Maria’s eyes bug out of her head as she glares at Lucien. “She’s lying. Tell me she’s lying.”
Slade laughs. “I’m standing right here, lady. You can check my DNA if you want.”
Fury blazes in her eyes and as if forgetting about the blood pouring from her nose, she strides up to Lucien and slaps him so damn hard that his face rebounds off her hand and snaps around. “My father always said I was too good for you.”
Lucien growls and shoves his hands against her shoulder, sending her flying back into the guard. “Get off me, you whore,” he demands. “Don’t act so high and mighty. I know you were screwing the pool boy. Why do you think he suddenly stopped working two weeks ago? That’s right,” he says with an evil smirk playing on his lips. “I fucking slit his throat and watched him die. You’re lucky it wasn’t you. Believe me, I sat up at night watching you sleep, trying to convince myself not to kill you too.”
Maria’s eyes bug out of her head as I suck in a gasp. That’s another life that’s on me. I was the one who told Lucien about Maria’s affair and now the pool boy is dead. How fucking messed up is this going to get?
Maria pushes off the guard and races back at him. “Me? I’m the whore for sleeping with the pool boy? What about you? Why do you think I had to sleep with him? You were too busy raping teenage girls every night. Tell me, Lucien, how many have there been over the years? One hundred? Two hundred? When is this shit going to end?” She waves her hand back at her burning home. “Look what kind of mess your filthy little dick has got us in now. That’s my fucking home burning to the ground. My home. I paid for that. I worked my ass off for that so you can act like some big-time businessman, and you’ve gone and fucked it all up again. You’re a fraud. Is this why we had to leave Aston Creek nineteen years ago?”
I watch the show with my mouth gaping open. Did she just guess that he’s raped at least one hundred girls, maybe two hundred? What the fuck is going on here? He’s worse than I thought.
I want to ask about Maria claiming that all the money is hers and that she’s the one who bought this home but I’m far too hung up on that number; two hundred teenage girls.
What the actual fuck?
Lucien doesn’t respond but the answers are clear in his eyes. Maria shakes her head, beyond furious. She steps into him, lowering her voice. “Just tell me one thing,” she growls, flicking her gaze back to me. “Why her? Why touch the one girl that could ruin it all?”
I go to move forward, desperate to hear the answer to that but Slade’s hand curls into the back of my shirt, forcing me back. Lucien’s gaze cuts over to me and darkens, making chills run down my spine. His tongue travels over his bottom lip and as if forgetting where he is and that his wife is standing before him with their house burning behind them, desire enters his gaze.
Slade growls, his hand in my shirt curling into a fist and hurting my back but now I think it’s me holding him back instead of the other way around. “Because it was mine to take,” he finally tells her. “I raised her, I paid for her, I gave her a home to live in. It was mine.”
Maria hits him again. “Don’t you fucking lie to me. I know there’s more to it than that. Why did you do it?”
Lucien’s eyes flash and his control slips, his words coming out louder than I’ve ever heard. “Isn’t it clear?” he yells, questioning his wife, unable to stop staring at me. “She looks just like her.”
“Looks like who?” Maria spits.
“Rochelle. She looks like Rochelle.”
I suck in a gasp as Maria screams and launches herself toward the other guard at Lucien’s back and within the blink of an eye, she has his gun in her hand, trained at her husband's chest, breathing heavily. “What did you just say?” she demands.
Lucien’s eyes go wide, his hands flying up as he tries to back away. He knows he fucked up. This whole thing started over Maria’s jealousy for my mom. How stupid could he be to admit that?
Slade grabs me and hauls me behind his back as Rivers, Noah, and Damian step into his sides, blocking the gap so I can’t get around. All I can do is peer around Slade’s arm, unable to take my eyes off the crazy playing out in front of me.
“Put the gun down, Maria,” Lucien warns, trying to calm his deranged wife.
She steps closer, making the guards flinch. “You raped the girl I raised because she looks like Rochelle Fucking Daniels?”
Lucien swallows hard, trying to calm the situation but his wife has finally lost it and looks like a fucking psychopath. “Calm down, Maria. Let’s go somewhere and discuss this rationally.”
“Yes or fucking no?” she demands, waving the gun and making him jump.
“No. Okay, no. I didn’t. I lied. That’s not why. Rochelle is a nobody…”
Maria grins. “You’re a liar, Lucien,” she says shaking her head ever so slightly as a strange calmness comes over her. “Enjoy rotting in hell.”
BANG!
Chapter 19
My eyes bug out of my head as Lucien’s body crashes to the ground, his hands desperately clutching at his chest as Maria screams in horror, shocked by what she’s just done.
“NOOO,” she shrieks in a panic, rushing down to Lucien’s side as the one guard who was willing to remain loyal throws his arms around her waist and tries to haul her back, wanting to get away from the scene so he can claim she has an alibi when the police come searching. The amount of times I’ve had to lie about Maria’s and Lucien’s whereabouts is just ridiculous. I wonder how many of my lies have saved them from jail time.
Blood pours from Lucien’s chest and I know that if he doesn’t get help quickly, he’s going to bleed out, yet I don’t see anyone rushing in to save him. I never intended for tonight to end like this, but I have no complaints.
If Lucien dies here, then so do all my problems. I might have made a point in burning down their mansion, burning down the house that is home to all the nastiness in the world, all the bad memories, and horrible crimes acted against me, but as long as Marcus’ money is coming my way, I was forever going to be hunted by Lucien Valentine.
I was a fool to assume it would end here tonight, but how could I have seen this? How the hell would someone guess that a crazed wife would pull a gun on her mobster husband over a little jealousy from twenty years ago? Maria might have put an end to her own problems tonight, but in doing so, she’s also put a stop to mine and created a shitload more of her own.
I will not go down for this. If the cops come asking questions, they will know who pulled that gun even if it means admitting my involvement tonight.
Maria gets pulled to the back of the SUV while kicking and screaming to get back to her dying husband, but at this point, I can’t tell if it’s to kill him quicker or if she wants to try and save him. Judging from the crazed look in her eyes I’d dare say she wants him dead, but no, that shit is mine tonight.
If Maria got the pleasure of being the one to shoot him, then I at least deserve to watch him die.
Yep, okay…I think it’s about time that I admit how fucked-up I’ve become.
What kind of eighteen-year-old girl willingly wants to stand above someone and watch the life drain out of them? Last night I killed a man and tonight I’m going to watch another die.