If you have any information about this man, journalist Terence Kingsley, then please call the number below.
If you have any information about this man, journalist Terence Kingsley, then please call the number below.
If you have any information about this man, journalist Terence Kingsley, then please call the number below.
There were people from the Work Truths auction we’d been at, talking about how they’d seen him there, including my cousin, Harriet. It broke my heart to see her like that—tears streaming down her cheeks. She was genuinely asking for news on the journalist, but it was her naivety asking, loud and clear. There was no way in this world that people wouldn’t know. That people wouldn’t see the connection, the similarity between the Morelli god and the posh British journalist he’d been so good at pretending to be.
Yeah, sure, there was no doubt about it. The pieces were piling up around us. The picture onscreen was just another huge pointer linking Lucian Morelli to me.
We were running out of time.
If you have any information about this man, journalist Terence Kingsley, then please call the number below.
If only I had a cell, maybe I would. Maybe I’d tell them that journalist Terence Kingsley headed back to the UK a few days ago and I saw him leave. Something, anything just to get them off track. But I didn’t. I had nothing. It was just me, with my legs pulled up and crossed on the sofa as I rocked back and forth, staring at that photo onscreen.
I leapt out of my skin when I heard a car pull back up in the driveway. Thank fuck for that. Thank fuck Lucian had made it home.
For the second time that day, I twisted the key in the lock and raced on out of there to meet him, and this time I got further. I was racing, rushing… only it wasn’t Lucian’s Merc that was waiting for me outside when I screeched to a halt on nervous legs.
It wasn’t the strength of Lucian greeting me when a tall stranger stepped out of the driver’s side and came after me.
No.
Oh my God, no.
My body was on autopilot as I turned around and made a dash back to the safety of the house, but it wouldn’t have mattered, not for anything. My body would never have been fast enough.
I was back up at the porch when the man’s hands grabbed me from behind and slammed me right on into the hallway. I had no idea who I was squealing against as he spun me around and threw me right up against the wall.
“Little bitch Constantine,” he snarled. “We knew it. We knew you two were holed up together in some fucked-up little shit show of a haven. Where is Lucian?”
I stared blankly, every inch of my skin prickling as I tried to work out just who or where this guy had come from. He had a scar down the right side of his face, a brute in the most brutish sense of the word. Dark and deadly with heavy eyebrows that made me feel like a useless little girl.
“Who are you?” I asked, and his eyes were nothing but vile as he stared down at me.
“I could be anybody,” he said to me. “Everyone is coming for you, bitch. Morellis, Power Brothers, your own fucking family.”
It broke my heart that he was right.
It also broke my heart that I may never see the love of my life again.
One thing for sure was that I was never going to betray Lucian Morelli. The guy before me could do whatever he wanted, but I wouldn’t be revealing anything about the man I loved.
“Tell me,” he pushed. “I want to know everything you know about the spawn of Satan.”
I gasped when I felt it. The chill of the blade pressing against my ribs.
He was really going to hurt me. The sick fuck in front of me was really going to hurt me.
I was a tiny girl in that moment with my life flashing before my eyes, but I didn’t want it. I wanted everything than to say goodbye to the first shot at a future I’d ever really craved.
“Tell me,” the guy grunted again. “I have a whole load of people waiting for a damn fucking update.”
I closed my eyes as I shook my head.
The whole load of people could wait, because I wouldn’t be telling him anything. Not a fucking thing.
I don’t know when he used that blade on my ribs. My senses were swimming as I first felt the stab of pain slice my skin through the fabric of the shirt on me, and my squeals sounded distant. Distant and scary enough that my legs were like Jell-o.
I just prayed with every part of my fucked-up little soul that on some weird level, I’d get at least one chance to see the love of my life again.
Please God. Please just one more glance at Lucian Morelli.
6
Lucian
I drove that car faster than I’d ever driven a car in my life as I sped my way back towards Kington Peak.
The pieces were tumbling, a mess so churned that I had no idea who was coming from where anymore, only that they were all heading in one direction. Ours.
People had been talking—Constantines and Power Brothers, and my own family on the sidelines.
We were doomed. I was just begging to the universe that I’d reach Elaine before anyone else did, and before anyone reached me en route.
I hadn’t known just how visible my own little shack in the wilderness had been to those around me. Naivety on my part.
Please God, let me reach her.
My wheels were spinning on gravel when I reached the driveway, and my heart was spinning to match when I saw the red car already parked up by our porch.
Holy fuck, they were here for her.
There was no point trying to be quiet or calm, so I didn’t. I burst on through the door consumed with a whole other league of rage and fear than I’d felt before, and there he was, some disgusting piece of shit with his hand around my sweetheart’s throat, his face right up in hers.
And his blade against rib cage, hurting her. Hurting her bad.
The guy thought he was some kind of professional killer, all set to bargain with me or battle information right out of me, only I didn’t give him even a second of a chance before I launched myself right at him and shunted him down to the floor.
I was a beast possessed with hatred and rage, no longer caring if he took me out for the count, just so long as my Elaine was free from him.
“Run!” I yelled at her, as I fought with that cunt, but she didn’t move, paralyzed, her blood visible even through my shirt on her chest.
“RUN!” I yelled again, but it was the man underneath me who responded with action, trying his best to seize control.
Luckily, thank holy fuck, he didn’t make it.
I heard his grunt before I felt his blood, both of our limbs flailing and twisting.
The universe was damn fucking kind in that moment. Seriously damn fucking kind.
His eyes were cold and dying as I twisted his blade even further into his ribs. I felt a whirr of satisfaction seeing that—seeing his payback for trying to hurt my woman with the same callous intent.
His stare was already void and numb when Elaine finally found motion and dropped to the hallway floor. I reached for her and she went straight into my arms, and she was hurting enough to be trembling and crying, the blood on her chest enough to redden my fingers.
“You saved me,” she managed to whisper, and I wished it was skill and intent more than luck that had led me back to her in time.
I’d been a fool to hit the golf course. An absolute fool to believe we were in anything other than a web of people out for our blood, all coming at us with different whispers.