Predictably, I didn’t stay still. I got to my feet and inched closer to the doorway, stepping up to the hall. I could hear him pacing around in the other room, barking out one side of a conversation.
“What the fuck? Now? It can wait until morning. I mean it, Alto. It can wait until morning…”
The front door stood tall before me. I guess it was basic human instinct that wanted me to make a dash for it. I nearly did it. I nearly opened that door and ran.
I heard Lucian curse as he stomped his way back down the hall. He looked frustrated, raging at something that wasn’t a Constantine. Wow. It was a bizarre phenomenon.
“I need to go,” he told me.
My breath caught as the potential reality truly dawned. I was spared. For a while, at least.
He led the way upstairs without so much as a look behind him. I was still hovering at the bottom of the staircase when he shot me an aggravated stare.
“One of the most basic fundamentals of being a servant is following the fucking master,” he barked, and for once his rage was spitting in a way that wasn’t at me.
“I’m not your servant.”
“Oh, that’s right. You’re my little doll. I take you out to play with you. And then I put you away when I’m done. Now go inside your little box.”
I didn’t bother arguing with him, not this time, just followed him upstairs meekly with barely more than a scowl.
There was no point in arguing.
He was holding the door open at the far end of the landing. Inside was a room with a bed and a bedside table and very little else.
I already knew the door had a lock on it when I stepped over the threshold. I already knew this was going to be my prison until he showed up again as he set me in his evil stare one more time.
“Enjoy your box,” he told me, then left me in the dark.
I heard the key in the lock.
Being alone in this room scared me just as much as he did.
Once his footsteps had left me behind, I finally let myself cry.
Chapter Six
Lucian
I loved driving, but it rarely happened anymore. I was always too busy, with drivers waiting on my command. It was a surreal thing to start my car from the garage and head back into New York City. The world was usually a blur of city life to me outside the windows, removed from my engagement, but not tonight. Tonight I was amongst it, senses tuned in to the thrill.
Alto was waiting for me at my penthouse. I pulled into the underground parking lot and headed right on up to level thirty-two, giving my nod to security on level thirty-one via the security cameras in the elevator.
Alto raised his eyebrows as I met him at the doorway.
I opened the door and stepped in, not looking back as I stepped on through to the lounge and the glow of the city lights through the windows. “What the fuck is so important that you want to see me at half one in the morning?”
“News. I didn’t want to tell you on your phone, but there’s been some pretty crazy shit going down. About Elaine Constantine.”
I turned to face him, keeping my expression deadpan. “News?”
I waited for the tornado of accusations and questions, but they didn’t come.
“Yeah. The Power brothers. Looks like they’ve taken her. Shit’s going down.”
“The Power brothers?”
“Fucked up, huh? I mean, people were saying they were gonna make her pay, but nobody really believed it, you know? Apparently, her mother’s making threats. There’s going to be a war if we’re not careful.”
Oh the thrill. I could feel it in my veins, my filthy love of the battle about to go down between our families. Surely the Power brothers couldn’t be sitting back and taking that kind of accusation. I looked back out at the city lights. “How do they know it was the Power brothers?”
“Don’t know,” he said. “I’ve got feelers out for the details.”
“You seriously dragged me back here after midnight just to tell me that the Power brothers have grabbed Elaine Constantine from her apartment? It could have waited until morning.”
“Thought it was pretty major news. You’ve been hunting her down like some kind of stalker. Thought you’d want in on the action as it happened.” His mind worked as he stared up at me.
“If that’s all, you can fuck off,” I told him and gestured him away.
“Your dad already spoke to me,” he told me without moving. “He’s very interested to know what’s going on with Elaine Constantine. More interested than you are, it seems.”
The thought flared in me. Of course he would have been interested—trying to rule me out of the Constantine bullshit no doubt. “What did you tell him?”
“Same as I told you. Not a lot, just that the Power brothers have taken her.” His mind was still ticking. I could almost fucking hear it.
“Good for you,” I said. “I’m sure he’s grateful for your double-crossing.” My sarcasm was laced with spite. Spite Trenton Alto was well used to, having been my fixer for twelve years.
“Double-crossing?” he asked. “Nah. It’s public knowledge on the street that she’s been taken. I didn’t tell him anything secret. Not who might have really kidnapped her.”
“And who would that be?”
He tipped his head, thinking, thinking. “How did you know they took her from her apartment?”
“What?”
“You said the Power brothers grabbed Elaine Constantine from her apartment. They could have taken her from anywhere. How did you know where they took her from?”
I kept my eyes cool and calm. “A lucky guess.”
He didn’t believe me. He knew me too well for that. Once again I realized I should have killed the fucker a long time ago. His knowledge was my weakness. “She’s rarely there,” he said. “One hell of a lucky guess, ain’t it?”
“If you have something to say to me, then say it.”
I stared at my fixer, so much shorter than me with his tough little scowl. I could kill him and be done with it, but I didn’t. It seems that every single one of us has our idiocies. Mine was a selfish desire to keep Alto alive to serve me.
He gestured to my suit. “Lucian Morelli, out for the night, knows Elaine Constantine has been snatched from her apartment…some people might ask questions.”
“Not people who had any sense in them.”
He held up his hands. “Sure thing, Lucian. Sure thing. Just saying. People will be asking a lot of questions about Elaine Constantine and what the fuck happened to her.”
“You’d better keep me informed of them. Me before my father. He can wait in line for the news.”
“You before Bryant. I’ll be back with news as soon as I get it.” He saw himself out without even an attempt at a goodbye. No point making niceties with a bastard like me.
He’d learnt that well enough over the last decade.
It was unlike me to feel any sense of relief or nervousness. It was unlike me to feel anything in my psychopathic mind. Feelings were a novelty. Still, I felt them both in that moment. A clash that had my insides tense.
I should’ve learnt from my own bullshit and the chaos about to kick off in the world around me. I should’ve taken over Morelli Holdings and left her to die. But I didn’t.