The next three days were excruciating for Remy.
She’d continued to sleep in Sinclair’s bed. Unfortunately, he wasn’t there to share it with her. He was gone most of the time, and when he was home, he was totally distracted or shut away in Casper’s tech room with his brothers, discussing what they were going to do next.
She thought she’d felt the comfort of his arms around her in bed one night, but when she woke the following morning, there was no Sinclair, just an indentation in the pillow beside her own. The only times she’d actually seen Sinclair was out the window as he was leaving or arriving back at the estate after following useless lead after lead trying to find Ralph Mitchell.
Remy hadn’t changed her mind in the slightest in regard to the fate of her father. If anything, she’d become even more resolved after the police had confirmed, as she had known they would, that the body the fishermen had taken out of the water was indeed Remy’s mother. She’d shed more than a few heartbroken tears over that, while at the same time increasing her vow of vengeance on her father.
It was on the fourth day, while sitting in Casper’s tech room, watching the recording over and over again of her father destroying her apartment, that she realized something about that destruction she hadn’t noticed before.
Casper obviously sensed her sudden tension. “What is it?”
She rose to her feet. “Is Sinclair around?”
“He said he’d be back at the house in an hour or so.”
She nodded. “Could you ask him if he would come and talk to me once he is? I’ll be in his suite.”
“Of course.” Casper looked at her searchingly. “Is it anything I can help you with?”
“No, but thanks for offering.”
Remy’s thoughts continued to churn once she was back in the sitting room of Sinclair’s suite. She still had no idea what her father was looking for, but she believed she might have discovered the answer to another part of the puzzle.
Sinclair was functioning on a short fuse. A very short fuse, after three frustrating days and nights of trying to keep his promise to Remy.
Wherever Ralph Mitchell was, he had no intention of being found. Casper had a facial recognition program running day and night, but so far, there hadn’t been a single sighting of the other man on any security footage nationwide.
It was now beyond being frustrating for Sinclair.
Because until he could give Remy what she’d asked of him, he thought it best to keep his distance. For her sake, not his. They’d spent one night together, and it had been beyond perfect, but he wanted to give Remy closure before any decisions were made about them having a future together.
He admitted to sleeping beside her one of the past three nights. It was the one after Remy had been told that the body in the morgue was, in fact, her mother. Even after she’d fallen into an exhausted sleep, she’d continued to give little choked sobs throughout the night, and Sinclair had held her through all of them.
Her heartbreak had only increased Sinclair’s determination to find Ralph Mitchell and make him suffer for every hurt he’d given Gina and Remy over the years, big and small.
He would find the bastard. If it took him years, he’d find Ralph, and when he did, he would destroy him.
But right now, Remy had asked to speak to him. Sadly, he had nothing to tell her except where her father wasn’t. Which, some people would say, was progress of a kind. But it wasn’t enough for Sinclair. He wanted this over as quickly as possible so that he could claim the woman he knew was always meant to be his.
The same woman who was sitting on the couch as still and white as a statue when he entered the sitting room of his suite. “Remy?”
She stood, the softness of her lips curving into a smile as she walked toward him. There were dark shadows under her eyes, and she looked slimmer than she had three days ago, although Mal had assured Sinclair he was making sure she ate and drank, even if it was only a little.
Her arms moved about his waist once she reached him. “Sinclair,” she murmured achingly before lifting to press her mouth against his.
He gave a low groan, his arms curving like steel bands about her waist before he parted her lips with the tip of his tongue, deepening the kiss as their hunger for each other exploded out of control.
They devoured each other. Licking, kissing, biting, their breathing ragged, their hearts beating in the same heavy rhythm.
Their gazes remained locked as they threw off their clothes. Once they were both naked, Sinclair carried Remy to the bed.
Time lost all meaning as they made love to and with each other. When they reached a climax together, it was deeper and more profound than anything Sinclair had ever experienced before.
Because they truly made love together.
Sinclair already knew he was in love with Remy.
Completely.
Irrevocably.
He remained buried deep inside her as Remy looked up at him with eyes that were glowing, the shadows dispersed as she made no effort to hide her emotions from him.
Sinclair saw desire, heat, and wonder.
But most of all, he saw love.
The sort of love that would last a lifetime, through bad as well as good.
He really hoped, for them, there would be more good than bad.
Neither of them had said the words yet, but Sinclair had absolutely no doubt that whatever happened in the future, Remy would be at his side, loving him.
But they needed to deal with the present first.
Which for now included taking a leisurely shower together, which led to more lovemaking and another climax.
They’d dried themselves, redressed, and returned to the lounge before Remy asked him a question that stopped him in his tracks. “Was my mother the person Cathy was in love with for all those years?”
Sinclair startled back. “How the hell—?”
“I watched the security footage again today. Many times.” She gave a sad smile. “I noticed that the photographs my father ripped to shreds in my apartment were only the ones that had Cathy and my mother in them. I’m pretty sure if I go back to my parents’ house and check, the ones that were destroyed there were also ones that included the two of them.”
“It’s still a pretty big leap to think that Cathy was in love with your mother,” he said warily.
“Am I wrong?”
No, she wasn’t wrong. Cathy had confessed to him when she asked for a divorce that she’d been in love with her sister-in-law before they were married and for the whole of their marriage.
Sinclair had known the two women were close. They often went away for weekends on shopping or theater trips together. But it had never crossed his mind that it had been anything more than that. Oh, he’d known that Cathy was bi before they married, some of her other sexual partners at uni having been women, but it really hadn’t ever occurred to him that Cathy might have feelings for her sister-in-law.
“Was my mama in love with her too?”
“I don’t know,” he answered Remy honestly. “All Cathy told me when she asked for the divorce was that she’d always loved Gina and that she couldn’t carry on living a lie any longer.”
“I think she did.” Remy smiled sadly. “I think she was getting ready to leave my father and be with Cathy once I’d gone away to university, but that Cathy died before that could happen and Mama no longer saw a reason to leave him. Especially when she had no idea he was involved in Cathy’s death.”
Sinclair’s eyes narrowed. “You think the timing of the kidnapping was deliberate, that maybe Ralph knew Gina was going to leave him for Cathy?”
“I think that my father might not be as innocent of Cathy’s murder as you always thought he was, yes. He was…jealous and obsessive about Mama. I believe he was capable of anything if he thought for one moment that Mama was going to leave him so she could be with his own sister. I hope Mama did love Cathy too.” Remy’s nod was resolute. “She deserved to know some happiness.”
Sinclair thought so too, now that he knew more about Gina’s circumstances. It was still uncomfortable for him to remember Cathy had never really loved him, but it didn’t hurt like it once had.
Perhaps because he had Remy now?
But that didn’t change the fact that if he’d eliminated Ralph as he had the other kidnappers, more people wouldn’t have died…
“Don’t do that to yourself,” Remy pleaded when she saw the doubt and self-recrimination in Sinclair’s expression.
“Gina and the pilot would still be alive if I’d—”
“Might still be alive,” Remy corrected firmly. “And knowing you killed my father would have put an unsurmountable barrier between the two of us.” She shook her head. “You aren’t to blame for any of this. That’s all on my father. I honestly had no idea how unstable he was. Otherwise, I would have insisted my mother leave him years ago.”
“From what I know about that situation now, I don’t believe that would have stopped him from making Gina’s life hell.”
Remy was inclined to agree with that. But if she hadn’t existed, then perhaps her mother might have—
“Don’t do that to yourself, either, Remy,” Sinclair cut in. “We can’t change the past; we can only learn from it and ensure it doesn’t happen again.” His jaw tightened. “I will find your father, and he will pay for what he’s done.”
She nodded. “Just please don’t kill him.”
“I won’t,” Sinclair agreed grimly.
It was all Remy could ask of him for now.