It was true. In that moment, Lucian Morelli stared down at me with love. I was sure of it . . . until he pulled away from me and tugged up his pants.
“You need to fuck off,” he said and threw my dress at me from the floor. “People will be coming.”
He was so cold as he stepped away from me, and it was like shutters had slammed down inside him. His passion dulled to icy gray steel.
My nerves were spiking fresh as the shutters came down inside me to match. I was in a dirty room with a dead body, hungry for the man who wanted to wipe out my whole family line. Hungry for the man whose come was dribbling from my asshole. It was crazy. The whole fucking lot of it was insane.
“Come here,” he barked and clicked his fingers.
I followed him without question as he opened door after door, shunting me inside the bathroom as soon as he found it. He turned on the shower and pushed me inside, not waiting until the water heated. It was freezing cold as it drenched me, and he scrubbed at me with his fingers, the shower tray swirling with red.
He tossed me a towel when the water ran clear, and I was shivering as I stepped out, dabbing myself dry before he strode back out to the main hall.
I was a wreck as I grabbed for my things, my ass hurting with every move I made.
I made my way to the door as soon as I could, heart pounding as I pushed it open and saw the metal steps down to the ground.
Lucian cleared his throat before I stepped out of there, and his stare was as evil as I’d ever seen it when he spoke again.
“You’ll be punished for all of this,” he told me. “Believe me, Elaine, I’ll make you pay for it. It’ll be painful, little girl. I promise you, it’ll be painful.”
My eyes were wide on his as I nodded at him.
“But it won’t just be you who pays for their filth,” he snarled and tossed my clutch at me. Forgotten again. “I’ll make them pay. Every little pussy boy cunt who took you before I did.”
I had no doubt of it in my heart as I walked away.
I was glowing for it.
Glowing and scared, both at once.
21 Lucian
When Trenton arrived on the scene, I was leaning against the wall, staring at the cunt I’d butchered, twirling the bloodied knife in my hands, my cock still throbbing from Elaine’s perfect asshole. My right-hand man burst through the door with a Jesus Christ and glanced around the place in horror. I didn’t blame him. It really was horror he was stepping into.
Horror I was proud of.
It was like a scene from an abattoir as he charged over to the pathetic prick’s body and stared down with pure shock on his face.
“What the fuck happened here? Fuck, Lucian, who is he?”
I kept twirling the blade in my fingers, barely even shooting him a glance.
“That doesn’t matter. Just get it cleaned up.”
I allowed him a minute while he was pacing around, trying to fathom just what the fuck had gone down in this place.
“Fucking hell,” he cursed, then pulled out his cell and started making the call to the clean-up team.
“Bury him deep.”
“So, who the fuck is that?” he asked between calls, gesturing to the dead body like it made any damn difference who it was.
“Nobody to concern yourself with.”
“This is back alley as fuck. Does anyone know you’re here?”
I scowled. “Like I said, it’s not your concern.”
He kicked out at the guy’s legs, just to make sure he was really gone, then looked at me, eyebrow raised as he lit up a cigarette.
“Haven’t seen you get hands-on for a long time. Must’ve been something quite urgent to put that knife in your hands.”
“It was urgent enough,” I told him.
“Fine,” he said. “Just give me a bit more damn time to sort this shit out next time, will you? Preferably some damn fucking warning.”
I twirled the knife one last time before casting it onto the floor. “Am I done here?”
He nodded as he took another drag. “Yeah, you can go. The team will be here soon enough. Are we to wipe out any onlookers, or just give them warnings?”
It was an easy question to answer. Elaine Constantine was involved in this. Everyone in the damn vicinity should be wiped out rather than letting that shit out into the open.
“Everyone. Wipe out everyone,” I instructed and turned away to leave.
“Wait, Lucian,” he called.
I spun back to face him. “What?”
He headed closer and kept on smoking.
“The Power brothers. You wanted to know what was going down between them and the Constantines.”
My flesh surged with life as he said the words, a shiver of want right up my spine.
“Elaine Constantine,” I said, and closed the distance between us. “I wanted to know what was going down between them and Elaine Constantine.”
“Yeah, Elaine Constantine,” he repeated. “Well, I found out what’s going down. It ain’t pretty.”
I fixed my attention on his face. “Tell me.”
“She’s in deep. Got in drugs debt, same old. But there’s more. A shit ton more.”
“Spit it out,” I snapped.
He took another drag on his cigarette before he answered.
“It’s not just her own debt they’re chasing her down for. She took on a load of other debt with it. Other people’s debt.”
“Other people’s? What the fuck?”
He tipped his head. “Seems little miss stuck up isn’t quite the selfish little princess she appears to be. She’s been pitying a whole world of drug addict losers and bailing them out.” He laughed and sneered. “Stupid bitch.”
The words grate when they come out of his mouth. Elaine may be a stupid bitch, but she’s mine, and no one talks about my Elaine that way.
He continues on, oblivious, “She deserves everything coming to her.
