Page 59 of Sinful Attraction

“Why?”

She doesn’t know, I realize as I drift out of the dream to warm darkness and Arya’s soft breathing.Maria’s never stopped to think about her motives, about why she does what she does. She just does it, and damn the torpedoes.

Will my father figure that out? And if he does, will he act on it? Or will he let my mother keep shielding Maria from the consequences of her actions?

I close my eyes again, burying my nose in Arya’s hair. Right now, it’s all down to a waiting game, and I hate it. But at least I’m waiting with someone who makes all of this a lot easier to bear.

It’s funny how things worked out. My father thinks that Arya and I were together when he ordered me to intercept her heist. So now he’s actually feeling a little guilty about it. And yeah, I’ve been crazy for her for years, but I’ve never actually had her before now.

He doesn’t need to know that, though, especially not after how he’s acted around my sister.

What are the odds that my father will actually respond properly to what’s gone on? What are the odds that he’ll call me in and say that it’s all resolved, my sister is being punished, and I’m off the hook?

Not as good as they should be, and that’s what’s keeping me up tonight and focused on something besides sex despite there being a gorgeous woman I’m crazy about right here in my arms.

God, I want all of this to be over, but I’m worried that it will end with no real resolution at all. My sister will get away with it. Brian Cleary will disappear. I may even stay a pariah in my own damned family.

But at least I’ll have Arya. Provided, of course, that she can stand to be with someone who can’t keep his idiot younger sister from bullying him out of the family.

No. No fucking way. No matter what it takes, I have to make sure that Maria does not get away with this. I don’t care how much she or my mother cries, I’m not taking this shit so they can keep up their pretense of a perfect goddamn family.

No. This time, I will find a way to make them listen, not just for my pride’s sake but for my family’s sake. Maria can’t be allowed to keep acting like this, and my mother can’t be allowed to coddle her any longer, either.

But how the hell do you break over 20 years of bad family habits all at once? Will proving what Maria did even be enough?

I’ll have to fucking see this through somehow.

It’s late morning before either one of us can bring ourselves to leave that bed. Sex, warmth, cuddling, just spending time with her... all of those things are a million times better to face than the million problems waiting outside the bedroom door.

But that’s how things go. Either you face your problems, or they pile up at your door until they smash it in and completely inundate your life.

So, by early afternoon, we were both on our phones, each dealing with our own family drama.

“So... you’ve been dating Castellucci’s daughter this entire time and didn’t say anything?” Billy sounds astonished.

“I’ve been crazy about her for years. I tried to get Dad to see reason, but he wanted his proof of concept. We could have gone out and interrupted any wire transfer with her protocol. It didn’t have to be hers. He just wanted to hurt her to show up her father—who doesn’t even care about her.”

“God, what a clusterfuck. Is she okay now?”

“More or less. There has been a lot of fallout with her family.” It feels good to finally give him the details. I rarely leave my brother out of much because sometimes, he feels like the only one in my family who really has my back. So, this is all a big surprise to him, and I feel a little bad about it.

“How did Dad take it?”

“Dad underreacted to everything that whole evening. I don’t know what’s going on with him. He seems to be apologetic and calm about the idea, but... I don’t know. I worry that he’s going to just let our witness go and go back to pretending like Maria’s a normal, well-behaved daughter, and I’m just incompetent and paranoid.”

I glance at the bedroom’s open door, hearing Arya’s voice as she whispers to her sister and mother on a conference call. I don’t like that they have both insisted on talking to her at once. She says her sister is trying to moderate things, but I suspect they’re double-teaming her.

“Shit. Yeah. I get it. Dad’s always saying that it’s Mom who is overprotective of Maria, and that’s why she’s like that, but then, he does absolutely nothing to fix the situation.” I hear him take a swig of something. It fizzes faintly: beer. He doesn’t drink soda unless he’s hung over.

I don’t really blame him for day-drinking around our family right now.

“So, have you heard anything about what he’s doing with Cleary? The guy locked in our basement, I mean.” Dad has a holding cell down there, usually unused unless he wants a personal crack at some captured asshole who has wronged the family.

“He’s been down there four times already, from what I know. The guards are talking about it. He goes down angry, he comes up frustrated. The guy must still be alive,” Billy muses, “and Dad must be learning something, or he wouldn’t keep trying.”

“Well, that’s hopeful.” I hesitate, then catch myself at it and push on. “How’s Mom doing?”

“She’s upset. Maria has taken off with her latest boyfriend and is insisting on staying away until ‘the family comes to its senses.’ She may try to run if it turns out she’s guilty.”

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