Chapter 78

“Octavia, time to wake up now.”

Octavia fought the foreign voice piercing through the thick cloud of darkness that flooded her head. She couldn’t wake up, she needed to sleep.

“Octavia, wake up.”

Someone had a hold of her chin and was tapping on her cheek, shaking her groggy mind out of its slumber.

Octavia’s eyelids dragged themselves open.

Her vision was blurry, but soon it came into focus. But the sight before her was not a welcome one.

“What…?” she mumbled in disbelief.

“Hello, Octavia,” Lucas said. He smiled down at her, teeth as white and stunning as ever.

“Lucas,” Octavia said. She glared at him and instinctively made a move to stand. That’s when she felt the thick cords holding her down.

She looked down on herself and saw that her hands were tied together, and her shoulders and legs were strapped to the seat. She panicked.

“What is this? Let me go!”

Lucas straightened and stood over her with his hands clasped behind his back. “Unfortunately, I can’t do that, Miss Wilde.”

“You fucking piece of shit! What do you think you’re doing? Let me go right now!”

“You do use such colorful language to describe me,” Lucas said languidly. He walked over to a large desk across the room.

Octavia kept her eyes on him as he poured a glass of water from a crystal pitcher and then walked back to her.

“You must be thirsty. Drink this.”

He held the glass to her lips.

Octavia glared up at him. “No thanks. Considering what happened the last time I took a drink someone offered me.”

Lucas smirked and then took a sip from the glass himself.

“See? Perfectly safe.”

When Octavia still refused his drink, he sighed and set the glass aside.

Octavia quickly took notice of her surroundings. They were in some kind of office-like room.

The walls were lined with filing cabinets, and two desks held even more stacks of folders. But they all looked dusty as if they were something forgotten there a long time ago.

And the two large windows of the room were covered with thick, blackout shades. The only light in the space came from the dim bulbs hanging overhead.

“Where am I?” Octavia demanded.

“That’s no concern to you,” Lucas said. He was looking over something on his phone.

“How long since you got Lila to drug me?”

“A day or two.” At those words, Lucas reached a hand out and stroked Octavia’s cheek with one finger. “Still, I didn’t expect you to be asleep for so long. You must have already been exhausted.”

Octavia’s skin crawled at his touch. But she didn’t stop meeting his gaze with her own furious one.

“That bitch,” Octavia muttered.

“Now, now,” Lucas chided, “she was only doing what I told her to. She really didn’t have a choice.”

“Really?”

“She had her instructions…or I’d make sure her nudes were splashed across every tabloid in the country,” Lucas explained.

“If it makes you feel any better, she refused to do it when I simply asked. So I had to go to extra lengths to…convince her.”

“You really are the lowest of the low.”

“I do what I must to get what I want. Much like a certain someone we both know.”

Octavia fumed. “What is it with your obsession with the guy? And why don’t you work your issues out with him instead of dragging me into this?”

Lucas laughed. “Don’t you see it, Octavia? You’re the key to everything.”

“No. I don’t see it.”

Lucas chuckled. “Let me explain it for you. Our mutual acquaintance has gone and fallen in love with you.”

“That’s not true.”

“Is that what you’ve been telling yourself? Hmm, not quite as smart as everyone makes you out to be.”

“Even if he was, why am I here?”

“For all his show of detached stoicism, Raemon is quite vulnerable. That’s why he never lets anyone close to him. I’ve known the man long enough to see that in him.

“But you just had to break through his walls, didn’t you? Now he’s hopelessly in love with you.” A devious glint sparked in Lucas’s eyes.

“Imagine how he’ll feel when he finds out the love of his life has run off with me?”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“You don’t exactly have a choice.”

“What makes you so sure he’d even believe that?”

“Because he’s lived in fear of this happening for years—getting himself hurt again. And he has his doubts about you already, I made sure of that.”

Octavia’s eyes narrowed. “That stupid phone call.”

“Yes, I hoped he would be around to hear it. Not that it mattered, all I needed was for him to get the slightest suspicion we were still in contact.”

“It was Lila who gave you my number,” Octavia said, more to herself than Lucas.

“She’s played her part,” Lucas said. “Everything went as planned.”

“How did you know about Marjorie then?” she demanded.

“I keep tabs on both of the Kentworths, and I’ve had your building watched. It wasn’t all that hard to guess what her purpose was in taking a direct flight from Heathrow and heading straight for your address.

“And then promptly leaving right afterward.”

“Aren’t you an incredible evil mastermind?” Octavia said. “But abduction is a crime. Don’t think I’m just going to follow you blindly.”

“You won’t really have a choice when you’re drugged, Octavia. And don’t worry about me, I have a good lawyer.”

Octavia fought to keep a rein on her seething rage.

“Why is it so important for you to hurt Raemon?” Octavia said. “What do you get out of it?”

“Justice,” Lucas said simply. “The satisfaction of wiping that superior smirk off his face. He’s no better than me, no matter how low he thinks I am.”

The calm in Lucas’s eyes gave way to cold hardness. “I’ll make him pay for thinking that. I’ll show him who’s the better one of us when you choose me

“He’ll have to live with that, knowing the one person he loved would rather have me than himself.”

Even in her fury, Octavia thought, ~I swear to god, the both of them need so much therapy…~

“You can’t keep me here, Lucas,” she said. “You can’t force me to stay with you forever.”

Lucas smiled. “I won’t have to. You’ll come around. I’ll make you realize I’m a better choice. I can give you everything that Raemon did—and more. You’ll see.”

Octavia was silent. She saw something in his eyes that wasn’t very assuring.

The man really did believe he was god’s gift to womankind and that she would end up falling at his feet to worship her captor at some point.

“He did pick someone unusual to give his heart to,” Lucas was saying. “I’m sure you realize that you’re not exactly my type.”

“I’m not? That’s just devastating,” was Octavia’s dry response.

Lucas didn’t lose his good-natured expression. “It’s a serious downgrade from the women I prefer, from the women I deserve.

“But the effect this will have on Raemon makes up for your lack of desirable qualities. You should be glad you get to spend the rest of your life with someone like me.

“I can do things to you that no one else can. Things that Raemon can’t.”

“I’ll thank my lucky stars every minute.”

Lucas smirked. “I think I should show you what I mean instead of just talking about it.”

He walked over to her and knelt before her. Octavia stiffened as his face moved in close to hers.

She jerked her head as far away from him as she could manage as she felt his hands moving up and down her body. Then she felt the tight bands around her shoulders and legs loosen.

Soon, her legs and arms were free, though she was still tied at the wrists.

“Get up,” Lucas ordered her, standing. “I have a little surprise for you.”

“I don’t want to see your surprise.”

In response to that, Lucas calmly waved the object he had in his right hand. It was the sharp knife he’d used to cut Octavia’s binds. The message was clear. She stood.

Outside the door, several burly looking men were milling around. When Lucas walked out, they all snapped to attention, looking to him for whatever order he gave them.

“Watch the entrances,” Lucas said, “I’ll be in the basement. We are not to be disturbed.”

Octavia observed her surroundings as Lucas led her through empty echoing hallways to an old service elevator.

The building appeared to be some kind of apartment building, but one that hadn’t been inhabited for some time.

The creaky elevator finally came to a grinding halt at the ground floor, and Lucas chivalrously stepped aside motioning for Octavia to step forward.

“After you,” he said gallantly.

Octavia scowled at him and walked past him. She found herself in a dark hall with a bolted door at the end of it.

Lucas stepped forward with a ring of keys and unlocked the door. Whatever the basement was, it was shrouded in darkness. He motioned Octavia inside.

Octavia stepped into the space and heard the bolting lock of the door echo with a resounding clang. Then she heard Lucas’s footsteps coming toward her.

She felt Lucas move in behind her, pressing himself against her body. His breath was hot on the back of her neck.

“Could Raemon ever give you this?” his voice, deep and husky, rasped in her ear.

She heard him hitting a switch, and the place flooded with light.

And with one quick glance around the room, Octavia could tell exactly what kind of place she was in, and exactly what Lucas had in store for her.