Relentless Read online

  “Sit the fuck down,” he said, and I did as instructed, sitting back in my seat with my foot up on one knee.

  “What is this about?” I asked him, my voice barely more than a hiss to match.

  He tossed a file across at me and I flicked it open.

  Testimonials of clubgoers saying how they’d seen Lucian Morelli chasing down Elaine Constantine. The event where I’d floored the security guard after the pathetic little downtown dive was recorded loud and clear.

  “How do you think this fucking looks?” he spat. “I knew you’d been chasing that Constantine bitch, but I didn’t expect the whole fucking world to be talking about it. The Constantines are entering a discussion with the Power Brothers. A fucking discussion. It should be bloodshed, not conversation, and this is because of you, isn’t it? We were set to pair up with the Powers, not watch from the sidelines as they begin negotiations.”

  My blood chilled even colder than its usual ice. Discussions were never good, not between enemies. They showed nothing more than that people were prepared to hear alternate versions of events.

  “Tell me now, boy,” my father said. “Is there anything I should know about this?”

  I looked him right in the eyes. “Such as what?”

  “Such as you chasing down this bitch. Did you kill her?”

  My answer was perfectly truthful. “No. I didn’t kill her.”

  “So the Powers have her, yes? Their negotiations with the Constantines will be futile?”

  “What the Powers have and don’t have has never been high on my list of priorities. I can sure as hell not answer questions for them.” Again, I wasn’t lying.

  My father’s glare was savage. “If the Constantines and the Power Brothers come to some crazy conclusion that we’re responsible for this, Lucian, life sure as fuck isn’t going to be easy.”

  He was right on that front. The Constantines we could take on, happily. It would be a difficult battle, but it would be a fair one. For us to go up against the Constantines with the Power Brothers also on their side would be a whole other matter.

  “We could have paired up with the Powers,” he said. “You know full well they wanted our allegiance. We could have made a powerful ally.”

  “Yes,” I replied. “I know that. Maybe they still will.”

  “Then it should be us they are entering into discussions with, not the fucking Constantines.” He gestured to the file in front of me. “Tell me about this. What do I need to know about your relentless pursuits of that little blonde bitch?”

  I shrugged at him. “I was chasing her. It got intense.”

  His stare was ruthless. “I’ll get to the bottom of this, boy, and you know it. If there is anything you need to tell me, you’d better do it now.”

  “I have nothing to say.” In that very moment I was sealing my demise.

  “Get out of here, then,” he spat at me. “Get your head straight with whatever pussy you want to indulge in and then get the fuck back to work.”

  “Fine,” I said, and got to my feet. “I’ll enjoy my fucking vacation.”

  He called me back when I got to the door.

  “I mean it, Lucian,” he said. “If you’ve done anything to jeopardize our family name or position in this world, I’ll kill you myself. People are talking, and they’re talking now. If you think for a second you are one step ahead of anyone, you are very sorely mistaken. They’re coming for you, and I will be too if you’ve let me down. Believe me.”

  I had no doubt about that as I turned my back on him and walked away.

  3

  Elaine

  I was petrified, wandering through the house like a ghost, praying, praying, praying that my love would come back to me before dusk. The front door was locked, just like I promised it would be. I couldn’t stop looking at it. Pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

  Up and down the hallway like a woman possessed.

  My mind was churning through the maybes.

  Maybe people had found out about where I was. Maybe they’d found out that my note blaming the Power Brothers was just more of my lies. Maybe this whole new beautiful part of my world would last just a few tiny days before fate laughed in my face and gave me the middle finger.

  I’d sworn to Lucian that I’d head back into the city if he didn’t come home. Heading back into the city would be the last thing I’d ever want to do again. Not ever.

  It turns out fate wasn’t such a vindictive beast after all. Thank the lord.

  My heart was a racing train when I heard the Mercedes pull up into the driveway. My fingers were shaking as I twisted the key in the lock to let him in. I almost swung the door off its hinges as I burst my way out there to meet him.

  My exclamation was loud. “Lucian!”

  His arms answered me when he stepped up onto the porch. They wrapped me up so tightly it was heaven, squeezing me safe.

  I pulled away enough to stare up at him, eyes searching his face.

  His expression was solid, like steel, but there was something in his gaze. Something that told me fate hadn’t been quite so kind after all.

  He didn’t launch straight into an explanation.

  “What was it?” I asked him. “Was it work?”

  “No, sweetheart. It wasn’t work.”

  We went through to the kitchen and he propped himself against the counter, but his stare was anything but relaxed. “The Power Brothers are entering into discussions with your family.”

  I’m sure my mouth must have dropped open. “Discussions? But what the hell have they got to be talking about? My family think Elliot Ree killed me to clear my debts…”

  “This is the problem,” he said. “Apparently they aren’t quite so sure that is the case anymore. It appears the Power Brothers are intent on making that clear, and everyone else is likely believing them.”

  I felt a flood of panic in me, because if my family didn’t believe my note was telling the truth… if they started asking questions which led them closer to reality…

  Lucian made us token coffees that neither of us had an interest in.

  “My father had a file full of witness statements. People telling tales about how I was chasing you through clubs downtown. Even the security guard I kneed in the gut was fool enough to tell the world it was me who did that to him. Under usual circumstances he’d pay for that. I’d have him torn to pieces.”

  “Does he believe them, your father?” I asked. “Does he think it was you who took me?”

  He sipped his coffee. “He asked me if I killed you. I said no.”

  I let out a breath. “Maybe they won’t find out what really happened. Who knows? Maybe my family will attack the Power Brothers before they ever realize they didn’t get to me in time. Because they would have taken me, the Power Brothers… I really did see Elliot Ree hunting me down. They would have killed me.”

  He shook his head. “Your friend Tristan hasn’t spoken yet. That singer he was hooked up with hasn’t either, but if they do. When they do.” He paused. “Or when people question who the hell Terence Kingsley is, which they will do pretty damn soon. Or when they realize that Reverend Lynch has been taken from the manor. So many things, baby. It’s only a matter of time.”

  My soul was shriveling, because he was right. The roads all led to Lucian. To me and Lucian. Even my cousin Silas had seen us together, back at Tinsley’s birthday ball. As soon as the Power Brothers were out of the question, it would be like an atom bomb, waiting right at our door, ready to explode.

  “So what do we do?” I asked him. “We have to do something, right? There has to be something we can do, because I can’t go back there. I can’t, Lucian.”

  “Every second is one step closer to our doom,” he told me. “We have to move. Quickly.”

  I was nodding, frantic. “Yes, we move! We move anywhere! I don’t care where we go, just as long as I’m with you. Please, Lucian, let’s run. Let’s run now!”

  His cell sounded out again. A me
ssage. He picked it up and I watched his face as he read it. I saw his mouth drop. “That’s my good friend, Hunter Sparro. He’s asking me what the hell is going on. Says everyone is talking about Lucian Morelli and Elaine Constantine and how I’ve been hunting you down.”

  My head was spinning, trying to work out some miracle solution. I’d been a fool to think a single note would condemn the Power Brothers for wiping me out without anyone questioning a thing. Only I hadn’t cared about Lucian Morelli then. Not enough to attempt something less questionable.

  Lucian’s fingers were still hitting his cell screen.

  “I’ll make some calls,” he said. “Get an exit plan together.”

  “An exit plan?”

  “Fake IDs. We need to get out of here, overseas as soon as possible.”

  “Okay. Right,” I said. “I guess you have loads of them, right? Fake IDs and stuff. I know people do. People like you, I mean.”

  He sneered, but there was affection in it. “People like me. I love how you’ve been raised to believe that I really am some monster from the underworld and your family is on the other end of the spectrum. Believe me, sweetheart, your family will have as many fake IDs as mine will. They’re as fucked up in the evil shit as we are.”

  I tipped my head. “Yeah, okay, well, I don’t have any fake IDs. I’ve never seen one in my life.”

  He smirked. “I love your innocence.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not many people would say a party girl with a debt so huge it would cost her her life had a huge amount of innocence about her.”

  “Still,” he said. “You’re innocent. I love you for it.”

  Hearing those words from him made my soul sing. I love you. Lucian Morelli really loved me. A Morelli really did love a Constantine.

  And a Constantine loved him right back.

  “You know this is like some fucked-up version of Romeo and Juliet, right?” I said. “It’s like a modern-day Shakespeare, just a whole load less… picturesque.”

  I adored his smile, even though it was a sad one. “Just a shame Romeo and Juliet both die at the end of it, isn’t it? Let’s do our best to make sure we don’t follow in their fucking footsteps.”

  He finished his coffee and wandered away with his cell in his hand, fingers busy. I finished mine and headed through to the living room, daring to put the TV on to check out the latest news.

  It was all still the same, pleas for information from my family and people saying random shit about where they’d seen me. It seemed the mainstream media wasn’t anywhere closer to the truth. I doubted they ever would be.

  I could hear Lucian speaking, his voice low and his tone his usual icy pitch. I didn’t focus on what he was saying. There was a strange calmness in me somehow, even with the looming carnage. It was trust. I trusted Lucian to take care. Of me. Of us.

  He was gone a while before he came through to the living room.

  “The UK,” he said to me. “We’ll go to the UK. We’ll be running, but we stand more chance of surviving with the Atlantic as a buffer, at least.”

  I hadn’t been to the UK since I was a little girl. We’d gone there as a family, smiling for the cameras as we checked out London with a few of the aristocrats we were such good family friends with. I’d been in awe of the place. I’d loved it. The London Eye and Buckingham Palace and the quaint countryside surrounding the city.

  “Can we get there?” I asked him. “Will we manage to make the journey?”

  “Only one way to find out.”

  One thing was for sure, I’d risk my life trying.

  4

  Lucian

  We were fighting time and I knew it. The tentacles were snaking closer to us. Questions hissing closer and closer.

  I’d managed to find out that the Constantines were meeting the Power Brothers at that very moment. We had hours, tops, before those discussions would lead to our demise, or get very close to it. As soon as the Constantines stopped looking at the Power Brothers and shot even the slightest glance in another direction, we’d be fucked, and my father had his pulse in line with theirs, seeking out my lies.

  The contacts I chose to use were distant from my regular network—as distant as I could possibly risk venturing. I mentioned nothing about Elaine Constantine being alongside me, just that I needed a fresh set of IDs to get out of the country. Wesley Dale was all set to meet me in the parking lot of JFK International Airport, but it would be over 24 hours until he could deliver. As well as the fake IDs, he was also getting us tickets on a flight out of there, heading right on over to the UK.

  As much as 24 hours between now and our flight would be one hell of a long one, it did grant me a window to complete the calling in my soulless heart that couldn’t be silenced.

  I had something that needed to be done first, before we made our escape. Something I couldn’t walk away from. Something I could never leave the country without fulfilling, no matter how insane it might be. It was festering too deep in my gut to ignore.

  There was no guarantee I’d ever be back in the US again in this lifetime. This might well be my only chance to deliver what was deserved to the pieces of filth.

  I’d do my damn fucking best trying.

  I gave Elaine one more chance to back out of a future on the run before we were snared for good.

  “You’re really sure about this? This is your last opportunity to head back to your world. Make sure you won’t regret the road you take with me, sweetheart.”

  Her reply was instant. “I’d rather die with you than survive alone.”

  It was a beautiful statement. One I fully reciprocated as I pulled her close and held her tight.

  “Ditto.”

  Her smile was amazing.

  “Let’s go, then, Romeo. Let’s get across the ocean and start our new life.”

  That’s when I told her, my eyes fixed firm on hers.

  “Our escape will be tomorrow, which is just as well. I have something I need to do before then, Juliet.”

  Her question was instant. Wide-eyed.

  “What? What do you need to do before then?”

  I contemplated sharing my plans, but I didn’t. She would only beg me to let them go, but I had no intention of it. I wouldn’t let retribution go for any fucking thing in the world.

  It wasn’t only fake IDs and plane tickets and women’s clothes I’d been seeking out on my cell for the past sixty minutes. It was Colonel Hardwick’s current location. Only that had led me to so much more. You could call it God giving me his blessing. I fucking deserved it for the beautiful payback I was about to deliver.

  Through my backhanded investigations, I’d managed to find out that it wasn’t just Colonel Hardwick who was at Hanborough Park Golf Course that morning. No. Lionel Constantine, the depraved uncle who’d delivered Elaine to her abusers when she was just a scared little girl, was right there with him. Forty minutes’ drive away.

  Halle-fucking-lujah.

  I knew what they were there for. I knew the only thing they could possibly be there socializing for in the midst of Elaine Constantine’s abduction. Reverend Lynch. The vile priest and his sudden disappearance, and no doubt the girls I’d set free to run away from the manor late that night after I’d taken his sicko life away from him.

  I changed my clothes to casual golfing attire as Elaine stared on from the bedroom doorway. She was visibly scared as I loaded myself up with the necessary weaponry from the cabinet downstairs. She was ghostly as she followed me around the place, eyes wide and terrified.

  “Really, Lucian, whatever it is you need to do, do you really have to do it? We could hole up here and stay as quiet as we can, and just pray that nobody finds us.”

  I stepped up close and took hold of her chin, tipping her face up to mine.

  “I need to go. I can’t leave without delivering what’s due.”

  She was shaking as I kissed her. She let out a breath as my tongue pushed its way inside her mouth and danced with a passion. Kissing stopped question
s.

  “There are suitcases under the bed in my room,” I told her as I forced myself to pull away. “If you want to make our escape as smooth as possible, then please feel free to pack as many essentials as you can find for the journey. The more ready we are to leave, the better. Somehow we need to find you some damn clothes to go with, too. I don’t think you wearing my shirt on the plane is going to blend us into the hustle all that much.”

  She smiled at me and did a scared little curtsy. “I kinda like wearing your shirt constantly. Can’t say I’ve been missing my wardrobe.”

  I did my best to smile right back at her.

  “Lock the door behind me again. Same rules apply. I’m not back by dusk, you head back to the city.”

  This time her nod was quiet, her meekness visible. The sassy bitch who’d fired back at me at every opportunity just a few days earlier was well out of sight.

  Surprisingly, I was looking forward to her return.

  I was off quickly, slipping into the Merc and driving away with a screech of tires as she watched from the doorstep, arms wrapped around her chest.

  I called up the navigation on my cell and sped towards my destination. I had my own membership to Hanborough Park, nobody would question my arrival.

  There wasn’t even the faintest sliver of uncertainty in me as I pulled up into the golf course parking lot. I was as sure of my actions as I’d been of anything in my life. My fingers were already itching to pull the trigger and deliver revenge on behalf of the woman I loved.

  “Good morning,” I said to the guy at the check-in desk when I stepped into reception.

  “Good morning, Mr. Morelli, sir,” he offered and waved me on through. He was new to the position. I’d never seen him before.

  New enough not to know that you keep Morellis and Constantines apart at all costs.

  I used that to my advantage.

  “I’m here to meet up with Colonel Hardwick. Could you please tell me which hole he’s on?”

  He gave me a happy little smile. “Last time I heard they were at hole four, but I’m not sure.”