Page 58 of Revenge

“Yes.”

“Was she OK? Did she say anything about me?” Fucking hell, why did I suddenly feel like I was in high school. Ava was screwing with me, she was everywhere, under my skin, in my head. It was like I suddenly had a sickness I couldn’t shake. Where the hell was that famous Kinlan control?

Nico was now looking at me like I was batshit crazy, “She didn’tsayanything. She was embarrassed and skittish. Ava couldn’t wait to get me out of her room. Good job I came in when I did huh? The last thing I want to see isyournaked arse.”

“It wouldn’t have come to that.”

“Really? The woman had her hand on your dick. You were all over each other. Another minute or so and you’d have been fucking your stepsister against the wall. I may be as gay as the day is long, but I know how these things work.”

“Sheisn’tmy stepsister anymore.”

“Not officially, but you know what I mean.”

“Look, it didn’t mean shit,” I lied, dashing a hand down my face as he was right. When Ava kissed me, I’d come alive. She tasted so fucking sweet, better than I couldeverhave imagined and yes, I had thought about it in the past. At sixteen, Ava had been stunning and of legal age. But I had managed to keep her at arm's length. Upstairs, not so much, the second her mouth met mine, my rules went out the fucking window. Had Nico entered the room a few minutes later who knew? The thought of being balls deep inside her made my dick twitch. FFS.

And you plan to force her into marriage and then not touch her?

A rush of blood left my brain and flooded my groin, my cock at full mast again. I so didn’t need those images in my head. It was as dirty as fuck up there. Me, taking Ava up against the wall and tasting parts of her tight little body. Yep, I was perving over my ex-stepsister aka, the forbidden fruit.

But she wasn’t forbidden any longer, not really. That thought made my body ache for her like some type of sick addiction. My dick pressed further against my sweatpants.

And why shouldn’t you, considering your plans?

As Nico pushed off the doorframe into my office and slung his body into the chair opposite my desk, he cocked me a wry expression. “You’re welcome by the way.”

“If you think I’m going to thank you for barging in and discussing business in front of Ava, you can think again.”

“She has no idea ‘our visitor’ is Quinn,” he rasped, taking out his cigarettes.

“It’s not that hard a code to crack, Nic. Ava’s astute and could easily put two and two together.”

“Anyway, I have an update,” Nico said, nudging my foot with his shoe beneath my desk.

“Just spill it and stop wasting time,” I growled, losing patience. It’s almost like Nico wasbeggingfor me to lose my shit. I needed to calm down, if I lost it, if I let my emotions slip for just a second, I may never get them back behind bars. Maybe I needed to speak to the Doc about increasing the dose of my meds.

“I looked into his background and found a motive for going after your father.”

Leaning back, I quirked him a look, “Surely, he did it for Ava?”

“No. Well, not entirely.”

I sat forward, biting back that urge to snap, all ears as Nico gave me Quinn’s background.

It turned out that Anton was the son of Sheridan Quinn, a woman who had been one of my father’s mistresses in the past. From the sounds of things, he had treated her appallingly. Emotional abuse, gaslighting, the works. He even allowed his men to take turns with her. It was pretty fucked up stuff, especially coming from her son. Knowing shit like that could not have been easy and he would have been a boy at the time and unable to prevent it.

Shit.

The revelation bled into the room like a sliced artery. It was yetanotherpiece of information that confirmed my father was a sick fuck.

My head must have been well and truly up my arse to have missed so much.

But you weren’t around that much.

After school, I was sent to work in the USA and then when I returned, I had shit going on. I was building a business. My focus hadn’t been on Gerard and certainly never on his fucking love life.

More regret rocketed through my mind; fucking up those better memories I had of my father.

The last kick in the balls came when Nico explained that Anton Quinn’s mother was the woman who had attempted to commit suicide.

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