Chapter 23 Damian #2
Once more, I can’t look. I’m not strong enough to see how badly Kit has been violated, and it only takes ten seconds before Leah comes to the same conclusion. I watch as something snaps back into place inside her. She rolls her shoulders back and straightens her spine, hardening before us.
“And you’re saying Lucien’s kidnapped Kit?” Every word shakes lethally. “You’re sure he’s responsible for… for this?”
“Yes. After I found these videos, I called Kit and told him to run, but Lucien got to him before I could. I heard it all. We found Kit’s phone smashed under the side table.”
“Is Lucien’s car outside?”
“No, only yours and Kit’s.”
She nods tersely. “Good. Follow me.”
She leads Jasper and me through the darkened house, guided by the light emanating from the kitchen.
Leah heads straight for the breakfast island and jumps inelegantly onto a stool before reaching for the phone beside her empty wine bottle.
Just as she’s keying in her password, the twins saunter into the room, their backpack now bulging at the seams.
“Well, Mrs Hansel, you sure know how to pick ‘em,” Jack sighs, slinging the bag onto the countertop.
“Thank you, Jack,” she drawls, swiping across her screen to find whatever app she’s looking for. “Did you happen to leave us anything of value upstairs? Or have we been cleaned out?”
“We come bearing gifts,” Jane announces dramatically, opening the zip. “Two laptops, three tablets, a vial of some sort of drug and some needles. All found in the safe behind the stupidly oversized painting of you.”
“We don’t have a safe,” Leah says, scrunching up what’s left of her nose.
“My mistake. I’ll go put these back in the solid wall, shall I?”
“Keep them, Jane,” I say quickly. “They might come in useful later.”
“I was under the impression they’d be useful now,” she says sarcastically. “If there’s some clue where Kit is, I bet it’s on one of these. Arrogant bastard obviously didn’t think you’d be able to find them if not even Mrs Hansel knew about the safe.”
“You won’t need those,” Leah says, sliding her phone towards us.
“Sweet. Can we keep them?” Everyone ignores Jack.
“This is where Kit will be,” Leah says, folding her arms across her chest.
I immediately recognise the tracking app. It’s the same one Kit and I use to see when the other has left campus. Except the pin isn’t showing a phone location.
“This is a smart tracker? A tag?”
“It is,” Leah nods. “It’s in Lucien’s glove compartment.”
“You put a tag on his car?” I ask, not sure whether to be horrified or impressed. Have our parents always been this messed up, or was it more of a slow descent into insanity?
“I hate it when people use those,” Jack shakes his head.
Jasper looks at him incredulously. “Yeah, how dare people take care of their stuff?”
Jack turns to him with a bright smile. “Exactly.”
“What else was I supposed to do?” Leah continues as we all watch the pin inch further out of London.
“Lucien has always been so… secretive. Do you know, it took months for him to tell me about you. I’d seen you already, coming and going from his house at school time when I’d drive past.” Okay, so she’s always been bonkers.
Got it. “But no matter how much I told him about Kit, he never mentioned you. He lied so smoothly that I knew I’d have to watch myself with him.
I thought he’d jump at the chance to talk about being a single parent.
It’s something we have in common, after all.
But he didn’t. Why? Because he only wanted me for how I looked.
And once I figured that out, I was fine with it, because I only wanted the kind of life that he would buy me.
“And don’t look at me like that, Damian.
” I school my face, unaware that I was starting to gape at her.
“It was win-win. I had everything I wanted, so did Lucien, and so did Kit. My boy thrived, and so did you. But how long would the fairytale last? What happened when someone younger came along? I’d snared him with little more than a low-cut tank top and a flutter of my lashes.
It wouldn’t take much effort for someone else to convince him to stray.
So, I did what I had to in order to protect Kit and me.
“So yes, Damian, I’ve tagged his car. I can see where he is every moment of the day. I’ve made friends with his secretaries. I’ve turned up unannounced at his office. I’ve even made fake social media profiles to see if he’d be tempted to cheat. And he passed all my tests.
“Or so I thought.” She laughs humourlessly into her wine glass.
“Turns out he passed because he was grooming my son,” Leah scoffs.
“Well, Kit will flaunt himself around, I suppose. I was like that once. Too pretty for my own good. It’s how I bagged your father, and it looks like history has repeated itself…
in more ways than one. Tell me, Damian, how long have you been fucking my son? ”
My blood simmers in my veins. How dare she sit there besmirching Kit and cheapening our relationship in the same breath? Not when her own husband was selling him right in front of her.
Jasper places a firm hand on my shoulder. “Arguing isn’t going to help Kit now.”
He’s right. I take a deep breath. “Leah,” I say through gritted teeth. “I’m going to let that slide because you’re drunk and just found out what a despicable creature you married. But if you ever, ever, blame Kit for what’s happened again, I’ll make sure everyone knows how callous you really are.”
“I’m not the villain here,” she spits, her eyes flaring.
“But you’re hardly the hero either. After what Lucien’s done, your husband will either be dead or ruined by the end of the night. The question is whether you’re going to follow him.”
Leah glares at me. “I may not be the best mother in the world, Damian, but I think you’ll find that my days of following Lucien Hansel are now over. I’ve given you my phone with his location, what else do you want from me?”
“What else do I want? Your son has been kidnapped. How about some fucking concern?” I shout incredulously.
“Right, this is getting us nowhere.” Jack claps his hands, shocking Leah so much she nearly falls off her stool.
“For the first time tonight, I agree with Robin Hood. We’ve got what we came for. Let’s go.”
Jack grabs the back of my hoodie with both hands and hauls me from the kitchen, but not before Leah has the last word.
“Make him pay, Damian,” she shouts at my retreating back, the sound of shattered glass echoing through the house. “When you find that bastard, you make him pay for what he’s done to us!”
Oh, Lucien will pay, alright. He’ll pay through the teeth that I’m about to knock out of his fucking mouth.
You. Have. My. Word.