Guilty As Sin (Sin Trilogy#2)

Blood rushed in my ears, practically drowning out the words he said next.

“Baby, you know I need you more than I’ve ever needed anyone in my life. I want to take care of you. Take you away from here. After this summer and everything that’s happened, I realized that life is too short to take chances. So I have to do this now. Marry me, Whitney.”

Hot tears slid down my cheeks. “I can’t do this right now. I can’t.” My voice shook, but my feet came unglued from where they’d been stuck to the floor.

I spun around and bolted for the front door. It crashed shut behind me, and I ran barefoot across the lawn.

My brain was a roiling mess, and the only thought that made any sense was get out of here.

I fished the keys out of my pocket and dropped them twice on the ground as I rushed to the truck. I didn’t even care that my brother was going to grill me about whose truck it was later. I just had to leave. Now.

As soon as I climbed inside, the passenger door flew open. My head jerked to the side.

It wasn’t Ricky.

No, it was his mom, her face pinched and angry. “I knew . . . I knew when I saw this truck.”

My entire body started to shake at her words.

“You think I wouldn’t recognize it? It’s the same type of truck the groundskeepers use at the Riscoff estate, and the same as what Roosevelt Riscoff used to drive when he came to see me.”

My head jerked back against the seat, hitting it hard enough it bounced. “What?” I gasped out the word. “You—”

Renee Rango’s gaze narrowed on me. “Don’t you dare judge me. You don’t know anything. But I do. I know exactly what’s going to happen if you keep trying to reach for something that’s so high above you. You think that boy will ever give you the life you want? No way. He’ll hide you away just like his father hid me until he pays you off to stay quiet about it ever happening.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

She nodded. “Yes, I’ve been where you are. I was stupid then. Naive. Trusting. I thought he loved me, and that eventually he’d find a way to tell his father that he wanted to be with me, no matter my background.” She laughed, and bitterness dripped from the sound. “Well, that didn’t happen. You don’t have the bloodlines they want either.”

Everything she said compounded on what Lincoln had said last night, and the greasy feeling plaguing me since then grew.

“He paid you off?”

Her lips twisted into an ugly smile. “Because I thought I was so smart. I got him to take me to Vegas. We had a quickie wedding he didn’t even remember because he was hammered. I didn’t bother to show him the marriage license until I had a positive pregnancy test in hand. I thought I had him by the balls then.”

I blinked twice, unable to believe what I was hearing. A pregnancy test? Did that mean Ricky was . . . I couldn’t even finish the thought before Renee kept going.

“And you know what he didn’t do? He didn’t take me home to Daddy to tell him he was going to be a grandpa. No, he hired some shyster of an attorney to divorce me, paid me off, and threatened to take my baby from me and make it so he was raised by people so far away that I’d never find him again. If you think for one second they wouldn’t do the same to you—or worse—then you’re dumber than I thought you were.”

Oh my God. I knew Lincoln’s father wasn’t a great man, but that seemed awfully cruel. “I don’t know what to say . . .” I stared down at my hands curled into my lap, squeezing them tight to stop the shaking.

“All you need to do is march your ass back into that house and tell my son you’re going to marry him.”

I jerked my head up to look at her. “What?”

Her lips pinched together. “You heard me. You’re going to marry my son.”

“But I don’t love him. You know I don’t. You can’t possibly want me to marry him.”

She lifted her chin. “I don’t give one good goddamn what you feel or don’t. My son needs you. He told me you write all his songs and that without you, he can’t be the rock star he wants to be. I’ve sacrificed everything to make my boy happy, and I’m not about to let some girl spreading her legs for a Riscoff ruin it.”

“You’re insane.”

Renee shook her head slowly. “No, I’m a mother. And when your mom left Roosevelt Riscoff to die in that river, she took my paycheck with her. If you don’t marry my son and make him into a goddamned rock star, you’ll leave me with only one choice.”

“What?”

That ugly smile twisted her lips again. “I’ll go public. I’ll destroy your little boyfriend’s family and tell them all exactly who my son is—the legitimate heir to the Riscoff fortune.”

My entire body tensed with shock. Ricky is Lincoln’s half brother. His older half brother.

The entire town knew about the Riscoff inheritance tradition. Everything went to the oldest male of the next generation. Which meant . . . if I don’t marry Ricky, Lincoln will get nothing.

“I see you get what I’m saying.”

My mind spun in a million different directions at the same time, and my heart clenched painfully. “But you could’ve done that already. Could do that at any time. Why should I believe that you wouldn’t anyway?”

Renee’s green eyes pierced me, and for the first time, I realized that she wasn’t all there. I didn’t know if it was what happened with Lincoln’s father that broke her, but Ricky’s mom was crazy.



“My boy doesn’t want to be a Riscoff. He wants to be a rock star. And Ricky always gets what he wants, which includes you. You’re going to marry him and help him live that dream of his . . . or I’ll make sure he takes every single penny that’s supposed to go to your boyfriend.”

The woman was unhinged. Absolutely, totally, and completely. But I knew with complete certainty that she was also deadly serious.

The other thing I knew with complete certainty? If Ricky were to inherit the Riscoff fortune, he’d piss away every penny chasing his rock star dream. He’d run the companies into the ground because he wouldn’t give a single damn about how many people relied on the Riscoff name for a paycheck.

Ricky would ruin this entire town. That was the reason I gave myself for the sickening realization that I had to do what Renee said. But the truth lay just beneath the surface, and even my pride wasn’t enough to keep it quiet.

I love Lincoln too much to let Ricky and Renee destroy everything that matters to him.

He’d never marry me, and I wouldn’t be his kept woman. But I can save his future.

Renee must have seen the decision on my face, because she smiled sweetly. “I knew you’d see it my way. Now, here comes my son. You better make it convincing.”

Feeling like my body was suddenly that of a ninety-year-old woman, I climbed out of the truck. Ricky stood in the front yard, staring at me.

“Baby, please don’t go. I know you want out of this town as bad as I do. I’ll take care of you, I promise.”

I thought I’d felt sick when Lincoln said those same words to me, but that was only because I hadn’t heard them from Ricky’s lips while I was being forced into something I didn’t want. Now they were a hundred times worse.

I looked at Renee over my shoulder, and she nodded with a manic smile on her face.

She’s completely crazy. Which meant I had no choice. I couldn’t let her carry through with her threats. For the first time in my life, I was going to do something noble and worthy.

Ricky came toward me, holding out the ring. “Marry me, Whitney. Please.”

All the nobility in the world couldn’t stop my stomach from roiling as I forced myself to say the word that was going to change the rest of my life.

“Yes.”





54





LINCOLN





Present day

THE BELLMAN TAKES Whitney’s luggage up to the helipad before I lead her out of the room.

“Lincoln! Come join us!”

I hear my mother’s voice coming from the lounge at the end of the VIP hall near the bar. She’s sitting at a table eating breakfast with Maren Higgins.

How the fuck did she get up here again?

Whitney steps out beside me.

“Mother, I told you—”