The fire returned in her eyes. Her arms were crossed, and she asked. “Back to your old tricks again?”
Chapter 30
Leda
I paused in the doorway, meeting Lucas’s hard stare. It was my worst fear, the one I had thought that I was wrong about, but now, Lucas’s true motives were coming to light. “What did you do?” I asked hotly. “What are you doing to my brother?”
Lucas frowned and pushed out of the chair. “What are you talking about?”
“I heard you!” I exploded, stalking into the study. “I heard you talking with Nico. What are you planning to do? Hand him over to the Dons to buy back their loyalty?”
“Leda, I—”
I cut him off. “Or are you planning on doing the job yourself so that you can get your precious title back? Is that why you have been waiting for me to make the call?” Could it be that he had just left his phone out for me to grab all along, putting his plans in motion? He knew I was desperate to talk to my brother, and I had unwittingly laid the groundwork for him to consider Nico’s help.
I had given my brother to him on a silver platter. “The title is all you care about,” I continued, tears smarting in my eyes. “You never gave a damn about me, did you? You wanted hurt my brother.”
Saying those words out loud hurt more than I thought, knowing that I had loved a man who had done nothing but lie to me in the end to get what he wanted. He was no different than my father.
Something akin to hurt flashed over Lucas’s features. I wanted to laugh in his face. He couldn’t hurt, but he was tearing me open inside, exposing my heart that had loved him fiercely despite everything he had done to me.
Before I could turn away, Lucas reached out and gripped my upper arms, pulling me close. “Is that what you think of me?” he asked harshly, his eyes searching mine. “That I would do all this just to pull your brother out in the open so I could kill him?”
I lifted my chin, hurt bleeding from my pores. I wasn’t going to survive this betrayal from Lucas. He was going to ruin me for the rest of my life.
“Isn’t that why you called him?” After all, Lucas wasn’t one to ask for help. I had offered it numerous times, from both my brother and me, but he had acted like I had asked him to rip out his heart and give it to me instead.
“No,” he growled, his hands tightening on my arms. “I was calling him for help.”
My mouth fell open. “What?”
Lucas let out a heavy breath, and his hands fell from my arms. “I called your brother to ask for his help. He’s coming in a few days so we can talk strategy.”
I couldn’t believe it. Lucas had talked with Nico, and Nico had agreed to help. “I-I don’t understand,” I said, my mind blank. “Why would you do that? I thought you didn’t want any help.” How could I believe that he had actually done so?
How could I believe him at all?
Lucas turned away, and I saw the tension in his shoulders under the V-neck shirt he had put on this morning, how he held himself cautiously. “How can I believe you?” I asked softly.
Lucas didn’t answer immediately, and for a moment I didn’t think he had heard me.
“Your brother asked me a question,” he said after a moment. “A question of how someone like me could become Don. I told him he would hear it if he agrees to help me. But I will tellyou.”
My lips parted. I hadn’t asked myself that question until yesterday, when it was clear to me that Lucas hadn’t been given the same training my brother had.
“My mother was a drug addict. Heroin. Started from painkillers and just never stopped.”
He was going to tell me his story. This was on a whole other level, learning the side of Lucas that he hadn’t shared.
“Eventually, she ran out of money. So she started turning tricks. Worked for a pimp who was a real piece of shit,” he continued, his voice monotone and without any sort of feeling while I struggled to process what was happening. “The kind of guy who gave her needles so he could keep her in the business. She got in deep with him once, and he demanded a payment she couldn’t afford. But there was one things she had left.”
“You,” I forced out, feeling sick to my stomach.
Lucas nodded, his gaze focused on the window before him. “I had a pretty face, he said, one that would bring a hell of a lot of money and more drugs for my mom. So she sold me to him.”
I stared at his back, horrified. “How old were you?”
“Ten.”