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“Because he found her in the crypt, pretended he was me and performed a sexual act on her without her permission.”
Sinclair winced and held onto the wall even more tightly. I struggled to find sympathy for him in any part of my body.
“That’s why I broke his face, Father. I would have done that to any man, and not because it was Vivian, but because a woman was made a victim. A victim who’d been taken advantage of in the most horrifying way.”
Sinclair’s face was blank. He wasn’t in the slightest bit moved.
“Get him out of there,” Sinclair snapped. “Find out what he knows about the explosion. Clean him up and get him to work.”
I nodded curtly and went to leave, but Sinclair’s words held me back.
“Why was Vivian here?”
I smiled to myself before turning around.
“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her.”
“Was she here to win you back? To break up the wedding?”
I shrugged. “Like I said, I haven’t talked to her.”
Sinclair took a step towards me. “Where is she now?”
“She’s gone,” I replied, refusing to shrink backwards as he approached. “She left the second Hector pulled her out of there. And I don’t blame her. I’ll never know what she came for.” I sighed. “It’s just as well – I have a wife now. Speaking of which…”
Sinclair waved a hand. “Fuck the wife. Our business is more important. Start calling all our suppliers. Reassure them we had nothing to do with the sinking – we’re not under suspicion, it’s business as usual. When you’ve cleaned Ossian up, he can start flexing a few bribery muscles. I’m sure Scotland Yard could use a few months’ free supply.”
“It’s three a.m.”
“I don’t give a shit. Sleep when you’re dead.”
He wheezed once more and pushed himself off the wall.
“Are you okay?” I asked reluctantly.
He waved his hand again as he turned his back to me. “I’m fine. Nothing for you to worry about.”
I persisted. “Is it your heart? Pops had—"
“Pops nothing. My heart is fine.”
I ground my teeth, torn between my natural instinct to worry about him and my newfound complete disregard for any pain he might be feeling.
“You don’t seem fine, Father. Maybe you should rest up.”
His head turned to the side. “I should do no such thing. If we don’t act now, all our hard work from the last four years will be wasted, and the Thorn name in ruins. I will not rest up and watch that happen.”
He paused to let that statement sick in, then staggered to his desk and sat down with a thump.
“I want hourly updates,” he snapped and dismissed me with a sharp wave of his hand.
Vivian
I couldn’t tell which pain woke me up first – the crick in my neck from spending the night on a sofa, or the pain in my chest which made my skin ache. I lifted a heavy arm and rubbed my eyes. They were dry and swollen from all the tears I’d shed, so rubbing didn’t actually help.
I slowly opened them and blinked until Minty’s living room came into focus. Then the reality hit me like a collapsing wall: I was still on the Isle of Crow, the Isle of Hell. The one person who’d meant the world to me had given his world to someone else, whether his gaze had hooked mine or not. And the one person I hated more than anyone in my lifetime had coaxed not one but two climaxes out of me under the shadow of a glorified tomb.
A sour, salty liquid oozed into my mouth and I turned my head just in time to vomit directly into a bucket Minty must have cautiously left by the sofa. I threw up what little was left in my stomach, and still my torso heaved. Between empty retches and hollow sobs, I felt a large pair of hands scoop my hair up and gently rub my back.
