“So if we shut Blue up…that would help, right?”
Tristan shook his head, jabbing a finger at me. “Nah, Elaine. Don’t you dare. Don’t you fucking dare. If anything happens to Blue, I swear to God, I’ll tell your family myself.”
I forced a smile, black humor in the despair. “Seems you’re falling for him then. Who’d have thought it? Both of us losing our hearts to our lovers in the same crazy whirlwind.” I managed to laugh. A bitter laugh. “I wasn’t thinking about killing him. I was thinking of you talking to him.”
He didn’t force a smile right back, and he sure as fuck didn’t laugh. “This isn’t the same crazy whirlwind, and Lucian Morelli isn’t your lover. He’s the man who wants to destroy you and your whole damn bloodline. The man who wants to use you.”
I didn’t argue with him, because what would be the point? There was no reason that could possibly counter the fact that the Morellis despised the Constantines, and destroying us all meant more to them than a mountain of joy ever could.
Even so, with my ass still hurting, and my pulse still racing, I couldn’t believe Lucian Morelli wanted nothing more than sex.
It wasn’t my head that wouldn’t believe it…it was my heart.
It was my heart that believed Lucian wanted more from me than destroying every sliver of life in my body and my soul to match.
It was my heart that believed Lucian had saved me for a reason…more of a reason than saving my pain all for himself, which he did—he wanted my pain all for himself—but it was more than that.
It was my heart that believed that maybe, just maybe, Lucian Morelli could love me back. One day, in a whole other world, in a whole other time, maybe, just maybe, Lucian Morelli could love me back.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lucian
My parents were eating when I sat myself down at the dining table. My mother gave me her patented Sarah Morelli serene smile. My father barely looked at me, placing his cutlery down neatly at the sides of his plate as he cleared his throat.
“Leave us,” he said to the butler, and old man Michael scurried away with a bow.
It was then that he met my eyes, and they were as savage as I’d ever seen, even sheened with the chill of calm I’d come to know so well. “It doesn’t seem like you even want the company.”
I returned his calm with a chill of my own as I pulled a foot up onto my knee and leaned back in my seat. “I’m back in the office tomorrow,” I said. “I had some unexpected events to attend to.”
My father wiped his fingers on his napkin, then dabbed his lips. The pause in him spoke volumes, and I looked at him afresh after years of barely registering the appearance of the man before me. Bryant Morelli was still a strong man, and I was the eldest in his footsteps. His dark features were deep enough to swallow everything around him, and his demands on those in his life were hard enough to cripple. They always had been. He’d taught me to be every part the monster I’d grown to be. And there was more. He knew the full extent of my icy coldness in a way that nobody else had ever seen.
He knew me. All of me. Even the deepest secrets. The deepest strengths and weaknesses, both entwined.
Secrets snake through the depths of every family bond, and ours was the very depths of the hiss and snare.
My mother looked unsteady as she picked at the food on her plate, caught up in our unspoken tension while struggling with her loyalty for both sides.
I was her son, but my father was her husband.
Besides, Sarah Morelli hated the Constantines almost as much as he did. Almost.
“You had some unexpected events to attend to, did you?” he repeated with a scowl. “Unexpected events such as Elaine Constantine by any chance?”
I didn’t lower my stare. “I know you’ve been speaking with Trenton.”
“Just as well. Trenton is concerned about family business and reputation. It appears that you haven’t been that smart.”
“Smart enough to double our profit margin in the past six months.”
That’s when my father got to his feet and cast his plate aside with a crash. He jabbed a finger at me across the tabletop, and his face was pure fucking spite. “With my resources. With my company. With my money. You would have been nothing without me.”
“Stop,” my mother said, but father gestured her away.
“This isn’t for you, Sarah. Leave. Now.”
She hovered, a maternal fear in her eyes as she looked at me across the table. Still, it didn’t stop her bowing to my father’s will when he cursed and pointed to the doorway a second time.
“Leave!”
I watched my mother’s exit and wished that I could somehow feel something inside me.
I wished I could feel more. I wished I could embrace a hint of love, or warmth for the woman who’d given birth to me and raised me to my place in this world. I wished I could look over at my father and his rage and feel the true belt of shame gripping me tight. But I didn’t.
I didn’t feel a thing…and Father knew it. I never had.
He walked around the table and kicked out a chair at my side. He turned it to face him and dropped himself down to straddle the seat.
“Believe me, Lucian, if violence were an option to knock some sense into you, I’d be taking it now. You’d be feeling my wrath with your skin and bones.”
I didn’t react, just kept my eyes on his until he spoke again.
“Trenton told me you’ve been asking questions about Elaine Constantine. He said that you met with her. That you’ve been fucking her.”
“You should know better than to believe someone who takes bribes.”
“Tell me now, boy. Have you fucked Elaine Constantine?”
I tipped my head to the side. “I met Elaine Constantine at Tinsley Constantine’s masked coming-of-age ball. I went there to find a wife. Something to make the board calm down.”
“A wife,” he says, his lips tight. “A wife at the Constantine compound.”
I give him a lazy smile. “As you say, I would be nothing without you.”
“I’m telling you now though, boy, you go anywhere near that Constantine again, and you’ll be dead to me. Do you understand?”
“What will you do now? Disown me? Fire me?” I snort. “Kill me?”
He smiled back, coldly, and for once inside I felt something. I felt a shiver of fear. “It’s not yourself you need to worry about. It’s that pretty little Elaine Constantine. If you go near the Constantines again, I’ll make sure she pays for your disloyalty.”
“You won’t touch her. Understand? Fuck you. And fuck Trenton Alto.”
“I can have you fired. Don’t ever doubt it. The board may play with you the way a cat plays with a mouse, but I’m the tomcat who fucks the cat every night.”
“Really, Dad?”
“You get the idea.”
“You were the one showing off a picture of Violent Delights in the goddamn boardroom.”
My father pulled his knife from across the table and offered it to me. “Swear it, then. Swear that you care more about the Morelli family than pussy. Swear to God and the Virgin Mother above.”
The Morelli oath meant less to me than ever. It was a means to an end. It was a lie.