Page 58 of Sinful Attraction

“Honestly, I don’t know if she was using him or he was using her,” Michael lies, and I nod along. “I was hoping that if you had your experts question him, you could get the facts.”

He sniffs, looking between us again. “We should have grabbed him the night I kicked you out, but I was too busy with every other damn thing.”

“I know,” Michael says stiffly. I can tell there’s a lot of unexpressed anger in this conversation, which makes me feel awkward.

“You can’t expect me to just take it at your word that your own little sister, my daughter, is behind this. I don’t even know what her motivation could possibly be.”

Michael spreads his hands. “Dad, I’ve been trying to understand why since we figured out it’s her. I wish I could tell you, but I’m not a psychologist. I just... I’m surprised you’re even listening to this now.”

“I’m listening to this because your mother isn’t in my ear about how her precious daughter is just being scapegoated right now. She’s too upset over me forcing you out, though she hardly gave me a choice.” He sighs and looks at me. “Still wondering what I’m going to tell her about who my son’s going steady with.”

I blink at him. ‘Going steady?’ Is it 1970? I keep my mouth shut about it, realizing that I won’t be helping anything by commenting on it.

“You know, Dad, sometimes I wish you and Arya’s father would just go fight it out with your fists and leave the rest of us out of it,” Michael sighs. “None of the rest of us wanted this, and none of the rest of us have a stake in it.”

“Except your mother,” his father reminds him harshly.

“Yeah, I am taking that into account. You could kick his ass with your hands shackled.”

I end up nodding. “He doesn’t even work out anymore.”

His father sits back again with a little bit of a smirk on his face. “All right. Look, you do have a point, but even right now, while things are calm, I have to say that unless your guy Cleary comes through with a lot of good details, I’m not moving against your sister. I can’t tear the family apart over this.”

“Dad,” Michael sighs, “Maria is already tearing the family apart over this.”

The older man’s expression hardens, and I realize he’s still wrestling with the idea that his daughter might really be responsible. “We’ll question the guy. We’ll see what he says, what he knows. And once we have the details, I’ll call you back and let you know what I decide.”

There’s a note of finality to his tone that I really don’t like. I’m being shut out of the questioning and the chance to advocate for the truth. And so is Michael.

And just as fast as we were seen in, he shoos us back out again, telling us that he’ll handle everything from here. Michael and I walk out into the parking circle under the weight of exhaustion, and I can see the strain on his face.

“You okay?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “I wanted to be there for the questioning. I’m the one with the expertise to explain what that moron is even saying. My father may miss some of the fine details by having some generalist handle the interrogation.”

“I get it,” I tell him. “But I’m also too fucking tired to figure out how we could have done better. He was reasonable, but... not that reasonable.”

Michael grunts in acknowledgment as we walk to the van. “It went both better and worse than expected,” he mutters. “I can’t really think about any of it anymore right now, either.”

“Let’s not,” I urge softly. “Let’s go back to the houseboat and not worry about it for a little while.”

He’s quiet for a while as he unlocks the van, and we get in. Finally, he says, “Fine,” in such a flat tone that I know he won’t stop worrying, no matter what I do. And I don’t even know if I can blame him.

Chapter 24

Michael

After kidnapping Brian Cleary and having him taken off our hands by my father without even a proper questioning, I’m somewhere between totally exhausted and completely pissed off. I’m lying here with this gorgeous woman in my arms, and we’re both aching from tiredness to the point where even sex barely sounds appealing.

And I hardly feel even a half step closer to resolving all of this and getting that damn money back. In fact, I’m pretty certain that my sister is currently spending that stolen money as fast as she possibly can, like a dog caught with something they shouldn’t eat chewing it up while running away.

If only my father would listen to me as closely as he listened to the women in his life. But I know it could be worse. He could be like Arya’s father and not listen to those women at all.

Arya is sleeping in my arms, so tired she narrowly managed to take her work clothes off and crawl between the sheets in panties and one of my T-shirts. She’s warm in my arms, and her soft breath on my neck soothes me. I’m so fucking tired; maybe enough curling up with her will ease away all these thoughts and finally let me sleep.

When I finally do, though, my sister’s there, sitting sullenly on the bed in her room, her eyes dilated from whatever drugs are in her system.

“Why did you fuck me over?” I ask her, and she just stares at me blankly.

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