Page 232 of Powerhouse: Boxed Set
So I did. I did tell him. I looked him square in the eye, and I gritted my teeth and I told him. “Yes, Tristan, he killed Stephen Cannon. He stabbed him in the gut and watched him bleed to death on the floor, and I wanted that. I wanted it, too.”
His jaw dropped, and he paled, and he staggered away from me. “You wanted him to? Why the fuck would you want him to?”
I forced the words. “He was trying to rape me. He was hurting me, and I was begging him to stop, but he wouldn’t listen, and Lucian saved me. Lucian Morelli saved me.”
Tristan was shaking his head. “No. It can’t be. No, Elaine. Don’t you dare lie to me.”
I kept my stare hard on his. “I’m not lying. Stephen Cannon was trying to rape me, and the monster saved me from him.”
My best friend cursed and put his head in his hands, and then he cursed to himself, over and over, because he knew it as well as I did. The whole damn situation was shit.
“My family can’t find out about this, Tristan,” I said. “If there’s any way in the whole damn world it’s possible, they can’t find out about this. You have to help me.”
“Holy fuck,” he yelled, but he didn’t say no. He couldn’t say no.
“Please! Please, Tristan! I have to find a way out of this. They can’t know Lucian Morelli saved me from Stephen by butchering him in a city dive while I watched.” I couldn’t tell him he fucked me in the ass. Even I couldn’t share that truth.
“People will know! Not unless he kills the whole damn party.”
He was right, but there was no way I could give up, not without trying. I’d be signing my own death warrant if I did.
But that wasn’t why I was doing it. That wasn’t why I was trying.
I wasn’t trying to find a way out of this mess to counter my own death warrant. My death warrant was already signed over to the Power brothers. I was expecting it.
I was doing it to counter Lucian Morelli’s.
Tristan was churning things over just like I was; I could see the cogs whirring in his brain.
“Blue knows,” he said after a few minutes. “Blue was there when Morelli came looking for you.”
“So if we shut Blue up…that would help, right?”
Tristan shook his head, jabbing a finger at me. “Nah, Elaine. Don’t you dare. Don’t you fucking dare. If anything happens to Blue, I swear to God, I’ll tell your family myself.”
I forced a smile, black humor in the despair. “Seems you’re falling for him then. Who’d have thought it? Both of us losing our hearts to our lovers in the same crazy whirlwind.” I managed to laugh. A bitter laugh. “I wasn’t thinking about killing him. I was thinking of you talking to him.”
He didn’t force a smile right back, and he sure as fuck didn’t laugh. “This isn’t the same crazy whirlwind, and Lucian Morelli isn’t your lover. He’s the man who wants to destroy you and your whole damn bloodline. The man who wants to use you.”
I didn’t argue with him, because what would be the point? There was no reason that could possibly counter the fact that the Morellis despised the Constantines, and destroying us all meant more to them than a mountain of joy ever could.
Even so, with my ass still hurting, and my pulse still racing, I couldn’t believe Lucian Morelli wanted nothing more than sex.
It wasn’t my head that wouldn’t believe it…it was my heart.
It was my heart that believed Lucian wanted more from me than destroying every sliver of life in my body and my soul to match.
It was my heart that believed Lucian had saved me for a reason…more of a reason than saving my pain all for himself, which he did—he wanted my pain all for himself—but it was more than that.
It was my heart that believed that maybe, just maybe, Lucian Morelli could love me back. One day, in a whole other world, in a whole other time, maybe, just maybe, Lucian Morelli could love me back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Lucian
My parents wereeating when I sat myself down at the dining table. My mother gave me her patented Sarah Morelli serene smile. My father barely looked at me, placing his cutlery down neatly at the sides of his plate as he cleared his throat.
“Leave us,” he said to the butler, and old man Michael scurried away with a bow.
