Page 213 of Powerhouse: Boxed Set
That paranoia.
I glanced through the back window, just to assure myself how safe I really was…but it was there again. That same car was following us back towards the city.
It was then that I realized the truth. The Power brothers were coming for me, for real this time. My days of giving them the brush off were coming to an end, and I was done for. This time I’d be truly done for.
I should be relieved. Who cared if I lived or died? That’s what I told Lucian.
But I was terrified instead.
I dashed out of the car as soon as the driver pulled up outside my building, not even giving him the time to open the door for me. I was inside and in the elevator up to my suite, barely catching a breath before I was through my front door.
The Power brothers wouldn’t get me in here. Nobody could get me in here, not with all the security on the ground floor.
I checked my calendar, and the rest of my week was mostly with Harriet. The Power brothers wouldn’t come after me around Harriet, that would be striking too much of a blow against my family to risk the comeback on that score.
I was so churned up thinking about the Power brothers that I jumped in my seat when my phone sounded out with a ping. Tristan. It was Tristan.
Still coming on Saturday night? Blue Hawk was great in bed, you know. Hope you can meet him again. Want your approval.
I hadn’t actually liked Blue Hawk that much. He was an arrogant little shit, dangling Tristan by a thread. But I wanted to keep tabs on him to protect Tristan.Is Stephen going to be there?
The response came within seconds.
Sure is. Hopefully he can keep you distracted from your Morelli fantasies.
He shouldn’t have put that in text form. I deleted it before I replied,I’ll be there.
At least it was something to look forward to. I had no idea if or when I’d ever see Lucian again before I got taken out by the host of other assholes after my blood, so at least I could enjoy staring at a guy who reminded me of him.
Tristan sent me a reminder of where I was going, and I put it in my calendar before I could forget it. Spirit Club. Another dive downtown. Another place I wouldn’t be telling anyone I was going to. At least the Power brothers wouldn’t think to find me there.
I got into bed, managing another night with no alcohol. The scalpel was calling me, the craving for the release of slicing my skin was almost harder to resist than the craving of drugs in my veins. Hell knows how, but I managed to resist them both.
Just a shame I wouldn’t be able to resist Lucian Morelli if he ever came for me again.
I hated myself more than ever as I realized I was praying that he did.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Lucian
Slipping the trackerinside Elaine’s purse was a bad decision. She was preoccupying me through every minute. I should’ve been satisfied with having her whereabouts at my fingertips, but I wasn’t. I wanted to be hunting her. Taunting her. Scaring her until she hurt.
It had been a lie, what I told her. I may have found her looking for a wife, but what I want from her now has nothing to do with the board of Morelli Holdings.
I’d been stalking Elaine from the moment she stepped outside the auction that night, tempting myself with fantasies of her pain and fear. I hadn’t so much as ventured close to the Morelli Holdings headquarters on that Thursday morning, staring up at her apartment block like a fool, just outside of her security radar while my chauffeur tried to sleep in the front seat.
It was fucking ridiculous. I wasn’t some Romeo. She wasn’t Juliet.
And I wasn’t going to be made CEO if I didn’t make our engagement public.
She left her place on Thursday evening to dash out to the waiting limousine and head off for her Roosevelt social function. My own chauffeur had been moving in seconds, screeching tires as we pulled away. I’d followed her from her city apartment through to Bishop’s Landing, keeping her in my sight until she’d pulled left into her uncle’s driveway—the asshole called Geoffrey that I’d heard plenty of rumors about over the years. By all accounts, her mother relied on her brother for some of the more nefarious parts of her business. Maybe Elaine’s attendance was a token social event to coast along on top of a more lucrative one.
I’d been hovering around the streets for hours, driving in circles with my exhausted chauffeur until her tracker finally told me she was leaving Geoffrey’s place. I followed her back into the city just to watch her dash from the car through to her apartment building.
One thing the pretty fool couldn’t hide—she was moving damn fast wherever she went. It brought a smile to my face. There was no doubt in my mind that she knew she was being followed. Instinct. She knew she was being chased by a monster.
My lack of attendance at Morelli Holdings on Friday morning was alien to everyone.
