64. So Help Me God
So Help Me God
Guess that date didn’t go according to plan. Or… it did.
The Volvo’s wheels churned over the road, leaving tainted snow in its wake.
Lucien’s stomach rolled around with it. He should have known Max would grab the opportunity to have his nemesis at his beck and call.
It hadn’t gone like the bloodhound had wanted it to go.
For it hadn’t ended with Lucien’s rather painful death.
But still, he would grab at whatever he could to exert some sort of childish control.
He forced his nausea down. His fingers kept clenching and curling around the wheel. Almost as if his instincts were telling him something was about to go wrong.
There was no reason for the zapping sensation underneath his skin.
He was on the road to end this madness once and for all, and Kate…
had done the exact opposite of what he had expected.
A knee to his crown jewels was the least he’d come to expect from her.
Instead, the taste of her, soft and sweet like cinnamon, clung to his lips.
Relief filtered through his system, and yet… she’d changed.
Everything that had happened. It would hurt even the strongest of people. Kate’s back had always been straight, those shoulders shoved back. Facing reality head-on. Every. Single. Time.
The gearshift croaked from the pressure he was inflicting on it.
When he’d told her about Isabel, he saw her jerk back in shock.
Her eyes at war with dread following his revelation, battling with whatever she felt for him.
Whatever propelled her to crush that last boundary.
He didn’t know. Maybe she had gotten so used to the pain.
It didn’t even shock her. Not as it should have.
Something to find out when it was all over and done with. Yes, he’d sit her down and ask what she wanted. The future could be light, lighter than it had ever been for either of them before.
He couldn’t wait to see Max. As much as it pained him to open up that grave. Closing it up again would be like closing the final chapter of a bad book where everything went wrong all the time.
The alarm on his phone started blaring.
Lucien jerked upright in his seat, his fingers reached for his phone before whipping it out.
Max. Slinking around the forest’s edge. At his home, where Kate lingered.
The car came to an abrupt stop, and his fingers flew over the screen. Within seconds he had the familiar ringing of a call echoing in his ears.
Pick up, pick up, pick up.
The number you have dialed could not b—
He redialed, phone clutched to his ear.
The number you ha—
“Fuck this shit.” The Volvo ate the thick snow Pac-Man-style as he made the SUV turn in place. But home, he would never be back in time. He ticked back on the camera app, searching between the rooms to find Kate. Where is she?
There was her burner phone, on the counter where she’d left it, before she had backed away from him like a chicken in front of a fox. Not in the training room, the bathroom door was open, meaning she wasn’t inside of it. Where, where. Wait.
The woman who had left his lips tingling sat crouched down behind the kitchen counter, in what looked like a conversation with Ghost.
Dark edges took over his vision and his breathing quickened. His foot pressed all the way down on the gas, racing over the country roads like a madman.
Because now, the madman at his house sauntered up the wooden steps, broad form taking over half the camera’s vision before knocking on the front door with a big beaming smile on his devilish face.
Lucien tapped up the sound on his phone to hear the blue-eyed bloodhound call out. “Honey, I’m homeeee.” The glee dripped from his voice, and even from this angle he could see the man’s crazed eyes dancing with euphoria.
His own danced between the track marks he’d made before and the screen clutched in his hands. He tapped on the speaking button, deepening his voice to pure malice before speaking. “Max… to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Lucien!” The man waved to the camera. “I’m so glad you could make it! Wouldn’t have wanted you to miss this for the world.”
He wrecked his brain for a solution. Ghost was in the house. Could be her salvation. But knowing Max, his trusted companion would die the moment the door opened. Outside. He needed to keep him from entering the house.
“Set foot in that house and you are a dead man walking.” He would haunt his chosen victim for the rest of his sorry life. Never resting until he could skin him alive to the music of Max’s screams.
The latter tsked. “Your threats don’t work on me. I saw you with the dead bitch, all over her.” He laughed, the sound cruel, digging a gaping hole in Lucien’s resolve. “Dead bitch should have been cold twice now! Buried even, she just won’t stay down, huh. Don’t worry.” He grinned. “I’ll help you.”
No. If he found her in his home, eyes glazed over and her blood staining the floor. It would kill what was left of him. Whatever humanity rested beneath his veins would go black if Kate died tonight.
Max carried on. Unperturbed. “Don’t worry.
That date I mentioned? Just a warm-up for your girlfriend here.
” Max’s foot kicked against the door. The loud banging echoed out through the car, Lucien barely kept the Volvo straight on the slick road.
Blood turning to ice when Max finished his tirade. “I will enjoy this one.”
Time, he was wasting his time. And Kate didn’t have a lot of it left.