forward, not wanting to hear his voice.

“Go away. Leave me alone.”

He moved back. “But—”

“I want to be alone, Ricky.”

He stood and raised both hands. “Okay. But write it out. You know you’ll feel better.”

I listened for his footsteps and the sound of the closing door before I flipped to a new page.

In huge letters, I scrawled something at the top of the page.



* * *



Long live regret.





15





LINCOLN





Present day

I DRIVE TOWARD MY OFFICE, and it takes everything I have to leave the resort grounds knowing that Whitney is there. McKinley and I discussed security, and she doubled it and is bringing in extra help just in case. Thankfully, the gates around Riscoff Holdings keep them away from me while I’m at work.

Unfortunately, those gates can’t keep my brother out.

When I walk into my office—which should have been locked—he’s standing near the window, enjoying the view while he drinks coffee.

“What the hell are you doing in my office?”

Harrison spins around with a smug smile on his face. “I wondered if you’d ever show up.”

“Get the hell out.”

“I don’t think so, brother. As a vice president of this company, I’m entitled to a briefing on what the fuck is going on. I heard you put your whore and her whole family up at The Gables after she brought another media shit storm down on the family.”

My entire body tenses, and I take another step into my office, ready to crush his face with my fist. “Don’t you fucking call her that.”

“Doesn’t matter what I call her—she’s the one responsible for this mess.”

It takes everything I have to rein in my temper. “You don’t know jack shit about what’s going on, so go back to your office and get to work on the projects assigned to you.”

He walks toward me. “So you can run this company into the ground, thinking with your dick like you always do when it comes to her? I don’t think so.”

“Get out before I throw you out.” I force out the words from between clenched teeth.

Harrison laughs. “Go for it. I’ll make sure Commodore knows.”

“He’d probably give me a raise. Now, get the fuck out of my office. I’m not going to ask you again.”

My brother glares but heads for the door.

I take a seat at my desk, wishing that I could have a normal relationship with my brother and he wasn’t raised hating me because he was born second. His bitterness over losing out on any piece of a billion-dollar inheritance will never fade, and that means I can never let my guard down around him.

He stops at the threshold and turns. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. We didn’t make the auction deadline for the company you wanted. Missed filing the bid by three minutes.”

That motherfucker. I stand and stride across the room. “You can fuck with me all you want, but when you start fucking with this company, that’s where I draw the line.”

He shrugs, and there’s nothing I want more than to put my fist through his face. “Maybe if you’d been working last night instead of out chasing a piece of ass, it wouldn’t have happened. I guess we’ll never know.”

“You were in charge of this bid. It was your responsibility. Twisting the truth won’t work.”

“I had a question for the boss . . . and you weren’t around to answer it.”

It doesn’t matter what I say or do, Harrison will never take responsibility for his own mistake. I wouldn’t put it past him to have missed the deadline on purpose. In fact, that’s probably exactly what he did.

“Get out of here before I make the call to have you fired.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Harrison smirks before he leaves, shutting my door behind him.

Goddammit. I stalk back to my desk and narrowly resist putting a hole in the wall. The last thing I needed was another fucking problem to deal with today, but my brother always comes through at the least opportune time.

I pick up the phone and make a call to someone who might be able to fix what Harrison has fucked up. I should call Commodore, but that will wait until I have a solution.

Harrison may be a tattletale, but I’m a fucking CEO who gets things done.



EIGHT HOURS LATER, the sun has set, but I’ve finally arranged to have our late bid accepted for the auction. It took unanimous approval of the other bidders, which I wouldn’t have been able to get if I hadn’t called in an old favor from a man who scares the fuck out of them all. Jericho Forge, I owe you now. The move won’t win me any friends, but that’s not what I’m here for.

I pick up the phone to call Commodore, but he doesn’t answer, which seems to be the pattern of the day. I don’t know what the old man’s game is this time, but I’m not playing it.

I’ve already lost ten years of the life I wanted, and I’m not going to risk losing Whitney again. I fucked up badly enough this morning, and I have a long road to fixing things with her and regaining her trust.

When she looked at me from Magnus’s doorway, I saw the change on her face before she spoke the words. It gutted me to hear how I’ve hurt her, but I deserved that and more.

I’m older, wiser, and I know better—and yet I’m still making the same mistakes. But not anymore.

I push away from the desk and stand to stretch. I told Whitney I had no ulterior motive and that I only wanted to protect her and her family. That’s true.

But there’s another unspoken truth that goes along with it—I won’t not let this opportunity pass without giving everything I have to do what I failed to do once before.

Make her fall in love with me.

I’m not a man who accepts defeat, even in the face of impossible odds. If there’s a single chance that I can win Whitney Gable, I won’t back down.





16





LINCOLN





The past

I WASN’T TOO proud to admit that I had people watching Jackie Gable’s house. I’d been waiting for another chance to try to talk to Whitney, and as soon as I got the text that Asa Gable was gone, I jumped in my truck and hauled ass over there.

When I knocked, footsteps came and I tensed, readying myself to see her face.

Except it wasn’t her.

No, it was Ricky Rango.

Fucking hell.

My guy must not have known Rango was here. Then again, how would he? Mr. Rock Star didn’t have a fucking car to signal that he was here.

“What the fuck do you want?” Rango stepped out of the house and shut the door behind him before crossing his arms over his chest. He was going for the tough-guy act, but the tattoos wrapping around his arms didn’t intimidate me.

“I’m here for Whitney.”

“She’s busy.”

“She’ll get unbusy to see me.” I didn’t care that I sounded arrogant. This asshole needed to know that I wasn’t impressed by him or his fifteen minutes of fame.

“If it’s up to me, she’ll never see you again, Riscoff.”

This fucking prick.

“Good thing it’s not up to you.”