Chapter One
EMERY
Another wave of pressure crushes my chest, preventing me from getting enough oxygen. How long is it going to be before they realise I’m no longer there? My memory of how I got from the warehouse to Sebastian’s building is broken and hazy. I vaguely remember falling through the warehouse door into the cold night, then trying to get the elevator up to the penthouse, but everything else is a blur. Now I’m standing in Lucas Hale’s office, and it might be the biggest mistake I’ve made yet.
Lucas sits behind his huge desk, his expression assessing, although his body is relaxed like he didn’t just say the one thing that could destroy my life. My sharp inhale of breath cuts through the space between us.He called me by my real name. How could he know who I am?Lucas watches me as I stand frozen before him, but I’m completely falling apart on the inside. The need to escape is almost suffocating, except it’s like I’m trapped in my own body. In my mind, tremors wrack every inch of me as I grasp at my throat, needing more air. Yet on the outside, I remain motionless.
Neither of us speaks as my plan of convincing him I’m only here to collect my passport and not sneaking behind Sebastian’s back withers away.Sebastian.As soon as the thought of him enters my mind, I feel like my legs will collapse.
Fists cracking against flesh.
The screams.
So muchblood.
“It seems you weren’t completely honest with me,” Lucas says, standing from his chair and rounding the desk. Finding control of my legs, I take a step back at his approach, but he merely stops in front of me and leans back against his desk. His white shirt stretches over his chest underneath his grey suit as he grasps the edge of the wooden surface.
“I… I…” The lingering traces of cigar smoke sink their claws into me, tearing open my flesh exactly asheused to do.
Is he here?Is that how Lucas knows? My gaze shifts to the door, expecting him to storm through it at any moment.
“No. He’s not,” Lucas says, cutting through my thoughts.Did I ask the question out loud?
“How?” I ask, the question barely audible.How does he know?
“You underestimated me if you thought you could walk in here and lie to my face, and I wouldn’t find out,” he says, raising a brow at me.
Everything I felt the first time I met Lucas Hale comes rushing back. I was right when I thought my secrets wouldn’t be safe around him, and just becauseheisn’t here right now, how do I know he’s not moments away? Is Lucas going to send me back to him?No, he couldn’t.I can’t go back.I won’t!
“What do you want?” I ask instead, not sure I want the answer to the real question plaguing me. He’s silent for a moment, but the authority rolling off him is as loud as ever.
“Your uncle has become increasingly irritating lately,” he says.
The familial reference brings up more of the vomit I thought had been completely expelled when I was hunched over the toilet in the penthouse, but I swallow it down. I tried to forget who he was—to ignore the fact we were something other than monster and prey. Except it wasn’t something I could escape. Not only did we share a name, every time I looked at him, I saw my dad’s eyes.My eyes.I hated it.I hated him.
“I would have already taken care of him for his blatant disregard of my territory,my city, but he’s smarter than he seems. Though, he appears to be missing something extremely important to him. Maybe the prospect of getting that back would be enough to encourage him to rethink his business choices,” he says, and the threat behind his words hits me hard enough I take another step back.No.
I never doubted that Lucas was more than a nightclub owner, but what does he mean byhis city?
“It would have saved me a lot of effort if Sebastian had taken care of him. I’ll admit, when I caught wind of their meeting yesterday, I thought Sebastian had managed to lure him out to do just that. Although considering he’s still alive, either Sebastian doesn’t know what I do or your relationship isn’t what I heard it was.”
What?
I barely acknowledge the part of him knowing anything about Sebastian and me, unable to focus past the information he revealed seconds before.
Sebastian met with him?
Oh God, I’m going to be sick again.
There’s a soft knock on the door—the light sound making me jump as my mind whirls, searching for a reason Sebastian could have to meet with him.
Without waiting for a response, the door opens, and a young man pokes his head through the gap. A brown curl flops onto his forehead as he finds Lucas’ gaze, and I recognise him as the same guy who took my photo for the passport the first time we were here. The very thing I’d come here tonight to get. “He’s here,” he tells Lucas, and his words steal my breath.
He’s here?
The tremor starts in my legs, quickly spreading to the rest of my body as my heart beats too fast for me to keep up with, making my head spin.He’s here.I clutch my chest, but it does nothing to alleviate the overwhelming pressure.No, No.There must be a way out of here.My heartbeat thunders in my ears and I spin, looking for a way to escape, but my vision is too blurry to make out anything other than shapes. A whine echoes around the room, and I have no idea if it came from me because no matter how much air I try to draw in, Istillcan’t breathe.
“What the hell, Lucas!”