Isle of Sin: A Standalone Dark Romance

My jaw almost unhinged, but by some miracle of fate, I managed to hold myself together.

Because what the fuck?

I had never said that.

I’d expressed a desire to keep her. But I’d never mentioned marrying her.

And Julian knew it, too.

He was playing some sort of game, not just with the members of Sin Cave but with me, too.

“And in return, he’s agreed to allow my part of the organization access to a handful of villas on his island for training and celebration purposes,” Julian continued, making up terms we had never discussed before. “But all visiting requests will go through me for approval. And not all requests will be approved.”

“What are the parameters for approval?” Quinton asked, speaking for the first time.

“The parameters will be mutually defined between me and Mr. Sinner,” Julian said, his words giving me pause.

“Mutually defined parameters” meaning what exactly?

I required consent.

And nothing about his part of the organization was consensual. It was all arranged marriages and trained brides.

“Interesting,” Mitchell said, scratching his jaw.

“There’s just one problem,” Albert said. “Adalyn is already engaged to Larry’s son.”

His words had me glancing at Larry’s screen to see him furiously typing on his keyboard with a fuming Charles beside him.

It would have been humorous to watch if it weren’t so fucking infuriating.

Julian ignored them, as did everyone else, it seemed.

“True,” Julian said, replying to Albert’s comment regarding Adalyn’s betrothal. “So name your terms, Albert.”

“My terms?”

“For allowing Mr. Sinner to marry your daughter.”

His lips parted. “He can’t marry her. As I said, she’s already engaged.”

“It’s not a formally announced engagement.” Julian glanced at Taylor Huntington. “You wanted it to appear as a lurid affair, yes? To maintain your playboy status for as long as society allowed?”

“That’s not—”

Julian looked back at Mr. Rose, dismissing Taylor without a second thought. “You are capable of renegotiating, Albert. Given that Mr. Sinner has been on the desired recruitment list for the last five years, perhaps you could establish a new alliance with his family. And we can finally have an in with the elite line of Sinner clubs.”

“I can’t negotiate for my siblings,” I interjected. “Only myself.”

Julian dipped his chin in acknowledgment. “And it so happens that it’s your club, specifically, that many of our network members are intrigued by. Fortunate for you, yes?”

My jaw ticked, but I nodded, playing his game. “Very fortunate.”

“This is a very lucrative offer,” Mitchell pointed out. “I’ve visited Sinners Isle several times. His facilities are top of the line and highly recommended in our circles.”

“It provides an exclusive location for training some of our Elite Brides as well,” Julian added. “And many of our members will be eager to book a potential stay on the isle as well. I imagine Mr. Sinner will work out a Sin Cave rate for those who qualify for a visit.”

An interesting choice of wording, I thought. Potential. Qualify. Meaning he was writing into my membership agreement a way to control who visited my island.

Just like his comment regarding the mutually defined parameters.

This man really is a genius with words.

“I mean, I’m in,” Carver said. “Easiest decision I’ve ever made.”

“I would be interested as well,” Trenton echoed.

Four of the others chimed in, voicing their agreement.

“I approve and would be interested in discussing some investment strategies with you, Mr. Sinner,” Mitchell said.

“I would be open to those discussions,” I told him, playing along. Because we both knew I wouldn’t be entertaining any business ventures with him. Not after how he’d treated Adalyn. But he was staying true to his word now in helping me with this discussion, making me begrudgingly grateful to him for his assistance today.

Fortunately, his voice didn’t appear to be bothering Adalyn.

She’d remained mostly still throughout the conversation, only shifting when Nathan’s death was mentioned.

It took conscious control not to reach down and touch her. But I needed to focus on the conversation to save us both.

“Well, obviously, I don’t approve,” Taylor put in. “She’s my fucking bride.”

“There are other candidates,” Julian offered with a shrug. “I’m sure we can find you someone.” His gaze went to Albert. “Have you decided on your terms?”

“So that’s it? You all tell me who I marry my daughter off to, and I have to oblige?” Albert demanded, looking at the screens.

“It would be a lucrative opportunity for you,” Mitchell replied. “Consider the resort Asher has built and the potential impact his expertise could have for your organization as a whole. The two of you could create a whole new chain of like-minded resorts together.”

The very thought of that made my stomach churn—not the idea of a chain of resorts similar to Sinners Isle, but the thought of working with Albert Rose.

However, his words appeared to be giving Albert cause for consideration.

“I think a chain of that nature would pique the interest of several financial organizations and create a wealth of investment opportunity,” Mitchell added.

“That is a very good point,” Julian replied. “It’s almost as though your two families are meant to unite.”

“Yes,” Albert said slowly, looking at me with a new light in his eyes. “That is an interesting concept.”

“I would not be opposed to expanding,” I admitted. It wasn’t something I thought I would be able to do for at least another decade, but I’d consider it under the right circumstances.

“Albert, you can’t—”

“Taylor, you understand how this game is played,” Albert interjected. “If the Sin Cave Elite wish for Mr. Sinner to join, then I’m not in a position to deny them. And if it’s my daughter he wants as a price for entry, then I’m inclined to give him what he desires.”

“Excellent,” Julian replied. “I imagine you have a few details you’ll want to work through?”

“Yes.” Albert met my gaze. “There are business ventures I want to discuss with my future son-in-law. But I think we can iron out those details during my stay here. That will give me time to explore the island and see what Sinners Isle is truly about.”

This would be an interesting arrangement, but as it allowed me to keep Adalyn, I nodded in agreement. “I look forward to it,” I lied.

Because I absolutely did not look forward to our discussion.

However, I would go through the formalities required to be able to free Adalyn from this hell.

Or offer her a semblance of freedom, anyway.

Taylor chuckled, the sound one I didn’t expect to hear from him. “Wow,” he said. “He kills Nate and gets to marry my bride? That’s… wow.”

“It’s typically considered unwise to allow a prized possession out of your sight,” I told him conversationally. “You never know when someone else may claim it.”

He nodded. “Fair. But I didn’t let her out of my sight, Julian.” He leaned forward. “In fact, she’s been very much within my sight for years.”

I nearly asked him to clarify, but then it occurred to me what he meant just half a second too late.

Because he was already saying, “Which is how I know that you didn’t kill Nate. She did. And I have video footage that proves it.” He looked at the screens and at the men around the table. “He’s lying to all of you.”

Julian frowned. “There’s video footage of Nathan Spencer’s death?”

Shit.

Clive had mentioned a repository for the videos, but he hadn’t found proof of anyone else accessing it. However, he’d also said something about a strange sort of encryption that he couldn’t seem to hack. He’d assumed it was a security measure to keep the files secure.

But perhaps it was related to another access point.

Or maybe Taylor just had access to Nathan’s passwords.

Unless they were Taylor’s passwords all along, I thought. What if Taylor was the one who created the original shared drive for Nathan to house all the videos in?

It could have been meant to ensure Nathan’s training methods were acceptable by Taylor’s standards—which just made him a sick fuck.

Or he’d been keeping those videos for other means.

“Yes, I also watched it happen,” Taylor explained. “Nathan called me that night after seeing Adalyn stash a bunch of knives around the villa. He was quite excited to teach her a lesson, and he set up a camera for me to observe. One she obviously didn’t know about because she killed him while I watched.”

“And you didn’t think to report this sooner?” Julian demanded before looking at me. “And you lied about it?”

Jesus. If Taylor had the video feed from that night, then he also knew Bryant and Clive had been with me when we found the body.

And he would have heard our conversation afterward.

“I wasn’t brought into the discussions regarding what to do with this situation,” Taylor said tightly. “Had I been included, I would have mentioned it sooner.”

I considered him for a moment, my mind working quickly to develop an alternate strategy.

Yes, I’d obviously covered up the murder, but only to protect Adalyn.

However, Julian had a good point regarding the information and video footage. Why hadn’t Taylor told everyone? Because from the expressions on the screen, both Larry and Charles were shocked by this reveal.

As was everyone else in the room and on the other streaming videos.

Which meant he hadn’t told anyone.

And this was his final trump card, the one he’d intended to play as a last resort if things didn’t go his way.

Because he hadn’t wanted to admit to having the videos.

“I can play the footage, if you’d like,” Taylor added. “I have it on my phone.”

“Yes,” Julian said. “I want to see it.”

I stayed quiet while Taylor slid over the phone, as I wanted to see how much this would reveal. Would he also show my men arriving at the scene?

Clive had said the video was still recording while we were there, but he’d stated the footage was only going to Taylor’s phone.

Maybe he’d been livestreaming with Taylor, but after Nathan’s death, he’d hung up as he’d tried to figure out what to do.

So the rest of it was just recorded to the phone and never actually transferred to the shared drive.

Because the murder itself was never transferred either; Clive had said that videos had to be manually pushed there, which it seemed Nathan had been doing every few days.

“She’s been very much within my sight for years.”

Taylor’s words played through my head as Julian connected the video to the conference call for everyone to watch.

“She’s been very much within my sight for years.”

Because he kept checking the video repository to review her training.

And perhaps more.

I glanced at the screen, already familiar with the scene, and noted the timestamp scrolling along the top, counting the seconds.

That hadn’t been in the videos we’d seen.

And this footage said we were only a minute in, which began with the scramble for knives…

Either he’d cropped the file, or he didn’t have the full video.

He taped this while livestreaming, I realized. He’d hit Record the moment she started to truly fight back.

Which meant he didn’t have any of the feed that led up to this moment because Nathan had never had a chance to upload the full file.

The video ended shortly after Nathan took his last breath and showed Adalyn walking toward the patio doors, covered in blood.

“Is there more?” Julian demanded.

Taylor shook his head. “I recorded that myself from our livestream. But the full video will be on Nathan’s phone, assuming Asher hasn’t destroyed the evidence.”

All eyes moved to me, including a pair of fuming dark ones that belonged to Julian. “Where is his phone?”

“I have it,” I told him slowly, still processing everything that had been said.

The fact that Taylor knew the full video would be there told me he was very aware of Nathan’s penchant for taping Adalyn. That, coupled with his comment about always having an eye on her, confirmed my suspicions that he was in the know about all those videos.

So did he tape them for personal pleasure?

Or as potential blackmail?

Perhaps a hint of both.

“Good. I want it,” Julian said through his teeth. “And why the fuck didn’t you tell me that Adalyn killed him?”

I shrugged. “It happened on my isle, thereby making it my responsibility to handle the fallout. It also doesn’t change the fact that I would have killed him regardless of Adalyn’s behavior. She did us all a favor by taking him out.”

Julian’s eyebrows hit his hairline. “Oh? And how do you justify such a statement? Because as Taylor already pointed out, you’re not a member of our organization, Mr. Sinner. And given that you lied, I don’t think your candidacy is going to be approved.”

Several grunts of agreement followed that statement via the conference line.

“We value honesty among each other, which is a trait you clearly lack,” Julian continued. “So tell us why you feel her killing Nathan Spencer was a favor to our organization?”

“Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not necessarily keen on being videotaped without my consent,” I said, taking a risk. Because if Taylor hadn’t seen the whole video of that day, it suggested Nathan didn’t have an auto-upload function—something that Clive had also confirmed with his digging. Which meant Taylor wouldn’t know if I told the truth now or not.

Well, he might know that I was lying.

But he wouldn’t have proof of it.

And when I finished, his word would be null and void.