Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Lucian
My first order of business is to call Blaze to let him know I’ll be MIA for the foreseeable future. The two of us stayed after the Morettis bombed our village, brothers in arms, working together to gather enough information on our enemies to convince the others that we can stay here and rebuild.
He grew up here in the Bronx and feels a deep connection to this city, heart and soul.
As for me, I lost my first love here—Isobel.
I was with another group before the Bachmans.
My best friend Carlos turned against me.
She was killed in an explosion at an arms warehouse in Manhattan, and we never found her body.
Before Erin, I didn’t want to leave New York, not until I had some closure from my past.
Now?
I’d travel anywhere to find her.
Blaze scoffs on the other end of the line, clearly confused and not bothering to hide his frustration as he goes after me.
“The hell you’re leaving town now, Lucian!
The assessment is today. They’ve analyzed the threat.
And today they’re going to recommend whether we rebuild here, in our city. Where we have our roots. Our history.”
“Or, more likely,” I say, “they’ll say we have to leave.”
Blaze’s voice drops an octave, “Lucian…”
“And if that’s what they have to say…”
“You don’t want to be here to hear it, anyway.”
“Yeah.”
A heavy silence lingers between us, then I say what we’re both thinking.
“I don’t care what they say, Blaze. We will rebuild. We will take back New York.”
“I agree, but Lucian, you may have to cool off for a bit. Rebuild somewhere else. Gather our strength, then, take back New York.”
“You know I run hot.”
“I know.”
“And you know I’m right,” I add between clenched teeth.
“I know.” His voice softens, “But you know I’m right, too.”
I hate the idea of waiting. I want to blow up every Moretti in the city and watch them burn. Then build a Village three times the size of the last one. But Blaze may be right.
I may have to bide my time.
Finally, Blaze, my brother in every way except blood, says, “Go. Find her.”
I pack quickly.
Still no update from the security team on her passport. I can’t wait to get answers.
I have to take them.
I have the address of their new apartment.
Cass and Ryan are outside in the grassy common area, bundled up in the cold, playing catch with a blue rubber ball.
Ryan sees me first. “Lucian!” He comes running over to greet me.
“Hey, little man.” I hug him and lift him up. He grins at me then glances over my shoulder.
“Did you bring the good car?”
I laugh. He’s thinking of the Cabriolet convertible—the one Erin and I took him out for ice cream in.
“Not today, kid.” I settle him down, telling him I need a word with his mom.
Cass sends him inside, and he stands there, giving us a curious look. “Go inside and close the door.”
“Listen to your mom, Ryan.”
Finally, the door closes.
Cass turns toward me, then grabs the arms of her chair. “I don’t know where she is.”
“You let her leave?” I ask, my voice sharper than I intend.
“And how do you suggest I stop her?” She makes a dramatic up-and-down motion with her arms at her sides, signaling that her mode of transportation is a wheelchair.
“Fair point.”
“Besides, I didn’t even know she left. I just found a note this morning when I was making breakfast.” She narrows her gaze suspiciously. “Actually, I thought she might be at your place enjoying post-grown-up sleepover bliss.”
“Don’t look at me like that, Cass. I’m not a suspect. I’m the one looking for her. Why don’t you try taking a break from true crime for a minute?”
“It’s always the boyfriend,” she sniffs.
Ignoring her comment, I restate the facts. “So she snuck out of my place super early. Snuck back here, then left.”
“Correct,” she nods. “Unless there’s any foul play you want to confess to, I think her disappearance is actually pretty straightforward.”
Cass looks at me for a moment, then quickly looks away. Too quickly. Like she knows way more than she’s telling me.
I close the space between us and grab her arm. “What did the note that she left you say?”
“What it didn’t say is what you want to know.” She pulls away. “I don’t know where she is.”
“But you know why she left,” I counter. “Tell me. Now.”
She looks down at her lap, intertwining her fingers, then releasing them. She sighs before looking back up again.
“Cass.”
Finally, she says, “She’s been working for the Morettis. And she didn’t want to tell you. She’d do anything not to have to tell you.”
“Why?”
“That.” She points at my face with a gruff laugh. “That look on your face when you find out she was sent to betray you.”
Something in Cass’s voice takes me back to that night in Blaze’s garage when I introduced Erin to Bachman playtime, using a riding crop to drag the secrets I could feel she was hiding from me to the surface.
Am I losing my mind? Here I’m trying to find her and instead I’m lost in another flashback:
I slip behind her, dropping the crop. “That’s why I need to know the truth. To see if I can trust you moving forward.” My calloused fingers trail over the ropes hugging her ribs, then wind down to the apex of her thighs.
I spread her legs with my fingers, and she moans, “Oh my God,” as I find her slick heat.
Gentle, reading her body, her breaths, so I know where to touch, how to stroke, how much pressure to use…
I drag the truth from her.
“You want to tell me more, sweet girl?” I whisper against her ear, aching with need.
“I’m scared,” she breathes. “Not of this. Of you leaving. If I tell you everything.”
She’s scared. But I know her better than to think she ran away in fear. She’s too brave for that. She’s running towards something.
“What did they want from her?” I ask, Cass, already knowing.
“What do you think?” Cass stares at me. “The one thing you gave her the second you decided you trusted her.”
Of course.
“The key.” She needed that fob to buy Moretti's protection from Caleb. The only key they couldn’t override with their technology.
She could have given it to Bambi’s brother, Valentino. Surely, that’s who she ended up working for. But she didn’t. She brought it back to me.
And when she was avoiding me?
Was Erin trying to find a way to avoid giving them that key and still save her family?
My chest clenches.
Cass’s uniquely raspy voice pulls me from my thoughts. “She thinks she has to go fix it. For you. For Ryan. Me. All of us.”
“She decided to find Caleb herself. Didn’t she?” I ask.
Drained of emotion, Cass nods. “It’s the only possible answer.”
I kneel beside her chair, looking up at her. “Where did she go?”
“I told you, she didn’t say,” Cass takes a breath. “But we’ve heard that Caleb is staying in a town outside the farmlands where Erin and I grew up.”
“Why there?” I ask.
“He’s probably staying put, waiting for us to come home. He knows eventually we’ll have to at least check on the farmhouse.”
“Why now?” I ask.
“Because she’s run out of time. The Morettis want the key, or they’re going to roll the red carpet out for Caleb, bringing him straight to us.”
“Why didn’t she ask me for help?”
She doesn’t answer.
“She went to hunt him down,” I murmur.
“Lucian?”
We lock eyes. Her gaze holds mine a beat too long. “I think…I think she went to end it.”
I’m halfway across the grassy courtyard when she stops me with a shout.
“Lucian!”
I turn slowly.
“She didn’t ask for help because she hates the way you two met. She really cares about you. I’m guessing she didn’t want to tell you the truth.”
I stare at her. “She should’ve known better than to go alone.”
Cass shudders at the heat in my voice.
“She belongs to me,” I whisper. “And she needs me.”
I walk away, boots crunching over the gravel path.
It’s like I told Erin, with two fingers deep inside her; I don’t leave my girl, even if she keeps secrets.
Even if she tests my patience.