Chapter 30 Lex #2
Morpheus Calloway had been delusional if he ever once thought that Juliet belonged to him or he’d ever own her as his wife. If he weren’t already dead, that single statement would have sealed his death warrant.
More crying from the woman and then, in a shaky voice, she replies, “I gave you my virginity,” she sobs. “Can she say the same?”
The camera shakes, more light and shadow—the flash of a side table against a pale cream wall and an ornate painting, like the kind hung in expensive hotel rooms, flies over the screen.
“Ow! Morpheus, you’re hurting me!”
“She’s waking up,” Morpheus growls. “I already told you to get the fuck out.”
“She’s stealing you from me!” the woman cries.
The sound of a door opening pierces through the speakers and then suddenly, the camera is flipped, facing Morpheus where he stands in the doorway, a robe covering his already mostly naked frame.
Vomit threatens to come up my throat as I stare at the pixels and colors that combine to create the recording.
“She can’t steal what was never yours,” he snaps. “Now go home. If I need another fuck toy, I’ll call you.”
He slams the door and a beat later, the video ends.
The only thing I can think as the three of us stare at the now blank screen is… thank fuck it didn’t record the worst fucking moment of my girl’s life.
Minutes pass in the silence and then, without a word, Nolan reaches out and takes the mouse from my iron grip. Moving it over to the side, he shuts down each and every monitor until there’s nothing left save for the black-and-white security feed of the area that surrounds the carriage house.
Nolan’s face is a hard mask, partially encased in shadow. It makes him look like half a skeletal monster and half human. “I… fucked up,” he admits quietly.
“What?” Gio frowns, stepping closer, but Nolan holds up a hand, the human half of his face creased with guilt.
“Weeks ago…” he begins, voice hoarse as if it’s hurting him to speak. “I was alone in the locker room at school. Someone came in while I was showering—I told them to get out, but they never answered. When I got out, they were gone.”
“What does that have to do with—” Gio tries again, but then shuts up as Nolan turns and throws a fist into the wall.
His knuckles sink right into the thin barrier, dust and debris skittering to the floor.
I glance to the opposite wall, where the house’s only bathroom acts as a room barrier between us and where Juliet sleeps.
If that little burst of violence woke her up, we’ll know soon enough.
“There were photos of her taped to my locker,” Nolan grits out, drawing my attention right back to him as he pulls his hand from the fresh hole in the wall. “Same shit. Spray paint across the door—‘whore.’ I thought it was some asshole trying to get under my skin. Nothing else happened, so—”
“Nothing else happened?” Venom drips from my voice. A muscle behind my right eye begins to pulse. “Are you fucking insane? Why didn’t you fucking say something? This—” I toss my hand towards the now blank monitors. “Could have been figured out by now if I’d fucking known.”
“I had Viks looking into it,” Nolan snaps back, his temper finally breaking through. “He suggested that Gio’s phone had been hacked—that someone had stolen his old files. It was only pictures from that video he took for you. It made sense at the time. Not everything has to be fucking connected.”
“But it is,” Gio says. “Isn’t it?”
Nolan lowers his head. “Yeah… I think it is.” The admission doesn’t make my anger go away. “I’ve been too busy trying to keep Darrio busy and…” He trails off, but he doesn’t need to finish. The three of us know exactly what he’s been doing.
From being the liaison with Viks and Abel, to acting as Darrio’s bitch boy so he’d lay off Gio before he got kicked out, then the dead girl in the student parking lot. I know he’s had his hands full for a while now, but…
“You’re Nolan fucking Pierce,” I seethe, standing from my seat. “That’s what you do—you fucking handle this shit. You don’t keep secrets.”
“It wasn’t a secret,” he argues. “Viks—”
My fist is flying towards his face before he can finish. “Viks isn’t our fucking leader!” My heart is a rapid drum against my throat and chest, growing louder and louder.
“Fuck.” Gio mutters a curse and dives between Nolan and me, hands and arms braced out to keep us separated—to keep me from taking my best fucking friend apart with my bare hands. Not that there’s much room for either of those things in this closet of a room.
“That’s enough.” Gio’s voice cuts through the chaos in my head, sharp and annoyed. “It’s obvious someone is after Juliet. That much we can agree on. If we assume that everything that’s happened is connected, then what we need is a plan.”
Harsh breaths drift through the darkened room. “Whoever this is, they don’t want her near us,” Nolan says. “They want her unprotected.”
Fuck. That.
“It could be Darrio,” Gio suggests, lowering his arms now that it doesn’t seem like Nolan is going to lash back at me.
I’m still considering shoving his head through one of my monitors, though.
“That’s how he might’ve gained access to the video—it wasn’t on the cloud, but I can sleep pretty hard.
He could’ve paid one of the kids at Silverwood Public to sneak into the locker room and leave you that note. ”
“Maybe.” Nolan’s tone is grim. “Maybe not. Either way, we’re done playing nice.”
“I’ve been done playing nice for a long fucking time,” I growl.
Nolan doesn’t look at me as he moves for the door.
“Viks, Abel, and Rylie can chase down the lead on Juliet’s mother.
They can handle the embezzlement and the Calloway trail.
” The door swings open and light spills inside.
When he turns back to face us, there’s the shadow of red on his cheek and chin from my fist. His eyes glint, cold and certain.
“We catch whoever’s hunting her. And when we do… ”
I bare my teeth and finish his statement. “We kill them.”