Chapter 14
Grace
I wake up to a nightmare.
I’m staring straight into the eyes of my sister’s killer.
Lucas Baker.
I’m too afraid to blink or move. I breathe slowly.
Fear burrows into my bones as my heart hammers against my ribs, and my whole body tenses with rage.
I’m trembling. When I look into his eyes, I remember the day he had Jamie killed—my scream, his icy smile, all superiority and polished arrogance.
The pain and grief that seized me, the desperation right behind it.
I remember dragging my dead brother behind the house and… not asking for help.
Lucas isn’t smiling now. He’s serious, measured. I’m afraid of him, but I don’t look away. In his flat, cold eyes, I see Chase.
They don’t look much alike, except for their eyes—whirlpools of endless darkness, the kind that scare people to death. They’re both silent monsters who play with people’s minds: threatening, manipulating.
Lucas’s skin is darker. He’s wearing an expensive suit and watch.
I can barely see him breathe. It’s like a predator is watching me.
My eyes fill with tears, my lungs with an icy ache, my stomach clenching with fear.
I dig my nails into the worn, filthy couch.
I never would’ve thought I’d wake up here again—here, where I was a prisoner for five years.
I sit up slowly and take a quick, thorough look around.
I search for something I could use as a weapon if he came at me.
But the living room is as bare as it was years ago—nothing’s changed.
I doubt I could take him on. The odds are stacked in his favor—still, I can’t just accept death with open arms. Although…
he could’ve killed me already if he wanted to, right?
Lucas stands and towers over me. I press my trembling lips together.
A tear slides down my cheek. He’s handsome in a dark, terrifying way—taller than Chase.
His legs are longer, more muscular. He is well-muscled, but looks different from Cyrus—his proportions are more balanced.
His soul, though… a deadly coldness radiates from him, his presence coiling around my throat like a snake.
I stare straight ahead as he walks past me. His trousers rustle, and pebbles crunch under his expensive shoes.
I draw a deep breath and stumble to my feet, then cross the short distance between us on shaking legs. I wipe away my tears with a quick swipe. I must be strong, no matter what happens to me.
Will he hurt me, or kill me because I know too much?
The plain lightbulb hanging from the ceiling fills the room with warm light, making him a little less terrifying. But he still doesn’t look like pleasant company.
“You want some?” His voice is deep, strong, commanding.
I shake my head slightly.
He pours himself a glass of amber-colored, bitter-smelling liquor, then takes a sip. Every movement is planned, measured.
He sets the glass on the table and turns it slightly. A drop runs down the side. He wipes it away with his thumb.
I grip the old wooden table with trembling hands. The stale, icy air in the unheated flat turns my stomach. It’s much colder than when we used to live here. And the furniture is in far worse shape.
“I’m sorry for the dramatic entrance. I’ve always had a taste for it, I’m afraid.
I’m the one who brought you here. I wanted to speak with you without interruption.
To introduce myself properly, now that you’ve officially become a member of our family.
I didn’t want my brother to take the blame—his only real sin was falling in love with you.
Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s innocent.
He’s a criminal. But when he told me he’d kidnapped you, I was proud of him, deep down. So…”
“Lucas Baker.” He holds out his hand.
My jaw twitches. I look down at his hand in disgust and don’t offer mine. He’s my siblings’ killer—even if he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger.
“Where is Chase?”
“What if I told you he’s lying in a pool of his own blood in an abandoned warehouse?”
Anger flashes in my eyes. My hands clench into fists at my sides, and my lips press together. The thought of Chase’s death hits a nerve, despite all his sins. I shove away the horrible, bloody images rising in my mind’s eye. Chase can’t be dead.
Lucas smiles—slyly, a cold amusement playing in his eyes.
“You probably want to know why we used you to take your sister off the board.” His tone turns light, conversational—still, his voice has an ice-cold edge that cuts straight through me. My body tenses. My eyes burn with tears as anger replaces fear. Fire spirals through my veins, filling my chest.
“Unfortunately, things sometimes slip out of my control. I can’t watch everyone all the time, and your sister had wised up a lot in the two years she worked for me.
What happened is best described as killing two birds with one stone.
I had to speed things up. I couldn’t have someone babysitting her around the clock, waiting for the moment she’d betray me.
That would’ve been like fishing—throwing in the bait and then just waiting for hours.
Pretty boring, if you ask me. No wonder I don’t like fishing. ”
“What do you mean by two birds?”
“You were the solution I came up with. The method and the plan were my brother’s.
I wanted Nikky, and he wanted you. Grace, you need to understand there’s no point in swimming against the current.
Water can be destructive. Deadly. The world is mysterious…
Interesting, you know. Our bodies need water—it keeps us alive.
But too much of it can drown you. Do you want to spend your whole life drowning?
Torturing yourself because you love a man you shouldn’t?
Of course, people can ask themselves what if things had happened differently.
There’s no point losing sleep over the past. No point tormenting yourself.
You have every right to run and hide, but it won’t solve anything.
You can’t hide from yourself—from your feelings. ”
“Have you seen the videos?”
“Not all of them.”
“Why did you ask him to do it?”
“Because the world we live in sometimes makes it necessary to do things that aren’t right—even if we’re not proud of them afterward. It’s necessary.”
“Are you a mafia boss?”
Lucas laughs loudly. “That’s such an old-fashioned, pejorative term. I’m a businessman, Grace.”
“Is that what you tell yourself you are?”
“You’re quite a spirited little thing,” he says, “but if you insist, you can call me whatever you want. Though I happen to know a lot of things people would rather not acknowledge—like the harm caused by what we eat, or what we swallow in the name of medicine. The only difference between the ones who produce food and medicine and me is that they’re legally allowed to do what they do, and I’m not.
I work behind the scenes. But don’t think only people like me fish in murky waters.
The powers that be… Grace, don’t listen to what they say.
Pay attention to what they stay silent about.
They preach water and drink wine, and they lead the public by the nose. ”
“That’s a sin.”
“I think lying is a sin, too.”
“You mean Cyrus? He didn’t want to work for you.”
“I’m not talking about him. I’m talking about you.”
“Then he and I have committed the same sin. We fell in love with the wrong person.”
“Loving someone isn’t the same as possessing them.”
“In this case, Chase is the one possessing, and Cyrus is the one who’s loving.”
“You don’t have to lie for his sake.”
“How could you know what he feels?”
“Because…” He closes the distance in a single step.
Pure terror floods me, locking my legs. The air catches in my chest when he tucks a stray lock of hair behind my ear with a gentle touch.
“Because I know what it’s like to love someone with insane passion.
To have someone you’d set the world on fire for.
To go through hell and high water just to know they’re safe.
That’s how we love, Grace. With an insane passion—unlike most people.
Chase isn’t a bad man. He’s just different.
He expresses his feelings differently because he grew up in a world you don’t understand.
Every culture has its own rules. What’s twisted to us is normal to them.
It’s all a matter of perspective—what we can accept, and what lies beyond that line.
I have principles too. Lines I won’t cross.
But I’ll never apologize for something I believe is right.
I’m not some street vendor whose biggest problem is a street kid stealing from him.
I have to make far more serious decisions.
That’s why I have to use far uglier tools.
You know that sometimes even good people do bad things, right? ”
“Like me?”
“Like you. Or Cyrus…”
“What did he do?”
“He had my brother beaten half to death in prison—twice.”
“An eye for an eye,” I reply, grinding my teeth.
A dark, arrogant smile curves his thin lips.
“That’s called taking the law into your own hands. He did something he had no right to do. He did something wrong.”
The old, damp wooden door creaks open behind me. Clean, balmy air spills into the room.
My gaze snaps to the door, and the tears I’ve been holding back spill down my face as I run to Chase and bury my face in his neck.
“He said…” I stammer.
“I can imagine what he said,” he replies, grim, looking over my head.
“I was afraid,” I admit. Chase’s fingers dig into my flesh. Lucas flashes him a devilish grin. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were the devil himself.
“I won’t keep you any longer. I think you’ve got quite a few things to talk about.
Just don’t forget what I told you,” Lucas says, tipping my chin up with two fingers to make me look into his eyes.
He’s darkly handsome—and cruel. The worst part is that I’m drawn to this duality.
That’s why I could fall in love with his brother.