He sighed. Drill him. She was going to drill him. About Sienna. Excellent. Was he ready to give her any answers yet?
Lindsey arched an eyebrow at him when he entered his kitchen. “Took you long enough.”
“I showered. And dressed. You’re welcome.”
She huffed. “I want details.”
“The water was hot, the soap—”
“I will hit you.” She glared. “I want details about Sienna Roberts. Now.”
He ignored her, crossing to his coffee machine. Heart racing, he selected an espresso pod. Confrontation never bothered him before, even confrontation with family. But this…
“Talk to me, brother.” Lindsey appeared at his side, sliding her butt along the edge of the counter until she wedged herself directly in front of him.
He scowled.
She arched an eyebrow at him.
Accepting coffee was out of the question until he talked, he tossed the pod onto the counter and made his way into the living room.
Lindsey followed. “I know you told me you had a plan for her,” she said, dropping into an armchair with a frown. “But what I saw last night didn’t look like revenge.”
He didn’t take a seat. Instead, he crossed to the window to study the sweeping view of Sydney Harbor beyond it. His heart continued to behave like a goddam runaway freight train. “What did it look like?”
Her stare razed his back in an itchy heat. Silence stretched through the room.
Finally, his sigh ragged, he turned.
“It looked like love.” She crossed her legs and swung one designer-clad foot. “What with the smiling and goo-goo eyes and touching, and the way you scowled at any guy looking at her. But that can’t be right, can it? Given who she is and what she did to Clint?”
Hell, this wasn’t going to be fun. “Sienna really isn’t who Clinton led us to believe.”
Lindsey stiffened.
He swallowed. He loved his sister. A lot. But he recognized in her now the Dyson stubbornness so famous in their family.
“What do you know of her?” He crossed to the chair opposite where she sat, studying him with forced calm.
“Only what Clint told me.” She waited for him to lower himself into the chair before continuing. “She was his muse, his inspiration. When Dad told him to stop his ridiculous fantasy of being an artist and return to his business degree, she told him to follow his heart. Of course, his heart meant he would follow her, so she got what she wanted when he stayed at art school.”
“Do you know she turned her back on her own family’s fame and money?”
“Platinum Joe doesn’t have any money.” A frown creased her forehead. “And I think you mean infamy, rather than fame.”
“Before he was charged and imprisoned for embezzlement,” James clarified. “She left home and went at it completely alone at eighteen. Without any help from her father.”
“All the more reason for wanting the Dyson money.”
He shook his head. “No. She’s not interested in money. Not the kind of money we have, at least. Money to pay the bills, yes. And to care for her younger brother, sure. But wealth like our family has? No.”
“And you know this because she told you?” Lindsey scoffed. “Me thinks she’s beguiled your brain via your dick, big brother.”
“I know this because for the last six months, I’ve had her investigated. I’ve researched her. Her career, her circle of friends, her bank accounts.”
Christ, what a piece of work I am.
“I know more about her than she probably knows about herself,” he continued, throat tight. “I’ve read the reports on her life, her incoming finances and outgoing expenses. I’ve watched the footage of her buying clothes at op-shops. I know—for a fact—she hasn’t spent the last six months beguiling another wealthy, gullible man. She’s spent those last months raising her teenage half brother as she continues to live an almost reclusive existence.”
“Teenage half brother?” Lindsey’s frown deepened. “The kid with the smart mouth I met at her place? She’s his sole carer?”
“She is. And given the life Zach used to live before Platinum Joe went to jail, she’s had her hands full. And she’s doing an amazing job of it.”