“I haven’t made any plans,” Audrey hung her head. “I’ve been focusing on my dad and the contest. I have applied for a few jobs, but haven’t heard anything. It seems like everything is such a mess right now.” “Cheer up! You passed the first round in that contest. Even if you don’t win, you’ve been noticed by prestigious people in your field. One of them is bound to want to hire you!” “You think so?” “Girl, I know so! You’ve got everything going for you! And let me tell you, you broke some necks when you walked in. Has anyone caught your eye?” Audrey blushed and looked away Tracy. “Well, I…” “Is it Lucien?There seems to be something going on with you two. The way he looks at you is so… primal,” Tracy commented. “Uh…,”Audrey didn’t know what to say. She had been lying to her best friend about Lucien for so long. How could she tell her that she was getting married in less than a month? “Sorry that took so long,” Alex said as he came back with a couple of plates of food. “T
“It was nice to meet you, Damian,”Lucien said as he released Audrey’s face. “Good to meet you, too.” Damian was clearly flustered.Audrey figured it was because of being uncomfortable with Lucien’s display of affection. “Let’s go, Audrey,” Lucien said to her. “You look too good and I’d like to keep you to myself tonight.” At that point, Audrey’s face went even redder. Blood pounded beneath her skin. How she wished this was how Lucien was all the time.He led her towards the door, dozens of pair of eyes watched them. “See you at the final!” Damian called right as they were exiting.Audrey looked back and waved at him. He seemed forlorn and upset, but Lucien pulled her away before she could dwell on it any longer. “He likes you,”Lucien said as they walked towards his car. Audrey didn’t answer.‘That’s not true.’ she thought.He only saw her as a friend.“Are you going to see him again?”She ignored that question as they got into the car.The atmosphere was charged with hostili
“Well,”Audrey murmured to herself as she packed up her things in her dorm. “He destroyed Diego’s company and reputation for me.” Whenever she thought she had him figured out, he did something crazy to throw her off.“Maybe he does care about me.”*********Evening had settled in by the time Audrey packed up her dorm room. Her old duffel bag was stuffed with her things. She welcomed the time alone. It allowed her to think and sort out the news she had just heard. Had someone told her that Lucien would take down her arch nemesis, she would laughed at them. But in the same vein, she remembered how he had saved her from Diego. “Why can’t I figure him out?” she asked the room. “What does he really want from me?” She pondered this on the way back to the apartment.Lucien was an enigma, a riddle she would never be able to solve. “Hope you had a productive day, Miss Audrey?”Brad asked as he loaded her bag into the car. “I think so. It will be strange not coming back here. It feels like
Audrey giggled as he kissed her hand. Steve rattled off instructions to his assistants and left to go oversee the men getting ready.Audrey stared at her reflection, and the moment sunk in. She was getting married. It was really happening. A girl’s wedding day was supposed to be one of the happiest in her life, but Audrey felt almost numb. Like she was detached from it somehow. The tornado of hairpins, brushes, nail polish and make up stopped. The assistants pulled away and Audrey caught sight of herself in the mirror. Dramatic lashes, yet simple makeup framed her eyes. A light dusting of blush highlighted her face. The look was finished with a bold red lip. Her hair was styled in coifed, soft waves with a deep side part. One side was tucked behind her ear with a crystal comb. It was modest, but she’d never seen herself look so beautiful.“Wow,” she whispered. “I know,” Steve gushed. “Just wait until you put on the dress. Come.” He led her into a dressing room, where Tracy was w
“Great. Here they come,” Lucien said through clenched teeth. “Who are they?”Audrey whispered.“My Aunt,Stella and her husband,Julius.”he said when they approached.“Stella,Julius,” the words fell from his mouth with disdain. “This is my wife, Audrey.”Audrey wondered why he didn’t like them.“It’s wonderful to meet you,”She greeted them. “Congratulations,”Julius said. It didn’t seem sincere and Stella didn’t speak at all.She looked Audrey up and down with disapproving eyes. “Thank you. If you’ll excuse us, we have a reception to get to. Let’s go,”Lucien took Audrey’s hand and started to lead her away.“I had literally filled in as the role of his mother,Gary.Always showing up for him and this is how he treats me.Introducing his wife to me on the day of the wedding?!”Stella sneered.Audrey flinched with embarrassment.Lucien and Gary were incensed by Stella’s comments.“Don’t worry,Stella, I’ll have you know that I’ve known Audrey for quite some time. She is a wonderful yo
Lucien grabbed her hands to stop her. If she kept this up, he wouldn’t be able to stop. “You’re the one who didn’t want this. You said no sex. That was your decision, remember?” he said in one last attempt to get her to come to her senses and respect her wishes. “For the love of…” she released her hands from his grip and finished removing her dress.Lucien had expected there to be sexy white lingerie underneath. But there was nothing. She was completely bare to him. “If you don’t fucking take me right now, I will find another man to do it. Is that what you…” She cut her off by flipping them over so that he was above her. He kissed her as intensely as she had. Audrey’s hands wrestled with Lucien’s clothes. When she decided it was taking too long to undress him, she stopped the kiss and pushed him over. She straddled him and ripped his shirt off. “That was expensive,” he teased. He sat up and crushed Audrey to his now bare chest. “You’ll buy a new one.” Their kiss ramped up as
“Now, to the matter at hand. We scored you very favorably. It’s not often that a newcomer on this contest, such as yourself, impresses us as you have. You showed true promise young lady. We are very excited with your presentation.” The judges’ words bolstered her confidence. “I am honored to be here and humbled that such a prestigious organization has even noticed me.” “Please begin.”******************Audrey practically skipped out of the judging hall. The presentation couldn’t have gone any better. They loved her design and her concept. She was disappointed that she hadn’t seen Damian there, but she didn’t think of him much. Her thoughts drifted back to Becca as she walked to where Brad had parked. “How did it go, Miss Audrey?” Brad asked. “Very well,” she answered brightly. “The best it could have gone. Now I have to wait for the results.” “Do you think you’ll win?” “I wouldn’t dare hope for that much. I’m surprised I even made it to the final.” “Are we going home,
“No,” Audrey said to herself aloud. “Not this again.” Her mind flashed back to that night when all this began and she caught Josh with Megan. “I can’t go through this twice.” She marched out of the conference room and towards Lucien’s secretary. “Where is he?” “He’s… um… still in that meeting,” she answered, looking at everything but Audrey. Her heart sank realizing the kind of meeting he was in. “Do you want me to call him?” “No. Don’t even tell him I was here.” She ran out of the building, cake in tow. Why did he have to lie to her? She knew all along that this was a contract marriage. If Lucien wanted to see other women, she didn’t care. But why would he lie to her? Why would he be sweet to her over the phone, and then lie about being excited to see her?Audrey wanted to throw the cake in the street, but she refused to cause a scene. She wandered in the parking lot, not ready to go home yet, when she overheard what seemed to be a couple arguing,she paused. “Please, I made
NEARLY TEN YEARS LATER….Lucien came to a halt in front of a school,he sometimes come to get the kids from school,sometimes Audrey does that or their driver.He got down from his car and saw them approaching,all three of them.Louis ran up to him excitedly.Lucien caught him and carried him on his arms.“How was school today?”Lucien asked.“It was fine.”His eldest child,Bella replied with a broad smile.He gave Braylon,his second child who was seven years old a fist bump as they got into the car.***********Lucien hurried around the kitchen,Audrey was busy with work today so he had wanted to take care of the children,feed them and put them to sleep before she comes back home so that when she gets back,she can have a good rest…well a good rest after they finish making love.He was preparing pasta for the kids and he knew he had to make it perfect,otherwise,Braylon would complain and tease him for days.Audrey has been busy these past couple of days but she promised to make it up to him
“What does that even mean?”“He had a strange obsession with Lucien. Everything Lucien did, he wanted to do. Everything Lucien had, he wanted to have. There was one year that he intentionally matched everything Lucien wore. He used to tell everyone that they had the same middle name. He even started talking to another girl in our class named Mia just because that was Lucien’s girlfriend’s name. I never liked him.”“Lucien never noticed this?”Mark let out a long, heavy sigh.“What you need to understand about Lucien, especially at that age, is that he was hungry for validation. Starving for it. If anything, all that strange attention made him feel important. To be perfectly honest, there may even be a good chance he didn’t even notice it. He was so wrapped up in Mia… his world didn’t have capacity for anything else.”Audrey felt small for a moment.“He really loved her, didn’t he?”Mark glanced at her for a moment and noted the sadness in her eyes.“He thinks he did. That wasn’t love,
“We saw that sexy ass car out here, and Nathan got the keys to go move it,” another young officer explained with tears in eyes and panic in his voice. “We all wanted… we all wanted to see. But when he turned the key… when he turned the key…” the young man sobbed. “Some people were too close and got caught in the explosion.”Captain Whitlock looked over at Lucien.“I think you were already bait and didn’t even know.”It was as though he was moving through sand. Nothing registered. Nothing clicked. Not the unnatural metal of the handcuffs as they tightened around his wrists. Not the officers’ angry voices as the read him his rights, or the rough hands that pushed and shoved him into a cell. Not when those cell doors slid home with a loud, echoing clang. Captain Whitlock tried to stop the way they were mishandling him. But they had lost one of their own. A young man who was vibrant and full of life, at the beginning of his career.Another one. Because of me?“I get one phone call. I need
Lucien’s eyes flashed up at the captain, filled with anger and anguish.“She contacted me while I was in Italy,” he almost snarled.“After you and Audrey had just been married?” Captain Whitlock raised an eyebrow.“Don’t judge me. There were… circumstances about that marriage. Either way, I didn’t want to see her. But she said that she needed someone to keep her from… Hurting herself.”The irony. She had run to him once to prevent that. But in the end, she had forced him to witness it. His eyes were dark and stony as he fought to keep his emotions in check. Part of him wanted to give in. To breakdown and just give in to himself. Anything to make these feelings go away forever.Captain Whitlock softened as he realized what was going on in Lucien’s mind.“Sorry. Why was she seeking such an intense escape?”“She was running from him. She said their marriage was in shambles and that things had gone horribly wrong, that he was cheating on her.”“That was it? He wasn’t hurting her?”“She sa
“Philip Carson”The name hung in the air between them, like a two-ton brick. After all this time, Ghost had a name. Now the hunter, could become the hunted.“Holy shit,” the captain fell back into his chair. All the air left his lungs. “That punk? That punk is Ghost?”“You know him?” Lucien’s eyes almost fell from his head.“I had him. Right here in this office years ago,” Captain Whitlock seethed. “Right there!” he shouted and kicked his chair across the room. “Ghost was right there!”“What the hell for?”“That piece of shit kid was always getting into trouble. Vandalism, petty theft, property theft, arson… all kinds of stuff. Typical spoiled rich boy shit. No offense. I always knew that kid was disturbed. He had no remorse for anything. The only thing he ever regretted was getting caught”“This was before he became Ghost obviously.”“Well, yes. But do you know that this means?”“What?”“It’s insanity. It’s the most oversimplification of anything that has ever happened.”“What?” Luci
He began spending most of his time at the building. “Command” they’d been calling it. Eugene and Mia couldn’t be trusted. The first prisoner,Racheal…Rebecca … whatever her name was, was being beaten even though he had given explicit instructions that she was not to be touched. And Mia could not at all be trusted with the other one. God, what was that one’s name? Ava? Avery? It was something with an “A”he was certain. Either way, it didn’t matter. They had to keep them both alive and the two overly emotional idiots he was working with were going to mess it up.Lucien was supposed to do a press conference and announce that he was relinquishing the company over to his cousin. The press conference was Eugene’s idea. He wanted a public take down and humiliation of his cousin. He was all for anything that made Lucien suffer. This plan wasn’t going to work. But he was interested to see how it would unfold.They planned to watch the press conference together. After it, his plan was to slink
His life had become a tunnel and the only light at the end of it was the demise of Lucien. It was the driving force in his soul. It was the pulsing his blood. His first meeting with Eugene set his plan back into motion. There was no improvising. Without even realizing, Lucien had been slipping through his fingers like fine sand. Always just beyond his reach. But this time he would get inside of Lucien’s world and destroy him from within.He kept a close watch on Lucien’s personal life. It seemed Mia had run back to marry him as he had anticipated. What he didn’t anticipate was the wrath it fueled in him. It was interesting. It had been so long since he felt any real emotion that it caught him off guard. Ever since he’d killed his father, it was as though he’d murdered his own feelings as well. Other than hate, nothing else lived within him. He often wondered why he even continued to do anything. He did have to admit that he was chasing the thrill of that first kill. Nothing ever seeme
“I told you not to get involved with her. Her father is my rival, and he has been encroaching on our territory. This,” he indicated the dead woman. “is a message.”“I loved her!” he screamed back, cradling her corpse in his arms.“You loved the other one too.”“This was different,” he cried. “She was pregnant! You killed my woman and my baby! We were going to tell you tomorrow night at dinner!”“Then I did you a favor. Children are a weakness, and you aren’t strong enough yet.”“Not strong enough?” he saw red. The vestiges of whatever humanity he had left dissipated. All that was left behind was anger and a thirst for vengeance. All the warmth left his soul. There was nothing left now. Nothing except an abyss with no end. He leveled his own gun at his father. “No one is stronger than me.”“Son, be careful.” His father’s eyes went wide. He dropped his gun and threw up his hands. He walked backwards slowly, like an animal being cornered by a predator. “You’re overly emotional right now.
Once she made the mistake of asking him what he and his father did. He brandished a gun and held it to her chest. To her immense relief, it wasn’t loaded. But she found that out only after he fired it. Bone aching terror was all she knew. Whatever life she had was almost gone. The only thing that was left was the memory of Lucien.Being with him was the last time she felt happy and safe. She clung onto the memories, and they were the only things keeping her afloat. Life was a nightmare and she just wanted to sleep.He knew he should have been treating her better. He knew that, but he just couldn’t seem to care. They were in love once. Or perhaps they just thought they were. The truth was that he was an escape to her. An escape from a life she thought she didn’t want. It was obvious that she wanted out. But his one issue was who she wanted to run to. He’d let her go if he knew that she wasn’t going back to him, back to Lucien.He refused to lose to him. So, as long as he knew she would r