Chapter 24



𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕠𝕟𝕝𝕪 𝕨𝕒𝕪 𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕚𝕤 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟

Lucas POV (ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕪)

"What?" I heard myself exclaim. Although I wasn't in good shape right now, both physically and emotionally, I still had to listen to Senator Mathew's assistant talk.

I had expected a lot of things. A breach in their security, an attempted murder, or even a call from Laura. Anything really, but not this.

"How the hell did he die?" Eve asked from across the aisle, face set in a grim.

"We found traces of Digoxin and Opiates in his system." I frowned. How on earth did these drugs get into his system?

"Are you trying to say he was poisoned?" There was a long pause from Stone as Eve asked this question, confirming our suspicion.

"How the hell did you let this happen?" I heard myself grunting out loud. Every eye turned to me, including Eve's. I locked eye contact with her for a brief second before tearing my gaze away as Stone voice came through the speakers again.

"That's what we are trying to understand. After he received the call from Mrs Laura, we became extremely careful. We checked his food and drinks for all sorts of poison, right until the day he died."

"Are you very certain his food was not contaminated somehow?" Eve inquired, her brows knitted in a frown.

"Very certain ma'am. I tasted all his food and beverages before he did. I am still alive, aren't I? If Senator Mathew was poisoned, it wasn't from us. He might have eaten or drunk something outside without our knowledge. That's the second reason I called, to ask if you gave him anything while he was at your house."

All eyes turned towards Damien- wait? Where was Damien? I looked around the airliner and he was nowhere to be found. My heart began to beat wildly beneath my chest. This was the second time he looked totally suspicious. Everyone was here so why wasn't he?

"Where is Damien?" Eve asked and I turned to face her with a static expression, not giving anything away. Her eyes became icy.

"Are you all daft? Get Damien in here now before I chop someone's head off!" Everyone began scampering away in search of Damien. Only Jay and I stayed put. I had the pleasure of seeing first-hand the kind of terror Eve invoked in people.

Someone pinched me from behind and I turned to see Rita beckoning for me to come into the bathroom stall. My eyes immediately darted to Eve to see if she noticed the interaction. I also glanced at Jay and noticed that he too was oblivious. With a little nod at Jay, who had noticed me glancing at him, I left their presence and made my way to Rita.

As I got to the corridor, a frantic Rita pulled me into the stall and shut the door. "Damien is gone."

I looked at her like she was crazy. "What do you mean by gone?"

"I mean gone, left, taken off. He is not on the plane." Rita whispered. Why was she whispering? And, why was she telling me this in secret? Wasn't she supposed to be saying this in front of everyone?

"How is that possible?" I asked. "He was with us when the plane took off. So at which point did he get off?"

Rita sighed. "I don't think he was on the plane when we took off. He disappeared right about the time you and Eve were, you know...."

"Beating the crap out of each other?" I completed. I was beginning to see the error of my ways. In my defence, I couldn't help taunting her. Even though I knew it would get on her nerves. She had ignored me all day and all I had wanted to do was revenge.

Look where it got you. My mind taunted and I winced from the ache on my neck.

"Yeah, what happened by the way? It looked like a heated lovers quarrel..." Rita drawled, her voice breaking through my mental haze. I ignored her dabbling because silence was the best answer right now.

I scratched my temple, my mind swirling with possibilities. I've known Damien since I was a teenager and not once had he ever betrayed me or acted in this way before. So I knew when something wasn't right with him.

Rita was already pacing around the confined stall like an old maid in a fit. The question she had asked, forgotten. We had a bigger problem on our hands.

"You have to tell Eve." She suddenly blurted, coming to a halt in front of me.

My eyes snapped to hers in a glare, suspicion taking over. "Why didn't you?" I asked with a growl.

She could have gone straight to Eve to relay her concerns, but she had come to me - whom she knew just fought with her boss. Was she trying to play a trick on me or something? Was this part of a ploy? I needed to know before I took any steps with her.

She looked up at me as if I was speaking gibberish. "What?" She muttered, confusion set beneath her brown orbs.

"Why did you come to me first, Instead of just going to her?"

She lowered her eyes to the ground as if the question had burned her somehow. "I fought with Eve."

My suspicion came down like a deflated balloon. How insensitive could I be? From the little time I have spent with them, it was clear to see how much Rita adored Eve. "What happened?" I grumbled lowly, my expression shifting to concern.

"It doesn't matter, besides, right now Eve is angry and might not be thinking straight. I want to give Damien a fighting chance. Especially if he is innocent."

That piqued my interest. "What are you saying?" I asked, leaning against the pale wall of the stall as the plane jerked in turbulence.

Rita stumbled and I grabbed her arm to steady her. After rightening herself, she began pacing again. "Think about it. What if he's been abducted? What if this is some kind of ploy from Laura to destroy our inner circle? We could bring out a hypothesis about Damien and begin hunting him not knowing that he is a victim and in trouble."

I tapped my forefinger against the stubble in my Jaw. Why hadn't I thought of this? "You know-"

"She might be right." The icy voice of Eve blasted through the speakers above. Damn! She had been listening. I glanced at Rita and noticed the horror on her face.

Shit. This was bad. Especially for her. Rita was supposed to be Eve's trusted ally. Now Eve might see this as a betrayal of some sort. I had to salvage this somehow, and I had a sneaky suspicion that it won't be easy.

"We are coming out now." I groaned aloud and took Rita's hand in mine. She looked frozen. No, she felt like it. Her hands were as cold as ice. In all my years of living, I have never seen someone so scared of another human in my life. The tabloids had been right to tag Eve as the greatest Evil of our time.

I was beginning to see that where Eve stood, Laura was a piece of cake. "It's gonna be okay," I whispered into Rita's ears and she squeezed my hand in response. Her shoulders relaxing a notch.

We stepped into the first-class section of the plane to find only Eve and Jay waiting for us. I had thought the whole flight crew would be here.

"I sent them away," Eve said as if reading my thoughts. I walked towards her with Rita behind me, defiance flashing in my eyes. If I wanted to find out why Rita was researching me, then this was a perfect opportunity to gain her trust.

"I won't let you hurt her," I said the moment we stopped in front of Eve. I ushered Rita to sit on one of the chairs opposite Eve and stood in front of her, shielding her from Eve's deadly gaze.

"I won't hurt her," Eve said with a sigh which sent me reeling back in shock. I hadn't expected that. I hadn't expected it at all. Jay just sat quietly beside Eve and watched the interaction. Watching Rita, and watching me.

I ignored the pricking heat of his gaze and settled my sights on Eve. "Why?" I asked in a whisper, still doubtful of her intention towards Rita.

"I heard all she said earlier, and she was right. I was too angry to think correctly. She did well by going to you first." I turned to see Rita staring at Eve with an emotion I couldn't understand. Well, I couldn't understand what just happened either. Eve kept surprising me at every turn.

"If Damien didn't poison the senator, then who did?" Jay finally spoke, breaking through the awkward silence.

Eve turned to him. "We haven't ruled out the possibility that Damien was the culprit. We are just being open to the fact that he might be innocent in the whole situation. But one thing is for sure. Senator Matthew was poisoned with that glass of wine."

"We have to be completely sure." Rita's voice came from behind us and I turned.

"The glass is been examined by a medical team as we speak. We'll know in a matter of hours." Jay said and I sighed.

"Look." I began, "We have to find Damien. I'm sure he has an expla-"

The plane jerked with so much power it sent me flying across the room. I hit the end of the hall with great force, losing consciousness for a brief second. As I came to, my vision blurred, I lifted my heavy eyelid, trying to make sense of what happened. Eve was struggling to stay still, her hand tightly gripping one of the plane sit. Rita was on the floor, unconscious and Jay was above her, trying to get her to wake up.

I began pushing myself up. I needed to get to Eve.

"Mayday, mayday. Our second engine just erupted!" A panicked voice boomed from the speakers above us.

"Dave! What happened!" Eve screamed above the rumbling of the plane.

"It's not Dave! This is Vic. Dave is unconscious, ma'am." There was another rumble that sent us flying in opposite directions, my back hitting an iron rod that had tumbled out of somewhere during the turbulence.

I groaned out in pain and tried to get up again. "Vic!" I screamed, "We have to land the plane." I finally got to my feet and began heading for the cockpit, only to be stopped by the voice of the co-pilot as it came through the cracked speakers.

"It's t - too late, we ar - are going down!"

That was the last thing I heard before the world went blank.