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He may have just saved me, but it doesn’t negate the promise he almost failed to keep, or the fact that… he may be the reason this happened in the first place. I shake away from his grip and turn, reaching for Lulu.
“We’ll be okay, Lu, we’ll rebuild. We’ll come back… I’m so sorry… So sorry.” I rub her arm, looking up at her sweet smile. Even through all of this, she’s still smiling at me. I don’t fucking deserve it.
“It’s not your fault, Morri. This is not on you.”
From her left, where Luke stands, his arm around her waist, holding her tight to him, I hear a hitched breath. Only I could have sworn it sounded more like a scoff. I turn my gaze to him, and he quickly looks away.
“What aretheydoing here.” He’s not bothering at all to hide his distaste as he points his head at Vincent, Maddox, and his men. Only he wasn’t as quiet as he thought.
“We’re here because we are in business with Mr O’Rourke and Mr Holt. And we”—Maddox steps up, closer to us, the red glare from the emergency lighting making him look more menacing than usual—“always keep an eye on the people we associate with.”
“And you just… happen to be in the area?” he continues.
“Luke, for God’s sake, stop it! If it wasn’t for them noticing the smoke, this whole place, this whole building, would have been up in flames. We would have lost everything!” She skirts around the subject, since she knows very well of the detail The Sanctum put on her, but I know she kept everything to do with them to herself. Luke is not aware ofmyconnection to The Serpent.
“I’ll go see if the firemen are still outside and find out what the protocol is here, since this was no accident.” He purses his lips, clearly not happy with the response, but his eyes are on me the whole time.
Lulu may not be blaming me, but Luke definitely is.
“Alright.” She nods reluctantly and pulls away from us, walking over to the burnt-out bar as he leaves.
The moment he reaches the stairs, Vincent nods at one of his men and he quickly makes his way upstairs as well. After all, we need someone to make sure there will not be a second attempt at our lives while we’re here.
“I’m not sure what to do here…” Lulu turns to us.
“We’ll figure it out. We’ll talk to the insurance company and convince them to cover us.” I move around the broken light fixture, my feet slushing in the wetness left after the firemen put out the fire.
“I’m not sure about that,” Vincent chimes in. “Even though it wasn’t your doing, considering it was criminal, the insurance company will launch a full-on investigation with the police. It could be a long time until this is sorted, as they need to prove it wasn’t one of you that did it.”
“Fuck…” I swipe a palm over my face, wondering how I’m going to make this work. “That will open a whole can of worms. And delay things.” I spent pretty much every penny I had on this. Nowadays I’m not exactly making money, since I’ve been unable to work. I’m fucked… and she’s fucked too just because of me.
For the first time today, Lulu cries. Not hard, not loud, but a few whimpers escape and tears fall, and she wipes them quickly, like she has no right to break down. Most of her inheritance went into restructuring the building, renovating her apartment, starting the renovations on mine, and the club. It was too early to get any profit from the club, as it will take a long time for that. Whatever money she has left, or profit from the small bar at the front, is not going to reach very far into renovating this place.
I wrap my arm around her shoulder and pull her to me, powerless to make her feel better.
Silence falls upon the charred remnants of the main room of the club.
“The Sanctum will invest.” Maddox’s rough voice booms through the dark space and my gaze instantly goes between him and Vincent. I can tell Vincent is taken by surprise by the statement, but he composed himself quickly enough, watching his friend. “We’ll front you the money, and assist you in the renovations to ensure everything is done properly and in a timely manner, so you can reopen quickly.”
“Don’t be mad!” Lulu exclaims. “You’re asking us to be in business with The Sanctum?! No. This is Morrigan’s and my business, no one else’s. Not even Luke is involved in this!”
“We don’t want to be partners. Return the investment when the money comes in and you are able to do so, and we’ll be out of your hair. No commission, no partnership.” Maddox is now a few steps away, only his eyes are fixed on Lulu, not on us, just her.
“So you can come and claim some sort of interest on me? I know how you lot work, racketeering and all that shit. Nah, I’d rather step on my pride and ask my father.” Jesus, she’s feisty, but in front of Maddox? That’s a bit risky.
My whole body freezes the moment I hear a smirk from Vincent’s direction. I look at him and he bites his lips, trying to keep serious, but his eyes fail him. He’s fucking laughing!
“Sugar, you don’t seem like the type of woman that believes rumors that fly around. We don’t deal with racketeering.” Maddox smirks too, and even through the red emergency light, I swear I can see Lulu’s cheeks reddening further. And it doesn’t look like embarrassment. But then she hisses, she actually hisses at the man.
“I am not. Your. Sugar!”
Maddox smiles, then turns his gaze to me.
“What do you think?”
“Lulu and I will discuss it and we’ll let you know. Thank you for the offer, Maddox. Should we get out of here before the ceiling collapses on us?”
“We should,” Vincent speaks. “We’ll leave the detail. They’ll stick to staying out of sight, but we cannot risk Holt or O’Rourke finding out we’re… too close.”
