Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

THERON

My phone rings right when we step away from the fire. It smells fucking horrible, but at least when we’re done here, we can move on and continue the search for Ravet. These assholes are gone, and it should bother me, but it doesn’t. I know we are going to find him. We’re one step closer, even with them gone.

I dig into my pocket, then slide my thumb across the screen and move away from everyone. Lucille is talking with Vaughn. I have no clue what they’re discussing. Since she was living in that safe house, they’ve developed something. I don’t want to get in the middle of it, at least not right now.

Holding my phone to my ear, I continue to face them so I can have a conversation without worrying about Lucille sneaking up on me. I’m not sure how much I can trust her right now.

“Lucille Sanders is not Emmie Grant,” Merrick announces.

“I know that,” I say when he doesn’t elaborate.

Merrick lets out a cough, and I can almost see him standing in front of me, tilting his head to the side once before he shakes it a couple of times. But he’s not here, so I just have to imagine his little quirks.

“But she does have a whole host of things that I know without a doubt you’re unaware of. One of them is concerning. The rest, not as much.”

“Lay it on me,” I encourage.

There is a moment of silence before he speaks again. “From what I can tell, she’s been stalking you and every woman you’ve fucked. She’s also run them all off. Emmie had her shit, so she wasn’t going anywhere, no matter what Lucille said or did.”

“Interesting,” I murmur.

I suspected this was a thing she did. I’m not mad about it. In fact, I’m flattered, and I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same. Because if I ever saw a man on the cameras in her room, I would probably kill him… maybe even both of them.

“What else do you have for me?” I demand.

There has to be more because I fucking watched exactly what she did to Callen and the way she reacted to Emmie. It was not her first time around death. And it wasn’t her first time inflicting pain and death, either.

I want to know what the fuck she’s been up to.

“I don’t know if you’re going to like this,” he murmurs.

I’m sure I won’t, but hell, what she did was hot as fuck, so maybe I won’t care too much.

“She’s a vigilante.”

“Explain, quickly,” I growl as I watch her and Vaughn laugh and turn toward me.

The fire is already beginning to go out, and I know they’re all going to want to leave soon, but I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers. Thankfully, Merrick wants to give me those answers.

“She’s been ruining people’s credit for money, Theron. She’s also taken a few jobs where she hurt people. Never killed, though.”

“What the fuck are you telling me?” I demand.

Vaughn approaches me, but Lucille hangs back. “Merrick,” I growl, “what the fuck are you telling me?”

It’s Vaughn’s turn to speak as if he knows exactly where this phone conversation is going. “I’m telling you, Theron, that this girl is nothing you thought she was, nothing any of us thought.”

“Then what the fuck is she? Or rather, who?” I demand.

Merrick chuckles, obviously hearing Vaughn in the background. At this point, I should probably just put this fucking call on speaker. I stay quiet and wait for Vaughn to speak because it’s clear he’s got more information.

“She’s on my database, using an alias. I didn’t know it was her,” he murmurs. “I don’t know if she’s killed anyone. I can’t look at the jobs she’s completed. They get deleted the moment they’re completed on my app, but what she did today, I’m not sure she hasn’t done anything physical.”

Fuck me.

“She didn’t put Emmie on that list?” I ask out of morbid curiosity.

Vaughn chuckles. “She didn’t, although she also didn’t explain to me why, either. She fucking should have.”

Merrick clears his throat. “I have to go, but I’ll email you everything I have. Sounds like Vaughn has some insight, too.”

Thanking him, I shove my phone back in my pocket. Lucille moves, beginning to head my way. I watch her, wondering who she really is. Clearly, I don’t know her as well as I thought I did.

As far as I knew, she did transcription work at night and not much else. Now, I am coming to realize there is a whole layer to the woman she is that I didn’t understand. And that I’ve wasted a hell of a lot of time without her when we are more suited than I understood.

It’s time for me to get some answers.

And find out exactly what the fuck I bought when I purchased this beautiful fucking creature.

LUCILLE

The car ride back to the safe house is quiet, almost too quiet, and I realize that I’ve fucked up. I let my anger control me, and I did something I shouldn’t have. My reaction was not what it should have been for a woman who had never witnessed hideous atrocities before.

I’m thinking it might be time for me to come clean about what I am.

Vaughn has already promised that he wouldn’t tell Theron everything as long as I do it myself tonight. There is no waiting around. There is no avoiding it. Not any longer. I just hope he understands that sometimes we have to do things in life that aren’t always pretty to survive.

I walk into the safe house and stop when I am standing in the middle of the living room. Theron closes the door behind him, locking it before he faces me. I watch him, my eyes focused on his, waiting for whatever is about to come my way.

I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I can tell just by the energy he’s giving off that it’s going to be something… big.

I press my lips together and roll them a few times while I wait. My breathing is slow and steady as I try not to completely lose myself and panic. Waiting for him to speak is the most nerve-wracking moment of my week so far.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t know you as well as I thought I did,” he begins. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself, Lucille.”

I open my mouth, then snap my lips closed as I think about what to say. I’m not sure how much I want him to know, how much he already knows, and how much is actually relevant. I bite the skin on the inside of my cheek for a few moments as I try to think of what to say.

“Let’s begin with the fact that I watched you gouge a man’s eyes out today.”

I snort. That part’s easy. “He wasn’t giving you the information you wanted. And he was a piece of shit,” I snap.

Theron chuckles. He doesn’t respond immediately. Instead, he tilts his head to the side with a smile playing on his lips. He watches me, almost like he thinks I’m cute or something. I hope he still feels that way once he knows everything about me, about my past

“You’re right, he wasn’t. He was never going to give us anything.”

“He didn’t care about those boys being hurt,” I continue in a whisper.

Theron hums and takes a step toward me, then another. He stops when he’s just a few feet from my body. I want him to touch me. I want him to assure me that everything is okay and that he still wants me.

I want him to fuck me.

“I appreciate your care and concern over that,” he murmurs. “But I’m a bit more concerned with the fact that you have an alias on Vaughn’s dark web app thing. Which I didn’t even know existed until a few days ago when you were listed as having a price on your fucking head.”

Well then.

Okay.

I suck in a deep breath and hold it for a moment. I knew this was coming, but I was hoping it wouldn’t have for a few more years… maybe when we’re old and gray or something.

“Want to explain some things?” he asks.

I really don’t.

“How about a blow job?” I ask.

He chuckles. “You’ll give me that, too,” he murmurs. “But first, let’s discuss the app and your role in it.”

Damn.

I thought I was going to get away with this. “Well, working nights has its advantages. I can do other things. One day, as I was searching around on the dark web, I came across that site and they had a lot of options. It’s not just murder for hire. It’s more than that. There were some computer things, and they paid a lot of money.”

“You need the money?” Theron asks.

I almost laugh in his face. I don’t, but I almost do. “I love that you have money and think everyone else does.”

It happens before I realize it’s happened. It takes me by surprise. Theron’s hand reaches out, and his fingers curl around the front of my throat. He squeezes firmly as he holds me and leans forward, his face so close to mine that he could kiss me, but I’m not sure I want him to right now—he seems kind of pissed.

“I had nothing. I came from nothing. I was nothing. I know what it is to be poor and desperate.”

His words are a punch to my gut, and I feel like a bitch. His mouth touches mine, and his tongue slides across my bottom lip before he speaks. His lips touch my own with each word he says.

Closing my eyes, I allow my body to relax as he murmurs against my mouth. “Were you desperate, sweetheart? You could have come to me at any time.”

“The man who broke me? No, thank you,” I breathe against his lips.

He hums, and his hand releases my throat, and then he grips the backs of my thighs and hitches me up. I wrap my legs around his hips when he moves toward the bedroom. Gripping his shoulders, I look into his eyes, my breaths coming out in pants.

I need him inside of me right this minute.