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I stared at the phone after he’d hung up until a warmth appeared in the room.
“Go,” Elspeth said, softly. “I know what I’ve signed up for, and I know it won’t always be like this. Do whatever your father needs you to do.”
I lifted my gaze and sighed.
“I’m really sorry, El. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
* * *
I’d only stepped one foot through the door of his suite when Sinclair started on me.
“Have you heard from Ossian? My men just searched his house – he isn’t there.”
My chest hollowed as I thought of Ossian’s wife. “Did you ask Marcia?”
“She wasn’t there either.”
“I don’t know, Father. Hector and I just dropped him off and left him there. We didn’t put him to bed and tuck him in. He could have crawled anywhere.”
“Let’s try this again, shall we?” Sinclair’s eyes squinted into slits. “Where the fuck is Ossian?”
“I told you. I don’t know. We dropped him at his house and left.”
Sinclair’s chest heaved with a seemingly large amount of exertion. “You’re lying to me, Rupert. We checked the CCTV footage and there’s no sign of anyone arriving at the house at all. Nothing in fact since he and Marcia left for the wedding at twelve-thirty this afternoon.”
I rocked back on my heels and rolled my head around my neck. Usually, being caught out in a lie by Sinclair Thorn would have paralysed me, but in the last few hours I felt as though I had less and less to lose.
“Fine,” I said, my tone resigned. “He was last seen in the crypt beneath the abbey.”
I waited out the long pause.
“You lied to me.”
I rubbed a hand over my eyes. “Yes. I didn’t want you to spend my wedding day wondering where that sick fuck might be.”
Sinclair’s scrawny fingers curled in on themselves. “Who are you calling a sick fuck? He’s your brother.”
I almost laughed out loud. “Yes, and I can’t say I’m proud of that.”
“What the fuck, Rupert? Where’s your loyalty?”
Now that pissed me off. I’d been loyal to a family who didn’t know the meaning of the word, for the last twenty-seven years. “I am loyal, Father. I haven’t done anything to jeopardise this family or this business. Sure, I got a bit too close to the tour guide but that was months ago, and I’m married now. But its eating him up, Father. Do you want to know why he’s in the crypt?”
“Go on.”
“Because I beat the living crap out of him.” I closed my eyes and ran a hand casually through my steam-dampened hair.
When nothing else came out of Sinclair’s mouth I opened my eyes and sucked in a silent breath. He’d turned far paler than his usual pallid self and was struggling to breathe. Didn’t stop him speaking unfortunately.
“What did you say?”
I shoved my hands into my pockets. “He deserved it. Ask Hector, ask Dax…”
Sinclair side-stepped to the wall and propped himself up against it. I didn’t expect he would have liked to hear any of this but I expected less that he’d struggle this much with the news. I decide to throw it all at him.
“Vivian came to the island today.”
The wheezing picked up. “I don’t give a shit about that little bitch. Why did you fight your brother?”
