Chapter 17



𝔸 𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕤𝕖 𝕠𝕟 𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖

Lucas POV (ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕪)

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. This was bad.

As I stared into Eve's eyes, a sinking feeling settled into the pit of my stomach. She looked torn. Between hell and heaven torn, and I immediately knew that there was no chance for me.

Laura had played the perfect game. And from the looks of it, she had won.

I began moving backwards, slowly climbing up the stairs. My eyes flickering from Eve to the front door. The bandages under my arms, forgotten.

"Lucas?" Eve called, her voice masked with a warning. I was no fool. I had a vivid idea of what was about to happen, and I had no intention of sticking around to confirm my thesis. "Lucas, even if you ran up the stairs right now, how are you going to get out of there? You'll only be trapping yourself."

"Just let me leave, Eve," I said, calculating how many minutes it would take for me to reach the gate after I climbed down the window.

Eve tilted her head towards Damien in a slight nod. "What about him? Are you just going to abandon your friend? Your brother?'

"Guys, guys, calm down." My heart clenched as I turned my gaze towards him. "What if there was a way to salvage this situation?"

"And what way will that be?" Eve countered, her eyes still trained on me. I knew I could take her if I needed to. I just wasn't sure her assistant couldn't.

Damien began to get up. "Why don't you just return what you took from her?" My eyes widened because I knew the question was directed at me.

"You know I can't do that?" I drawled. What was he playing at?

"Why? You stole it from her in the first place. Why don't you just-"

"It didn't belong to her!" I roared. My voice echoing throughout the tensed foyer. I took another step up, very slowly this time, like a panther about to pounce. I couldn't do it. I could never betray her again. I could never let Laura win. I'd rather die than-

"What the fuck are you guys talking about?" Eve's voice cut through my thoughts - as she took a tentative step towards me, her eyes glancing from Damien to me. "Somebody should answer me dammit!"

Damien began to make his way towards the bar. For a moment there, I felt like running to assist him. but thought better of it. "Why don't you tell her Lucas? She's your fixer after all."

I sent him a glare. "I-"

"I've found her." Rita interrupted. Finally lifting her head from the laptop screen. Everyone spun towards her. "What?" She asked, perplexed as to why three pairs of eyes were glaring at her.

"I swear to god if you don't start talking right now?" An angry Eve growled in frustration.

Rita rolled her eyes. "I was able to trace the call. And she is... here." Rita frowned as if she just realised how odd she sounded.

"What do you mean here?" Damien asked, there was something about the way he asked that made me shiver. It sounded dangerous. Vile even.

"I mean she is in the estate," Rita explained and stood up. Her face was in a tight line. "Like right here in this room." She said and started moving towards the bar as if she was being controlled by a GPS or something. "Riiigghhtttt here." She hopped and landed right in front of Damien.

The fuck?

Damien went still as everyone began to stare at him. And right before my eye, I watched him go from neutral to ferocious, his face becoming a stony mask. He looked like a different person, like someone I haven't seen before.

"Damien, calm down." I heard myself whisper, I couldn't even recognise the thickness of my voice. It was like everything was spiralling out of control.

Damien's eyes flashed over Rita who was still standing in front of him and at that point, I feared for what he might do. Eve was silent. I didn't like how silent she was because it was unnerving. The way she was looking at Damien was as if she was just seeing him for the first time.

Rita began backing away from Damien, a wise choice on her part. Could Damien have... No. I wasn't going to think it. He wouldn't. He was like a brother. He couldn't betray me like that.

"Damien, I am going to ask you this question once. I hope, for your sake, that you answer me honestly. " Eve finally spoke, still rooted in her position - which I suspected would not remain so for long.

I needed to do something quickly because things were about to get messy.

"Guys, I think this is her plan." Everyone veered around and glared at me. I continued, "We are seconds away from tearing each other apart, minutes after Laura's call.  call stop and think rationally for a minute." Everyone kept quiet and I knew they were thinking about it.

"Rita-"

"On it." I raised my eyebrows. How did she even know what I was about to say?

Everyone remained in their position and watched as Rita ran back to her laptop and began typing. "Do you have a basement in this house?" She asked no one in particular.

"Yeah?" Eve replied, her eyes trained on Damien. "Can you picture where it is exactly?"

Eve's eyes widened. "She is in the basement!" She blurted and took off towards the store entrance. There was a pause for a moment and then everyone was running after her. I sprinted down the stairs and joined in, grateful I knew my way around the house.

I blasted into the darkened room and paused for a bit, trying to adjust to the darkness. But then the light was suddenly flicked on and I cringed. But the light wasn't the only reason. The scene before me was nothing but barbaric, and I felt as bile rose to my throat.

Blood was splashed all over the floor, on the wall and them. Laura's men. One was seated on a metal chair, legs spread and mouth open. Probably to cry out for help as his throat was slit open.

The other, well the other was cut in half. One part of his body resting on the wall and the other, which was the lower half, dragged across the room. It looked impulsive yet artistic. This couldn't be the work of Eve, Or could it? I was beginning to doubt if I understood the woman at all.

"This wasn't me," Eve stated, shirking all of our doubt. "This was her. This was Laura."

I, on the other hand, had a strong feeling it wasn't.

******************

We were exhausted. If there was any other word for it, then half dead would be it. After we discovered the bodies, Eve decided to call in a cleaning agency, which I later discovered was a branch of her company - Elite.  She also called for body armour. Like a battalion of them. And before we knew it, the whole estate was crawling with armed men.

Why hadn't she thought of this earlier?

"When is senator Mathew suppose to be here?" Eve asked Rita who was buried in her pink laptop. The things the girl did was impressive. She reminded me of my little - of her. I squeezed my eyes shut. I have lost too much in this world. So many memories were buried within my soul because they were too painful to reminisce on.

Losing everything at the age of twelve was something I couldn't even wish on my worst enemy. The truth was when my family had burned in the fire, so did a part of me. The very best part.

A hand touched my thighs and I peeled my eyes open. Eve was sitting beside me, her head leaned back, her eyes shut, hands resting on--- How had she even gotten here? I looked around the room and found Rita still on her laptop and Damien, nowhere to be found. Where was Damien anyway? I thought I had seen him some seconds ago?

Maybe he had gone to the restroom.

I needed to talk to him. After what just happened with Eve, and him suggesting I give the documents to Laura, I deserved an explanation. I began to get up, in an attempt to go find Damien when Eve grip on my thighs tightened.

"Could you help me show everyone to their rooms? We all need to rest for tomorrow."

I was taken aback for a moment. I thought she wanted me - you know, gone? We hadn't talked about what had happened a few hours ago, but now was a good time as ever. "Would you have handed me over to Laura?"

"That depended on...." There was a distant look on her face as she trailed off. I knew that family was important and all, but I had thought we were becoming something more. I shook my head. It didn't matter anyway.

"On?" I urged, placing my palm over hers.

"How fast we can beat Laura at her own game." A man in blue jeans and grey sweats said as he stepped into the foyer.

"Doctor Jay." A very exhausted Eve said when she saw him approaching us.

Doctor Jay walked over to us and dumped a stark of files on the glass table between us. "We need to talk. And not just about Detective Rowan."

Eve sat up straight, her face tight, shoulders tense, eyes weary. "What is it about?"

He pointed to the files in front of us. "It's about your mother."

Oh fuck.