What did you say?” Audrey asked.“I didn’t say anything. What do you say to something like that?”“Well, what happened after?”“The gallery was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. We walked around and by the end, he held my hand. I felt like a little girl. I wanted to skip and sing. It felt amazing. He was the sweetest gentleman. We had our photo taken as we left, and the way he was looking at me made me want to melt. Afterwards, we went to dinner. But like… it wasn’t like a normal dinner. It was a private dinner on the rooftop of the museum. There was candlelight, and flowers, and soft music. It looked like a scene straight out of a movie. The food was amazing, we talked for hours, and he’s so interesting,” she gushed. “He’s so passionate about everything; I could listen to him talk forever. But then he listened to me and asked questions. I kept thinking there was no way it was real.”“Amazing,” Tracy cooed. “But enough of the romance. Get to the good stuff.”“Well…”Becca fel
“Yes. No one should be forced into doing something they don’t want to do or be somewhere they don’t want to be. Sometimes people aren’t up for things. And that’s okay.”He hoped Mark was right, and that Audrey wasn’t actually upset with him. But he would have to tackle that in the morning. Right now, he needed to figure out what the dream was telling him. Going through the things Mia had left him, had stirred up old emotions and memories.His mind floated back to his dreams. A common thread seemed to connect them, and he couldn’t grab hold of it. It was like a ghost playing with the holes in his memory.“A ghost,”Lucien repeated. He sat up; his eyes flew open with sudden realization. He dashed over to where he had left the photo album Mia had left behind. The photo of the pool party was the first one. There was a reason she did that. He analyzed the photo.“What were you trying to tell me, Mia?”And then he saw it. In the background of the photo, facing away from the camera. Panic and
Mark’s veiled threat wasn’t lost on him. So, anything else he was planning to do to Lucien had to be covert. Nothing could trace back to him or there was no telling what Prince Rocco would do to him… or have done to him. Word around town was that Lucien was spending his time with some college girl. He’d been involved in scandal after scandal over the years, but apparently was trying to clean up his act. He was thriving as the CEO of his company. And that wasn’t going to fly. Something about Lucien’s success just… bothered him. He had already destroyed Lucien once. He’d have to do it again.*****Their whirlwind romance was steamy and passionate. Paparazzi often caught them in compromising positions, and in the middle of intimate moments. They were plastered on tabloids and celebrity gossip blogs. The city was obsessed with their love story and their wedding. Everywhere they turned, details of the wedding were published. Who would design the wedding dress? Where would the ceremony and
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
“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.
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
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
“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