Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

Wyn

After Lucas is taken away, Christian whisks me off to my apartment—and thank God, he waits with me. He’s texting the entire time, but at least I’m not alone.

About an hour later, there’s a knock on my door. I jump up from my bed and open the door. It’s Lux.

“Oh, thank God,” I breathe, pulling her into a hug.

She steps into my apartment and immediately spots Christian. “What’s going on?” she asks, her eyes landing on the bruise that mars my cheek.

“He’s just here while we wait to hear about Lucas,” I say, avoiding the topic of Gabriel altogether. I’m not in the mood to answer all the questions I know she’ll have.

She nods. “I just heard Lucas was arrested. Roman is over at Rush House right now. I thought I should check up on you.”

Christian stands up. “Are you staying a while?” he asks Lux.

“Uh, yeah,” she says, looking confused. “I can.”

“Okay, good.” Christian heads for the door. “I’d better get over to Rush House and see if the guys have heard anything. They’re not answering my texts.”

“Thanks for waiting with me,” I say. Lucas told him to do it, but still, it was nice of him.

“I’ll text you if I hear anything,” he says, leaving.

Once the door is shut, I sink back onto the bed.

“So what happened?” Lux asks.

I tell her everything I know, which is next to nothing. “All I know is that he was arrested. No idea why, or what’s happening.”

Lux sits on the bed next to me and pulls me into a side hug. “I’m sorry, babe. The guys will figure out what’s going on. I mean, this is their thing, right?”

Seeing Lucas cuffed and hauled away was easily one of the worst moments of my life. Is he okay? Will I ever see him again? Everyone keeps reassuring me that everything will be sorted out, but I can see the fear on their faces. I can hear the uncertainty in their tone.

“Well, um, I actually came here to do more than check on you. But, I don’t know if I should say anything…” Lux says, hesitating.

Turning to face her, I grab her arm. “What?” I say quickly, maybe a little too emphatically. “Did you hear something?”

I should have known Lux would have the tea. Roman is incredibly well-connected. I mean, they all are. But if anyone can get information, it’d be the former leader of the Burning Crown, right?

Concern is etched on her face, like she’s afraid to tell me. “Well, um, I don’t know if this is even true,” she says, bracing me. “So don’t freak out…”

Oh, Jezus. My stomach twists, and my heart starts quivering in my chest.

“Just tell me, Lux. Please.”

She swallows. “Roman has contacts everywhere—you know that already. Well, um, he heard that Lucas has been charged with first-degree murder.”

It takes a second for that to sink in. “For murdering who? ”

I mean, I know the Sacred Sons have killed people. These secret societies are like the fucking mafia—death and betrayal is part of the business. But the Sacred Sons have inherited a legacy of killing people, so it doesn’t make sense that Lucas would get caught now. It just doesn’t.

“Gabriel,” she says.

I blink at her, confused. “But Gabriel is alive.”

She shrugs. “Well, the guy he thought was Gabriel. According to Roman’s source, there are texts between Lucas and Gabriel, showing they’d planned on meeting by the tracks that night. But the guy who showed up wasn’t Gabriel—his name was Justin Welch. He did look like Gabriel, though. Like, almost exactly.”

I shake my head, immediately rejecting whatever she’s implying. I know the police have been investigating Lucas for being involved in Gabriel’s death somehow, because of that witness that came forward. But that was clearly a dead end, because Gabriel popped up alive, so…

“That doesn’t even make sense,” I say, dropping my hand and leaning back. “Why would Lucas shove some random dude in front of a train?”

Lux looks down at her hands and smooths her thumb over her painted nails like she doesn’t want to say the next thing. “Um, okay…” She looks up at me and pushes out a heavy breath. “...apparently, there’s surveillance footage of the whole thing—and it’s definitely Lucas at the scene.”

I pop up onto my feet and take a step back, still confused. “Have you seen the video?”

“No,” she admits.

Okay. Okay. I blow out a breath. If Lux hasn’t seen the alleged footage, then it’s still just a rumor, right? Rumors are wrong all the time. Most of the time, in fact. Right? Right, yes.

I’m pacing the length of my small studio, deep in thought, when Lux stands up and takes me by the arms, forcing me to pause. “What are you thinking?” she asks.

“That all of this is obviously a mistake,” I say, lifting my hands. She releases me, and I continue pacing. “Remember when Lucas hated me because he thought I’d contributed to Gabriel’s death? He was so unbelievably grief-stricken. You saw that, right?”

She shrugs one shoulder. “I mean, yeah. I’m not saying it makes any sense. But it sounds like the video is legit.”

I spin on her. “Then why is it only coming to light now? Don’t you find that suspicious?”

“Apparently, the camera was on an abandoned building, and the owner had it installed a couple of years ago to scare off squatters.” She shrugs again. “But it was hidden, like a trail cam, so the police didn’t realize it was there until the owner came forward.”

I shake my head, hands on my hips. “It’s still weird. I know Gabriel, and he manipulates people. That’s what he does. I wouldn’t put it past him to fake a video.”

Lux glances away from me, and right then, I know in my gut she’s not telling me something. “What?” I ask her. “What aren’t you telling me?”

When she looks at me, I can see the pity in her eyes, and that, more than anything, scares the fuck out of me. Because it’s confirmation that there’s something damning that she hasn’t shared with me yet.

“I haven’t seen the video,” she says quietly. “But I have it.”

My heart crawls up into my throat. “The actual video?”

“It’s a video of a video,” she says. “But, yeah…”

Oh, thank God. “Good. Let’s see it!”

“Wyn…”

“No, really.” I plop back down on the bed. “I’ll be able to tell if it’s a fake, or maybe someone posing as Lucas…”

The way Lucas moves, and the way he carries himself is branded into my brain—especially since finding out he was my stalker. I’m convinced I’d recognize him anywhere.

“God, this is a bad idea,” she says with a sigh, sitting down next to me. “Are you sure you want to see it? Because once you do, there’s no going back.”

“Lux, if I don’t watch it, I’ll always wonder…” I say, even though my heart is pounding. “And if you’re afraid I’ll be upset by the blood and gore, then I should tell you, I’ve seen the evidence photos. So that trauma ship has already sailed.”

Pulling her phone out, she unlocks it, and hands it to me. It’s not her usual phone, though, which means it’s most likely a burner phone that Roman gave her. Smart move. You don’t want a video like this on your personal device, fake or not.

“It’s the only video, so it should be easy to find,” she says, looking anywhere but at the phone.

I find the video easily, my stomach churning as I hit play. God, I want to throw up. I swallow back the bile that rises in the back of my throat as the video comes to life. The quality is surprisingly crisp for a trail cam—that’s the first thing I notice. Usually shit like this is grainy as hell.

There’s a few seconds of nothing before a figure comes into view. It looks like…Gabriel. It’s dark, and there’s no sound, but the camera has night vision, so I can see the guy clearly. He’s wearing the same hoodie I’ve seen Gabriel wear a million times. While we were together, I even bought him another one, because the original had gotten so gross.

Gabriel—or the guy, Justin—stands there for a second, looking down at his phone, when another figure walks into frame. He turns toward the camera for a split second, giving me a full view of his face—and it’s Lucas. Undeniably. The hood of his sweatshirt is pulled over his head, and he doesn’t say anything. He grabs the guy by the sweatshirt and throws him into the path of the oncoming train. Just like that. It all happens in three seconds, tops.

The guy goes flying, and right before the train makes impact, I flinch, dropping the phone. It crashes to the floor, and I clap a hand over my mouth to stifle the scream that erupts from my throat.

Lux rushes over to me, grabs the phone, and turns it off. Then she tosses it on the bed. “Are you okay?” She pulls me into a hug, and we both sink to the floor. The tears come in a rush, and before I can even catch my breath, I’m sobbing into Lux’s shoulder. She rocks me gently, patiently waiting for me to cry myself out.

Finally, I pull back, my face wet, my nose completely stuffed up. I sniff loudly, but it doesn’t help. I can’t breathe and my head is throbbing. “What the fuck?” I say, shaking my head.

“Tell me what you saw.”

“It was him. It was Lucas.” I wipe the tears off my face with my palms. “I thought maybe it was a deep-fake or something, but…” I shake my head again. “You can’t deep-fake certain things. The way he moved…” I know in my gut it was him. “But why? Why would he do something like that, and then go around blaming me for Gabriel’s death? None of this is making any sense.”

Lux is on her knees in front of me. “There’s only one person who can answer that…”

“Oh, fuck, no. I can’t face him. Not after seeing that.” I stand up and walk into the bathroom to grab a tissue, but I consider staying because bile is rising again in my throat. I wipe my face, then burst into a fresh wave of tears.

Lux follows me into the bathroom and sits on the edge of the tub. “I’m sorry, babe. This fucking sucks.”

“It’s not that I didn’t know what Lucas was capable of…” I say. “It’s the cold brutality of it. And the fact that Gabriel was someone he loved deeply. How could Lucas be capable of something that cold?”

Lux shrugs. “Maybe there’s some kind of explanation…”

I sit on the lid of the toilet, face in my hands. “I have no idea what to think…” I say. “And maybe it doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean, babe?”

“Lucas warned me,” I say, remembering our last conversation. “He said he’d done something, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was, because he was afraid I’d never forgive him….” I pull in a trembling breath and glance at Lux. “And he was right. Lucas West is a monster, and I never want to see him again…”