How is that going?”“About as well as you’d expect.”“When are you coming home? Carl and I miss you.”“I miss you both too. I’ll go home after she has the baby. I want to be here for her.”“Okay. Tell Lucien I said hi. I’ve called him and he hasn’t answered. I imagine he’s preoccupied.”“Yeah, he is. I’ll tell him. Kiss our baby good night for me.”Tracy hated being away from her son, but she had to be there for her friend. She could only hope her child had a friend like that someday. Someone to watch over him no matter what.The three of them slept in the hospital room. Lucien slept on a pullout sofa, and Tracy shared the bed with Audrey. The night was peaceful, quiet. Each of them slept, their dreams taking them in very different directions.Suddenly, Tracy felt something squeezing her hand.“Audrey?” Tracy rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “What’s happening?”Audrey’s eyes were screwed shut, and her hold on Tracy’s hand tightened.“My water broke. Everything hurts. I think… I think t
Tracy narrowed her eyes at him. Something was wrong. His tone was… off. She couldn’t quite place it, but something didn’t seem right.“Tell me something,” he said.“Did Mark feel like this? Like the center of his universe suddenly shifted? Like he was willing to walk through hellfire, if it meant keeping this little person he’d just met safe?”“It’s remarkable, isn’t it? How quickly they take over us?” Tracy was starry eyed. “When Carl was born, Mark was someone else. Every priority just changed. Nothing else mattered.”“I’d do anything for her. Be anything for her. I never knew I could love someone so much… so completely. I’d… destroy anyone that even thinks about hurting her.”“Is… everything okay, Lucien?” Tracy asked. His stance was rigid, as though something else had taken hold of him.“Yeah, it’s fine,” he answered. “It’s just… I want to be good enough for her. I need to be good enough for her.” He was thrilled to be a father, but terror had crept into his heart. There was more
“I know this seems like a lot. But you’ll see,” Minnie winked. “You’ll be thankful for the help.”“And the company,” Kelly said.Audrey quickly learned they were right. Kelly was sweet, attentive, and caring. Minnie was snarky, sarcastic, and funny. She liked them immediately. It was clear that they knew what they were doing, as they were an immense help to just that first night alone.Audrey had no idea that babies got up every two hours, and by morning she was a frazzled mess. It would have been a million times worse if Minnie and Kelly hadn’t been there.Bella’s first week home, Lucien was there every day.Audrey had begun to get used to his presence and actually looked forward to his visits.“Sorry I’m late,” he said one day.“Just in time for dinner,” Minnie said, ushering him to the table.Bella’s bassinet had been set up by the table.“Hi, Lucien.”Audrey said as she emerged from the nursery. “Look, she opened her eyes.They were right.Lucien looked at his daughter and bright h
We have a lot of history here,” she said. “In the schoolyard. It’s where you kissed me for the first time, where you first told me you loved me… do you remember?” Her voice was high pitched and far away. He looked back at her. Her eyes were red, puffy and her pupils were dilated.“Are you… okay?” he raised an eyebrow.“I miss us. I know I pushed you away and did some things I’m not proud of. But it was all because I love you.”“Mia—”“Please let me finish,” she put a hand up. “No one is ever going to know you or love you the way I do. No one.Audrey is nothing and no one compared to me. I’m willing to forget everything that happened if you do. We can start over. Run away, just you and me.”“You’ve got to be kidding.”“Please,Lucien. I know you love me! I know you want to be with me!” she cried. Tears streamed down her face. “You want me!”“I tried to be as clear as I could,Mia. I do not want to be with you. I do not want anything to do with you anymore. Ever.”“Then why are you here?”
“I…” her words were stuck in her throat. “I want to trust you. I do. But your track record doesn’t help.”“I’m not that man anymore, Audrey.”He yearned to reach out for her hand, but he wasn’t allowed to touch anyone, and the guard was watching like a hawk.“Prove it. I’ve had enough of your words. You need to show me. I’ve changed to!”The moment hung between them, and it was everything Lucien could do to keep from grabbing her and kissing her until she begged for air.“I will prove it. You’ll see. But you don’t need to worry about this. At least not yet.”“Fine,” she softened a little. Audrey had come over with the intent to read him the riot act. Her anger burned in her body, a raging fire that smoldered in her soul. The fire soon changed from rage to worry as she walked in saw Lucien.He was a far cry from the sleek, sophisticated man she knew. His skin lacked its signature glow, and his gorgeous face was hidden beneath a scraggly beard. She wouldn’t have recognized him if not for
While happy to see her friend, she was still upset for being shut out. Becca was never one to lie though. Before getting too mad, Audrey’s figured she should let her explain what was going on. Then she could decide if she wanted to stay angry at her friend.“Oh boy,” Becca sighed. “Okay. So you two know my dad is a building contractor. It’s not a big business, but he does all right.” They nodded. “Well, he had a pretty slow month and started having money issues. That’s when I first sort of disappeared. I went back home to help.”“Back in Darlington?” Audrey clarified.“Yeah.”“We were still in contact at that point,” Tracy added. “We lost touch not long after though. You went radio silent.”“Like, I said. Things got out of hand. The business finally went bankrupt. It was a good thing I had already graduated or else I would have had to drop out. But because of everything going on, I had to quit my own job. I was actually going to ask you guys for help. But then I found out what the rea
I’ll ask Lucien about it. It’s his company, right?”“That’s the problem,” she huffed. “After everything that happened, I went through all the paperwork and saw that it didn’t say ‘Reynolds Industries’ on it anywhere.”“How is that possible?” Audrey asked.“I asked Dad about it. He told me that the project manager explained that Reynolds Industries had handed the building over to one its subsidiaries. Dad had the good sense to question it at first, but after he saw those dollar signs, all good sense flew out the window.”“That’s suspicious,” Audrey said.“It gets worse. I contacted Reynolds Industries to confirm all of this. The subsidiary is a company called RS Holdings. It was under the Reynolds Industries umbrella but had been operating alone for years.”“Like they broke away?”“More like Reynolds Industries pushed them away. The woman I spoke to wouldn’t say much. But she told me that RS Holdings was a stand-alone company now.”“This is getting shadier and shadier by the second,” T
Lucien knew he didn’t imagine the way Audrey’s eyes glazed over when she looked at him. He knew that look. He’d seen it many times when his body hovered over hers.‘She’s really going to make me fight for this,’he realized. It was evident that she was struggling to keep her desires at bay.“Let me put on something more suitable for the public eye,” Lucien smirked.“Uh huh,” Audrey managed. “I’ll wait in the foyer.”“Sure.”Audrey rushed out. The tension in that room had been getting thicker and thicker.“Ugh,” she said to herself. “Why does he have to be so hot?”Before changing, Lucien decided he needed to make a quick phone call. If all the things going on were connected, he would need to ensure that he was around to keep Audrey safe. At least until things had been figured out.“Hello, Mr. Reynolds,” his assistant answered. “It’s great to hear from you. I’m glad you’re out.”“I’m glad to be out too,Tiffany. Listen, I need a favor.”“Yes, sir.”“Go ahead and submit for my paternity l
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