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CHAPTER11
Lucas
Alice isn’t at Tease on Friday night, and Granger’s having little luck discovering who she is. Both things irritate me. I want to know who Alice really is, and the lack of information is starting to piss me off. It’s like she’s a ghost, but everyone has a footprint. Granger just has to find it.
It’s Saturday morning—now comes the hangover. When Alice didn’t turn up, I drank more than my share of scotch at the bar. I’d had plenty of women wanting to come home with me, but I brushed them all off.
Perhaps it is a good thing she didn’t show up. She and I can never be together. I have no idea who I’m promised to, but I do know I can never be with Alice. No matter how much I want to be. For my family, I will marry someone who will further our cause. I’ve known that would be my destiny from the moment I was old enough to understand marriage.
“We have to move quickly,” my mother says. I have no idea what we are moving quickly to as I haven’t been listening. I glance around the boardroom table, trying to get some notion of what might have been said, but my father Anthony shows nothing on his face. Zeke looks annoyed, but that’s not unusual when he’s dealing with our parents. Kane, on the other hand, looks fucking homicidal.
I sit up straighter, tuning into the conversation and realising I might actually need to pay attention.
“What does marrying Kane to the Adams bitch achieve?” Zeke demands. “They are already our allies without chaining him to them.”
I understand now why Kane looks close to murdering our mother. He will marry her for the greater good of the family, but it doesn’t mean he is happy about the fact. None of us wish to have our wives chosen for us.
Zeke is lucky he found Bailey and that it was a marriage our parents approved of, though I suspect he would not have given up Bailey for any reason. Not even his family. I understand that, now that I have had Alice. The intensity of something so pure in my world has surprised even me. It’s hard to ignore it when your heart is telling you to grab hold of someone with two hands and hold on for dear life.
“You know what it will achieve, Zeke. Don’t be so obtuse. It will protect us and offer a buffer. The Adams’s are far less likely to attack if we have one of the daughters.”
I watch as my mother twirls a strand of blonde hair between her fingers. On the surface, Charlotte Fraser looks like a vapid empty-headed bimbo. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of the things that happen within our family are orchestrated by her.
“I’m also looking for someone for you, Lucas.”
My head snaps up at that. I’m twenty-two, and I’m certainly not ready for a wife yet. “Well, look elsewhere. I’m not interested in whatever plot you’re concocting.”
Charlotte scowls at me like I’m a wayward child and not a grown man who was murdered more people than I can count. My hands are covered in the blood of my victims, and yet I am a slave to my parents’ demands. This isn’t about any one of us—it’s about keeping our family on top. That allows us to keep Aurelia safe, and that is all I care about.
“Don’t be difficult,” Charlotte says, her hand coming to her forehead as if she’s getting a headache. “Your brother is already making things hard.”
“I don’t want to marry the Adams bitch,” Kane says.
“No one wants to enter into an arranged marriage, Kane, but your family needs you to do this. I’m worried about the Eastons consolidating their power with the North. It can’t happen. We must safeguard against future attacks. We need to find a way to stop this wedding between Jeremiah Wood and Sariah Easton.”
“And how do you propose to do that?” Zeke asks.
Anthony pushes up from his chair and moves to the window. It runs the whole length of the room, overlooking the London skyline. There is also a wall of windows facing into the office. Usually, the cubicles on the other side would be filled with employees, but it’s late and everyone has gone home, apart from Talia. My father’s assistant is always on hand in case he requires anything. “We stop the wedding, and we marry your sister to Jeremiah Wood.”
Kane shoots to his feet, slamming his palms against the desk. “Absolutely fucking not.”
My father has always been a cunt. He and my mother ruined our childhoods. They created many soldiers who would continue the legacy. I respect my father’s position because it keeps me and my siblings safe, but I would usurp my father and put Kane on his throne in a heartbeat if I thought we could get away with it. As much as I despise my parents, they have the support of our men. They are loyal, and they would not follow us if we betrayed Anthony.
Charlotte drops a hand to her hip as she stares down Kane’s defiance. “Why not?”
“Wood has a reputation for being, shall we say, less than savoury,” Zeke answers instead of Kane. His lips pull into the disgusted snarl.
“That’s putting it mildly,” Kane snaps. “You’re not subjecting our sister to a cunt like that.”
Charlotte throws her hands the air, frustrated tension rolling through her shoulders. “How did I raise such disobedient children?”
I want to point out that Charlotte didn’t raise us. She trained us. We were soldiers before we were children. We each had our role to play, and still do, but that brought us closer together as siblings. There is nothing I would not do for Zeke, Kane, or Aurelia. Our parents cemented an alliance that was unbreakable between the four of us. I don’t believe that was their intention, but my brothers and sister are the only people I trust.
Wood is known for his cruelty, and while I have no feelings about the Easton woman marrying him, my sister going to that fate makes my jaw tight. I will protect Aurelia. “Come up with a new plan,” I tell my mother.
“The only other plan is for you to marry the Easton girl, or your sister marries Wood. What other choice is there, Lucas?”
I have no desire to marry Sariah Easton, not now I have feelings for Alice, but I’ll not push my sister into a marriage with a monster. I have to make a split-second decision. Doom my sister to a life of misery or take this bullet for her. I choose the latter. Aurelia is barely eighteen. She deserves some chance at life before she’s tied down.
