AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lachlan
A buzzing startled me awake,cutting through the muted ocean waves in the distance. I snapped my eyes open, looking around the darkened space, disoriented.
Until my gaze fell on Belle’s slumbering form beside me. A smile crept over my face. It should have felt strange to wake up next to another woman. The last person I spent the night with was Piper. Since then, I’d made it one of my rules. No spending the night. Ever.
But I couldn’t have left Belle last night even if I wanted to. She was dopamine for my soul. Elixir for my heart. The cure for my past.
And the frequent sex throughout the night was a rather nice bonus.
The buzzing forced my thoughts to return to the present. I squinted at my phone on the nightstand, Nikko’s name on the screen. It was still mostly dark, the first light of day beginning to fight its way on the horizon. Whatever Nikko wanted had to be important if he was calling this early.
Carefully slipping out of bed so I didn’t wake Belle, I grabbed my phone and pulled on my boxer briefs before sneaking onto the lanai, mindful to be quiet as I closed the sliding glass door behind me.
“Nikko,” I said in a hushed tone, hoping he could hear over the slight breeze and crashing waves in the background.
“Where are you, bruh? I stopped by your house to talk to you before you went out to catch some waves.”
“I, uh…” I cleared my throat. “I’m not home.”
“Not home?”
“No.” I didn’t elaborate. It wasn’t worth it. Not when Belle would be nothing but a distant memory in mere days. “Why did you stop by? Is everything okay? Did you already figure out who this Lucretia is?”
He exhaled a deep breath. “Not yet. There was no one in any of your guest logs by that name. I checked first, middle, and last names. I’m moving on to see if any of your guests had friends or family by that name who might have stayed with them, but with trying to keep this off HPD’s radar, it’s going to take some time. I did find something that might be of interest, though.”
I straightened, my heart rate kicking up slightly. “What’s that?”
This investigation was slowly becoming a double-edged sword. On one hand, I wanted answers about what really happened to Claire. On the other, I feared I wasn’t going to like what those answers would uncover about Piper. I already didn’t.
“For shits and giggles, I ran a basic internet search for the name Lucretia. Honestly, I didn’t expect to find anything.” He laughed under his breath. “Shows you how much I paid attention in my ancient history class.”
“Ancient history? What does that have to do with any of this?”
“Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. I spent half the night going down the proverbial rabbit hole.”
“Care to share what you learned?”
“Fuck no, but I know I have to.”
I pushed out a nervous laugh. “That’s not exactly reassuring.”
“Apparently, Lucretia was a Roman noblewoman who lived a few hundred years before the birth of Christ. At the time, Rome was under the rule of a tyrannical monarch. Don’t quote me on the specifics. I’m not good with this shit. English and history were never really my strong suits.”
“Mine, either.”
“Keep in mind there are, like, a dozen different variations on the story, so I’m only giving you the highlights. Anyway, Lucretia was known for being this virtuous woman. One night, Prince Sextus came into her room while she was sleeping and gave her a choice. Let him fuck her, or he’d kill her and one of the male slaves sitting outside her room, then arrange their bodies to make it look like he caught her being unfaithful to her husband with the slave.”
“Sounds like a real upstanding guy,” I retorted sarcastically.
“I agree. Being the virtuous woman she was, Lucretia refused both options. And being the narcissist he was, Sextus raped her anyway. Now, in ancient times, adultery carried a penalty of death, regardless of whether the wife consented. If she was married and raped, that was still considered adultery.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I mumbled under my breath, glancing over my shoulder to make sure Belle was still asleep.
A warmth filled me as my eyes skated over her form, the comforter draped across her waist. She was stunningly beautiful. Every curve, every valley, every dimple longing for me to explore and uncover her innermost secrets.
“So, after she was dishonored…” Nikko’s voice forced my attention back to him, “regardless that she didn’t consent, she threw herself on the mercy of her father and husband, asked them to avenge her honor. Then she grabbed a knife and plunged it into her heart.”
I inhaled a sharp breath, my mind spinning as I processed the story. Did Claire mention Lucretia in that voicemail because she’d been raped? I didn’t even want to consider the thought. If she’d been assaulted, surely that would have aroused suspicion during the examination of her body after her death.
