Minutes, hours, possibly days pass as we hold each other, our breathing uneven, heartbeats erratic, and souls inexplicably aligned.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Temple
I stare at the ocean. The waves appear purple in the dawn light, the tips of them a rich golden color as they reach for the rising sun before crashing into shore.
I know how they feel.
Since making love with Sin, I’m irrevocably changed. It’s like I’m invincible. Nothing can touch me because he owns my heart and I own his. Only, I also know it’s a fallacy because The Collector is dead, Saint is still with his deranged cousin—beaten, likely starved and tortured—and Dad’s garage is a pile of ashes.
Sighing, I raise the cup of coffee to my lips, take a sip, and grimace. “Yuck, it’s cold.” Emptying it down the sink, I wash and dry the cup before putting it away again.
I’m not thirsty anyway.
Two strong arms wrap around my waist, pulling me into a warm, bare chest. “What are you doing up so early?”
A small smile chases across my lips before falling away. “I couldn’t sleep.”
Sin presses his lips to my shoulder. “He’s going to be okay, babe. Saint’s been in worse shit than this.”
“How can you be so sure?”
He skims his nose along the column of my neck. “Because he’s blood. I know what he’s made of because I’m made of it too. He’ll survive.”
Still, I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve made a terrible mistake. “But what if he’s in serious trouble? What if you made the wrong decision and it should have been me who—”
Sin spins me to face him, his expression serious. “I made the right choice. Saint knows it too.”
“How can you say that?” I’m shocked that this strong, intelligent man would choose me over his twin brother.
“Because it was his idea.”
“What?” My eyes dart between Sin’s, searching for an answer I can’t find. “Are you telling me that he willingly put up his hand for this?”
Sin glances over my shoulder. For one heartbeat, and then two, he stares unseeing at the ocean. “Saint and I knew the chances of everyone getting out of Club Red alive were shot to shit the moment we stepped inside. Dad would never let us leave. To prove a point, he’d fuck with us somehow.
“A week ago, Saint said he’d figured out another way. He wanted to offer himself up as bait without making it look obvious—Dad wouldn’t buy into it otherwise. He said it was a way to infiltrate the ranks from the inside and put in motion an idea we’ve been working on for a while.”
He pauses. “It was either him or you. You’re the only two who know when to fight. Angel’s decent but would lose his shit and screw everything up, Eve doesn’t know what the fuck she’s doing, and I’m not leaving you unprotected. It had to be Saint, so I agreed.” Sin’s jaw tightens. “But I told him, if he ended up getting killed, I’d bring him back to life so I could do it again. Dude swore he’d be fine, and I believe him. He knows how to take care of himself, and I’d know if something happened to him.”
“What about Snow White?”
“Who?”
“The girl on the balcony of The Collector’s office. Dark hair, pale skin, red lips. Was she a part of it?”
“Never seen her before.” Sin takes a strand of my hair and runs it through his fingers. “She’s his type, though. Hot to look at but cold to touch. I bet Saint figured she was a way in. He would have blown his load at the chance.”
“I wonder what her role in all of this is,” I muse.
“I don’t know.” He tucks my hair behind my ear. “Saint will figure out a way to get her on side. He’s good at making chicks do what he wants while making them think it was their idea.”
“True.” My small smile disappears. “What’s going to happen to the garage? My whole life literally went up in smoke. I’ve got nothing to fall back on.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“How do you know that?”
“I looked into it. There are government grants you can apply for that’ll cover the costs of a decent rebuild. With the profits, you can buy out your old man and the place will be yours. You’ll stay here, finish your degree, and won’t fucking think about moving east.” He cups my face. “That shit won’t fly, babe. Social workers are needed right the fuck here.”
My gaze darts between his. “Are you for real?”
He kisses me, slow and deep.
“You’ve got it all figured out, huh?” I murmur against his lips. The fact that Sin went out of his way to research a way I can be financially independent from my father means a hell of a lot. “Thank you.”
He shrugs.
Wanting him to see that he owns my soul and I’m okay with it, I press my lips to his. “I’m serious, big guy. Thank you.”
“Welcome.”
But there’s something that’s niggling at me. “You haven’t asked about my dad. It’s strange, because yours loved talking about it, but since we’ve been back, you haven’t said a word.”
“Figure if you want to talk about it, you will. You’re not the only one who keeps quiet about shit.”
“How do you mean?”
He swallows, looking past me. “Dad killed Mom. I was there when it happened three years ago. He hit her with his cell in his hand. She cracked her head on the side of the countertop and died.”
“Holy shit,” I gasp. “Sin, I’m so sorry.”
For a moment, he’s silent. “Dad said he’d kill me if I said anything. The phone he was holding was covered in her blood, and knowing him, he wouldn’t trust anyone to get rid of it.” Sin meets my gaze. “He went to his office straight afterward.”
Finally, it all falls into place. “That’s what you were looking for. His cell phone.”
He nods. “And I got it too. I found it in his desk.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
His expression turns deadly. “Use it for leverage.”
“Against who? Your father’s dead.”
“We’ve got more than one enemy, babe.”
Mind whirling, I try to process it all. “Biological families can be so messed up. I always thought if I ignored what happened to me, it wouldn’t hurt. Like, the past would erase itself because I locked it away. But I was lying to myself. It never leaves you, not really.”
Sin takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger, lifting my gaze to his. “The past is there for a reason, babe. Don’t ignore it. Use it to your advantage.”
“Yeah, you’re right. All I can do is move on. It’s pointless looking backward. Until I focus on what’s ahead, it’s always going to haunt me. What about you?”
Sin’s eyes are dark yet full of warmth. “You and me are going to make this world our bitch.”
I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him close. “Yes, we are.”
“I love you. Want you to know that. If I have to burn down every garage in the country and break into a million offices to prove it, I will.”