Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
LUCIAN
Red Shutters, with its shutters painted green, is full of armed men.
Bayne’s people still move through the trees like the damn Merry men of Sherwood Forest. Mack still stands close enough to the front door to become a wall if needed.
Rafe and Blaze are in the library with Lucian, presumably plotting murder in expensive voices.
Cass is in the kitchen baking damn cookies the men will devour, and despite the thousands of dollars of toys that were delivered, Gregory is helping Ryan build a cardboard castle out of an old delivery box.
Everything should feel contained.
It does not.
I stand at the kitchen sink, rinsing a mug that does not need rinsing, staring out the window at the pale winter yard. Snow clings to the porch rail. Beyond it, the woodpile sits exactly where it did when we found Erin spying.
Isobel.
Her name crawls under my skin and makes a nest.
I can still hear her voice. Carlos said he bought a replacement.
I hate that I keep replaying the line. Hate that some pathetic part of me is still examining it, turning it over, trying to find a less painful angle.
Erin is the most precious thing to me, and what Isobel said is true. There is no way I can forget it.
In the depths of my darkness, I offered a young woman money in exchange for her virginity. I almost can’t believe that was really me. I don’t know that man anymore.
He doesn’t exist.
The question tugs at the back of my mind. What did Carlos tell her to get her to turn on me, to leave me for dead? How does my ruin give him what he wants this time? And when is this all finally going to end?
I’m ready to move on to the future. I hope she wants to be there with me when all this is over.
Right now, all my thoughts turn to the line of communication we’re waiting for, along with the brownies Cass promised me she’d deliver soon. I move to the dining room, where my little brother is actively developing tech neck, his head bowed over his laptop.
Gregory feels me enter without looking up. “Any time now,” he says, knowing what I want.
What we all want.
I pace the room.
The sounds of Ryan’s laughter float into the dining room. They’re building their cardboard castle in the living room. A fortress to keep his plastic dinosaurs safe.
The kid’s got a little Bachman in him.
Isobel finally gave us some concrete information. Carlos sent her here. He knows where we are. And if she’s telling the truth, he may not know she’s flipped on him.
Something sick in my stomach twists.
She’s working with me to betray Carlos. As she once worked with Carlos to betray me.
May the best man live.
Either way, this ends.
My men and I are waiting for the message from Carlos that Isobel said he’d send—his demands, along with the threats he’ll make if those demands aren’t met.
Then, we’re getting out of here.
Red Shutters may be a fortress, complete with its own army. But I’m not taking any chances.
Which is why Princess Erin is currently locked upstairs in the Beast’s tower for the foreseeable future. Two men outside her door. Plenty of others are stationed below the window.
“It’s here!” Gregory calls out. “Lucian. It’s here!”
The audio begins before I cross the room to the laptop. At first, there is only static.
Then a man laughs. A laugh I have not heard since England.
Is that…it can’t be him. He’s dead.
A small, broken sound comes from behind me. Cass is in the doorway, a plate of fresh brownies resting on her lap. All the color has gone from her face.
I turn the screen away from her. “Cass. You can’t be here right now.” Should have locked her up, too.
Mack shows up, “Cass, let’s go.”
“That was him. I heard his voice.” Her head turns over her shoulder, terrified as Mack takes her away. “Was that him? Lucian.”
“Mack get her and Ryan to the room for now.”
My full attention goes back to the screen. The recording crackles, old and distorted, but the voice is unmistakable. Lazy. Cruel. Full of that smugness men who were born into this tend to carry.
It’s him. It’s Caleb.
“Sweet little Erin,” Caleb says through the phone. “Always so quiet when it matters.”
Erin’s name in his depraved mouth. I cannot breathe. The recording continues.
“Erin thinks she’s brave, doesn’t she? Always stepping in. Always playing the hero.”
Caleb laughs again, and bile rises in my throat. “But we both know what happened when no one was watching.”
The room disappears. Only rage is left.
I know the things he did to her. I killed him for them. Yet, it’s not enough.
No punishment, no torture would be enough.
The recording stops. Silence slams down.
No one moves. No one breathes.
Then another voice comes over the screen.
Carlos.
Smooth. Controlled. Almost bored.
I can’t tear my eyes away from his face. I want to reach into the screen and rip his eyes out of their sockets.
“He’s live,” Gregory gasps. “The feed is live.”
“Can he see us?” I ask.
Gregory fiddles with the keypad. “He can see us. But there’s something wrong with the sound. We can hear him. He can’t hear us.”
I stare at the screen, trying not to punch right through the glass. And wait for him to speak. He has all the control right now.
And it’s going to kill me faster than any gun would.
Finally, Carlos says, “Lucian thinks he knows what Caleb took. He doesn’t.”
“Bastard.” My teeth grin. My jaw locks.
A photo shows up on the screen. Grainy, angled, like taken from a hidden camera or a phone held by someone who wanted proof without being seen.
Erin.
Younger. With shorter hair, her smile sweeter than it is now. Caleb sitting next to her.
His hand on her thigh.
My knees buckle. My stomach sinks. My fists hit the tabletop so hard that my knuckles draw blood.
Gregory moves. Rafe catches me first.
“Do not,” Rafe says, grabbing my arm. “Do not lose control.”
“Fuck!” I rip it away, punching the table again.
Gregory panics. “He’ll smash the computer, and then we’ll lose connection.”
“Lucian,” Bayne’s heavy voice sounds from across the table. “Get a hold of yourself.”
I look up at him, and for one second I think I might kill the wrong man simply because the right one is not here. “He touched her.”
“And you killed him for it,” Bayne says. “Now sit down and get control so you can kill again.”
That’s enough to surface me. Rafe pulls out a chair, shoving my shoulder down till I’m sitting in it. Bayne moves to my side, a hand on my other shoulder. Gregory hovers by the laptop, ready to snatch it away.
Carlos’s voice continues. “I don’t talk till I see your girl on this screen.”
My blood reaches the boiling point.
Bayne’s hand is steady on my shoulder. His voice rumbles in my ear. “Breathe, Lucian.”
“I found out you bought a girl to replace Izzy. And this one, you kept.” A smile stretches out over his face. Then, Carlos says, “Erin is her name. Right? I only have one more question about her.” His face turns to pure malice. “I want to know what sets this little whore apart from all the others.”
My chair crashes behind me as I fly forward. Gregory slips the computer off the table before my swinging arm can clear it. Bayne grabs me from behind, wrapping his arms around my chest.
“When we find him,” my chest heaves, “I’m going to tear him apart.”
The screen goes blank.