Chapter Sixty-Eight Aubrey
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Aubrey
Lukas made a face. “Everything I said about you was true. You were young and devious. Totally without boundaries.”
“Funny, but you thought I was old enough, mature enough, when you wanted to take my clothes off.”
Your parents don’t understand you and they may not trust you, but I do. I have since I first saw you sitting with Stella in
her office at our house. I could see you were something special. You flirted and wore that skirt. I would have ignored it,
wrote it off, but you were different. Not a kid like everyone said.
Hanna didn’t let that juicy bit pass. She leaned in closer to him, ready to do battle. “Teen girls? Is that really your thing,
Lukas?”
“Hanna, come on.” Lukas let out a harsh laugh. “You see what Aubrey’s doing. She’s always hated Stella. This is about their
dysfunctional relationship and the fact I wouldn’t take Aubrey’s side and lie about my then wife.”
“You never touched Aubrey? You’re saying you didn’t take advantage of her?” Hanna thumped her fingers against the desk.
That comment made me sound weak. I was never weak. “I don’t love the way you phrased that but proceed.”
“Come on. This isn’t serious. She was a child. I was almost thirty and a married man.”
Technically true but not the whole story. “Was that a no?”
I called him for help that day. Uncharacteristic. He was more focused on his good news. On celebrating.
You’re the first to know. Not Stella. You. I’ve been promoted. Everything is going to plan. All the stress and long hours. The fights with Stella about my priorities. All paid off.
My legs wrapped around his waist. His belt digging into the soft skin of my upper thigh. The way his breath stuttered in my
ear. The heat of his body against mine.
I remembered it all.
“Look. Okay.” He let out a rough laugh. “I wasn’t going to bring this up because it was years ago and she was a confused kid,
seeking attention. Aubrey’s home life was difficult. She was dealing with a lot at the time. Stella can explain the psychology
of it better than I can, but Aubrey came on to me. Unbuttoned her shirt. It was flattering and over in a second.”
Nice try. “We had sex the first time in the passageway behind the closet in my parents’ bedroom. I was fourteen. It was September
and everyone was here for an end of the summer party, swimming and eating, including Lukas here and his wife.”
“That’s not true.” Lukas sounded so angry. So vehement in his denial.
Do you want me to take my top off? No, don’t worry. I won’t tell.
Months of meeting in secret, including that day fifteen years ago. “We did it all the time and would laugh about how clueless my parents were. We wondered how they didn’t hear the banging or the moaning.”
“You sick piece of garbage.” Hanna’s focus switched to Lukas. Her voice vibrated with what sounded like rage.
“No. Stop.” Lukas didn’t beg. He ordered while he lied. “She’s making it all up to save her own ass.”
“You used to like my ass.”
His usual calm demeanor vanished. “Shut up!”
“You have the nerve to yell at me?” Big fucking mistake. I’d had years to target my hate. Of the list of people who deserved
to have their histories sliced open, yanked out, and displayed for all to see, Lukas held a special place.
I went to that supposed therapeutic boarding school defending him. Insisting we were dating. While other students spoke about
their dreary lives, I stayed silent. I knew what I was doing with him and had consented. I didn’t need help.
In my head, I understood him when Stella didn’t. I watched other girls get sucked under by mediocre men while I waited for
Lukas to come for me. He divorced Stella fairly quickly and surely . . . But no. He threw me out like an outdated broken toy.
Hanna picked up her phone.
“Put it down, Hanna.” Lukas’s voice changed. It was deeper, more serious. He also flashed a knife. “Right now.”
“At least Xavier never pretended to be a good guy. You do.” Hanna snorted. “Well, news flash, good guys don’t sleep with teenagers,
lie to their wives, and wave knives around.”
Lukas shook his head. “This is not going to end with you playing the hero.”
This is the Lukas I remembered. In control. A flat, emotionless affect. I used to find that sexy. The whole brooding smart
guy thing. Now I saw how he turned ruthless when threatened.
“Tell us how this little scene is going to end, Lukas.” Hanna stood up. She moved with care but she didn’t sit there waiting
to be stabbed and dragged into the garden graveyard for burial. “Do you really think I just happened to be in this room? One
with a passageway entrance? That I didn’t know you were coming?”
“Sit down.” Lukas had lost ground and Hanna’s respect with every word, but his deep voice suggested he hadn’t figured that
out yet.
“You walked into a full house of women who are relishing the idea of destroying you, you dumbass. More than one person is
waiting with their finger on the panic button to call in the police guards.”
I liked this Hanna. Direct and unshakable. A bit too wordy but hard to ignore. I almost felt bad that I’d mentally planned
her murder more than once. Dreamed up delicious, detailed, sometimes intricate schemes about separating her from everyone
she knew. Stabbing her. Burning her.
Clearly, that would have been a mistake.
“Think, Lukas.” Hanna shook her head. “Who sent you the text that caused you to run over here dressed in that ridiculous outfit?
Not me.”
Stella stepped into the library from the hall.
“Me.” Stella held up her cell. Read from the screen only she could see. “Jeremy remembers most of that night. He’s going to talk with the police tomorrow about what happened. This will finally be
over.”
Lukas’s confident smirk vanished. “Stella, this is—”
She barked over him. “I’m going to kill you.”
Before Stella could make a move, Lukas took a step. Then another. He was on Hanna in seconds. Had his arm wrapped around her
neck and the knife at her cheek as he held her in front of him as a human shield. “Everyone, calm down.”
The drama. The bad choices. The lies.
This was the show I’d been dreaming about. The one I’d anticipated during years of plotting while waiting for Gramps to die.
That was the deal. I stayed away, enjoyed the money and anonymity Gramps provided. I never expected him to hang on for so
long. Even thought about taking him out, but the heart attack beat me to it. Which brought me to town to see this.
Lukas was on the verge of finding out what happened when you messed with dangerous women.
About fucking time.