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SINCLAIR

PRESENT DAY

“This has to be the last dance. I can’t afford for this to turn into an all-nighter,” my friend, Zoey, says, as I pull her onto the dancefloor of the nightclub.

“As if I’d make you stay out all night. I know you and Ashton have that thing tomorrow at the gallery,” I shout over the music as I spin and tip my head back, soaking up the beat.

I look back at Zoey when she doesn’t say anything and smile at the pointed look she’s giving me.

“Nothing happened, and you know it. That guy was a complete gentleman,” I say about the brother of one of the models I went home with after a night out a few days ago. “I met his boyfriend and their cat and everything. He drove me to the hospital the next day.”

My mood sours immediately at the memory of the following morning. The call from Sullivan. The tone in his voice as he told me there had been a fire.

Another one.

Zoey doesn’t miss the way I’ve stopped dancing, my limbs weighed down as it all comes crashing back. She pulls me over to the bar, signaling the bartender for two glasses of water.

“You okay?” she asks the moment I’ve gulped mine down.

“Yeah.” I side-eye her and then sigh at her worried expression. “Yeah,” I repeat, wiping my brow. “Just, that night… Dad’s club burning down. It was all too much like…”

She curls her hand over my forearm reassuringly. “Too close to the way you lost your mom and brother. I get it.”

I look into her kind brown eyes. “Yeah, too close.”

It’s been two years since they died on my father’s yacht in a freak fire.

And I was finally feeling that life had something to look forward to again.

My career as a model has skyrocketed from all the extra hours I’m putting in, landing me some huge campaigns.

Sullivan took over from my father as CEO of our family jewelry firm, Beaufort Diamonds, and is expanding it.

And my father has grown his portfolio of member’s only piano bars that he enjoys so much.

We are all learning to survive without them. Or trying, at least.

I even hired my father a sought-after dating expert called Halliday Burton hoping he’d be happier if he let love into his life.

He didn’t like any of the dates she set him up with, instead becoming smitten with her.

I’ve never seen him like it, not even with Mom.

Halliday’s twenty years younger than him, and now they’re engaged and having a baby together.

I worried about him. Worried that I’d never see him truly happy. But that all melted away when Halliday came along.

Until the fire at his club. When she was inside it.

“Hey. They’re doing fine now. You said it yourself,” Zoey interrupts me, breaking my thoughts.

“Yeah, they are. I’m going to visit them tomorrow.” I force a smile, thinking how lucky we are that Dad was able to get Halliday out safely. Not like two years ago. He tried to save them both but couldn’t.

“Good. In that case, maybe we should have one more dance.” She raises her brows as a song we both love plays. “We cannot let those guys have all the fun.”

I follow her gaze to the group we’ve come out with, a mix of models, makeup artists, and photographers. One of the male models, Mikey, has taken his shirt off and is encouraging girls to run their hands over his abs. He catches us looking and throws us a cocky wink.

“We need to save those girls from Mikey, you mean?” I snort out a giggle as I let Zoey pull me back toward the dancefloor.

“We need to save Mikey from Mikey.” She laughs.

“Hold up,” I call as my phone buzzes in the back pocket of my pants. I pull it out and bring up the text.

Denver: Do you need a ride home?

I roll my eyes as I punch back my reply.

Me: No. I have my car back.

I groan, pocketing my phone.

“Let me guess? Denver?” Zoey asks.

“Was it the way my face shifted, like I’d just endured the most boring thing in my life, that gave it away?”

She breaks into laughter. “Girl, he’s not that bad.”

“Why don’t you ride home with Mr. Personality and then tell me that again?”

Dad said having a car covered in white Swarovski crystals was a bad idea, but I refuse to admit he was right.

It just looks so pretty. It’s not my fault the tiniest little scrape has them pinging off like crazy.

But I’m going to be way more careful with it in future.

Not only is it a pain being without my car, but it also means Denver ends up being my ride every time it goes into the shop for repairs.

I know Sullivan puts him up to it. Denver couldn’t make it clearer he hates chauffeuring me around. When he gave Mikey and me a ride home last week, he didn’t even speak—just greeted us with a grunt. He’s probably pissed it pulls him away from whatever security stuff my dad always has him doing.

“It’s a ride home. Who cares if he doesn’t talk? Silence sounds like heaven after a night with these guys.” Zoey jerks her head toward the group as we approach.

Mikey pulls me straight into his side, grabbing my hand. “You’ll feel my abs, won’t you, Sin?” He plants my palm over his stomach. “That pure, solid muscle won me the Michael Kors campaign.”

I laugh as Zoey calls him an idiot over the music.

Then I fall back into the beat and let it take me as I dance.

“Holy fuck!” Mikey balks.

I take slow steps toward my car, my legs like jelly in my high heels.

“Lenny! How could they do this to you?” I squeak.

I move closer to my Lamborghini Murcielago and run a loving hand over the white Swarovski crystals on the hood.

They’re rough beneath my palm. I swallow a lump in my throat as I take in an area of wrecked bodywork where they’ve been scraped off, leaving the metal beneath shining like an angry slash mark.

“Sin, I’d move your hand?—”

Mikey grabs my hand, pulling it away as I spot the brown lump sitting in the middle of the hood.

“Someone defecated on Lenny!” I screech.

I stare at the offensive lump sitting menacingly on the hood, one end of it pointing at the windscreen where ‘Beaufort Bitch’ has been scrawled in a deep shade of red.

“Don’t worry, baby,” I soothe, tentatively reaching out and stroking my car again. “I’ll get you cleaned up. You’ll be as good as new, I promise.”

“I can smell it from here.” Mikey doubles over and gags.

I step back, glancing up and down the street.

It’s deserted. I thought I’d parked in a safe spot, beneath a streetlight, not far from the club.

It’s not the first time someone’s left something for me on my car.

The crystals and my license plate, Sin B 1, make it instantly recognizable.

But apart from the odd time recently that it’s been something unpleasant, it’s been nice.

A flower, or a cute note telling me I looked pretty in my latest campaign.

Not a…

“Shit! What are you going to do?” Mikey looks at me, then at Lenny. He presses a fist to his lips and blinks hard.

“I’ll text the shop,” I say, pulling out my phone. “They’ll send a truck to pick him up in the morning.”

They’ll fix Lenny. They’ve never let me down before. I’ll pay them extra this time though, for dealing with the?—

“Turd smell makes me want to hurl. Can we stand further away?” Mikey pleads, pulling me along the sidewalk. “Jesus, it smells like something died, and then they ate it, and then they shit it out on… Sorry,” he mumbles, giving me a sympathetic look. “Your poor car.”

“Yeah. Lenny doesn’t deserve this.” I chew on my lower lip as I survey the empty street again.

Mikey and I are the only two who walked this way after we left the club.

His apartment isn’t far from mine, so I said I’d give him a ride.

I wish Zoey and the others hadn’t already gone.

It’s only a disgusting prank, but the hairs on the back of my neck are still standing up at seeing Lenny like this.

“Maybe there’s CCTV?” I say, glancing up at the buildings, but I don’t see anything that looks like a camera. I blow out a defeated breath. “I’ll call Sullivan to give us a lift.”

The idea dies as soon as I’ve said it. Sullivan is at my father’s place. We’ve been taking it in turns to stay with him and Halliday since they were both discharged from hospital with smoke inhalation. I can’t ask him to leave them. What if one of them needs him?

I unlock my phone and bring my messages up, my thumb hovering over the keyboard. I could text Denver. It would be an awkward ride home with the silent hulk, but at least it’s not standing beside Lenny in the middle of the night, seeing him in this condition.

The evening air makes me shiver, and Mikey wraps an arm around me, rubbing me to warm me up. “It’s okay.” He taps something on his phone. “I’ve got us a ride. You can stay at my place. I don’t like the idea of you going home alone.”

“Thanks, but I’ll be fine. Besides, Monty’s there, I won’t be alone,” I say, my heart lifting at the thought of a cuddle from my dog when I get home.

My eyes are drawn to a shimmer of white crystals lying in the dirty gutter, and I shiver again. “We’ll be fine,” I repeat.